(as a reply to a post asking for depressing books) "...Final suggestion is a bit of a gambit. Start with Brave New World, then Industrial Society and it's[sic] Future. Once you finish those two, read Amusing Ourselves To Death, Snow Crash, and a Houellebecq book. Once that's over, watch the entire Metaverse reveal announcement, and cap it all off with From Dawn to Decadence. Do this, preferably, over the course of a month or less. Do not sleep more than 6 hours a night, and, if you can, run this gambit in a miserable place (desert, crack den, American subway system). Once complete, you should be aghast at how absolutely meaningless, fragile, and materialistic this current situation is. Read a little Camus to cope, and you'll finally be finished, ascended, and completely desensitized to any doomsaying." (Anonymous, 2021)
(reply to the post quoted above) "Do you mean run the gamut, or run the gauntlet, or what?" (Anonymous, 2021)
(reply to the post quoted above) "The Gauntlet is something only young men go through. It's a modern phenomena- nothing like this has existed before. The dread. The superfluity. The loneliness- crushing loneliness. People tell you life will be hard, and you can begin to prepare yourself for that, but no one warns you about the loneliness. The rejection, inherent rejection, dating apps. Directionless. Being told to choose a life path at 17. The drugs. The pornography. The ugliness, the awkwardness. The low self esteem, easily justified. Grinding sadness. Purposelessness. Inadequacy, repeated failure. Being so young, and yet feeling the horrible REGRET. Totalizing regret. Every day. Estimated ages, 15-25. That's the Gauntlet." (Anonymous, 2021)
(reply to the post quoted above) "Do you mean run the gamut, or run the gauntlet, or what?" (Anonymous, 2021)
(reply to the post quoted above) "The Gauntlet is something only young men go through. It's a modern phenomena- nothing like this has existed before. The dread. The superfluity. The loneliness- crushing loneliness. People tell you life will be hard, and you can begin to prepare yourself for that, but no one warns you about the loneliness. The rejection, inherent rejection, dating apps. Directionless. Being told to choose a life path at 17. The drugs. The pornography. The ugliness, the awkwardness. The low self esteem, easily justified. Grinding sadness. Purposelessness. Inadequacy, repeated failure. Being so young, and yet feeling the horrible REGRET. Totalizing regret. Every day. Estimated ages, 15-25. That's the Gauntlet." (Anonymous, 2021)
