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A review by chou520
On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long If You Know How to Use It by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
4.0
i want to watch seneca and sigmeund freud have a debate
so this wasn’t exactly bad, but i also wouldn’t recommend it. it’s definitely a must-read for those interested in philosophy just so you can like say you read it and that you have an informed opinion on seneca. otherwise, just read marcus aurelius. seriously like on the 0 to marcus aurelius scale this lands a solid 3.
seneca is snarky and funny, and he’s definitely handing out lots of tough love here. i especially liked the bit about how those in the modern age (and i use modern age lightly, considering when this book was written) are lucky, because we (and i once again use the proverbial we lightly, considering seneca definitely did not expect the internet or tiktok or whatever) have access to all the writings of those before us. feeling depressed? read some epictetus. confused about your life? plato is right there at your local library. i loved the bit about how our experiences have been experienced and puzzled about and found solutions for by so many of our admittedly more intelligent predecessors. because yeah he’s right. there’s a comfort in the transcendental anonymity of philosophy.
but my point is, if you really want to know about the shortness of living and how to live your life accordingly, just read marcus aurelius. seneca’s got the spirit and the jokes, but that’s all i can give him
so this wasn’t exactly bad, but i also wouldn’t recommend it. it’s definitely a must-read for those interested in philosophy just so you can like say you read it and that you have an informed opinion on seneca. otherwise, just read marcus aurelius. seriously like on the 0 to marcus aurelius scale this lands a solid 3.
seneca is snarky and funny, and he’s definitely handing out lots of tough love here. i especially liked the bit about how those in the modern age (and i use modern age lightly, considering when this book was written) are lucky, because we (and i once again use the proverbial we lightly, considering seneca definitely did not expect the internet or tiktok or whatever) have access to all the writings of those before us. feeling depressed? read some epictetus. confused about your life? plato is right there at your local library. i loved the bit about how our experiences have been experienced and puzzled about and found solutions for by so many of our admittedly more intelligent predecessors. because yeah he’s right. there’s a comfort in the transcendental anonymity of philosophy.
but my point is, if you really want to know about the shortness of living and how to live your life accordingly, just read marcus aurelius. seneca’s got the spirit and the jokes, but that’s all i can give him