pessimistic/nihilistic thinkers thread

[paeng]

"Kierkegaard on the Couch"

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2...-on-the-couch/

[paeng]

"Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091102/...us_mood_memory

[paeng]

From last September:

"Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy"

Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy - CUP Newswire

[sundog]

Quote Originally Posted by paeng

From last September: "Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy" Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy - CUP Newswire

This suicide note is almost too good to be true. An extended (and indeed masterful) meditation/dissertation on the issues Ligotti specifically deals with in the 'Who Goes There?' chapter of TCATHR.

If I may quote from p.1866 of the note:

Quote

After exploring an unadulterated materialistic view, life lost its cogency for me. I have become disenchanted and have lost spontaneous naivety to an extent that all efforts to regain the cause of life ring hollow and fall flat. My collapse into self-destruction evolved with the development of questioning criticism of the most basic premise of the original experiment on myself: increasing and asserting my individual will and power. Even this one premise of individual egoism to overcome nihilism buckled under the consuming implications of nihil.

Still, Nietzsche said it all when he proclaimed the death of God..

	TCATHR The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

[Tsalal Akbar]

Quote Originally Posted by paeng

From last September: "Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy" Epic suicide note a masterful work of philosophy - CUP Newswire

Heisman is like the modern day Michelstaedter; his Suicide Note like the pessimist's War and Peace.

[Ohahn K.]

I was wondering if Mainlander's Philosophy of Redemption has been translated into english by anyone?

[Viva June]

I think it will have to be translated into German first.

[Malone]

A thinker I came across a while back, and who is even more pessimistic than E.M. Cioran, is Albert Caraco, the Argentinian aphorist who lived in Paris for a great deal of his life. He committed suicide after the death of his parents:

Albert Caraco | illusioncity.net

Say No To Life: Albert Caraco: A Pessimist for the Pantheon

[Viva June]

Jakob Elias Poritzky is a recent discovery of mine. The "preface" to his debut collection of interlinked stories reads as follows (allowing for the usual reservations regarding my translation skills):

I preach the pitifulness of life. And if you are repulsed by life and have reached the zenith of misery in disgust, and if your soul is so overburdened that it threatens to shatter and you would prefer to put a bullet through your temple so as to escape into the insensible void, then read my book. It will be a comfort to you in that it will increase your suffering. You understand — — —

The book hardly counts as proper philosophy, but I think the sentiment expressed in the above quote is a neat encapsulation of the usefulness of pessimism.

[Gorticide]

I am sure a few of you may have tried this already. Concerning Albert Caraco's Handbook of Chaos:

I uploaded the Spanish translation for a computer generated English translation. It's a start, anyway.

Zippyshare.com

I just uploaded the pdf file, Caraco ALbert - Breviario Del Caos.pdf, at https://translate.google.com. (via "translate a document")

Update: It's a very rough translation.