Overly audacious ruminations about the lost civilization of Atlantis from two Canadian librarians, based on disparate facts and near-facts derived from mythology, literature, geology, and cartography. Pointing to the striking similarity of myths of a disastrous flood among widely dispersed peoples (Indian tribes of the Americas and peoples of the Middle East, for instance), evidence of transcontinental mass extinctions approximately 11,000 years ago, profound changes in world climate since prehistoric times, and the pervasiveness of the myth of a lost civilization of Atlantis in Plato and in Egyptian lore, the Flem-Aths draw the conclusion that an advanced maritime civilization, based in Antarctica, predated the last Ice Age. The Flem-Aths rely heavily on the theories of the late Charles Hapgood, a historian of science whose ideas once won Albert Einstein's praise. In several books, Hapgood made two arguments critical to the authors' thesis: that at some point in the distant past the Earth's crust was abruptly torn asunder (rather than gradually shifting apart, as plate tectonic theory would have it) and that accurate, ancient maps existed, particularly the so-called Piri Re'is from 1513, that showed Antarctica centuries before it was discovered by European explorers. Weaving together Hapgood's crust displacement theory, the flood myths, and evidence of sophisticated ancient cartography, the authors speculate that the Antarctica-based Atlantean civilization was destroyed by geological catastrophe and attendant flooding. The shattered survivors cultivated agriculture in the mountaintops that alone survived the great floods (the authors point out that the grains that have been staples in the human diet originate in the highlands) and, as the floodwaters receded, founded cultures that in turn became the basis for civilization. Fun, yes, but it isn't science. The Flem-Aths go well beyond their evidence to locate Atlantis in Antarctica, and the basis of their speculations, including the ancient sea maps and Hapgood's theory of catastrophic crust displacement, must await a more sober and rigorous assessment. (23 maps and line drawings)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13620-X
Page Count: 208
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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