Another of those volumes of short prose in which a number of the author's principal philosophical themes are recycled in literary guise for the benefit of a wider understanding, 'A Selfish Man' begins with the title piece, a first-person narrative by an advocate of spiritual selfishness, and winds its way through fifteen other examples of John O'Loughlin's art in this field, culminating in a series of interior monologues which feature twelve different thinkers who successively elaborate on their likes and dislikes from a similar ideological standpoint, thereby establishing a unity of mind which transcends their phenomenal differences. In between these two extremes there are varying amounts of unity and disunity between the characters, but all are caught in the throes of a vigorous philosophical debate. For here, as in other kindred works, action is subordinate to thought, whether we are dealing with a drive to the cinema, a couple watching television, reflections on a soapbox orator, a clandestine affair, or the vicissitudes of a revolutionary politician. Sometimes the characters have names, sometimes not. Sometimes they are a fairly transparent projection of the author, at other times a degree of fictional objectivity has gone into their fashioning. Whatever the case, 'A Selfish Man', dating from 1983, bears ample witness to this philosopher-artist's search for literary perfection through thought. - A Centretruths editorial
About the Author: John James O'Loughlin was born in Salthill, the seaside suburb of Galway City, County Galway, the Republic of Ireland, of Irish- and British-born parents in 1952. Following a parental split while still a child, he was brought to England by his mother and grandmother (who had initially returned to Ireland with intent to stay) in the mid-50s and subsequently attended schools in Aldershot (Hampshire), and, following the death and repatriation of his grandmother, Carshalton Beeches (Surrey), where, despite an enforced change of denomination from Catholic to Protestant in consequence of having been put into care by his mother, he attended a state school. Graduating in 1970 with an assortment of CSE's (Certificate of Secondary Education) and GCE's (General Certificate of Education), including history and music, he moved the comparatively short distance up to London and went on, via two short-lived jobs, to work at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Bedford Square, WC1, where he eventually became responsible, as a clerical officer, for booking examination venues. After a brief flirtation with Redhill Technical College back in Surrey, where he had enrolled to study history, he returned to his former job in the West End but retired from the ABRSM in 1976 due to a combination of factors, and began to dedicate himself to writing, which, despite a brief spell as a computer tutor at Hornsey Management Agency in the late '80s and early '90s, he has continued with ever since. His novels include Changing Worlds (1976), Cross-Purposes (1979), Thwarted Ambitions (1980), Sublimated Relations (1981), and Deceptive Motives (1982). From the mid-80s Mr O'Loughlin more or less exclusively dedicated himself to philosophy, his true literary vocation, and has penned more than sixty titles of a philosophical order, including Devil and God - The Omega Book (1985-6), Towards the Supernoumenon (1987), Elemental Spectra (1988-9), and Philosophical Truth (1991-2). John O'Loughlin lives in Crouch End, north London, England, UK, where he continues to regard himself as a kind of bohemian intellectual.