Wittgenstein's Mistress book review: A World of Her Own

My review of David Markson's highly lauded experimental novel Wittgenstein's Mistress, the testament of, apparently, the last person on Earth, in which she randomly reviews the various facts of the world which now only she inhabits, and slowly loses her mind.
#wittgensteinsmistress #wittgenstein #experimentalliterature #books #literature #booktube #bookreview

[@SmallSpaceCorgi]

This sounds fascinating. Time to get online and have my local library reserve a copy.

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

Well, it was fascinating to me at first, but then it just became 200 something pages of the same things over and over again. I really do think this would have been better served as a novella. But, still, it is interesting how it utilizes Wittgenstein's thought as the basis for its story. :)

[@theemptyatom]

Albeit different - Ducks, Newburyport is one non-stop stream as well

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

I've heard good and bad things about that book. But I think after reading Wittgenstein's Mistress I've about determined that that kind of thing probably isn't for me so much. XD

[@theemptyatom]

@@TH3F4LC0Nx I was just mentioning it because if you thought what you read was one long stream - Ducks is on another level

[@willieluncheonette5843]

A little off topic but on Wittgenstein " This is for the real adepts in madness, who have gone beyond all psychiatry, psychoanalysis, who are unhelpable. This third book is again the work of a German, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Just listen to its title: TRACTATUS LOGICO PHILOSOPHICUS. We will just call it TRACTATUS. It is one of the most difficult books in existence. Even a man like G.E.Moore, a great English philosopher, and Bertrand Russell, another great philosopher - not only English but a philosopher of the whole world - both agreed that this man Wittgenstein was far superior to them both. Ludwig Wittgenstein was really a lovable man. I don't hate him, but I don't dislike him. I like him and I love him, but not his book. His book is only gymnastics. Only once in a while after pages and pages you may come across a sentence which is luminous. For example: That which cannot be spoken should not be spoken; one should be silent about it. Now this is a beautiful statement. Even saints, mystics, poets, can learn much from this sentence. That which cannot be spoken must not be spoken of. Wittgenstein writes in a mathematical way, small sentences, not even paragraphs - sutras. But for the very advanced insane man this book can be of immense help. It can hit him exactly in his soul, not only in the head. Just like a nail it can penetrate into his very being. That may wake him from his nightmare. Ludwig Wittgenstein was a lovable man. He was offered one of the most cherished chairs of philosophy at Oxford. He declined. That's what I love in him. He went to become a farmer and fisherman. This is lovable in the man. This is more existential than Jean-Paul Sartre, although Wittgenstein never talked of existentialism. Existentialism, by the way, cannot be talked about; you have to live it, there is no other way. This book was written when Wittgenstein was studying under G.E.Moore and Bertrand Russell. Two great philosophers of Britain, and a German... it was enough to create TRACTATUS LOGICO PHILOSOPHICUS. Translated it means Wittgenstein, Moore and Russell. I, on my part, would rather have seen Wittgenstein sitting at the feet of Gurdjieff than studying with Moore and Russell. That was the right place for him, but he missed. Perhaps next time, I mean next life... for him, not for me. For me this is enough, this is the last. But for him, at least once he needs to be in the company of a man like Gurdjieff or Chuang Tzu, Bodhidharma - but not Moore, Russell, not Whitehead. He was associating with these people, the wrong people. A right man in the company of wrong people, that's what destroyed him. My experience is, in the right company even a wrong person becomes right, and vice-versa: in a wrong company, even a right person becomes wrong. But this only applies to unenlightened men, right or wrong, both. An enlightened person cannot be influenced. He can associate with anyone - Jesus with Magdalena, a prostitute; Buddha with a murderer, a murderer who had killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people. He had taken a vow to kill one thousand people, and he was going to kill Buddha too; that's how he came into contact with Buddha. The murderer's name is not known. The name people gave to him was Angulimala, which means 'the man who wears a garland of fingers'. That was his way. He would kill a man, cut off his fingers and put them on his garland, just to keep count of the number of people he had killed. Only ten fingers were missing to make up the thousand; in other words only one man more.... Then Buddha appeared. He was just moving on that road from one village to another. Angulimala shouted, "Stop!" Buddha said, "Great. That's what I have been telling people: Stop! But, my friend, who listens?" Angulimala looked amazed: Is this man insane? And Buddha continued walking towards Angulimala. Angulimala again shouted, "Stop! It seems you don't know that I am a murderer, and I have taken a vow to kill one thousand people. Even my own mother has stopped seeing me, because only one person is missing.... I will kill you... but you look so beautiful that if you stop and turn back I may not kill you." Buddha said, "Forget about it. I have never turned back in my life, and as far as stopping is concerned, I stopped forty years ago; since then there is nobody left to move. And as far as killing me is concerned, you can do it anyway. Everything born is going to die." Angulimala saw the man, fell at his feet, and was transformed. Angulimala could not change Buddha, Buddha changed Angulimala. Magdalena the prostitute could not change Jesus, but Jesus changed the woman. So what I said is only applicable to so-called ordinary humanity, it is not applicable to those who are awakened. Wittgenstein can become awakened; he could have become awakened even in this life. Alas, he associated with wrong company. But his book can be of great help to those who are really third-degree insane. If they can make any sense out of it, they will come back to sanity."

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

Well, the Tractatus definitely made me feel like I was brushing up against insanity, that's for sure! XD

[@theemptyatom]

How would you know if you were the last man on earth? he said. I don't guess you would know it. You'd just be it. Nobody would know it. It wouldn't make any difference. When you die it's the same as if everybody else did too. I guess God would know it. Is that it? There is no God. No? There is no God and we are his prophets.

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

Awwww yeah, I know where that passage comes from! :D And yet more evidence of Wittgenstein's influence on McCarthy. "When you die it's the same as if everybody else did too." Indeed. ;)

[@theemptyatom]

@@TH3F4LC0Nx 🙂

[@theemptyatom]

@@TH3F4LC0Nx Speaking of my man McCarthy - have you read My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue by Samuel Chamberlain where McCarthy got the idea for the Judge who is named in this 1848 book?

[@TH3F4LC0Nx]

@@theemptyatom I haven't read that book, but I would be curious to. :)