/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3536367]

You know what I think is the scariest thing? Any sort of ending to my life. No matter what happens, no matter the options, when I think about what comes, I don't want it; don't want to have to deal with it. I don't want to live forever, and I don't want to die. I don't want to have to face a god. and I don't want to die and go to nothing, and I don't want to die and live infinitely after that, even without a god.

And the scariest part is that this isn't a thought experiment. I will have to face this, someday. How do I handle that? What am I supposed to do? There's no escape from something so all-encompassing. I can't outrun time. I can't even consider suicide, because that just speeds up the process. What am I supposed to do?

[Anonymous No.3536393]

>>3536367
Death should be as nothing to us;
Since when we are, it has not come,
and when it comes, we are not.

Said Epicurus, I think.
To be honest, I'm still scared of dying.

I don't know if anyone has a proper answer for you, OP. Yes, you'll have to deal with the great endlessness someday, that is true. Everyone will.
Until then, you are right here, doing what you decide to do.

[Anonymous No.3536410]

>>3536367
I, I, I, I hundred times.
Shut up, you.

[Anonymous No.3536414]

Stop wasting what little time you have worrying about that which is beyond your control.

[Anonymous No.3536415]

Distract yourself from distractions with distractions so when it hits you you won't feel a thing.

[Anonymous No.3536418]

Spending time worrying about something completely beyond your control is not a productive use of time. Like it or not, it's something you have to suck up and accept.

[Anonymous No.3536425]

>>3536393
But it could happen at any time, and it's unavoidable.

>>3536410
If I had worded it to be less about me, and more about people in general, but the message was the same, would you feel better?

>>3536414
How can you ignore it though? How can you just accept it?

>>3536415
I feel like that's getting harder to do. Games and movies used to work, but now that's most all going stale.

[Anonymous No.3536430]

>>3536425

>How can you ignore it though?

By spending your time doing other things.

[Davie !U9vVhP0ehU No.3536443]

>>3536367
"All I can teach you is: pop pills and stay high."
-Rufus A. Johnson.
"Thanks to denial, I am immortal."
-Philip J. Fry, when asked how he copes with his own mortality.

Wise words, by great men.

[Anonymous No.3536450]

Stop being such a fucking pussy.

You'd probably enjoy The Denial of Death, great read.

[Anonymous No.3536459]

>>3536367

Accept it and let your fear and despair make you into the most potent weapon mankind has ever seen.

Or, you know, just wilt like a little faggot and try to ignore it like everyone else.

[Anonymous No.3536464]

I'm on the same boat as you OP. I'm not ready to die yet. I just think that someday, I'll sit down and think about the life I've lived and accept death.

I hope the life you live amounts to something. Leave an impact on someone.

[Anonymous No.3536525]

>>3536367
Read The Conspiracy Against The Human Race, OP. It'll cheer you up quickly smartly.

[Anonymous No.3536527]

>>3536525

That book's awful. Ignore him, OP. Some of the most childish blathering I've been exposed to as an adult.

[Anonymous No.3536568]

>>3536367
there is nothing to experience death, so nothing to worry about, because you wont experience it.

[Anonymous No.3536649]

Stop thinking about it the way you do.

I for myself have accepted the fact that I will die one day. I have come to terms with it. There is nothing I can do against the fact that one day my body will break down and I will be gone. Nothing at all. Sure this might be frightening, but once you accept it, you also feel better. Your life will end one day. You don't have time forever.

On the other hand I think this is quiet an interesting fact. We are born with the knowledge already, that we will die. We know that we don't have time forever. Just think about all these people who get a terminal illness or find out they only have a few years left to live. What do those people do? They are like 'Well fuck it, I am gonna day anyways, time to have fun the rest of the time I have!' But why do you have to wait until that day arrives? Enjoy your life OP! Do whatever the fuck you want (as far as you are able too of course).

I think the whole idea that our time is limited is motivating. You don't have centuries time to learn everything there is, you only have a shitty 70 years, maybe even less. I might have 50 years left on this planet and I want to use this 50 years to accomplish my goals and live life. You think about death so much, but don't you think it would be way worse, if the day comes and you are laying in your bed knowing that you wasted your life thinking about this day all the time? A day that is now here and isn't even that special?

[Anonymous No.3536726]

but when you're dead you're not going to care about being dead

what are you afraid of? the actual process of dying, if it hurts or something?

[Anonymous No.3536728]

>>3536527
>implying there is anything to do
>implying there is anywhere to go
>implying there is anything to be
>implying there is anyone to know
yr plan is a mistake

I think maybe you should consider death not as an inevitable break in the chain of being you will experience at the end of your life but as something you live with every day as a necessary aspect of life, knowing that an individual death is meaningless—any individual death, especially your own—that you are not a person, but a statistic—and noticing, more each day, the countless deaths that occur around you—of other people, of animals, of insects, of the sick and infirm, of accident victims, of plants ripped from the earth and worms crushed beneath the blades of plows—of authors in their rooms, copying desperate words from the backs of books no one will ever read—even the shattering of molecular bonds, the disintegration of atomic structures, happening in every moment, millions in each nanosecond, everywhere

I think maybe considering that death is even more a part of you than you think might inspire you to carry death in a more productive way.

