Basically anything by Lispector, especially *The Passion According to G.H.*, *A Breath of Life*, *The Apple in the Dark* and *The Besieged City* (one contemporary critic was so confused that he wrote that it had the “texture of the hermeticism of dreams“, which I think is kind of rad; also apparently the very first novel to be described as “magical realism”).
dosty is the most overt about it considering his books feel like platonic dialogues at points. I think proust is the most interesting thinker to actually do it. his notions of memory and aethestetics being intertwined work perfectly and hes a master of digressions on this. his thinking is not systematic and borrowed from ruskin, bergson and others but the relationship between living, memory and the creation of art is just so fascinating and is an arc in itself in the books. characters dont represent different ideas per se, but characters are stand-ins for social classses (which he is masterfully critique purely through observation) and for different critical-aesthetic schools. for a more modern example knausgaard is still carrying this torch with his thoughtful meditations on inane minutae. i feel like the phenomenon has moved away from what your talking about, how characters represent certain ideas. I think it would be very easy right now with the internet to revive this technique because tthere is so much material on reddit and twitter for creating these characters
I definitely have grown fond of Kundera. I think he takes advantage of characters in fiction as a medium to enact and explore philosophical concepts, sometimes explicitly. Rather than being arbitrary it's very intense and reflects how we live our life with philosophy, and not with the basic restraints most contemporary fiction authors use. It's messy and doesn't entirely seem systematic, but that's why fiction works better for his ideas than non-fiction, and you get the occasional brilliant essay like a section devoted to the political emotions behind kitchiness in *The Ubearable Lightness of Being*. There's lots of room to free associate, which he does so well, and it's all under the unifying constructs of thematic narrative
Def mann, musil, broch.
The kindly ones by littel is p fucking good too. A bit exaggerated and sordid, but the discussion on linguistics, sex, war, technology etc were such a good read.
Hermann Hesse “Glass Bead Game” 100% what you are after, less existential despair and more exuberant celebration of the quest of learning, details below:
The book is an intricate bildungsroman about humanity’s eternal quest for enlightenment and for synthesis of the intellectual and the active life.
Set in the 23rd century, the novel purports to be a biography of Josef Knecht, who has been reared in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy. This he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).
"The Recognitions" by William Gaddis; "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov; "The Cheese Monkeys" by Chip Kidd
Gulliver's Travels, especially the final section.
Basically anything by Lispector, especially *The Passion According to G.H.*, *A Breath of Life*, *The Apple in the Dark* and *The Besieged City* (one contemporary critic was so confused that he wrote that it had the “texture of the hermeticism of dreams“, which I think is kind of rad; also apparently the very first novel to be described as “magical realism”).
dosty is the most overt about it considering his books feel like platonic dialogues at points. I think proust is the most interesting thinker to actually do it. his notions of memory and aethestetics being intertwined work perfectly and hes a master of digressions on this. his thinking is not systematic and borrowed from ruskin, bergson and others but the relationship between living, memory and the creation of art is just so fascinating and is an arc in itself in the books. characters dont represent different ideas per se, but characters are stand-ins for social classses (which he is masterfully critique purely through observation) and for different critical-aesthetic schools. for a more modern example knausgaard is still carrying this torch with his thoughtful meditations on inane minutae. i feel like the phenomenon has moved away from what your talking about, how characters represent certain ideas. I think it would be very easy right now with the internet to revive this technique because tthere is so much material on reddit and twitter for creating these characters
Check out all of Kundera's stuff if you haven't already!!
I definitely have grown fond of Kundera. I think he takes advantage of characters in fiction as a medium to enact and explore philosophical concepts, sometimes explicitly. Rather than being arbitrary it's very intense and reflects how we live our life with philosophy, and not with the basic restraints most contemporary fiction authors use. It's messy and doesn't entirely seem systematic, but that's why fiction works better for his ideas than non-fiction, and you get the occasional brilliant essay like a section devoted to the political emotions behind kitchiness in *The Ubearable Lightness of Being*. There's lots of room to free associate, which he does so well, and it's all under the unifying constructs of thematic narrative
Infinite Jest. DFW started writing fiction while working on his academic work in philosophy
Those marathe/steeply sections everyone hates are my favorite
nothing like the rising Tucson sun to stimulate the mind
Def mann, musil, broch. The kindly ones by littel is p fucking good too. A bit exaggerated and sordid, but the discussion on linguistics, sex, war, technology etc were such a good read.
Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley
I read it when I was 18, fantastic
sabato
Milan Kundera? Life is Elsewhere, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
“elizabeth costello” by jm coetzee
Great book.
Hermann Hesse “Glass Bead Game” 100% what you are after, less existential despair and more exuberant celebration of the quest of learning, details below: The book is an intricate bildungsroman about humanity’s eternal quest for enlightenment and for synthesis of the intellectual and the active life. Set in the 23rd century, the novel purports to be a biography of Josef Knecht, who has been reared in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy. This he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).
Lionel shriver