Simon Critchley’s latest book How to Stop Living and Start Worrying picks up where his last work, The Book of Dead Philosophers, left off. Both works explore what Critchley contends to be the signal problem of all philosophy; namely, how one might live a meaningful life against the backdrop of inevitable death. In Dead Philosophers, Critchley plumbed… Continue reading How to Stop Living and Start Worrying — Simon Critchley
In his new book, How to Stop Living and Start Worrying, Simon Critchley talks about death in Terrence Malick’s film The Thin Red Line (you can read Critchley’s earlier essay “Calm — On Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line” here)— So, the hero of The Thin Red Line is this character Witt. And we meet him… Continue reading Simon Critchley on Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line
A cursory glance at Simon Critchley’s skinny new work, The Book of Dead Philosophers, might lead one to misjudge the book as an ephemeral, superfluous, and even downright jokey sort of “Philosophy for Dummies.” That would be a mistake. While The Book of Dead Philosophers does aim for a broad, popular appeal, Critchley’s wily cataloging… Continue reading The Book of Dead Philosophers — Simon Critchley
REVIEWS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BOOK REVIEWS (by author’s last name): A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z FILM REVIEWS TELEVISION REVIEWS MISCELLANY Book reviews Adrian, Chris A Better Angel — Chris Adrian Gob’s Grief — Chris Adrian The… Continue reading Reviews
Book shelves series #42, forty-second Sunday of 2012 Couldn’t really get a good pic of the whole shelf, so in portions, starting with a spread of postmodernist favorites from years past. Julia Kristeva was a particular favorite of mine in grad school, but her Portable stands up well outside of, jeez, I dunno, theory and… Continue reading Book Shelves #42, 10.14.2012
Dead Man Working is the latest from Carl Cederström (whose discussions with Simon Critchley became How to Stop Living and Start Worrying) and Peter Fleming. The book explores the existential despair of workers in our post-capitalist age. (It’s funnier than that description might suggest). Publisher Zer0’s blurb: Capitalism has become strange. Ironically, while the ‘age of work’ seems… Continue reading Despair/Food (Books Acquired 6.08.2012)
A passage from Simon Critchley’s new collection of interviews and meditations, How to Stop Living and Start Worrying in which author Tom McCarthy (Critchley’s partner in the International Necronautical Society) talks about the question of an authentic, heroic self— . . . in the heroic tradition in literature, which pits the self against death in a… Continue reading “Death in the Comic Tradition” — Tom McCarthy on Heroism and Authenticity
At The Believer, you can read the entirety of “Declaration on the Notion of ‘The Future’” by The International Necronautical Society (aka Simon Critchley and Tom McCarthy (although we’re pretty sure that the essay’s authorization code TMcC010910 indicates that McCarthy is its author)). Playful and provocative stuff. A sample– 5. The INS rejects the Enlightenment’s version… Continue reading “Declaration on the Notion of ‘The Future'” — The International Necronautical Society
Reviews, essays, riffs, etc. Most recent first. Updates sporadic at best.
At A Piece of Monologue, Rhys Tranter reviews Simon Critchley’s “philosophical antidote to the self-help manual,” How to Stop Living and Start Worrying. Read our review of Critchley’s The Book of Dead Philosophers here. MobyLives expands Flavorwire’s post on author photo clichés to include Melville House authors. Here’s an author photo we love: Harold Bloom… Continue reading Odds and Ends
At HTMLGIANT, Catherine Lacey interviews Lee Rourke about boredom, the writing process, dialogue, foxes, and his new novel The Canal. Read our review of The Canal here. From the interview: Your narrator speaks a lot about his philosophy on boredom. How much of this do you share with him? Well, I would have to say… Continue reading HTMLGIANT Interviews Lee Rourke about His New Novel, The Canal
Here are our favorite books published in 2009 (the ones that we read–we can’t read every book, you know). The list includes books new in print after a long time as well as first editions of trade paperbacks. All links are to Biblioklept reviews. The list is more or less chronological, beginning in January of… Continue reading Best Books of 2009
From Simon Critchley’s The Book of Dead Philosophers: In a text called Auto-Icon: or, Farther uses of the dead to the living, Bentham gave careful instructions for the treatment of his corpse and its presentation after his demise. If an icon is an object of devotion employed in religious ritual, then Bentham’s “Auto-Icon” was conceived… Continue reading Jeremy Bentham’s “Auto-Icon”
Reviews, essays, riffs, etc. Most recent first. Updates sporadic at best.
