Perpetual gratitude

Preventive meaning

"The literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself."

— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus

https://substack.com/@misanthropist/note/c-179601188?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios

The Loved Ones

I read this in a secular spirit, whatever Wendell's intentions: the permanent world is this one, but inverted. As Emerson said: "there is no other world." But there are other ways to take it. And my dear departed are indeed present, ever more-so as time goes by. And I am ever less absent. I begin to inhabit what Richard Ford calls the Permanent Period.

“feel the joy”

"Despite everything that's happening in the world and everything around us and any frustration or helplessness we feel or betrayal we feel, we have to remember it's also all right to feel the joy of being alive and feel the joy of your own possibilities." —Patti Smith

So he’ll plant a tree

94-year-old William Shatner finds himself considering the question, "Where do we go when we die?" more often.

"All my life is fertile," he says. "And I don't want to leave it. And that's the sadness. I don't want to go."

https://www.threads.com/@cbssundaymorning/post/DRNUybqEoRo?xmt=AQF0_7WVI-tPtHuERym1Sx7zkJPjSD4lwn8DNg6RUHDIrwGYaLxXu8D5rQ3us-5Z66c18lhD&slof=1

The Bascombe novels, by Richard Ford - and his Existence Period

I N T R O D U C T I O N——
Over the last twenty years, goodwilled readers have occasionally asked me if Frank Bascombe, the yearning, sometimes vexatious, narrator of the three novels that make up this sizeable volume – if Frank Bascombe was intended to be an American ‘‘everyman?’’ By this I think these readers mean: is Frank at least partly an emblem? Poised there in the final clattering quadrant of the last century, beset with dilemmas and joys, equipped with his suburban New Jersey skill-set and ethical outlook – do Frank’s fears, dedications, devilings and amusements stand somewhat for our own?

Naturally, I’m flattered to hear such a question, since it might mean the questioner has read at least one of these books and tried to make use of it. And I can certainly imagine that a millennial standard-bearer might be worth having; a sort of generalizable, meditative, desk-top embodiment of our otherwise unapplauded selves – one who’s not so accurately drawn as to cause discomfort, but still recognizable enough to make us feel a bit more visible to ourselves, possibly re-certify us as persuasive characters in our own daily dramas.

But the truth is that Frank Bascombe as ‘‘everyman’’ was never my intention. Not only would I have no idea how to go about writing such a full-service literary incarnation, but I’m also sure I’d find the whole business to be not much fun in the doing. And I still want to like what I’m doing.

In nearly forty years of writing stories of varying lengths and shapes and, in the process, making up quite a large number of characters, I’ve always tried to abide by E. M. Forster’s famous dictum from Aspects of the Novel that says fictional characters should possess ‘‘the incalculability of life.’’ To me, this means that characters in novels (the ones we read and the ones we write) should be as variegated and vivid of detail and as hard to predict and make generalizations about as the people we actually meet every day. This incalculability would seem to have the effect of drawing us curiously nearer to characters in order to get a better, more discerning look at them, inasmuch as characters are usually the principal formal features by which fiction gets its many points across. These vivid, surprising details – themselves well-rendered in language – will be their own source of illuminating pleasure. And the whole complex process will eventuate in our ability to be more interested in the characters, as well as in those real people we meet outside the book’s covers. In my view, this is why almost all novels – even the darkest ones – are fundamentally optimistic in nature: because they confirm that complex human life is a fit subject for our interest; and they presume a future where they’ll be read, their virtues savored, their lessons put into practice.

To my mind . . . these three Frank Bascombe novels, along with everything else I’ve ever written, have been largely born out of fortuity. First, I fortuitously decided I wanted to write a book. I then collected a lot of seemingly random and what seemed like significant things out of the world, things I wanted to make fit into my prospective book – events, memories, snippets of what someone said, places, names of places, ideas – all, again, conveyed in language (sometimes just words I liked and wanted to put into play). After that, I set about trying to intuit that unruly language into a linear shape that was clear enough to make a reader temporarily give up disbelief and suppose that herein lies a provoking world with interesting people in it. And I did this with the certainty that even if I were working straight from life, and was trying to deliver perfect facsimiles of people directly to the page, the truth is that the instant one puts pen to paper, fidelity to fact – or to one’s original intention or even sensation itself – almost always goes flying out the window because language is an independent agent different from sensation, and tends to find its own loyalties in whimsy, context, the time of day, the author’s mood, sometimes even maybe the old original intention – but many times not. Northrop Frye once wrote that ‘‘literature is a disinterested use of words. You need to have nothing riding on the outcome.’’ Another way of saying that is: the blue Bic pen glides along the page and surprising things always spill out of it.

