The study of philosophy and suicide has been genuinely interesting. There are a few items that have given me much food for thought. They are all out of copyright so you should find them all for free with a quick google search (and, believe it or not, none of them are porn. I only say that because most of my google searches end up with me watching porn*.
Ok, first up is the misleadinlgy depressing-sounding "On the Suffereing of the World" by Schopenhauer (a philospher that I sought out ENTIRELY because he was given a cursory reference in Monty Python's Meaning of Life (personally, my favourite of the MP films in no small part due to the greatest song ever - Every Sperm is Sacred - and, just before this, the line "The meaning of life part 2. The Third World. Yorkshire")). Just as a quick aside my old Entertainment Manager used to have a standard joke "I know there are people from up north in tonight as at the bar I heard the Yorkshire War-cry - How Much?!?!)
Anyhoo, I digress. "On the Suffering of the World" begins by stating the only true option any of us have is suicide. He quickly dismisses this and goes on to discuss aesthetics of our idea of being and how it differs from its practicality.
No, seriously, its quite interesting.
I will move quickly on to something that is much more accessible. Camus' essay on the myth of Sisyphus is a sentiment to which we can all relate. The original story was that this guy, Sisyphus, was being punished by the Gods for being a general dick. Or something. His punishment was to have to push a boulder up a hill, let it roll down, then start again. As an aside it is at this point the ancient greeks' penchant for homo-eroticism is clear as all artists' representations of Sisyphus make him appear ripped! Seriously. Not gay.
Camus took this story and suggested that the eternally punished were happy. For all of the toil he gives, for the few seconds that he is at the top, before he trudges down he has the respite, seeing the beauty of creation. It describes that Sisyphus' struggle is not that far from our own.
Finally, I offer Plato's Laches. An exposition on the true nature of courage. These three works should be prescribed before anti-depressants. This probably explains why I'm not a doctor.
I've been blogging probably a bit too much recently so may calm it down (may not. Not sure). I'm waiting for the day I say something that is too far gone to be defensible and I no longer "have" to do it (seriously, I've done that on purpose on a Facebook forum. Just don't ask). My struggle feels a little like Sisyphus'. I type and type and type just for that moment when someone says to themselves "hurh".
Seriously. Not gay.
*This is not strictly true as it has been many years since I needed Google to help me find porn. It is technically true, however, as my browser is Google chrome
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