Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, there was a mysterious wooden domain in which animals, plants and other wild creature were speaking.

The mystery, however, was less in the domain itself nor its inhabitants gifted with speech. It resided in the fact that at certain times and places of the day, often in the morning and near the ponds, it was possible to hear them clearly.

It began inexplicably on a fine September day and ended when half of the characters almost simultaneously left the domain. The exchanges then became once again incomprehensible and returned to their state of natural noises.

The following dialogues and the pages Aphorisms and Why? are thus the transcription of 16 months of eavesdropping. They offer a rare glimpse of what animals, plants and other wild creatures sometimes say…

Note: it seems that this phenomenon has already happened in other places and in other times because some philosophers speak as if they had heard these creatures too. Their names are indicated after each creature so as to give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Existential dialogue 10: what is death?
Existential dialogue 10: what is death?
Irina the dead leaves and Aurelius the angel reflect about the afterlife.
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Existential dialogue 9: a friendly exchange about harmony
Existential dialogue 9: a friendly exchange about harmony
Baruch the heron and Gottfried the bird talk about harmony and their winter plans.
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Existential Dialogue 8: what are Guardian Angels good for?
Existential Dialogue 8: what are Guardian Angels good for?
A dialogue between Socrates the stick and Aurelius the angel about evil.
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About these existential dialogues

There are 56 of them, actually posted in a very simplified version on https://lecomtedominique.com/lesespacesdiscrets/index.php/en/. They will all be rewritten to be progressively posted here.

There are also some dialogues between the eagles and the child on the Why? page. They stand by themselves, with no link to the other dialogues. The eagles and the child are only in the Outer reaches and don’t mix with the other creatures.

As for the Aphorisms page, it presents what the owl says. She speaks only at night and with her mate.

Map of the domain

once upon a time

The 16 speakers of the existential dialogues + the owl, the eagles and the child

existential dialogues
Around the ponds

Around the ponds:

  • Baruch (Spinoza) the heron (often on the shores of the small pond).
  • Irina (Jankelevitch) the dead leaves (on the medium pond).
  • Emmanuelle (Kant) the turtles (often on the shore of the medium pond).
  • Davina (Hume) the goose (often on the big pond).

Somewhere else in the domain:

  • Gautami (Buddha) the woman-tree (at the crossroad of two trails).
  • Luce (Irigaray) the squirrel (everywhere).
  • Jean-Paul (Sartre) the rabbit (next to the outer reaches).
  • Gottfried (Leibniz) the bird (often next to the ponds).
  • Simone (de Beauvoir) the green berries (on the heights)
  • Emily (Rousseau) the blue berries (on the heights, then at the stick’s).
  • Peter (Singer) the hawk (often next to the rest of the world).
  • Friedrich (Nietzsche) the owl (everywhere, but she never participated in any dialogues; she only speaks with aphorisms)

In the outer reaches:

  • Aurelius (St Augustin) the angel (when he is sleeping).
  • Jacques Adam (Monod & Smith) and René Georg (Descartes & Hegel) the eagles (sometimes)
  • Bertie (many different philosophers) the child (when the eagles are there).

Beyond the outer reaches:

  • Niccolò (Machiavel) the snake.
  • Charmide (Socrates) and Mickael (Foucault) the deer.

In the rest of the world:

  • Socrates (Plato) the stick (when he is not walking in the domain).

Reading options

You’ll have 3 choices to read these existential dialogues once they are all published:

  • read them in chronological order to follow the story from the beginning. Start by Existential Dialogue 1 then follow the arrows.
  • read them randomly as each dialogue stands by itself (see Archives once you have opened a dialogue).
  • read them by choosing the characters talking, or the themes discussed (see below).

Lastly, don’t forget the pages Aphorisms and Why? to read what the owl, the eagles and the child say.