Vastly more than I want my characters to atomize into some general or even personal applicability, I want them first to be radiant in verbal and intellectual particularity, to not be an everyman but to revel in being specifically this man, this woman, this son, this daughter with all his or her incalculability intact. And I make characters with this intention because I think we were all made and become interesting and dramatic and true by the very same method – which is to say, again, rather fortuitously.

These three novels were never really imagined as a trilogy, but only ‘‘developed’’ to that status one book at a time, leaving me pleasantly surprised, and pleasantly bemused, by the result.

I wrote The Sportswriter in a period of sustained panic in the middle 1980s – most of the novel written while I was living in New Jersey, Vermont and Montana – and at a time when my writing vocation was threatening to dematerialize in front of me, literally frightening me into a bolder effort than I ever supposed myself capable. Independence Day – begun in 1992, in a rented, seaside house in Jamestown, Rhode Island – I first imagined as a novel with no relation to any other book I’d written. It was to be a story about a beleaguered, wellintentioned divorced father who takes his ‘‘difficult,’’ estranged teenage son on a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York – and in so doing draws himself and his son emotionally closer to each other. All seemed to go well through the planning stages (a year). But over that time I began to notice that all the father’s projected calculations about life and events seemed, in my notes, to ‘‘sound’’ like Frank Bascombe’s – the character who’d narrated The Sportswriter. I made dogged efforts to scuttle all thought of a ‘‘linked’’ book. I was fearful of helplessly writing that first novel over again; fearful of having more ambition than skill or sense; fearful of gloomy failure. And yet these fears finally succumbed to the recognition that to be given a ‘‘voice’’ and with it an already-plausible character who can transact the complex world in reasonably intelligent, truthful, even mirthful ways, was just too much of a gift from the writing gods to decline. And so Independence Day, after some considerable pre-writing adjustments to my original plan, came into existence.

The Lay of the Land, last and longest of these novels, represents as much as anything a straight-on and somewhat less fearful acceptance of the forward momentum of the two previous books, and a concession by me that I’d backed myself into a corner and could either accept the ‘‘ambition’’ to write a third book in train with the others, or else be a pathetic coward for not trying. And in that way, over the next four years – from 2002 to 2006 – these Bascombe Novels came to their completion.

If any of this seems close to the truth, then consider yourself to have encountered something about human beings, of which writers are a sub-species: that we go on being human even when we want to be better; and also something about the habit of art, that great, intense, optimistic and forward-thinking seduction that seeks magically to change base metal into gold. This alchemy, and our willingness to test it may have something to do with what some people (but not I) romantically call talent. But even if the current efforts here don’t turn out to be in every case 24 carat, know at least that I trusted to luck and industry, incalculability and disinterest as well as I possibly could, and that the habit of art is no less a precious habit for having been the guiding spirit of these books that follow.

Richard Ford

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/54511/the-bascombe-novels-by-written-and-introduced-by-richard-ford/9780307269034/excerpt

==

Frank Bascombe is a fictional character created by Richard Ford whose life and "existence periods" are chronicled over a series of four novels published between 1986 and 2014, covering his life from his late thirties to his late sixties.

 
The "Existence Period" is specifically the term Frank uses to describe his state of life in the second novel, Independence Day, during his mid-forties (around 1988). This period is characterized by a "mechanical isolation" and a post-event, post-action "holding pattern" after the loss of his son and the breakup of his first marriage.

 
His life is detailed across the following books and their associated timeframes/periods: The Sportswriter (1986): Frank is in his late thirties.

• Independence Day (1995): Frank is 44 years old, in his "Existence Period".
• The Lay of the Land (2006): Frank is 55 years old, entering what he calls the "Permanent Period".
• Let Me Be Frank With You (2014): Frank is in his late sixties, in the "Default Period" of life.

Ford has used the character to explore different stages of an American man's life through time.

Google/AI

ChatGPT's suggestions

 Below are some recommendations and reflections, plus a few novel suggestions to complement your Existentialism course.

