Thread 24701182

Fiction will always be superior because old Billy shakes exists

>>24701182 (OP)
Read fiction and non-fiction. Debate on this is perhaps the gayest topic on this board, quite frankly.

>>24701189
>fiction will always be superior because of shakespeare
>he doesn't know about the history plays

>>24701195
>Implying there really was a fat old knight shitting it up with the prince

>>24701182 (OP)
>implying God Emperor is superior to anything

>>24701195
They're fiction.

>>24701182 (OP)
Self help is all slop for the cattle tho, at least stories are fun

Do you guys ever read books or do you just watch videos by guys who do?

The Scripture is the ultimate.

Not a fan of Dune as an actual Muslim.

It reads like a war room novel by a CIA agent.

Lawrence of Arabia was also an agent of zionist imperialism.

In general, the West romanticizes the martial aspect of Islam.

The West seriously overlooks the inner spiritual nature of real Islam.

Islam is about submission to God. A personal, spiritual relationship with God.

The Western view of Islam is informed by centuries of conflict between empires.

The actual contents of the Koran remain largely unknown and new to the West.

Islam is something exciting and new for the West, ancient to the East.

>>24701210
It's superior to everything, take the lesbian orgy-pill

>>24701223
The guys actually don't. TikTok, twitter, YT, they all reward making more and more content on more and more engagement-baiting topics.

It's all ChatGPT summaries a YouTube grifter talks about for 8 minutes 20 seconds.

>>24701224
Islam is the Abrahamic religion that I have the least familiarity with and understanding of. Could you recommend some good theological study books about it.

>>24701182 (OP)
I think non-fiction is a waste of time but unfortunately I read 60 pages of The Road To Rivoli: Napoleon's First Campaign last night
Literature is clearly the superior form of reading but non-fiction is so appealing in that it deludes us into thinking that it's worthy and useful that we sometimes get carried away and can't help but read it

>>24701182 (OP)
DUNE fucking sucks. Asimov mogs this autistic pseud.

>>24701409
Asimov is reddit beyond reddit. The most pedestrian sci-fi concepts with all the precociousness of an um akchully nerd who knows just enough to be competent but precocious enough to be annoying

>>24701406
Hagarism

>>24701224
I like this:
>After being victorious at the Battle of Badr, the Prophet famously told his companions: “Blessed are those who have performed the minor jihad and have yet to perform the major one.” The companions who duelled against the enemy in the sweltering heat of the Arabian sun must have been shocked to learn that all those efforts only constituted a minor jihad. When one companion asked the Prophet about the major jihad, he said: The Jihad of the self.”

>>24701417
sci-fi is the embodiment of reddit, as far as escapism goes

>>24701417
Dune is Reddit. Foundation is so much more interesting and peppered with fascinating ideas, it’s not packed with boring inner dialogue and wasting the readers time. Asimov was actually intelligent and knew how to write, Herbert was an incel drawing maps all day and creating a fake language while Asimov was actually contributing to emerging fields. Not even on the same wavelength. Asimov could have cut the first Dune in half and probably made it better too.

>>24701427
But i love spaceship and roberts...

>>24701419
Seems like a controversial study. How accurate would you say it is?

>>24701182 (OP)
I always assume if someone read the book on the left they probably went to prison

>>24701427
>sci-fi is the embodiment of reddit
this goes without saying

Why do people keep ceding ground to reddit? I imagine one of these cards genuinely liking something then dropping it when redditors discover it.

>>24701417
>um achkuallys asimov
You're not automatically bright for criticizing brightness

>>24701182 (OP)
>I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the mis-users are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter.
J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

>>24702279
i will not associate with redditors sorry not sorry

>>24701182 (OP)
Escapism is good and nature is gay.

>>24701182 (OP)
I've read some non-fiction books that are better than some fiction books.

>>24701182 (OP)
>it's just escapism bro! Come read self help slop instead!
When did this gay meme start? Myth and storytelling have been embraced as integral parts of culture since the beginning of civilization; and make no mistake, writing quality aside, science-fiction is more or less the mythos of modernity.
Maybe it'd be different if the nonfiction people were reading was something like history books or Aristotle, but the people who read history and philosophy mostly seem to understand that poetry and prose are good. But no, the "I only read nonfiction" crowd will exclusively read new york times bestselling self help slop.

>>24702774
>When did this gay meme start?
when womeme became the majority of editors

>>24702774
Yeah and our main societal myths are complete shit these days. It’s all slave morality bullshit. You read the classics, and some literary fiction and mostly everything else is trash.

