How the fuck are we supposed to read the Western Canon and write our works while being so bogged down by "real life?!"
>parental expectations
>school
>work
Etc. How do you combat this? I have to study and work and I am too tired all the time.
Is it just a lack of self-confidence? I.e.
>I could just be a barista or something and make small money and have an easy "real life" with lots of time/mental energy, but what if I'm not good enough?
Share your thoughts and experiences.
caffeine
>>8099579
You literally just said it. Be a barista and enjoy the free time. People will call you a loser, but who cares? Live with roommates or your parents, get used to spending little money, and read as much as you can.
I'm a NEET and moved back in with my parents after college. No job. Read 6-9 hours a day. Basically live $10 at a time, and occasionally am stuck home with no money to even go out for coffee. And I fucking love it.
>>8099579
Well you could be doing either right now but you're using that time to shitpost here instead.
Write all the fucking time, even when you know that what you're writting is shit. If you overthink things too much you'll never get anything done.
>>8099579
Being a stay at home dad helps.
I recommend going to a bar near a medical school or academic hospital around 7-930. The single frazzled girl is almost certainly a doc in training.
>>8099607
I'm just trying to start discussion, I am sure many people here feel the way I do
>>8099605
Don't your parents make you feel bad or like you're disappointing them?
>>8099608
Fair advice. I think one of my problems is I idealize a perfect time to finally "do"
>OK finally I've gone through law school and found a job and everything is fine and parents are happy and NOW I can finally relax and read and writwrite
Im just tying anchors of responsibility to myself when I don't even want the "benefits" (money and prestige, which probably are sparse as it is in the legal market).
>>8099579
Give us your daily schedule. I'm assuming from experience there's definitely time you spend doing stupid shit like shitposting on 4chan that you could spend doing something productive.
>>8099630
Move to NYC, you can find tons of writer groups and share a shitty apartment with other leeches, drink absinthe and live a neo-bohemian lifestyle.
Then just find some shitty 35 hour a week job
>>8099605
That's disgusting, honestly. I'm 27, graduated with a degree in English, worked since I graduated, own a home, and still have a good amount of time to read. You're lazy.
>>8099579
I left university then did a couple of copywriting internships, after they finished I moved back in with the folks. 6 monthes has been long enough and I'm moving out again soon but that 6 months has been invaluable: I've figured out what I actually want to do, have written extensively, and am way more sure about how to proceed with my life. I recommend a brief "monk phase" for life orientation after your degree.
>>8099579
You rang?
drop out of life
stop obsessing over old hags, too
lol loser
you sound like a whiny, lazy fuck.
how old are you?
>>8099644
I'm the same.
You fail to realize the art of shitposting requires not only an enormous amount of time, but also demands a ceaseless dedication to a collection of high quality and rare memes.
>>8099579
through heroic effort
stop playing video games and wasting time on 4chan
>>8099579
Reading and writing is real life.
>>8099600
This. Sleep less, acquire caffeine addiction.
>>8099605
you're doing god's work anon
Just shrug, like Atlas did.winkwink
If you want to be patrician you need enough money to live without ever working.
>>8099644
What is the point in getting a degree, work hard, buy a home, and then have time to read, when you could just get a low-paying job that gives you all you need to live and then spend the rest of your free time reading? Sounds pointless. Unless of course you need to have a title at a company or whatever to feel not worthless.
>Inb4 'contribute to society' spook
>>8101036
Because the former will allow you to afford medical expenses either now or later in life, raise a family so you aren't lonely and miserable in your old age, and eventually acquire enough wealth to one day retire and devote 100% of your time to reading and writing.
>>8101053
>afford medical expenses
If you're American this is a problem, but on the other hand regardless of whether you have a good job or a shit job you'll still be in huge fucking debt.
>raise a family
For those who want that.
>so you aren't lonely and miserable in your old age
Are you stupid? Have you ever read anything?
>and eventually acquire enough wealth to one day retire and devote 100% of your time to reading and writing.
Ah, it's the: "one day I will be able to do it, 100%, totally guys, some day I will do it!" spook.
Come on man, don't play games. Just admit you don't actually care about lit but care about a career and getting a wife and all that.
>>8101074
Are you underage or just retarded?
