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Re: Lovecraft's Death

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On Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at 8:59:37 PM UTC-4, bocky...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 5:09:38 AM UTC+11, Aardvark wrote:
> > Yes.  I'd rather go HPL's way than REH's way.  It's braver.  And, while I
> > love REH's work, I don't think anyone should ever sentimentalize or glorify
> > suicide.  You never know who is listening, and someday, someone may practice
> > what you preach.
> 
> As someone who has seriously contemplated suicide in their life, this
> statement reads very alien to me, and completely disrespectful of all 
> those who have ended their lives early in the past. If anything, suicide
> is harder and braver to do than surviving until your body can no longer
> survive. What comes natural is the easiest to follow, if not the least
> painful...

> That's not to say that suicide is necessarily the right choice and action --
> often what we see is not all that is there, and life has more to teach us --
> but it certainly is brave.

My priority is to discourage suicide.  I am not overly worried that, by doing so, I am "disrespecting" those who have already killed themselves.  Such people are beyond my aid, and are incapable of being hurt by my disapproval.  I am more worried about the people who have NOT killed themselves, but might be feeling temptation.  How should I influence them?

You obviously have very different values.  You do not hesitate to endorse and encourage suicide.  You say how "brave" it is, implying that if you kill yourself, others will think well of you.  You do not care if some disturbed teenager reads your words, and gets nudged in he direction you advocate.

Bravery means your duty in the face of fear.  A person who sacrifices his life for duty is a hero and a martyr, not a suicide.  His goal is not death; death is merely what he is willing to face, for the sake of duty (whatever his duty is).

Suicide is merely killing yourself because you want to die.  The fact that you must overcome your natural and healthy instinct of self-preservation, in order to do so, does not make it brave.  It is merely one selfish temptation overwhelming another selfish temptation.

I admire many things about R.E. Howard, not least his fiction.  Shooting himself in the head is not anything to admire.  I'm not judging him.  Maybe he was so overwhelmed with grief that it conquered his free will.  But I do not believe that anyone (assuming they have a choice) should follow his example.

I'm glad that you did not kill yourself.  I would never encourage you to kill yourself.  PLEASE, stop encouraging people to kill themselves.  It is wrong.  You never know who is reading.

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Lovecraft's Death bruce turlish <brturlish@gmail.com> - 2016-01-31 23:21 -0800
  Re: Lovecraft's Death "W. H. Pugmire, Esq." <hopfrog@sesqua.net> - 2016-01-31 23:24 -0800
    Re: Lovecraft's Death bruce turlish <brturlish@gmail.com> - 2016-01-31 23:58 -0800
      Re: Lovecraft's Death Magister <klarkash@spray.se> - 2016-02-01 09:01 -0800
  Re: Lovecraft's Death Magister <klarkash@spray.se> - 2016-02-01 09:00 -0800
    Re: Lovecraft's Death bruce turlish <brturlish@gmail.com> - 2016-02-03 22:48 -0800
      Re: Lovecraft's Death Ramsey Campbell <ramseycampbell99@gmail.com> - 2016-02-04 06:26 -0800
      Re: Lovecraft's Death Magister <klarkash@spray.se> - 2016-02-04 09:56 -0800
        Re: Lovecraft's Death bruce turlish <brturlish@gmail.com> - 2016-02-05 05:05 -0800
          Re: Lovecraft's Death thang ornerythinchus <thangolossus@gmail.com> - 2016-02-06 18:17 +0800
          Re: Lovecraft's Death Magister <klarkash@spray.se> - 2016-02-06 15:53 -0800
            Re: Lovecraft's Death osedax <osedax@whaleoil.beef.hooked.com> - 2016-02-08 21:14 +0800
          Re: Lovecraft's Death Aardvark <jwjbwhelan@gmail.com> - 2016-03-01 10:09 -0800
            Re: Lovecraft's Death bockyseles4@gmail.com - 2018-03-20 17:59 -0700
              Re: Lovecraft's Death thang ornerythinchus <thangolossus@gmail.com> - 2018-03-31 12:44 +0800
                Re: Lovecraft's Death Aardvark <jwjbwhelan@gmail.com> - 2018-07-17 12:34 -0700
              Re: Lovecraft's Death Aardvark <jwjbwhelan@gmail.com> - 2018-07-17 11:51 -0700
                Re: Lovecraft's Death "blackwingbear@gmail.com" <blackwingbear@gmail.com> - 2020-05-06 21:13 -0700
            Re: Lovecraft's Death "blackwingbear@gmail.com" <blackwingbear@gmail.com> - 2020-05-06 21:11 -0700
              Re: Lovecraft's Death Aardvark <jwjbwhelan@gmail.com> - 2020-08-02 14:36 -0700
  Re: Lovecraft's Death "W. H. Pugmire, Esq." <hopfrog@sesqua.net> - 2016-02-08 17:10 -0800
    Re: Lovecraft's Death bruce turlish <brturlish@gmail.com> - 2016-02-09 01:17 -0800
  Re: Lovecraft's Death "W. H. Pugmire, Esq." <hopfrog@sesqua.net> - 2016-02-08 17:19 -0800

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