Patrick Baca

English 220-007
Jennifer Gammage
4/28/14
Annotated Bibliography
Nicole Ciccarelli. Breaking My Arm Healed My Nihilism nicoleciccarelli.com. December 27,
2013. Online Article. April 29, 2014.
Summary: The author re-realizes the awe of life itself after falling off a 15 ft balcony and only
breaking her elbow. The complete gratitude for being alive is what the article is all about.
Also, the reality of the living in the now is something that the author wants people to think about,
not worrying about the future or past.
Analysis: This will be a great aid to my argument that life itself is meaningful. It also links to my
point about rumination; we overthink situations and make them seem worse than they truly are.
Again it ties into the Dawkins quote about how the chances of us being here are astronomical.

Stacey Colino. The Broody Blues: Are You Thinking Yourself Into Depression?
www.ivillage.com March 3, 2010. Online Article. April 22, 2014.
Summary: Stacey Colino writes about rumination and how it can lead to depression.
Rumination is a term for a tendency to think negatively and once started only worsens till one
falls into depression, it is compared to an old record playing endlessly in the mind. This stream
of negative thoughts affects problem solving ability which makes rational thinking harder and
leads to more irrational thinking.
Analysis: This article was the first source that gave me the general idea for the topic. The idea of
literally thinking oneself into depression really struck me as nihilistic. The term rumination is
one of the major topics in the in my argument and I will further explain it and its relation to
nihilism and effect on us. Then I will offer an idea of how to stop rumination from developing
into a nihilistic depression.

Hubert Dreyfus & Sean D. Kelly. All Things Shining. New York. Free Press, 2011. Print.
Summary: The idea of life being made up of countless possibility is seen throughout. From the
example of the man falling into the railway to the countless choices we can make in life. This is a
great piece for showing that life is what you make it.
Analysis: I saw a great Dawkins quote that related to the idea of life being made of endless
possibilities. I will use this quote (paraphrase) and All Things Shining to show that we have to
choose to be happy about life and that is what we make it.

Marcelo Gleiser. Defining Our Place in the Universe www.npr.org Cosmos & Culture. April
17, 2013. Online Article. April 26, 2014.
Summary: This scientific article talks about how unique human life really is when it seems that
we are insignificant on the macrocosmic perspective, of our place in a vast and Universe. The
fact that we only know about 5% of the total mass/matter of the entire universe is something I
heard about last semester and this article further explains that. It also speaks about how the
chances of life growing from simple single celled organisms to intelligent multi-celled life are
infinitely small.
Analysis: This scientific article will be used to set up some background info on how the human
mind can wander and possibly fall into nihilism. It has some mind blowing facts that make one
think about how small we are in relation to the vastness of the universe. It will also reinforce my
point of how life itself gives meaning with the statement: we are a one of kind experiment in
evolution.

Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Blair E. Wisco, & Sonja Lyubomirsky. Rethinking Rumination
Perspectives on Psychological Science, Vol. 3, No. 5. September, 2008. Pg. 400-424. Sage
Publications. April 23, 2014
Summary: This chapter of Perspectives on Psychological Science explains rumination, what it
leads to, and coping methods. It sets specific criteria for what constitutes rumination and explains
those criteria. A great opening line explains how human beings are the only species that can
reflect on themselves and their lives, this can lead to explanations of why rumination and
nihilism are problems for human beings.
Analysis: This is going to be great support for both part of my thesis. How rumination/nihilism
come to be and then how they can be resolved. The criteria for what rumination is will help me
explain why this is relevant to my argument. It gives a direct relation between rumination and
depression which I will use to link to nihilism. After showing the problem, I will use the
examples of coping given to show how one could get out of this funk and tie in some examples
of meaning from my analytic argument.

Friedrich Nietzsche. The Gay Science. 1882. Print.
Summary: The Gay Science speaks on a variety of topics, but the most poignant being The
Madman. This speaks of the death of god in terms of how humans have started to create and
learn about things which were previously unknown. The death of god meant that people no
longer relied on god as the true transcendent being to bring meaning to our life. Nietzsche argued
that we had to become gods ourselves to make sense of this, meaning that we create Truth in our
life.
Analysis: The Madman excerpt was used in the expository conceptual analysis as the basis for
my definition of nihilism. It will again be used for background information and I will drop in
some quotes to explain how the death of God is not as bleak as it sounds, rather it opened the
door for us to create meaning. I will also talk about the perfect nihilist and how that is one way to
live in a nihilistic world.
David Foster Wallace. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion,
about Living a Compassionate Life. Little, Brown and Company. April 14, 2009. Print.
Summary: This famous speech gives insight on how to make life better through resetting our
thinking and perspective. Perspective of everything in the outside world and its relation to us.
Fosters many examples show how if we learn how to think about things and situations we can
make the mundane less mundane in a different mindset. An annoying or frustrating situation
most likely isnt as bad as we think it is*, we have to realize this and it will make for a better
perspective on situations.
Analysis: *This made me think of rumination and how it interferes with rational thinking. This
speech will aid my argument about how to beat nihilism. Wallace talks about living for before
death, not living for after death. This is something I will use to show how to live in the face of
nihilism and how nihilism in all actuality is not a problem. This relates to my general topic of
how ones state of mind controls how you see and live life.