Best read as an introduction to a more substantial work, would that we had one.
A slender meditation on the human urge to fix things.
Beginning with obvious types of repair to inanimate objects, Spelman (Philosophy/Smith; Fruits of Sorrow, 1997, etc.) muses on the occupational differences between an automobile mechanic, a vintage motorcycle restorer, and three painting conservators. In the first profession, the goal is the resurrection of machinery: an engine that runs, doors and windows that open and close. The motorcycle restorer, however, must replace damaged bits with authentic parts from the same make and model; a good restoration will result in a bike that closely resembles the original as it came off the factory floor. And the painting conservators engage in “invisible mending,” a process that must be reversible, well documented, and approved by both curator and artist. The author next turns to metaphorical repair, citing examples from the criminal-justice system, the Holocaust, the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the enslavement of Africans in the US. Unfortunately, Spelman flits away from each example as soon as it is offered. In discussing the gas chambers at Birkenau, for instance, she offers no opinion as to whether the site should be fully restored, partially restored (just enough to halt deterioration), or allowed to fall into complete disrepair. Tackling intangible repairs (can Holocaust survivors be repaired and should they even want to?), Spelman raises a number of questions but examines none of them in depth. She mentions the tantalizing detail that in Japan there exists an aesthetic movement referred to as wabi, in which “visibly repaired teapots can be more beautiful than unbroken ones,” but does not explore this motif further. Another interesting point—that repair is at odds with a capitalist consumer economy—is also swiftly abandoned. Finally, her thesis that the urge to repair is universal constrains the author from meaningful exploration of culture or class.
Best read as an introduction to a more substantial work, would that we had one.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2002
ISBN: 0-8070-2012-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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