[Anonymous No.3536754]

>>3536728

Hey, that photo's from my local park! It's a fantastic park, don't know why he's complaining.

[Anonymous No.3536847]

OP, it's fine. It's fine.

This is just what is called an existential crisis.

Seriously, about a month ago I felt exactly the way you did (still do, but I'm able to cope) for like two whole weeks. What really helped me were two things, one of them was realizing what was happening to my mind, was actually a thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_crisis

Take comfort in knowing that eventually you will learn to deal with it, while the reality of the matter will always be with it. You will ultimately be a better and stronger person once you come to terms with the the concept of infinite death.

[Anonymous No.3536901]

>>3536754
I think it sets the bleakness of it very well

[Anonymous No.3536926]

>>3536901

Yeah I guess it can. I know that bench as I watched my gay friend drunkingly make out with someone on it. But the park on a nice day is one of the most beautiful in London.

It's Greenwich Park so has the royal observatory and the Greenwich Meridian Line at the top and at the bottom is the National Maritime Museum. There's a deer enclosure, a fantastic playground, tennis courts, old royal houses and gardens, a boating pond and a fantastic view of Canary Wharf. But best of all is that it is gigantic.

[Anonymous No.3536943]

>>3536728
This world is a mistake.

[Anonymous No.3536947]

>>3536367
>"Suicide may also be regarded as an experiment - a question which man puts to Nature, trying to force her to an answer. The question is this: What change will death produce in a man's existence and in his insight into the nature of things? It is a clumsy experiment to make; for it involves the destruction of the very consciousness which puts the question and awaits the answer."

[Anonymous No.3536966]

>>3536367
Why would you care about something you cant change in any way in the first place?

[Anonymous No.3536968]

>>3536367
I think the scariest thing is to be chased by a monster you know isn't real, but it can still get you because you can't stop BELIEVING it can.
Goddammit. Those dreams keep shaving fucking years off of my life. And for some reason it's always a fucking xenomorph.

Or to suddenly be horribly disfigured in the face.

[Anonymous No.3536969]

Thing for me is that it scares me, but I am at the same time aware how irrational it is to be scared by it. It is what happens to every single person, you are not singled out to this fate and you know it's coming.

However, I've reached the point where I do not fear death, but I do fear dying.

[Anonymous No.3536978]

>>3536367
Epicurus is known for his attempt to do away with the fear of death. You might want to look into him.

This podcast deals with it: http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-gods-death

But these should be listened to first perhaps for a more thorough comprehension:

http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-principles
http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/epicurus-ethics

[Anonymous No.3536984]

Fear is an emotional response, not an inherent property. The scariest thing to any person is subjective and conditional; there is no objective "scariest thing"

[Anonymous No.3536994]

>>3536969
>However, I've reached the point where I do not fear death, but I do fear dying.

Same. I like to think that in death, you become nameless. I started to feel this way after I heard a song. I know that it's weird, but he sang about nameless soldiers. And I thought, what if when you die, you become part of that? Part of a nameless thing? You're you, but you're just a part of something? Like a mass of energy and, then there's you, this spark of identity, but without any memories, or thoughts. It might sound scary, but I think it must be so relaxing. I wouldn't mind spending eternity like that. And if, of course, nothing happens after you die, it's really the same thing. Once I started to think like that... I've never really been worried about death since. It's a good feeling.

People get this idea that they have to BE something. That they have to prove they exist. I think that's the problem, because you don't. You don't have to prove anything.

But dying... dying is still hard.

[Anonymous No.3537112]

>>3536367
>caring about anything
LOL

[Anonymous No.3537149]

Remember how you felt before you were born?

No?

That's how you'll feel when you're dead.

This is the best explanation and all other explanations are speculative horseshit.

[Anonymous No.3537521]

>>3536994
yeah just taking a stroll on the moon and seeing that planet and how suddenly it strikes you it is in fact the earth I thinks not Neal, I thinks not, get your shit together you precious faggot.

[Davie !U9vVhP0ehU No.3537608]

>>3536978
What a cut little piggie!

[Davie !U9vVhP0ehU No.3537622]

>>3537521
How could it be Neil? He's dead!
Sleep well, Moon-prince!

[Davie !U9vVhP0ehU No.3537625]

>>3536968
>>>/shrink/

[Anonymous No.3537636]

>>3537521

[Anonymous No.3537665]

It's hobbies.
It's Weed
It's family
It's entertainment
It's work
it's suffering
it's relaxation
It's joy
it's struggle

Boredom will expose you to the futility of life.
If you take a summary view of any activity than of course it will look shallow and hollow.
The point of a videogame is not to cure you of existential angst for all time, and from all situations, the point is just to be fulfilling enough for the moment.

Stop trying to solve the problem of adding meaning to life. And work on the problem of adding meaning to Today.

I know it sounds kind of oversimplified and pop psych-y but it's true, you have to seize the day because trying to seize more than one day at a time is going to be problematic and the more of your life you try to get straight all at once, the bigger problem you are going to have with it.

Honestly, just solve today, do a little work, do a little writing, Read a book. and, if you are so inclined, indulge in mild chemicals, a singe glass of wine or a small amount of THC.

[Anonymous No.3537669]

>>3537636
My sides are walking on the moon.

[Anonymous No.3537954]

>>3537636
I feel strangely honoured.