Ever since I read Kierkegaard in high school, my life has been influenced by existentialist philosophy. When I attended university, it was in the era Ever since I read Kierkegaard in high school, my life has been influenced by existentialist philosophy. When I attended university, it was in the era of the New Criticism. The ideas were important; the biographies of those who created the ideas were irrelevant. Sarah Bakewell had a similar experience in her encounter with existentialism and phenomenology and thirty years later in life corrected the imbalance with a rereading of the authors in the context of their interrelated lives. Her work is a fascinating study of the ways in which phenomenologists and existentialists influenced each other in the twentieth century. A very readable book about one of the most productive periods in modern philosophy, At the Existentialist Café is a well-written assessment of the contributions of phenomenology and existentialism to our understanding of life and a well-considered evaluation of the lives of those who both thought and lived the philosophies that have done so much to shape our world. ...more
In the spring of 1991, my wife of 21 years died of cancer, leaving me with the gift of two wonderful children, aged 5 and 7. She was my high school swIn the spring of 1991, my wife of 21 years died of cancer, leaving me with the gift of two wonderful children, aged 5 and 7. She was my high school sweetheart and the best friend I had ever had. I was devastated and lost, and at the same time responsible for two precious lives. I slept little and in the early morning hours I found Lewis Thomas. His wonderful essays put my life in perspective and helped me to cope with what I perceived as an irreparable loss. I am forever indebted to this wonderful essayist for saving my life and for showing me the continuity and wonder of all life. He was a brilliant thinker and a wonderful prose stylist. I read every essay he ever wrote, but this was my introduction to the thinking and writing of one of the most humane minds I have ever known. ...more
Richard Mabey, noted British naturalist, has produced an impassioned plea for accepting plants on their own terms by demonstrating the diverse and stiRichard Mabey, noted British naturalist, has produced an impassioned plea for accepting plants on their own terms by demonstrating the diverse and still imperfectly understood life processes of plants that take place for the purposes of plants themselves rather than for those of humans. In the process, he documents the ways in which humans have incorporated plants into our own hubristic and anthropocentric view of the world. This intent is signaled in his working subtitle, "A Romantic Flora," which was expanded, perhaps by that most elusive of creatures, a talented editor, into "Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination."
Mabey, the author of the quirky and strangely addictive Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants, presents his argument in the form of essay chapters, each replete with the erudition of one who read philosophy at St. Catherine's at Oxford but humanized by personal anecdotes of a lifetime of relationships with plants. Mabey's wonder at the incredible complexity of plants is infectious and invites the reader to learn more. To that end, he includes resources in the notes that will serve to lead down any number of rabbit holes for those who love plants.
He does include a number of controversial opinions that deserve attention. Among those are his arguments that the current archaeological trend to regard some ecosystems (such as that of the Amazon basin) as largely human constructs do not give sufficient attention to co-evolutionary processes that over millions of years have produced elaborate collaborations of plants, insects, fungi, and mammals that make the ecosystems work; his contention that the current trend in the environmental movement (particularly among environmental scientists) to emphasize the "ecological services" provided by plants as their reasons for existence degrades plants to the role of servants of "higher" life forms (particularly humans); and his assertion that despite the significant contributions of plants to human life (in agriculture, horticulture, myth, medicine, art, etc.), they are life forms that deserve respect and understanding for their own unique characteristics wholly apart from any human utility they may have.
