Jean-Paul Sartre, the seminal smarty-pants of mid-century thinking, launched the existentialist fleet with the publication of Being and Nothingness in 1943. Though the book is thick, dense, and unfriendly to careless readers, it is indispensable to those interested in the philosophy of consciousness and free will. Some of his arguments are fallacious, others are unclear, but for the most part Sartre's thoughts penetrate deeply into fundamental philosophical territory. Basing his conception of self-consciousness loosely on Heidegger's "being," Sartre proceeds to sharply delineate between conscious actions ("for themselves") and unconscious ("in themselves"). It is a conscious choice, he claims, to live one's life "authentically" and in a unified fashion, or not--this is the fundamental freedom of our lives. Drawing on history and his own rich imagination for examples, Sartre offers compelling supplements to his more formal arguments. The waiter who detaches himself from his job-role sticks in the reader'
Since their breakthrough hit "Creep" in 1993, Radiohead hascontinued to make waves throughout popular and political culturewith its views about the Bush presidency (its 2003 album was titledHail to the Thief), its anti-corporatism, its pioneering efforts toproduce ecologically sound road tours, and, most of all, itsdecision in 2007 to sell its latest album, In Rainbows, online witha controversial "pay-what-you-want" price. Radiohead and Philosophyoffers fresh ways to appreciate the lyrics, music, and conceptualground of this highly innovative band. The chapters in this bookexplain how Radiohead’s music connects directly to thephilosophical phenomenology of thinkers like Maurice Merleau-Pontyand Martin Heidegger, the existentialism of Albert Camus and JeanPaul Sartre, and the philosophical politics of Karl Marx, JeanBaudrillard, and Noam Chomsky. Fans and critics know that Radioheadis "the only band that matters" on the scene today — Radiohead andPhilosophy shows why.
Review 'Must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms.' - The Guardian Must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms. - The Guardian Product De*ion "... must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms." The Guardian "The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure." --William Wordsworth, from the Advertisement prefacing the original 1798 edition When it was first published, Lyrical Ballads enraged the critics of the day: Wordsworth and Coleridge had given poetry a voice, one decidedly different to what had been voiced before. For Wordsworth, as he so clearly stated in his celebrated preface to the 1800 edition (a
The Yeats anthology of the poems of William Blake is that great rarity: one great visionary poet's anthology of everything that moves him about another, even greater one. Yeats prepared it in 1905 and it probably remains the single greatest single one-volume edition of William Blake extant, the one that, in less than 250 pages, presents as sensibly compressed and canny an edition as you'll ever find of perhaps the least sensible and most chaotic genius of English poetry. Even those who have the complete Blake in a couple of editions will find Yeats' Blake all-but-indispensable. –Buffalo News, April 6, 2003 This selection of Blake's work was commissioned in 1905 by the firm of George Routledge from W.B. Yeats. Yeats, one of the few poets comparable to Blake, prepared a unique selection of his poetic and prose writings.
