Lovecraft: against the world

A man is alone and afraid of life. At 20, he is already sick of life, which he thinks unlivable. 

That man is possessed by a fertile if dark imagination. Creatures from the distant past of the Earth, unknown to mankind, their threats and signals, will be the stuff of his upcoming narrations. 

A man unable to live and socialize. A man who lived for his dreams and their telling, and found a sense in that. Who transmuted his somber inner world into a brilliant universe of personal horror. Creating a real cult around him which traversed the decades, reaching our time in a state of total magnificence. 

Another disgusted man, if of a different kind, will be his advocate. In this strong and direct early essay, disturbing French novelist Michel Houellebecq will introduce us to Lovecraft´s life and works. A valuable attempt to explain and transmit their irresistible weirdness.   

Lovecraft, against the world against life. 1988. Michel Houellebecq.

Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy

Can you imagine Edward Gibbon´s Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire trasplanted into the Future and Space?  This is the scenario of the Foundations trilogy. A Roman-like Galactic Empire, powerfully imagined by Asimov, is in deep, irreversible Crisis. But this time, there seems to be a way to prevent the long period of darkness, after its final death, and before the dawn of a new second Empire.

Hari Seldon and his Science will cut short the dark medieval centuries to come. What is his Science? A potent and deterministic mathematical treatment of reality, its past and future, for which human beings and their relations in the fabric of time are similar to the molecules of a gas and their behavior.

A strong vision of the future, inspired in the past and our true history. With an imaginative prospective of future scientific disciplines and a page-turning (and mind-disturbing) plot.

Foundation Trilogy (1951-53). Isaac Asimov

Paul Auster: Book of Illusions

This is another text that we cannot help recommending: The book of illusions, by Paul Auster. Full of obsession and loss; and hopes. The destructibility of Art is at its core. What remains of it, and for whom? What is its true purpose? Should it necessarily be shared? Could it just be something for its creator´s exclusive use, a masturbatory thing?

Some ten years ago, I started Leviathan, but I dropped it. As a consequence, I would not try another Auster in a full decade. But after devouring this Book of Illusions about one year ago, it was five Austers in a row I swallowed up. 

Book of illusions, 2002. Paul Auster

Norwegian Wood

What about the smartest combination between 1960s British pop music and some vigorous japanese storytelling??

Discover this astonishing early work by the Japanese master. 

Norwegian Wood (1987), Haruki Murakami

Houellebecq: Atomized

Atomized (US: The elementary particles) is a harsh radiography of today's society. Showing its often poisonous interactions. Resent, sexual alienation. The emptiness of a handful of beaten characters.

And the End, my Friend: the contemporary narration steps into the near future and magically turns into some kind of existential science-fiction. A great, troubling one.

A hurting thesis is underlying: Human Nature, there is nothing to do about it. It will just be by putting our hands on the human genetic code, manipulating it, transforming ourselves into a new species, no less, that we will finally get out of the valley of tears which is life. A great novel of the late 20th century, certainly not to everyone´s taste. Be warned. 

Atomized (1998). Michel Houellebecq