This is a long-due review of one of my favorite reads last year, At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell.
Existentialism, as Sarah Bakewell says, “is more of a mood than a philosophy” and describes anyone “who has ever felt disgruntled, rebellious, or alienated about anything.” And by that parameter, literature and philosophy is full of existential writing throughout history. However, for obvious reasons, Sarah Bakewell follows the more concrete history of modern existentialism to create this wonderful book on the lives and writings of modern existentialist philosophers from Husserl and Heidegger to Sartre and Beauvoir to Colin Wilson.
Often, philosophy can be pretty tough to read for us mere mortals and seems to be rife with the heavy stuff that would either require too much of a mental exercise or put us to sleep. I don’t know about you, but the usual perception of philosophy around me has been that it is dry. Not fun. If you call yourself a philosopher, you’d instantly be judged as someone super serious…
View original post 837 more words
When the nib trips… 