Man leaves behind 1905-page suicide note(the Harvard guy who killed himself on 09/18)

Economic Times ^ | 09/28/10

[TigerLikesRooster]

28 Sep, 2010, 10.15AM IST,PTI

Man leaves behind 1905-page suicide note

shot himself at Harvard Yard on September 18.

His family and about 400 friends received the 1,905-page suicide note in a posthumous e-mail.

In the note Heisman wrote that he took his life as part of a philosophical exploration he called "an experiment in nihilism."

The lengthy document included 1,433 footnotes, a 20-page bibliography, over 1,700 references to God and 200 references to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Heisman wrote, "Every word, every thought and every emotion come back to one core problem: life is meaningless... The experiment in nihilism is to seek out and expose every illusion and every myth, wherever it may lead, no matter what, even if it kills us."

[vanilla swirl]

keep for further study

[GreyFriar]

Yes, without Jesus and God, life is meaningless

[Hot Tabasco]

1,905-page suicide note

If he had decided to write a sequel he'd probably still be alive.......

[bert]

He was dead before he died

[WayneS]

In the note Heisman wrote that he took his life as part of a philosophical exploration he called "an experiment in nihilism."

So, how'd the ol' "experiment" work out there, dude?

[circlecity]

This is always the ultimate conclusion to sincere atheism. The atheist, existentialist Camus acknowledged the inevitable nihilism which atheism leads to leaves only one real philosophical question - “why continue to go on living?”

[WayneS]

Goog point.

[WayneS]

Good point.

[Tribune7]

Yes, without Jesus and God, life is meaningless

No, with Jesus and God life only seems meaningless.

[Ronin]

Hide that suicide note!!!

I am sure that anyone who tries to read it will want to shoot themselves before they get halfway through it.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

His only association with Harvard was geographical. He was an academic failure.

[TigerLikesRooster]

I realize that. Tried to shorten the subtitle. I guess I came up wrong.:-)

[WayneS]

For some reason, whenever I hear the word “nihilism” or “nihilist”, I think of Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, bowling leagues and, for some reason, “Flea”, the bass player from the Red Hot Chili Peppers...

[Westbrook]

Without God ...

• Everything came from nothing out of nowhere for no apparent reason.
• Life is just a curious side effect of an unknowning, uncaring cosmos.
• There is no transcendent, external, objective Truth.
• When you die, you are just so much compost.
• Life has no transcendent meaning.
• The best you can hope for is a life of self-indulgent gratification and a painless extinction.

[Stosh]

I think the moral here is if you’re into nihilism, it’s better to go the marmot route than it is to go the long philosophical treatise route.

Of course, you do risk losing the odd ear or toe now and then, but still. . .

[WayneS]

I couldn’t agree more...

[Diamond]

I know it’s meaningless, but how does one send a “posthumous e-mail”?

[madmominct]

That’s exactly right. This poor guy was the victim of his own “wisdom.” I hope he finds peace whereever he is now.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I’ve learned one thing from watching Lt. Columbo: Never trust a suicide note that isn’t handwritten.

A tip to any authors seeking fame and acclaim through nescroscopy: Keep it short. It you can’t explain you suicide in less than 200,000 words, you’ll lose your audience. In fact if a suicide takes more than a paragraph or two explain, it’s probably not worth doing.