Are you really as depraved and pitiful as Arthur Schopenhauer thinks you are?

The ancient concept of memento mori reminds us to “remember we must die,” not for any macabre or nihilistic purposes, but to prompt us to take a moment to contemplate our mortality so as to remember to live these fleeting, fatalistic lives of ours to their fullest.

Likewise, it seems the same could be said for Schopenhauer’s persistent contemplation of the evils of humankind. We contemplate these evils not to revel in and celebrate the boundless depravity of our kind, but to remind us that even in the best, most pure hearted of our species, therein Darkness resides; ergo, understanding that we have such an inherently Dark capacity to live wrongly, we should then strive in relentless determination to live our lives rightly and wholly in the Light.

Perhaps…

Excerpts from Schopenhauer’s essay On Human Nature. Music by ‪@guinabernardes‬

#2025scaresmealready

A Time of Sorrow

Happy times, Sorrow is here!

And you have until midnight tomorrow, or more specifically, 11:59 p.m., Sunday, November 24, 2024, (Bezos Standard Time, aka PST), to purchase a free Kindle version.


An aging white male forsakes humanity, changes his name to Sorrow, and begins identifying as an it, just as its white son learns his Black girlfriend is pregnant, and you begin a murderous rampage targeting interracial couples just like them...


Arthur Schopenhauer

And as Arthur Schopenhauer, that merry misanthrope, only happy when I’m not philosopher of old, reminds us:

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

Now, I am only the author of the tale so I cannot be sure, but if I were a betting man, which I’m not, but if I were, I would bet that Sorrow, our odd protagonist of our newly released tale, would agree with me that the quote above is true to the spirit of its journey. But alas we are sure to never know for sure since…

Sorrow does not respond.

Or maybe it does.

Find out here.

Literary Zen XI

Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer*

There is some wisdom in taking a gloomy view, in looking upon the world as a kind of Hell, and in confining one’s efforts to securing a little room that shall not be exposed to the fire.


*Perhaps a better caption would be, Willem Defoe as Arthur Schopenhauer, which is why I shan’t give up my day job.

Oh yeah, my books will be free from 00:01 (PDST) tonight until 23:59 PDST) Friday.

✌️