Who are some obscure pessimist writers / philosophers worth reading?
I assume people of this disposition are more likely to be ignored and overlooked but I'd like to read more than Schopenhauer, Zappfe, Ligotti and so on.
I count Houellebecq as a pessimist writer, and also H.P. Lovecraft.
>>7465654
Cioran, perhaps?
>>7465654
Nietzsche
>inb4 plebs say nietzche wasn't a pessimist
>>7465654
Celine
>>7465677
this, specifically journey to the end of the night
>Voyage au bout de la nuit is a nihilistic novel of savage, exultant misanthropy, combined, however, with cynical humour. Céline expresses an almost unrelieved pessimism with regard to human nature, human institutions, society, and life in general. Towards the end of the book, the narrator Bardamu, who is working at an insane asylum, remarks:
…I cannot refrain from doubting that there exist any genuine realizations of our deepest character except war and illness, those two infinities of nightmare,
>>7465698
Yeah I don't really know, and /lit/ is surprisingly optimistic which is mirrored in their reading habits so they probably don't either. You're likely better off searching around on google. I suspect few works of merit will have been translated to english, either, so that also limits your options.
>>7465654
Chamfort
>>7465705
I did look on google and goodreads first, but I was hoping with the international nature of this board there would be some obscure names from European nations and so on. Constantin Noica (Romania) is one author I'd like to find out more about, and Nicolae Steinhardt (Romania) also, but their works don't appear to be in English.
Durrenmatt is the answer; just read "christmas"...
>>7465654
Good ol' Unamuno. Are you from Spain? If you aren't, where did you first hear about him?
He's obscure enough to please the /lit/ hipster and exit-level enough to please the /lit/ sadboy. Can't recommend him enough.
>>7465717
literature is dead, people share their ideologies via the internet now. If you're looking for pessimists youtube is your best bet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rwYbMGsFoo
>>7465730
I'm not from Spain. I saw his name mentioned in Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race", which I thought was very well researched and provided me with the names of philosophers (particularly of the pessimist kind) I wouldn't have otherwise heard of.
>>7465741
Have you read anything by him yet? I can make you a few recommendations if you are interested in starting with him.
Also pic related, but I'm sure you already have this chart.
>>7465779
I've ordered his book "The Tragic Sense of Life" for myself for Christmas. I've also read about his novel Abel Sanchez about the re-telling of the Cain / Abel story. I would appreciate further recommendations if you could provide them, thank you.
Yes I've seen that chart, and although there are some good books on there I think it's produced more to cater for /lit/'s desire to form a uncatalogued of in-jokes and private references (as a means of forming an identity or something) than as a result of a genuine interest in books that might be labelled "exit-level". I don't think Stoner is in any real sense an "exit-level" book, for example.
I'm reading Fernando Pessoa at the moment and I find it very appealing, if repetitive.
>>7465791
*a catalogue
I suggest Albert Caraco, one of the most obscure nihilistic aphorist and also one of the most interesting and poetic. It's very hard to find translated though
>>7465826
Thank you.
>>7465791
"Niebla" (Mist) is his most critically appraised novel, but I don't consider it the best start point. Here he treats the topic of existential anguish in a very ambigous manner, with a barebones narrative.
My personal favorite is "San Manuel Bueno, mártir", about a country priest in a crisis of faith. If you like Bergman's cinema and his treatment of the "silence of God" this is a must.
"Abel Sanchez" is also great, and "The Tragic Sense of Life" is supposed to be his most successful essay (have read it though).
Another "pessimist" Spanish novel I'd recommend is Camilo José Cela's "The Family of Pascual Duarte", a gruesome portrait of rural Spain and, by extension, of human wickedness.
>>7465904
Thank you. San Manuel Bueno, martir reminds me of Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos in its description. Camilo José Cela seems interesting also. I'd never heard of him.
it seems pretty optimistic to assume that there are obscure pessimist writers who are "worth reading"
>>7465948
I'm using the word pessimism in a general sense I suppose, and referring to those whose work articulates a "negative" or depressing view of reality, life and human consciousness.
>>7465654
Why do you want to read them? Our world is generally a very happy place. It's just that the media focus on the tragedies.
>>7465934
It seems both have a similar plot and subject. I haven't read Diary yet, so I cannot make any conclusion, but "San Manuel Bueno" was published five years before Bernanos' novel.
You'll probably like Cela if you want something raw and depressing. "Pascual Duarte" even started an small literary stream, "tremendismo" among some realist authors of the time.
>>7465964
I'm not committed to a "pessimistic" perspective though I do appreciate reading books expressing (or, more accurately, articulating) a view of life that contrasts the the view of life apparently shared by most of the people I meet, which is that it is fun, happy if a little sad at times. The books I've read which may be referred to as "pessimistic" have generally provided me with a sense of reassurance and even companionship at times, in the sense that their authors seemed very isolated and through communicating their thoughts create something of a bond between them and me. Although this can be said of books in general, I feel with these authors their positions are so readily dismissed or patronized by so many people that finding any sort of kinship with others of a similar disposition seems valuable to me.
>>7465654
Prose works of Gottfried Benn.
Novels of Peter Handke (not sure if all of them, but things like The great fall, Goalie's anxiety.. would fit), also Thomas Bernahard, but he's well known.
Everything by Ilse Aichinger.
Walter Benjamin, wouldn't call him directly pessimist, but lots of melancholy in there. It goes directly from Benjamin to Sebald.
