Introducing Existentialism: A Graphic Guide

Introducing Graphic Guides

by Oscar Zárate, Oscar Zárate (Illustrator)

This is Richard Appignanesi's erudite investigation of Existentialism, the philosophical and cultural movement that prioritizes individual experience.

Richard Appignanesi is a novelist, editor, publisher, and research fellow at King's College London.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Psychology, Graphic Novels, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Oscar Zárate (born 1942) is an Argentine comic book artist and illustrator. Zarate studied architecture and had a successful career in advertising in Argentina. He moved to Europe in 1971 and began to work in earnest as an illustrator. He has drawn for the UK comics magazine Crisis. In the Introducing... and ...For Beginners book series he illustrated texts written by Richard Appignanesi, Alexei Sayle, Dylan Evans, J P McEvoy, Angus Gellatly and Rupert Woodfin. He is perhaps best known in the United States as the artist for the graphic novel A Small Killing written by Alan Moore, the a full length story about a once idealistic advertising executive haunted by his boyhood self.

Reviews

[Dai-wei · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty darn disappointing and unlike most of the other "A Graphic Guide" books, the illustrations (and occasional photo of the author standing around just looking at things) have barely no merit as graphics that assist the learning process.

The title is deceiving, having the word "Introducing" in it; with many soon-to-be-readers assuming it is a good guide on the subject matter for newcomers.
Nope.
The extent of introduction is limited to the experience of the author. Seriously. It is HIS experience reading about existentialism and the entire text is without solid foundation, instead built on dates, name dropping and who was a Jew or a Nazi during the Hitler regime.
Which, apart from the strange magnetism toward Nazi themes, the whole self experience of introducing a subject like existentialism COULD of worked..
IF it was written by a better author.
See the prose is obviously written by someone already well read in the existentialist movement. In some aim of going on a journey with the audience, he's attempted to reverse engineer his experience and it is disjointed, directionless, subjective and ultimately boring.
Of the interesting things I read in the book (all of them quotes) I could have gotten them from any basic existentialist website.

With regards to the "Graphic" side of things, like I wrote earlier, is basically caricatures of historical figures and photos of the author with speech bubbles and dates. So yeah, hardly a visual aid and more an obvious "filler".

So in summary, don't read this book if you are new to the existentialist movement or if you already understand the movement and want an interesting perspective or something new. This book seems to be written for friends of the author who must be dull enough to see his personal and unconvincing "journey" as thrilling.

Nice cover art though.

[Jacob · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're looking for a simple introductory book to help you grasp the main concepts of existentialism this, despite its tile is DEFINITELY NOT IT.

You would be hard pressed to follow any of this without some prior knowledge of existentialism. I was hard pressed to follow probably 2/3 of it even having familiarity with some of the thinkers he covers.

Can I also say that the graphic element of this book, in my opinion, did absolutely nothing to help understanding? Half the time I didn't even understand what the graphics were portraying. It was like they were referencing a bunch of in-jokes; in some cases they were references to the philosohpers' biographies, but you wouldn't necessarily know that from the book's text.

One of the things I hated most was that there are cartoon images of the philosophers, which the book assumes you can recognize on sight. Throughout I kept looking at the figures and their speech bubbles going, "wait, is that one Heidegger? Well sounds like Heidegger. Probably Heidegger." For most people, even those interested in philosophy, I am not sure philosophers are that visually recognizable.

Also - the fact that the author inserts himself into the book as a character having conversations with the philosophers is narcissistic and obnoxious. My partner (who once upon a time majored in philosophy) pointed out that this is actually a tradition in philosophy, but regardless, this book felt to me like a total vanity project.

I will say it gave me somewhat of a refresher of the main existentialist debates/concepts, despite it's confusingness. But I think there were better books to choose for this purpose. I did like the further reading list at the end with a couple sentences describing each book; honestly, this was probably the most useful part of the book.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two in a week that I put down without finishing. I've liked some of the other books in the "Introducing" series but this one makes no sense. Trying to read it was an existential experience in itself, so that's worth something I guess.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is surprisingly good, surprisingly so because it is a short graphic rather than lengthy text-based description of one of the most difficult 'schools' of Western philosophy which I am reluctant to label 'existentialism' following Appignanesi's own scepticism about the term.

Let's start by saying that it is not really introductory at all. If you want a cogent introduction I would start with one of the many other general textual introductions - I began with Mary Warnock's many years ago but Appignanensi has delivered one of his own quite recently.

