#absurdist-literature

#absurdist-literature

In his lectures, Fichte characterized genius as 'divine' and madness as 'animal,' but Schopenhauer, who was no stranger to mental illness, suspected the two to be intertwined.

The German writer's postwar works were ruthless in their condemnation of a country that, in its inability to reckon with historical atrocity, was beyond reform.

Classic France is a country of nuance with a love of conversation and freedom and an aversion to fanaticism. Contemporary Houellebecq describes France as a museum, where landscape turns into decor and where rural areas are emptying out.

"I knew I'd be criticised for my choices. So many people have read the book, and when you read it, you're a director who imagines the scenes in your head. But it's my vision of Camus."

A vision lay before him: Fleet Street blanketed with snow, silent, empty, pure white, and, at the end of it, the huge and majestic form of Saint Paul's Cathedral. It was a spellbinding moment: the great thoroughfare temporarily devoid of carts and carriages, the cathedral looming blurrily out of the still-falling snowflakes a real-life snow globe.

Molochnikov, who is 33, tall, and good-looking in the Jonathan Groff vein, greeted the audience the night I saw Seagull, personally thanking us for coming to see what he called 'my story.'

"We do not know what thinking is. But we do know when we are not thinking."

The widespread practice of showing the Eid Al Adha slaughtering to children can desensitize them to violence, as many families take pride in this tradition.

My mother bought me Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. I grew up thinking he was the same Bob Wilson who played in goal for Arsenal and presented sport on ITV.

I belong to a current of poetry that is meant to be read in public. Houellebecq's statement reflects his philosophy on artistic expression, emphasizing the performative nature of his work across multiple mediums. His musical recordings and public performances demonstrate this commitment to bringing poetry and artistic vision directly to audiences through various channels beyond traditional literary publication.

I was suspicious, even cynical, about what the world insisted was vital to the life of my unborn child. I was partly sceptical because so much of the advice I was getting was contradictory. But I was also suspicious because I'd spent most of my 20s reading Nietzsche. Nietzsche is not, perhaps, a natural choice for a young mother. But he helps to fuel certain questions about values, and purpose, that are central to questions of care.

All of us live in an age where we're bombarded by social media and artificial intelligence - when striving to be your authentic self becomes an increasingly difficult task. Yet, even if it has somehow become a common goal, it is unclear how many of us can truly define the "authenticity" that we say we are pursuing.

A mentor once told me that, when writing a research statement for a professorship, I had to start with the most ambitious pitch I could imagine - and then go ten times bigger. It's tricky enough to do this as a cosmologist, given that the topic of study is the entire Universe. But there is a quest that is more ambitious still: to find out 'what are we doing here?'

If Heaven, according to Talking Heads, is the place where nothing ever happens, the Bardo, according to George Saunders, is as jam-packed and frantic as Costco on Black Friday. We Saunders fans have been to the Bardo before that suspended state between life and death where, according to Tibetan Buddhism, a person's self-awareness helps determine what kind of existence they'll enter next.

A drawn circle is at least something physical. You can see it, touch it, erase it. The skeptic can still say, "Circles are grounded in physical reality. Justice is different; it's just an idea in your head." So let's talk about the number two. Point to it. Not two apples, not two fingers, not a numeral on a page-that's just a symbol.