History WhoWantsToLiveForever / Literature

** In ''Discworld/LordsAndLadies'', the [[EldritchAbomination not-nice kind]] of TheFairFolk invade Lancre. Granny, who seems to be going senile (turns out she's not), is mocked by the ever-young elf Queen for growing old... and Granny turns the insult right around:

** ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'': Eric's third wish is to live forever. [[JackassGenie The demon granting his wishes]] sends Eric back in time to the beginning of the universe. He's not too thrilled with the prospect of having to spend several billion years as the only living thing in it.

** In ''Discworld/AHatFullOfSky'', [[spoiler:the hiver]]. It has existed longer than existence itself, it is close to being omniscient and thus experiences every smell, sight, etc. along with having total recall. Simply put: it experiences everything there is and has been all at once, and this [[spoiler:drives it to suicide. Death is the only thing it does not know though, so it possesses mortal creatures in an attempt to understand death and how to actually die.]]
** In ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', Mort quickly realises that Death ''wants'' to lose their DuelToTheDeath, and also that he really ''doesn't'' want the KlingonPromotion that comes with winning (which doesn't stop either of them fighting to the best of their ability, until Death figures out the [[TakeAThirdOption third option]]). In ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' Death explains that he couldn't extend Mort and Ysabell's lives, because granting them immortality wouldn't have been the same thing and they didn't want it. Albert, [[AvertedTrope on the other hand]], reckons an eternity of not-quite-life as Death's manservant suits him just fine, given [[EldritchAbomination what's waiting for him on the other side]].

* Polgara, and to a lesser extent Belgarath and the other sorcerers, have shades of this in the ''Literature/{{Belgariad}}'' and ''Literature/{{Malloreon}}''. Polgara gets to raise, live alongside and bury an entire succession of hidden royalty, as well as a lover and many many friends, while Belgarath has been mourning his dead wife for 5,000 years. At one point it is mentioned that the serenity of the Vale of Aldur and the continuity of the World Tree within it is all that keeps them sane.
* Jason and Anna in ''Literature/FindingGaia'' get weary of their extended lives, and have different ways of coping with it.
* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'' series. They gained immortality from the Inchoroi, but because their minds are only equipped to deal with a few centuries worth of memories, the millennia have driven almost [[TheFogOfAges all of them insane]], some to the point where they commit unforgettable atrocities just so they'll have ''something'' to remember. The fact that their immortality came with a {{Gendercide}} also makes their unending lives utterly pointless.

* In {{Creator/Cordwainer Smith}}'s Instrumentality stories, the Norstrilians have unlimited access to stroon and are potentially immortal. But stroon has "queer side-effects, so that most Norstrilians preferred to die in a thousand years or so."
* In Creator/RickRiordan's fantasy series ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Mars shows that he has this sentiment when speaking to his son Frank about Frank's dying grandmother.