>>24702774
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help yourself by learning to develop better habits, handle yourself better, deal with relationships better, etc. Self-help can offer a lot of great stuff. Manchildren obsessed with schlock fiction and history autists need not apply. Self-help is apart of a mans stack along with philosophy, literary fiction and non-fiction. Dune is completely useless slop and it’s not even written well. If you need myth you read Homer.

>>24701182 (OP)
It depends. I have ass burgers so stories kind of fly over my head.

>>24701751
I guess reddit's got good taste then

>>24702859
Yes, improving oneself is important, I agree. I also agree that genre fiction isn't really conducive to that except as a first step toward a reading habit. However, most self help books seem to be more about the treadmill of making you feel better about yourself, while asking minimal effort or thought from you. Or else it's "go to the gym eight hours a day and grind to make money and live a hedonistic life with lots of women and secks!" David Goggin fare. You need core beliefs first and a direction you want to improve in, before the concrete habits that self help books offer can be of any use to you.

>>24701741
It's very popular behind bars for some reason.

>>24702920
>go to the gym eight hours a day and grind to make money and live a hedonistic life with lots of women and secks!" David Goggin fare
That's the farthest thing from David Goggins. He's anything but hedonistic. One of the few worthwhile people in the self-help sphere.

>>24701182 (OP)
>jeet accent
Dropped.

>>24702920
>David Goggin
Maybe you meant to say Andrew Tate?

>>24701223
no I just watch screenshots of videos about books and get mad at them

>>24703181
Better than me. I just read comments about screenshots of videos about books and get mad at them.

>>24701408
What makes literature useful and history useless? I don’t see why one is inherently more ‘productive’

>>24701182 (OP)
Pretty bad example. Laws of power's examples are almost all fictional stories. The book is like 1001 nights in that way, a collection of made up stories.

Fiction on the left and fiction on the right.

>>24703193
Better than me. I just go to this board, read the thread and get mad at them.

>>24702774
>nonfiction
>self help slop like Ryan Holiday.
Get out.

>>24703378
Although it has been a while since I read it, I seem to remember it being equal parts historical and fictional excerpts.

>>24704156
I looked up some of the historical examples because they interested me, and none of them were historical; they were myths. But not only were they myths, they were rewritten in a way to help the point he was trying to make.

Maybe some were historical, I only looked into a handful (4-5). But I considered it an interesting meta-point about the audacity and lying he would use to attain power.

>>24701182 (OP)
i dont read fiction.
nonetheless non-fiction can be escapism too

>>24701224
>The actual contents of the Koran remain largely unknown and new to the West.
We're vastly familiar with most notions, as the Koran is mere plagiarism of Christian- heretical or otherwise, Jewish and pagan texts. I suppose the pagan influence is what would be foreign to us, the pilgrimage to the kabbah and such.

>>24701182 (OP)
>watching booktubers
jeepers

>>24701224
Take your meds

>>24702920
Bottlehead Goggins is apparently a whole other beast

>>24705461
>not watching booktubers
creepers

Fiction isn't necessarily escapism.

>>24701182 (OP)
Fantasy will always be better than reality because you can have reality and add things to it, reality on the other side is what it is.

>>24706401
How so?

bump

>>24701223
I don't fucking read shit books are boring.

>>24702859
>There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help yourself by learning to develop better habits, handle yourself better, deal with relationships better, etc. Self-help can offer a lot of great stuff.
If you need a faggy influence of any sort to tell you how to live life you’re pathetic and will never be able to improve yourself. It’s really that simple.

Self-help is an absurd genre because the only way to improve is to work on yourself. You don’t need hundreds of pages of some loser who doesn’t know you speaking in vague, generalized concepts to “improve”.

>>24703124
Yeah bro, “just like work harder. Do the work. Stop being a pussy.” is totally worthwhile reading. Especially when it’s stretched to 300 pages.

>>24701182 (OP)
Both have their place in lit. Why are we dealing in absolutes, like morons. Also, literally who?

>>24709268
>If you are able to acknowledge you need to improve yourself in a certan area that means you will never improve yourself.

>>24701224
>Not a fan of Dune as an actual Muslim.

Right there is where I decided your opinion has no value

>>24709275
Considering he's relating his lived experience versus being a regular Joe penning the usual fluff, then yes, it is worthwhile reading. If it's not your cup of tea, fine. To each his own.

>>24701189
fpbp

I find it harder and harder to escape with fiction as I get older. Please make some recommendations. I want to forget my life for a while.

>>24711305
What's the last book that really pulled you into the story?

>>24711305
la horde du contrevent

I read non-fiction for knowledge, fiction for wisdom. The best place to learn intimately about the human condition is in novels.

>>24711449
Only if those novels are set in our reality. Scifi and fantasy teach you nothing about what it means to be human.

>>24711449
>fiction for wisdom
Why can't you get wisdom from non-fiction as well?