Kick-off reading: Epicurus’ letter to King Menoeceus on “How lớn Live sầu Well.”Considered by some to be an ancient influence on modern existential thought, Epicurus advises on timeless human problems: materialism, “empty desires,” the inauthentic self, fear of death. Though prescriptive, raises more questions than answers.
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Requisite Russian mortality reading: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.
Middle-aged magistrate Ivan Ilyich thought he was living well, doing everything society expected of hyên ổn. Then he suddenly falls ill and suspects he’d been prey to lớn the very things Epicurus had warned about, suspects his life hasn’t been the “Real Thing.” Encourages on-going self-examination khổng lồ avoid screaming on your deathbed for three days.
Reading that reorients your sense of self: Memoirs of a Polar Bear, Yoko Tawadomain authority (trans. Susan Bernofsky).
An exploration of human desire across species, languages, cultures and continents via a family of performing, though introspective sầu polar bears. Grandmother, daughter and grandson each tell their own story. Can language và the interconnectedness of our stories lessen our alienation?
Visual/literary reading: The Principles of Uncertainty, Maira Kalman.
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A meandering year in an artist’s interior, investigated with humor, curiosity and depth. The intimate and idiosyncratic drawings & handwritten text, the Trắng space they float in, mimic our vulnerability in the universe. The book flap announces her search for meaning: “What Is This Book? What Is Anything? Who Am I? Who Are You?” If possible, project pages onlớn a wall or screen to experience the images collectively.
Reading essential khổng lồ the moment: “The Wager of Our Generation,” Camus’ 1957 interview from the journal Demain, proposing action against the nihilism of both the “totalitarian & bourgeois” varieties.
“If we are lớn fail, it is better, in any case, khổng lồ have stood on the side of those who choose life than on the side of those who are destroying.” The only ECRG reading that inspired homemade t-shirts (worn khổng lồ a prokiểm tra on Inauguration Day) “maximum danger implies maximum hope.”
Interactive sầu readings: Every spring on Holy Thursday we enact a Stations of the Crisis or The Last Suffer, secular interpretations on the Lenten rituals of the procession of Stations of the Cross & The Last Supper, after all, New Orleans is a Catholic town. Everyone is randomly assigned a “station,” for example, Jesus falls for the first time, Jesus dies on the cross, and interprets it with a reading or tuy nhiên or performance, choosing a specific location for us to lớn walk khổng lồ in the neighborhood. Repurpose any ritual, or create your own.
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Actual existentiadanh sách reading (Camus disliked being called “an existentialist”): “Pyrrhus và Cineas” by Simone de Beauvoir.
Her first essay rejects passivity and calls for active sầu engagement, & for claiming the agency & freedom to make our own meaning in the world. How vì we live out our finite lives as passionately and productively as possible? What is our responsibility towards others as we pursue our projects?
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