Books That Make You Cry: Philosophy Forums

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Books That Make You Cry

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Books That Make You Cry

litkey
Kant's retarded son

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Posted 05/09/08 - 07:52 AM:	#11
I cried whem I read Plato's Republic. Although it was because someone dropped a hammer on my head- it hurt terribly. ouch!
That's what tyrants get! - John Wilkes Booth “This is an impressive crowd: the Have's and Have-more's. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base.” -Bush Something cannot come from nothing.

loveofsophia
Endeavor to Understand

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Posted 05/09/08 - 11:26 AM:	#12
I believe tears are closely associated or embedded within our social nature. I can't think of a single time when I have cried when it did not in some respects relate to my relations with others. Tears relate to needs and desires being disappointed, there is no harsher criticism of another than to weep at their behavior and its effects upon you or others. Interestingly, there is no finer release of such disappointment or trauma than to cry. Ones "degree" of tears or laughter, joy or weeping, indicate the emotional pleasure or displeasure events have upon us (and always occur with a certain social implication). It is interesting to think on. To a certain extent, frustration leading to tears, occurring while trying to accomplish a task, relate to ones wish to fulfill certain tasks or activities to the degree others and yourself think you should (often retains a social dimension). If nothing else, tears and laughter are affective in relaying to others ones wants and desires and their level of fulfillment. They create a certain level of transparency...due to the fact that we often just react joyfully or with displeasure/frustration/weeping without a conscious decision to do so. Emotion and how or why it exists, considering its function, has always fascinated me.
It is amazing how susceptible to lies we are when young. I believe people are still far more susceptible to lies as adults than they would like. Balancing what could be, our imaginings, with what we know, this is a delicate act of mind.

jdrw
definitely ~d1

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Posted 05/09/08 - 05:14 PM:	#13
loveofsophia wrote: Emotion and how or why it exists, considering its function, has always fascinated me. If you're not already familiar with him, you might try taking a look at Robert Solomon. A couple or more relatively easy reads on emotion and value judgments as contributing rational aspects of consciousness. He died recently, but was a Philos Prof, I think, at the Univ of Texas, Austin. Michigan Ph.D as I recall. Cheers. jd
OTOH I might be exhaustively wrong about everything I've ever thought--with the possible exception of this sentence.

unenlightened
everything is...

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Posted 05/12/08 - 04:37 PM:	#14
Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) Pobby and Dingan (Ben Rice) The Idiot (Dostoevsky) The Wrong Boy (Willy Russell) Shikasta (Doris Lessing) I list merely a few highlights... There really ought to be a crying emoticon for people like me... though I haven't read a post here that's made me cry yet - wince a few times, but not cry.
...most of our actions are the result of the past, or according to a future ideal. That's not action, that is just conformity. J Krishnamurti "Philosophy, to the Philistine, is an evolutionary process, watched over by some sort of brisk dynamic Providence, and culminating in the supreme insight of modern thought." John Cowper Powys

Berkeley's Ghost
Moonlighting Idealist

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Posted 05/28/08 - 10:31 AM:	#15
Earth Abides. Not a novel but Miguel de Unamuno's Tragic Sense of Life. The Road hit me hard. And again not a novel but Yokohama Kaidashi KikÅ has to be mentioned.
Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.-Miguel de Unamuno Ceiling Cat is watching you post.

violina
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Posted 06/10/08 - 07:56 PM:	#16
I don't cry often enough when reading, but for some reason when I reread The Stranger by Camus, I cried.

NeoScholastic
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Posted 06/20/08 - 09:34 AM:	#17
Anything by Heidegger.
"I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.'" - St Augustine

Gamble
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Posted 09/20/08 - 06:58 PM:	#18
Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 That book got me closest to crying since freak the mighty in 8th grade. My cheeks were really sore when I finished the sad part from trying not to cry.
Hit 'em back first - Todd Peterson

Xochipili
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Posted 10/06/08 - 05:36 PM:	#19
The Glass Bead Game and Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and always with the last sentence.

Insanemoon
The Poet

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Posted 10/07/08 - 12:59 PM:	#20
Faust by Goethe, although they were tears of happiness... and there were no tears to start from, but I've felt close to them. I mean spoilers Faust achives the pace he wanted, he finds that Grethen is saved and Mephistopheles losing made me sad too for I liked both characters and I was reading book for longer than I usualy do(almost a year, I was buisy) so I got used to characters. Even now when I find the book in my shelves it brings back memories, not only from book but from my life of that period too. The time when my life suddenly changed from great to destruction. Especialy now when I am in a better place, Its like nostalgy... Nostalgia of the infinite... I feel Something like that, only with winter and run down building with broken windows.

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