Awesome write-up. As a fan of books and movies "committed to meaninglessness, pessimism, and transgression" I look forward to checking out some of the titles you mention above. If there are any other essentials you recommend, please pass them along - thanks!
Thank you! One author I'm now realizing I forgot is Robert Musil - it's on the high-minded side, but "Man Without Qualities" is a good one; as the critic Roger Kimball put it, it "may be seen as an attempt to continue Nietzsche’s anatomy of nihilism in the form of a novel." "Confusions of Young Torless" is good too, and much shorter, and actually finished. "The Stranger" is probably Camus' most pessimistic, "Satantango," "Melancholy of Resistance" or "War & War" for Krasznahorkai (I love him), "Extinction" to go along with Bernhard's "Correction," Beckett's novels (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable are collected together). "Journey to the End of the Night" and "Death on the Installment Plan" if you can stomach Céline. Gaddis has too much reverence for the old masters to truly be a nihilist but the sheer weight of commerce and capital basically destroys everything in "J R." WIlliam Gass's "The Tunnel" too! And among the contemporary set, Matias Énard's "Zone" and Fernanda Melchor's "Hurricane Season" are up there! I think Melchor said something like 'a demon takes over halfway through the book.'
Once again - excellent writing, Evan.
Awesome write-up. As a fan of books and movies "committed to meaninglessness, pessimism, and transgression" I look forward to checking out some of the titles you mention above. If there are any other essentials you recommend, please pass them along - thanks!
Thank you! One author I'm now realizing I forgot is Robert Musil - it's on the high-minded side, but "Man Without Qualities" is a good one; as the critic Roger Kimball put it, it "may be seen as an attempt to continue Nietzsche’s anatomy of nihilism in the form of a novel." "Confusions of Young Torless" is good too, and much shorter, and actually finished. "The Stranger" is probably Camus' most pessimistic, "Satantango," "Melancholy of Resistance" or "War & War" for Krasznahorkai (I love him), "Extinction" to go along with Bernhard's "Correction," Beckett's novels (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnameable are collected together). "Journey to the End of the Night" and "Death on the Installment Plan" if you can stomach Céline. Gaddis has too much reverence for the old masters to truly be a nihilist but the sheer weight of commerce and capital basically destroys everything in "J R." WIlliam Gass's "The Tunnel" too! And among the contemporary set, Matias Énard's "Zone" and Fernanda Melchor's "Hurricane Season" are up there! I think Melchor said something like 'a demon takes over halfway through the book.'
We believe in nothing, Lebowski!!!
Kidding aside, needed this one today dude - particularly that last Barthelme quote and your last paragraph. Well done and thank you!
No, Donny, these men are nihilists, there's nothing to be afraid of
👏👏👏