Looking For Literature

[JesseMathison]

At the moment I am mostly interested in philosophical literature, and have been finding my way through various modes of thought for the past few years. With that in mind, I am looking for recommendations; existential thought is what intrigues me most, but I by no means limit myself to this dimension.

Basically, I am looking for writers/thinkers/philosophers who I have overlooked, or am just unaware of. I prefer Dostoevsky, Camus, Celine, Hesse, Vonnegut, just for a quick reference.

Basically, any authors who may go along with this very general criteria who are not on this list:

Bukowski
Camus
Celine
Dostoevsky
Gogol
Hamsun
Heidegger
Heller
Hesse
Hugo
Kafka
Kierkegaard
Kundera
Nabokov
Nietzsche
Ortega y Gasset
Rilke
Bertrand Russell
Sartre
Stendahl
Tolstoy
Vonnegut
Zola

Basically, I followed the existential trail of thought, by and large. But I love and admire the humanity of Hesse and Vonnegut, altough their thought is quite apart. I am looking to continue this, and where I largely leave off is 1950. So, heirs to Camus, etc. I have not read Palahniuk, but am not very interested. I am usually a fan of much more intimate, serious literature, but, as I said, I have not read it. I don't want to get too specific with this, but perhaps I already have, haha. The brutality, humanity and honesty of Dostoevsky, Camus, Howard Zinn, Bukowski, etc...... Or anything you think may grab me.

Anyways, I would appreciate ideas, speculation, whatever.

[cafolini]

Allan Watts.

[Heloise Wild]

Beckett, Kobo Abe, Faulkner, Schopenhauer... Nobody else comes to mind! But I definitely look forward to discovering some of the authors you mentioned on your list.

[Theunderground]

I think Poe and william James are fabulous and unparalleled writers on the human condition.

[Jack of Hearts]

Well, you missed a lot of the playwright camp. How about Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams? There are certainly philosophical undertones in their works.

And of course, Ayn Rand... this reader hated reading her, though. You should try it. This reader is of the opinion that people should come to hate things for themselves.







J

[Rores28]

Beckett, Calvino, Borges

In particular Calvino's "Invisible Cities"

[irishpixieb]

Thomas Aquinas, Bernard Williams, Josef Pieper, Frederic Bastiat, ect...

[TheEarthIsRound]

If you're reading Borges, I suggest you couple it with readings from Foucault, who is an amazing philosopher in my opinion. His ideas are original to me in the sense that new dimensions in language and conceptualizations are frequently created. He should be a good one for any philosophical interpretation.

In this regard, I think you can read Roland Barthes. Although sort of un-related, but his ideas are powerful in dissecting existential conceptualizations, in my opinion.

[Cunninglinguist]

You mention modes of thought, so why not try A N Whitehead's Modes of Thought? You might not like its flavor as Whitehead can hardly be grouped with most of the "philosophers" you've listed (in fact the only one he can be grouped with is Russell). If you do happen to like it I would also recommend Science and the Modern World.

You mention Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I might add to the list of Russians Shestov and Berdyaev.

[mal4mac]

I just read Tillich, "Courage to be". Excellent existential writing, even for an atheist like me. Actually he left me more confident in my atheism...

Thomas Mann is someone you should consider. I like Hesse, but I read The Magic Mountain and Steppenwolf close together recently and slightly preferred The Magic Mountain, bit more depth, bit more verve...

Others to consider:

Michel Houellebecq
E.M. Cioran

I think a lot of post-50s serious literary novelists could be classified under the banner of existentialsim, as which modern novelists believe in God? Which don't believe you have to create your own soul as you go about existing? Which don't push for some kind of spontaneous existence outside the norms of society? Those who *really* stress these aspects, that I can think of from the top of my bonce:

Saul Bellow
Philip Roth
Will Self (crazy guy!)
William Burroughs (crazier - start with Junky...)

By the way, I don't think Bertrand Russell can be classified as an existentialist - too little stress on the interior life, too much of a scientist, too much of a social commentator, to much part of the establishment.

[Lizzie Eldridge]

Hi! I just read your message this morning and thought you might like to take a look at my newly-published novel, Duende. Set in Spain 1900-1936, Ortega y Gasset appears (briefly) as a character in it. One of my main characters is a philosopher so various philosophical ideas are interweaved within the story. Nietzsche's ideas play a significant part as well as the work of the German theorist, Georg Simmel. Duende's a fictional work but it incorporates real-life events within the story. It's available on Amazon if you want to take a look.
All the very best
Lizzie Eldridge

[MANICHAEAN]

I presume if I wanted something on sci-fi with Queen Victoria as a char, that your novel "Duende" would fit the bill as well.
M.

