Colin Wilson's The Outsider

I still haven't actually finished this one. I really haven't had time to do much reading for many months. I fear I'm going to forget what I've thought of this one before I make it to the end.

I think it boils down to being intelligent makes you nihilistic. To a large extent I think Wilson is vague and oversimplifies. When he tries to then divide things up into three types of outsiders (mental, emotional and physical) he's just going way too simplistic. I can't help but remember that he was only 24 when he wrote this book... But I like the ambition of it. And it goes on about a lot of writers. It's interesting.

I've got plenty of nihilism in me and as such it's a good book to me. It's existentialist, like Camus. Why bother doing anything? An important question to me. Ultimately he's just showing how many great writers were nihilistic. But he's maybe really oversimplifying... but then the attempt to understand means trying to simplify, so I just don't know. It is though a rich book.