Woods guides the reader through nearly three millenia of the evolution of human philosophy until it, in his view, culminates in the pratical, materialist thinking of Marx and Engels. It is an accessible, honest polemic that wears its positionality on its sleeve, which is more than can be said of Hegel or Russell. What is perhaps most fascinating is the focus on the historically located material conditions that influenced different stages in the development of the history of philosophy, be it economic turmoil, war, revolution, the spread of a new religion, developments in trade and technology, and so forth. It builds on Hegel's History of Philosophy, which places idealism and materialism in a long dialectic but adds "real life" to it. However, some of those stages are unfairly glossed over. Although, this is partly due to the point of the book, which is to focus specifically on those philosophies which directly influenced Marxism, it would bolster Woods' arguments regarding the value of Marx and Engels' philosophy if he deliberated in more depth those Christian and Postmodernist thinkers whom he characterises as a detriment to human intellectual development. Moreover, the importance of Classical Islamic Philosophy to the European Renaissance should not be understated, as it is in this volume. For all of Woods' praise, it is afforded an unfairly limited number of pages. He also mentions in the introduction that he has written elsewhere on Indian philosophy, which I believe should have been included here. Nor do I agree with Woods' conclusion that philosophy is now redundant. Nevertheless, this book is a wonderfully enjoyable and highly informative read that uniquely places the idea in reality, in space as well as time, and anybody interested in the history of philosophy will benefit greatly from reading it.

Queer by William S. Burroughs

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Queer, alongside Junkie, is an essential thematic and technical preface to the rest of Burroughs' work. Together, they expound the tragic, sincere emotionality underpinning the sardonic irony and mania which fuel his later hallucinatory experiments and exorcisms. He unloads his queerness onto the page, and sets it forth in a deeply efficacious act of overcoming what he perceived to be a form of demonic possession rooted in childhood trauma. Yet, it is an accessible narrative of confusion, lust, and betrayal, the primary object of the protagonist's desire a universal metaphor for the futility of struggling for a successful and fulfilling version of queer romance. Unlike Junkie, one can begin to see in this text Burroughs' trademark voice begin to break free from the constrictions of linear time and psychological compartmentalisation. His routines land, his points eviscerate common courtesy, and the reader is exposed to a rendering of the Western hive mind as ugly and ruinous. But the most powerful part of this book is a rare undercurrent of optimism; it is the first and final time that Burroughs admits any hope for self-improvement, any sense of self-worth, however defined, and he is left heartbroken.

Junky by William S. Burroughs

Go to review page

dark informative mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This novel is Burroughs' first attempt to rationalise his place in the world as a story. It is not a reason one comes to love him, but it does provide an informative foundation for the rest of his work.

It is the genesis of his sardonic, edgy humour, as his jokes try but fail to land. For example, he quips that gay men "give me the horrors", Irish faces bear a "peasant intuition, stupidity, shrewdness, and malice", and people with epilepsy are "subnormal". These insults read as regressive and mean, rather than some postmodern reclaiming of prejudice or the damming reflection of an aging capitalist society that Burroughs later becomes capable of.

But perhaps that is the point. Burroughs' character is presented as hopeless, lost and weak, as he navigates prisons, asylums, and slums in the pursuit of crime and addiction. He steals from subway commuters to make a dime and injects junk into his genitals just to feel a rush. Yet, his writing remains palpably sober. The world is not as hallucinatory as in later novels, which frames him as a tragic figure rather than a bemused proto-punk. It is in this book that Burroughs' cool highbrow persona is rooted in the material preconditions of drug use and queerness.

His appropriation of contemporaneous jazz vernacular feels forced ("hip", "cat", etc.). There is a sense that he is not writing in his own voice. Perhaps, that is appropriate for the sober, external view he offers of himself, but it is not compelling, and makes for jagged and dry prose. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see Burroughs settle into a way of writing that aptly expresses his dissatisfaction with American modernity and the personal tragedies inflicted upon him that forcibly alienate him from it.

Indeed, both Junky and Queer are likely necessary pillars for supporting the significantly more technically experimental and politically efficacious literature in which Burroughs eventually thrives.

Content Warnings

A Happy Death by Albert Camus

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A slick and striking anti-eulogy for optimism and an important prelude to L'Etranger.

There is a kafka-esque quality to the tragic life of the protagonist, the banality of his life being absurdly inescapable. How can one then will happiness into it? When the oppurtunity presents itself, it is morally questionable and the solution is ironically underwhelming.

Herein lies the great genius of Camus, summarised in little over a hundred easily digestable pages: on the surface, he can appear counter-revolutionary, but it is not that one necessarily should exploit others or that social justice is futile. It is just that the former is intrinsic to a capitalist economy and the latter is opposed to it.

Much like Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth, Camus is interested in how this absurdity is felt and rationalised at a personal, visceral level. The protagonist never truly wills happiness; the closest he gets is a vague grasp of the concept earned through a diseased and isolated death.

So, A Happy Death rewrites Fyodr Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground? It is a satire of utilitarianism? Not in the sense that the protagonist's happiness comes neither from willing it or ignoring it; happiness ebbs and flows like the tide and is determined in large part by broad structures of socio-economic inequality. It is absurd, and Camus describes it beautifully. This is what makes it anti-eulogistic of optimism.

But Camus never submitted it himself for publication and recycles the same characters and themes for L'Etranger, which elaborates the same subject matter more eloquently, more effectively, and in greater depth. Nevertheless, A Happy Death, I feel, packs more of a punch, with more charm and more of an edge, Camus' philosophy encoded as much into how he writes as what he writes.

Toksvig's Almanac 2021 by Sandi Toksvig

Go to review page

funny informative lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.0

An encyclopedia of women's achievements presented with exquisite wit and interposed with fun asides spanning themes as disparate as the language, history, and culture of various parts of the year: annual rituals, alternative names of months, ancient customs, and so forth.

Toksvig's knack for pairing informative concision with dry humour in precise and accessible prose made my 2021 that little bit more enlightening and enjoyable. It is also worth praising the sheer scope, historical and geographical, of the figures who are included in this volume. Both Ancient Babylonian priestesses and Mughal Indian queens get discussed. It does what it says on the proverbial tin, but there is something to be said of the layout of an almanac which can make it seem like a bit of a slog. The simple remedy for that is to feel permitted to deviate from the time span with which it is intended to be read, though I cannot help wondering if there is some other format through which this rich history could have been illustrated. Nevertheless, fans of all backgrounds who are interested in structured light reading, interesting stories, or carefully curated banter will find something worthwhile in Sandi Toksvig's Almanac.

More...

rhys_thomas_sparey's reviews 20 reviews

rhys_thomas_sparey's reviews
20 reviews