I am getting into neo-nihilism – it is so soothing to conclude that nothing matters
Emma Beddington
Accepting the futility of everything is very much in. I’m not quite sure I buy it, but it is true that plenty of things are not as important as we feel they are, writes Emma Beddington
March 2022
The big idea
The big idea: is tourism bad for us?
Wanderlust may be surging once more – but will travel really help us find what we’re looking for?
June 2021
Books that made me
Ben Macintyre: ‘I wish I’d written The Great Gatsby. Doesn’t everyone?’
The author and journalist on his two unopened copies of Stephen Hawking’s great work and not getting on with Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy
September 2020
Observer book of the week
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross – review
This account of Wagner’s influence on the great and ghastly is passionate and encyclopedic, if unfocused
May 2020
Book of the day
Wagner’s Parsifal by Roger Scruton review – in defence of the insufferable
Nietzsche famously called Wagner’s last opera poisonous, but does its theme of redemption offer an antidote to our ills?
February 2020
Brief letters
Didsbury: home of the northern lites?
Essential Nietzsche knowhow
January 2020
Nietzsche and the Burbs review – deadpan philosophical comedy
Further reading
From Geoff Dyer to Nietzsche: the best books to inspire wanderlust
December 2019
Sunny nihilism: 'Since discovering I’m worthless my life has felt precious'
Guardian Sport Network
The ethics of walking in cricket: from Socrates to Nietzsche
April 2019
Book of the day
Hiking With Nietzsche by John Kaag review – becoming who you are
Going through a crisis? Why not head off into the mountains in the footsteps of a great German thinker
December 2018
'A rose with a thousand petals' … what makes an aphorism – and is this a golden age?
Forget haikus, epigrams, proverbs, maxims, adages and riddles. If you’re needing a sliver of wisdom, try an aphorism. There are certainly plenty around …
November 2018
Book of the day
I Am Dynamite! by Sue Prideaux review – Nietzsche as we haven't known him before
From love affairs to lost trousers … this sprightly biography considers the episodes that shaped the philosopher’s thinking, and explains why he has been misunderstood