* Creator/LloydAlexander's short story, "The Stone", was about a man who found a stone that made him live forever - by stopping change, making everything on his farm exactly the same, day after day after day. He couldn't get rid of it easily, either - the stone was a ClingyMacGuffin.
* The Incarnations in Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'' are indeed {{immortal|ity}}, but most of them can voluntarily resign their positions and become mortal again. The only exceptions are War, who can die when there is no war on Earth; Time, who [[MerlinSickness lives his life backwards until the moment of his birth]], and Death, who [[YouKillItYouBoughtIt must be killed by his successor,]] only possible if he goes without part of his "regalia".
* The protagonist from Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/BicentennialMan'' is a robot, who can quite literally live forever by repairing himself whenever necessary. However, his wish is to be human. In an age of cybernetic prosthetics and replacement body parts, the boundary between man and machine blurs - and eventually, he gets himself legally declared human, but only after he introduces inevitable decay into his robotic brain, ensuring that he will eventually ''die'' like a human, rather than live forever as a robot.
* Also from Creator/IsaacAsimov, ''The Last Answer'' has {{God}} harnessing dead beings' inevitable desire to snuff it, [[spoiler:in an effort to figure out how he himself can do the same]].
* Natalie Babbitt's ''Literature/TuckEverlasting''. The main character sacrifices the chance to live forever with an immortal who loves her for a normal life. Note usually this kind of character has to choose between eternal life and a mortal love; here, she can get {{immortality}} ''and'' love... but gives up both. The Tucks are all, some more than others, unhappy about having to watch the world change around them and people they know (and sometimes love) pass away.
* In the [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novels by [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]], citizens of the Culture have the option of dying of old age (after several centuries of life), or having their age stabilized to become effectively {{immortal|ity}} (assuming accidents don't happen). However, there's a cultural bias towards dying when your time is up, and choosing {{immortality}} is thought of as immature - although the Culture is all about IDIC and this bias is probably not a constant. Multiple other options are also present; you can AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence or store yourself to be revived at a later date (either [[HumanPopsicle physically]] or electronically). These options can be combined; not uncommonly, those who elect to die also upload a version of themselves (presumably with tweaks so it won't get tired of living) so that their memories and experiences are not lost. The machine citizens, and [[DeusEstMachina especially the Minds]], are {{immortal|ity}} by default (again, barring no accidents), but emotional trauma can very rarely lead to a machine mind committing suicide.
* In Creator/StephenBaxter's ''Literature/ManifoldSpace'', Nemoto keeps herself alive with advanced medical treatments for well over a thousand years, so she can deal with the problem of the alien Gaijin (and whoever the Gaijin are fighting). She doesn't seem to enjoy it much, and becomes extremely crotchety -- but she's too much of a control freak to leave things in anyone else's hands.
* In Baxter's ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'' of novels, a group of people known as Jasofts gain {{immortality}}. However they suffer in that ultimately, they can only hold one thousand years' worth of experiences, and live many times that, sometimes able to vividly remember events, before seeing something which brings back other memories and pushes those away.
* Creator/PeterSBeagle's ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn'':
** Schmendrick, whose mentor made him immortal until he could come into his real power. When his power transforms the unicorn into a human woman, he tries to tell her about the beauty of things that can die, a lesson she learns all too well before she regains her {{immortality}} (and he loses his).

* ''All Men Are Mortal'', by Simone de Beauvoir. Besides the usual miseries of the immortal, Fosca is tormented by unreliability of people. He chose to become immortal so that he could make a political difference, only to find out that it's not time you need, it's people.

* Rather chillingly adapted in Creator/LordDunsany's ''Literature/TheGodsOfPegana''. "Shall a man curse a god?"

* Creator/LyndonHardy's ''Master of the Five Magics'' series. In ''Riddle of the Seven Realms'', it is revealed that demons adopt various hobbies to avoid succumbing to this trope. [[spoiler:Palodad the Reckoner, under its influence, turns into a {{Chessmaster}} OmnicidalManiac.]]

* In Brian Jacques's ''Castaways of the FlyingDutchman'' series, the main characters are an immortal boy and dog. Leaving aside the fact that the boy is stuck at age 14 ''forever'', they have to leave everyone they ever get close to before someone notices that they don't age.

* One of the stories in Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/ChangingPlanes'' discusses a plane where, it is rumored, [[{{immortality}} immortals]] live. As it happens, there are a handful of them, the result of bites by a certain fly. They ''don't'' get eternal youth, and are condemned to endless agony. One of the plane's natives, who watches over one {{immortal|ity}} in particular, notes that eventually the people bury their [[{{immortality}} immortals]], and over centuries their suffering apparently condenses them into a diamond. The narrator asks if the native is afraid of the flies because of this, and is told "There's only one"; as there are many flies on the plane, the narrator theorizes that there is one immortal fly that curses the bitten with {{immortality}}.

-->"What don't die can't live. What can't live don't change. The smallest creature that dies in the grass knows more than you ... you've lived longer'n me but I'm older'n you, and I'm better'n you."

* A particularly disturbing twist on this trope is Claudia from Creator/AnneRice's ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'', a young girl who is made into a (theoretically immortal) [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] and matures mentally and emotionally, but not physically. This leaves her perpetually dependent on others, embittered and perhaps not entirely sane. It is later revealed that vampire law prohibits the making of child vampires for precisely this reason. Several characters decide to commit suicide because they are bored with eternal life or just tired of living in "The Savage Garden."
* Literature/AnitaBlake novels: One of the more disturbing vampires, called Valentina, was turned at the age of eight by a vampire pedophile who was bringing over children to be his permanent ''companions''. The few vampires turned as children who survive a few centuries and described as twisted things. In Valentina's case, "(She) was taken before her body grew large enough for much physical pleasure. She has turned such energies into other avenues of interest," which in this case means torturing others.

