Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal

10/23/20

here is the book description on goodreads: “In this novel/allegory the narrator/author sets sail in the yacht Impossible to search for Mount Analogue, the geographically located, albeit hidden, peak that reaches inexorably toward heaven. Daumal’s symbolic mountain represents a way to truth that “cannot not exist,” and his classic allegory of man’s search for himself embraces the certainty that one can know and conquer one’s own reality.”

my reading tips (opinion, but I cannot urge each of these strongly enough)

- use the Shattuck translation
- dont read other interpretations of it online: the meaning of it should be developed uniquely to you in your mind
- dont read the Table of Contents, Introduction, nor “inside of front flap preview” thing: it can spoil your experience with preconceived notions, as well as a spoiler for one VERY important detail
- dont believe the Postface: since its not written by the author, quotes and ideas from the author may have been left out for a reason, and overall it has some strangely contradictory energy with the rest of the book

given these, if you are considering reading it, then dont read my review yet! (though it's spoiler free)

my (spoiler free) review on Goodreads

Copied from https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3562250500

Mount Analogue by René Daumal
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s impossible to write a truly “relevant” review as your reception of this fantastic book wholly depends on what your unique path is currently most sensitive to. My feeble attempt to describe it as precisely as possible could only be “a surreal allegory about journeys and one’s experience when ‘seeking’” (however defined)

Reading this book is like viewing an abstract representation of your own perspective of your reality, with it additionally sitting within a refractive crystal, such that you can never quite comprehend it in totality. But it fulfills its purpose nonetheless, which is one of suggestion plus unexpected intuition. This book almost electrically invigorated my sense of existence…

If you feel pulled to this book, there is probably a reason!

And if you intend to read, i recommend you avert your eyes from all descriptions/ synopses/reviews. The one on Goodreads treads lightly, while the Wikipedia one has spoilers and (IMO) also misses the point

reading tips (opinion, but I cannot urge each of these strongly enough)
- find the Shattuck translation
- dont read other interpretations of it online: the meaning of it should be developed uniquely to you in your mind
- dont read the Table of Contents, Introduction, nor “inside of front flap preview” thing: it can spoil your experience with preconceived notions, as well as a spoiler for one VERY important detail
- dont believe the Postface: since its not written by the author, quotes and ideas from the author may have been left out for a reason, and overall it has some strangely contradictory energy with the rest of the book

an (unspecific) spoiler is below

my general approximation of what this novel represents in sum to me:

It’s something like the literary form of a cross between a projective test, a motivational speech that somehow comes from inside the reader, the sensation of learning a new skill, and your future self travelling back in time and telling you “hey, here’s an idea…”

View all my reviews