by W.L. Cooley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 2014
Although this short work has its limits, it provides a view of love that just might be what the world needs now.
A brief debut primer on love that asks readers to proceed with both caution and bravery.
In 1924, English intellectual A. R. Orage wrote an essay, “On Love: Freely Adapted from the Tibetan,” in which he explored the esoteric teachings of his friend and spiritual mentor, G. I. Gurdjieff, as well as his own complex relationship with the writer Katherine Mansfield and, later, with his wife, Jessie Dwight. In it, Orage outlined three kinds of love, which correspond to three spiritual levels of development: instinctual, emotional, and conscious. According to Orage, the highest form of love, conscious love, requires a person to help bring about the beloved’s perfection without selfishness, obsession, or succumbing to the influence of the chemical high of the first stages of attraction. Because “On Love” is steeped in metaphysical Tibetan philosophy, Cooley endeavors to distill the essay into 13 “rules” of love. Beginning with the first, an advisory that “you will physically wig out,” and ending with the 13th, an assertion that “the duty of love is to let go,” Cooley traces Orage’s argument in what one might call a cheat sheet to the original essay. Most of Cooley’s advice, via Orage, is illuminating: “To practice love is to contemplate the needs and desires of the beloved; to study and watch, gently anticipating and offering. Over time and with great effort, a lover may come to know something of what will make his beloved more perfectly herself.” Other elements of Cooley’s work, however, may be too heteronormative and procreation-focused to appeal to a wider audience (“From a woman’s physical point of view, sex means ‘I accept you as someone with the biological and personal traits I would approve of in my children’ ”). Overall, however, those who find that love is more of a battlefield than a privilege will appreciate this alternative perspective.
Although this short work has its limits, it provides a view of love that just might be what the world needs now.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1502315274
Page Count: 94
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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