The friend I referred to in this post recently loaned me the book referred to above.. He is an old-fashioned gentleman who neither has nor wants email. I wrote him a note when I mailed it back to him, which I’m providing here as a book review. ChicagoBoyz readers seem to like hearing about books, so this may be of some interest.
Arts & Letters
I Want More Life …
You have to love the Internet. Ken’s recent posts (here and here) mention radical life extension as something almost within reach. Maybe. But it reminded me of that epic scene in Blade Runner, where Roy Batty confronts Tyrell. Mere seconds later, a Google search of the words “Blade Runner” and “script”, and voila, there it is!
TYRELL: What’s the problem?
BATTY: Death.
The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century
That is the title of Jim Bennett’s long awaited book. It is finally out.
Mine is en route, and you should go order one now. Or several, Christmas being just around the corner and all…
The term “Anglosphere” and the ideas associated with it have become one of the standard memes of the Right/Libertarian spiral arm of the blog galaxy, and are creeping increasingly into the mainstream media. This happened years before the book came out. Why did this happen? Because the facts before us cried out for an organizing principle and cogent terminology, and Bennett has supplied that, drawing in large part on the works of David Hackett Fischer and Alan MacFarlane. (Even the best of us stand on the shoulders of giants.)
Long-time readers of this blog know that we have frequently referred to Bennett’s writing and theories, e.g., here and here, and here. We have long relied on Jim’s Anglosphere Primer as the summary of his views and analysis and a good introduction for the uninitiated.
I and many others eagerly await the more elaborated version which the book promises to be.
A review and analysis of the book will be forthcoming once extreme work-related demands abate. That could be a long time.
(Of course I will not be offended if other ChicagoBoys or -Grrls weigh in about the book sooner than I am able to.)
(Update: Weirdly, Amazon has regressed to showing the book as not published yet and available for pre-ordering, after having shown it as available, and even though I got a notice that my pre-ordered copy has been shipped. Hmmm. Perhaps more oddly, the Amazon.co.uk site does show it as available.)
Nothing But Respect
It wouldn’t be right to note the passing of Professor Derrida without also paying tribute to another public figure who died this week — a man whose influence on the intelligensia was far more profound (and certainly more comprehensible): Rodney Dangerfield. His reading from James Joyce’s Ulysses in the movie Back To School is surely one of the finest literary renditions ever recorded. We’ll miss you, Rodney.
Not Just “Death,” But Death Itself
Jacques Derrida — father of deconstruction and the patron saint of undeserved tenured faculty positions — died on Friday. Rest in peace, Jacques.