/lit/ - Literature » Thread #7275852

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Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 05:50:14 No.7275852 View Reply Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276287 >>7276828 >>7276873 >>7276961 >>7277037 >>7277138 >>7277597 >>7278834 >>7278943

Do you agree with this person in this video, specifically in how he seems to talks down on a lazy lifestyle?
Is he anti-NEET? More importantly, does this go exactly against /lit/'s lifestyle concept?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxUY0kxH80

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:42:33 No.7276284 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276288

I agree with him totally. I think our culture today especially is obsessed with instant gratification. Hence websites like reddit, facebook, tumblr & 4chan. I think a lot of people really lose themselves in entertainment and it's no way to spend life.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:46:03 No.7276287 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7275852
>NEET, lazy lifestyle
/lit/ isn't /r9k/

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:46:09 No.7276288 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276291 >>7276303 >>7277037 >>7277043 >>7277211

>>7276284
Books are entertainment (even literary fiction ect)

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:47:08 No.7276291 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276302

>>7276288
>reading for entertainment
>being entertained while reading
>being this pleb

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:49:32 No.7276302 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7276291
Come on now, Homer is soulful and has a lot to teach us - and he's a lot of fun.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:49:42 No.7276303 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276312

>>7276288
True, but I think well made entertainment like Infinite Jest or the sopranos or a lot of music have something valuable to offer as well. While they do sometimes offer instant gratification it's more in it's uniqueness and creativity and I do think there's value in that. I just don't think it should be all you do.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:53:38 No.7276312 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276770

>>7276303
JASON SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) It's got none of the nourishment of real food...

JESSE EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) No.

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) ...But it is real pleasurable masticating and swallowing this stuff.

EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) Yes, it is. It's like seductive commercial entertainment.

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) But what saves us is that most entertainment is not very good.

EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) Yeah, but what about good seductive commercial entertainment like - like "Die Hard?"

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) First "Die Hard?

EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) The first "Die Hard..."

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) Great film.

EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) ...Yes. No, it's a brilliant film.

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) The best.

EISENBERG: (As David Lipsky) Absolutely.

SEGAL: (As David Foster Wallace) So good.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 09:56:14 No.7276320 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I'm reminded of a quote from T.S. Eliot 'We are distracted from distractions by distractions'.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:26:43 No.7276723 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276762

Peeper

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:33:53 No.7276762 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7276723
hello ma'am, i would greatly appreciate it if you could fellate my peenor

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:36:08 No.7276770 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276808 >>7277037

>>7276312

Wow, he makes an analogy between mass appeal culture and fast food????? you gotta be a genius to think this stuff up, much more actually understand it, am I right /lit/?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:47:30 No.7276808 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7276770
sigh tbh

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:54:06 No.7276828 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276840 >>7278943

>>7275852
DFW is definitively anti-NEET. He thought that the key to happiness and fulfillment is hard work and finding something to believe in larger than yourself. And I agree with him. Living solely for instant gratification and having Too Much Fun is a terrible, empty way to go about life.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:56:14 No.7276840 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276848

>>7276828
if hard work and being anti instant gratification is the key to a good and fulfilling life why he done killed himself?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 12:57:43 No.7276848 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276868

>>7276840
incurable mental illness

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:00:37 No.7276859 Report Delete

Quoted By:

The problem is that entertainment is really fucking good. Think about it. Mountains of fiction books, mountains of television series, and mountains of movies that are good.

We might have an unhealthy attachment to it, but seriously, for most of history, humankind didn't even have time to be entertained, because they had to survive, and I think it's too early to say if it has a negative outcome or not.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:03:22 No.7276868 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277037

>>7276848
Why would I trust someone with an incurable mental illness?

If he had an incurable mental illness and never knew true happiness how could he possibly know hard work is superior to instant gratification and NEET-dom?

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:04:57 No.7276873 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276890

>>7275852
I recently read Montaigne's essay "On Experience".

I think his opinion is pretty nuanced and pretty relevant here:

>"It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we do not know what is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we still walk on our legs. And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump"

>"Greatness of soul is not so much pressing upward and forward as knowing how to set oneself in order and circumscribe oneself… There is nothing so beautiful and legitimate as to play the man well and properly, no knowledge so hard to acquire as the knowledge of how to live this life well and naturally"

>"This ordinary expression “pastime” or “pass the time” represents the habit of those wise folk who think they can make no better use of their life than to let it slip by and escape it, pass it by, sidestep it, and, as far as in them lies, ignore it and run away from it, as something irksome and contemptible. But I know it to be otherwise and find it both agreeable and worth prizing, even in its last decline, in which I now possess it; and nature has placed it in our hands adorned with such favorable conditions that we have only ourselves to blame if it weighs on us and if it escapes us unprofitable"

So. Basically, if you do what you enjoy then your "pass time" (or work) is a desirable thing. But ultimately, staying true to yourself and what you naturally feel free to be predisposed to is the best course of action. The greatest pursuit is simply happiness, whatever gives you a personal sense of meaning and happiness is what is best.

