requesting lit about being perfectly average and directionless
suffering artists can fuck off
>>7773132
oblomov.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fuck-Up-Arthur-Nersesian/dp/0671027638
>>7773132
what makes you think you're "perfectly average"? And what's wrong with suffering artists? Are you in STEM by any chance? In which field do you work?
>>7773390
first time i've seen someone jealous of a perfectly average person.
Flaubert - Madame Bovary
Chekhov - Three Sisters
>>7773132
Any self-help book anon, any literature that encourages you to actually "be yourself".
>>7773390
lmao the retarded humanities inferiority complex rages on
What are some books about peoples whose lies to themselves and to others, in order to gain money?
>perfectly average
read Foucault
>>7773477
Balzac, he's pretty good at it.
>>7773477
You mean the guys who pretend to be girls on the internet?
>>7773439
what a trite and bullshit platitude.
>"Yeah I'm a pretty average serial killer. Not very efficient but a self help book told me to be myself so I guess I'll keep murdering and raping lol"
anon's post says nothing about misplaced insecurities or lack of self assurance. he asked for lit that dealt with being "average" "directionless". Not sure why you think "be yourself" is good advice.
>>7773596
>Not sure why you think "be yourself" is good advice
That's because you misread the post.
Bukowski
>>7773132
I recommend Taoism
Specifically the Tao te Jing and Zhuangzi
I've also become really fond of Thomas Merton's Way of Chuang Tzu (essentially parables from the Zhuangzi translated by a Christian monk)
an excerpt:
The tree on the mountain height is its own enemy.
The grease that feeds the light devours itself.
The cinnamon tree is edible: so it is cut down!
The lacquer tree is profitable: they maim it.
Every man knows how useful it is to be useful.
No one seems to know
How useful it is to be useless.
[iv. 9.]
>>7773933
ooh I like this one
>>7773132
If you're a chinese cartoon fan go watch Royal Space Force if you haven't already.
>>7773933
Stop pushing this shit.
t. Confucius
>>7773723
Please tell me you are not referring to the poem Lifedance cause if you are you missed the point of the poem by miles.
>>7773933
Asian here.
I never thought the old tree parable was profound, because there was once a gnarled tree on my property, and I chopped it down because it jarred with the rest of the lawn.
Zhuangzi is one of my preferred thinkers, but I just can't accept some of his sayings.
>>7773390
self-hating "author" detected
>>7773132
my diary
>>7773132
>directionless
see pic related
If you think of yourself as average, then you're not being an artist.
>>7775490
That's because you're seeing it from your perspective and not the tree's; it would have never been cut if it never grew.
I know that feel OP.
>>7777210
that's true, we're not artist in the slightest, but you don't have to create art in order to enjoy it
>>7779861
>we're not artist in the slightest
My meaning was that art is something that you do, not something that you are; and what is done is not think of things as given.
>>7773132
honestly, 10:04 by Ben Lerner.
>>7773596
You aren't a serial killer deep down Anon you just gad a rough day in middle school
>>7779892
I probably agree, I don't really have the ambition or capacity to create anything worthwhile so I just stick to being an observer, and thus I don't know what constitutes an artist, or 'doing' art as you put it.
I'm guessing your original point was that the second part of the OP was redundant, but I read it the first time as a slightly condescending comment on how everyone should strive to be an artist.
>>7779967
>I read it the first time as a slightly condescending comment on how everyone should strive to be an artist.
Nah, not at all, though it would probably help them a bit if people thought about it; then again, that can be said about anything. What ı'm trying to say is that to do art, you don't need to be "special" (whatever that means), so much as realize your conditions and that of art are particular--not unique (as a value), but that they have certain traits that make them what they are in our world. So to answer OP's question, ı recommend Tolstoy's the Death of Ivan Ilyich, which porfectly pictures all of the averageness, aimlessness, and suffering anyone could ask for in a man's life, and none of the art.
>>7780021
We should seek to make artistic expression a part of the norm, at least within our own circles.Just checking in on this thread from time to time but thanks for your various comments.