* In Jeffrey Sackett's ''Mark of the Werewolf'', the main character is cursed with immortality. This results in him forgetting anything beyond two hundred years past (including his own name), transforming into an AxCrazy werewolf every night of the full moon (unless outfitted with a RestrainingBolt beforehand), and being invulnerable to damage in any form. The book revolves around his [[DeathSeeker attempts to figure out how to die]].
* In Barry Sadler's ''Literature/CascaTheEternalMercenary'', the titular character is [[WanderingJew a Roman legionnaire cursed by Jesus Christ to walk the world forever as a soldier]]. Amongst his challenges are his fear of being buried alive [[spoiler:(briefly realized during one of his journeys in the Orient, and notably predating the ''Heroes'' episode with Adam being buried)]], and the problem with never being able to truly find love since he stays young forever while his various wives/girlfriends/lovers age and eventually die.

* Unusual use of an elf with this trope: [[Literature/TheLegendOfDrizzt Drizzt Do'Urden]] from R.A. Salvatore's TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms books. He spends a number of books {{angst}}ing over eventually losing his friends and loved ones and even debating whether or not to get into a relationship because of it. [[spoiler:He gets over it by adopting a carpe diem mentality.]]
* In ''Flash Forward'' by Robert J. Sawyer, one of the main characters is approached by a man offering to increase his lifespan through new medical techniques. [[spoiler:In the second "Flash," he had seen that if he accepts the offer he has the chance to live forever. He saw the future of mankind, with humans eventually dismantling the Earth and using the materials to build a DysonSphere, and then spreading throughout the galaxy. He saw himself on another world, in a new, mechanical body. The offer is made later, but we never learn whether he accepted it.]]
* The character Tithonus from Myth/GreekMythology and the Struldbrugs from Jonathan Swift's novel ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' both suffer the torment of eternal life without the benefit of eternal youth. Although they never die, they age at the normal rate, and so are condemned to an eternity in decrepit ancient bodies.
* In the third part of ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', there are people in Luggnagg who live forever. However, they still age normally and suffer greatly from senility. The Luggnaggians thus do not particularly desire immortality.

%%* ''Literature/TideLords'': This is the entire premise.

* This becomes a vague plot point in ''[[Literature/InheritanceCycle Brisingr]]'', when Eragon and Roran discuss Eragon's immortality. Eragon has concluded that this forces him to marry an elf, who are all immortal, rather than a human woman, and so thus his drooling over Arya (who refused him multiple times) is justified.
* Some fantasy fiction, such as R.A. Salvatore's TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms novels and the Literature/FightingFantasy gamebooks published in the 1980s and 1990s, depicts demons as being horribly bored and depressed by their endless existence in Hell, the novelty of torturing their servants and fellow demons having long since worn off. Of course, their boredom and frustration make them all the more eager to torture humans and other mortal creatures when they find their way to our world.

* There are many {{immortal|ity}} individuals and species in the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', most of whom suffer from this trope.

* Nathan Brazil, the immortal Guardian of the Well of Souls from Creator/JackChalker's ''Literature/WellWorld'' saga, suffers this from time to time because his role as the emergency repair man for the universe means he absolutely cannot die. The universe simply won't allow it. Every time he reboots the universe (it's happened at least five times so far) he's been forced re-live all of human history until the next time he's needed. Oh, and did I mention that rebooting the universe requires him to ''kill every living creature in creation?'' He's tried various coping strategies, from blanking his memories to recruiting another to be his {{immortal|ity}} companion (they had a falling out after 15,000 years or so) to [[FreudianSlip "accidentally"]] [[GenderBender recreating himself as a woman]] during the latest reboot, probably in the hope that will make it all different this go-round.
* While the denizens of Creator/JohnVarley's ''Literature/EightWorlds'' series may all be potentially immortal (due to really advanced medical technology), very few of them actually live much beyond 300 years, largely due to the effects of this trope.
* Creator/StanislawLem's Ijon Tichy stories:

* ''[[Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy Night's Dawn]]''. The Western Europe Supervisor, part of a [[AncientConspiracy council that has secretly controlled Earth for centuries]], leaves Earth when it appears to be falling to the Possessed and exiles himself on a prison planet where he can live a rougher but more interesting life.

* Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/TheHomewardBounders'', which features multiple characters (including a number of mythological figures) condemned to eternal existence bouncing from world to world by the whim of malevolent beings known only as Them. In the end, [[spoiler:They are defeated, but the protagonist elects to keep wandering in order to keep Them away because he cannot accept the place his world has become in the intervening time as "home."]]

* In Creator/PeterDavid's ''[[Literature/KnightLifeSeries Knight Life]]'' trilogy, Percival drinks from the Holy Grail while healthy, and is thus doomed to eternal life. When Arthur returns in the present day, he finds Percival drunk out of his mind in a New York City slum. He quickly whips him back into shape and made into one of his advisors. (And a good thing, too, because the Holy Grail is a big plot point for the last two books in the trilogy).
* Coleridge's [[Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner Ancient Mariner]] brings a curse upon his ship, and the crew spends weeks adrift at sea. Death appears to claim the crew, while the Mariner is claimed by a woman called the "Nightmare Life-In-Death." He lives through excruciating pain and horror, and considers death to be a relief. Although not explicitly immortal, he is seen as an old man who spends the rest of his life telling his cautionary tale to anyone who crosses his path.
* Creator/TomHolt's ''Literature/FlyingDutch''. Most of the main characters are Vanderdecken and his functionally indestructible crew, forced to sea by the horrible stench that hangs around nearly all the time thanks to a dodgy elixir of life. One of them has adopted a hobby of regularly throwing himself off the top of the mast in the hope that this time it'll work. (All it usually results in is extra work for the ship's carpenter.) What really gets them isn't so much the immortality as it is the fact that they have to spend eternity with each other while stuck in the middle of nowhere with absolutely nothing to do for eighty three months out of every seven years.

* In ''Literature/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'', good-vampire Henry Sturges gives Abe a lecture on the disadvantages of being immortal, to explain why so many of his kind commit suicide in their third centuries. "Without death, life (becomes) meaningless. It is a story that can never be told. A song that can never be sung. For how would one finish it?"
** [[BrokenAesop Moral kind of broken]] at the end of the book, when Henry [[spoiler: brings Lincoln back as a vampire after his assassination.]]
* In Brent Weeks's ''Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy'', the character of Durzo Blint is given immortality - with a catch. Durzo can still be "killed" in battle, but he always resurrects - [[spoiler:with the twist that for every "death" he comes back from, one of his loved ones will die in his place]]. Over the course of seven centuries he turns from a KnightInSourArmor into a bitter, sociopathic [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]].
* This is discussed in Creator/OctaviaButler's ''Literature/{{Fledgling}}''. In the book, vampires (or Ina) can prolong the life of humans they frequently bite (but they cannot turn them into vampires). Vampires themselves live long lives, but this is usually not a problem because they tend to keep to themselves. The humans often have problems, though, because they have to explain to their family why they look so young.

* One of the major plot arcs of the Literature/{{Deverry}} novels is the life of the wizard Nevyn, who in his youth swore an oath that he would not rest until he had set right the mistakes that had lead to the deaths of three of his friends, and found that the gods decided to make him keep that promise. As part of this, he frequently has to encounter the reincarnations of people he had met decades before, watch them die, and then meet them again decades later. The original three people his extended life centered around he runs into rather frequently over the course of his roughly 500 year lifespan.
* One of the main characters of the Literature/TideLords tetralogy is an 8,000 year old immortal who is tired of eternity and wants to die.
* [[spoiler: Rock]] of ''Literature/WarriorCats'' has been revealed to be immortal, but unable to interfere with the world.
* [[Literature/TheOdyssey Odysseus]] rejects immortality when Calypso offers it as an incentive to stay with her. (Somewhat ironically, in one of the non-Homeric continuations of his story, his wife Penelope and his sons Telemachus and Telegonos are all made immortal by Circe after Circe's son Telegonos accidentally kills his father).

%%* Marcellus Pye in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap''.

