Scrupulously researched, far-reaching, but not without its flaws.
The teachings of Epicurus are explored and applied to contemporary life in this debut philosophical study–cum–self-help guide by Dimitriadis.
The intention of this 500-page study is to “reintroduce pleasure” as an “innate guide to living a healthy and happy life.” Throughout most of his adult life, Dimitriadis admits that he was a corporate climber. In his 50s, he came to the abrupt realization that he no longer recognized himself—he was “distressed, anxious, asking for more and more.” He turned to the works of the great philosophers but found, frustratingly, that their teachings had “no practical application” in his life. He finally stumbled across a letter written by Epicurus—it would prove to be life-changing. His fascination ignited, Dimitriadis spent 12 years fervently researching the ancient Greek philosopher’s teachings, a journey that he believes radically improved his worldview. In this detailed study, the author proposes that contemporary society is characterized by a fear of pleasure. Dimitriadis suggests that all of the “goods” required for happiness are present in the natural world yet regularly overlooked or unappreciated. He sets about identifying and investigating various forms of natural pleasure, such as friendship, food, and knowledge—all critical to Epicurean thinking. His belief is that each individual must choose wisely between the pleasures outlined to discover harmony and happiness. The study goes on to consider ways the teachings of Epicurus can be implemented in contemporary society, where perceptions of natural pleasure, for example friendship, have become skewed or undervalued. Dimitriadis writes with open-hearted enthusiasm for his subject and believes that Epicurean philosophy has the power to change lives: “But worry not as you are inherently well equipped for this journey to the joyful life. With determination and perseverance, you too will find the happiness to which you are entitled.” In his quest for knowledge, the author deftly summarizes a wide range of philosophers including Sartre, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard, tackling complex ideas by keeping sentences short and simple. On occasion, however, he oversimplifies, which results in him losing his intellectual poise: “Plato and Descartes could not be more wrong when they declared that the mind is completely separate from the body.” Granted, this is not an academic thesis—its intention is to enlighten a wider audience beyond that of the university philosophy department. Many will welcome this intentionally simplistic, accessible style while others may consider the approach somewhat glib. A minor technical criticism is that the author struggles with the use of articles, which affects the fluidity of his writing: “Courage is identical with the lack of cowardice and servility.” Still, this is an engaging, admirably earnest bid to help others to live a more fulfilling life via a deeper understanding of themselves and others.
Scrupulously researched, far-reaching, but not without its flaws.Pub Date: June 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-387-35308-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
Necessarily swift and adumbrative as well as inclusive, focused, and graceful.
A light-speed tour of (mostly) Western poetry, from the 4,000-year-old Gilgamesh to the work of Australian poet Les Murray, who died in 2019.
In the latest entry in the publisher’s Little Histories series, Carey, an emeritus professor at Oxford whose books include What Good Are the Arts? and The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books, offers a quick definition of poetry—“relates to language as music relates to noise. It is language made special”—before diving in to poetry’s vast history. In most chapters, the author deals with only a few writers, but as the narrative progresses, he finds himself forced to deal with far more than a handful. In his chapter on 20th-century political poets, for example, he talks about 14 writers in seven pages. Carey displays a determination to inform us about who the best poets were—and what their best poems were. The word “greatest” appears continually; Chaucer was “the greatest medieval English poet,” and Langston Hughes was “the greatest male poet” of the Harlem Renaissance. For readers who need a refresher—or suggestions for the nightstand—Carey provides the best-known names and the most celebrated poems, including Paradise Lost (about which the author has written extensively), “Kubla Khan,” “Ozymandias,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads, which “changed the course of English poetry.” Carey explains some poetic technique (Hopkins’ “sprung rhythm”) and pauses occasionally to provide autobiographical tidbits—e.g., John Masefield, who wrote the famous “Sea Fever,” “hated the sea.” We learn, as well, about the sexuality of some poets (Auden was bisexual), and, especially later on, Carey discusses the demons that drove some of them, Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath among them. Refreshingly, he includes many women in the volume—all the way back to Sappho—and has especially kind words for Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop, who share a chapter.
Necessarily swift and adumbrative as well as inclusive, focused, and graceful.Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-23222-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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