When we met, she introduced me to lots of short stories that made me reconsider my perspective on things. This was one of them. She still makes me reconsider my convictions whether I want to or not. I sure do love her for that.
edit: another one that came to mind, though my wife didn’t introduce me to this one, was ~~All You Zombies~~ by Robert Heinlein. I think that one has a movie adaptation called … Predestination maybe?
Also, though I don’t recall if I ever ended up reading it, she really liked All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury.
edit 2: Not sure why the Stephen King link isn’t working. The % maybe?
edit 3: Replaced all instances of %20 with a space. Link still didn’t work on my client. If it doesn’t work on yours, I’m afraid you’ll have to search for the story or manually copy the URL… Sorry.
No one can convince me that abuse is not evil. Is it common? Banal? Sure. Is it good? No. Never. Causing truama is evil. I don’t think there’s a valid argument that it isn’t.
Not that I necessarily agree with it, but having listened to a lot of Alan Watts, he gives the impression that he somewhat believes in a just universe.
To him every experience and every challenge is an opportunity for growth, especially the most difficult experiences.
He posits a belief in a karmic universe, where every lifetime of experiences and choices leads into the next lifetime of experiences and choices.
It rubs me wrong, because that type of thinking, to me, stems from the childish belief in a just universe, that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people.
Therefore, if terrible things are happening to you, then you must deserve it because your karma created your lifetime of circumstances…
I can get the appeal from someone recovering from truama, I’ve been there and putting yourself back together is a long hard road out of hell. That being said, the truama is a disadvantage that prevents people from typical level of functionality, it doesn’t make you more able to deal with anything, it typically leaves you with disorders and disfunction. The people that overcome are outliers.
In the karmic line of logic, it is focused towards spiritual development on the scale of seemingly infinite lifetimes.
Becoming a functional or self-actualized human is secondary to the experiences each lifetime provides in the infinite karmic cycle of death and rebirth.
Nice premise but I can’t stop giggling that the universe created for the child to mature has to be hellscape for parent, for all those instances of the same talks they will be having util that day (finally) comes.
As the nature of the parent is no further explained than hinting at a “human” origin we will never truly know. Can’t imagine though that a couple billion same-ish talks not take a toll on the parent.
The simple solution is that there is no “evil.”
I like the story The Egg by Andy Weir. It gives an example of that idea.
Alan Watts also talks a lot about that sort of thing.
You remind me of my wife.
When we met, she introduced me to lots of short stories that made me reconsider my perspective on things. This was one of them. She still makes me reconsider my convictions whether I want to or not. I sure do love her for that.
This is the most wholesome, loving thing I’ve read on Lemmy. You’re truly a gem.
Can you share some of the others?
Sure, but I’m not sure I remember many offhand and some have become popular since then so you may have already read them.
Two that come to mind:
edit: another one that came to mind, though my wife didn’t introduce me to this one, was ~~All You Zombies~~ by Robert Heinlein. I think that one has a movie adaptation called … Predestination maybe?
One my wife did recommend to me, though I found it less impactful than she did, was [https://ia801904.us.archive.org/35/items/the-jaunt-stephen-king/The Jaunt - Stephen King.pdf](The Jaunt) by Stephen King.
Also, though I don’t recall if I ever ended up reading it, she really liked All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury.
edit 2: Not sure why the Stephen King link isn’t working. The % maybe?
edit 3: Replaced all instances of
%20with a space. Link still didn’t work on my client. If it doesn’t work on yours, I’m afraid you’ll have to search for the story or manually copy the URL… Sorry.I would like a list of some as well!
Happy to share the ones I remember offhand, see above in the thread.
thank you! the ones I’ve read so far are awesome, I appreciate you sharing :)
My pleasure, happy I could spread the joy!
No one can convince me that abuse is not evil. Is it common? Banal? Sure. Is it good? No. Never. Causing truama is evil. I don’t think there’s a valid argument that it isn’t.
“Bone cancer in children? What’s that about?”
Not that I necessarily agree with it, but having listened to a lot of Alan Watts, he gives the impression that he somewhat believes in a just universe.
To him every experience and every challenge is an opportunity for growth, especially the most difficult experiences.
He posits a belief in a karmic universe, where every lifetime of experiences and choices leads into the next lifetime of experiences and choices.
It rubs me wrong, because that type of thinking, to me, stems from the childish belief in a just universe, that good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people.
Therefore, if terrible things are happening to you, then you must deserve it because your karma created your lifetime of circumstances…
I can get the appeal from someone recovering from truama, I’ve been there and putting yourself back together is a long hard road out of hell. That being said, the truama is a disadvantage that prevents people from typical level of functionality, it doesn’t make you more able to deal with anything, it typically leaves you with disorders and disfunction. The people that overcome are outliers.
In the karmic line of logic, it is focused towards spiritual development on the scale of seemingly infinite lifetimes.
Becoming a functional or self-actualized human is secondary to the experiences each lifetime provides in the infinite karmic cycle of death and rebirth.
If I redefine evil and child abuse and power then God is the best scarecrow humans have ever created.
Nice premise but I can’t stop giggling that the universe created for the child to mature has to be hellscape for parent, for all those instances of the same talks they will be having util that day (finally) comes.
For an intellect that vast, and with such a different experience of time, would it really be so difficult?
As the nature of the parent is no further explained than hinting at a “human” origin we will never truly know. Can’t imagine though that a couple billion same-ish talks not take a toll on the parent.
I do love that concept. I don’t think it removes evil, just shifts its perspective