Mitchell Heisman - 1900 page Suicide Note - Science, Math and Philosophy Forum

The man who took his own life on Harvard's campus Saturday left a 1,904-page suicide note online. According to the Harvard Crimson, Mitchell Heisman wrote "Suicide Note," posted at http://suicidenote.info, while living in an apartment near the school. The note is a "sprawling series of arguments that touch upon historical, religious and nihilist themes," his mother, Lonni Heisman, told the Crimson. She said her son would have wanted people to know about his work.
The complex note, divided into four parts, touches on Christianity, the Holocaust and social progress, among other topics, and mentions Harvard several times.
IvyGate calls the note "probing, deeply researched, and often humorous."
Heisman was 35 when he shot himself on the steps of Harvard's Memorial Church Saturday. He had a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Albany. According to the Crimson, he worked in area bookstores and lived on inheritance from his father, who died when he was young.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/38104189/M...n-Suicide-Note

Only read a bit...some interesting insights, some of it I could not follow.

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10-04-2010 , 09:32 AM

Nichlemn

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Seems to me to just be a book with "suicide note" thrown on top of it. Hey, I could slap together all of my internet postings and call it a "suicide note"!

Last edited by Nichlemn; 10-04-2010 at 09:37 AM.

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10-04-2010 , 11:21 AM

guesswest

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Very interesting stuff. Haven't read the whole thing obviously, but from the bits I did read the guy is an extremely good writer and not nuts by any standard. The bit on death as a potentially rational choice is special interest naturally, and a 1900 page carefully written well sourced essay does not exactly scream depression, which makes me wonder if he viewed his suicide positively.

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10-04-2010 , 01:10 PM

lagdonk

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Nichlemn

Seems to me to just be a book with "suicide note" thrown on top of it. Hey, I could slap together all of my internet postings and call it a "suicide note"!

Try to sound less bitterly envious, because it's kind of weird that you do!

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10-04-2010 , 01:12 PM

Akileos

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At which point does it stop being a "note"?

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10-04-2010 , 03:49 PM

rizeagainst

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At what point do you stop being a nit

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10-04-2010 , 05:53 PM

Ryanb9

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at what point does this stop becoming garbage. if he didnt shoot himself in the face this would be garbage.

but he did shoot himself in the face

so its not garbage anymore?

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10-04-2010 , 05:58 PM

guesswest

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanb9

at what point does this stop becoming garbage. if he didnt shoot himself in the face this would be garbage.

but he did shoot himself in the face

so its not garbage anymore?

Did you actually read it?

It was never garbage, it's well written and well researched. I've only skimmed sections so can't say how cohesive it is as a whole, but it is not rambling madman stuff by any means.

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10-04-2010 , 06:03 PM

Ryanb9

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Who would have read this if he didnt shoot himself in the face?

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10-04-2010 , 06:05 PM

#10

guesswest

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanb9

Who would have read this if he didnt shoot himself in the face?

What does that have to do with whether or not it is garbage?

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10-04-2010 , 06:09 PM

#11

rizeagainst

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanb9

at what point does this stop becoming garbage.

What he wrote, as far as I have read, is at least as good and very likely more insightful and better researched and thought out than even some of the better threads in SMP and RGT.

Sorry to disappoint you.

I'd ask you to start reading some of it objectively without any preconceived notions, but it looks like that's too much to ask, so you can leave the thread now.

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10-04-2010 , 07:20 PM

#12

John_Douglas

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I don't mean any disrespect to this man or his family, but the parts of this that I skimmed through seem pretty dull and self-indulgent. A lot like the crap I used to write when I was a philosophy undergrad.

The impression I have is that this guy spent all his time in his room reading books and he created some kind of fantasy world for himself because he was too scared to interact with others and actually live life. It's sad in a way, because you can tell he had potential. Maybe if he had had more life experience, or had discussed his ideas with others, it might have given him the stimulus to do something worthwhile.

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10-04-2010 , 07:37 PM

#13

Iconoclastic

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The part about the Norman-Anglo Saxon origins of the American life-death conflict is pretty interesting.

At first I misread it and thought it was a 190 page suicide note and thought I could finish it. Then I realized I missed a zero and gave up and just looked through the table of contents for interesting topics to read.

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10-04-2010 , 08:09 PM

#14

lagdonk

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Yeah, I got to page 40. I plan to browse around in it later. I'm curious about the themes he explores, his own personal history, and what the suicide might have been ultimately about. I also wonder how famous this 'suicide event' will eventually become (in certain circles) as a cultural phenomenon -- or if it'll just fade away beneath next week's headlines.

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10-04-2010 , 08:16 PM

#15

chezlaw

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryanb9

Who would have read this if he didnt shoot himself in the face?

Some still wont read it even though he did.

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10-04-2010 , 08:22 PM

#16

rizeagainst

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Quote:

Originally Posted by lagdonk

I also wonder how famous this 'suicide event' will eventually become (in certain circles) as a cultural phenomenon -- or if it'll just fade away beneath next week's headlines.

Doesn't everything basically fade into next weeks headlines?

I don't expect it to be thought of as much more than a crazy suicide note (see: ryanb's posts) in the media; although it almost certainly is more than that.

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10-04-2010 , 08:30 PM

#17

lagdonk

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Originally Posted by rizeagainst

Well, there is the chance that after assorted academic and cultural eminences read over his work, some kind of consensus is reached that this man made a significant and profound contribution to the pantheon of 'cultural criticism' and continental-style social theory. Add to that the lurid poignancy of his suicide as a "willed death" or "experiment in nihilism" intended to test his hypotheses, and he might have the makings of a pop intellectual icon.

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10-04-2010 , 08:46 PM

#18

BrianTheMick

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Quote:

Originally Posted by rizeagainst

His first sentence (conveniently found on page 15) is a red flag for paranoia.

Edit: The entire first section shows a lot of paranoid thought.

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10-04-2010 , 09:03 PM

#19

smrk

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Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1,575

"It is not unreasonable to think that this work will not be judged on its merits." (last sentence of his intro paragraph)

I am not unfamiliar with litotes, but it is not unstupid to continue reading.

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10-04-2010 , 09:07 PM

#20

lagdonk

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I'm on page 50! Not reading at least this far is criminal.

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10-04-2010 , 09:12 PM

#21

smrk

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reads like sokal hoax imo

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10-04-2010 , 09:38 PM

#22

lagdonk

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I think there's a fine line in the world of continental-style academic social theory between dead-end, jargon-laden gibberish and Nietzsche-esque epigrammatic riffing and handwaving that generates thought-provoking nuggets and insights. To me, the 2% of "Suicide Note" I've read so far is closer to the latter than the former.

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10-04-2010 , 09:58 PM

#23

BrianTheMick

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[QUOTE=smrk;21991710I am not unfamiliar with litotes, but it is not unstupid to continue reading.[/QUOTE]

This was not a bad use of the word "litote" in a sentence.

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10-04-2010 , 09:59 PM

#24

chezlaw

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Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 46,882

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTheMick

This was not a bad use of the word "litote" in a sentence.

litotes

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10-04-2010 , 10:18 PM

#25

BrianTheMick

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Quote:

Originally Posted by lagdonk

It actually isn't that badly written. A little too pseudo-intellectual, but that is forgivable. Unfortunately, it is, as Jeeves would say, "fundamentally unsound," however.

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