* Discussed in ''[[Literature/StarTrekTheLostEra Star Trek: The Buried Age]]''. Data raises the issue with Ariel, a member of an immortal species. He points out that literature in many cultures explores the possibly unbearable tediousness of immortality. Ariel responds that to her people, life is too full of variety and opportunities to connect with others, and they have no issue with their non-aging status.
* The title character of the Literature/MediochreQSethSeries has an insane HealingFactor which renders him trapped with a fifteen-year-old body indefinitely - he's about 400 at the time of the series. He doesn't like being immortal much, and he certainly doesn't like spending his immortality in mid-puberty. He's also possibly a little bit insane, and it's implied that this eccentricity is a coping mechanism. Worse, however, is his friend Melz, whose lesser HealingFactor rendered her trapped in a slow-aging body that's approaching 100 and - despite being blind, deaf and wheelchair-bound, isn't dead yet.
* ''[[Literature/FirebirdLackey Firebird]]'': The Katschei never seems to eat his magical fruit, or despoil his maidens (he more makes them dance and sing so he can prove he has power, not because he lusts for them), or even enjoy anything. It would appear that having his heart ripped out (selling his soul) removed his ability to enjoy anything other than power.
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''Literature/ProsperosDaughter'' trilogy, Prospero and his children seem to handle their immortality on the whole. They do, however, suffer anguish at the loss of beloved spouses and children, and the issue of maintaining identities has recently grown much more difficult. [[spoiler:RefusingParadise is a burden to Cornelius; he must return to blindness and hard work.]]
* In Creator/ErinMorgenstern's ''Literature/TheNightCircus'', while the two men who start the competition appear to have warded off the boredom issue with such games, the discovery that they do not age (except the twins) has a heavy impact on those involved in the circus, albeit mostly concentrated on hiding that they do not age.
* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''Literature/SpiralArm'' novel ''On the Razor's Edge'', Dominic Tighe discovers that his MayflyDecemberRomance has a nasty edge because the Technical Name has grown bored with ordinary relations.
* The fate of [[spoiler:Jonathan Tulvey]] in ''Literature/TheBookOfLostThings''.
* Explored in ''Literature/{{Elantris}}''. Ten years prior to the start of the book the Elantrians changed from virtually immortal magic-wielding gods to withered people who couldn't die and couldn't heal from any wound. Any injury they took would remain with them forever, including the pain. The accumulated pain and hunger from mere existence eventually becomes too much for their sanity, eventually lapsing into a catatonic state.
* The "devil" of ''Literature/TheDamnationGame'' has a bad case of this, particularly lamenting that immortality has only made his terror of death worse.

* In ''[[Literature/EddieLaCrosse The Sword-Edged Blonde]]'', this was part of the curse placed on the main antagonist — he lives for ever, but since he has also been [[WoundThatWillNotHeal twisted into a horribly painful form]], he considers this a very bad thing indeed.

* In the Creator/RayBradbury short story "Homecoming", Timothy-- the [[MuggleBornOfMages one young mortal]] in a family of immortal supernatural beings-- is told this by one of his uncles:

:: Timothy finds it bittersweet comfort at best.

* The main characters in ''Literature/EdenGreen'' and sequel ''Literature/NewNight'' are infected with an alien needle symbiote that keeps them alive/resurrects them even after extreme injuries. In addition to [[ImmortalityHurts the agony of regrowing limbs]], the high likelihood of [[AndIMustScream getting trapped in a hideous scenario]] is a constant threat, and healing from brain destruction induces insanity. Eden [[DeathSeeker makes it her quest to destroy herself and other infected humans]] as an act of mercy.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has the tagline of "In the grim darkness of the future, there's only war and the laughter of mad gods". One of the influences behind it, the [[Literature/TheElricSaga Eternal Champion Cycle books]], where a certained doomed soul is cursed to always be reborn to endless warfare and struggling against mad gods, only to be eventually be killed and reborn for more of the same. The one small mercy is the Eternal Champion doesn't remember their old lives, except for one incarnation who was punished for wiping out humanity.
* In Timothy Findley's novel ''Literature/{{Pilgrim}}'' the eponymous character makes it clear how desperate he is to die when he is brought to the Burghozli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1912.
* Celica in ''LightNovel/AkashicRecordsOfBastardMagicInstructor'' has this attitude. When her immortality was discovered, it caused most other people to fear her, with her lover at the time calling her a monster and running away. She did have some friends over the centuries, but they would inevitably die while she lived on. She tried killing herself multiple times, only to be prevented by a voice in her head that told her she had a mission to complete.
* Though she isn't immortal, just LongLived, this nevertheless comes up in the 46th ''Literature/MadgieWhatDidYouDo'' story, where Doki brings up that she's been alone in a dying world for about 1,000 years, outliving her sister, friends, children, and the whole town in the aftermath of what it's implied to a nuclear holocaust, starting to die (of an illness) when Bunny comes back. As one would expect, she's been quite miserable.
* A few examples in the ''Literature/MachineOfDeath'' stories:

* Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium:
** Death isn't called 'Eru's gift' for nothing. It is heavily suggested that fear of death is actually created by [[BigBad Morgoth]] to mess with humans. It's implied that for Men there is a possible life after death, outside Arda; while Elves, who are bound to Arda, may not survive when it is undone. The elves are bound to the world forever; even if they die, they are stuck in the halls of Mandos and can eventually become re-embodied in Valinor. Thus, they experience the entire lifetime of the world, and time weighs on them. ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' says that even the Valar will eventually envy humans' ability to die and leave the world.
** Naturally, immortality ceases to be all it's cracked up to be for elves who fall in love with mortal men, and are forced to contemplate a literal eternity of grieving for them. Which is perhaps why, on two occasions, the elf was granted the power to die, and to follow their beloved out of the world.
** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', at one point Sam, when pondering Smeagol/Gollum (who is a Hobbit-like creature given, if not immortality, a lifetime extended centuries beyond his proper span), gets a little hint of what Gollum's existence has been like. Preserved out of his time by the Ring, far beyond kin, friends, and everything he knew, a stranger in a different world. Utterly alone, living endless days in the dark, entrapped by a Ring he can't escape and can't give up and loathes. Bilbo himself, in spite of his happy life, begins to feel the weight of his increased lifespan toward the end. When he surrenders the One Ring, he feels an instant sense of relief as his natural state of being returns.
* This is the entire premise behind the ''Literature/TideLords'' series.

* Byron's closet drama ''Theatre/{{Manfred}}'' is a melodramatic refashioning of the ''{{Faust}}'' legend. When he summons seven Spirits who swear to do his bidding, he asks not for power but for forgetfulness. The entire play is his search for death, since the star under which he was born cursed him to live forever.

* Almost the same story happened in Creator/StrugatskyBrothers Franchise/NoonUniverse (specifically, ''Literature/FarRainbow''), except this time immortality was brought not by {{nanomachines}}, as in Lem's case, but by full-body cyborgization (although, given the state of technology in Noonverse at the point, nanomachines still would play the role, at the very least). Only ''one'' among the subjects remained stable and sane in the end, and it's implied that it was only because he wanted to observe the society and [[TallDarkAndSnarky snark]] [[JerkAss at its failings]].

* In Timothy Findley's novel ''Literature/Pilgrim'' the eponymous character makes it clear how desperate he is to die when he is brought to the Burghozli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1912.

* Though she isn't immortal, just LongLived, this nevertheless comes up in the 46th ''Literature/MadgieWhatDidYouDo'' story, where Doki brings up that she's been alone in a dying world for about 1,000 years, outliving her sister, friends, children, and the whole town in the aftermath of what it's implied to a nuclear holocaust, starting to die (of an illness) when Bunny comes back. As one would expect, she's been quite miserable.

In "Literature/Pilgrim" the eponymous character in Timothy Findley's novel "Pilgrim" makes it clear how desperate he is to die when he is brought to the Burghozli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1912.

* In ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire'', Julius Robert Von Mayer is portrayed as immortal. [[ZigZaggingTrope He goes from regretting it to unregretting it to regretting it again to reconsidering his regret to really regretting it to forgetting it to remembering it again.]] [[FateWorseThanDeath But he is stuck in a hospital, doing little more pushing pieces of crumpled-up paper around on a tray, and thinking about his kids]] [[CaptainObvious (which he has outlived)]], [[BungledSuicide and his numerous suicide attempts.]] [[AndIMustScream FOREVER.]]

** At first played straight with the Cullens (and maybe the other vampires). Later averted, since [[spoiler:Edward finally gets to change Bella to be a vampire too.]]
** Aro of the Volturi is an example, according to WordOfGod: "After three thousand years, you start to go nuts. That is what was intended for Aro in the book, and I hope it's in the movie."

* In RickRiordan's fantasy series ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', Mars shows that he has this sentiment when speaking to his son Frank about Frank's dying grandmother.

