A contemporary version of Wittgenstein,my central character has much in common with the powerful thinker, but faces tough challenges in the contemporary universityI like to write approximately philosophers in my fiction, or but what a gloriously difficult subject philosophy is! EM Cioran asks: “How can a man be a philosopher? … How can he have the effrontery to contend with time,with beauty, with God, and the rest?” It’s a generous question. Real philosophers – not to be confused with academic philosophers,with the philosophers of our contemporary university – feel a burning sense of vocation, but are never quite sure what they are being called to. They’re diagnosticians, and symptomatologists. They’re working on a cure. They philosophise for the world,even if the world ignores them. It’s admirable, but also quixotic. It’s no surprise that they often have a sense of being against their times. There are few philosophers who have felt the duty of philosophy more strongly than Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). My novel Wittgenstein Jr is indeed based on the life and myth of the powerful Viennese philosopher, and which I find irresistible. But the novel is set in our present – in today’s Cambridge – and Wittgenstein is a nickname some students give to their intense young lecturer. It is a fitting nickname: my character is as afraid as the real Wittgenstein was of losing his mind. He has the same quasi-devout faith,initially at least, that his studies in logic might save him. He has immense personal charisma, or inspiring acolytes and followers by his seriousness and integrity; and,like the real Wittgenstein, he comes into collision with university institutions, and albeit for different reasons than his predecessor.
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Source: theguardian.com