The Unbearable Lightness of Being Book Review
I just read this book by Milan Kundera, written in ’82, published in ’84, and I was very impressed by it. One of the former colleagues of my Master’s Degree recommended it to me last year and I’m glad that she did. It’s a great book. It’s slow, but very real, very philosophical and very well written. Read more
Human, All-Too-Human (Book Review)
Human, All-Too-Human is Friedrich Nietzsche’s first philosophical attempt at attacking religion, metaphysics and the Enlightenment. It is his first exposé of humanity’s misunderstandings of asceticism and so-called saints. As Walter Kaufmann explains in Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950):
“In Human, All-Too-Human and in the notes of that period – to summarize – Nietzsche sought to explain the following phenomena in terms of the will to power: our tendency to conform rather than to realize ourselves; the elevation of gratitude to the status of virtue; the desire of neurotics – and perhaps also others – to arouse pity; Christian self-abasement; and the striving for independence and freedom. Of all these sundry manifestations of the will to power, Nietzsche probably approved only of the striving for freedom” (Kaufmann, p. 186). Read more
Fan Expo Canada 2011
FanExpo Canada is a yearly event held in Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. It features the best of the worlds of comic books, science fiction / fantasy, horror movies / television, anime / collectible cards and video games. Last year’s event saw more than 60,000 people enter the convention center for a three day event. This year, the event was expanded to four days, and is likely to surpass over one hundred thousand fans. Read more
Breaking the Spell – Book Review
“Let’s play real intellectual tennis: this book is my serve, and I welcome serious returns – with the net of reason always up.” – Daniel C. Dennett
I suppose it was inevitable that I do a book review on one of the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse of Religion (it’s actually five: we can’t forget the great Ayan Hirsi Ali), and let me just say that this book is DYNAMITE! Professor Dennett takes the reader on a ride journeying through the evolutionary processes of the memes carried forth by the transitions of tradition and folklore, to organized religion and fanaticism. He has nothing but inexorable fervour in attempting to discover how world religions came about through natural processes. The spell he attempts to break is the unjustified and supposedly untrumpable defence mechanism of the so-called sanctity which religion has in the face of examination, no matter how small it may be. How does he do this? By asking a lot of questions, and then trying to answer them, always staying humble, and never claiming facts where none have been affirmed. He is a scientific philosopher through and through, but makes his writings easily accessible to the layman. Read more
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Book Review)
I recommend this book to anyone interested in both the findings of the Theory of Evolution and its historical, epic struggle, which continues even today, and will continue for years to come. Edward J. Larson begins with the evolutionary theorists (e.g., the catastrophists) leading up to Charles Darwin (men like Cuvier, Lamarck, Owen, etc), and culminates at the modern synthesis we have today. Larson is an excellent writer, which is why he won the Pulitzer Price for Summer of the Gods in 1998, and makes Darwinism accessible to the layman, while remaining informed and extremely caring about this undeniably important, epically controversial scientific theory. Its possible mechanisms for breeding forth all the magnificent diversity of life on this earth have themselves, as Larson meticulously highlights, been a matter of vigorous scientific dispute among evolutionists. He brilliantly uses the different evolutionary hypotheses, and analyzes the debates over their certainty, as a mechanism to fuel his book forward. Read more
Satan Speaks!
It is now time for a review of a great book, written by one of the most controversial characters who ever walked the face of this very strange planet; an incredibly astute social commentator and philosopher: Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan in 1966. I must say, Satan Speaks! (1998) is an indulgence in and of itself for any true lover of life, truth and laughter. Only a modern Satanist (not to be confused with a devil-worshiper) at heart can truly grasp why LaVey has earned the title “The Good Doctor.” And it was only after reading this masterpiece 3 years ago that I was able to see why exactly that is. I was so surprised to find out that The Satanic Bible (1969) was the first thing he had ever written, and that before he was asked to write it in 1968 he hadn’t even had any aspirations to write at all. Incredible! Such a gifted man. Now, in The Devil’s Notebook (1992) he wrote: “It’s open season. That’s it.” But it’s here where the gloves really come off. Read more
The Gay Science Book Review
“‘Evil has always had great effects in its favor. And nature is evil. Let us therefore be natural.’ That is the secret reasoning of those who have mastered the most spectacular effects, and they have all too often been considered great human beings.” – The Gay Science; 225 Read more
The Ethics of Ambiguity: Book Review
The translation of The Ethics of Ambiguity used for this book review is by Bernard Frechtman. “Only the freedom of others keeps each one of us from hardening in the absurdity of facticity” (71). This exceptionally profound and brilliant book, which is the systemization of an existential ethics, is without a doubt in my top-five-favourites list. It had such a heavy impact on me as an undergraduate student, and I found much of my own thoughts and feelings embedded within it. Read more
Nausea By Jean-Paul Sartre Book Review
This was the first book of Jean-Paul Sartre’s that I had ever read. It was mandatory reading for a second-year Existentialism course that I took in the first year of my undergrad. It is the writings of a morbid, alienated mind poured out on paper – or so it seams. The protagonist scours every nook and cranny of the town he currently happens to reside in, in order to find some meaning, but all he finds is nothingness within meaninglessness. The weight of the responsibility of being condemned to be free is the absurdity of existence. He looks back, he looks forward, he feels nothing. Read more
The Outsider By Albert Camus (Book Review)
The Outsider is a novel which addresses the problem of the nihilist. Given that we all cease to exist one day, as far as Meursault, the protagonist, can see, it doesn’t make a difference when or how that time comes, because afterwards there is only nothingness. And so Meursault embraces nothingness while alive, within the context of what he keeps repeating throughout the novel: “it didn’t really matter.” To him, even getting his head decapitated in his youth doesn’t make a difference in the long run, since he will not be able to dwell on, or remember, it (or create any other thoughts or ideas, for that matter) immediately after his cranium hits the ground. “Everyone was privileged. There were only privileged people. The others too would be condemned one day,” he says. Indeed, he enjoyed life for all the aesthetics and sensuality it had to offer him, and he knew it was a privilege to be able to experience existing at all. But, to him, in the end, nothing mattered, because we would all eventually be condemned – to death. Read more