What a great pairing. I need to finally dip into that Sea of Tranquility, partly to feed an obsession with #histfic time-travel stories. If the link works, here's a BBC conversation with Emily St. John Mandel about time travel: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018fs8
I heard some mixed things about "Sea of Tranquility." Yours is the first full-throatedly positive review I've seen. I may give it a try, mostly because it looks to be short (~200pp) and because I enjoyed "Station Eleven" and "The Glass Hotel".
Would love to see you review Matthew Crawford's oeuvre sometime. Most people know him for "Shop Class as Soulcraft" (2009). I would contend that "The World Beyond Your Head" (2015) is a modern classic of material philosophy; I enjoyed it immensely and way more than Shop Class, and I'm not really much for materialism generally. His latest is "Why We Drive," published in 2020, which explores his discontents with the emerging automation/self-driving-car regime with his uniquely perceptive mix of philosophizing and auto-mechanic experience. It's a tall task to oppose the moral presumption that safety maximalism enjoys in society, especially when it comes to cars, but he unpacks a lot of assumed benefits of automation with critiques I never would have considered. I'm about halfway through it so far.
You've sold me on Emily's new book!
What a great pairing. I need to finally dip into that Sea of Tranquility, partly to feed an obsession with #histfic time-travel stories. If the link works, here's a BBC conversation with Emily St. John Mandel about time travel: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018fs8
I heard some mixed things about "Sea of Tranquility." Yours is the first full-throatedly positive review I've seen. I may give it a try, mostly because it looks to be short (~200pp) and because I enjoyed "Station Eleven" and "The Glass Hotel".
Would love to see you review Matthew Crawford's oeuvre sometime. Most people know him for "Shop Class as Soulcraft" (2009). I would contend that "The World Beyond Your Head" (2015) is a modern classic of material philosophy; I enjoyed it immensely and way more than Shop Class, and I'm not really much for materialism generally. His latest is "Why We Drive," published in 2020, which explores his discontents with the emerging automation/self-driving-car regime with his uniquely perceptive mix of philosophizing and auto-mechanic experience. It's a tall task to oppose the moral presumption that safety maximalism enjoys in society, especially when it comes to cars, but he unpacks a lot of assumed benefits of automation with critiques I never would have considered. I'm about halfway through it so far.
Nice write up! I need to go back and read the rest of her books.