/lit/ - Literature

the death of ivan illych
exit the king
letter to menoeceus

someone hasn’t read the neo-platonists...

>>12691154
You'll die, and yet you'll continue. Don't worry of death, just focus on what you desire to do while alive. :) Don't worry bro, the universe that you are is not so cruel as to kill you off like a character in some sick stageplay of its making.

>>12691154
“What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.”

>>12691154
Socrates's Apology.

>>12691154
The Daodejing and Zhuangzi

Descent into hell by C Williams.

Death isn't the main subject so much as being saved but I like it.

>>12691154
Short read. You’ll finish it in 30 mins. Prepare for the after-effect high..Shook me.

>>12691307
Can’t find this book anywhere, link?

>>12691326
https://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf

Advice for Future Corpses

>>12691154
De Rerum Natura

>>12691167
Did the Death of Ivan Illyich help you? I thought the account of Ivan's death was terrifying.

As for the question: The New Testament Plato's Phaedo, and 'On the Soul and the Resurrection' by St Gregory

>>12691195
where to start with plato and all those fag greeks

imagine being such an egotistical pussy that you're afraid of (or can't conceive of) death, LOL

>>12691307
All I found is an electronic music vinyl and the link you posted didn't seem to work for me. What is it, the lyrics of the songs or something?

>>12691154

>>12692048
Where in the Unique and its Property does Stirner tackle existential dread?

>>12692070
Why would the Unique One dread existentialism?
All things are already nothing to me.
These books set, or reset, your mind to a more reasonable perspective of the world where there is no dread. Any dread you may have had is less than a memory of a headache.

>>12691154
White Noise by Don DeLillo is about just that.

But it's complete shit...don't read it

>>12691339
>https://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf

Wow. I need to turn my computer off. I have a lot to think about. I think it's finally time.

>>12692210
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGWrvPYyXX4

The Denial of Death by Earnest Becker

>>12692044
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov

>>12691154
the Pali Canon

>>12692458
>Becker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Jewish immigrant parents
>>12692468
>Asimov's parents were Anna Rachel (née Berman) and Judah Asimov, a family of Jewish millers.

>>12692493
I know this is 4chan but what are you getting at?

>>12691773
Not him, but it didn't "help" me. But it made me sort of accept that i will die someday. Death still isn't very real to me, fortunately I've never lost loved ones.
>caesar is mortal
>but i'm not caesar
And then he goes on about his different names, what a brilliant story. So short yet so impactful.

phaedo by plato

>>12692210
>He gave them the answer by giving them life.
And you ask what the purpose of life is...

>>12691154
The Stoa.
>"I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? "Tell me the secret which you possess." I will not, for this is in my power. "But I will put you in chains." Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower. "I will throw you into prison." My poor body, you mean. "I will cut your head off." When, then, have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off?"

The Bible.

>>12693572
>book promising an afterlife
Ha. —good one. Funny.

>>12691154
In general I found burgerpoetry which in a way or another traces its legacy back to whitman very helpful in this regard.
so, my reccomendations would be
leaves of grass itself
four quartets
white buildings
the entire opus of wallace stevensa
also seconding epicurus and neetchan

>>12691154
whatever you accept it or not nigger, you are going to die.
lmao

>>12693518
>but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower.
God the Greeks were sublime.
Why did Christianity have to turn Europe into whining cunts
>oh God I love you so, oh I would be nothing without you, oh you are my everything, I am just your puppet in the world, I'm merely a spider on a thread over a fire, oh please forgive me, please absolve me.
European philosophy was ruined lads

>>12694203
The weaknesses of the Platonists and the institution of slavery.

>>12692458
This is a life changing book

Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;—
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air,—
Comes a still voice—Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again;
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.

1/2

>>12694243

Yet not to thy eternal resting place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,
The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and poured round all,
Old ocean’s grey and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings
Of morning—and the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings—yet the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.—
So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come,
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men,
The youth in life’s fresh spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man,—
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn shall follow them.

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

2/2

>>12694243

Yet not to thy eternal resting place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,
The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and poured round all,
Old ocean’s grey and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings
Of morning—pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregan, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings—yet the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.—
So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favourite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come,
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men,
The youth in life’s fresh spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man,—
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn shall follow them.

