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Spiritually profound works of fiction

For me, the series Six Feet Under, a showtime series, really helped me mature spiritually. I've since lost some of it, but I have no doubt that re-watching the series will help rekindle it.

A quick synopsis, it's about a family that runs a funeral home. The father dies, and it follows the rest of the family for 5 years. Since it's about a funeral home, it obviously has a very central theme of death/afterlife throughout it. Personally, it helped me to actually form some views on death/dying as I'm fairly young and do not have a strong spiritual life. More importantly though, it has given me the perspective of the family dealing with difficult children, and how much it hurts the parents and other people who love them. It also has a really strong theme of love, both those dealing with their dead loved ones, and the family members getting hurt by each other because they're not good at communicating. The love in each episode helps you go on, and reminds you that just as there is death, there is birth and life and love. <3

This last point struck particularly strong with me, as I know I have not been the best son, and for as long as I can remember, I haven't said "I love you" to my parents. The thing is, out of everyone I know, I probably have the best parents I could ever have. They are perfect. This show has really helped me try to be a better person, and has really brought out my gratitude and love for my parents. Now, I try and tell them I love them as much as I can.

Lastly, for those that have seen it, the ending is amazing. I was speechless for so long, and still don't know what to think. That's partially what makes it a great show, IMO. You cannot explain it and do it justice.
 
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I know I'm a nerd for saying this, but the whole Stargate series had its moments. How they said the Ancient races shed their materialistic bodies to ascend to an existence of pure energy, get's ya thinking anyway. Was an entertaining perspective on the old religions and the overall play of universal good and evil.
 
i'm gonna mention the deptford trilogy by robertson davies. it's really a mindfuck at times but the writing is clear enough to hold you from the edge of frustration as you tangle with all these questions posed by protagonists you can barely relate to at first yet learn to understand via the jungian analysis laced throughout, creating a sort of nervous system for the backbone that is the story.

there's some mysticism too, which makes it all the more interesting
 
Dostoevky's Crime & Punishment and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood - both profoundly moving stories of spiritual redemption
 
All the novels by Tom Robbins:
Skinny Legs and All
Jitterbug Perfume
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
Still Life With Woodpecker
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Villa Incognito
Another Roadside Attraction
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

The Televisionary Oracle by Rob Breszny

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Island by Aldous Huxley

Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
 
kayenta said:
Dostoevky's Crime & Punishment and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood - both profoundly moving stories of spiritual redemption
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Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite novels. Along with that novel, his short story The Dream of a Ridiculous Man holds a spirituall profound theme.
 
Changed said:
On the Road and Dharma Bums have had a big impact on my life. Maybe more so than anything else in my life. Maybe.
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Good books yes - but for me doctor Sax is the finest book kerouac wrote - whether it's spritual or not i'll leave up to you to decide
 
A graphic novel by Grant Morrison, The Invisibles. Pretty relevant to me even today.
 
I've been beaten to Star Wars (for anyone interested in the spiritual profundity of Star Wars, as well as the myths and allegories of many cultures, check out "The Power of Myth" with Joseph Campbell) and Slaughterhouse-5, so I'll add Total Recall and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Yeah, Arnie is my guru).
 
Yerg, if I recall correctly, isn't George Lucas well versed in the works of Campbell?

I think Star Wars is one of the best introductions to Daoism a citizen of the digital age can get.
 
Yeah, they were friends and the interviews are actually recorded at Skywalker Ranch. I don't want to give the impression that "The Power Of Myth" is just about Star Wars though, it's a wonderful discourse on the mythology of many cultures, focusing on the veins of similarity that crop up over and over again. It's not often that television executives give the viewer so much credit, it's one of the most stimulating series I've seen.
 
Cormac McCarthy's works, particularly Blood Meridian.

The question was then put as to whether there were on Mars or other planets in the
void men or creatures like them and at this the judge who had returned to the fire and
stood half naked and sweating spoke and said that there were not and that there were
no men anywhere in the universe save those upon the earth. All listened as he spoke,
those who had turned to watch him and those who would not.

The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it
all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it
is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras
having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose
ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and
calamitous beyond reckoning.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any
latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in
this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in
creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so
that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's
mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others.
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The Stranger by Alexander Camus - This book blew my mind when I read for English class in highschool. To this day, I would say Camus' strand of existentialism has an enormous impact upon my worldview.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien - The first 'long' book that I read out of my own initiative. I got really attached to the characters. I almost cried when Thorin died. :( It has everything you need for young kids novel: friendship, adventure, moral questions and the inherent variety of morality (as in it doesn't have a 100% happy end).

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov - Very interesting novel by Asimov where he introduces aliens that are quite alien and not just human with minor variations. I love the way he describes the Moon colony. None of the Hollywood type bullshit (artificial gravity etc).

Solaris by Stanisław Lem - One of the twisted sci-fi novels I've read. It's all about the complexity of communication with a truly alien being. Some of the descriptions of the being are quite crazy.

Neuromancer by Robert Gibson - A dark gritty dystopia full of mega-corporations and cybernetics and AIs. Makes you wonder what makes us human. He popularized the term cyberpunk, he made of the term Matrix and he conceived what was essentially the internet.

Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii - Another cyberpunk classic. Not you're typical anime. Lots slow, contemplative scenes. An android contemplating existence. Lots of awesome symbolism and fight scenes.

Matrix is just a hollywoodized version of Neuromancer and Ghost in the Shell. For retards basically, and I think Matrix is a decent movie! :) They even ripped off some of the scenes directly. Lazy bastards!

http://www.mig81.com/matrixgits/page1.html

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MyDoorsAreOpen said:
* I give the Star Wars series a lot of credit for making a lot of Taoist ideas accessible to Western audiences.
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Taoism in Starwars? I am not too sure...

ellessdee said:
I liked Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Def an interesting read.
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Really want to read that one. I love the intro: A Gorilla posts an advertisement in a newspaper saying he is looking for people to save the world. =D

Belisarius said:
Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune has greatly influenced me. Without giving anything away for those who want to read it, it's about the utility of absolute tyranny in teaching humanity about what really matters, and how in the final analysis, all that matters is that we survive in a way that ensures that we can never be shackled.
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I am also a huge fan of the Dune series. Too bad Herbert never got to finish the series, although the lack of an ending does add a lot to whole series. It's almost like it feels right. :) I really like the book in the series and the second one (they should both be part of one whole IMO).

Changed said:
your literary snobbery has been established, as well as your douche-baggery.
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And anti-intellectualism is the savior of our world? :) I am pretty huge fan of Stephan King and while I haven't read the Dark Tower series I would hardly call his novels spiritually profound.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Hermann Hesse yet (unless they have and I missed it).

I particularly liked Journey to the East, but they're all good.
 
leiphos said:
"Nausea" by Sartre is one of the more profound books I've read from a philosophical standpoint.

and LOL at the Stephen King suggestion hahaha. what tragic commentary on American readership it is that someone thinks any of King's books are spiritually profound... *sigh*
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Really? Because I thought "Insomnia" was pretty darn good in that respect. It's a little less mainstream King than what you're thinking but if you haven't read them all then you can't say none of them are profound.
 
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