[voidhorse]

What an ego. Hard to be sympathetic when a person’s writing is so heavily suffused with their absolute love of their self and little else (the first section basically amounts to “I don’t believe in morality but for unknown reasons think I’m the shit and have valuable Philosophical opinions and can write an ecce homo style piece with next to nothing to justify it), the author does not sound at all like a “truth teller” rather like an egoist. I don’t feel bad for ”Clayton Atreus” I could hardly make it through the first section of this scrap. I don’t give a damn that you’re familiar with the canon of western literature, many people are. He mentions Dostoyevsky-he is a total Luzhin. Sorry. I welcome the downvotes. I do think it’s important that we have authentic writing about the experiences of disability, but I think a long preamble that makes you absolutely pretentious, egotistical, and pompous in the eyes of readers is the wrong way to go about it.

[quietbritishjim]

He was certainly a person with some flaws. It seems to me like he took up philosophy to retroactively justify, mostly to himself, the way he was already living his life.

Another part that I found especially unpleasant was how, in the chapter about sexuality, he seamlessly transitioned from his sexual attraction to women to how much he enjoyed beating up other men. He made it quite clear that the two things were different sides of the same coin to him.

His accident followed a similar pattern. On the motorcycle forums where he was posting pictures of his trip as it happened, there were lots of comments politely begging him to wear more protective equipment. He acknowledged then but politely refused.

Ultimately, I still sympathised with him. He didn't do himself any favours, and I probably wouldn't have wanted to know him personally, but he didn't deserve the level of torture he ended up enduring.

[shannifin]

I can't imagine how I would handle such an awful ordeal as his, but I do think his ego and his finding the value of his life entirely in his own limited sense of potential worldly accomplishments only made his suffering all the worse. I found his attitude to be even demonic at times. I cannot pass judgment on the guy himself, but the attitude portrayed in the writing is very spiritually warped and dark.

[everyone]

Agreed, it's like he thinks being paralyzed instantly makes him interesting. Theres a lack of concrete details but it seems like he was a privileged, callow, entitled, thoughtless man before the accident, and nothing really changed.