We’re finally reading some autotheory/fiction with the #storytellings reading group:

• David Kishik, Self Study. Notes on the Schizoid Condition (2023)

“By filling one page each day in this empty notebook, I will write here mainly for myself and maybe also for some strangers. Rather than a diary revolving around my (boring) life and (insane) times, I see it turning into an autophilosophy. Wittgenstein said that working in philosophy is really working on oneself. Such a philosophy of myself, like every philosophy, cannot be dedicated to either private or public events, just as it cannot be labeled either fact or fiction. The aim is not to sketch a faithful self-portrait but to etch the surface of an entire mirror until it reflects only a blurry outline of me and my surroundings. These notes might also double as therapy sessions on a budget, since they will be less an attempt to imagine my form of life than to unravel it: they could unweave the fabric or disentangle the knots in preparation for a new fabric and the knots to come. So I first have to lose, not find, myself. The point is to exit, not enter, the monastery inside me. Auto-philo-sophy is therefore not the love of one’s own wisdom, but the wisdom of one’s love; which might sound sentimental, but it will soon reveal a darker truth. Hence a warning must be posted before I proceed: ‘If you want riches and old age, do not turn this very first page.’” (p. 2)

If you would like to join us, please send a short note to mail@diffrakt.space with the subject line “Storytellings”. Meetings of the reading group take place on Monday evenings every three weeks, at diffrakt and online, and discussions are normally in English.

The book is available from ICI Berlin Press, both in print and in open-access digital formats.

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