Jeff
I'm about halfway through right now, and it's a compelling read. I challenge anyone (especially men) to read this book without coming away with at least a taste of the complexity of Dworkin's ideas, given the complexity of some of the life stories she tells here. You'll no longer stand for oversimplifications of her ideas. She clearly doesn't “hate men” and isn't “anti-sex”. She's a feminist with a heartbreaking history.
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Finished it, and whew, it's a tough read. It gets more heartbreaking, and more angry, as it finishes up. I'll never read Dworkin in the same way again.
This is just a near-perfect novella, in my opinion. A fascinating take on how we face death, and how we ought to, wrapped up in a neat little sci-fi plot. Also: And ending that doesn't back away from the difficulties that death presents.
recommended by Michael Flood, themes include homophobia among the relationships that het men have with each other...
Read half of this a while back, and am starting it again. So good...but so chuck full of facts that I hope I can make it through it this time.
Might come back to this one. I think it's not that well written, though some of the ideas are interesting. The very concept that how one looks back at one's past significantly affecting one's present and future is great, but could have been covered in a blog post. Or maybe I just can't stand the self-help genre. Wanted more of the pop science behind it.
Like many anthologies, this one is hit and miss so far. There is enough here to recommend, but I'd definitely by used or borrow it and then go on to buy stuff from the authors one enjoys...
Schwartz wrote one of my favorite books, The Paradox of Choice, which is why I picked up The Costs of Living. In TPoC, Schwartz explained why having too many choices as consumers can actually have negative consequences on our psyches. In TCoL, which was written in the early 90's, he talks about the same sort of stuff on a more ‘macro' level, explaining how unbridled capitalism makes almost everybody–including those who are profiting the most from it–unhappy. Or at least that's what I think he's going do to.
One interesting thing about reading this book within our current economic crisis, is that much of what he has to say about the economics of the US applies now even more than it did then. The early 90s sort of presaged what's happening now, I think, especially around how deregulation can lead to such intense economic downturns.
Found this in the used bookstore near my house. I am amazed that this book was written, and can hardly wait to delve into it.
Update: Turns out, this book is quite informative in a couple of ways. For one thing, because it was written in 1989, there are some insights available simply by comparing and contrasting women's participation in sports then and now.
Also, I learned a lot about the history of Title IX, which I was only moderately familiar with.
Watched an interview with the author on Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/123/us_interrogator_in_iraq_says_torture
As with many anthologies, this is hit or miss, but the whole book is worth Joanna Angel's take on porn...
So far, this is a happy little book by a psychologist who spent some time in concentration camps in Poland during WWII. It's a wacky joy-fest. I'm hoping to get to the inspiring parts soon, because so far it's making me see the negative sides of humanity, not the meaningfulness of life.
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I can't seem to finish this. After he gets done talking about his time in the concentration camp, he gets into “logotherapy”–his invention which brings into psychotherapy the idea that we need to make meaning in our lives.
Turns out that this pretty much reads like a more accessible Schopenhauer–it's a religious existentialism. I like the existentialism, and some of what he has to say resonates deeply. But then he digresses into religiosity and it gets...less interesting for me.
I think this is my favorite Sacks book, and I tend to like everything he writes. Not only did it have lots of interesting information about ways that brain function can go awry, it turned out to be a treatise on the philosophy of identity and self. And not a bad one, at that.
A difficult read in the sense that I learned a lot of things I wish I had already known, but a great read because the prose flows so cleanly and easily.
I found this a supremely odd read. Though it contained so many common fantasy and sci-fi tropes, I've never read anything quite like it. I'll continue the series, I think, but after a break...