The Hedgehog's Dilemma: How to Face Loneliness

The poet Vinicius de Moraes sang "that it is better to suffer together, than to live happily alone”. Could it be? The historian Leandro Karnal, one of the Brazilian intellectuals who, through his books, lectures and videos, helps us think about the contemporary world, discusses an issue present in everyone's lives: loneliness. Using references from philosophers and the Bible itself, historical facts and novels, he reflects on the nature of living alone - for a short or long time, whether or not accompanied. It presents how loneliness is seen in cinema, literature, music, and the arts. It shows that it can be enlightening and how God reveals himself to the lonely. The same God who, according to Genesis, would have said: “It is not good that let the man be alone; I will make him someone to help him and respond.” And he exposes how the Judeo-Christian tradition of solitude developed. In The Hedgehog's Dilemma, Karnal travels through liquid modernity and analyzes loneliness in the virtual world and isolation. He discusses everything from imaginary friends created by children to the thoughts of some philosophers, like Aristotle, who said that solitude created gods and beasts. As solitude is a theme that has always accompanied him and, as Karnal himself reveals, has grown in maturity, the author writes this book as a personal essay. By sharing his meditations , the author invites the reader, during the act of reading, to leave loneliness aside and share their thoughts too.