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Naked Thoughts
Heralded by Joshua Cohen as “The Aphorism Master,” Róbert Gál revives the forgotten art of the philo-poetic line with vicious wit and tremendous dexterity. Naked Thoughts—his fourth book to be translated into English—is at once incendiary and revelatory, surprising and instinctual, defiant and delicate, and dares to pursue and give expression to those fugitive inspirations of the mind whose very beauty relies on their performance of contention with the structures of meaning by which they are snared and signified. Weighing the balance between the intensity of emotion and patient contemplation, Naked Thoughts is a book that will satisfy voyeurs and arsonists.
65 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
71 people want to read
About the author
Róbert Gál
19 books71 followersRóbert Gál is a Slovak-born writer and editor living in Prague. He is the author of several books of aphorisms, fiction, and philosophical fragments available in English translation, including Tractatus (Schism Press, 2022), Naked Thoughts (Black Sun Lit, 2019), Agnomia (Dalkey Archive Press, 2018), On Wing (Dalkey Archive Press, 2015), and Signs & Symptoms (Twisted Spoon Press, 2003).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 1, 2019
This slender collections of aphorisms, pondering and witticisms is the type of wor that welcomes rereading, opening up fresh insights with each visit. Sometimes serious, sometimes light, Robert Gal has the right feel and touch for this type of writing. His experience and comfort with the form is fully evident in this attractively presented volume from Black Sun Lit.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2019/04/30/gi...
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2019/04/30/gi...
May 7, 2019
Literary, poetic, philosophical aphorisms, often funny ("The ambition of laboratory mice") , sometimes stoic ("A failure is a first draft. And a first draft needs no motives.") or allusive ("Only things actually said can be passed over in silence"), Gál's lines are compressed observations of life with almost haiku-like density.
November 19, 2020
“A film is a fetish of motion for motionless people”
“To assume that the Minotaur is capable of of empathy means to recognize the possibility that the labyrinth is a labyrinth for him, too”
“To assume that the Minotaur is capable of of empathy means to recognize the possibility that the labyrinth is a labyrinth for him, too”
January 25, 2020
Naked Thoughts
Some of the early annotations I put down in this book range from a single word or name to "there's an answer somewhere". In other aphorisms certain words or the full expression are underlined, and I guess the starred selection means that I found the truth to contain some truth, even when truth lacks all relation to reality as Gál reminds us: "There is nothing so inverisimilitudinous as a verity." What I like about this short collection of aphorisms is its incitement of thought. I couldn't help but resist thinking through Gál's sense of the weight of ideas with my own ideas:
Might the idea resolve itself? How?
The possibility of developing a voice with a collection of aphorisms--Gál's narrative interventions seems to be an attempt at such a task.
What is true bears no relation to life; but then, how could this be? Language and truth. Verisimilitude.
What if we could burn language? "Pyrogrammar" or Pyrography.
Have you ever seen a word with a burn mark?
I find the trace of ideas in the narrative sections and the narrative can be traced in the aphorisms. See the 1st paragraph of section 4, vertigo in an aquarium.
I remember upon the first reading I stopped at: "At Godot's pace" to watch a film version of Waiting for Godot on youtube. I laughed and smiled and felt alive again. This wasn't my first introduction to Beckett, for I'd read Molloy last year (or the year before I can't remember now), who/which reminded me of Djuna Barnes' poetry-prose novel Nightwood.
Sometimes I can't articulate, tell you, understand why a particular voice within a text reminds me of another text; sometimes I cant explain how working through a review, I make connections between the text and my life. However, having Gál's text around, that is, knowing I can pick it up and it will push me into corners and hallways of thought, seems to be a comfort.
Are these words confusing aphorisms? Yes. Are Gál's aphorisms confusing? Yes. Are some aphorisms less confused than others? Yes. Is an unconfused life a life worth confusing? ...
Some of the early annotations I put down in this book range from a single word or name to "there's an answer somewhere". In other aphorisms certain words or the full expression are underlined, and I guess the starred selection means that I found the truth to contain some truth, even when truth lacks all relation to reality as Gál reminds us: "There is nothing so inverisimilitudinous as a verity." What I like about this short collection of aphorisms is its incitement of thought. I couldn't help but resist thinking through Gál's sense of the weight of ideas with my own ideas:
Might the idea resolve itself? How?
The possibility of developing a voice with a collection of aphorisms--Gál's narrative interventions seems to be an attempt at such a task.
What is true bears no relation to life; but then, how could this be? Language and truth. Verisimilitude.
What if we could burn language? "Pyrogrammar" or Pyrography.
Have you ever seen a word with a burn mark?
I find the trace of ideas in the narrative sections and the narrative can be traced in the aphorisms. See the 1st paragraph of section 4, vertigo in an aquarium.
I remember upon the first reading I stopped at: "At Godot's pace" to watch a film version of Waiting for Godot on youtube. I laughed and smiled and felt alive again. This wasn't my first introduction to Beckett, for I'd read Molloy last year (or the year before I can't remember now), who/which reminded me of Djuna Barnes' poetry-prose novel Nightwood.
Sometimes I can't articulate, tell you, understand why a particular voice within a text reminds me of another text; sometimes I cant explain how working through a review, I make connections between the text and my life. However, having Gál's text around, that is, knowing I can pick it up and it will push me into corners and hallways of thought, seems to be a comfort.
Are these words confusing aphorisms? Yes. Are Gál's aphorisms confusing? Yes. Are some aphorisms less confused than others? Yes. Is an unconfused life a life worth confusing? ...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews