Base and Superstructure

Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Category: Books (Page 5 of 21)

These are posts about books from the blog Base and Superstructure. Occasionally I’ll read a book worth talking about, and write some thoughts on it. These cover a wide range of topics from the blog.

Cover for book Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, by Kieran Setiya. Cover depicts a glass half full of water.

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

August 21, 2023 /

Kieran Setiya, an MIT philosophy professor, wrote a philosophically informed self-help book. It’s called Midlife: A Philosophical Guide. That doesn’t sound like it would work. But I found it helpful as a person who just turned 40 and wants to think and write about it.

Setiya approaches midlife from the perspective of diagnosing and solving the ‘midlife crisis,’ which, as he points out in the first chapter, isn’t a particularly old idea. At least in its explicit form. Rather than a crisis, midlife is really more of a vantage point. The person at midlife can see both a long past and a long future. Maybe the past worked out for them, and maybe the future will.

Or not.

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Part of the cover for the book Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, for the July Reading List 2023.

July Reading List (2023)

July 20, 2023 /

So, we’re in the middle of the summer heat. Time to read something to cool down?

Well, maybe. Maybe not. It’s true that I’ve been reading more fiction lately. But I’m reading a wide range of things these days.

Continue on for this month’s list. Along with fiction, I’ve been reading some stuff on activism and practical writing tips…

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Book cover for After Black Lives Matter, by Cedric Johnson. Cover depicts the title along with an activist wearing a bandanna.

After Black Lives Matter

June 22, 2023 /

Cedric Johnson dropped After Black Lives Matter into an ongoing debate between a ‘woke’ and ‘anti-woke’ left. It’s an older debate, but one running hot in the last few years. Unlike many other authors, Johnson tries, at least in some ways, to work around and between the two camps.

Not that he always succeeds. And it’s pretty clear which side he prefers (the ‘anti-woke’ side). But I think he wrote After Black Lives Matter in an effort to move the debate forward.

Let’s take a look.

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Book cover for Canceling Comedians While The World Burns by Ben Burgis.

Burgis on Canceling Comedians

June 12, 2023 /

Podcaster, author, and philosopher Ben Burgis recently published a short series of essays called Canceling Comedians While The World Burns. In this body of work, Burgis positions himself as a critic of certain tendencies on the left. But he critiques these tendencies from a strategic, (genuinely) sympathetic, and constructive perspective.

I think that’s a good idea. In fact, I try to do it myself from time to time. And not just because I’m also a philosopher and we like that sort of thing. Though I am also a philosopher, and we do like that sort of thing. Rather, because it’s a practical, useful skill for the left. We should think more deeply about strategy. And we should think about how our choices and public presentation affect how and whether we recruit new members, appeal to target audiences, and achieve results.

Burgis writes Canceling Comedians While The World Burns with these things in mind, and I’ll keep them in mind in discussing his book.

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