Mabey is an engaging writer who has the ability to give us new perspectives on those (largely) green sedentary beings who form much of the background of our lives through intriguing historical narratives, personal anecdotes, and reports of scientific research. Highly recommended....more
Watts surveys the transition from traditional religion to Christianity in the fourth century by following the careers of four influential members of tWatts surveys the transition from traditional religion to Christianity in the fourth century by following the careers of four influential members of the final pagan generation (Praetextatus, Libanius, Ausonius, and Themistius). These men, born in the 310s, were participants at various times and in various ways in the imperial governmental system as it was in transition to becoming a Christian-dominated bureaucracy. He contrasts the lives and careers of these men who worked within the system to those of younger men born in the 330s (such as Chrysostom, Basil, and Paulinus) who dropped out in the 360s and 370s and became part of a Christian counterculture. The technique functions well to give a sense of how gradual and yet dramatic were the changes confronting the final pagan generation as they moved through the stages of education, employment, and retirement. At the same time, these men, so far removed from us in time and culture, dealt with all of the human concerns with which we deal today (advancing their careers, raising families, caring for aging parents, administering family lands, mourning the deaths of family members and friends, and finding meaning in retirement). That they engaged in these common human activities while the worldview of those around them was changing in ways they could not have imagined in their youth gives us a real sense of what the swerve the Roman Empire took between the reigns of Constantine and Theodosius meant for the professional classes. Extensive notes accompany this fine contribution to our understanding of the end of traditional religion and the rise of Christianity in late antiquity. ...more
O'Donnell has done a nice job of making a complex topic approachable by non-specialists. This works well when read together with The Final Pagan GenerO'Donnell has done a nice job of making a complex topic approachable by non-specialists. This works well when read together with The Final Pagan Generation by Edward J. Watts, a somewhat more demanding work for the non-specialist reader but one that provides useful background about some historical figures mentioned by O'Donnell and brings up some interesting points not covered in this work. The author's thesis is that "paganism" is a concept invented initially by the Christians to differentiate "us" from "them," although the concept evolved into an important polemical tool as Christianity itself evolved as a state-sponsored religion. He sees the end of traditional religion as a gradual process not yet entirely completed (e.g., the continued popularity of astrology). He downplays the severity and frequency of physical conflicts between adherents of traditional religion and Christians and emphasizes more economic and social factors that led to the increasing desuetude of traditional religious practices (e.g., blood sacrifices, etc.). He mentions but does not discuss at great length the extensive cooptation of traditional religious forms (e.g., pontifex maximus as a title of the Bishop of Rome.) by the Christians as Christianity evolved into a religion of empire(s). I especially appreciated his highlighting those seminal decisions taken by church fathers such as Augustine of Hippo to address contemporary issues (e.g., the creation of the doctrine of original sin to justify the practice of infant baptism) that later would have far-reaching consequences beyond the imaginations of those making those decisions. I would like to have learned more about the continuation of traditional religious practices among the folk who resided outside the halls of power and how those have continued into the twenty-first century, often under a thin layer of Christian camouflage, but that would have taken the book into a digression that would not have significantly advanced the author's thesis. His notes are good, and he provides suggested readings in the source materials. Far from being dogmatic in pushing his point of view, O'Donnell invites readers to read the sources in the light of what he has proposed in the book and then to make up their own minds. One cannot say fairer than that. ...more
Who would not have jumped at the chance to read to the blind genius Borges and to engage him in literary conversations? The chance came to the young AWho would not have jumped at the chance to read to the blind genius Borges and to engage him in literary conversations? The chance came to the young Alberto Manguel, a sixteen-year-old bookstore employee in Buenos Aires, and he seized the opportunity. It changed the direction of his life and made him the advocate of the reader for our times. Despite his aunt's urging that he take notes, he didn't, because he "felt too contented." He found in Borges one like himself who lived for books, and whose conversations were "about books, and about the clockwork of books, and about the discovery of writers I had not read before, and about ideas that had not occurred to me, or which I had glimpsed only in a hesitant, half-intuited way that, in Borges's voice, glittered and dazzled in all their rich and somehow obvious splendour." And so we are left with Manguel's "memories of memories of memories," but what memories they are! This is essential reading for all who love Borges and for those who love Manguel. It is a glimpse into the mind of a genius by one who loved him well but who could also regard him critically as a man of his time, a man with imperfections but a genius nonetheless. Manguel read for Borges from 1964-68 and knew him for the rest of the great man's life. Even today he sings the praises of his mentor, one who honored the reader and who made a profound mark on the field of literature....more
