Essays and essay collections recommendations. Books that I consider fundamental for our critical thinking
Something I love to do is recommend books and have deep conversations with people who also love to do so, being able to discuss texts that have changed our way of thinking, our impressions, our feelings, and everything we consider important. So for this post I am going to give you some book recommendations, specifically essays, that I think everyone should read, and I invite you to please also leave in the comments those essay books that you consider a must-read.
I read all these books time ago, but I'm always coming back to them due to their ability to alter the way we understand the world, certain situations or our condition as humans.
Part two of this post here
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Some people don't consider it an essay but a letter, it's a bit of both. In my opinion, everything Baldwin wrote has that essay quality that breaks your heart and hits your mind. This book, although short, is absolutely powerful, moving and a political and fighting cry without equal. Addressed to his little nephew, it touches on such hard topics as racial segregation, poverty, absolute racism and religion. It is an essential read.
Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin
“Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long possessed that he is set free - he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges.”
― James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name
Reading this collection of essays is like sitting down to talk with him, feeling his emotions, his fears, his anger, his love. It is truly wonderful, illuminating and heartbreaking. These are hard topics to deal with, obviously loaded with the author's personal experience and full of sadness and yet hope, something we always have in his texts. Another book that has such a strong political and human power that it should be required reading for everyone.
The Critic as Artist by Oscar Wilde
I talk about this book at length here Oscar Wilde's The Critic as Artist, or the ability to create, feel and live art
“If they know nothing of death, it is because they know little of life, for the secrets of life and death belong to those, and those only, whom the sequence of time affects, and who possess not merely the present but the future, and can rise or fall from a past of glory or of shame. Movement, that problem of the visible arts, can be truly realised by Literature alone. It is Literature that shows us the body in its swiftness and the soul in its unrest.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Critic As Artist
It is a manifesto on art and its true meaning, a complex search where Wilde himself assumes how difficult it is to define beauty, art and who can value it or not. It is an absolutely brilliant and profound approach to the subject of artistic criticism and the value we give to creators and their works. In addition, as always, Wilde has an immensely beautiful language and gives us some moving and fundamental thoughts
What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoi
“To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art.”
― Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?
The great Tolstoi here analyzes the true nature of art and questions traditional notions of beauty and genius in artistic creation. He argues that authentic art should be accessible to all people, convey genuine emotions and promote spiritual union between individuals. He criticizes elitist and commercial art, defending the idea that art should be a sincere and altruistic expression that seeks truth and universal beauty. Although at the end of the book it takes a somewhat spiritual turn (this text belongs to the most spiritually dramatic stage of the author) it is still absolutely wonderful.
Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages by Umberto Eco
This book is a gem. Eco presents us with a wonderful essay on aesthetics, art, the notion of beauty and aesthetic values in the medieval era, interconnecting this with society, politics, poetry... mysticism! As always, Eco gives us very illuminating ideas and a deep analysis of how culture and human beings are reflected and understood through the aesthetics and art they create. It is simply a must read!
The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf
“The proper stuff of fiction” does not exist everything is the proper stuff of fiction every feeling every thought every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon no perception comes amiss. And if we can imagine the art of fiction come alive and standing in our midst she would undoubtedly bid us break her and bully her as well as honour and love her for so her youth is renewed and her sovereignty assured.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader
Virginia's genius is not unknown to anyone; her novels are always an enormous mental and emotional journey. Her essays are by far the best I have ever read, absolutely interesting, full of truths, notions about art, politics, feminism and literature. The author's personal relationship with books, translation, critical and literary analysis are the inspiration for most of her essays, in this and other collections (in Spanish I highly recommend the collection entitled Horas en una biblioteca published by Austral).
I especially consider her analysis of Russian authors, aesthetics and the notions of beauty and personal inspiration as an outlet for the creation of fiction to be wonderful.
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I've read a couple of James Baldwin's novels, but have yet to explore his essays. His writing is beautiful.
I really like the details of the pictures you place in your texts! Very nice.