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1. Biographies

Kierkegaard

• Clare Carlisle, Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
  This is one of the more accessible and recent (though not brand new) full-length biographies. Carlisle, a philosopher herself, offers psychological insight, situating Kierkegaard in his Copenhagen context. The Guardian+1

• Stephen Backhouse, Kierkegaard: A Single Life
  This is more recent in terms of narrative approach, not a dense scholarly tome but a fluid, character-driven life that reads almost like a novel. It draws on material (“newly come to light,” per the publisher) to clarify his personal relationships, especially his complicated relation to the Church. Zondervan Academic

• Joakim Garff, Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography
  While older (first English translation 2005), this is still one of the most comprehensive scholarly biographies. Garff’s work is detailed, weaving together Kierkegaard’s life, cultural milieu, and writings with a novelist’s sensibility. Barnes & Noble+1

My suggestion for your course: Philosopher of the Heart for readability and teaching; pair it with Garff if you have students who might want a deeper dive or are writing a term paper.

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Simone de Beauvoir

• Deirdre Bair, Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography
  This is still among the definitive full-scale biographies. Bair spent years interviewing de Beauvoir and people close to her; she delves into de Beauvoir’s intellectual and emotional life, her partnerships (especially with Sartre), and her existential commitment. Simon & Schuster+1

• Constance Borde & Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, The Prime of Life
  While not strictly a third-party biography, this is volume 2 of de Beauvoir’s own memoirs; the recent reissue (or translation) makes it more accessible. Penguin Books Australia

• Megan Burke, Simone de Beauvoir: The Basics
  If you're looking for a more classroom-friendly, concise companion, this is great: it gives intellectual context, maps her major works (like The Second Sex), and explains her existential ethics. Routledge

• Esther Demoulin, Beauvoir et Sartre. Écrire côte à côte
  For a more literary / relational take: this recent work (discussed in Le Monde) explores the couple as a kind of co-creative, literary institution—very helpful for understanding how existentialist ideas played out in their shared life. Le Monde.fr

My suggestion for your course: Use Bair’s biography for a full life narrative; supplement with The Prime of Life (memoir) for de Beauvoir’s voice; and perhaps include Demoulin’s book if you want to emphasize her relational and generative intellectual partnership with Sartre.

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2. American Fiction to Complement the Course

Since you're already using Richard Ford’s Bascombe novels (which are existential in their way, even if not explicitly philosophical), here are some other American or U.S.-set novels that resonate with existential themes and might pair well with your course texts (Flynn, Bakewell, Alessandri):

1. Walker Percy – The Moviegoer
   This is a classic existential novel set in the American South. The protagonist Binx Bolling experiences alienation, a search for meaning, and a kind of quiet despair. Wikipedia

2. John Williams – Stoner
   Often recommended for its existential depth: a quiet, inward life, with disappointments, solitude, fidelity to one’s inner world. Several readers and critics see Stoner as an “unlikely existential hero.” Reddit

3. Richard Wright – The Outsider
   A more overtly existential novel: Wright engages with freedom, race, identity, and meaninglessness in mid-20th-century America. Wikipedia

4. Richard Price – Lazarus Man
   More recent (2024-ish) novel with existential overtones: characters grapple with redemption, hope, identity after trauma. (Note: depending on your university library, this may be more accessible as contemporary fiction.) Financial Times

5. Sally Rooney – Normal People (or Beautiful World, Where Are You)
   While not strictly American, Rooney’s work has been strongly associated with millennial existential dread, relational ontology, identity. Her characters often confront meaning, freedom, and emotional alienation. TIME

6. John Updike – Rabbit, Run
   A mid-century novel about a man fleeing his life; the existential crisis is very much alive: commitment, freedom, God's absence/presence, and self-deception.

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3. How to Use These in Your Course

Here are a few pedagogical ideas for weaving these in:

• Biographical pairing: Assign Carlisle or Bair’s de Beauvoir biography alongside At the Existentialist Café. Students can compare how lives shaped ideas, especially existential freedom, angst, and relationships.

• Novel as case study: Use The Moviegoer or Stoner as a fictional parallel to existential themes in the philosophers. For example, after discussing Kierkegaard’s notion of despair or the ethical individual, have students read The Moviegoer and write on how Binx embodies or resists those ideas.

• Discussion prompts: For Lazarus Man, you might ask how contemporary existentialism (in the novel) aligns or diverges from classical existentialist concerns. Are the social and structural moments (race, poverty, community) recasting what existentialism means in our time?

• Reflective writing: Use de Beauvoir’s memoir (The Prime of Life) for a reflective essay: what does freedom mean experientially, not just philosophically? How does her life challenge or reinforce your students’ understanding of the existential situation?

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If you like, I can put together a reading list packet (with primary, secondary, and fictional texts) tailored for a semester course: I can suggest which weeks to pair what, assignments, etc. Do you want me to do that?

