Onfray's 'L'Archipel des comètes' Defies Critics with Admiration for Artists

Michel Onfray's latest book 'L'Archipel des comètes' (The Archipelago of Comets) was published in 2001. In it, the French philosopher continues his prolific output, offering both scathing critiques of literary and academic circles and extensive admiration for artists, musicians, and writers. Onfray targets what he calls the 'clergy of philosophy' and university castes, dismissing them with insect metaphors. However, the book primarily focuses on figures he admires, including painters Michelangelo, Hieronymus Bosch, Gustav Klimt, Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Clovis Trouille; composers Jean-Philippe Rameau, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Alban Berg, and Pierre Boulez; and writers and philosophers such as Michel de Montaigne, Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, and Sigmund Freud. Onfray argues that these individuals are united by their capacity to think, transcending centuries and diverse symbolic practices. The review by Jacques Henric in artpress emphasizes that Onfray's comet-like presence continues to disrupt the night of those who prophesy Western decadence or the end of history.