The Possibility of Reddish Green

How Wittgenstein's theories have been bent, transformed, and expanded in the world outside philosophy.

The expression of his eyes remained the same, a cold, piercing sadness. Yet his final words were "Tell them I had a happy life." This poetic book examines the way Ludwig Wittgenstein has influenced artists of the word beyond his own field, thereby touching the subject of how philosophy can be relevant at large. By studying the ways Wittgenstein's theories have been bent, transformed, and expanded, David Rothenberg shows that responses to the reading of philosophy can take many deep, reflective, and different forms. Aphoristically constructed in the style of E. M. Cioran or Edmond Jabès, carefully illustrated with paintings and drawings by Doug Hall, Leif Haglund, and Debra Pughe, The Possibility of Reddish Green situates Wittgenstein in the age of the sound bite and the artistic fragment, promoting the aesthetic of detachment and yet seeking to find a route through the sea of disconnected, jumbled ideas and changes that mark our time.

Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg is the author of Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful, and many other books, published in at least eleven languages. His more than twenty CDs include One Dark Night I Left My Silent House and, most recently, Berlin Bülbul and Cool Spring. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, and Suzanne Vega. Nightingales in Berlin is his latest book, CD, and film. A 2019 Safina Center Fellow, he is Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.How Wittgenstein's theories have been bent, transformed, and expanded in the world outside philosophy.