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/lit/ - Literature

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4036433 No.4036433 [Reply] [Original]

What's the most pessimistic book ever written?

>> No.4036443

Death on the Installment Plan

>> No.4036450

I like Sebald's books, but they are more melancholic than pessimistic

>> No.4036472

>>4036433
Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence

>> No.4036488

>>4036443
will be getting to this soon

>> No.4036493

>>4036443
(vol 2 of a 2 vol novel)

>> No.4036497

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

>> No.4036500

definitely The Divine Comedy

it's also the most optimistic

>> No.4036513

>>4036433
Correction by Thomas Bernhard. The character Roithamer simplified the entire world as either work and obsession or the abyss.

>> No.4036573
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4036573

Shoppinghour's essays.

>> No.4036604

Knut Hamsun's 'Hunger', maybe.

>> No.4036655

The ending of Huxley's Island is a kick in the nuts. Not a pessmistic book per se, but that ending...

>> No.4036676

The Loser by Thomas Bernhard or Waiting for Godot. The ending in Godot made me scream when I read it - it was like the walls in my room collapsed and the floor opened up under me and showed me the bleak abyss that is life.

>> No.4036695

Mika Waltari's The Roman.

>> No.4036762
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4036762

Anything by emil cioran

Also, thomas ligotti's conspiracy against the human race

fernando vallejo has anti-natalist views, but but I don't know if he writes about them in his books.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9lXcgJ6s1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvRMVMrzA4

>> No.4036770

>>4036497
I fucking lol'd

>> No.4036777

>>4036676
The ending of your post showed me the bleak abyss that is life.

>> No.4036853

King Lear
Never, never, never, never
and all that shit.
I loved the hell out of that play, I should re-read it soon. It really offered no hope or redemption at all. There was no God, there was only the nature of men grabbing for power. Shit was pre-apocalyptic.

>> No.4037219
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4037219

>>4036433
The most obvious choices have been already mentioned here eg. Cioran, Schopenhauer and Ligotti. But I recommend you a book not necessarily pessimistic but on pessimism. Really interesting stuff.

>> No.4037223

>>4037219
His documentary on the downfall of traditional art was great.

http://vimeo.com/55426796

>> No.4037339

>>4037223

thanks, good one.

>> No.4037344

McCarthy's Suttree.

>> No.4037364

>>4037223
The way that he presents himself makes it seem like he doesn't even realize what he presupposes, but it is mainstream television so I guess it's expected.

>> No.4037417
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4037417

>>4036777

>> No.4037420

>>4036493
>implying it can't be read independently of JTTEON

>> No.4037432

Caused so many suicides he was banned from teaching in Alexandria and had the name Peisithanatos (death persuader).

Unfortunately no copies survived. I would love to have read it.

>> No.4037436

>>4037432

Death by Starvation written by Hegesias of Cyrene.

>> No.4037596

>>4037432
I think this makes it even more terrifying and depressing.

>> No.4037612

>>4037432

Apparently his philosophy was rather similar to some Buddhist teachings and most modern-day pessimists and anti-natalists. I guess it was quite a shock back then.

>> No.4039221

>>4037612
>>4037432
Haha, you know, Emile Cioran is often compared to him.

>> No.4039298

>>4036762
lel
I'm not particularly gloomy to begin with, but knowing that suicide's an option definitely makes me a lot happier and more peaceful than I would be otherwise.

>> No.4039332

>>4037432

RIP LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA


DEATH TO SARACENS

>> No.4039393

Personally, I think the very act of writing a book isn't pessimistic. What's pessimistic is not writing a book. The absence of a book will always be more pessimistic than any book.

That's why I consider it to be pessimism when authors put on their sad face and shit all over the world, without even trying to find a modicum of hope, because that's too "pleb" for them.

True pessimists kill themselves. Everyone else is an optimist.

>> No.4039403

>>4039393
>True pessimists kill themselves. Everyone else is an optimist.

Gonna quote if that's ok.

>> No.4039429

>>4039332
Get your facts straight, kiddo - http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/archive/articleview.cfm?aid=9