November / Philosophical Novel Poll

[Scheherazade]

Please nominate the "philosophical" novel you would like to read in November in this thread.

Please remember that:

- Only those members with 50+ posts can nominate.

- One nomination per member.

- Only the first 10 nominations will be included in the poll.


The Book Club readings are for those who would like to read and discuss books together with other members.

If you are not able to take part or unwilling to (re)read your own nominations, please refrain from nominating book.


This poll will close on October 31st.

[NickAdams]

I was not going to participate anymore this year, but I can't pass this up. I would love to nominate Sartre, or Musil, but I'm interested in their trilogies and it would be a shame if we stopped at one.

I nominate Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

[Dark Muse]

I would be tempted to choose Atlass Shrugged, but alas I do not think it would have much hope.

So I nominate The Fall by Camus

[NickAdams]

I'm surprised there are only two nominations.

[Dark Muse]

Yes, I am surprised more people haven't yet chipped in

[Barbarous]

I nominate Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

very good choice.

I nominate Jacques the Fatalist by Diderot, something I have not read yet.

[rimbaud]

Friedrich Nietzsche- Thus Spoke Zarathustra

[Scheherazade]

Friedrich Nietzsche- Thus Spoke Zarathustra

That book has already been nominated by Nick.

Which one of the Pulitzer winners would count as a philosophical book, do you guys think?

*wants to hit two birds with one stone*

[mal4mac]

"Thus Spake Zarathustra is now unreadable" - Harold Bloom.

I had read & admired several of Nietzsche's "straighter" works, and Kaufmann's book on Nietzsche, so I managed to force myself through this crazy work of rhapsodic fiction. But, really, Bloom is right to cast it from his canon! Just to try and deflect the group towards something that might be readable, and something I want to read, I'll recommend:

Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain

[Barbarous]

The Magic Mountain is a pretty long read, though it is a great novel. I just don't think it'd be appropriate for a month read, but we'll see. I may be interested in reading it again...

As for Bloom's opinions on Zarathustra, we may look over them and if one cannot, one may vote for something else.

[rimbaud]

Which one of the Pulitzer winners would count as a philosophical book, do you guys think?

*wants to hit two birds with one stone*

As I Lay Dying-William Faulkner?
it's on my reading list, so if that counts (and it doesn't strike me like it does, but anyway...) , i nominate that one since nitche is already nominated

Nietzsche- sorry spelled wrong :S (in mu defense, my native is very very different form English)

[TheFifthElement]

Nausea - Jean Paul Sartre

[armenian]

camus - the fall

[NickAdams]

"Thus Spake Zarathustra is now unreadable" - Harold Bloom.

I had read & admired several of Nietzsche's "straighter" works, and Kaufmann's book on Nietzsche, so I managed to force myself through this crazy work of rhapsodic fiction. But, really, Bloom is right to cast it from his canon!

"He" may have decided to cast it from his canon, but he underestimated the amount of powder he need for such a task and the work did not travel beyond his muzzle. You must remember that Bloom places humanism before aesthetics, although he claims otherwise, and that Bloom is irrelevant when it comes to philosophy.

In the words of Bloom:

"One mark of an originality that can win canonical status for a literary work is a strangeness that we either never altogether assimilate, or that becomes such a given that we are blinded to its idiosyncrasies."

The first possibility might hold true for this "crazy work of rhapsodic fiction". Bloom also neglects to acknowledge how "unreadable" and prized "resentment" works have helped to form his thoughts to the same degree as his canon. Just as Bloom, and Pound before him, recommend reading poetry by contrasting poets, the same holds true for literature in general.

I would be happy to read anything nominated, because I love both literature and philosophy, but if you are to dismiss a work of philosophy it would be valid if you were to suggest how it fell short in regards to that.

[Scheherazade]

Nominations so far:

1. Thus Spake Zarathustra

2. The Fall by Camus

3. Jacques the Fatalist by Diderot

4. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

5. As I Lay Dying byWilliam Faulkner

6. Nausea - Jean Paul Sartre