Hey Yea Forums i recently bought this

Stoicism just always seemed so extremely straighforward to me.

It is easy to misinterpret Stoicism. Example of someone misinterpreting it:
modernstoicism.com/stoic-avoidance-of-asceticism-by-piotr-stankiewicz

The Stoics did live frugal lives.

They lived frugal lives but wouldn’t shun away riches if they were offered them (as long as they were gained virtuously).
Stoics were more concerned that one shouldn’t be controlled by their wealth, and should be the same person in wealth or poverty.

You can be the richest man in the world and live a frugal life. You can be poor and an hedonist.

>The gist of the ascetic misinterpretation is simple: Stoicism is often (way too often!) perceived as a philosophy of frugal, simple or even austere life. A Stoic, according to this view, is someone who quashes their earthly desires and imposes significant restrictions upon themselves when it comes to food, drink, sex, rock and roll, spending money and other pleasures of life. In a word, a Stoic is someone who refrains from indulgence.

This is not a misinterpretation.
Epictetus would probably use harsh words on someone who called himself a Stoic and didn't impose "significant restrictions upon themselves when it comes to food, drink, sex, rock and roll, spending money and other pleasures of life".

>Modern Stoics are not very Stoic.

Oh, I meant a modern textbook on ancient Stoicism. Yea Forums seems obsessed with original sources, and while they are necessary for any deeper reading, I feel for most topics modern textbooks are better as introductory works. Of course, there are plenty of shit textbooks and many greats of old were great partially because of their ability to explain clearly and succintly difficult concepts, but I still think most modern works are worth it for their ability to give the big picture first. Once you have that down, it is easier and more rewarding working out the details with the actual sources.

Fair enough, otherwise.

I see, I assumed you were equating frugality and poverty. You’re correct.

One of my normie friends told me that he is a stoic. Because he watched Tony Robins. He told me that the only virtue a stoic needs is being thankful. I recommended he read Seneca, but he said that original texts are great, but he never read it.
Brainlets, or just people that simply want affirmation for the beliefs that they already hold will always exist. It's even worse when western people read Buddhist texts, But in Aurelius' book istself I don't think there are many things that are complicated or could be interpreted in a way that goes against the spirit of stoa, it's just that some people are very closed minded or trapped in their capitalistic mindset, the book itself is very simple and straightforward.

>It's even worse when western people read Buddhist texts
"Sex positive Buddhist" is the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

>hey I just bought this
>is it worth reading?

why would you even buy it if you don't know if it's worth reading?

IMO if you have a couple braincells it's not hard to jump in and understand it, without any prior or supplementary reading. The people who misinterpret stoicism probably only skimmed it, looking for what they wanted to hear rather than trying to understand it.

>I don't get why Meditations gets shilled so much, but then again I don't get why Stoicism in general gets shilled so much. I think it really needs good footnotes and introduction to get and even then it makes for a pretty bad reading going in blind. Both Epictetus and probably also Seneca (depends a bit on what you want out of it) are better when it comes to ancient authors, and a modern textbook is honestly the best starting point of all. Markymark talks enough about Epicureanism that getting a primer on that would be ideal and a book on the Cynics is also good for getting where the Stoics are coming from.
This

Aurelius is probably the worst stoic book I've read, it's just pointless journal thoughts. I didn't actually learn anything from reading it.

There's some interesting stuff in stoicism but for the most part it doesn't seem that interesting. Just reading the book of Proverbs/Ecclesiastes from the bible gave me better practical advice.

It's easy to read in latin, so pretty much all latin courses make you read it

>buys book then asks if you should read it
Never change, Yea Forums

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Humm...

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No preliminary reading.

Omh... nom... nhom... no....

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