One IMO excellent thing I seem to get from reading TCATHR, as well as from Zapffe, Schopenhauer and Tolstoy is that I lose my addictions. I had addictions in the past because I was subconsciously running away from life’s inherent meaninglessness. But now that the subconscious fear as turned into conscious recognition, I seem much more content with living a life free of addiction. I was a food addict specifically, and I used trips to restaurants (on my own, sad as it sounds) to escape my subconscious resistance to the truth. It’s great for me to have the cognitive dissonance of thinking life should be an “amazing adventure full of meaning” lifted, especially since it doesn’t at all present itself as such.
I am currently reading through the book, but I am a bit put off by the black and white, unnuanced perspective that I feel it has. I feel like David Benatar brings more nuance to his philosophy by acknowledging that life does contain pleasure, even if it is skewed towards pain. I am not done with this book yet though, so perhaps it gets more nuanced. Thoughts on this, Mr. Flynn?
Yes, I have mentioned this before. The book only presents one point of view, and doesn't mention other coping mechanisms like stoicism, for example. The book is not very balanced in this sense. I'm still a fan of the book, though, and I respect the honesty and candidness of it.
@@AuthorJamesFlynn I did listen to your reviews, you have a great channel IMO. One thing I’d like to add about this is that (from Wikipedia at least) Thomas Ligotti has suffered from anhedonia and chronic anxiety for most of his life. If you suffer from these conditions (as I myself do, but only periodically) it’s easy to see why he would develop a philosophy like this. Anhedonia can make life seem like it’s not worth living, but when youre out of the anhedonia, that philosophy doesn’t make sense to you anymore.
I have an idea as to why Ligotti refers to the book as a “self-help book”. It’s because he is employing Zapffe’s fourth method of dealing with the horror of existence - sublimination. He states this himself in the book. So if someone has similarly pessimistic thoughts as Ligotti’s, they can learn sublimination through his book.
I like your reviews about benatars books. It feels like benatar is speaking through you. I think the reason is that you don't try to chicken away from the dark conclusions from benatars musings
@@AuthorJamesFlynn Check you out, you swanky bugger. Props to you for sticking with in. You should change your name to J. Insert initial. Flynn now you're a high roller 🤣
@@AuthorJamesFlynn Gee.. I have the old version of Edge Of Insanity in bookform. Haven't read it yet, but if the edited one is improved upon I'm not sure what to do.
5:08 There's a noticeable pattern throughout history where writers use fiction to convey warnings about the future, often because it's a way to express complex ideas without stepping on too many toes. I think Brunner might have taken this approach in *'The Shockwave Rider,'* trying to alert us to what he saw coming. His focus might have been more on the message than on deeply developing the characters, which makes sense given the political and technological themes he's tackling. It's a subtle way of saying, 'This is your future if you're not careful....
Stephen Kings novella collection Dreamscapes and nightmares came to mind at the beginning. Continue this practice and maybe after ten attempts combine them all and see if they inspire you to write ✍️
The rat part sounds interesting as one of the points of The MacDonald triad in the childhood of serial killers are cruelty to animals. Like shes trying to let the protagonist know "look, I could fuckin kill you" Also just in case you don't already know this book is Kings favorite of all of his books. Maybe that's why you enjoyed it more than his usual stuff.
I've never free written before so I'm not sure of the rules but maybe as a fresh starting you could go to place like a park bench or one of those coffee shops that you like and write about sights, smells, sounds and temperature of where you are. That's could lead to something inspiring. Just try to not turn it into a rant about music coming from peoples phones.
