Suicide and Literature

[itssasssh144]

Any recommendations for literature with the theme of Suicide? The best I have read was No Longer Human. Thanks.

 

[Nolan96]

The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

[whatevs]

Dude, same. No longer human being the most relatable work to date for me. I will wait for recommendations in this thread.

You might enjoy "The tree of life" of Pío Baroja as well.

 

[SuicidalRN]

If you like non-fiction and are looking for a book relating to recovering from someone else's suicide, "Aftermath: Picking Up the Pieces After a Suicide" by Gary Roe is a great tool and piece of literature.

 

[whatevs]

Dude, same. No longer human being the most relatable work to date for me. I will wait for recommendations in this thread.

You might enjoy "The tree of life" of Pío Baroja as well.

"The tree of Science" actually. Geez... Have read it 4 times and can't get the title right.

 

[jandek]

It's maybe old-fashioned now, but Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther is still a powerful depiction of a mental breakdown leading to suicide. Werther inspired many copycat suicides after its publication. It was also one of Napoleon's favorite books, oddly enough.

 

[itssasssh144]

It's maybe old-fashioned now, but Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther is still a powerful depiction of a mental breakdown leading to suicide. Werther inspired many copycat suicides after its publication. It was also one of Napoleon's favorite books, oddly enough.

If anything I prefer old fashioned! Thanks for the recommendation. Anything like classics are my go-to. Sounds interesting, will look into it.

 

[uniqueuser]

"the morning after i killed myself"

 

[Oblivion Access]

Read No Longer Human today actually. Loved it (minus the misogyny) but hated how much I related (again, minus the misogyny) to Yozo/Dazai since it's semi-autobiographical. I think he'd find it ironic and oddly heartening, how universal the feelings of inadequacy and not belonging anywhere really are.

 

[Belljar]

The bell jar...you can read the text online. The author sylvia plath killed herself.
https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/plaths-belljar/plaths-belljar-00-h.html

 

[itssasssh144]

The bell jar...you can read the text online. The author sylvia plath killed herself.
https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/plaths-belljar/plaths-belljar-00-h.html

Love the book a lot. One of my favourites!

 

[LastFlowers]

Dude, same. No longer human being the most relatable work to date for me. I will wait for recommendations in this thread.

You might enjoy "The tree of life" of Pío Baroja as well.

No Longer Human was a major disappointment to me and I did not relate to the contrived "woe is me" attitude the main character/self-insert put on, absolute dramatization of his own being-which was definitely human, the narrator came off as terribly insufferable, I don't think he would have lasted a day in the shoes of most people here, myself included, in fact he would probably be perusing the partner thread and luring people into pacts that he never planned on following through with himself.
The writing in and of itself was good, and there were plenty of points of interest and honest observations to be gleaned from the whole narrative, but the voice from which it all came reminded me of people who brood just for the aesthetic of appearing brooding.


So if anyone here despised that aspect of the book as much as I did, please feel free to recommend something that hits upon similar subject matter without the narrative voice coming across as a privileged little pissant with too much time on their hands.
I felt like I, as someone who has literally been deemed inhuman by society-and suffering all of the consequences, was reading the diary of a juvenile who forcefully pondered their way into a false sense of "no longer being human", despite most other people affirming their humanity at every turn, even when it was wholly undeserved.
Not sure how much was lost in translation but "I Personally Don't Feel Human, So I'm Going to Wallow in That Notion and Bring The Rest of You Along For The Self-Indulgent, Occasionally Insightful Drivel As I Destroy Myself and Take Others Down With Me" would have been a more fitting title.
Let's just say I'm not surprised it's been recommended to people by fucking PewDiePie.


*Edit: Were you the one who made that thread about the book awhile back? Or was that someone else? (I'm bad at remembering most usernames.)
I recall responding but I think I neglected to revisit it once I said my piece lol

 

[whatevs]

*Edit: Were you the one who made that thread about the book awhile back? Or was that someone else? (I'm bad at remembering most usernames.)
I recall responding but I think I neglected to revisit it once I said my piece lol

Hahaha hey, it's interesting to read the same opinion worded in a different way.

I was very surprised at the (for me) perfect recommendation by "Pewds", but something humorous that I recall about that video it is that he described American Psycho as being "comedic" and he just looked completely unable to grasp how humorless and dark that book is. So he perhaps doesn't understand well whatever he reads or recommends.

