I need more of them. I recently finished Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom", which is a perfect example. Before that, there was Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay", and just the other day Don DeLillo's "White Noise."
Anyone have some good suggestions? I'm just starting Pynchon's "Against the Day" so I have a while before I start something else, but I'd love to have a list ready.
Hey M. Are you feeling any better since this post? If you want to read another long book as good and absorbing as Franzen's two novels, try Wally Lamb's I Know This Much is True and then The Hour I First Believed -- stunning absorbing amazing. I'd mail them to you, but they are weighty. I'll see what else is in the shelf that I can mail you. You can IM me your address when you get around to it.
I haven't read any of those, so I'm not sure if I could suggest an equivalent. It's not so much depressing, but I found Dave Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity to cover a wide range of emotions and to be extremely sincere. I highly recommend it as a comfortingly sad, but whimsical read. I suggest this under the assumption that this is the almost comforting, basking in melancholy depression, kind of depression, and not the helpless soul-crushing kind. If it's the latter, talk to somebody, and get outdoors.
It's kinda both. It's a Vonngut type depression, I suppose. I should have also added that I'm looking for a lot of things like his. I've read all of his work and identify with it so very, very much. It's a more general but deep kind, where I have such crushing doubt about our societies and species, but still have such a radiating emotion for the human spirit. I generally withdraw from the world at large, but find some much depth and potential in individuals. I just need less of the masses and more close personal discussion, really. I plan on making a post here on how it's really driven me to leave most internet communities behind. Except here. Here there is real discussion and a lot of humanity. A lot of good comes from this site for me.
Then I suggest you do both. I'd start by taking a good book to a local cafe, if there is one. Step two is to talk to a friend, or even better find a local function where strangers interact (check meetup.com), and force yourself to go and stay until the end. :)
I actually just updated that comment to add a bit more to it. I do really well with people and have no problem making or keeping friends. I actually do have a rather large base, but I need intellectual stimulus. I'm unfortunately very poor, and have been fighting to go to my university for years. It's pushed me out for about two years because of it, and since I moved across the country to be somewhere I enjoy and get a really good education, I no longer have my close friends and have very few sources to make new ones. Thankfully my girlfriend just moved back to town so I've been meeting a lot of people through her.
Well, it sounds like you at least have a pretty good well of emotional support. I've run the gamut myself, and if I have learned anything about myself, it's that making changes in my behavior is usually easier than changing my outlook, and often my outlook follows along. Thanks for the kind words about the site. I appreciate it.