Do We Even Exist?

Thomas Ligotti most certainly exists as I've read what he wrote and said

Only thing that might be false here is possibility that none of you exist outside my brain
That taken into account, Ligotti doesn't exist also for I have created him and all of his works
This is one way a God would see us
[ame=[URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat]We[/URL] are all frauds[/ame]
 
bendk said:
Dr. Bantham said:
My surgical skills are sharp but oblivious to discretion between benign and malignant tissue, but instead honed on the removal of the offending portion of the body. I hope everyone understands the position I am forced to take here. It is not an easy stance, but one which I feel is my duty.
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Hey, Dr. B., I know this if quite off topic but didn't you win an auction on eBay back in the day of a RPG called Pain Doctors: A Game of Recreational Surgery? Is this how you perfect your skills? (just kidding, of course!)
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Your memory is exquisite. I have the book of art by Alan Clarke as well. As for the Pain Doctors game, I managed to sadistically integrate it with the Operation board game from Milton Bradley. Pain gives me a buzz, after all.
 
Do We Even Exist?

When I was a child, I was for a time convinced that everyone was a figment of my imagination. Now I realize that I have effectively become a figment of everyone else's imagination. We do not exist collectively in a cohesive plane of being. That begets both mystery and misery. Choose your poison wisely. Your lie could depend upon it.
 
A "lie" or maybe "life"?
Both would be correct


Joy is that we all exist in a world where we are forced to interact and cooperate
But the problem rises when people interact and cooperate in order to subdue and exploit others
That is when the Garden becomes hideous and that is when we release Hell upon this nightmare
 
al_Alamm said:
A "lie" or maybe "life"?
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That would be the former as an intentional skew, which in fact could be affront to the latter, which could be construed as my dodgy answer to the question at hand. Either way, it is not an absolute. Or perhaps it is such a pure absolute that it denies distinction between an inverse condition.
 
Dr. Bantham said:
Albie has been permanently banned from TLO for inappropriate language and disrespectful behavior to members. This has been decreed by secret voting among members of The Sect of the Idiot. It is important to note that he is being banned for being verbally offensive to TLO members, not for stating opinions about Thomas Ligotti that might have been offensive to members. Other than hackers and spammers, Albie is the only member to have ever been banned from TLO. This was a difficult decision, but one which was deemed to be in the best interest of the community. Note that Thomas Ligotti has no direct interaction or sponsorship of this site. In the end, the decision was made to protect the harmony of the community from a negative person that seemed consistently bent on disruption and disrespect. After the ban was placed, I received a deluge of horrid profanity via email from Albie. My initial reservations regarding the ban have now been dismissed.
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The original statement above was modified to clarify the grounds of dismissal.
 
Okay, I know I'm asking for too much...
*hint* But this "deluge of horrid profanity" seems quite intriguing *hint*
:)
 
al_Alamm said:
Okay, I know I'm asking for too much...
*hint* But this "deluge of horrid profanity" seems quite intriguing *hint*
:)
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Perhaps I should have said "repetitive immature profanity".

WARNING - PROFANITY (Move Mouse Over Box to View Content)
Spoiler
FUCKING USELESS BACK SLAPPIN WANKERS.
YOUR FORUM IS AS DEAD AS LIGOTTI'S CAREER AS A WRITER.

Spoiler
ASS FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spoiler
bummers

There were 22 emails all together from Albie, with the above content repeated over the course of nine minutes. If he continues, I will ban his IP address from even viewing any portion of the site and report him to his ISP. He now continues his foul rants against TLO and specific members on other literary boards. I hope that folk visiting his links will read the full content of the thread and realize the true nature of the situation.
 
Well this is nice :)

As said before - fits perfectly on this topic
For albie is not a part of this forum anymore and therefore it IS dead
Like he is very dead for me
 
Dr. Bantham said:
Do We Even Exist?

When I was a child, I was for a time convinced that everyone was a figment of my imagination. Now I realize that I have effectively become a figment of everyone else's imagination. We do not exist collectively in a cohesive plane of being. That begets both mystery and misery. Choose your poison wisely. Your lie could depend upon it.
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I also had weird thoughts as a child, related to the topic of this thread. I had the idea (I'm not sure if I actually believed it, but I definitely put much thought into it at the time) that until I don't reach a certain place, which I've never seen - and there are many such places when you are a kid :) - it doesn't exist. It's as if they simply were appearing for me to see them and to fill up the void. This differs from Dr. Bantham's conviction as a child in that, for me (when considering this idea), everything appeared out if it's own (capricious?) volition to become part of the reality that surrounds me. Very weird.
This is actually what I later discovered lucid dreaming is all about and I was so excited at the possibility to actually experience the weird sensation of being part of such a mock-reality that I felt compelled to learn how to have those dreams.
I also think Grabinski's story "The Glance" is about this... to some extend.
 
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yellowish haze said:
...until I don't reach a certain place, which I've never seen - and there are many such places when you are a kid
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I relate to that.

And, strangely, it reminds me of a book I haven't finished reading yet, but one I'm enjoying immensely: 'The House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielewski. And one day, I surmise, this very thread 'Do We Even Exist?' will be similarly studied and annotated closely, every word-turning weighed just as with the house in 'The Navidson Record', every nuance every aberration and gem of wisdom...

des
 
Des, I think you meant "The House of Leaves" ;)
I read that book 4 years ago, but I still feel I haven't finished reading it. It's like an impenetrable maze - you will never be able to check every single secret passage or cul de sac.
I love that book.
 
The House of Leaves is indeed wonderfully labyrinthine. I read it last summer, and find myself coming back to its many references and little hidden parables. I realize Danielewski hails from a different literary tradition, but I found several elements in the book Lovecraftian and Ligottian. Probably unintentionally so.

Nevertheless, the book is wonderfully constructed and horrifying in many of The Navidson Record's incidents. It's a great treat to read about the insane house, and even more delicious to see the textual layout mirroring the irrational structure. One could easily spend years exploring Danielewski's footnotes and stories-within-stories...
 
Whether we exist or not is not relevant, as in the end the latter shall prevail and the former shall be detached from the retina of reality. We are distracted by a fleeting tease of illusory sustenance, and then nothing more.
 
Dr. Bantham said:
Whether we exist or not is not relevant, as in the end the latter shall prevail and the former shall be detached from the retina of reality. We are distracted by a fleeting tease of illusory sustenance, and then nothing more.
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Not relevant to what Dr B? Surely relevance is, by definition, not absolute -- but in relation to something. If you ask "do we exist?" and I reply "the sky is cloudy", my reply is (or seems to be) irrelevant. If you ask "what's the weather like?" and I reply "the sky is cloudy" then that is (or seems to be) relevant. Whether we exist or not seems to me not to be so much relevant to the question posed by this thread as a re-statement of that question in slightly different words.
 
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