Saturday, March 06, 2010

Alice in Wonderland And Philosophy Curiouser and Curiouser

Thanks to FSB Associates I was able to get a review copy of Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy Curiouser and Curiouser.

This is one of those book that makes me want to put the Amateur Book Review title back in that I took out last year.

Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy Curiouser and Curiouser (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) Edited by Richard Brian Davis with series editor William Irwin is one of those books that just made me feel unintelligent. 

Should the Cheshire Cat's grin make us reconsider the nature of reality?
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Can Humpty Dumpty make words mean whatever he says they mean?
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Can drugs take us down the rabbit-hole?
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Is Alice a feminist icon?

Book Description from FSB Associates: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has fascinated children and adults alike for generations. Why does Lewis Carroll introduce us to such oddities as a blue caterpillar who smokes a hookah, a cat whose grin remains after its head has faded away, and a White Queen who lives backward and remembers forward? Is it all just nonsense? Was Carroll under the influence? This book probes the deeper underlying meaning in the Alice books and reveals a world rich with philosophical life lessons. Tapping into some of the greatest philosophical minds that ever lived -- Aristotle, Hume, Hobbes, and Nietzsche -- Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy explores life's ultimate questions through the eyes of perhaps the most endearing heroine in all of literature.

In A Nutshell: The book starts out with a chapter called Unruly Alice: A feminist view of some adventures in Wonderland.  As the chapter progressed I got a wonderful understanding of how Alice could be looked at as a model for the twenty-first century female. She is confident, assertive and takes listened to no one! However as the book progressed I got lost. 

When the authors started comparing Lewis Carroll to the likes of Aristotle, Hume, Hobbes, Socrates and Nietzsche I was ready to toss the book but I always try to finish what I start so I read on.
  • There is so much detail.
  • Each chapter contains lines from the book which tie into the well thought out analysis of the philosphers postion. 
  • While I understand the symbolisms of the book and the tie into the "madness" of Lewis Carroll I am a big fan of perception! As individuals with different minds, different personalities, different upbringings we all see things differently which is why I constantly was arguing with my college professors.  
Here are my questions:
  • Why couldn't this simply be a book about a girl falling into a rabbit hole?
  • Why couldn't this just be from the mind of a lunatic writer who tripped on some acid?
  • Does everything HAVE to mean something?
  • Could Lewis really have been that calculated when writing the book as to give life lessons in a nursery rhyme?

The writers of Lost have written a show that took on a life of its own and grew along the way, yet everyone and their brother is trying to compare the storyline to the bible! Couldn't it just be a show that two guys wrote along the way for the past few years and if you want to read something into it, that is up to you?!

Alice in Wonderland And Philosophy Curiouser and Curiouser if nothing else made me want to pick up Alice in Wonderland and re-read it. It has been more than 30 years since I've read it.

To purchase this book head over to Amazon
To learn more about the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, visit www.andphilosophy.com.

I am dying to get my hands on Twilight and Philosophy and South Park and Philosophy as I am a big fan of both.

Some of the questions from the Twilight and Philosophy book are:

What can vampires tell us about the meaning of life?

Is Edward a romantic hero or a dangerous stalker?

Is Bella a feminist? Is Stephenie Meyer?

How does Stephenie Meyer’s Mormonism fit into the fantastical world of Twilight?

Is Jacob “better” for Bella than Edward?

Interesting questions right?

Disclaimer: FSB Assocates gave me a review copy of this book.

4 comments:

  1. I'm waiting for this book to arrive, it looks interesting... then reading your post, I want to read it even more. Preferably before I watch the new movie!

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  2. I have to say, I'm a book junkie through and through so I would probably read this if I happened across it in the library, but I do agree with you; can't a book just be a damn book instead of holding the answers to all of life's mysteries??? Not everything in every book, T.V. show ,etc. is "deep."

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  3. Wow, crazy, anything to sell a book.
    I don't think the majority of writer's write a book thinking that it is supposed to be compared to the Bible, or any other author out there. I think they are just trying to find their own unique writing style and a group of followers in the target age range they are shooting for.

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  4. Yea, not one that I have any interest in reading... I'm with you in just keeping a fairy tale a book that some guy just wrote while on an acid trip.
    I am really tired of people trying to find deeper meaning in EVERYTHING... come on, even Freud said: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

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