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

2/2

>>12691307
>>12691339
>>12692210
The ancient Hindus were right

>>12691307
>>12691339
>>12692210
Is Asimov really this good? First thing I read from him and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I never even considered reading anything by him because he seemed r/reddit.

>>12694302
You realize he's just ripped Hindu philosophy off and replaced Brahma with a super computer?
He's literally still /r/eddit, completely uneducated or dishonest enough to sell something as his own when it's not.

>>12692048
>Kaufmann

>>12694324
>Anonymous: born 1996 in North Twizzlercob Carolina (now Ukraine) to Nathan John Harris Bob Greenblatt, and Drusila Winslett Steinbrenner, both Jewish immigrants from East Temor

>>12694457
spelled timor wrong but still pretty funny

>>12694457
Kaufmann is a shit translator you tranny

>>12691307
>>12692210
i just read it and i really don't see what you guys are shitting yourselves over.
there's nothing new if you ever considered the heat death of the universe and thought about it a little. it's even a pretty shallow reflection on that terrifying matter.
is it the ending?
it's literally just that the universe is "reset" and he puts in a bible line at the end.
so what?
it implies something cyclic?
the AC knew about the bible since it's from our universe, what's special about quoting it?

>>12691773
I didn't care much about death already when I read the Death of Ivan Illych. As a consequence I just found it very pretentious and useless - even full of lies. But I guess it can be relatable and helpful to some people.

>>12694243
>his gayer hours
pretty gay, stopped reading right there.

>>12691154
Hinduism (Maitri's Upanishad), Jainism, Buddhism, Indian philosophy in general, Stoicism, Epicureanism, … but in reality it all comes down to you, you have to figure out why you think the way you do, I stopped worrying about death and started looking forward to it once my quality of life deteriorated to the point that it has now, once I became irreligious death became an interesting mystery, all the possibilities that may or may not happen, I think once you've looked at it from every angle you can conceive of and every angle others have written down, along with time things became manageable and finally insignificant, just like traumatic experiences, now does that change how it is to die? I don't think anything can prepare one for the act of dying but the fear of death as a concept is easily overcome, dying is a whole different issue. I don't know if you can overcome the idea of death from a positive mindset though, the more you hang onto life the more death will seem like a loss, once you view everything as temporary and feel you have sufficiently experienced the various aspects of life then, once satiated, death no longer becomes a loss as in a negative, but becomes neutral, an unknown. Wish I had something more useful to give you.

>>12694203
This

>>12694321
At this point though, who hasn't ripped off the Indians.

>>12691154
The Bible

>>12695793
–> >>12693572 >>12693911
Christians don't accept that they will die.
Read a book that's not the bible for once.

>>12695807

>Give perfect solution
>Still not happy

>>12695816
Lying to people has not made them happy.
I know how little time I have and I’m happy

>>12695816
I would like to ask you for advice, since you say it's perfect then you must have compared it to other texts, which ones have you read? What was imperfect about them?

>>12691154
"That to Philosophize is to Learn to Die" essay by Montaigne is literally all you need

There is nothing I could ever read to convince me to not be pissed off at my shitty finite existence or convince me it is otherwise.

>>12696174
>Lying to people has not made them happy
If they believe the lies and never find the truth they will. Dont worry.

>>12691154
Have a nearly fatal stroke, really makes you think.

>>12696174
>Lying to people has not made them happy

On the contrary, lying to people soothed them and made them happy for the moment. You just need to stretch your definition of "lie". Is "star wars" a lie? People love it. Is alcohol a lie? Are video games a lie?

Maybe you meant to state that "lying to intelligent, bitter people tend to not make them happy". In which case I agree, but the discussion that eventually follows will lead to nowhere as it has been started before both of us and him >>12696185
were even born.

However, it is on your behalf to prove that the Bible is a lie and convince the believer, especially the dying man, of the lies and the jewish trickery, an endeavor I would not like to partake.

>that they're going to die someday

What an utterly useless thing to preoccupy yourself with. Get some real concerns.

>>12696374
Turns out some ridiculous people actually worry about it ending.

>>12694997
>very pretentious and useless
Not really. Its pretty simple and straightforward.

