Depressing book/article/short-story/etc recommendations
Ṁ47 / 500
bounty left

Anything that could instill anguish, derealization, depondency, gloom, melancholy, sorrow, dejection, ...

I'm more interested in stuff with a grander scope, as opposed to stuff that is about the tragedies suffered by specific individuals.

Will add more bounty if needed.

Get Ṁ600 play money

Related questions

19 Comments
Sort by:
+Ṁ100

Flowers for algernon

Blindsight by peter watts(most fit for a grand scope tragedy)

Vortex by gaspar noe(a movie)

The tale of princess kaguya by Isao takahata

+Ṁ100

https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/07/17/who-by-very-slow-decay/

two arms and a head https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/lcwq2h/book_review_two_arms_and_a_head_by_clayton_atreus/

+Ṁ50

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

+Ṁ50

Mono no aware by Ken Liu: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/mono-no-aware/

"Depressing" is maybe not quite right, but sorrowful for sure.

Mono no aware - Lightspeed Magazine
The world is shaped like the kanji for umbrella, only written so poorly, like my handwriting, that all the parts are out of proportion.
+Ṁ50

The Stranger (just read it, it's depressing)

+Ṁ50

Night by Elie Wiesel

+Ṁ50

Constance by Matthew Fitzsimmons

White Noise by Don DeLillo

Blindness by Jose Saramago

+Ṁ1

Laments and Confessions of Levina Finkelstein (forthcoming)

+Ṁ1

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

The Seventh Continent (1989) - dir. Michael Haneke (beware - it's hardcore and really disturbing)

Zoo Station: The Story of Christiane F.

The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (mostly the third book makes me sad)

Son of Saul (movie)

The road. Cormac McCarthy

Being and nothingness (both depressing and hard to read)

The Plague

Related questions