You said:

Later maybe. I want to include texts that illustrate the Existentialist aspects of American philosophy. The William James essays "What Makes a Life Significant" and "Is Life Worth Living?" are obvious candidates. Can you suggest others, by James and other classic American philosophers?

ChatGPT said:

If you want students to feel the existential pulse that runs through American philosophy—less theatrical than the Café de Flore but every bit as urgent—you’ve got rich terrain to draw from. The tradition is full of thinkers wrestling with contingency, risk, self-creation, and the burden/boon of freedom. Here are the most resonant pieces, James first, then his neighbors in the American grain.

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William James (beyond the obvious two)

1. “The Will to Believe” (1896)

A clear, bracing statement of existential commitment before Sartre gave it a Parisian accent. James stakes out the right—sometimes the necessity—to choose in the absence of certainty. It’s proto-existentialism in its insistence that belief is an act, not a deduction.

2. “The Moral Equivalent of War” (1910)

A meditation on courage, discipline, and the human hunger for strenuousness. Students often read it politically; encourage them to read it existentially—James is asking what kind of life we are willing to build in the face of our own softness, fear, drift.

3. “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” (1899)

A gorgeously humane appeal to radical empathy, grounded in the irreducible opacity of other selves. Think of it as James’s version of Levinas: responsibility born from mystery.

4. Varieties of Religious Experience (especially Lectures IV, V, and X–XIII)

The sick soul, the divided self, the conversion crisis—this is existential psychology avant la lettre. The lectures on melancholy, despair, and the reconstructive power of “over-beliefs” stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kierkegaard.

5. “The Energies of Men” (1907)

James on latent capacities, the unfinished self, and the strenuous ideal. It’s a short, powerful counterpoint to Sartrean freedom: we are not just free; we are unfinished.

6. “A Pluralistic Universe” (selected lectures)

James’s metaphysics is always existentially inflected. The lecture “Humanism and Truth” can be read as a defense of agency in a messy, contingent world.

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John Dewey

Dewey isn’t usually shelved with the existentialists, but he should be. His sense of life as experimental, uncertain, forever under construction fits the frame beautifully.

1. “The Live Creature” (from Art as Experience)

A fierce celebration of embodied, vulnerable existence. Dewey is almost Camusian in his insistence that meaning is forged in experience, not imposed from above.

2. “Creative Democracy: The Task Before Us” (1939)

Dewey’s deepest existential claim: democracy is a way of life that requires courage, imagination, and ongoing self-renewal. Freedom is fragile; commitment is everything.

3. Human Nature and Conduct (Parts I–II)

A subtle exploration of habit, choice, and growth—Dewey’s version of the existential terrain between determinism and freedom.

4. Experience and Nature (Chapter 1)

His critique of “the quest for certainty” is a perfect bridge to students reading Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Doubt as condition; experiment as salvation.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you want students to feel the American current that fed both James and the existentialists, Emerson is indispensable.

1. “Self-Reliance”

Not the caricature, but the real thing: the terrifying insistence on nonconformity, inwardness, and perpetual becoming.

2. “Experience”

One of Emerson’s most philosophical essays—an honest reckoning with grief, flux, the slipperiness of reality. It’s proto-existential in its frankness about the elusiveness of meaning.

3. “Circles”

An ode to impermanence, transformation, and the refusal of finality. Emerson as Heraclitus for a young democracy.

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Henry David Thoreau

More than just the Walden hermit—Thoreau is an existential moralist.

1. Walden (especially “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For” & “Conclusion”)

Thoreau turns life into an experiment in authenticity. Ask your students to compare him with Beauvoir’s ethics of authenticity.

2. “Civil Disobedience”

A study in conscience, freedom, and moral risk. “I must get off the shoulders of all men”—raw existential resolve.

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W.E.B. Du Bois

Du Bois brings existentialism into the racialized American context with analytic and emotional clarity.

1. “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” (from The Souls of Black Folk)

Double consciousness is an existential condition—alienation, conflict, the fractured self navigating hostile worlds.

2. “Of the Meaning of Progress”

A harrowing meditation on disillusionment and the fragility of hope.

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William Ernest Hocking & Josiah Royce

Lesser-taught now, but resonant for existential themes.

1. Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (selected chapters)

Deals with freedom, angst, and the felt absence/presence of meaning.

2. Royce, The Philosophy of Loyalty

Royce offers an American answer to Sartrean commitment—communities of purpose, freely chosen, but binding.

