A short and simple but, alas, way too rhetorical look at our collective curiosity.
One man’s attempt to provide a short answer to a tall question.
Like the best words in the English language, “curiosity” can mean several different things. Most often, we use it to denote a certain eagerness for information: What is Simmons’ booklet really about? Meanwhile, there’s also an implication of novelty, strangeness even: How can Simmons possibly explain himself in a mere 72 pages? Finally, curiosity can be just another word for prying. (After all, remember what happened to that cat?) Apropos, more than a few sections come off as unduly inquisitive. Writing in the first person, Simmons’ initial response to his title query is to overshare. As the author, too, of a self-help book (Finding Your Inner Will, 2010) perhaps that’s to be expected. His intentions seem pure, though, and when Simmons decides later to turn his gaze outward—looking at how others view curiosity—the book becomes a slightly better, more universal read. As a writer, Simmons is at his best when he’s explaining the ideas and research of others. When contrasting some of the sources he cites (e.g. various arcane inventors, Dr. Michio Kaku, the Max Planck Institute), he uses a clean, no-nonsense prose that truly invites the reader into the discussion. Too bad that’s not a good thing. In fact, the extra-curious out there will need to keep a pen and pad handy; “What does it mean to be curious?” is hardly the only line of inquiry Simmons pursues. Ultimately, the author poses more questions than his word count can answer. Socrates he’s not. And unlike the Rey couple’s brown monkey, it seems Simmons’ curiosity is but a red herring.
A short and simple but, alas, way too rhetorical look at our collective curiosity.Pub Date: April 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0984397129
Page Count: 72
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781627783316
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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
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