The Philosopher’s Library (Part 1)
Since I don’t really read fiction, I don’t think I have been influenced by it in any way. On the odd occasions I do read, I like fiction that explores philosophical ideas. The novels of Sartre and Dostoievski are obvious examples. I also love the short stories of Borges. These are the closest thing to philosophy-fiction, if there is such a genre.
15 Philosophers recommend books for your bookshelves taken from the End Times series.
Paris 13/11: Zorn and Genet
When a man invents an image that he wants to propagate, that he may even want to substitute for himself, he starts by experimenting, making mistakes, sketching out freaks and other non-viable monsters that he has to tear up unless they disintegrate of their own accord. But the operative image is the one that’s left after the person dies or withdraws from the world, as in the case of Socrates, Christ, Saladin, Saint-Just and so on. They succeeded in projecting an image around themselves and into the future. It doesn’t matter whether or not the image corresponds to what they were really like: they managed to wrest a powerful image from that reality.
Culled lines from Fritz Zorn and Jean Genet in response to hearing Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam had admitted he wanted to blow himself up but then changed his mind.
Paris 13/11: Kierkegaard and Akhmatova
Do it or don’t do it – you will regret both. A revolutionary but passionless and reflecting age changes the manifestation of power into a dialectical sleight-of-hand, letting everything remain but slyly defrauding it of its meaning; it culminates, instead of in an uprising, in the exhaustion of the inner reality of the relationships, in a reflecting tension that nevertheless lets everything remain; and it has transformed the whole of existence into an equivocation.
Culled lines from Kierkegaard and Akhmatova in response to hearing that Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam had admitted he wanted to blow himself up but then changed his mind.