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Novels that discuss philosophy in a coherent way.

whateverwhatever
edited October 2008 in Everything Else
I don't know if that title makes sense to you guys, so I'll throw out some examples. I want books like Fight Club, which talks about existentialism, but in a way that the existential messages are put into the book so that the story is good on its own, but the philosephy adds an extra layer of meaning. Other books that pull this off well that I've read are A Clockwork Orange and House of Leaves. Novels that I'm not interested in hearing about just yet are ones that follow a stream-of-consciousness philosophical rant disguised as a story, such as Naked Lunch. The movie did a great job of actually expanding on characters and plot lines that the book only briefly and haphazardly threw in. I'm still very interested in reading the rest of Naked Lunch, though it's too daunting right now. Book recommendations that could help me work my way up to Naked Lunch would help, too.

Comments

  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    Though I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to get at everyone who wants to have a basic understanding of philosophy should read Kant.

    Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
    Critique of Pure Reason
  • whateverwhatever
    Though I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to get at everyone who wants to have a basic understanding of philosophy should read Kant.

    Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
    Critique of Pure Reason
    Are those novels?
  • kiwi_birdkiwi_bird
    Are those novels?
    Once again I messed up..

    No, they are not novels. But I'd still recommend them to anyone who's interested in philosophy.
  • rhinocerorhinocero
    I also think Critique of Pure Reason is a good introduction to philosophy. I think if more people who were interested in philosophy started out by reading it, many more people would be interested in philosophy. It really lays out the basic ideas and terms that people need to know in a way that's easy to follow.
  • StarfoxStarfox
    The Prince of Nothing trilogy by R. Scott Bakker.
  • deltadavedeltadave
    The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Farenheit 451, Freehold, Animal Farm, 1984

    Any fiction by L Neil Smith - his novels are all heavily libertarian.
  • BadDeaconBadDeacon
    edited October 2008
    The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. A nice romp through morals.

    Not sure if that is exactly what you are looking for though.

    There are also the obvious choices, like The Stranger (Albert Camus), and No Exit (Jean-Paul Sartre).
    Post edited by BadDeacon on
  • SymmetrySymmetry
    I suppose I'll have to recommend The Retreat to Commitment as the best non-fiction philosophical book I've found. Its basically an attempt to construct what is essentially a version of Popper's Critical Rationalism that is resistant to the attacks usually directed against Popper. And I'm not sure if this counts as philosophy or not but every geek should read Godel, Escher, Bach at least once.

    As for novels, Sophy's World will give you a good broad overview of the history of philosophy in novel form.

    As for novels that have a lot of good philosophy in them, but which aren't just histories lightly dressed up as novels, The Broken God by David Zindel is excellent, excellent, excellent in terms of philosophy and is a pretty decent novel as well. You really ought to read Neverness first, which doesn't quite have the same coherency ideawise and which does have some problems with pacing, but which is really beautiful in lots of ways.

    I'd also recommend The Golden Age by John C Wright and Lady of Mazes by Karl Schroeder.
  • StarfoxStarfox
    every geek should read Godel, Escher, Bach at least once.
    Gods yes.
  • TheWhaleSharkTheWhaleShark
    The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea
    A very interesting read. It contains possibly the only page of written literature that I've ever found to be truly disturbing and unsettling.
  • SailSail
    Continuing with with the nautical theme, you might like the short story The Open Boat by Stephen Crane. It's one of my favorites.
  • AndrewAndrew
    Sophie's World
  • rhinocerorhinocero
    edited October 2008
    The Fountainhead,Atlas Shrugged.
    No. Do not read these. If you really want to learn about the philosophy expressed in these books, read Nietzsche (Thus Spake Zarathustra if you need something fictional) and then if you really need to learn about the philosophical side of it I mean there's not really any fictional novels you should read, it's probably best to go for non-fiction if you're going to be reading about economics.

    To contribute: A lot of the classics of existentialism are actually fiction. Sartre wrote a lot of fiction (Nausea, for example, and No Exit, as baddeacon mentioned). Dostoevsky is very famous for his existentialist fiction, as is Camus (as, again, baddeacon mentioned).
    Post edited by rhinocero on
  • snipejaegsnipejaeg
    Sophie's World
    I had to read this for a class in college, and it didn't work for me. It seemed like the author was trying to write a textbook and novel at the same time, and failed at both. It's an interesting concept, but didn't work in practice. In the end I wound up describing it as authorial masturbation - the writer just impressing himself with how clever he was.

    I'd recommend The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever as a philosophical fantasy trilogy. I think it'd be considered existential, but I'm not certain about that label.
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