I don't think, again, that you offer a fair assessment. I think you just didn't like the book nor the personality of the author, but it's unfair to derive from that he was exaggerating, that he didn't have it as bad, that he was privileged and brooded for the sake of brooding, etc. The book is instead, a faithful representation of the state of mind that crippling social anxiety due to chilld sexual abuse can create in a man.

I think that this unfair assessment is completely normal, however, as I have ridiculed and dismissed authors in a similar way, for example Cioran, which I stopped reading as soon as he started assuming that everyone was miserable and wanted to die, or something to that effect. But if an author has a following he or she likely has something to offer, even if you think it sucks.

 

[LastFlowers]

Hahaha hey, it's interesting to read the same opinion worded in a different way.

I was very surprised at the (for me) perfect recommendation by "Pewds", but something humorous that I recall about that video it is that he described American Psycho as being "comedic" and he just looked completely unable to grasp how humorless and dark that book is. So he perhaps doesn't understand well whatever he reads or recommends.

I don't think, again, that you offer a fair assessment. I think you just didn't like the book nor the personality of the author, but it's unfair to derive from that he was exaggerating, that he didn't have it as bad, that he was privileged and brooded for the sake of brooding, etc. The book is instead, a faithful representation of the state of mind that crippling social anxiety due to chilld sexual abuse can create in a man.

I think that this unfair assessment is completely normal, however, as I have ridiculed and dismissed authors in a similar way, for example Cioran, which I stopped reading as soon as he started assuming that everyone was miserable and wanted to die, or something to that effect. But if an author has a following he or she likely has something to offer, even if you think it sucks.

Ha. So it was you lol, yea I am sure I just reworded the same thoughts in a slightly different way.

I think my assessment is more than fair, but I don't have a problem with others liking the book or having a different opinion.
He was absolutely 100% a privileged man-in more ways than one, that's not really up for debate unless we get into semantics and what's "relative" to each individual.
And I'm aware of the incident implied early on in the story but he does not linger too much on that, his sense of inhuman-ness seems to have plenty of other roots competing with one of the only sympathetic ones.
I have actually spoken to someone who experienced a similar event in their childhood back when I first read it, and they also could not relate to the "protagonist", someone recommended the book to them on the basis of that small detail and they found the whole thing to be incredibly insulting, so I think it's safe to say he is far from some universal embodiment of that type of trauma or aftermath.

He absolutely exaggerated and dramatized his own sense of himself, I did not mean to imply the same with any actual harm or event, I mean to say the entire overarching theme is born predominantly from his brooding.
I might be mistaken, but I think he may have even touched upon that sentiment himself, or alluded to it, along with leaning into the archetype of an "unreliable narrator", meant to be compelling but also meant to be open to criticism and doubt.
He displays such blatant hypocrisy, and egoism in his analysis and denigration of other human beings he feels apart from, that I have to wonder if some of that was purposeful, that he meant to make a point that subverted his more conspicuous inner-nature, which undermines most people's takeaway I see in conversations about the novel.
The character was very much a part of the 'societal' problems & absurdities he remarked on and thought he was above and beyond, in the end he was an individual human contributing the same filth that he insisted disgusted and confused him (despite any supposed self-deprecation alongside it).
But because there are so many signs that he actually believed himself to be a separate entity, I am not sure I can give him the benefit of the doubt that some of the things I found to be nauseating were intended to be just that.

You have to realize the author's other influences too, to understand that he is not coming from a simple place of examining crippling anxiety from a traumatic event, there is a lot more going on there, and much of it is self-serving in a way where he manages to be insightful and observant while also retaining a level of grating myopia.
He harmed others with his way of going about life, perhaps I know too much about the real person behind the semi-autobiographical book to be able to separate the two, but idk that there is even a need when they're so similar.
He is a highly romanticized figure, and not for the right reasons, which I also take issue with.
You may be an anomaly but I have noticed a certain unsavory trend in those who follow him.
Maybe they are more like PewDiePie in not actually grasping the more damning concepts but perhaps instead, clinging to all of the other reasons I cannot stand the piece of work.
I agree with that much, that two people can like and recommended something based on wildly different interpretations and reasonings, even to the point they would get into an argument if they actually started to list why they liked it in the first place.