Pascal Quignard, I guess almost everything. (also a lot of other french guys, mostly Blanchot)
Rilke, especially his The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge.
>>7465972
What other Spanish literature can you recommend, particularly the kind that isn't well-known outside of Spain?
I hear Luna Miguel is Spain's Tao Lin at the moment? Though you may not be interested in contemporary literature.
>>7465993
Thank you.
>>7465993
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge seems particularly interesting. I've never read Rilke but I will start with this.
>>7465994
>What other Spanish literature can you recommend, particularly the kind that isn't well-known outside of Spain?
What other Spanish authors are well known outside of Spain, besides Cervantes? This is a genuine question.
I'll just leave this abridged guide to Spanish prose I made some time ago (what remembers me I forgot to mention "La tía Tula" before, another of Unamuno's major works, and a compulsory reading in high school (at least when I was in high school).
Pre-Renaissance:
Anon - Cantar de mio Cid
Don Juan Manuel - El conde Lucanor
Arcipreste de Hita - Libro de buen amor
Renaissance:
Fernando de Rojas - La Celestina*
Anon – Lazarillo de Tormes*
Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo – Amadís de Gaula
Baroque (Golden Age):
Cervantes – Don Quijote de La Mancha*
Gracián – El Criticón*
Quevedo - Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado don Pablos; ejemplo de vagamundos y espejo de tacaños
Mateo Alemán - Guzmán de Alfarache
Illustration
José Cadalso – Cartas Marruecas
Romanticism:
Gil y Carrasco – El Señor de Bembibre
Fernán Caballero - La Familia de Alvareda
Realism & the “Generación del 68”
Leopoldo Alas Clarín – La Regenta*
Benito Pérez Galdós – Fortunata y Jacinta*
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón – El sombrero de tres picos
Juan Valera – Pepita Jiménez
XIX Century-Today (lots of movements: modernism, regenerationism, tremendismo…)
Unamuno – La Tía Tula*
Valle-Inclán – Tirano Banderas
Pío Baroja – Zalacaín el aventurero
Juan Ramón Jiménez – Platero y yo*
Ramón J. Sender – Requiem por un campesino español
Francisco Ayala – La cabeza del cordero
Torrente Ballester - La saga-fuga de J.B.
Camilo José Cela – La familia de Pascual Duarte
Carmen Laforet – Nada
Ferlosio – El Jarama
Goytisolo – Señas de identidad
Antonio Muñoz Molina – El Jinete Polaco
[* Canonical works]
>I hear Luna Miguel is Spain's Tao Lin at the moment? Though you may not be interested in contemporary literature.
I don't care about /lit/ memes, and definitely I won't care about a Playground editor.
>>7466050
Very much appreciated. I respect your enthusiasm and mental stamina. I'm going to bookmark this for future reference also.
>>7465674
He's not a pessimist, pleb. All the guy ever screamed about was life affirmation.
>>7465654
>and also H.P. Lovecraft.
Have you read writers like Machen?
>>7466136
I've heard of his "Great God Pan" but haven't read it. That genre doesn't really appeal to me, though I appreciate Machen's influence on Lovecraft and others.
>>7466059
Thank you. Someday I'd really love to see the literary production of my country receive its deserved recognition.
I don't know if you are the OP, or just entered the thread looking for some "pessimist writers". Anyhow I'll throw in a couple more depressing recs before leaving: "La Regenta" by Clarín is, in short, the Spanish "Madame Bovary"/"Ana Karenina" but with a Wikipedia article under 1000 words, for our charming intellectual cred.
Also, I don't know how could I forget to add "The Tree of Knowledge" by Baroja to my chart. It's just so beautifully sad and well written.
>>7466157
Yes I'm the OP, and I will look up La Regenta and Tree of Knowledge when I get home. I haven't heard of them before. Do you have ambitions to publish your own work?
Will O'the wisp - Pierre Drieu La Rochelle
Beckett can be pretty pessimistic.
A Sleeping Man - George Perec
Zola (L'Assomoir or La Curée for instance)
Uncle Vania - Chekhov
The Philosophical Writings of Edgar Saltus
Mr. Saltus is a scientific pessimist, as witty, as bitter, as satirical, as interesting and as insolent to humanity in general as are his great teachers, Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann. there is a prodigious and prodigal display of genius in his work that is a history of antitheism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle.”
I second Will O Wisp. It's very haunting and beautiful. The Malle's movie is also very good.
>>7467289
OP here. Thank you for the suggestion, I'd never heard of him.
>>7465654
Try "Gemma" by Dimitris Liantinis (a Greek writer). IIRC he was a classics teacher who ended his life by venturing into the mountains and never showing up again.
>>7469325
Another interesting suggestion, and an author I'd not heard of. Thank you.
>>7466148
"The Great God Pan" is extremely unsettling, especially in regards to humanity's place in the hierarchy of things, much more so than Lovecraft.
>>7465685
I read about 40 pages of that book. For me it was really off putting because of the sarcasm bordering on the absurd and flippant. Is the whole book like that? Does it add anything besides the absurdist and nihilistic shit?
I just want to get enraged and depressed about how shit the world is and Celine made me laugh!
>>7469348
I assume that "40 pages in" means you're still in the trenches? Guess what: later on he goes on a trip to Africa and it's like if "The Heart of Darkness" was a dark Monty Python skit.
