Reading is probably "the final destination", or maybe the final distraction, for those of us sick of the world

Reading is probably "the final destination", or maybe the final distraction, for those of us sick of the world.

But it won't be salvation.

Houellebecq said: "a life spent reading wouldn't be wasted." He's coping for his misery by attempting to validate his escapism. The man has looked like a ghost for ages, and you can be assured that he's spent a long time not giving a fuck whether he wakes up tomorrow.

After you get past all this, you'll also ditch the "reading for self-improvement" meme, meaning anything non-fiction, anything that is philosophical, scientific, analytical, etc, and all you'll want are novels, because you realize that those other books are a false promise, and someone's bullshit story – if well-crafted enough – is the best hope to put a smile on your face.

At least for a few moments.

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Big if true

Houellebecq's nonchalance is vicariously liberating in my opinion. Although part of his appeal is a perhaps childish "fuck the world" mentality (which is ultimately repulsive) the greater part of his appeal is his frankness and willingness to be viewed as ugly, old, disgusting, low-brow etc. I mean his books attack the culture which fetishizes youth and so on, and so perhaps it's no surprise he makes such little effort to make himself appear more youthful or "hip". His "To Stay Alive" manifesto is a fine source of encouragement for any writer who tends towards pessimism etc.

Me on the left

The result of all of those books? What is really the result of these "reading afficionados," these "literary lovers," these paper moth morons really want to pitch to you, with their Goodreads social media, with their commentary, be it their reviews on a site or their yapping in person (which is fucking annoying and nothing new)?

I'll tell you their telos: a vain, narcissistic, "I'M FUCKING INTERESTING, AND YOU BETTER AGREE!"

That's all reading any public book will ever get you. It was different when the minority of the population could read and write, and up until not too long ago in historical terms, that was the case: your average person didn't have a fucking clue how to read or write.

If you aren't a selfish fucking loser, if you really truly don't give a shit about what other people think about you, then you'll look at reading with only one possibility, and only one possibility: escaping into someone else's mind, into another world, because you fucking hate this one, for whatever reason, be it it's monotony, it's mediocrity, whatever.

>The adolescent years are important. Once you have developed a sufficiently ideal, noble, and perfect sense of love, you are done for. Nothing, henceforth, will suffice.
Can confirm, not even opiates help.
I would hug this guy if he wasnt so repulsive.

>coping for his misery by attempting to validate his escapism
>escaping into someone else's mind, into another world, because you fucking hate this one
this is why i find reading satisfying. its empowering to hear an author say the same, although who knows how he really feels. i never read for self-improvement. what does Veeky Forums think they will do with whatever fragments they remember from these books? become a philosopher or a writer themselves? not a chance. or are you just that boring of a fuck that you want to go around winning arguments your whole life? whatever. i just know when i my eyes are running over words no one is bitching at me, judging me, and i have an immediate purpose.

These statements are real.
Writing has always pretty much been to find peace in another world, life sucked/sucks so much and you were lucky to not get your brains bashed in that you had to find or create a place were things weren't so bad. A coping mechanism. That's all philosophy, literature ever was since Socrates, coping with your environment, that's all reading is too.
Also you will never get in touch with the world you were in touch with in adolesence. 4 hours going by in a flash running around with your friends. you will never "be in the world" like that again.

Could this guy be any more of a /our guy/?

>he makes such little effort to make himself appear more "hip"
So people still fall for our french tricks, mmh.

J'allais dire!

My dad codes for a living. He's talked about the pleasure he gets from seeing artistry in a really clever optimization. It's a language he's fluent in it, so it reads like good prose. I don't think that's necessarily the only reason to do this.

I don't know if the motivations always matter. He didn't start coding to get into coders' heads. But the satisfaction of understanding good code was something that started happening anyways.

I find that learning languages is another good tool for escapism. You always get that childlike wonder when starting out fresh with a new language. It makes you feel like you've accomplished something, when in reality it's not that useful to know that many languages without having a practical reason and an official language certificate. I myself read for escapism and knowing a bunch of different languages enriches my experience.

You can be sick of the world but that just means you are sick of your own thoughts.

Holy...

your dad is a narcissistic self-deluding faggot there is no artistry in coding at all. he and his faggot friends can’t produce art at all

>you can be assured that he's spent a long time not giving a fuck whether he wakes up tomorrow.
But he doesn't have to work for minimum wage, doubt hes that unhappy

he probably did at some point but not anymore. do something with your life user and stop whining.

He has said many times he likes to pretend he is "already dead". He is probably more indifferent than happy or sad, or pretends to be.

What does coding have to do with reading books? Are you confused?

Reading for self improvement seems useless.Until you are in a position of power.

Experiencing>reading. Reading is just more practical.

Word

Please tell me more about how writing a software wrapper for pornhub database analytics is in any way comparable to James Joyce writing Ulysses

Is a life spent reading a life worth living?

Couldnt have said it better myself OP.
Nonfiction is literally, and exclusively, for pseuds

I'm not going to be mean but it's obvious that you don't know why you read yet.

t. people who don't know how to code

there is a craftsmanship in everything man does.

by your viciousness, you make it clear that you have no love in you. Love doesn't give birth to this cruelty

you rule out the rest too soon, hombre

I don't deny that, I'm just confused why the guy brought up when it has nothing to do with this thread.

>He's coping for his misery by attempting to validate his escapism.

He's also a successful writer living of the proceeds of his writing which was shaped by his writing.

He's also found consolation in reading, which is self-improvement. Is it just because it's materialism that consoles him that you feel hurt?