Appignanesi compromises little in his limited space in trying to reach deep into the thought of the 'existentialists'. Many readers are going to find it very obscure and difficult without a grounding in the history and ideas on which the text is based - but I think you might like to persevere.

If you have read already in the subject, he has insights that make the difficulty worthwhile. What I like is his avoidance of the tum-ti-tum standard narrative that takes us from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche via Dostoevesky through Heidegger to Sartre and Camus.

He restores the often forgotten core of the school, Husserl's phenomenological turn, and then sets the very different yet dialectially challenging Heideggerian and Sartrean world views in the context of the critical business of choice and survival in the second quarter of the twentieth century.

Occasional digressions into the broader literary culture and into the politics of the era are suggestive and apposite. The book is the philosophical equivalent of a haiku - many deep thoughts compressed into surprisingly small space. The images entertain but do not distract.

I would argue that this school of thinkers still provides the greatest challenge to the liberal group-think of our age. The logic of their thinking towards intensive introspection and liberal science (Husserl), Nazism (Heidegger) and Marxism (Sartre) remains thought-provoking.

Attempts to moralise the last two out of their decisions and choices would be seen as futile by any decent 'existentialist'. The silences and refusals to apologise epitomise not the worst but the best of humanity faced with our technologisation and simplistic expectations.

The post-existentialists have contributed important criticisms of the existential turn. Foucault in particular has helped us to understand the nature of power relations and Derrida the role of the text but the turn has been taken too far - there is a cultural evasion here with political effects.

The 'existential' turn is terribly terribly dangerous to modern liberal society. Yet it is true to our relationship with Being. The challenge of this critique has scarcely been explored. The result is that modern liberal society has been taken by surprise as the new populism emerges.

Elite liberalism has been in denial for far too long about that relationship to Being and our personal choices in a world of roles and material things. The panopticon approach, the attempt to create social hegemony, could never succeed against the raw resistance of those who think apart.

Somewhere and somehow radical thought will reappear to take this problem that existence precedes essence and the phenomenological anaysis of our situation and so create the humanism required before transhumanism is possible - and offer a 'poetic' attitude to being in the world.

Personally, poetry bores me. If something needs to be said, let it be said, and, if not, let it be experienced in direct relation to Being. The text is the very source of our alienation. Yet Heidegger's stance suggests that that which is poetic or spiritual links to the human core.

Husserlian 'scientific' investigation of the mind's relationship to itself, Sartrean concern with our performance in the world and Heideggerian investigation of our relationship to Being provide (in this book) the start of an inquiry into a sufficient rebellion to preserve us against new intelligences.

We are in the midst of a revolution in which the post-moderns and the academics appear increasingly surplus to requirements much as monks became in the age of printing. A philosophy to cope with this exists already in the formative work of this school if only we knew it.

A sound if difficult and challenging guide to a difficult and challenging way of thinking. Grasp it correctly and you will never be the same. Its assertion of mind against 'science' is life-affirming, The reading list at the back, though not all there is to say on the matter, will be useful.

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understood so little of this book that it made me question my proficiency in English. Probably a decent book in itself, but certainly not an introduction to the topic.

[Nerine Dorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Existentialism is one of those topics that the more you try to pin it down, the more it refuses; at least that is my experience of it. There is no "quick" way to explain the philosophy, but Richard Appignanesi has provided an oft-tongue-in-cheek volume here that, I feel, acts as a suitable introduction. Granted, most of the concepts he doesn't go into any real great depth, but it should be enough of a taster to provide groundwork for further reading.

Central to what I can gather is that by applying meaning to life, we are in a sense boxing it in, restricting it, when all the different meanings that people might apply to one thing would differ. How I perceive a the colour red, will shift slightly from how someone else does, based on their own life experiences and innate subjectivity. Existentialism attempts to see things "as things in themselves". As we are, we are never aware of existence in its entirety.

The book also examines how it is possible for one to have "bad faith", and engage in self-deception, especially when considering the absurdity of life. And there is quite a bit of discussion on how essentially awful our existence is, because it is limited, and because we are aware of our own incipient mortality.

So, we live life without hope of appeal, in what can be described as a series of "present" moments. Are we a ghost in the machine, an illusion of self? Existentialism may also be about the destruction of boundaries between this illusion and the world around it. Being is that which happens to us, a stream of flowing "nows", and it is limited by time. So how is it that we do not plunge into nihilism? Are we condemned to mean something, not be it?

What I gather is that one should return to a living experience as opposed to trying to structure existence by imposing meaning. Of course I could also be horribly wrong, and need to spend more time reading on the subject.

