Existentialism
Article
Existentialism is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between April 20, 2022 and August 02, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “Strong echo from existentialism here”; “I’ve never really “gotten” existentialism”; “He analyzes the experience of being paralyzed primarily through the lens of Existentialism”. It most often appears alongside A.E. Waite, Ableism, Acapulco.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: April 20, 2022
- Last seen: August 02, 2024
Appears In
Related Pages
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- A.E. Waite (1 shared issues)
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- Ableism (1 shared issues)
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- Acapulco (1 shared issues)
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- Adlerian psychology (1 shared issues)
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- AL (1 shared issues)
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- Alberta (1 shared issues)
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- Alex Power (1 shared issues)
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- Americans with Disabilities Act (1 shared issues)
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- anti-ableism (1 shared issues)
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- Aristotle (1 shared issues)
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- Astralcodexten Com (1 shared issues)
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- Avatar (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Strong echo from existentialism here. As I understand it, existentialism says that most of us live "unauthentic" lives where we constantly distract ourselves to avoid facing Reality. The distractions are not just stuff like TV or porn, they might be quite elevated and demanding. Proust wrote something on the lines of: some talented writers will rather go to war and die there than sit at the writing table and dig through their feelings.
I’ve never really “gotten” existentialism. Maybe related: I have no trouble at all sitting quietly not doing anything or distracting myself (sometimes I have trouble doing anything else!), and relatively weak fear of death (see this post).
Inline links: this post
As a student of philosophy, Clayton is heavily influenced by the writings of Nietzsche and Camus. He analyzes the experience of being paralyzed primarily through the lens of Existentialism. It’s hard to imagine a more apt philosophy for interpreting body horror.
If you can handle the body horror, it is worth reading. It helps to be familiar with Nietzsche, Existentialism, and the broader disability rights community/anti-ableism ideas.