pick4 Stars • The Outsider by Colin Wilson (1956) explores the "Outsider," an alienated individual who rejects societal norms due to intense self-awareness and a sense of a valueless world. Through figures like Dostoevsky, Kafka, van Gogh, and Nietzsche, Wilson examines their existential struggles, suffering, and search for meaning.
#TheOutsider #ColinWilson #Bookish
Once you have mathematical certainty there is nothing left to do or to understand. There will be nothing left but to bottle up your five senses and plunge into contemplation. While if you stick to consciousness, even though the same result is attained, you can at least flog yourself at times, and that will, at any rate, liven you up. Reactionary as it is, corporal punishment is better than nothing.
pickSad events of a misguided youth in urban Detroit around 1960. Alex lives with his alcoholic dad who works 2nd shift at a car factory. I enjoyed the ups and downs of the book, cheering for Alex, hoping he would make it through his hardships to lead a good life. He is a complex character with a complicated history. The story takes place over the course of about a school year, but has many flashbacks giving the characters tangible depth.
But anyhow: what can a decent man speak about with most pleasure?
Answer: about himself.
I‘m not sure whether I‘ve drifted away from A CLOSED AND COMMON ORBIT or I‘m just taking a break. Either way, I‘ve switched to SATELLITE LOVE. It‘s weird and quiet and beautiful, and I regret nothing.