[Kristof Vande Velde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas but sadly no introduction to existentialism.

[Federico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boh sembrava carino ma poi dopo tipo 100 pagine non capivo più una riga e dopo un mese ho iniziato a pensare che forse non sono solo io che sono idiota ma è anche il libro che fa schifo e forse forse effettivamente è così, non si capisce molto l'ordine delle cose oltre ad essere un po' criptico

[Liu Zhang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Giving up half way, the worst in the series I’ve read.

It is written neither chronologically or thematically, so each page is just a bit random quotes stated without context. The author narrate in his own perspective made it the book practically his learning notebook. If you are well acquainted with the topic and other philosophical ideas, it maybe an interesting idea to read it as gaining new perspective.

An introduction to? No chance.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good read, but isn't exactly an introduction to existentialism. The graphics were super fun and amusing. I'd say it's important to have a quazi-handle on Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre as a minimum before cracking the cover. Otherwise, keep your internet on and plan on some between the lines research. In summary, it's not tightly wound but is still enjoyable.

[Sharanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took a long time for me to finish this and was almost going to the unfinishables list. This is not definitely "introduction" it is the authors attempt to merely use a different format for all of us notes and assumes the reader to be familiar with Camus , Kierkegaard, Satre etc.

[Dom Zealley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ineffective as an introduction to Existentialism which is what I hoped it would be given the title. Illustrations are distracting and don't add anything. It's a shame as I like the idea of this series of graphic guides but what can you do.

[Rao Javed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Anyone who need introduction of existentialism should read this book.

[Kari-Anne Fygi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Onbegrijpelijk

[Lazy Spice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretentious, meandering, unreadable, useless garbage.

Gritting my teeth through the first fifteen pages, I wondered "What editor would let this trainwreck go to press?". I flipped to the copyright page and got my answer: the author was also the editor. Welp, that checks out.

I actually feel guilty for putting this in my neighbour's Little Free Library. A bright young person might pick it up, start reading it, not understand it (because there's nothing to understand), and mistakenly think that either a) philosophy is boring, or b) they aren't smart enough to understand philosophy and should stop trying. Which means that this author is not only incompetent, but actively harmful.

[Chris Chu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely obscure and disjointed. Calling it an "Introduction" is a misnomer.
A few pages introduce great quotes and ideas, but most of the book is full of unnecessary technical terms, buzz-words, and name dropping

[Stephanie Jabri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book and get through it, but it’s not what I thought it’d be. I was expecting a dumbed down explanation of existential philosophy with fun illustrations. I found the writing to be confusing and the illustrations to be unhelpful.

[Jono Balliett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helped me understand existentialism and broke me of my adoration for it.

[Em · Rating 1 out of 5]

stupid book. didn't finish it.

[Neill Jameson]

Could have done without so many pictures of the author.

[Elizabeth]

'introducing'

[Laksh Kishore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Works but only in parts. The book tries to condense a plethora of knowledge into simple palatable parts but only works in certain parts.

[Clyde Macalister · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first book from this graphic guide series I have disliked so far, and the worst book I have read for some time now. Even most of the books I dislike I still sustain the patience to consume all the way to the end, but I had to terminate my reading of this one about a third of the way through. Given that I am generally more generous in my ranking of books than I ought to be, that's fairly damning.

Observing the other reviews of this book reveals I will be repeating the same objections as many others, but necessity demands such repetition.

The self-presentation of this book as an "introduction" is deceitful. Properly characterizing existentialism involves the observation that it has made broadly correct observations about the condition of human experience with bad and overly wordy and unwieldy semantics. Any introduction to existentialism must strive with extra exertion to present the fundamentals in highly streamlined, down-to-earth vernacular.

(Two other problems with existentialism have been its irrational and excess levels of pessimism and its confused meaning about the terms "objective" and "subjective." But that's a story for another day.)

The author does the diametric OPPOSITE of streamlining the content. Instead of distilling the esoteric verbiage of existentialism in down-to-earth language, the author does quite the opposite: making the content even more arcane and obscure. None of the graphic illustrations mitigate the difficulty; in fact they amplify that difficulty.

