April 11, 2007
Puppies and Unicorns
The only thing good about this:
is this.
For those of you who are nosy and bookish like me, the books are Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, and Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper, the former being concerned with the annoyingly but accurately worded "human condition", the purchase of which being inspired by my renewed argument with myself over whether or not free will exists
(WARNING! GIANT PARENTHETICAL TO FOLLOW!! : Between you and me, I've kinda been on the fence/not thinking about it since college, but after reading Schopenhauer's take on it, 'A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills', in this article... well, you trying punchin' yer way outta that one (but don't think of an elephant!));
the following line, taken from the back jacket:
"...Gilbert reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there ... (and) explains why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become..." ;
and lastly by my just having finished this book, which starts off as a real Cartesian no-mans-land zapparoo at reality and a vigorous jostling of the ol' perception (du-uuuude), but happily leads to salvation via four easy-to-read (less so to follow) suggestions for, if you will, stumbling on ... HAPPINESS!
And so we end as we begun.
But that's just the first book!
The second one is (again, from the jacket), "A smart, funny, brutally honest, much-needed guy's point of view on how messy love can be," concerning a guy who starts questioning his relationship 'cause he's gettin' hitched and he starts to worryworryworry and then his dad mysteriously shows up after a twenty-year absence all gung ho on starting fresh, which is both infuriating and inspiring to the son.
And then I bought Sin City, because after digging into either of these books, and pitting them within the frame of reference of the last book and what I know of philosophical arguments regarding religion, I'm probably gonna wanna have a drink tonight and then watch something really, really violent.
Cheers!
Posted by stephanie at April 11, 2007 05:15 PM