3 Book Recommendations By Poetic Outlaws

“So many books, so little time.”

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
― Franz Kafka

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Happy Friday subscribers.

“Can you tell me some Poetic Outlaws books I should read?”

This is the most common message I receive daily through my social media accounts. People want some good books to read, profound and passionate books, so I figured I’d put out some book recommendations to my followers.

Most of the books I read and quote from are a bit esoteric and somewhat obscure. Not all, but a lot. You won’t find these books on the NY Times Bestseller list or on your mom’s bookshelf, that’s for sure. As Haruki Murakami once said, “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

Every Friday I will attempt to fire off some fascinating book recommendations for my subscribers — books that’ll hopefully solace your curiosities, books that’ll set fire to your soul, books that’ll make you ponder the dark side of human existence and perhaps force you to reconsider everything you think you know.

It was Edward Abbey who reminded us, “You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light.”

The genre I read is indeed diverse — poetry, literature, psychology, philosophy, memoirs, biographies, anthropology, etc. Today I’ll start off with three books that I’ve read recently that shook me up. Enjoy.

1. Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals by John Gray

This is quite a dark yet profound book from the brilliant British philosopher, John Gray. The thesis — progress is an illusion and humans delude themselves by thinking that our species are infinitely superior to others. Gray writes elsewhere that “what seems to be singularly human is not consciousness or free will but inner conflict —the contending impulses that divide us from ourselves. No other animal seeks the satisfaction of its desires and at the same time curses them as evils; spends its life terrified of death while being ready to die in order to preserve an image of itself; kills its own species for the sake of dreams. Not self-awareness but the split in the self is what makes us human.”

2. Holderlin, Kleist, and Nietzsche: The Struggle with the Daemon by Stefan Zweig

From Amazon: The Struggle with the Daemon is a brilliant analysis of the European psyche by the great novelist and biographer Stefan Zweig. Zweig studies three giants of German literature and thought: Friedrich Holderlin, Heinrich von Kleist and Friedrich Nietzsche – powerful minds whose ideas were at odds with the scientific positivism of their age; troubled spirits whose intoxicating passions drove them mad but inspired them to great works. In their struggle with their inner creative force, Zweig reflects the conflict at the heart of the European soul – between science and art, reason and inspiration.

Zweig writes: “The first thing that is obvious in Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche is their detachment from the world. The daemon plucks away from realities those whom he holds in his grip. Not one of the three had wife or children, any more than had their congeners Beethoven and Michelangelo; they had neither fixed home nor permanent possessions, neither settled occupation nor secure footing in the world. They were nomads, vagrants, eccentrics; they were despised and rejected; they lived in the shadows…

Hölderlin, Kleist and Nietzsche, each in his own way, were rebels against the established order. They would rather break than yield, uncompromising even at pain of death and annihilation. This makes them superb figures of tragedy—indeed, their whole life is one long tragedy.”

3. The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud by Henry Miller

In this brief book, the great Henry Miller writes eloquently about his literary hero, Arthur Rimbaud, one of the world’s extraordinary poets. "Never was there a time when the existence of the poet was more menaced than today. The American species, indeed, is in danger of being extinguished altogether."

Miller writes: “He [Rimbaud] will never be satisfied,” writes one biographer...I know because I suffer from the same disease...I don't believe for a minute that the flowers ever faded or the stars were ever dimmed in Rimbaud's eyes...It was the world of men that his weary glance saw things pale and fade. He began by wanting to “see all, feel all, exhaust everything, explore everything, say everything.” ... He had no choice of fighting for the rest of his life to hold the ground he had gained or to renounce the struggle utterly. Why could he not have compromised? Because compromise was not in his vocabulary. He was a fanatic from childhood, a person who had to go the whole hog or die. In this lied his purity, his innocence.”

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Happy reading, folks. Hope you all have a poetic weekend. Cheers till next time.

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