I'd like to clarify again, It wasn't about not liking the book as a whole-as I did find some aspects to be worthwhile, but where you may relate, I could not, and your opinion is yours and my opinion is mine. No need to be condescending lol, although I admit, I probably have given off a similar air in my own review, but I know there are plenty of things others detest that I found to be meaningful, and it's not always that they gave an unfair assessment or deduction, but rather that they are from other walks of life or simply could not tolerate certain sides of the story, OR they had valid criticisms that I was able to overlook, but they were not.
I'm sure we could even agree on what I consider to be the better parts of this book.

 

[Ashu]

William Styron's "Sophie's Choice".
"L'airone" di Giorgio Bassani.

 

[LastFlowers]

William Styron's "Sophie's Choice".
"L'airone" di Giorgio Bassani.

Do you consider the novel (Sophie's Choice) to be a superior telling of the story versus the film?

 

[whatevs]

Ha. So it was you lol, yea I am sure I just reworded the same thoughts in a slightly different way.

I think my assessment is more than fair, but I don't have a problem with others liking the book or having a different opinion.
He was absolutely 100% a privileged man-in more ways than one, that's not really up for debate unless we get into semantics and what's "relative" to each individual.
And I'm aware of the incident implied early on in the story but he does not linger too much on that, his sense of inhuman-ness seems to have plenty of other roots competing with one of the only sympathetic ones.
I have actually spoken to someone who experienced a similar event in their childhood back when I first read it, and they also could not relate to the "protagonist", someone recommended the book to them on the basis of that small detail and they found the whole thing to be incredibly insulting, so I think it's safe to say he is far from some universal embodiment of that type of trauma or aftermath.

He absolutely exaggerated and dramatized his own sense of himself, I did not mean to imply the same with any actual harm or event, I mean to say the entire overarching theme is born predominantly from his brooding.
I might be mistaken, but I think he may have even touched upon that sentiment himself, or alluded to it, along with leaning into the archetype of an "unreliable narrator", meant to be compelling but also meant to be open to criticism and doubt.
He displays such blatant hypocrisy, and egoism in his analysis and denigration of other human beings he feels apart from, that I have to wonder if some of that was purposeful, that he meant to make a point that subverted his more conspicuous inner-nature, which undermines most people's takeaway I see in conversations about the novel.
The character was very much a part of the 'societal' problems & absurdities he remarked on and thought he was above and beyond, in the end he was an individual human contributing the same filth that he insisted disgusted and confused him (despite any supposed self-deprecation alongside it).
But because there are so many signs that he actually believed himself to be a separate entity, I am not sure I can give him the benefit of the doubt that some of the things I found to be nauseating were intended to be just that.

You have to realize the author's other influences too, to understand that he is not coming from a simple place of examining crippling anxiety from a traumatic event, there is a lot more going on there, and much of it is self-serving in a way where he manages to be insightful and observant while also retaining a level of grating myopia.
He harmed others with his way of going about life, perhaps I know too much about the real person behind the semi-autobiographical book to be able to separate the two, but idk that there is even a need when they're so similar.
He is a highly romanticized figure, and not for the right reasons, which I also take issue with.
You may be an anomaly but I have noticed a certain unsavory trend in those who follow him.
Maybe they are more like PewDiePie in not actually grasping the more damning concepts but perhaps instead, clinging to all of the other reasons I cannot stand the piece of work.
I agree with that much, that two people can like and recommended something based on wildly different interpretations and reasonings, even to the point they would get into an argument if they actually started to list why they liked it in the first place.


I'd like to clarify again, It wasn't about not liking the book as a whole-as I did find some aspects to be worthwhile, but where you may relate, I could not, and your opinion is yours and my opinion is mine. No need to be condescending lol, although I admit, I probably have given off a similar air in my own review, but I know there are plenty of things others detest that I found to be meaningful, and it's not always that they gave an unfair assessment or deduction, but rather that they are from other walks of life or simply could not tolerate certain sides of the story, OR they had valid criticisms that I was able to overlook, but they were not.
I'm sure we could even agree on what I consider to be the better parts of this book.

I don't know what's privileged of being chronically fearful of other people or so filled with shame that you take your own life. Being handsome or from a wealthy family were privileges but apparently not enough to offset his defects.

