by Jean-Claude Hagège & translated by Marjolijn de Jager ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 28, 2005
Reading or attempting to read this ponderous and pretentious treatise will not help the ambivalent woman come to a decision...
From a French cosmetic surgeon comes word that true beauty is found not in facial perfection but in a certain je ne sais quoi that he labels seductiveness.
Actually, Hagège takes many, many words to say this, and either he is a master of verbosity and obscurity or his translator has made him out to be one. Seduction, he tells the reader in one of his numerous struggles to define his terms, “escapes any calculation, it is a way of belonging to life, it is a movement, a truth,” and being seductive is “first of all pleasing yourself, being confident, surprising yourself, loving yourself, letting yourself be.” In his view, the key to acquiring this elusive but essential internal quality lies in the limbic system, the brain of emotions and passion, which one must liberate from the tyranny of the cortex, the brain of reason and intelligence, for doing so releases a flood of neurotransmitters that are essential to sensuality and bring about a state of confidence, daring and harmony. As he puts it: “Let us then convert our brain so it will seduce, live, and help to construct the man to be selected. It is the only chance for survival our species has.” Hagège’s take on neurology, evolution and the place of reason in the history of Western civilization occupies a substantial portion of this curious opus, which also features conversations with potential cosmetic-surgery patients, long letters from former patients, analysis of the charms of bygone movie stars and some criticism of the misleading visions of ideal beauty presented in advertising. Oddly, tucked into the back is a short, semi-technical piece on the maintenance of a cervicofacial lift.
Reading or attempting to read this ponderous and pretentious treatise will not help the ambivalent woman come to a decision about cosmetic surgery, but it may well induce some beauty sleep.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2005
ISBN: 1-59051-121-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Other Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2005
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 23, 2018
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
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by Oliver Sacks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 6, 2012
A riveting look inside the human brain and its quirks.
Acclaimed British neurologist Sacks (Neurology and Psychiatry/Columbia Univ.; The Mind’s Eye, 2010, etc.) delves into the many different sorts of hallucinations that can be generated by the human mind.
The author assembles a wide range of case studies in hallucinations—seeing, hearing or otherwise perceiving things that aren’t there—and the varying brain quirks and disorders that cause them in patients who are otherwise mentally healthy. In each case, he presents a fascinating condition and then expounds on the neurological causes at work, drawing from his own work as a neurologist, as well as other case studies, letters from patients and even historical records and literature. For example, he tells the story of an elderly blind woman who “saw” strange people and animals in her room, caused by Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a condition in with the parts of the brain responsible for vision draw on memories instead of visual perceptions. In another chapter, Sacks recalls his own experimentation with drugs, describing his auditory hallucinations. He believed he heard his neighbors drop by for breakfast, and he cooked for them, “put their ham and eggs on a tray, walked into the living room—and found it completely empty.” He also tells of hallucinations in people who have undergone prolonged sensory deprivation and in those who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, migraines, epilepsy and narcolepsy, among other conditions. Although this collection of disorders feels somewhat formulaic, it’s a formula that has served Sacks well in several previous books (especially his 1985 bestseller The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat), and it’s still effective—largely because Sacks never turns exploitative, instead sketching out each illness with compassion and thoughtful prose.
A riveting look inside the human brain and its quirks.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-95724-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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