[Des Essientes]

You may wish to read some George Bataille. He is the philosopher of transgression. Maybe start with his essay "On the Notion of Expenditure" and then peruse the books comprising his "Atheological Summa" or read some of his fiction such as "The Story of an Eye" which is one of the relatively few works of literature which deserves inclusion in an esoteric genre that one may refer to as Philosophical Pornography.

[byquist]

She wrote two books and just passed on last year in her 90's: Charlotte Joko Beck.

[Darcy88]

Conrad, Holderlin, Stendhal, Whitman, Yeats, Turgenev, Grass, McCarthy, you could add pretty much any great author to that list. Your list is basically just a list of great writers (Bukowski excepted) who wrote in the relatively recent past. You have years of reading material from your list alone.

[castleteachings]

I enjoy the work of Luigi Pirandello - the Italian playwright - who explores existentialism through the means of theatre. In particularly, I like 'Six Characters in Search of an Author'. Additionally, Michel Houellebecq's nover 'Extension de la domain de la lutte' is interesting, if novels are your preferred form.

Hope these are of interest to you!

[AlysonofBathe]

Throw some Faulkner in there! I've always had a soft spot for The Sound and the Fury myself.

Cheers,
Alyson

[rainfall]

Book " Philosophy - a very short introduction" will helps you.
If it is to start an exploration of the subject, which is a wide and deep one, then the best introduction, in my opinion, is the book that I quoted above by Edward Craig, which is in the excellent series of Oxford University Press books called "Very Short Introductions."

[JesseMathison]

Thanks for the input, guys.

Short of listing everything I've ever read, I just tried to list authors who seem to have influenced my thought moreso than others. Really, the only authors who I have yet to read that were suggested are Foucault, Shestov, and Berdyaev.

Really, I was just making sure I haven't missed any critical works since Camus. I certainly read literature (and plays and philosophy) written after 1960, but from what I've read, not many writers have substantially expanded on Camus's thought. Not from a perspective of worth, just in terms of what I see as most relevant and what intrigues me most. A combination of rationality, ethics, and a very honest philosophy. Etc. Etc. I won't ramble. Anyways, thanks for the suggestions, and if anybody wants to nerd out about literature, keep adding to the conversation.

[mal4mac]

Really, I was just making sure I haven't missed any critical works since Camus. I certainly read literature (and plays and philosophy) written after 1960, but from what I've read, not many writers have substantially expanded on Camus's thought. Not from a perspective of worth, just in terms of what I see as most relevant and what intrigues me most. A combination of rationality, ethics, and a very honest philosophy...

You might like Pierre Hadot and the later Foucault - they drew inspiration from Stoic & Epicurean ethics, very rational and honest strands of philosophy. Hadot has criticised the existentialists for getting too negative about existence - why feel nausea, why not joy? He has also criticised Heidegger and others for not writing more clearly. And that really needed to be said! (He himself is a joy to read... and Foucault seemed to benefit from his example...)

[MaybeSomeone]

Go for "The book of disquiet" by Bernado Soares (Fernando Pessoa's heteronym), it is deep.

[IntravenousJava]

Edmund Husserl, although laborious to read, is conspicuously absent from your list...

[JuliaMNB]

Sorry, I can't contribute to your list as for me it's already completed.

[JesseMathison]

I am halfway through Foucault's Madness & Civilization, and I have to say I think a lot of what he writes is empty. I suppose it would be better to say that, while I don't believe he is pretentious, or that he necessarily lacks valid points, he sacrifices clarity for poetry, which often makes his arguments muddy, roundabout and redundant. His history is good, his theory/analysis, often not so much. Of course, it could also, in part, be the translation.

[mal4mac]

I am halfway through Foucault's Madness & Civilization, and I have to say I think a lot of what he writes is empty. I suppose it would be better to say that, while I don't believe he is pretentious, or that he necessarily lacks valid points, he sacrifices clarity for poetry, which often makes his arguments muddy, roundabout and redundant. His history is good, his theory/analysis, often not so much. Of course, it could also, in part, be the translation.

I haven't been tempted to explore his earlier stuff - mostly because I'm not interested in the topics he covers. I think he has interesting things to say on stoicism and how it affects our self image, in "The Hermeneutic of the Subject". But, being a transcript of lectures, it is a bit long winded and repetitive - so you better be interested in this subject! Hadot's work "What is Ancient Philosophy?" is a much better place to start if you only have a vague interest in ancient philosophy - he is very clear and doesn't indulge in "poetry".