- Gemini (2005)
Meh, is alright. What do we learn from this movie? Thats right, only fuck family members outside the family home. 4/10.
- Meditation by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, along with Seneca’s Letters and Epictetus’ Discourses, is one of the three major Stoic works that have survived to our time. Of the three, I like it the least. It is less rigorous than Epictetus and less practical than Seneca. It is written in a more flowery and poetic style, with themes often repeating themselves, and the verses are not always interconnected.
I would recommend reading a version that provides more explanations of the verses rather than the Reclam edition, which only offers footnotes. If you’re starting with Stoicism, begin with Epictetus’ Discourses. - Wrong
The gods must not be blamed; for they do no wrong, willingly or unwillingly; nor human beings; for they do no wrong except unwillingly. Therefore no one is to be blamed.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Book XII verse 12
- On Change
The cessation of any action, the extinction of any keen desire, or of any opinion, is as it were a death to them. This is no evil. Turn, now to your different ages; such as childhood, youth, manhood, old-age; for every change of these is a death.* Is there any thing alarming here? Go, now, to your life; first as it was under your grand-father, then as it was under your mother; and then as it was under† your father: and, as you find there many other alterations, changes, and endings, ask yourself, was there any thing in these to alarm me? Thus, neither is there, in the ending, ceasing, and change, of your whole life.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Book IX verse 21
- I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell
I have not yet finished reading it, as it’s a web novel that is continuously updated, but I still added it here, in case I forget about it. This novel does so many aspects well. Oftentimes, when you read novels, you wonder why the author even added this gimmick or trope because it’s not properly utilized. This is, for example, often the case with isekai novels, where isekai is used as a cheap trick to make the protagonist more relatable, instead of what it should really be— a second chance (the anime/novel Mushoku Tensei does this, for example, well). The same is true for regression. In this novel, the regression trope is expertly utilized. What makes regression great? Allowing the reader to see how situations in the story might differ if the protagonist had handled them in another way. This is exactly done by the framing of the novel, in which the novel is a diary for the protagonist, where he tells various stories from his life.
In addition to this, the author incorporates other tropes/clichés and memes from the zeitgeist very well and creatively. My favorite example for this is when the protagonist convinces a bunch of communist fairies to work as his supermarket (they all wear uniforms that consist of t-shirts with the face of Che Guevara printed on them) by promising them that, through this way, they can “bring the word of communism to the brethren of all nations.” Another plus point is that it incorporates a recent hobby of mine—philosophy. From simple namedrops (such as the friend of the protagonist being called Schopenhauer, referencing the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer or Wittgenstein) to parodies of philosophical positions (such as communism with the fairies).
My favorite arcs so far are Internationalist and Breakdown, which you can find starting at chapter 15 and 86, respectively.In the end, I want to leave you with this beautiful text passage:
“Finding reasons to live is good. That alone is already great. But I hope you live with as many reasons as possible, not just one.”
“…….”
“If a single drop of rain can make a person decide to die, a single line of music can give them a reason to live. When helping someone, try to create several reasons instead of just one. Gain. Goal. Curiosity. Self-examination. Simple amusement. Curiosity. Those thousand reasons can be reasons to kill someone and at the same time reasons to keep you alive.”