>>8101080
Do you have anything to say or did I hit a sore spot?
>>8101080
Well your whole argument just boils down to "I don't want it so there's not point", so there's no reason to bring up any additional points because that's the response you'll use for everything.
Some of us make it work, others apparently crack from the different pressures in their life. Up to you which you want to belong to.
>>8101097
>"Some of us make it work, others apparently crack from the different pressures in their life."
>what are life choices
Are you stupid? Genuine question. Like maybe some generic mental disability or something?
>>8101103
Keep ad-homming, wagecuck.
>>8101074
Why do you think wanting a family and loving literature have to be one or the other? Most professors have families.
>>8101124
I'm saying it's pointless being a wagecuck if you have no interest in earning a lot of money for a big house, fast car, family, and whatever else there is. If you want those things good for you, but don't kid yourself that you can have your cake and eat it too.
>>8101142
>but don't kid yourself that you can have your cake and eat it too.
What do you mean by "cake" in this situation? Time?
>>8101142
I think you may be confusing a wage with a salary, but anyway the difference being that with salaried work you're more likely to find a mentally stimulating occupation. I think there's more to be gained building things than flipping burgers every day, even though you'll still have time after work for reading and writing with either job.
>>8099579
If you have to ask you'll never know. Enjoy life lad
>>8099579
Plenty of other writers did it. Think of Melville, he couldn't just lie back and be a NEET, he had to work, or even Hawthorne.
>study, work, too tired
Unless you have a 15 hour courseload and a 40 hour/week job, you should have no issue with this.
>barista
To make any remotely comfortable type of living where you won't be consistently mentally drained by the stress of living in poverty, you would need to work more than 40 hours a week at being a barista. But say you only need to work 40, how is that any better than literally any better job that pays more?
Also, good luck having any emergency money. Your car breaks? You're fucked, especially since low income means you probably condemned yourself to living in a cheaper area of town, which happens to have poor public transport.
Trust me, working a low income job is just not worth it. Even if you don't get stressed by everyone being a cunt to you all day, you will get stressed by the associated problems.
>>8101159
Not him, but it ultimately boils down to how you want to spend your time. I don't know what your occupation is, but the idea of climbing a ladder is repugnant to me. What exactly are you building? I just quit my on-campus because I had to work with childish bureaucrats all day and learn useless bullshit about our university's information system. Waste of my time. I might end up pushing carts or at some shitty food service job for now, but it's better than where I was at. Some people like simplicity, it doesn't mean that they're lazy.
pic related
>He left Skid Row and became a migrant worker, following the harvests in California. He acquired a library card where he worked, dividing his time "between the books and the brothels." He also prospected for gold in the mountains.
>Hoffer tried to enlist in the US Army at age 40 during World War II, but he was rejected because of a hernia.[11] Instead, he worked as a longshoreman on the docks of San Francisco. At the same time, he began to write seriously.
He wrote 12 books and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You don't have to play the game to live the life that you want.
>>8100495
Or a coke addiction. Aquire a vice that you can write about a la William S. Burroughs.
>>8101189
You don't have to climb a ladder. You can work a trade or stick to technical positions. I'm a software engineer, and I have way more energy in my off-time now than I ever did making pizzas or stocking shelves when I was working through school.
I really disliked school and the jobs I had to work while getting through it, but it was worth enduring for the schedule and lifestyle I have now.
Learn to truly let go of what doesn't matter, and you will find that you already have what you need, and even more
>>8101139
>Most professors have families
They also have cushy jobs that intellectually reward them and give them great salaries/benefits.
>>8101674
I know. It's the opposite of a low-paying barista-type job that salaried, education-dependent jobs were being compared against in those posts.
There is no reason to think having a family and good career is exclusive to loving literature. Especially when you go so far as to make literature your career.
>>8101674
Pretty sure professors don't make that much.
>>8099630
>Don't your parents make you feel bad or like you're disappointing them?
You know what 'guilt' is, don't you?
Allow me to help.