* Almost the same story happened in Creator/StrugatskyBrothers NoonUniverse (specifically, ''Literature/FarRainbow''), except this time immortality was brought not by {{nanomachines}}, as in Lem's case, but by full-body cyborgization (although, given the state of technology in Noonverse at the point, nanomachines still would play the role, at the very least). Only ''one'' among the subjects remained stable and sane in the end, and it's implied that it was only because he wanted to observe the society and [[TallDarkAndSnarky snark]] [[JerkAss at its failings]].

* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's Literature/SecondApocalypse series. They gained immortality from the Inchoroi, but because their minds are only equipped to deal with a few centuries worth of memories, the millennia have driven almost [[TheFogOfAges all of them insane]], some to the point where they commit unforgettable atrocities just so they'll have ''something'' to remember. The fact that their immortality came with a {{Gendercide}} also makes their unending lives utterly pointless.

* There are many {{immortal|ity}} individuals and species in the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', most of whom suffer from this trope. Examples include Kallor, who was cursed with {{immortality}} but not eternal youth for being a genocidal bastard (the punishment also preventing him from ascending - the usual method of obtaining near {{immortality}} for very powerful people[it's a complicated process]), and the [[PunctuationShaker T'lan]] Imass, [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot zombie neanderthals]] who stripped themselves of their mortality to better [[FantasticRacism cleanse the world]] from the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Jaghut]] and now wish nothing more than to be freed from their Vow and just die already.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has the tagline of "In the grim darkness of the future, there's only war and the laughter of mad gods". One of the influences behind it, the [[TheElricSaga Eternal Champion Cycle books]], where a certained doomed soul is cursed to always be reborn to endless warfare and struggling against mad gods, only to be eventually be killed and reborn for more of the same. The one small mercy is the Eternal Champion doesn't remember their old lives, except for one incarnation who was punished for wiping out humanity.

** Literature/Pilgrim The eponymous character in Timothy Findley's novel "Pilgrim" makes it clear how desperate he is to die when he is brought to the Burghozli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1912.

** The eponymous character in Timothy Findley's novel "Pilgrim" makes it clear how desperate he is to die when he is brought to the Burghozli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland ca. 1912.

* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' [[spoiler: Thrym]] comes a virtually immortal nonhumanoid cyborg, but appears to have [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul sacrificed much of his emotional depth to do it.]] He's vaguely aware of what he's lost and is somewhat concerned about it, but no longer really has the capacity to understand it.

** ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'': Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, having seen and done everything there is to see and do, decides to dedicate the rest of his existence to insulting every single living being in the universe -- in alphabetical order. It is interesting to note that the Guide points out that those who are ''naturally'' {{immortal|ity}} are born with the psychological capacity to cope with {{immortality}} and would not suffer from this trope; Wowbagger's {{immortality}} was thrust upon him by accident, which is why he has such a hard time of it.

* In ''Turnabout'' by Margaret Peterson Haddix, in the year 2000, a group of elderly people participate in a top secret experiment to prolong lives. They receive the first treatment. However, the second treatment is deadly. Two participants, Melly and Annie Beth manage to escape before receiving the second treatment. The book starts in 2085. The main characters have de-aged to the age of 15 and don't know what will happen to them after they de-age to the point of being babies or embryos.

* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's Literature/SecondApocalypse series. They gained immortality from the Inchoroi, but because their minds are only equipped to deal with a few centuries worth of memories, the millennia have driven almost [[FogOfAges all of them insane]], some to the point where they commit unforgettable atrocities just so they'll have ''something'' to remember. The fact that their immortality came with a {{Gendercide}} also makes their unending lives utterly pointless.

* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's Literature/SecondApocalypse series. They gained immortality from the Inchoroi, but because their minds are only equipped to deal with a few centuries worth of memories, the millennia have driven almost all of them insane, some to the point where they commit unforgettable atrocities just so they'll have ''something'' to remember. The fact that their immortality came with a {{Gendercide}} also makes their unending lives utterly pointless.

* This defines the Nonmen in R.Scott Bakker's Literature/SecondApocalypse series. They gained immortality, but since they only evolved to deal with a couple hundred years' worth of memories, the millennia have driven many of them insane, some of them to the point where [[spoiler: they commit major atrocities on purpose in order to so severely scar themselves emotionally and psychology that they can't forget it.]] Then add on the fact that most of those millennia have been defined by untold misery and suffering...

*** Wowbagger [[spoiler:makes a mistake, doing Arthur twice,]] which should mean [[spoiler:he has to start over.]]