This Strange Eventful History

All of us must seek at a personal and a general level for a philosophy of meaning in life, "this strange eventful history," to borrow a descriptive phrase for our existence from Shakespeare. A sense of meaning is essential for peace of mind, yet meaning may appear elusive in our present-day divided world. This book sets out to survey our options concisely, drawing on philosophy, religion, science and art, across the gamut from classical philosophers to atheists, mystics, sensualists, agnostics, primatologists, neuroscientists, Unifaith believers, Interfaith, Multifaith and lastly Transfaith, to seek a religious attitude freed from myth and magic. A new concept of intelligent design is examined, linked with Panspermia, independent of the concept of anthropomorphic creation. Each chapter draws on the opinions of two (or more) prominent inter-related thinkers, including Sartre, Foucault, and Frankl, Freud and Richard Dawkins, Carl Jung and Mircea Eliade, the Greeks and the Buddha, Van Gogh and Gauguin, and many others, to help us form an opinion, often provocatively, with no holds barred! The stimulating inter-relationship between these stars steers us on a path towards a viewpoint of Cosmic Compassionate Plurality. The Existentialist philosophers cautioned that life is essentially meaningless - but they allowed that we may choose ourselves. Certainly, our choices are many and various in this current era. Often, however, we bemoan the lack of time to read and research those possibilities. This book sets out to provide the needed background material.

Meaning may appear elusive in our present divided world but a sense of meaning is essential for peace of mind. This book sets out to survey our options concisely, in the realms of philosophy, religion, science and art. Each chapter draws on the words of two (or more) prominent inter-related thinkers to help us form an opinion, often provocatively, with no holds barred! It steers a path towards an attitude of Cosmic Compassionate Plurality. All of us must seek at a personal and a general level for a philosophy of meaning in life, this strange eventful history, to borrow a descriptive phrase for our existence from Shakespeare. Otherwise how can we logically plan and direct our personal philosophy if we do not know to what end, particularly in a world seemingly hell bent on destruction?. The Existentialist philosophers cautioned that life is essentially meaningless but allowed that we may choose ourselves! Certainly our choices are many and various in this current era. Often however we bemoan the lack of time to read and research those possibilities. This book sets out concisely to survey our options drawing on philosophy, religion, science and art. Each chapter takes two (or more) prominent inter-related thinkers to help us form an opinion, often provocatively. Philosophers who experienced the Holocaust comment that those best adapted to survive life in concentration camps found their impetus in a purpose or a person to give them a meaning to hold onto. We must keep this carefully in mind. The person may be a loved one or a religious archetypal figure.

In 1899, when film projection was barely three years old, Herbert Beerbohm Tree was filmed as King John. In his highly entertaining history, Robert Hamilton Ball traces in detail the fate of Shakespeare on silent films from Tree’s first effort until the establishment of sound in 1929. The silent films brought Shakespeare to a wide public who had never had the chance to see his plays in the theatre. And Shakespeare gave the film makers an air of respectability that was badly needed by a medium with a reputation for frivolity. This work, first published in 1968, brings history to life with excerpts from scenarios, from reviews and from contemporary film journals, and with reproduction of stills and frames from the films themselves, including unusual shots of leading screen actors. This is a valuable source book for film experts, enhanced by full notes, bibliography and indexes; a fresh approach for Shakespeareans; and a vivid sketch of a world that has passed for all.

Tony Blair's espousal of privatization before the 1997 General Election finally extinguished the life of socialism as a significant political force in this country. There have been many reasons - both philosophical and personal - for its demise, yet in the end socialism sickened and died because of its impracticability and the failures consequent thereon.

One of Oprah Daily's Most Anticipated Books of 2024 • One of New York magazine's "23 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2024" • One of The Guardian's "Books to Look Out for in 2024" • One of The Globe & Mail's Most Anticipated Books of 2024 • One of BookPage's Most Anticipated fiction of 2024 • One of Literary Hub's “Most Anticipated Books of 2024” • One of Book Riot's "Most Anticipated Books of 2024" An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history, from one of our finest contemporary novelists. Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state—separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story: of patriarch Gaston and his wife Lucienne, whose myth of perfect love sustains them and stifles their children; of François and Denise, devoted siblings connected by their family’s strangeness; of François’s union with Barbara, a woman so culturally different they can barely comprehend one another; of Chloe, the result of that union, who believes that telling these buried stories will bring them all peace. Inspired in part by long-ago stories from her own family’s history, Claire Messud animates her characters’ rich interior lives amid the social and political upheaval of the recent past. As profoundly intimate as it is expansive, This Strange Eventful History is “a tour de force…one of those rare novels that a reader doesn’t merely read but lives through with the characters” (Yiyun Li).