Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
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.
So, the summer’s coming to an end, and that’s kind of a bummer.
There’s not a lot I can do about that. But maybe I can brighten up your day with some new reading material.
What have I got for you this month? I’ve got a couple of books on Epicurean philosophy and history. And some things to go along with those books.
Read on to find out…
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.
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…
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.
Readers who followed along with my posts on turning 40 already know some of what I’ve been reading lately. But, thankfully, it’s not all about getting old. I’ve read some other things, too!
Continue along to find out what that might be.
© 2024 Base and Superstructure
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