The “NEET lifestyle” is the most miserable condition I can think of. I never met a single one who actually read more than an active person does, whereas most wouldn't even read each day and rather carelessly pursue other activities, whether it is video games, sleeping or posting on the internet. You can't rely on yourself, have no responsibilities—which only a child would consider “great”—and no real power over your destiny. You can't buy what you want, can't make a gift, can't go wherever you want. You can't eat, read, do or experiment what you desire. You don't contribute to anything, and since you're bound to your room, never experience anything worth writing about. Because you cannot travel and have a restricted communication with the others, you probably can't learn foreign languages. Depending on the country you're living in, you could even have an accident and be denied access to health. You're constantly pending to the premise the world will maintain and finance your lack of activity, a situation that can evolve any time. The idea a working person never read and waste his sad, pointless life working against his will is a deluded picture a buzzy terminology that comprises “wageslave”, “sheep”, “pawn” or “wagecuck” vigorously supports to convince yourself you're freer and happier but, let's be honest; by having no income, no real social life, no career or a goal to fulfil, you're closing yourself doors quicker than you do open. In the end, you may read less than a regular worker who could spent three hours each day in the train progressing through his novel.
>>8101693
$60k starting with a PhD, if you're not an adjunct, where I am. That's not bad to me, but everyone has a different definition of "cushy."
>>8101693
They aren't getting rich without writing a smash-hit book, but they're middle class and spend all their time working with a subject they ostensibly love dearly and teaching said subject.
>>8101763
Okay, what if you live the NEET lifestyle with a phat trust fund?
>>8101763
Why is it every working man's goal to become a NEET? Checkmate, wageslaves.
>>8101919
This. Can you really not imagine anything you'd do besides work if you managed to make a lot of money?
>>8101945
I turned my hobby into my career though. I'd do it even if I weren't paid to. Seeing as, y'know, I have. And still do during off-hours.
>>8102028
Good for you, sincerely, but I don't think it counts as "work" in the sense of "wageslavery" if you find a way to profit from your hobby.
Also, most people who say they "get paid to do what they love" are lying and would stop doing most or all of their job if they weren't paid for it.What do you do, by the way?
>>8102049
Lit professor.Okay, still a grad student, but I do teach courses and have a fellowship, so I'm paid for it.
I would never stop researching or reading if I weren't paid to do so, personally. I've been making syllabi and "course materials" for fun since I first learned to write, forcing my siblings to attend classes I cobbled together from the encyclopedias in my house.
I don't think most of them are lying, but then, I haven't come across many people who've said that. The few I have are people like Zen priests, a guy who runs a meditation center, someone who sources used cars for people as his own business and several small publishers. I guess it's usually entrepreneurs.
>>8102049
It's true that most people who enjoy their work wouldn't work full-time if they didn't have to, but I don't think they're lying that they love it. Most people that own small business, or are in some kind of specialized, skilled labor, at least somewhat enjoy the work they do, and read about and do it for themselves on their off time. I'm sure most of these people would still be practicing their trade at least part-time, even in a utopia where they didn't have to work.
Weirdly, I read more if I'm busier. At the time when I worked full time, I would read every day and finish a long book in a couple of weeks. And then, when I graduated college earlier this month, I kinda just got lazy. Being busy keeps me motivated.
I even fractured my ankle and have nothing to do but sit around. Only read like 10 pages of my current book in the last three days.
It isn't a lack of self-confidence, it's just a prejudice against yourself. You think that because you "don't have time" you cannot make time. If you really want to read, you need to schedule time to do so if you don't have any, and if you have bits and pieces here and there you should read then. It's not a competition. Myself, personally, I love to read, but I can't tolerate doing it for extremely long periods of time before I get restless and want to write or go exercise or get out of the house. However, there are times in the day that work best for increased focus, usually earlier in the day before I load up on junk and my night-time edible and such. Find the right time, if possible, and if not just find any time.
I'm out of school this summer, no "real" job yet. I'm writing for a newspaper and beside that I'll finish my first novel.
>>8099579
>parental expectations
kek
>>8100504
Kek
>>8101674
>cushy jobs
They don't make that much and teaching academia basically requires repeating the same shit ad nauseam to ungrateful jackasses that only a small percentage will appreciate what you're trying to teach them or retain the information.
I don't know how the fuck someone could ever find that life enjoyable.
>>8103056
My humanities professors mixed it up pretty much every semester to avoid boring themselves. STEM was a little more consistent but the highest levels and seminars changed a lot.
>>8099579
Stop being weak.
That's be a good first step.
