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Short Story

The Big Question

Can the great philosophers of the past help us to answer the questions that really matter to us? A short story by Mark Noonan.

The evening started badly. I passed some drinks around, but no one seemed too willing to make conversation. Sartre and Camus were huddled in the corner, muttering to each other in French and gesturing in a restrained sort of way. Bertrand Russell was leaning against the kitchen hatch, reading a book he had brought with him – maybe he knew something I didn’t. Kierkegaard was sitting on the couch, grinning that insane grin of his, staring at my mother’s framed picture of the Pope just above the fireplace.