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A Moment Before Dying

202 points| gosub | 13 years ago |aaronsw.com | reply

20 comments

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[+] timothya|13 years ago|reply
In its original version, 'Alex' used to read 'Aaron'[1].

[1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/1octb/reddit_cof...

[+] guessWhy|13 years ago|reply
Wow. It's also worth reading the comments below the original article.

"You’re scaring me here. Please sick around and talk to us. You can always die later. There’s no rush."

"Jeez, Aaron - get some help. Now. Suicides talk about it before they do it."

etc.

[+] monochromatic|13 years ago|reply
You guys are getting creepy with all the Aaron Swartz stuff.
[+] benjohnson|13 years ago|reply
My work ethic sucks compared to Aaron. My politics are the opposite as Aaron. My views on God are the opposite as Aaron's.

But, damn it, I recognize the pain that Aaron has gone as the same pain that we all go though. There's a lesson here for each of us, somewhere, in Aaron's life and indeed his death.

Frankly, let people mourn the best they can, and even if you don't understand their grief, let them alone for a few days.

[+] confluence|13 years ago|reply
Damn it - will you give the guy a day to be remembered.

What's it to you? Can't you wait for one day. The articles you want will be waiting for you tomorrow. And the day after that. Aaron was a part of this community (see the black bar above) and many looked up to and respected him.

I'd be surprised if HN didn't get taken over today.

[+] espeed|13 years ago|reply
In the comments...

"It needn’t be this way, for there is a cure: the joy of life. Sanity can be restored through attempts at music, channeling the fundamental disorder into form and elegance, focusing the energy toward good. Art, especially the art of nature, as Alexander suggested, is likely another cure." —Aaron Swartz

[+] lmarinho|13 years ago|reply
Interesting that he uses the term "objects in space" on this text. I wonder if it was inspired by the Firefly episode with the same name, which itself reflects the directors reading of Nausea[1].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)

[+] kachnuv_ocasek|13 years ago|reply
Am I strange for not understanding it?
[+] Tycho|13 years ago|reply
I took from it that the suicidal person's time horizon got shorter and shorter until a moment before dying they're focussed on the most minute of details (literally crumbs) and unable to look further ahead.

There may also have been a sort of parallel between stomach pains and mental/emotional pain.

[+] elbear|13 years ago|reply
What do you expect to understand? This is a morbid story written by someone who committed suicide. Or are you talking about a higher meaning of the writing?
[+] gambiting|13 years ago|reply
No, I don't understand either
[+] transitionality|13 years ago|reply
It is a slightly embellished (but based on his real life) narrative of him coming back from a vacation in Europe, dealing with some sort of stomach flu for about a week, getting fired from Reddit, and getting all emo about it.
[+] esharef|13 years ago|reply
Sounds like a lot of people tried to help him and that this wasn't a full surprise.
[+] vassvdm|13 years ago|reply
Wow that was intense. I have goosebumps all over...
[+] polarix|13 years ago|reply
wtf this is exactly what happened to me at exactly that time wtf