The book doesn't even feel like it was composed for publication; it feels like the private notes -- a miscellany of personal contemplations -- of an undergraduate philosophy student with a moderate understanding of the subject writing just coherently enough so that he will grasp what he means when returning later, but nobody else. It is written in a radically first-person way not suitable for a work that purports to summarize an intellectual tradition for general humanity. The only reason I am able to grasp anything he says at ALL is that, while I am not yet an expert on existentialism, I have a moderate level of knowledge on it; and even then I barely grasp what he asserts. The book assumes way too much prior knowledge of the reader and does not seem to be organized according to any coherent scheme of presentation -- chronological, thematic, biographical, whatever. I might say that the structure of the book resembles a rough draft, but most rough drafts have more coherent and integrated patterning to them.

Disappointing garbage.

[Anisha Inkspill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve heard of existentialism and have been meaning to get a better sense of it; all I knew was it had something to do with Sartre and Beckett and something about existence. This year, after reading a book that gave me an intro to the History of France (my thoughts on this read is posted here), I wanted to improve my understanding on this. It also helped I’ve lined up a few novels about the French Revolution.

Unlike Introducing Plato from the same series, from the first page to me this book started in the middle of this narrative. With every page turn I found myself needing to catch-up, it did not feel like a beginner’s guide. Overall, as a read it was interesting how it got me to other books, like The Philosophy Book, with articles that gave me a better understanding Heidegger, Nietzsche, Camus and Sartre and turned out to be a better guide for beginners . So, this book was not as helpful as I hoped but at least me to led me to other books that were, and in my book that is never a bad thing.

[Steph De Mel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read a few books in the "Graphic Guides" series now, and have found them to be of varying quality. This, unfortunately, is one of the worst I've encountered so far.

The most egregious flaw, in my opinion, is Appignanensi's decision to assert his own presence brashly in both the text and the illustrations. His writing style is rambling and self-indulgent, full of rhetorical questions that employ the first-person in a manner that feels jarring and excessive in a text of this nature.

Reading this text feels akin to eavesdropping on the author debating the tenets of existentialism with himself: the narrative is poorly structured, and is rendered largely inaccessible by virtue of its presuppositions of various pieces of knowledge. For a book intended as an introduction to a subject, this is quite a serious (and frustrating) flaw.

It doesn't help, of course, that I feel little affinity with the majority of existentialist thought, a fact that I'm sure contributes to my exasperation with this book. All in all, it's clear that this book and I are not well-matched; I'll try to choose more wisely next time.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing in comparison to the other books I‘ve read from the graphic guide series. Certainly not an ‘introduction to’ existentialism; much more of an academic’s exploration into what existentialism means to them. The book expected prior and fairly substantial understanding of existentialism (which is pretty cryptic even within philosophy!) leaving the ideas difficult to follow. Most concepts were left unexplained or done so in a clumsy way. That being said, I did as ever enjoy the illustrations, and the parts on Sartre, Nietzsche and Heidegger that I already had good background knowledge of, were very interesting.

[Shay · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS IS NOT AN INTRODUCTION. THIS IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS.

As the title suggests this book is about existentialism. However, this book doesn't explain anything about existentialism.
The book only mentions a couple of existential issues such as absurdity and suicide without even trying to explain them.
The only thing the author does is that he says " Here are some opinions, and here is what I think of them." and that's it.
The illustrations were meaningless. They didn't even make the topic easier.

[Jeffrey N. Hora · Rating 1 out of 5]

The other Graphic Guides I have read have been anywhere from marginally helpful to pretty good. This one breaks the streak. I worked through about 30% of it before giving up. Existentialism is difficult enough without the semi-stream-of-consciousness, opaque presentation here. Per a recommendation elsewhere here on Goodreads I have instead started reading Existentialism: A Beginners' Guide by Thomas E. Wartenberg and am already gaining the beginnings of a grasp of this difficult topic. I recommend that work rather than this one.

[Marc Stremciuc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing graphics and explanations of thought processes. "Will you really commit suicide?" "Not for the time being..." is my new favorite colloquialism to discredit 'if life has meaning as long as you've lived'.

I notice a lot of reviews that discredit the book on the basis that you (hypothetical reviewer) doesn't understand it. While, "If you cannot explain something simply, you do not understand it well enough." is valid in most cases, there are topics that you cannot gather from a book without reasoning and rumination on your part.

[Gaurav · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book seeing it's amazing cover, but unfortunately this book is one of the worst book I have red till date, This book doesn't mostly talk about "Existentialism" rather it talks about the history of existensalism. (Hitler, world war II, concentration camps) And also it's very difficult to understand the author must have made the book simple but he choose the hardway instead. The illustrations in the book also doesn't add anything to the book rather than just filling the pages. Would not recommend anyone to buy this book/ read this book.