This is my first encounter with Barjavel's work, and I must say a standout quality of this novel is it's writting style, which flirts with poetry at times and has a lot of lyricism.
It has interesting themes with a blend of politics, science, with hints of universal income, and borders with technological fix. Without spoiling, the book really keeps you on edge with a really tense turn of events, and finishes with a really frustrating and completely intentional ending.
I've seen people citing this as a novel about pacifism, and while that's true, it really shows a contrast of human nature, opposing man's ability to love and it's ability (and inevitability) to wage war and suffering on the sole premise of not being part of the same nation. I can't help but to think this book is incredibly pessimistic, and slightly misanthropic, and my understanding of "La nuit des temps" title meant that humans have been killing each other in useless war since the dawn of time, and this even despite having basically eradicated hunger, illnesses and aging (the only thing killing humans, are humans themselves, how bleak...).
"Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra", Friedrich Nietzsche
Original title: Also Sprach Zarathustra
(read it in french)
First I would like to preface that this is not an easy read at all, especially for non philosophy graduates/major like me, and I was unsure at any given moment that I was interpreting what I was reading correctly. Every line in this book feels figuratively written (which it probably is) and thus rendering the fiction aspect of the book to become pretty anecdotal; it serving only as a medium to convey Nietzsche's thoughts and philosophy. This is completely fine, but usually for me, the fiction aspect is also a great source of joy and engagement in addition to the message beneath. Here this isn't the case, I didn't care for the chronological events of the story, and couldn't recall what happened at any given moment, not that it really matters here.
That being said, after pushing myself to read through to the last page, including the notes (and digging a little on the web, to see if I wasn't reading everything wrong), I am happy that I did. I find Nietzsche's ideas to be quite psychologically healing. This is because Nietzsche is deeply anti-nihilistic (something I didn't know if he was pro/anti before reading, knowing nothing of him, except his amazing mustache). I can't really summarize ever ideas here, and this wouldn't be a review, but this book is filled with ways to detect nihilistic thoughts and behavior, and how to detach from them. It gives the reader ways to approach life and how to embrace every aspects of it, both good or evil, and will leave those who are receptive with a sense of hopefulness (but not necessarily optimistic) and strength. This sounds a lot like life/personal coach/guru bullshit you get nowadays, that is probably because these ideas did in fact inspire those people, which they in turn, rehashed, reinterpret, and spewed to crowds of lost people. Jokingly, if Nietzsche was born today, he would be part philosopher, part life-coach (am I insulting him?). But this really shows the mark he left, and the shift that operated on society.
As a personal note, I find quite pleasing trying to dig at something that was (more) difficult to read and a little above my comprehension. It served as a good training for me. I could only imagine this being a lot less intimidating and painful to study in a class with a great philosophy teacher.
Finally, I understand my review doesn't really sell this book very well for how gruesome and unappealing I made it look. It does seem like I shouldn't score this very high, and that is probably because I fail to be very critical, especially towards someone that is probably way more intelligent than me. But this is a read which will truly stay with me through time, and will definitely make me read and study Nietzsche other works.