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The Terror of Existence
- From Ecclesiastes to Theatre of the Absurd
- Narrated by: Jack Wynters
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
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Publisher's summary
The cultural death of God has created a conundrum for intellectuals. How could a life stripped of ultimate meaning be anything but absurd? How was man to live? How could he find direction in a world of no direction? What would he tell his children that could make their lives worthwhile? What is the ground of morality?
Existentialism is the literary cri de coeur resulting from the realization that without God, everything good, true, and beautiful in human life is destined to be destroyed in a pitiless material cosmos. Theodore Dalrymple and Kenneth Francis examine the main existentialist works, from Ecclesiastes to the Theatre of the Absurd, each man coming from a different perspective. Francis is a believer, Dalrymple is not, but both empathize with the struggle to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe.
Part literary criticism, part philosophical exploration, this book holds many surprising gems of insight from two of the most interesting minds of our time.
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Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
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Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
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William Blake vs the World
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake.
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Best book ever
- By idamae on 11-04-22
By: John Higgs
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I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
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Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
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A Wicked Company
- The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The flourishing of radical philosophy in Baron Thierry Holbach’s Paris salon from the 1750s to the 1770s stands as a seminal event in Western history. Holbach’s house was an international epicenter of revolutionary ideas and intellectual daring, bringing together such original minds as Denis Diderot, Laurence Sterne, David Hume, Adam Smith, Ferdinando Galiani, Horace Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, Guillaume Raynal, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In A Wicked Company, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes of this exceptional group of friends.
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Excellent Book on Radical Enlightenment
- By EJJ on 02-15-15
By: Philipp Blom
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The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
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...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
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He Held Radical Light
- The Art of Faith, the Faith of Art
- By: Christian Wiman
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Christian Wiman explores the relationships between art and faith, death and fame, heaven and oblivion. Above all, He Held Radical Light is a love letter to poetry, filled with moving, surprising, and sometimes funny encounters with the poets Wiman has known.
By: Christian Wiman
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The Spiritual Teachings of Seneca
- Ancient Philosophy for Modern Wisdom
- By: Mark Forstater, Victoria Radin
- Narrated by: David Troughton, Louisa Millwood Haig
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Abridged
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Seneca was dedicated to Stoicism, and in his essays and letters he explained the stoic position on many fundamental issues: pleasure and the problem of desire, happiness, and contentment; anger, fear, living in the present, how to think for yourself, anxiety and tranquillity, goodness, freedom, trusting the universe; courage, opportunity, cruelty and how to deal with it, friendship, love and trust, death and how to live, learning , chance and fate, time, aspirations, wisdom - and more.
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Odd presentation style
- By Mark on 08-03-08
By: Mark Forstater, and others
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The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
- By: Stephen Greenblatt
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Bolder even than the ambitious books for which Stephen Greenblatt is already renowned, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve explores the enduring story of humanity's first parents. Comprising only a few ancient verses, the story of Adam and Eve has served as a mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole long history of our fears and desires, as both a hymn to human responsibility and a dark fable about human wretchedness.
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For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return
- By Darwin8u on 02-11-18
What listeners say about The Terror of Existence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-05-21
chapter 14/15 especially
Francis goes absolutely unhinged for two essays, blaming society for oppressing white christian males and comparing modern America multiple times to gulags and internment camps. Incredibly up his own ass, he hardly links it to the rest of the book, which is to say he doesn't. The whiplash is real, reading these unhinged rants against "anti-christians" back to back with Dalrymples dissection of Hamlet. I mean other than that he has some wonderful points to think about.
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- Zachary C. Linde
- 06-28-21
A guide to further reading
This book is a series of essays written by two authors about various other books, plays, and movies that impacted their views of the existential problems we face. It serves as a great starting point for further exploration, making you want to read each of the works mentioned. The narration is excellent - it is calm while remaining engaging.
If you enjoy thinking about existential matters such as life, death, and God, this book is definitely for you.
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2 people found this helpful
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- J. Castleberry
- 10-12-23
Terror
This is a difficult subject. The authors did a marvelous job of sharing how artists and philosophers deal with, what to many, is a terror.
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- Carl R. Berner
- 07-24-20
Excellent choices of philosophers, theologians...
What a cogent argument from both sides, well presented and represented by each authors defenders. Also, the narrator was superb. Thank you for an enjoyable and enlightening listen.
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4 people found this helpful
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- 20shop11
- 01-28-20
Theism does not win, but secularism loses.
An informative and thoughtful collection of essays analyzing the great works of existential and nihilist literature and how this literature both expressed and prepared the West for embracing the divorce of faith and reason thereby ushering in the present postmodernist decadence---itself another failed post-Enlightenment project---and the death of meaning. Nietzsche's Parable of a Madman fairly captures the post-Darwinian dilemma wrought by the "Death of God" and the loss of human agency as reductionist naturalism asserts that only science can give humanity complete and reliable knowledge of reality; a self-refuting claim. The artistic works discussed in this collection of essays do an outstanding job of illustrating the topics considered in this book. In fact, this format of literary criticism and philosophical discussion is an excellent way to explore these topics with the guidance of two learned thinkers whose views differ respectfully.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Tal
- 02-04-19
Great book
Great book. I like the disposition of the author. Christians have a point there. Recommended
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5 people found this helpful
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- Mathew
- 11-15-22
Good narration insightful study
I really enjoyed this short book. The study of the different classical works by the two juxtaposed opinions of the authors is very insightful. The narration is well done and adds to the book. If you want something to provoke your thoughts this is the book for you! Will definitely revisit with a second listen.
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