Nausea

Rating:
Summary: Sartre at the Top of His Game
Review: In Nausea, J. P. Sartre's Marquis is a man haunted by existence. Although Sartre employs the human emotion of anguish in a different context, nausea is very similar in that we all must face the consequences of a world, and an existence, without meaning (unless one turns to the super-natural, of course). This realization can often leave one floundering on the edge of panic, anguish, or even nausea, and in this piece Sartre attempts to classify one man's attempt to cope with the realization. It is almost as if one wakes up one day and realizes that one must forge out his or her own meaning in a cold and cruel world - nd end of innocence, so to speak. This is a classic short book by perhaps the most heavy-hitting of the "existentialists." It is also very nicely translated; not an easy task it seems when going French to English.

Rating:
Summary: I exist today... Is that all there is?
Review: The Café Philosopher's first and finest work that points to or surmises his existential ideas in his later works. Nausea is indeed a "beautiful and hard as steel" philosophical novel that makes "people ashamed of their existence" or at least lures people to question "it." Nausea is a book "above existence... an adventure." It is Sartre's realization, masking himself behind his character Antoine Roquentin, that existence suddenly unveils itself as Nausea - a frightful, obscene and naked disorderliness (127). Compare Sartre's absurdity of existence with Schopenhauer's vanity of existence: "The vanity of existence is revealed in the whole form existence assumes: in the infiniteness of time and space contrasted with the finiteness of the individual in both; in the fleeting present as the sole form in which actuality exists; in the contingency and relativity of all things; in continual becoming without being; in continual desire without satisfaction; in the continual frustration of striving of which life consists... That which has been no longer is; it as little exists as does that which has never been. But everything that is in the next moment has been. Thus, the most significant present has over the most significant past the advantage of actuality, which means that the former bears to the latter the relation of something to nothing... We suddenly exist, after having for countless millennia not existed..."

Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: Sartre is one of the few writers who is able to confortable interleave philosophical ideas and literary forms. I suggest this novel to anyone who would like to be illuminated. Anyone who is interested in reading another novel that blends philosophical ideas with literature should probably read Descent into Illusions by Paul Omeziri published by PublishAmerica. This is a great book too.

Rating:
Summary: a work of art
Review: I want to respectfully disagree with the review by timmyjones. The opinion of anyone who has read Sartre's philosophy as well as much of his fiction is valuable, but I think that it is because you have read the philosophy first, as you say, that you can only see it, and nothing else, in what I consider to be the art.

Admittedly, It has been several years since I read the book. However, there are several scenes which stand out in my memory. The card players, the intense examination of the portrait paintings, and the jazz record at the end are all fascinating scenes. Also, the character (I can't remember the name) who reads each book in the library from A to Z is very interesting.

The one scene in which the philosophy does seem to be thinly veiled is the one which deals with the problem of "perfect moments." However, even this scene, to me, is more than acceptable. In fact, I think it is one of the most powerful scenes.

In sum, I recommend "Nausea" strongly. Also, among the stories in "The Wall," I recommend "Erostratus" and "The Wall."

I can still remember my favorite line from "Nausea" (at least I think this is how it goes): "This is time, time laid bare, coming slowly into existence, keeping us waiting, and when it does come, making us sick because we realize it has been there all along."

Rating:
Summary: Endlessly rewarding read
Review: Nausea is the difinitive work of Jean-Paul Sartre and reflects the nature of the existential movement. Often oversimplified as boring, depressing or pointless; Nausea is in fact a phycological journey for the courageous thinker. It poses and answers many important existential questions through the interactions and ruminations of the main charecter, Antoine. The book is so well written and translated that the discriptions actually transform your philisophical state - you feel the Nausea. This little book is also packed with information, and calls for so much self-exploration, that it is sometimes described as hard to read. If taken slowly and internalized, this is an endlessly rewarding read.

Rating:
Summary: Expect to be challenged
Review: Nausea is not an easy book to read, not because of length or complexity of writing but because it forces the reader to confront some of the most frightening questions about life. The plot is largely uneventful, and yet this is where the majority of the book's philosophical questions arise. It's amidst the mundane, the every-day, the common interactions in life wherein the main character Roquentin questions the foundations of reality: what is this world I live in? why am I here? what does my life mean?

The thing Roquentin encounters most dramatically is existence: dull, ever-present, unable to be explained, a hidden and dumb force that waits silently behind the meanings we ascribe to it. And it is this force, the force of existence, which is the ultimate source of humility, for in it all of our actions are rendered meaningless.

Why do we do what we do? What are our motivations, our ambitions, and why do we have them? Sartre explores questions like these in a variety of daily situations and presents a concept of reality that has no mercy for the squeamish mind. He approaches his reader with such intensity that one cannot look away, one is forced to follow his reasoning to its unconventional and disturbing conclusions. Still, as the introduction points out, "Coming for the first time to the works of Sartre, Japsers, or Camus is often like reading, on page after page, one's own intimate thoughts and feelings, expressed with new precision and concreteness."

This is an excellent novel, very thought-provoking, best approached with an open mind and the courage to listen patiently to that which may frighten one the most. Regardless of your reaction to it, Nausea will have you thinking for quite some time afterward.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing and a little boring , yet very familiar to me
Review: My first read (and possibly there will be more) at renowned Jean Paul Sartre is Nausea, a book that you may describe with many adjectives you can, but people will only understand when they actually read it and, lesser than that, a few will understand and reflect about what is said here. Sartre wrote this book in a form of diary thing, about a man (Antonie Roquentin) telling about his daily's discord and misery about, umm, everything.
He also describes an extreme pungent feeling he has about people and objects, which he latter calls it just Nausea. His relationships towards the world is metaphysician, silent and introspective.