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American Voices Adjacent to Existentialism

Sometimes the best existential writing in the American tradition lies slightly outside the canonical philosophers:

**1. Cornel West, The American Evasion of Philosophy and Prophesy Deliverance!

Existentialism meets prophetic pragmatism. West’s thinking sings with urgency, risk, courage.

2. James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time”

Moral clarity, anguish, and the demand to choose oneself without illusions. Baldwin stands with Camus in the clarity of his defiance.

3. Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk & Holy the Firm

Stark, luminous reckonings with suffering, wonder, and the terrifying surplus of existence.

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If you want a shorter list for teaching:

James – “On a Certain Blindness,” “The Will to Believe,” Varieties (sick soul).
Dewey – “The Live Creature,” “Creative Democracy.”
Emerson – “Experience,” “Self-Reliance.”
Thoreau – Walden (core chapters).
Du Bois – “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.”
Baldwin – “Down at the Cross.”
Dillard – “Total Eclipse.”

Each of these texts gives students a sense of the American existential situation: freedom without guarantees; selfhood in flux; the need to choose, to commit, to repair; the persistent hope that life can be made—slowly, falteringly—significant...

If you want a clean, student-friendly selection:

1. Emerson – “Self-Reliance” (excerpts), “Experience”

2. James – “Will to Believe,” “Blindness”

3. Dewey – “Creative Democracy,” selections from Human Nature and Conduct

4. Du Bois – “Spiritual Strivings”

5. Baldwin – “Down at the Cross”

6. Thoreau – “Conclusion” from Walden

7. Dillard – “Total Eclipse”

It’s about 120–150 pages total, depending on how you trim...

If you want a tight, potent set of short existentialist texts—something that pairs cleanly with Existentialism Is a Humanism and The Myth of Sisyphus—you’ve got several superb options. They’re brief, forceful, and each one carries a distinctive voice in the constellation of existentialism.

Below are the best short pieces by de Beauvoir first, then other major existentialists, with a note on what each contributes to the conversation.

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Simone de Beauvoir — Best Short Pieces

These are the most teachable, philosophically rich selections that won’t overwhelm students but will give them the full taste of her existential ethics.

1. “Introduction” to The Ethics of Ambiguity

Length: ~20 pages
Why it’s ideal:

• It’s her clearest summary of existential freedom, ambiguity, responsibility, and the meaning of the human project.

• It answers, in advance, most misunderstandings students bring after reading Sartre.

• It’s a perfect counterweight to his emphasis on individual choice: she grounds freedom in a web of relations and consequences.

Teaching angle:
Have students compare her notion of “ambiguity” with Camus’s “absurd” and Sartre’s “abandonment.”

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2. “The Woman in Love” (from The Second Sex)

Length: ~15–20 pages
Why it works:

• A blistering, existential analysis of bad faith, self-loss, and the temptation to let another person define your world.

• It shows Beauvoir applying existential categories to lived experience.

Teaching angle:
Ask: Is love inherently a threat to freedom, or only love distorted by inequality?

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3. “Pyrrhus and Cinéas” (excerpt)

Length: ~8–10 pages if trimmed
Why it’s useful:

• Early Beauvoir wrestling with action, meaning, and justification.

• Explores the question: Why act at all, if no final justification can be given?

Teaching angle:
Students will hear echoes of Camus but see how Beauvoir pushes the analysis into interpersonal ethics.

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Other Prominent Existentialists — Short, Stunning Texts

Each of these will amplify and sharpen different existential themes. Think of them as brief spotlights illuminating the larger terrain.

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Albert Camus

1. “The Myth of Sisyphus” (the final section)

You’re already assigning it, but emphasize the last four pages—the distilled image of revolt, defiance, and yes-saying in the face of meaninglessness.

2. “The Human Crisis”

Length: ~10 pages
Why it’s strong:
Camus in wartime, reflecting on Europe’s moral collapse. A fierce call to responsibility and lucidity.

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Jean-Paul Sartre

1. “Bad Faith” (from Being and Nothingness, short excerpt)

Length: ~8–10 pages
Why it works:

• Sartre at his sharpest and most psychological.

• The café waiter example is unforgettable and immediately usable by students.

2. “Existentialism and Humanism” (short excerpt)

You’re assigning the whole, but consider selecting 3–5 paragraphs that students must annotate—especially his insistence that humans create values through action.

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Maurice Merleau-Ponty

1. “The Primacy of Perception” (opening section)

Length: ~6 pages
Why it matters:

• A corrective to the overly mentalistic readings of Sartre.

