*Forgive any formatting as I’m on mobile.
As I read in themes, I’m currently focusing on philosophy to try and understand it, see where I fit in the world and also reconstruct my own atheist/nihilistic worldview.
I just got done with Existentialist Cafe and got a really nice overview of all the main players in the Existentialist camp but want to finally take the leap into nihilism and absurdism proper. I’ve read The Stranger and Myth of Sisyphus and like Camus a lot so far but also wanna tackle Satre, Beauvoir, and Merleau-Ponty eventually but wonder if I need to read Husserl and specifically Heidegger and Nietzche since they are controversial because of their politics. Would I be able to get away with just reading synopses of their work? I do currently have Being and Time in my list of books to get.
Also, aside from Nietzche, who else should I read regarding nihilism? I’m currently working through The Trouble with Being Born by Cioran and wanna find some more by him but also have The Antidote by Burkeman and Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Ligotti in my backlog. I did read The Book by Alan Watts the other day and though it felt like reading my stoned friend’s wild ramblings on society and how we exist in it, some coherent stuff did come through. But I don’t know if it was what I was after. I did appreciate it for introducing me to some concepts like ego and self but maybe I should have saved it for another day?
Sidenote but I’m planning on moving back and force between philosophy and socialist theory so socialist philosphers are also welcome. Generally I’m open to all suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
Reading a synopsis for Nietzche is likely for the best if you just want the general vibes. His writing style is really solid, mind you. Also Sprach Zarathustra is poetic, even if it’s up its own ass threes times over and I wanna say it was Beyond Good and Evil that discussed Dionysis as an avatar of primordial chaos. Short read, that latter one.
Do you know of a synopsis that is good or would I be ok with trying to find a YouTube video or something?
I do have an English translation of Zararhustra, or I do if it’s Thus Spoke Syphilis which web search suggests.
“Thus Spake Syphilis” Goddamn, is that a good burn on Nietzche. Unfortunately I don’t know a good synopsis to point you to, not at the top of my head, anyway.
You know I typed that and went “that doesn’t look right… Oh well”
Wait hold the fuck up… The title of what I grabbed is “Thus Spoke Syphilis” rofl. But it has that on the cover page of the epub. The actual file is Zararhustra.