Several years ago, the X and Philosophy pop culture series was really hitting it big. Barnes and Noble had a sale on several hardcover editions, including Harry Potter and Philosophy and The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy, both of which I love. So I snagged them both and promptly didn’t read either for years. Now that I’m going through my Marie Kondo phase, trying to eliminate as much extra kitsch and junk from my life as possible, I’m motivated to read ALL the books on […]
This book might make you question yourself and your relationships
A Lover’s Discourse came recommended by a very good friend with very good literary taste, so I did not question a thing about the book when I picked it up. I went into it blind. Finding out that it was actually a philosophical treatise on the language we use as lovers was the least jarring of discoveries. Depending on what type of person you are, and what type of relationships you’ve been in, A Lover’s Discourse functions more as a mirror, and it can be a painful and […]
I tried something new.
I feel like there are two types of people in the world: people who have read Atlas Shrugged, and people who would rather be eaten alive by maggots than read Atlas Shrugged. I’m joking, slightly, of course, but I was possibly the last indifferent person on earth to read it. To be clear, upfront: I have neither the intention, nor the energy, to pick apart and debate Rand’s actual objectivist philosophy within the scope of this review. (To poke the bear slightly, Mallory Ortberg sums […]
Read a Book, Ya Idjits!
I’m going to guess there aren’t too many places outside fan fiction where you’ll find Supernatural mentioned in the same breath or sentence as Hamlet. Let alone Aristotle, Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant (who’s a real pissant), or Thomas Aquinas. Or Simone du Bouvoir. Or many other philosophers. Just so we’re clear: yes. I mean *that* Supernatural. Not the idea of the supernatural, or defining the supernatural, though certainly some chapters address those topics and I think a great many philosophers have covered that ground. For those people who […]