On 15 April 2003, Robison Michael R CNIN wrote:
: What is existentialism?
A twentieth-century school of philosophy and literature.
Charles Willeford's THE DIFFERENCE is a hardboiled
existential western--Jake Dover is taught that "existence
precedes essence" when becoming a gunfighter. Of course,
there's a lot more to the philosophy, and there are lots of
good books that will explain it.
Can anyone remember the short story, which I think was
collected in the Pronzini-Adrian anthology HARDBOILED, where
an Old West sheriff has to keep the townspeople from taking
his prisoner and lynching him? He's terrified, scared beyond
belief that he won't be able to do it and they'll kill him
and tear down the jail, but he grits his teeth and steps out
the door looking cool as a cucumber and hard as rock even
though he's a mess inside. That story always come to mind
when I think of existence preceding essence.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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