recommendations for unusual, accessible existentialist text?

July 11, 2005 12:21 AM

What non-standard texts would you recommend for a community reading group on Existentialism? I am hoping to volunteer as a coordinator of a discussion group on Existentialism, part of a program in the humanities for people without higher education. I would like to hear your suggestions for readings, aside from the obvious canon of excerpts from Kierkegaard, Sartre, Pascal, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Jaspers &co. The readings should not be too technical, be literature or philosophy, and ideally 50 pages or less. They don't even have to represent "Existentialism" proper (whatever that is!); anything that explores themes of subjectivity is welcome.
posted by ori to religion & philosophy (21 comments total)

Albert Camus' books, or chapters from them.

And why not movies? Existentialism and film had a happy marriage for a while in the 1950s and even 1960s in Italy and France.
posted by ijsbrand at 1:09 AM on July 11, 2005

And why not movies? Existentialism and film had a happy marriage for a while in the 1950s and even 1960s in Italy and France.

Of course, movies are a good idea. I've thought about proposing Goddard's Breathless, and perhaps the segment on Sartre in Waking Life. Any other suggestions for movies?
posted by ori at 1:30 AM on July 11, 2005

If you want to concentrate on the emptiness and inner turmoil of modern life:

Antonioni's La Notte
Fellini's La Dolce Vita
Fellini's 8½

All about dreams, and the barriers to fulfill them.
posted by ijsbrand at 2:12 AM on July 11, 2005

Colin Wilson's New Existentialism is short (not 50 pages short, though) and sums up his struggle to find a "positive" existentialism rooted partly in peak experiences. His other books in the Outsider series, particularly The Outsider itself, may also be worth a look. I think The Outsider starts with primarily literary figures, and then through the other books Wilson starts to bring in stuff from other realms, such as psychology.

Unfortunately, I don't really think that any of these are still in print. However, my bet would be that you could The Outsider or New Ex at a library, and photocopy a few relevant bits fairly easily.
posted by claxton6 at 5:42 AM on July 11, 2005

Movies are a great idea: I'd recommend Agnes Varda's Cleo From 5 to 7, which relates to existentialism in a perhaps more obvious way that Breathless, and is beautiful.

Have you thought about:

Sartre: The Words
Beckett: Waiting for Godot or Act Without Words
Camus: The Fall
James: "The Beast in the Jungle" or "The Turn of the Screw" (a stretch, but I think it works)

How about Simone de Beauvoir or a useful historicizing excerpt from Hannah Arendt?
posted by josh at 5:47 AM on July 11, 2005

In a class I took on existentialism this year, I found it was really useful when we studied Beauvoir and Fanon as applications of the more canonical writers like Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. Both of them are very passionate, engaging writers as well.
posted by ITheCosmos at 5:48 AM on July 11, 2005

Though it's longer than fifty pages, Paul Bowles' novel The Sheltering Sky is a marvelous oft-overlooked piece of existentialist listerature. Worth a glance to see whether it fits your needs.
posted by jdroth at 5:49 AM on July 11, 2005

I will be the lowest brow answer, but for real beginners who want an overview on otherwise intimidating topics in Philosophy there is a British company called Icon books that has a series called "Introducing: (Enter topic or name of thinker)."

They are by no means comprehensive, and some academics would be upset by the approachable vocabulary and the heavily illustrated format. That being said, they are well rounded, they do a good job of touching on many key issues for each topic they address and they have left me wanting to look further into various areas like Ethics, and Political Philosophy.
posted by BeerGrin at 5:52 AM on July 11, 2005

the best book i've read on existentialism was written by mary warnock.

the following is from my diary:

on the bus to work i've been reading mary warnock's existentialism. it's been a real pleasure - i'm now considering re-reading anne cohen-solal's biography of sartre, as i feel i understand a whole lot more.

perhaps the best thing about the book (and there are many other good things - it's short, clear, easy to understand) is warnock's authorial voice. i find that, when i read passages that are written in the first person i question what is being said (maybe it's just that i'm an argumentative old sod). and i'm sure that this is her intention, since existentialist writings are (apparently) largely aimed at drawing the user into a deeper awareness of their world.

it's also refreshing to see her trying to make sense of philosophers who clearly don't make a lot of sense. for example: [...] however many attempts are made to relate heidegger's philosophy to something more readily recognisable under that name, there will still remain a fairly hard core of sheer verbiage [...] or [need to insert a much better quote about relying on bluster when logic fails, once i find it again].
posted by andrew cooke at 6:03 AM on July 11, 2005

What about John Barth's "The End of the Road"? Amazing book.
posted by spicynuts at 7:13 AM on July 11, 2005

Fearless would be a more recent movie that is a good one to use as a discussion point for existentialist ideas.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 8:35 AM on July 11, 2005

I notice you don't have Heidegger on your list of canonical authors.
posted by kenko at 8:35 AM on July 11, 2005

Thanks, everyone; these are some great suggestions!

kenko, I hesitate to include Heidegger because I don't think it would be possible to do him justice within the time constraints, and because I cannot identify even a single excerpt that I think would be sufficiently accessible. But if you have any specific suggestions, I'd be glad to consider them.
posted by ori at 10:32 AM on July 11, 2005

I'd recommend Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle", as a fictional book that feels very existentialist. Aside from existentialism, it's also a great, entertainingly cynical book to read.
posted by knave at 10:36 AM on July 11, 2005

i guess you are probably already aware of the book, but pojman is generally a good place to find excerpts (have no idea what he has for heidegger and am not near my copy now).
posted by andrew cooke at 11:09 AM on July 11, 2005

If you want to work Heidegger in somehow, Sartre wrote a brief essay "The Humanism of Existentialism", to which Heidegger responded in "Letter on Humanism". The dialogue is a pretty important part of the existentialist literature; it demonstrates the differences between Sartre and Heidegger. It's also reasonably short, which is what you're looking for. Might be a touch too technical, but I'd give it a shot.
posted by painquale at 11:23 AM on July 11, 2005

There is an essay by Heidegger in Poetry, Language, and Thought about What Are Poets For that is worth reading. Rollo May edited a volume in the 70s, Existenz, with some good papers. James Bugental has written some key books on existential analysis, e.g., In Search of Authenticity. Irvin Yalom has a good book on Existential Therapy regarding choice, responsibility, and isolation. There is a website The Society for Existential Analysis that has some good papers available. You might consider too the link between existentialist writings and the Buddhist contemplative literature, focusing on the nature of subjectivity, immediacy of lived experience, awareness of the momentariness of life, and of death.
posted by madstop1 at 5:12 PM on July 11, 2005

Rollo May book is Existence
posted by madstop1 at 6:11 PM on July 11, 2005

The Seventh Seal by Bergman is very Kierkegaardian.
posted by the_bone at 2:32 PM on July 12, 2005

Thanks, again, everyone!
posted by ori at 10:28 AM on July 13, 2005

I've always liked "The Question Concerning Technology" by Heidegger.

I'll second The Seventh Seal.
posted by oddman at 10:07 PM on August 1, 2005