EVERYTHING FLIRTS

Short stories offer a whirlwind tour through the history of philosophy via a series of hapless lovers.

By reputation, philosophy seems the opposite of fiction. Abstract where fiction is concrete, rational where fiction explores emotional truth, philosophy might seem an odd—or at least deeply challenging—framework around which to build a collection of stories. But here fiction and philosophy are paired like wine with cheese. Often a philosophical principle informs the story, as in the opener, where Zeno’s paradoxes of motion undergird the tale of a woman seeing a movie with her crush who vividly imagines what would happen if she acted on her desires (“Zeno and the Distance Between Us”). In the title story, steeped in cybernetics, an AI and robotics researcher goes to a get-together with scientist friends in the aftermath of being left by her longtime partner and confronts her unsolvable loneliness. Sometimes, the philosophers themselves, or their creations, make appearances in the stories: In the rollicking “I Also Dated Zarathustra,” a dating show contestant picks Nietzsche’s philosophical protagonist as her love match; their resulting trip to Las Vegas is a cascade of misadventures culminating in Zarathustra falling in love with a mannequin. (“She smiled at me over his shoulder, apparently delighted, as she was with all things. She went with him into the night with her eyes wide open.”) Elsewhere, Wahl borrows structures: Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with its numbered propositions here describes a student’s infatuation with her seminar leader (“Tractatus Logico-Eroticus”). Wahl moves us through stages of relationships, from unrequited yearnings to breakups, creating subtle linkages and uniting the stories with her nimble, playful style. Surreal flashes of humor serve as a welcome counterpoint to the weight of Big Ideas.

Though their conceit can occasionally feel constricting, Wahl’s stories bring old concepts to new, vivacious life.