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The Egg (2009)

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227 points jxmorris12 | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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A_D_E_P_T ◴[] No.43534338[source]
Hah, it's literally Schopenhauer's hell: Humans as both the tormenting demons and as those doing the suffering. In this case, one human -- which further frames suffering as an inescapable, masochistic cycle. "You were victimizing yourself" says the demiurge.

That everything is predetermined and that time is nonlinear is also something that should trouble every contemplative person.

It's basically a devil's brew of nihilism and determinism that frames existence as a solitary, predetermined journey toward an abstract goal (maturation into godhood?!) that renders individual lives expendable and morally ambiguous. And it plays out over a trillion or so years. Horrifying.

It's especially funny as the author, with very little awareness of what he was writing, tried to strike positive "we are all one" notes... And ended up with something that would give Ligotti nightmares.

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wrinkl3 ◴[] No.43534596[source]
Another (very) short story that plays with this idea is Neil Gaiman's Other People: https://xpressenglish.com/our-stories/other-people/
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1. sdwr ◴[] No.43537978[source]
The social plane is built upon the physical. What an out of touch, privileged, insulated attitude, having them the other way around.