by Martin Hägglund ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
An impassioned and erudite proposal for vast systemic changes.
A defense of democratic socialism, grounded in religion, philosophy, economics, and literature.
In a densely argued critique of religion and capitalism, philosopher Hägglund (Comparative Literature and Humanities/Yale Univ.; Dying for Time: Proust, Woolf, Nabokov, 2012, etc.) tackles thorny questions of value, freedom, and responsibility. Analyzing a wide range of thinkers—among others, Aristotle, Spinoza, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Marx, Martin Luther King Jr., John Rawls, Friedrich Hayek, and Thomas Piketty—Hägglund asserts that only secular faith and democratic socialism can “provide the institutional, political, and material conditions for spiritual freedom.” In the first part of the book, the author examines the social and moral consequences of belief in eternity, which he sees as central to religious faith. Believing that one’s soul transcends time leads to indifference to worldly events, immunity from grief or loss, and lack of care about the fates of others. God, Hägglund writes, “is completely irresponsible because he is not bound to anything other than himself.” Secular faith, on the other hand, is premised on an individual’s sense of moral responsibility and investment “in finite lives.” Personal attachments leave individuals open to suffering, but they offer “a positive chance of having a relation to others” and to developing and acting upon “an existential commitment—to a political transformation, a filial relation, an artistic creation, and so on.” The second part of the book focuses on an intensive examination of capitalism, which the author argues necessarily undermines individuals’ spiritual freedom and generates political and economic inequality. Neither a universal basic income nor redistribution of wealth “can free us from capitalist exploitation,” he asserts, “since only wage labor in the service of profit” supports the accumulation of wealth that fuels “the dynamic of capitalism.” In order “for democracy to be true to its own concept of freedom and equality,” he writes, “capitalism must therefore be overcome.” Freedom to act authentically, to make choices that support the common good, and to enhance the quality of our free time is fundamental to Hägglund’s argument in favor of democratic socialism.
An impassioned and erudite proposal for vast systemic changes.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-101-87040-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by R. Crumb ; illustrated by R. Crumb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2009
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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