Five academic essays plus a preface and introduction comprise this intriguing look at the ethnobotanical, archaeological, historical, and cultural useFive academic essays plus a preface and introduction comprise this intriguing look at the ethnobotanical, archaeological, historical, and cultural uses of Ilex vomitoria, a native North American evergreen holly commonly known as "yaupon." Yaupon is the only North American native plant that contains caffeine. Historically it was used by Native Americans in the southeastern part of the country, where it naturally occurs, as a medicinal tea with both ritual and social importance. The leaves of the plant were widely traded, and there is archaeological evidence for its use in paleo-Indian cultures far north of its natural range. It was also adopted by European colonists and exported to Europe as early as the sixteenth century. With the exception of enclaves on the coast and coastal islands of North Carolina, the use of yaupon tea ended in the nineteenth century. Recently two sisters in Cat Spring, Texas, have begun harvesting and preparing yaupon tea for sale (catspringtea.com). They offer both a green and black variety of the tea. Native American preparers of the tea appear to have used a decoction rather than an infusion of the leaves (and sometimes twigs} to produce the black drink, as yaupon tea was known. The usual preparation was to roast and then boil the plant material before serving. A seven-minute infusion produces a pleasant tisane, but I am interested in trying a ten-minute decoction, which should more closely approximate the beverage used by the Creeks. The book is well structured, contains helpful notes and a bibliography, as well as useful illustrations. I would be interested in a revised edition, since the book was published in 1979. I am sure that there have been advances in pollen science and archaeology since the publication of the current edition that would enhance our understanding of the importance of Ilex vomitoria in the prehistory of North America. The emergence of a new marketing of the black drink through Cat Spring Yaupon Tea opens a new chapter in the history of a centuries-old North American caffeinated beverage. ...more
There are two sets of people who love the Earth in all of its diversity and grandeur. The first set includes those who would keep it as it is and exclThere are two sets of people who love the Earth in all of its diversity and grandeur. The first set includes those who would keep it as it is and exclude the novel ecosystems established through the immigration of alien species. The second includes those who acknowledge that life is a process, ever changing, and acknowledge that it is through change that evolution happens. The two sets of people are at war with each other, and the environment suffers as a result of the disagreement. Invasion biologists champion the plants and animals that are native to a particular region and advocate the exclusion or extirpation of non-native species. The inclusionists understand that we are all immigrants. Native Americans came to North America between 30,000 and 16,000 years ago. Between 85,000 and 11,000 years ago, continental ice sheets covered much of North America, with the glacial maximum occurring between 26,000 and 21,000 years ago during the Late Wisconsin glaciation. There were no plants or animals under the ice. Nativism champions the view that there are native ecosystems that have co-evolved to produce the optimal association of plants and animals for a particular region. This is the view of the invasion biologists who see every alien immigrant as a threat to the ideal native ecology. Inclusionists ask what is the point at which an immigrant becomes a naturalized native. Darwin did not acknowledge the existence of native ecosystems that represent the culmination of evolutionary progress. For him, the evolutionary process, driven by survival of the fittest, was eternal change. There is no pristine steady-state ecology, no Garden of Eden to which we can return. There is only change, relentless to species that cannot adapt, and welcoming to those that can. The author asks, "Should we not welcome immigrants, since we were once in their position, strangers in a strange land?" Native plants and animals do not represent the optimal inhabitants of a particular region. They are rather "good enough" to survive -- until something better adapted comes along. The author argues that ecosystems are in perpetual flux with new arrivals variously coexisting with and supplanting native species. There is nothing wrong with this. We enjoy the blooms of chicory and Queen Anne's lace without thinking that they are alien invasive species. We enjoy the ecological services of the European honey bee without reflecting that the Native Americans called them "white men's flies." The author argues in favor of acceptance of alien immigrants and acknowledgement of their places in the natural order and opposes the xenophobic and sclerotic tendencies of the invasion biologists. He does not say that we cannot choose our landscapes, but he makes it clear that in doing so we are accommodating human desires rather than natural laws. Highly recommended. ...more
This was not what I was expecting -- it was far better. Harari has produced a well-reasoned, well-researched extended essay on the human condition thaThis was not what I was expecting -- it was far better. Harari has produced a well-reasoned, well-researched extended essay on the human condition that raises a number of significant ethical issues about our species and its development. Not content merely to describe our evolution and historical development, he explores issues such as happiness, the meaning of life, and our responsibility for our non-human shipmates on spaceship Earth. He also muses about the future of our species and the extent to which it will be affected by genetic manipulation, cyborgian technology, and the development of artificial intelligence. He presents a very cogent critique of capitalism, consumerism, and the hand-in-glove collaborations of science, government, religion, and capital in the shaping of our modern world with the resulting amelioration of some of the worst ills of our species at the same time that heretofore unknown ills have been visited upon us. It is a thought-provoking book of the finest order and highly recommended, despite the annoying and confusing exclusive use of the feminine third person singular pronoun in a misguided attempt at gender affirmative action. But then language, like our species, continues to change. ...more
This is a model to which all gardening books and nature guides should aspire. The color photographs are well done, useful, and integrated with the texThis is a model to which all gardening books and nature guides should aspire. The color photographs are well done, useful, and integrated with the text in a pleasing manner. The maps and charts are clear and easy to use. The book focuses on the interactions between North American native plants and the insects that pollinate them, use them as larval food sources, or as nectar sources. In addition to information on identifying and growing native plants in a variety of environments, the book also contains information on identifying and attracting their pollinators, including information on nesting sites. It is well designed, well written, beautiful, and extraordinarily useful. Highly recommended for anyone interested in restoring habitat for native species or enjoying the incredibly intricate dance of insects and flowers in the landscape....more
