Existential Book Club discussion

I don't want this to turn into a dictatorship so feel free to add suggestions or recommendations for existentialist literature and authors below.

At some stage we need to do Sartre perhaps Nausea or Age of Reason. Then there is Dostoevsky maybe Crime and Punishment or the shorter Notes from Underground.

I think we need to read;
- Waiting for Godot
- Being and Time
- Being and Nothingness
- The Second Sex

but there are so many books to read, we won't run out of ideas anytime soon

Waiting for Godot (Beckett)
The Castle (Kafka)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky)

Existentialism Is a Humanism by Sartre is so small but such an essential to the comprehension of his thoughts.

Some additional reading suggestions, if we want to venture more into fiction as well:

The Blood of Others by Simone de
Beauvoir

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Antigone by Jean Anouilh

Thanks guys, I've added all of these to the to-read bookshelf to we'll get to a lot of them.

I guess you might like The Tunnel by Sabato. I just read it and I feel that it might fit in this group given its description.

I feel like I am not much of a Sartrean fan. Reading books of Camus would maybe tip the balance regarding the view of existentialism in harmony with the world and man :)

And so I suggest the following:
-The Stranger
-The Plague
-The Fall

The Stranger (sometimes called The Outsider) for me. A very involving book where court proceedings are called into question as well as the general problem of social alienation.

Not really suggesting this for the club, but just wanted to make folks aware of a new book (released 8 Aug 17 in the US): Surfing with Sartre by Aaron James. Has a 4.17 rating (that'll change!) on GR. Might be a little less dry than some books -- gonna put a hold on it at my libe.

Kafka Unleashed: Stories, Dreams & Visions

My translation - now 14 Stories and 4 Excerpts from The Trial & The Castle - perhaps a good read for sometime in 2019....more information is in the Kafka group.

pl.

Existential Psychotherapy
Civilization and Its Discontents

City of Zeph by Robert Woolston [Description] Follow alongside Zephaniah, a young foreign tourist, as he travels the streets of New York City. During the events of a single day Zeph encounters events and themes related to American philosophy, capitalism, wealth, power, and social structure. A story inspired in part by Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, CITY of ZEPH chronicles an updated view of modern American society and its philosophical dogma. ---- Please contact me, Robert Woolston, at woolstonrobert@gmail.com if you're interested in reviewing and rating City of Zeph on Amazon

Hi everyone,

I’d like to suggest my unpublished novel, Concerning Hope in the Human Race, as a possible future group read.

It is a philosophical novel that questions one of our most deeply rooted assumptions: that hope is inherently positive. Through its characters and their conflicting views, the novel explores whether hope actually improves the human condition or simply drives us to act, regardless of the consequences.

It also examines the relationship between hope, suffering, expectations, happiness, and the choices we make for ourselves and for others.

I realize that suggesting my own work is somewhat unusual, but since the group welcomes suggestions for existentialist fiction, I thought it might be relevant to its discussions. The manuscript is complete, and I’d be happy to make it available to the group if there is any interest.