/lit/ - Literature

Wouldn't their personalities all be different? All immortals are not the same. Lazy writers tend to portray them all as world-weary and cynical. I've never read a story about an immoral that wasn't like that. I would just assume there would be some cynical world-weary immortals, and some funs one and some sarcastic ones etc etc etc

They'd probably be pretty chill or batshit insane.

BONUS:
After Many a Summer
by Aldous Huxley

>>1673693
you won't have much of a meaningful story in the traditional sense if the immortal character wasn't world-weary.
Perhaps a postmodern approach can introduce the fun, sarcastic, and hypocritical pleasure-seekers.

>>1673703
I don't see why it wouldn't be "meaningful"

>>1673693

But the point is, that after living for so fucking long everything loses meaning. I think an immortal that has lived long enough would just try and sleep for as long as possible.

There's a very funny immmortal in the Hitchhiker's Guide called Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. He accidentally becomes immortal and is really bitter and bored. He decides to insult every creature in the universe in alphabetical order. The ones who are naturally immortal are a "bunch of serene bastards" or something.

>>1673707
"meaningful" in the traditional sense, like the struggle to understand a chaotic world.

>>1673693
Hob Gadling, best written immortal ever

>>1673693
I'm only 36 but feel plenty world-weary and cynical. You oughta meet my grandpa.

anyway, OP, there's a Borges story where the protagonist comes to realize that he has met one of the biblical immortals. I don't have my copy anymore and dunno the bible well enough to remember who was referenced, but fuck it, there are worse reads out there than Collected Fictions. By a longshot. It's in there somewhere, along with 5000% of your USRDA of mindfuck on every page.

Gaea series by John Varley. Not necessarily immortal, but there's a character past the three million year mark.

Would it be okay if I posted a short description of how the immortal character in my story acts for opinions?

Two words.

Complete asshole.

They'd have a less and less defined personality.

Think about it. Who you were four years ago is very different from who you are today. Now imagine that this same effect is spread over an even larger space of time - you'd feel zero connection to who you were one century to the next.

Now add to that that scientific advances would wear away at your ideals, prejudices and superstitions and you have a person who changes age to age, feeling little connection to who he/she was in the last.

Unless your character has infinite memory, they'd even forget who they once were. It would be a very strange way of life.

Nihilistic fuck

Why are immortals often portrayed as being into the arts?

I would think being immortal would be... tiring. Everything changing, losing everyone close to you. I think there's a reason immortal characters tend to be cynical and world-weary.

As for books with immortal characters, am I gonna get bitched at for saying Anne Rice? The whole vampire series is good. "Blood and Gold" was probably my favorite, Marius is a pimp. The Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind don't have immortal characters, but there's a kind of school where time has been fucked with. It takes them something like 25 years to age one year. Not a big part of the story, but eh, same kind of idea.

Have you seen Misfits?

Watch Misfits.

I suspect an immortal would be either completely detached from the world since none of it mattered to him or he would be insane from trying to handle the changes.

apathetic

>mfw no Dr. Manhattan

>>1674693
Probably because paintings and books last longer than people.

Am I the only one who thinks an immortal would like participating at the world at large while staying detached from society? Surely if you were given immortality you'd take the opportunity to visit every landmark and have a generally fun time. And with the way infrastructure and culture change so fast you wouldn't really run out of things to do. The only downside would be getting nostalgic about people you knew before, hence staying detached from society.

First, this immortal would find many of the concerns of the little people to be totally frivolous. His conversations would not stoop to the level of the everyday conversation of most people.

The things he/she owned would be of value and have meaning behind it, as well as functionality. Everything this being owns is important in some way, since everything that was crap has been tossed out.

He/she would never be surprised, since he/she has seen it all.