/thread

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:09:23 No.7276890 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276912

>>7276873
>just be yourself :^)

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:15:25 No.7276912 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7276932

>>7276890
I read it more like learning and developing from your experiences, and not relying on extrinsic values to elevate your status.

With a broader acceptance of your circumstances in life, and a more introspective perspective, you have much more mental flexibility with which to interact with yourself and others.

Being yourself sounds more like a plea to indifference or staying the same, but I think that Montaigne meant more for the acknowledgement of our whims and our real passions, not for existential fears or repression.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:20:19 No.7276932 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7276912
Yeah, but the problem is that too much of an individual human's happiness depends upon other people.

Just for example, if you want to be respected as a writer, you need to write shit that other people want to read, which means in essence that you are at their mercy, and your happiness and sense of achievement is at least to some level tied into that. I.e if you fail to write something others will read, you will not be happy.

This applies across the board with almost every single endeavour in life. If at some level you do not impress other people, there is nothing to be proud of at all.

This is incidentally the exact reason that I daily want to kill myself.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:28:46 No.7276961 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277037

>>7275852
David Foster Wallace is a fucking idiot

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:52:47 No.7277037 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277057 >>7278943

>>7275852

Do we really need another NEET thread? They're the worst. On one hand, lazy slobs without ambition or skill, crying from every mountaintop how their lifestyle choice is OK in the most psychologically transparent manner imaginable, on the other hand, work-ethic nazis who believe that protestant work ethic and "contributing to society" is the sole source of meaning in human life. These train-wreck threads really belong on /r9k/.

>>7276288

Sure. Reflection and critical thought is entertaining too. So long as entertainment isn't mindless, I hardly see the problem.

>>7276770

Try having some thoughts of your own, instead of trite irony.

>>7276868

Try to judge his thoughts on their merit alone instead of his personal character.

>>7276961

Terrible post. Why do you think so, and what have you read of his work? I haven't read any of his fiction, and only recently started his essays, but they're rather astute, intelligent and thoughtful.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:55:01 No.7277043 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7276288
The rejection patrician suffers through every single moment while he reads.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 13:59:55 No.7277057 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277064 >>7277117

>>7277037
>try to judge the thoughts of an insane person on their merit alone without taking the fact that the thoughts originate from someone with a severe mental illness into account

no

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:02:07 No.7277064 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7277057
yes
Do you say the same of Nitski?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:22:42 No.7277117 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7278973

>>7277057

Idiot.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:29:11 No.7277136 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277151 >>7277178

Was DFW autistic?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:29:33 No.7277138 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7275852

Don't know why, but Wallace always seemed pretty close to your average NEET both behavior-wise and in nature - if, of course, we disregard his writing abilities and the fact that he had internal focus and dedication in sufficient amounts to be able to do things like play tennis competitively or, yeah, write books.

And going on from that impression, I would say that his objections against the lifestyle of instant gratification and beer-guzzling couch-potato-decadence arose from a desire to change/overcome his nature. He said in the interview that he often spent insane amounts of time in front of his TV set.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:34:53 No.7277151 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277178 >>7277184 >>7277674

>>7277136
Yes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqmIAbHXr0Y

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:43:53 No.7277178 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277210

>>7277151
>>7277136

No, too self concious and self aware.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:45:19 No.7277184 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7277151

You're just making him more endearing.

10/10 genius.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:50:55 No.7277210 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277228

>>7277178
>man has long hair and wears a fucking bandana
>self concious (it's spelled conscious btw) and self aware
No.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:50:56 No.7277211 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7278943

>>7276288
I agree. But literature requires focus, and makes extended periods of escapism more difficult. It requires work on part of the mental faculties to stage the universe in question. It is a very sensory-deprived medium. On the other hand television and vidya saturate the sensed. It is a passive experience, and literally hypnotizing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:54:59 No.7277228 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7277234

>>7277210
What on earth does his appearance have to do with how neurotic he is?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 14:56:16 No.7277234 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7277228
Self awareness and bandanas do not mix.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 16:33:58 No.7277597 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7275852
There's really something incredibly sad and banal about Wallace here.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 16:55:13 No.7277674 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7277151
this is a reaction pic goldmine. time to screenshot+image post like cray cray!

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 21:29:31 No.7278834 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7275852
Jesus Christ did he improve his speaking skills. Legitimately looks autistic in this video.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 21:54:11 No.7278943 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7275852
>talks and looks like the typical NEET
>American
>babbles mundane shit
>ragequits life
Why would anybody care about his opinion again? All he has going for him is the Pulitzer Prize and Mitchell somehow got one too.

>>7276828
How is that even related to NEETs? They hardy experience any gratification or fun, they just exist in their basements.

>>7277037
What thoughts specifically? I wasted 15 minutes with this crap and he doesn't mention a single interesting/new thing, it's shit you can read from the typical 4chin dweller. At least the interviewer sounded cute.

>>7277211
>literature requires focus
>and makes extended periods of escapism more difficult
What. Sure I agree about the rest you wrote but this is just silly. Strong focus would only deeper it, assuming you have the ability to focus obviously.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 22:06:07 No.7278973 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7277117

>ad hominem

you just lost the game

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