It is important to state that this book is really degenerative, with some hidden and strong content. I, for being such a fan of Nine Inch Nails or other bands that talk a lot about these issues, thought I was safe and at home: that was a huge mistake, since everytime you think about what it is said, you may experience a certain melancholy. The book turns to be a little confusing and boring at some time, being redundant a little and the conclusion is somewhat flaw, but pay some good attention here: this book describes everything so well, good conceptions of existence, some dose of nihilism and misanthropy, but if you are already reading this, you'll understand. It is irresistible and almost impossible not to feel familiar with this character.

Rating:
Summary: Existence over Essence
Review: 'Nausea' - Sartre used a negative sounding title for a philosophy which, albeit incomplete, is still positive.

The book is about a lonely historian, Roquentin, who moves into this small town of Bouville to further his biographical research on a French Nobleman - Monsieur Rollebon. Roquentin has a certain uneasy feeling about everything going on about him - but he is not able to pin it down.

"Something fundamental has changed. I know it. Is it me who has changed or is it from the outside, I do not know. But I must decide". This is the chilling statement in the first page of the diary of Roquentin. Here, Sartre is using the gist of existentialism and Husserl's phenomenology to analyze the most basic issue of all - What the hell is existence?

Existentialism - Simply put, it means existence over essence. Its better to live as it is rather than condition oneself to existence(Wherin the essences are intravenously fed into our consciousness).

'You have to be good and kind if you need salvation';

'Spare the rod and spoil the child'.

These are rather simplistic aspects of conditioning that I am citing but if one were to actually map his/ her life from the beginning, he realises that right from day-1, the world as represented by parents,family & society has been preparing him in an effort to make him 'ready' to survive in the world and 'live'. This conditioned sense of 'Living' is what Roquentin loses all of a sudden. Those things which once mattered a lot to him like his own work on Rollebon, his love for Annie, even the very sense of day-to-day living fall away. And what is left is this rather naked sense of 'Nausea'.

Thus Roquentin's feeling of uneasiness or nausea is the predicament of a man who suddenly has abrogated himself from(both voluntarily and involuntarily) all previous notions of conditioned existence.

But whats the answer and solution to this nausea?

Roquentin has flashes of naked existence or what Eckhart called as 'Isness' when he listens to a black Jazz singer. The sheer sense of music without the baggage of 'Interpreted music' acts like a breath of fresh air in Roquentin's otherwise stale life.

But I think, Sartre did not complete the answer to the riddle of 'How does one live authentically?'. But this is not to be seen as a limitation of the book. The writer is remaining true to his thoughts, I feel, and Sartre himself was possibly looking for answers.

Read this book if you want old, wrong answers about life in your mind to be decimated. You might not get readymade solutions but possibly, the right questions would pervade your intellect and lead you on to other streams of philosophy which deliver the answers to these questions.

Rating:
Summary: Post-war malaise or our ontological status?
Review: The author of this book has now been gone from us for twenty years, existence now longer penetrates him anywhere, but his essence is preserved eloquently in this short novel via the character of Roquentien. Sartre believed that we define ourselves by the instant; we choose who we are to be continuously in time. Thus it is for our interpretation of this novel. Without taking a position on the validity of Sartre's grand system of Existentialism, one can still interpret the novel as we choose. Roquentien can be a character engaging in excessive introspection, embedded in a European post-war malaise, or a philosophical anti-hero struggling for the raw, naked truth as to our ontological status. His inquisitiveness entails that he notices everything; the roots and bark of the chestnet tree, the dry mud, the laurel, and also, and most importantly, he notices the absence of things; he experiences their negation. For Roquentien, a caricature of early 20th century phenomonalist philosophy, experiencing the negation is a central element of Sartre's philosophy. But Roquentien, terrified of his existence, should really not have been too surprised at his experience in the park, his confrontation with existence "with the veil torn away". The human mind, especially a mind like Roquentien's, who is very involved in life and his surroundings, will grant access to phenomena that one chooses. Roquentian wanted to experience the bare nakedness of existence; to see things stripped of labels. Goal-directed consciousness will allow such access, with an intensity that is equal to that of any other problem-solving activity. Mental focus grants an awareness of the Roquentien kind, but it is spontaneous, and sometimes delayed in its action. The time scales involved do not always meet the expectations of the person involved. The veil was lifted for Roquentien without his volition at that instant, but it was a consequence of his earlier musings and longings. Interestingly, Roquentien feels adventerous after this experience, and makes the decision to leave for Paris. His goal was satisfied with the experiencing-of-the-park...time to move on to others.

Rating:
Summary: Half way finished?
Review: I once had nausea. It was very frightening. I was walking along the street with a friend and all of a sudden I lost, for want of a better word, my coordination. I looked at my hands and was alarmed to see that my arms were not swinging where I thought they were. It was as if I had four arms, two visible and two invisible. And my legs were the same too. I looked forward and everything seemd to be two dimensional as if it were all on a large piece of paper which was pressed right up against my eyes. It seemed to stretch right up to the sky and right down through the earth and through it; as if I was pressing my nose against an infinate tv screen. I felt I was trapped behind my eyes but not in my brain. I felt like I was abstract and inside out. I am sure I exist somewhere in my head but when this body dies I will cease to be. Lights out. It was very frightening, I felt very sick. It only lasted about ten minutes before my blind subjectivity returned. I am lost in this head but am facing forwards, I think.

Great book though, makes me think (I think - do I think?). Not very enjoyable, but then life is not meant to be only enjoyment.