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It's a reference to John Gardner's novel Grendel, the parallel story to Beowulf. The Dragon, an existential character who can tell the future, tells Grendel that the only purpose in life is to "seek gold and sit on it." It means that there is no inherent purpose in life. Rather, we have give life our own purpose, the crux of existentialism. The Dragon is essentially saying that we will all die after leading pointless lives, all of our accomplishments will be turned to dust and we will be forgotten. Hence, what really is the point of trying to make life better or amount to any fame whatsoever? Instead, seek whatever material pleasures you can from life, collect whatever worldly goods you so want, and then just sit on it; you don't have to do anything with them because there really is no point.

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16y ago

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