A Great but Pessimistic Mind

[Bri]

Xan sounds more of a fatalist than a nihilist to me, though many of his comments do cross into nihilism.

 

Fatalism is the view that we are powerless to do anything other that what we actually do.

 

Nihilism came in two forms...those who believed in the futility of life (which Xan does seem to espouse often) since in the end, nothing mattered, holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.

 

There was a political movement in 19th Century Tzarist Russia that did go by the name of Nihilism. It scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.

 

If you can get through it, there are some bits and pieces (along with a bibliography) on Fatalism here:

 

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/fatalism/

[cliffette]

I always saw Xan as a defeatist with no philosophical bent - he's just used to bad things happening to him and has a woeful outlook as a result.

 

When I'm talking about 'bad things', I mean getting his shoes wet in a puddle or having his porridge (or elven equivalent) go cold on him. In other words, Xan is a big, grown-up baby who looks on the bright side of life, then says it's hurting his eyes.

[Domi]

Russian nighilism I remeber from Fathers and Children milestone novel, and heh, Bazarov was very unlike Xan.

[Bren]

Domi

 

Have you tried doing a search on Google? If not, that might give you some of the material you need. I normally use Google when researching anything.

 

TTYL

 

Bren