>>12696388
It is pretty simple indeed, what I disliked was the fact that Ivan first does not accept death and feels bad. I mean, if the lesson says "be at peace with yourself and accept what is coming", then the fear that was first experienced must have been quite shallow. Now for some reason I really can't stand the kind of 'christian wisdom' that oozes in several works by Tolstoy

>>12696316
The world is shit because so many have believed the lies. You fool.

>>12696367
Star Wars is a myth, an entertainment. There’s no comparison with that and the institutional brainwashing that is theism.

>>12696585
>Star Wars is a myth, an entertainment. There’s no comparison with that and the institutional brainwashing that is theism

Hollywood is not an institution? The tv in your room is not more sophisticated in design and function than (just for not a believer) a wooden cross? If you are anti-christianity, you by default must recognise the bible as myth, as entertainment just like Star wars, just different quality, quantity and historical significance - but fiction nontheless.

Where do you draw the line between fiction that is to be forbidden, and fiction that serves a purpose? How do you deal with the millions of people who love star wars, and go to church?

>>12696308
that's because you're 18.

Blood Meridian.

>>12696890
Hollywood is generally very liberal, and very status quo, but there doesn't seem to be a singular agenda. Just look at war films. The entire Vietnam war genre (apocalypse now, full metal jacket, platoon) is about governmental incompetence and the savagery of American soldiers. Then you've got "support the troops" films like Forrest Gump, American Sniper, and countless others. Lots of Hollywood films are ideologically opposed to each other.

>>12691154
Schopenhauer

>>12691154

The stoics were good for this, imo.

Meditations is an easy read and has a lot of wisdom about stoicism within it.

>>12697246
That’s due to different directors, Hollywood isn’t generalized by their content but by their censorship. They are all united by a common enemy. Anti-PC, I think there was a movie called Red Pilled about a feminist interviewing some MRA’s and no longer being a feminist that got barred from a lot of theatres. It’s likely that my details are shaky on the story but that was the basic gist of the situation

>>12697267
>barred from theaters
If fucking saw that. It was a pretty bad movie. The female host was pretty disingenuous in her feminism, and some of the MRAs said stuff that made them sound like pedophiles.

>>12697251
This is the correct answer. The World as Will and Representation pt. 1

>>12697277
I see. A movie being bad doesn’t really get the right for it to be banned, look at the twilight series hahaha. Thanks for the insight though

>>12696442
>If the lesson says "be at peace with yourself and accept what is coming", then the fear that was first experienced must have been quite shallow
But it took him a while to realize it. Besides it's more about journey itself that the end station.

>>12692127
>A "woman" who is dead inside
Color me shocked

>>12697287
That's true. My point was that the film was both dishonest and unsettling. What got it "banned" was probably just its independent status. I've heard that independent stuff gets suppressed all the time.

>>12697308
Agreed. WrongThink is what unites Hollywood

>>12691254
based whitman

The Library of Babel by Borges

>>12696890
Hollywood peddles fantasy. It’s goals are to entertain and make money, not to convince people to follow their cult. The only thing in there that comes close to a cult is the capitalism, which you already know I oppose.
Again, the fictions peddled in religions are to be taken as facts, immutable and unquestionable. That’s obviously where I’m drawing the line.

>>12697295
Dead inside? Christians and agnostic-theists dread life. They long for their afterlife were everything is perfect, they hope, they can’t or won’t do anything in their real life to make improvements, they’re told that the real world is sinful, sensuality is evil, but duty and slaughter is godly.
Once I gave it up, I became more happy, more alive than I had ever felt while a Christian

>>12697308
It sure does. Waking Life wasn’t allowed to play in LA for even three days. Disney couldn’t take the competition so got it yanked. A film needs to play for at least a week in LA before it can be considered for an Oscar

>>12697382
Based, but by Borges, I'd rather reccomend The Circular Ruins, or maybe The Inmortal.

>>12697442
>Waking Life wasn't allowed to play in LA for even 3 days
Same thing happened to Sorry to Bother You. I didn't really even like it but it had a fucking nonexistent run for all the praise it got from critics.

>>12694282
what are you on about?

>>12696323
hit the gym you morbidly obese retard

>>12691783
Homer, you start and end with him.

>>12698087
Not telling you to skip the ones in between, but you do end up back at Homer.