the world's greatest books gutenberg image
Edward Nig
Answer
Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov' concerns several Russian brothers who attempt to do just that. Each seeks meaning and self-realization in a different dimension of experience. The added benefit is that it's a great novel.
Anything by Dostoevsky, in fact, concerns that kind of psychological exploration. 'Crime and Punishment' concerns a young man who commits a horrible crime trying to come to terms with it. 'Notes from the Underground' may be his most disturbing book, in which a solitary outsider wanders about in the strange crevices of his contracted mind.
For a slightly different, even an opposite tack, try Samuel Beckett. His novels, particularly his trilogy, (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable) suggest a certain kind of inner journey. This, though, is an inner journey from which no one returns. The functions of the self are obliterated, one by one, until the recognizably human is effaced, and what remains is a mere physicality, or a conglomerate of senses, or a factory for metabolism. Highly disturbing.
On a more playful note, Italo Calvino's 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' concerns the very concept of reading and the formation of the self. Anyone who loves reading will enjoy it immensely. Birkert's 'Gutenberg Elegies', while not a novel, similarly addresses how reading forms readers.
This is a dominant theme of 20th-century fiction. Self-exploration is the major motif in a lot of existentialist writing, even though these writers probably wouldn't like the idea of 'discovering one's true self'; if anything, they'd talk about creating the self. Some good selections in this regard include Sartre (particularly Nausea) and Camus ('The Stranger' focuses on a character who seems to have no inner life at all).
For a novel which is composed almost entirely of psychological impressions and changing self-images, see Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves'. An immensely underrated novel is Musil's 'The Man Without Qualities', about a mathematician who has trouble distinguishing the real from the possible.
Many of Hermann Hesse's novels concern this kind of search. 'The Steppenwolf' is about a middle-aged outsider unable to accept society; the book traces his attempts to reconcile himself with the world. 'Siddhartha' is an adaptation of the life of Buddha, about the search for enlightenment. And 'Magister Ludi' is about a gifted young man who becomes the master of the 'glass bead game', a kind of grand intellectual pursuit.
Dostoevsky's 'The Brothers Karamazov' concerns several Russian brothers who attempt to do just that. Each seeks meaning and self-realization in a different dimension of experience. The added benefit is that it's a great novel.
Anything by Dostoevsky, in fact, concerns that kind of psychological exploration. 'Crime and Punishment' concerns a young man who commits a horrible crime trying to come to terms with it. 'Notes from the Underground' may be his most disturbing book, in which a solitary outsider wanders about in the strange crevices of his contracted mind.
For a slightly different, even an opposite tack, try Samuel Beckett. His novels, particularly his trilogy, (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable) suggest a certain kind of inner journey. This, though, is an inner journey from which no one returns. The functions of the self are obliterated, one by one, until the recognizably human is effaced, and what remains is a mere physicality, or a conglomerate of senses, or a factory for metabolism. Highly disturbing.
On a more playful note, Italo Calvino's 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' concerns the very concept of reading and the formation of the self. Anyone who loves reading will enjoy it immensely. Birkert's 'Gutenberg Elegies', while not a novel, similarly addresses how reading forms readers.
This is a dominant theme of 20th-century fiction. Self-exploration is the major motif in a lot of existentialist writing, even though these writers probably wouldn't like the idea of 'discovering one's true self'; if anything, they'd talk about creating the self. Some good selections in this regard include Sartre (particularly Nausea) and Camus ('The Stranger' focuses on a character who seems to have no inner life at all).
For a novel which is composed almost entirely of psychological impressions and changing self-images, see Virginia Woolf's 'The Waves'. An immensely underrated novel is Musil's 'The Man Without Qualities', about a mathematician who has trouble distinguishing the real from the possible.
Many of Hermann Hesse's novels concern this kind of search. 'The Steppenwolf' is about a middle-aged outsider unable to accept society; the book traces his attempts to reconcile himself with the world. 'Siddhartha' is an adaptation of the life of Buddha, about the search for enlightenment. And 'Magister Ludi' is about a gifted young man who becomes the master of the 'glass bead game', a kind of grand intellectual pursuit.
Who's the greatest man to ever live?
f
not Jesus though
Answer
Gandhi, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Jr, FDR and Winston Churchill were extraordinary men who revolutionized the world, Nelson Mandela is a modern-day saint of sorts, and Johannes Gutenberg gave us the world's greatest invention, but in my opinion the greatest man to ever live was a woman.
Helen Keller became blind and death at two years of age. She had plenty of reason for fury and frustration, and rather than sucking it inward and falling into despair, she, with the help of her phenomenal teacher Anne Sullivan, converted it into energy and passion. Those who know the story of the Miracle Worker only have a small glimpse of how exceedingly great Helen Keller truly was. At a time when most teenage girls from the South had far more simple aspirations of following in their mother's footsteps and working in the home, Helen Keller set her mind to attending Harvard. She studied Greek, Latin, History and Geometry, and though Harvard wouldn't take her, their sister school, the all-female Radcliffe College did. At 23 she published the book "The Story of My Life," which is deeply inspiring. She was a tireless activist for racial and sexual equality, and showed tremendous courage, perseverance, and boldness. And she was a funny, complex person who fully embraced life and looked it "straight in the eye."
Other people accomplished more than she did. She never won a Nobel Peace Prize, invented anything revolutionary, saved a life, or won a battle, but she was an optimistic example of the deepest meaning of being alive as a human being.
~ Pax / Peace : )
Gandhi, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Jr, FDR and Winston Churchill were extraordinary men who revolutionized the world, Nelson Mandela is a modern-day saint of sorts, and Johannes Gutenberg gave us the world's greatest invention, but in my opinion the greatest man to ever live was a woman.
Helen Keller became blind and death at two years of age. She had plenty of reason for fury and frustration, and rather than sucking it inward and falling into despair, she, with the help of her phenomenal teacher Anne Sullivan, converted it into energy and passion. Those who know the story of the Miracle Worker only have a small glimpse of how exceedingly great Helen Keller truly was. At a time when most teenage girls from the South had far more simple aspirations of following in their mother's footsteps and working in the home, Helen Keller set her mind to attending Harvard. She studied Greek, Latin, History and Geometry, and though Harvard wouldn't take her, their sister school, the all-female Radcliffe College did. At 23 she published the book "The Story of My Life," which is deeply inspiring. She was a tireless activist for racial and sexual equality, and showed tremendous courage, perseverance, and boldness. And she was a funny, complex person who fully embraced life and looked it "straight in the eye."
Other people accomplished more than she did. She never won a Nobel Peace Prize, invented anything revolutionary, saved a life, or won a battle, but she was an optimistic example of the deepest meaning of being alive as a human being.
~ Pax / Peace : )
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Posts
Comments :
Post a Comment