Existential Books

I was just wondering if anyone knew any good books that deals with Existentialism. It doesnt have to be a fact based book on the philosophy itself but more of a fictional book about characters dealing with existential issues?

Thanks,

SB

 

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus, if you haven't already read that.

 

Yeah I have, thanks dude.

Maybe I should list some of the books I've already read.

Hmmm...

The Stranger
Thus Spake Zarathustra
The Plague
The Brothers Karamazov (the best book ever)

umm thats it I think.

 

yeah, those are classic existential books.

At this moment, I can't think of anything else...

 

you can try Nausea by Sartre, although I haven't read it myself.

 

Fyodor's "Notes from the Underground" is essential.

I'd say all his later work is pretty much required reading. The Idiot, Crime and Punishment... you can't go wrong with Dostoevsky.

 

I'd recommend "Herzog" by Saul Bellow who died recently.

 

I just ordered Nausea, sounds like what I'm looking for.

 

Good choice One of my favourite books.

 

nausea is great, but i think an approach with caution is also warrented

 

The teachings and life of Jesus was outrageously existential.

Books that describe the lives of the Indigenous Natives of the New World illustrate an existential state of being.

Also, any book about the Hippie/Flower-Child sub-culture will describe an attempt to live existential lives.

Forget Sartre, Camus, Nietszche, and the rest.
These people talked and intellectualized about an existential life, but they could never actually take that leap of faith and live it.

 

sorry m6m, but christianity or the hippy culture hardly expressed the views of the existential generation wonderfully

purely from a nietzschian point of view christianity and hippies are tragic people living in illusion and lies...

 

check out bob dylan's chronicles, to me, that pretty existentialistic. i mean, it deals with life, with feelings, he's a folk artist, and his articulation is beautiful. it's not ABOUT existentialism, but it really made me think when i read it. read some beat authors too. read on the road. read some HST. no, these are not existentialism, again, but these are the things that make me think about existentialism. read being and nothingness and then ready chronicles or kerouac or HST. then think about existentialism.

 

I totally agree with m6m if you can't see christ as existential then I think look at it on another level.... I also agree about the hippies, they just needed a little guidance and understanding about what they're playing with

I'd recomment the upanishads....definatly the most eye opening collection I've ever read

 

i'd love to know why...

 

I think if you put aside all the supernatural miracle bullshit, and look at Jesus the enlightened man, you can see how much of a existential being he was. I've always been intrested in the 20 or so years that is missing in the text of the bible, and I've come to learn that Jesus the Man just walked this earth learning about all the religions of this earth, he was a spiritual enlightened man and in my eyes, very existential.

 

I think m6m is confusing Jesus Christ with Soren Kierkegaard.

 

But at least Kierkegaard wasn't confussed about Jesus; he was only confussed about himself.

Nietzsche is right-on about christianity.
But as Kierkegaard pointed out, christianity is a sell-out of the life and teachings of Jesus.

Remember, as Hippies our lives were far more Dionysian than Nietzsche's life ever was.

 

Crime and Punishment (Doestoyevsky)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Tolstoy)
The Myth of Sysiphus (Camus)

One a side note, I can see Jesus as an existential figure and I can also see the other side. I'm not sure how existentialism came to be lumped into one giant pseudo-gothic philosophy where only the dark, profane side of it is remembered. There are many different vains of it, all with validity.

For example off the top of my head: If you buy into the notion that there is nothing after life, then that leaves humanity (argueably) as one possible ultimate/end. So to live completely without possesions, aiding and experiencing humanity in turn is the ultimate experience.....expand on that idea and it starts to sound alot like Jesus, Ghandi, etc.

It is really ashame that so many people have allowed themselves to accept the fallacy that religious philosophy is defined by its so called "followers" rather than by its actual teachings.

 

hey shaba, I didn't think anybody read anymore
you're into some real interesting literature. I read a lot of dostoyevsky and nietzsche
if you're still looking for a good book you should check out the trial by kafka. also, the metamorphosis is another great short-story