Retreating from the world? Your future practise?
Good start.

Arnon

For your next retreat, I recommend Sainte Marie de La Tourette, near Lyon:
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/latourette/index.htm

Arnon

Is it a male monastery?

to: arnon

I much enjoyed your piece yesterday in cultural supplement, NRC. The artist in me felt challenged/confronted. I especially liked it in light of Raymond van de Boogaard's note on protestantism in the same paper - it (unintentionally?) 'embedded' your piece. At one stage you state you are not necessarily Nietschzean, by doing so you brilliantly prove you understand what your readers are thinking at that point (exactly that: "he is a moral nihilist" - which I would take as a compliment). It however raises a new question: so then what philosophical label, if any, would he give himself?

arnon

what are you doing down there in montenegro?

Beata

You guess.

arnon

emmmmmmmm....
having a look what happened/changed?

Beata

I'm researching for an article, yes.

Sasja

This one yes.

aliefka

Considering Mr Gruberg's sharp eye for the absurdity of our existence, I would say 'existentialist' comes closest to a philosophical label.. He mentions Kierkegaard in a novel, he quotes Camus in an essay.. But then again, 'existentialist' is ofcourse just a word, and some scolars also consider Nietzsche one of the first 'existentialists.'

But I do think he shares a lot of his preoccupations with those people who called themselves that, whether it makes an 'existentialist' out of him, I don't know..

existentialist

@aliefka & M.Hordijk

Camus, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, ... ... -- Grunberg?
[Sartre: La Nausée (Nausea), 1938] (-- 'Disconnection']

What about his 'De Mensheid zij geprezen. Lof der Zotheid 2001' ('Mankind Be Praised'), based on Erasmus's 'Lof der zotheid' (The Praise of Folly) ?
Do you think Erasmus is an 'existentialist' ?!
And what about people like Buster Keaton etc, who are mentioned in 'De troost van de slapstick' (The Consolation of Slapstick) (1998) ?
You might start arguing that Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton and
Charlie Chaplin are real 'existentialists'!

M. Hordijk: '... 'existentialist' is of course just a word, and some scolars also consider Nietzsche one of the first 'existentialists.'
Please tell me what 'scolars' = 'scholars' consider Nietzsche an existentialist?

Anyone writing a great novel about whatever is an existentialist?
I think you are both quite mistaken on this point.

For some real understanding of what 'existentialist' means I would advise you to read "Les Chemins de la liberté (The Roads to Freedom) trilogy, comprising:
L'Âge de raison (The Age of Reason), 1945
Le Sursis (The Reprieve), 1947
La Mort dans l'Âme (Troubled Sleep, title formerly translated as 'Iron in the Soul', literally "Death in Spirit"), 1949

Or read Bertrand Russell: A History of Western Philosophy:
XXVIII Bergson
=========================================

Mr. Hesper

You say "Anyone writing a great novel about whatever is an existentialist?I think you are both quite mistaken on this point.."
Please allow me to correct you: I don't recall having made any claims 'on this point.'

aliefka

I stand corrected. You didn't.

Bert

It is my understanding that Nietzsche was one the first philosophers to officially announce the death of God, urging mankind to re-evaluate all values.

This could be seen as starting point for the existentialists, with their emphasis on people's own responsibility, and the responsibility for every man to figure out his own ethos in an absurd world.
Now this, finding your ethos in an absurd world, I think is very much a theme in Grunberg's work. His characters come up with different solutions, from the hedonism of Beck to the (in my eyes) slightly insane ethos of Francois Lepeltier and his necessary and less necessary sins.

Finding your ethos in an absurd world is definately not the theme of every novel, so not every novel is 'existantialistic'. A lot of novels for instance deal with the struggling of an individual inside some sort of system, not with finding their own ethos.

M. Hordijk

I highly appreciate your comments.
Just wanted to let you know.

'ethos'

".... Nietzsche was one OF the first philosophers to officially announce the death of God,...."
OFFICIALLY ??
"..., urging mankind..."
URGING ??
"This could be seen as A starting point..."

"... figure out his own ethos in an absurd world."
(- definately - definitely)
Ok, so "finding your ethos in an absurd world" makes a novel 'existentialistic'?
I'm sorry, but I don't think that's true.
Almost any novel would be 'existentialistic' by this defintion.
Or almost none at all: what main character in what novel is trying to find his "'ethos' in an absurd world"?
ANY protagonist is just ACTING in ANY novel/story. (Provided it's a good novel/story).
Most of them are certainly not 'trying to find their ethos'. They have one (if any) from the start.

Let's just leave it at that, for now...
==========================

Hesper

Are your comments official announcements?

official

Quite...
I'm not in any office.
That' the point.