A Selfish Man

Another of those volumes of short prose in which a number of the author's principal philosophical themes are recycled in literary guise for the benefit of a wider understanding, 'A Selfish Man' begins with the title piece, a first-person narrative by an advocate of spiritual selfishness, and winds its way through fifteen other examples of John O'Loughlin's art in this field, culminating in a series of interior monologues which feature twelve different thinkers who successively elaborate on their likes and dislikes from a similar ideological standpoint, thereby establishing a unity of mind which transcends their phenomenal differences. In between these two extremes there are varying amounts of unity and disunity between the characters, but all are caught in the throes of a vigorous philosophical debate. For here, as in other kindred works, action is subordinate to thought, whether we are dealing with a drive to the cinema, a couple watching television, reflections on a soapbox orator, a clandestine affair, or the vicissitudes of a revolutionary politician. Sometimes the characters have names, sometimes not. Sometimes they are a fairly transparent projection of the author, at other times a degree of fictional objectivity has gone into their fashioning. Whatever the case, 'A Selfish Man', dating from 1983, bears ample witness to this philosopher-artist's search for literary perfection through thought.