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/lit/ - Literature

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2229183 No.2229183 [Reply] [Original]

What book has the best/most interesting/most believable take on immortality? Whether it's vampires, or space faggots from space, doesn't matter.

>> No.2229198

Most interesting: Divided by Infinity, by Robert Charles Wilson. Justifying my pick would spoil it.

>> No.2229207
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2229207

>>2229183
>believable take on immortality

>> No.2229218

Foundation and Earth

>> No.2229227

nosferatu by noah cicero

>> No.2229241

time enough for love

>> No.2229245

This might surprise you:
>The Immortal
Borges' short story that is. I had never even considered the implications of immortality that way. Mind was blown, hibby jibbies were given, etc. And somehow, that "grayness" so to speak reminded me of the internet (while there's a big resemblance to the internet in _another_ short story of his).

A handful of very quotable parts too; I love that text.

>> No.2229251
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2229251

>>2229207
This is why I didn't say "realistic". I mean that you could imagine a person who has lived for millenia acting and thinking like the book's immortals act.

Also, I don't really think immortality is that far-fetched irl. As in "not aging" of course, an RPG to the face will probably end anyone. I doubt people who are alive today will get to be immortal, but for future generations (even if non-human) I find it at least plausible.

>> No.2229254
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2229254

>>2229183

>> No.2229261

>>2229254
hahaha holy fuck

>> No.2229290

>>2229254
>>2229254

sounds like a joyce doing stream of conscious bullshit trope shit cliche which gets praise for no reason

>> No.2229304

>>2229245
Uh, I might be taking a word or two from different translations (i.e. pulling it out of my ass), but whatevs.
>To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death. What is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know about one's immortality.

>> No.2229325

>>2229304
>I knew that over an infinitely long span of time, all things happen to all men. As reward for his past and future virtues, every man merited every kindness—yet
also every betrayal, for the iniquities of his past and future. Much as the way in games of chance
heads and tails tend to even out, so cleverness and dullness cancel and correct each other.

>> No.2229326

>>2229325

>Viewed in that way, all our acts are just, though also unimportant. There are no spiritual or intellectual merits. Homer composed the Odyssey; given infinite time, with infinite circumstances and changes, it is impossible that theOdyssey should _not_ be composed at least once.

>No one is someone; a single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, hero, philosopher, demon, and world—which is a long-winded way of saying that I am not.

Tbh, most of it is from the same big paragraph. If I had the money to tattoo it on my back, I probably wouldn't because I'm a pussy.

>> No.2229331

>>2229290
>stream of conscious bullshit trope shit cliche
Sounds like you are the one doing the stream of consciousness lake emmerson palmer monster tvtropes hipster faggot.

>> No.2229333
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2229333

>>2229251
>2011
>Still believing strong AI is possible

>> No.2229346

For I myself once saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in her jar, and when the boys asked her, 'Sibyl, what do you want?' she answered 'I want to die.

The Satyricon.

>> No.2229347

>>2229333
Then... what are you?

>> No.2229352
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2229352

>>2229347
I am a strong I

>> No.2229354

>>2229347
Fear and Loathing in George Constanza, or him starring some kind of photoshop nightmare

>> No.2229357

>>2229346
eww so old, like, move on with the times? gaah.

>> No.2229364

>>2229357
Nobody has done it better since.

If you were granted immortality, if you think you'd be doing anything but praying for death constantly, you're delusional.

>> No.2229380

>>2229325
>heads and tails tend to even out

No they don't.

>> No.2229393

Peter F Hamilton deals with this subject in several of his books.
In his Commonwealth Saga most people have a memory crystal implanted in their body. This crystal is incredibly durable and records every memory. If you die by accident your body is cloned and your crystal is placed in the new body (complete with memory of your death).
You can also take a back-up, so if you're safe if your crystal is destroyed. Of course, if that happens you'll wake up in a new cloned body and your last memory will be backing up your crystal.
Most people get rejuvenated at clinics about every 30 years, so unless you have an accident you'll keep your original body for many, many years.

In later books, still in the same universe but hundreds of years later, people have started to go post-physical by uploading themselves into a giant mainframe-thingy.
Most people first spend many "normal" lifetimes before they start getting jaded and bored - then they go "higher", living on worlds that delivers everything to them (up to a certain amount). There they can relax and forget about work and stuff, spending their time as they want without thinking about living from day to day. After some time as a higher most people join the mainframe.

Great books. I like the way he deals with the idea of ftl travel, planet busters, transcendence, and other sci-fi stuff. He creates at believable world.

>> No.2230174

>>2229380
Yes they do

>> No.2230184

>>2230174
No, they only appear to

>> No.2230198

Fionn mac Cumhaill. Leaves the forest of immortality because it's boring and sucks.

>> No.2230280

>>2230184
So yes, they do

>> No.2230281

>>2230184
If you throw a coin nine times and they're all heads, the tenth is almost sure to come out tails

>> No.2230283
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2230283

>>2229364
Get a look at The Immortal, really; it's a short story and right there on /rs/ (albeit a shit quality scan, how else).

https://rs302tl4.rapidshare.com/#!download|302tl3|121806549|Jorge_Luis_Borges_-_Collected_Fictions.r
ar|1094|R~0|0|0

>> No.2230292

>>2229380
The original text in spanish is closer to:
>Much as the way in games of chance odd and even numbers tend towards equilibrium

>> No.2230302
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2230302

>>2229352

>> No.2230306
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2230306

Scientology - the fact/idea that we are immortal spirits inhabiting bodies with a genetic timeline attached, all removable. a scientific mathematical fraud genius.

>> No.2230312
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2230312

>>2230306
Wasn't that mormonism?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46PXaJxzuDE

>> No.2230315

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Long
Heinlein was as weird as an immortal person would be.

>> No.2230316

many lives many masters

>> No.2230321

>>2230315
Some kooky cryogenic immortality service once offered to freeze Heinlein's head for free so that he could be thawed and brought back to life when science discovered a cure for aging and death.

He replied that he could not imagine a fate worse than living forever. Heinlein was a fucking boss.

>> No.2230322

The bible

Can I get an amen?

>> No.2230323

Gulliver's Travels.

>> No.2230329

>>2230321
This one time he also banged three black chicks at once and donkey punched them simultaneously