edited by Peter Catapano & Simon Critchley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2015
Serious pieces that serve as counterweights to the frothy blogosphere.
Philosophy made relevant by writers grappling with thorny issues.
For this eclectic, lively gathering of essays, New York Times online opinion editor Catapano and philosophy professor Critchley (New School for Social Research; Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology, 2012, etc.) have selected 133 pieces from about 350 published in the Times’ online series The Stone. Launched in 2010, the series invites contributions “on issues both timely and timeless” from writers who may or may not identify themselves as philosophers. Any thinker will do, including journalists moved by the urgency of current events. The series’ name comes from the “legendarily transformative” philosopher’s stone, a magical, mystical material with the power of changing base metals to gold. That etymology suggests a grander project than these editors have in mind. Their goal is to publish thoughtful, provocative, accessible pieces that may persuade readers that philosophy—defined broadly—matters. Critchley is a major contributor, with eight essays on topics such as love, faith, and the desire for revenge incited by 9/11. University of Notre Dame philosopher Gary Gutting also appears repeatedly, with essays on mind (depression, consciousness), existentialism, and the controversy over gun control. Readers will find some familiar names among contributors—biologist E.O. Wilson, activist Peter Singer, cognitive psychologist Stephen Pinker—but many are academic philosophers able to make Hegel, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Simone Weil relevant for general readers. The editors provide a preface for each of four sections: on the discipline of philosophy; the contribution of science to “the riddle of the human species”; vexing questions about religion, morality, and God; and society, which includes reflections on economics, politics, family, race (including the killing of Trayvon Martin), violence (including the Sandy Hook school shootings), and America’s fierce attachment to what Firmin DeBrabander calls “robust individualism and self-determination.”
Serious pieces that serve as counterweights to the frothy blogosphere.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63149-071-2
Page Count: 768
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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BOOK REVIEW
edited by Peter Catapano & Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
BOOK REVIEW
edited by Peter Catapano & Simon Critchley
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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