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A similar idea is the Japanese concept "mono no aware", or roughly "the awareness of things passing" -- a central, inevitable poignancy that comes from the impossible contrast of ourselves against the universe.

You said you've read a lot of existentialist literature so this might be redundant, but I'd check out Haruki Murakami's work if you haven't already: I can't think of an author who more immerses in -- and emerges from -- a sense of cosmic loneliness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_no_aware



Interesting; somehow reading someone like Camus didn't provide a convincing enough argument to get out of the existential crisis like depression. Do you have suggestions on any specific Murakami work to read?


Murakami's solution is to start jogging.

edit: to answer your question, I suggest The Wind Up Bird Chronicle. Murakami is overrated. Once you've read that one, you've essentially read them all.


Yeah, I finally got out of the existential crisis by doing the mundane; jogging, living, cooking. Things that I know cognitively have no meaning in answering the ultimate question. Later, I realized that Camus's sense of rebellion although unsatisfactory was what I was doing. I was aware of the meaningless nature of existence and still progressing. That is hard; somehow it gave me more hope than it should.




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