Hi,
For an assignment for my Postromantic Materialisms class, I'm looking for a novel in which a story takes place and characters just do their daily things, in a world where there's an absence of faith and belief in God. I was thinking of writing something about Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, but I'm not sure yet. Any further suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Aaron
Such world would suffer from paramount ambiguity. An impossible. The only way to achieve disambiguation is to accept that ambiguity and separate it from the entangling trying to hide it.
What about Life Without God by Doug Coupland?
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Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises might be seen as a study of the world where faith is seen as almost obsolete after the horrors of the first World War, and the ways that people try to readjust to their new faithless existences.
There never was any general faithless existance. In fact, those who fought and won WWII restored freedom of faith. Without faith, WWII could not have been fought.Originally Posted by Desolation
I agree, it was a bit of a Modernist myth that society at large had turned away from faith. But, as a member of the Modernist tradition, some critics have said that Hemingway's works are a big exemplar of that idea.
I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it. ~ Ernest Hemingway
Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. ~ Ernest Hemingway
Do you mean something without any gods or goddesses? Or do you mean something without the Christian god?
There is a big difference between the two, and there is much literature that does not include the CHristian god, all that Eaasst Asian and South Asian literature for starters, and there is some European literature that may even refer to the Christian god, but the deep level is about the older Gods and Goddesses; look at Irish books for that. They never stopped believing in the old gods; they just changed the names to protect the true believers.
I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear enough. What I'm basically looking for is a novel in which characters try to cope with an existence without God, where they ask themselves in a way what human existence means, having a materialistic opinion/belief that something such as God does not exist.
Hadn't heard about Life After God by Coupland. Definitely seems a suitable case, thanks.
Other suggestions are still welcome.
Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time maybe? Here's a pretty good review; you can see if it fits your theme well enough.
http://www.scwu.com/bookreviews/h/Mo...fTimeThe.shtml
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Would Ayn Rand's works work for you?
Some existentialist novels might be what you want
How about The Plague or Waiting for Godot?
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Thanks for the existential recommendations, but I'm more or less looking for something more recent. I've read quite some existential works and I'm rather hoping for something contemporary to write about on this theme.
Those are not older than Brideshead Revisited.
How about Blindness? Or The Road?
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
I know. That's why I was looking for something else. Great recommendations, thanks a lot
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