Immortality part 2: Who wants to live forever?

Me, I totally do.

Let's talk about Twilight, it's awful sure, the main character in particular  is just... terrible in so many ways, this isn't going to be an in depth critique though so I won't go into it, but there is one thing about her that I thought was great, and almost unique in a "good guy" character. When she learns Edward is a vampire it doesn't take her long to decide she wants to be one as well, despite every other person in the series telling her how horrible the "curse" is, but she looked at the benefits: Immortality, super strength, speed, and senses, possible extra superpowers, then compared to the negatives: Have to drink blood, become even prettier in the sunlight, various logistical issues, and came to the conclusion that any sane person would have, that being a vampire is fucking great! And despite the various plot twists, things end up working out pretty well for her on that front and she doesn't regret the decision, so as horrible as those novels are in basically every other aspect, props to Stephanie Meyer for that.

The thing is, that is basically the only example in pop culture I can think of where a protagonist gains immortality and super powers without thinking of it as a bad thing somehow. Shit half the super hero origin stories include at least a brief bit of them bemoaning their fate of being able to shoot lasers from their buttholes or whatever.

I blame religion personally, basically all of them, themes of accepting your fate and "the way things should be" tend to be pretty universal and we internalize them without really thinking about it. The idea that eternity in life could be a blessing is anathema to any belief system that suggests an afterlife.


There are arguments to be made against living forever and they are pretty valid sure: outliving loved ones and friends being the main one, as well as a number of practical considerations, but mythologically speaking the main argument against immortality is the fact that you are immortal, period, the myth of the "Wandering Jew" who laughed at Christ on the cross and was condemned to live until the second coming is not unique to Christianity, in one form or another you can find it in almost any mythology.

What a horrible idea, that being forced to live is punishment, apparently the entire world, with all its mystery and wonder, is nothing more than a hellish prison given enough time.

I feel like I am having difficulty expressing myself, shame, no not shame on me, shame in general, I think that might be the word I am looking for, we think of the idea of not wanting to die as shameful, we should accept our fate nobly or something, perhaps because, to be honest, we have to die anyway eventually, the choice to be immortal isn't actually open to us, so we tell stories about how awful it must be to be so, and that by accepting our fate we simply follow the intended path set for us, that death is natural and to be embraced. It ties into the super powers thing I mentioned earlier, how dare we want to be special?

That doesn't fly with me, sure death is natural, but nothing alive actively seeks it out, not under ordinary circumstances anyway. Why not find ways to put it off as long as possible? By the same token why not celebrate uniqueness? Or strive to make yourself such?

I realize this can be a pretty narcissistic viewpoint when taken too far, once when I was middle school aged, I jokingly mentioned to my parents that I planned to live forever by not dying, this turned into a twenty minute tag team from them that puzzles me to this day where I was informed that I was being egotistical or something, I don't really know what the exact deal was.
But here's the thing, I would rather a narcissist than a nihilist any day of the week, though that really doesn't have to be the only choice.

The idea of accepting our limitations is anathema to progress, and cultural baggage like this puts a stigma on overcoming those limitations that we don't really ever examine. I realize that this is a disjointed mess and may require some more thought later, but it's a start for me.