• Shows existentialism as embodied, perceptual, lived—not just reflective or voluntaristic.

Teaching angle:
Ask students: Does existential freedom live in the body or the mind?

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Gabriel Marcel

1. “On the Ontological Mystery” (excerpt)

Length: ~8–12 pages
Why include it:

• Offers a quieter, more spiritual, more relational existentialism.

• A fascinating counterpoint to atheistic existentialists; humility and fidelity replace heroic revolt.

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Frantz Fanon

1. “The Fact of Blackness” (from Black Skin, White Masks)

Length: ~12–15 pages
Why it’s indispensable:

• Places existential themes—freedom, identity, the gaze, alienation—into the crucible of colonialism and racism.

• Forces students to see existentialism as a lived, historical struggle.

Teaching angle:
Pair with Sartre’s “The Look” (very short excerpt) for explosive discussion.

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Martin Buber

1. “I and Thou” (First Part, trimmed)

Length: ~12 pages
Why include it:

• An existential philosophy of relation.

• A startling alternative to Sartre’s conflict-laden account of the Other.

Teaching angle:
Contrast “I–Thou” with Sartre’s “Hell is other people.”

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Lev Shestov (a wild card, but a powerful one)

1. “Reason and Freedom” (short excerpt)

Length: 5–10 pages
Why it’s electrifying:

• Challenges the rationalist undercurrent of existentialism itself.

• Useful for students inclined to tidy everything up too quickly...

https://chatgpt.com/share/691bbeff-a19c-8007-8469-844d8cecb6a3

Night Vision

A philosopher’s personal meditation on how painful emotions can reveal truths about what it means to be truly human [Mariana was our Fall '24 Lyceum speaker]

Under the light of ancient Western philosophies, our darker moods like grief, anguish, and depression can seem irrational. When viewed through the lens of modern psychology, they can even look like mental disorders. The self-help industry, determined to sell us the promise of a brighter future, can sometimes leave us feeling ashamed that we are not more grateful, happy, or optimistic. Night Vision invites us to consider a different approach to life, one in which we stop feeling bad about feeling bad.

In this powerful and disarmingly intimate book, Existentialist philosopher Mariana Alessandri draws on the stories of a diverse group of nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophers and writers to help us see that our suffering is a sign not that we are broken but that we are tender, perceptive, and intelligent. Thinkers such as Audre Lorde, María Lugones, Miguel de Unamuno, C. S. Lewis, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Søren Kierkegaard sat in their anger, sadness, and anxiety until their eyes adjusted to the dark. Alessandri explains how readers can cultivate “night vision” and discover new sides to their painful moods, such as wit and humor, closeness and warmth, and connection and clarity.

Night Vision shows how, when we learn to embrace the dark, we begin to see these moods―and ourselves―as honorable, dignified, and unmistakably human.

Very short intro

One of the leading philosophical movements of the twentieth century, existentialism has had more impact on literature and the arts than any other school of thought. Focusing on the leading figures of existentialism, including Sartre, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty, and Camus, Thomas Flynn offers a concise account of existentialism, explaining the key themes of individuality, free will, and personal responsibility, which marked the movement as a way of life, not just a way of thinking. Flynn sets the philosophy of existentialism in context, from the early phenomenologists, to its rise in the 40's and 50's, and the connections with National Socialism, Communism, and Feminism. He identifies the original definition of "existentialism," which tends to be obscured by misappropriation, and highlights how the philosophy is still relevant in our world today. g'r

The Existentialist Cafe

Paris, near the turn of 1933. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and their friend Raymond Aron, who opens their eyes to a radical new way of thinking. Pointing to his drink, he says, 'You can make philosophy out of this cocktail!'

From this moment of inspiration, Sartre will create his own extraordinary philosophy of real, experienced life–of love and desire, of freedom and being, of cafés and waiters, of friendships and revolutionary fervour. It is a philosophy that will enthral Paris and sweep through the world, leaving its mark on post-war liberation movements, from the student uprisings of 1968 to civil rights pioneers.

At the Existentialist Café tells the story of modern existentialism as one of passionate encounters between people, minds and ideas. From the ‘king and queen of existentialism'–Sartre and de Beauvoir–to their wider circle of friends and adversaries including Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Iris Murdoch, this book is an enjoyable and original journey through a captivating intellectual movement. Weaving biography and thought, Sarah Bakewell takes us to the heart of a philosophy about life that also changed lives, and that tackled the biggest questions of all: what we are and how we are to live. g'r