mixing fiction with philosophy

[subterranean]

Nothingman, when I read that line "Done because we were too many", I wasn't thinking that it somehow related to Malthus. I was thinking something more related to psychological dissapointment.

[simon]

Thanks guys I've got a good list to look into now. I definetly agree about Hesse, being one of the few authors mentioned that I have read widely. I read Ishmael recently and found it worthy of praise. I think I was mainly intrigued by the main character being a talking gorilla. That's what I liked about one of Gaarder's books, Maya, where there is a talking lizard. Wisdom coming from animals is easier and more exciting to take somehow. And Kafka's Metamorphosis is possibly one of my top ten alltime books. The idea of transformation and change and hazy lines of reality is most intriguing.

[nothingman87]

Sub,
I think the line does relate the child's disappointment but also reflects Hardy's views on population, which are in line with Thomas Malthus. Sue Bridehead admits to Father Time the night before the tragedy, that living would be easier if they didn't have the burden of the extra children. This coincides with Malthus's treatise that the growing population would cause mass poverty and a shift in morals. Malthus wrote in a sort of "end of times" tone which is also the tone Hardy takes for Jude the Obscure at the dawn of the twentieth century.