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/lit/ - Literature

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12199452 No.12199452 [Reply] [Original]

*dabs on humankind*

>> No.12199576

its a good book

>> No.12199590

ego and it's own was better

>> No.12199615

>>12199452
What is it about?

>> No.12199634

>>12199615
>Ligotti posits that self-awareness is a mistake, an evolutionary advantage during pre-history that slowly became hypersensitive and now acts against our interests as a species
>the only solution is to an hero
>goes to to mock literally everyone for 150 pages, from Nietzsche to modern Hollywood actors

>> No.12199646

>>12199634
sad

>> No.12200451

>>12199634
>self-awareness is a mistake
but in order to have made a mistake, you need to have been aware that other options existed?
this book sounds intellectually masturbatory

>> No.12200452

>>12200451
>but in order to have made a mistake, you need to have been aware that other options existed?
Humans didn't decide to become self-aware. You're just making a semantic quibble and not really saying anything.

>> No.12200474

>>12200452
I'm just saying it seems more like an unhappy accident than something we fucked up on and are now being collectively punished for

>> No.12200480

>>12200474
And I'm sure that's what anon meant by "mistake". Like I said you're just arguing about the terminology.

>> No.12200483

>>12200480
well in that case maybe i actually ought to read it

>> No.12200740

>>12200451
The "mistake", in that case, is in the fact that self-awareness ceased to fulfill it's original purpose (give humans survivalist leg-up) and instead became a maligrant tumor on our psyche, a torture device strapped to the brain of simple animals that were better off without it.

>> No.12200757

>>12199634
It's a matter of perspective. It can be seen as a curse, or as a gift.

>> No.12200869

>>12199634
>Ligotti posits that self-awareness is a mistake
Isn't this literally the plot of the first half of notes from underground?

>> No.12200924

>>12199634
In actuality animals suffer a lot too. For example, dogs can become depressed

>> No.12200935

>>12200924
No, dogs can start exhibiting the behavior that we, humans, interpret as depression. In actuality, the dog is probably just undergoing some cerebral malfunctioning.

>> No.12200942
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12200942

>>12200935
>cerebral malfunctioning

>> No.12200947

>>12200935
Cringe

>> No.12201162

>>12200869
Dostoevsky had a habit of btfoing people before they were even born

>> No.12201167

>>12200935
>just undergoing some cerebral malfunctioning.
ie depression

>> No.12201174

>>12200480
>>12200483
Yup, Ligotti is certainly not presenting the apparition of self-awareness a a "mistake" humans made, his views go quite in the opposite direction, actually. According to him, it's just not up to us to alter our own nature.
>Like believers in libertarian free will, transhumanists believe we can make ourselves. But this is impossible. Because of evolution, we got made. We did not bring ourselves out of the primeval ooze. And everything we have done since we became a species has been a consequence of being made. No matter what we do, it will be what we were made to do—and nothing else. We may try to make something of ourselves, but we cannot take over our own evolution. We made antibiotics because we were made to be the kind of beings who make such things as antibiotics. That changed our condition without changing us, being as we are the kind of creatures who do things and make things, yet are not in the business of getting ourselves made. Nature had plans for us and still does.

>> No.12201192

>>12201174
Seems like a language game to me
>HUMANS CANT CHANGE WE'RE SLAVES
>"Here, we made some drugs that change humans"
>T-THAT DOES COUNT BECAUSE I ALREADY DEFINED EVERYTHING HUMANS CAN POSSIBLY DO AS PRE-PLANNED BY NATURE

>> No.12202428

>>12201192
this

>> No.12202983

>>12200935

Based

>> No.12202999
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12202999

>spend half the book lamenting the fact the humanity never accepts pessimistic views because they're blind sheeple obsessed with life blablabla
>spend other half of the book telling the readers how much you don't give a fuck whether they agree with you or not