It's not about feeling inhuman but
about feeling less than human, or unworthy of humanity. The way he dragged the first woman into drowning in the river while he survived is already more than enough to account for this overwhelming sense of shame. I've seen users in here want to end their lives for less.

As per what you found "nauseating" and "damning", I think that was precisely the main attraction in the book. It's sincere in showing autobiographical thoughts and motivations of the author. He was indeed self-absorbed and despicable and the book doesn't try to beautify or romanticize that in any way. I actually benefited from it's reading, as it made me reflect upon my own artistic narcissism and realize I don't want to be like the author. There was a time where I would have wanted to produce such a book, but my epiphany was that I'd much rather conquer my inner demons than make a exquisitely crafted work of art where I detail how they conquered me.

It's definitely a cautionary tale for those that are ready.

 

[Ashu]

Do you consider the novel (Sophie's Choice) to be a superior telling of the story versus the film?

I don't remember the film well. I know that Styron himself collaborated with its makers, and I think he was happy with the result, and I've read that the film is considered a classic example of a successful film adaptation of a novel. I wouldn't use the word superior, just because such judgements are subjective, but I personally much prefer fiction to film, and I reread the novel, one of my favorites, every couple of years, while I will never watch the film again.

 

[Alldone]

Any recommendations for literature with the theme of Suicide? The best I have read was No Longer Human. Thanks.

Sally Brampton's 'Shoot the damn dog'.

 

[itssasssh144]

Just popped on to thank you all, didn't expect this thread to receive that many replies and suggestions. Had a look at all of the suggestions this far and definitely some are interesting.

Very much appreciated.

 

[mistvissione11e]

Perfume the story of a murderer
- the character as "no longer a human"

 

[Ironweed]

. Werther inspired many copycat suicides after its publication.

My understanding is that when the available data was reviewed this turned out to not be true, at least in the broadest sense of national or European wide suicide rates. Reaction to the book was more moral panic led by various Christian denominations and cynical politicians. than it was anything else.

The Sorrows of Young Werther turned out to be a pretty poor example of the Werther Effect, ironically.

 

[Ashu]

I'm surprised at how few I'm able to think of. It's worth mentioning that Le ultime lettere di Giacomo Ortis by Ugo Foscolo is a blatant imitation of Goethe's Werther, but I much preferred it to its original. There's Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, both materpieces from a purely artistic point of view, but their depictions of the women's suicides, particularly Tolstoy's, are hostile and moralistic, so fuck em.

 

[SofterSoftest]

I'm reading "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho and I'm so disappointed. A story about a suicidal woman by someone who seems to have never met a woman or a suicidal person.

 

[simulatingpenfart]

If you are interested in a philosophical book, I can recommend "Every Cradle is a Grave" by Sarah Petty as It offers many different prospectives on suicide. It's one of my favorite non-fiction books on the topic.

 

[PatheticCase]

Together We Will Go by Michael Straczynski. It's been out less than a year and about this guy who rents out a bus, posts an ad about it, and picks up people along the way, cross-country, so they can drive off a cliff.

One of my favorites

 

[OldDrummer]

More death related than suicide, but "Sum: Forty Tales from Afterlives" by David Eagleman is a good read.

 

[georgecostanza]

It's not about suicide but the idea is permeating the book.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

And here it must be said that to call suicides only those who actually destroy themselves is false. Among these, indeed, there are many who in a sense are suicides only by accident and in whose being suicide has no necessary place. Among the common run of men there are many of little personality and stamped with no deep impress of fate, who find their end in suicide without belonging on that account to the type of the suicide by inclination; while, on the other hand, of those who are to be counted as suicides by the very nature of their beings are many, perhaps a majority, who never in fact lay hands upon themselves. […] But just as there are those who at the least indisposition develop a fever, so do those whom we call suicides, and who are always very emotional and sensitive, develop at the least shock the notion of suicide. […] All suicides are familiar with the struggle against the temptation of suicide. Every one of them knows very well in some corner of his soul that suicide, though a way out, is rather a mean and shabby one, and that it is nobler and finer to be felled by life than by one's own hand.

 

[silent staring void]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Suicide by Edouard Leve already. It is a novel about a man's inner experiences in the days before he takes his own life, written in the second person singular. The author killed himself three days after he finished it. It can definitely be triggering if you don't want to do it just yet.