I tried Camus’s “nothing matters so make up a meaning you like and run with it” for a while, which I think works for one’s first few existential crises.
The clumsy solution I’ve stumbled on is viewing this all as a war against entropy and evil. Anger is a feeling that has escape velocity, that even if one feels crushed by the despair inherent to being human, you can at least pick up your “weapons” and keep tumbling on.
There’s some positives in the experiences and small pleasures, like art and discussion and philosophy, but it’s mostly a fight.
I think Planescape: Torment explores a lot of these ideas in a way that’s a bit less “despairingly” nihilistic. The “best” ending means the Nameless One spending eternity in hell fighting in a pointless brutal war - but it feels correct, it has meaning.
I tried Camus’s “nothing matters so make up a meaning you like and run with it” for a while, which I think works for one’s first few existential crises.
The clumsy solution I’ve stumbled on is viewing this all as a war against entropy and evil. Anger is a feeling that has escape velocity, that even if one feels crushed by the despair inherent to being human, you can at least pick up your “weapons” and keep tumbling on.
There’s some positives in the experiences and small pleasures, like art and discussion and philosophy, but it’s mostly a fight.
I think Planescape: Torment explores a lot of these ideas in a way that’s a bit less “despairingly” nihilistic. The “best” ending means the Nameless One spending eternity in hell fighting in a pointless brutal war - but it feels correct, it has meaning.