>a false promise

No one promises you anything. The world does not promise you anything you entitled twat. You must take what you can from every source under the sun in order to live. And to live well, you need more than stories. In fact, it would be better to live knowing only a few stories from novels than to constantly Need novelty. Children seek novelty. Infants escape. Babies seek their sweet mother's tits until they've been taught not to cry for milk anymore.

>If you aren't a selfish fucking loser, if you really truly don't give a shit about what other people think about you, then you'll look at reading with only one possibility, and only one possibility: escaping into someone else's mind, into another world, because you fucking hate this one, for whatever reason, be it it's monotony, it's mediocrity, whatever.

You can pretend that people aren't impressionable if you want, but your escape will never be that simple and you'll know at those moments when you're self-aware. Narrative structures your understanding without conscious input on your part. You can tell me you're truly detached and rational from what you read, but it won't be true.

What a simplistic understanding of reading. I'd ask you if you'd never teach your kids to read, but I assume you'll never have to worry about that anyhow.

>That's all philosophy, literature ever was since Socrates, coping with your environment, that's all reading is too.

Imagine being this dumb.

---

At this point I'm starting to wonder if this isn't bait. If it is, why is this funny?

You clearly didn't understand the post. It's not deriding Houllebecq, its saying he took the good way out for someone who is sick of the world like him, which is escapism through reading.

Escapism as a concept is bullshit. There is no escaping from anything. You're only doing what you chose to do. If you choose to sit and read Veeky Forums for ten hours a day then that is what you are doing with your life, for the better or worse. Would it be better to ride a bicycle or have sex every day instead of sitting in front of a computer screen? I can't answer that. Nobody can answer that.

However, being old and out of shape and in pain from chronic illnesses from sitting on your ass and eating crappy food at night really sucks.

Escape from your own mind

Houellebecq is a kind soul...
Also this is a sobering, yet liberating quote of Houellebecq's:
>A reactionary is someone who wants to return to a previous state - that's never a possibility in my books. For me, everything's irreversible in the life of a society, as well as an individual's.

>Children seek novelty.
Because children are naturally curious.
>Infants escape.
Infants explore.

There is an odd bias that you're conveying as you make these associations that I'm not sure you're too aware of.

Again, you're only doing what you choose to do. If you're retreating from pain or some kind of physically inescapable scenario then it isn't escapism (English vocabulary failing here).

Really dumb. Escapism means diverting your attention from the pain, not somehow "physically" escaping the scenarion, even though that's what it might feel like sometimes. People don't just "do" things, there are motivations and thoughts behind everything. The only thing reading is good for is coping.

>there is craftmanship in everything man does
Yeah, I was told when I worked at a pizza place that I made pizza like an artist, but that doesn't make it any less useless or mundane.
>by your viciousness, you make it clear that you have no love in you. Love doesn't give birth to this cruelty
What of it? Cruelty is far more interesting and arguably more useful. And that's beside the fact that your post was prompted by people insulting some kid who is in awe of his pops being an autistic nerd.

I am listening to this
franceinter.fr/emissions/affaires-sensibles/affaires-sensibles-02-fevrier-2017

On définit souvent les célèbres « Cahiers » de l’Herne, ces grandes monographies blanches consacrées à un homme de lettres ou de pensées, comme des « dynamiteurs d’idées reçues ». A la fin de l’année 2016, le numéro consacré à celui qui est, sans doute, l’écrivain contemporain français le plus célèbre, ne déroge pas à la règle. Au fil des quatre cents pages, entre témoignages d’amis, critiques des œuvres, publication d’inédits et anecdotes inconnues, c’est un autre Michel Houellebecq que l’on découvre.

Ou plutôt, un Michel Houellebecq pluriel : à la fois poète, romancier, musicien, photographe… Une démarche qui a le mérite, un temps, de contourner l’ornière de l’écrivain provocateur, scandaleux ou manipulateur médiatique. Car voilà, c’est un fait, Michel Houellebecq est une « star ». Un phénomène littéraire, où se brouille, toujours, ce qu’il déclare et ce qu’il écrit, ce qu’il pense et ce qu’il fait dire à ses personnages. Génie visionnaire pour les uns, imposteur réactionnaire pour les autres, le personnage ne laisse personne indifférent.

Quel miroir Michel Houellebecq nous tend-il pour que chacune de ses publications soient un tel électrochoc ? Quel est son parcours ? Quelles sont ses idées, ses mots ? Quelle part le milieu littéraire, celui des éditeurs, des prix, des critiques, des médias, a-t-il joué dans la création du phénomène Houellebecq ? À l’inverse, en quoi cette image, cette présence, cette attitude, que l’écrivain renvoie, ont-t-elles participé à la construction du personnage ? Quel regard, enfin, porter sur cette œuvre, qui, quoiqu’on en dise, marquera son époque ?
L'invité

Pour répondre à ces questions, en seconde partie d’émission, nous recevrons Sylvain Bourmeau, journaliste et producteur spécialisé dans la culture, il connaît bien Michel Houellebecq, et ce depuis ses débuts.

>a life spent staring for hours at thinly sliced pieces of wood with words of them written by men from hundreds of years ago isn't wasted
Keep telling that to yourself

Okay, I will

thanks for the encouragement

>reductionist walmart-tier cynicism

really destroyed my worldview there

good post

sacred blue

>see a woman playing in the park with her child
>pff does she even realise she is wasting her time on what are actually just animated pieces of meat? heh..

...

who cares lol