This person would be extremely talented at, at least, one thing. They would have an extensive knowledge of history.

mmmmm... thats all i got

an immortal would go through a serious Camus phase for a few hundred years and then "none of it really matters" turns from depressing to mellow as hell

an immortal would eventually become Jeff Bridges

>>1675138
this this this
a million times this

they would be on a constant search to do what mortals cannot do because of time constraints
kind of like people with a high tolerance to drugs and alcohol are constantly tring to test what their body can handle and looking for the next ellusive high, an immortal would be searching for something only they are capable of doing

like all mortals, an immortal wants to be special, so they would use their immortality to their advantage in achieving these goals

>>1675148
that has to be the most badass picture of Jeff Bridges I have ever seen

though a picture of The Dude would be more appropriate to support your theory of "existentialist turns mellow"
but that dynamic would make for a great story

Gravemind.

Yes, the one from the Halo games, well, the books rather.

If you read the books...

*is depressed*

they'd probably be peodophiles like in Buffy or Twilight

>>1675216

are they worth reading?

they would be well versed in religious and alchemical texts trying to figure out how to kill themselves after so long

they would also watch the movie Groundhog Day religiously

All Men are Mortal by Beauvoir

>>1675230

Yes.

If you can keep in mind that the first few were made back when halo was JUST a game, and stay with it untill it gets to more recent ones where they become good narratives with intsersting charcters in their own right.

You HAVE to have some know how of the backstory though.

Well, not have to, but it helps.

I suggest reading them in this order:

Contact harvest > Cole protocol > Fall of reach > the flood > first strike > ghosts of onyx > Evolutions > cyrptum

Cole protocol isn't really needed to get appericate it, but it helps.

The fall of reach, flood, and first strike were the eailer ones, like I was saying.

if you played CE, you don't need to read the flood, it's basically just the story mode in book form, and suffers as a book for that reason.

Though the bonus stories at the very end of the flood reprint are worth a look.

Evoltuions and cryptum are by far the best, but you MUST read cyrptum last, only after you get a feel for the universe, as the entire plot revolves around shattering what you *thought* you had learned.

In terms of how the games come in, CE takes place during the flood, halo 2 is directly after 1st strike, and ghosts on onyx is that same time preiod, but a different location in universe. halo 3 is of course after Halo 2, and Reach take splace during the fall of reach, but on the other side of the planet.

Legends is worth a look too if you can bear anime, orgins will give you a good start to the universe.


If you couldn't tell, I am a fanboy of the canon.

The universe has a ton of biblical and other literary references, ODST is basically Dante's Inferno set in the future.

>>1675278

Same halo nerd here.

I lol'd when I realized that OP mentioned ringworld.

>>1675278
too much committment
I gave up two books into the Ender series

>>1675290

XD.

It's worth it.

Just start out with Contact harvest, and play the games if you can.

At the very least read contact harvest, if you like it, go to the next one.

You could check out the universe fourm at B.net to get a better idea of how to start easy then I could give, the posters there are th opposite of what would think of as Halo fanboys, they are polite, intelligent, and appreciate a good narrative:

http://www.bungie.net/forums/topics.aspx?forumID=1

On topic, the section "human weakness" of Halo evolutions contains the most concentrated amount of the appearance of the gravemind as well as a look into it's mental state.

...Wow.

I just found a scan of it... I'm not going to link it here, of course.

You might want to look up some excerpts of it on google though... *cough*

Very bored.

>>1675427

Sometimes I wonder,

Wonder why nobody ever portrays an immortal who is fucking excited all the time and interested by everything around them. Somebody who fully understands how incredibly complex everything around them is, the staggering amount of buildup behind everything they see.
Someone who has watched thriving metropolises grow out of huddled shantytowns, and acknowledges how crazy that is. Someone who doesn't find people alienatingly boring and sad, but just knows them very, very well. Someone intimately familiar with basic instinctive and emotional behaviours, who finds the shifting cultural and intellectual differences fascinating. Who loves strangers implicitly because they already half-known them with great detail.
Someone who laughs when a person sneezes because they've suddenly be reminded of the intricate biological and chemical complexity of this reflexive movement ingrained millions of years ago. Someone who sees the entire world like this, an always growing cavalcade of forgotten joys, new discoveries and comfortably worn ideas. Old friends and sights that've grown while they were away.

Sometimes I wonder.

Then I remember that I'm describing The Doctor and set off to watch the latest episode.

Swift treats this topic in "Gulliver's Travels," in Gulliver's voyage to Laputa. I'd give a summary, but I'm lazy.