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Does reading books make me smarter?

Can reading some books make a person pessimistic and suicidal?

  • Books related to existentialism, nihilism and so on seem to have that effect. Even non-philosophical books. I have heard of cases where somebody who read "The Selfish Gene" by Dawkins became overtly pessimistic in the outlook towards life in general. Even assuming some of these books give an accurate view of the harsh reality of the human condition, should such books be read ? Wouldn't it be better to not know and live happier ?

  • Answer:

    Pessimistic yes. People often tell me a lot of my own writing depresses them. Suicidal, I doubt it. Outiside of very specific scenarios that target your life with surgical precision (like reading in the paper that XYZ corp's stock has collapsed to zero when all your wealth was in it), words are not really causal forces. They amplify existing tendencies rather than creating new ones. Even suicide cult leaders need personal magnetism to drive their followers to death. Writing alone will not suffice. I WISH words were that powerful. I'd perhaps make more money then. If someone gets suicidal just by reading a book, chances are they were on the brink for other reasons anyway. Really good depressing stuff is so enlightening in other ways that you generally feel better after reading it (like Selfish Gene, Camus' Myth of Sisyphus or Catch 22). You feel like your eyes have been opened. You want to live if only to find out what else you've been deluded about. For normal people, bad depressing stuff usually makes you question the writer's will to live or sanity, not your own. The Unabomber Manifesto is a good example (though it represents a murderous rather than suicidal mind). A friend made me read excerpts without telling me where they were from. Affter reading a few pages, a sense of "what's wrong with this guy?" began to grow on me.

Venkatesh Rao at Quora Visit the source

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I definitely think what you read shapes your worldview. Had I know this earlier, I would've read a whole lot less Joan Didion as a teenager. Maybe a little less Anne Sexton, too. As far as pop psychology/econ books that've changed my worldview, only one has: Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb. He states in the book that it's not meant as a nihilistic statement but it basically pushed me into that mindset. I never thought much about luck before, but now my view is that luck essentially guides your life from the very moment you're conceived. I was lucky, for example, to be born to parents who immigrated to a first world country. Every opportunity I've had after birth that was built entirely on that lucky stroke.

Annie Wang

Pessimistic? Maybe. Suicidal? I'm not so sure; i think you'd have to be pre-disposed towards severe depression for a book to affect you that way. As far as i'm concerned 'knowledge is power' and the more rounded view you have of the world the better.This involves reading and learning about all different kinds of view points.You may be able to avoid pessimistic books,elsewhere it's harder to avoid i.e people,politics,the media. At least in books you're getting a somewhat smarter form of it! I didn't feel great after reading 1984 by George Orwell,Brave New World by Aldous Huxley or some of Neitzches' philosophies but i appreciated them as  smart,original view points very different to my own.  I think your outlook is shaped over a long period of time by things like your genetic make-up,your environment and your experiences.If  your core beliefs and temperamant are dramatically altered by reading a book then maybe there are some underlying problems. Books and films can act as a catalyst with certain people who have problems.I remember reading an article about the man who shot John Lennon being obsessed with Catcher In The Rye ( which,by the way,is a rather beautiful sad book). I myself have found my mood affected by books,they've provoked thought and led me to question certain things. In the long run it's given me an appreciation of the great variety in life. Anyway here's some nice quotes from Aldous Huxley 'If human beings were shown what they're really like,they'd either kill each other as vermin,or kill themselves' 'What if this world is another planet's hell' Tee Hee. I'm probably just re-iterating Richard's far more eloquent points but since you asked,i'm answering! Thanks

Chris Bishton

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe published in 1774, lead  some men  to commit suicide.This effect was known as the werther-effect.For more http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/werther-effect

Lena Darky

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