What an honor and a privilege to be given access to the mind of one of the most original thinkers in the history of literature! In the 1967-1968 CharlWhat an honor and a privilege to be given access to the mind of one of the most original thinkers in the history of literature! In the 1967-1968 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures delivered at Harvard University, Borges spoke extemporaneously and without notes (he was blind by this time) about his life in literature and the craft of poetry. I read this slim volume (published in 2000) containing his six lectures and the afterword by the editor, Cătlin-Andrei Mihăilescu, and closed it to find my eyes filled with tears. They were the tears of loss that such a brilliant mind has gone out of the world but also tears of gratitude that one such as he had come to be and that he has shared with us his love of reading and his insight into the magical world of words. From our father Homer through Vergil through Borges, the chain continues, and I have at hand the latest volume of Alberto Manguel who keeps alive the light of truth passed down from heart to heart of those who love the music of the words. Once as a young man while orange blossoms drifted down, I sat with my hands on the tomb of Saadi and wished for understanding. In Borges I have found that wish fulfilled by learning that the seeking is the treasure and that joining the company of seekers is the highest aspiration. Borges imagined Paradise to be a kind of magnificent library, and I cannot help but picture him there, his sight restored, climbing a ladder to reach a cherished volume shelved among the eternal stars. ...more
As an amateur introduction to urban community orchards, this is a remarkable resource. For any who are interested in starting either a community orchaAs an amateur introduction to urban community orchards, this is a remarkable resource. For any who are interested in starting either a community orchard or a backyard orchard, I would recommend this book. It is well organized, has good and helpful illustrations, and includes annotated resources for further information. The quibbles I have are far outweighed by the important information conveyed in this useful volume. Read this before you begin and follow up with the resources provided. Kudos to Susan Poizner! ...more
Sebald, one of the great writers of the twentieth century, pays homage to six artists who influenced him in this hard-to-categorize book. This is a woSebald, one of the great writers of the twentieth century, pays homage to six artists who influenced him in this hard-to-categorize book. This is a work for those who have already fallen under Sebald's melancholic and nostalgic spell rather than an entry point to his writing. First read at least The Rings of Saturn and Vertigo. Better still include The Emigrants and Austerlitz. Finally, turn your attention to Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama. Then when you find the imagery of these works haunting your dreams, you'll be ready for A Place in the Country. The translation seems sometimes awkward, but then Sebald's German prose was hardly standard either. The book is better read in hard copy than in an e-book format. It includes interesting illustrations, helpful notes, and a useful bibliography. A must-read for those who want to understand Sebald, it is remarkable for the connections Sebald makes among the six artists featured and between them and his own life and work. There is some literary criticism, but this book contains deeper reflections on landscape, memory, artistic influences, and the suffering that can give rise to creative genius. It is also a very poignant reflection by the author on the meaning of lives (including his own) in the context of artistic creation, made more poignant by the closeness of the date of publication to his premature death at age fifty-seven. For Jungians, there is even oblique reference to acausal synchronicity among the many strands that bind together the individuals in this volume in the web of words, memory, landscape, and mystery in which art is born. ...more
The author brings segments of the Spanish Civil War to life through the lives of three couples (Hemingway and Gellhorn, Barea and Kulcsar, Capa and TaThe author brings segments of the Spanish Civil War to life through the lives of three couples (Hemingway and Gellhorn, Barea and Kulcsar, Capa and Taro) and their associates, whose lives intersected at the Hotel Florida in Madrid. She has done a remarkable job of turning material from diaries, letters, news reports, and films into a gripping narrative of the competing interests that tore apart Spain in the bloody prelude to World War II. The book includes a few of the photographs of Capa and Taro, as well as useful notes and a bibliography. While usually evenhanded in her portrayal of her characters, she does seem to be a bit too negative in her assessment of Hemingway. Both Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and Furst's Midnight in Europe make nice companion readings for this fine historical work that reads like a novel. ...more
The book could also be titled "This Changes Nothing," because only .1% of humans alive today have the native intelligence to understand why the issue The book could also be titled "This Changes Nothing," because only .1% of humans alive today have the native intelligence to understand why the issue of anthropogenic global climate disruption is a matter of life and death not only for humans but also for the myriad species who are our fellow travelers on planet Earth. Nevertheless, Naomi Klein sends an important message to those who have ears to hear. Increasing the GDP and facilitating consumerism in the name of saving the economy will cost us our lives and the lives of countless other species. Capitalism fueled by the extractive tactics of those who have more dollars than sense will change the world as we know it into a strange and unpredictable place from which few will emerge alive and none undamaged. She is perhaps too sanguine in her hopes for a coalition of the oppressed that will derail the coal train of destructive capitalism and save the world, but she is absolutely right that we must all speak out against the fouling of the only nest we have by those who have money and want more, regardless of the expense to life on Earth. This should be required reading in every business school in the world and a call to action for us all. I write this on Black Friday 2014, and the irony of naming a day of rampant consumption "Black Friday" is not lost on me, though perhaps it is on those who celebrate it. ...more
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