The Doubter's Companion
Title | The Doubter's Companion PDF eBook |
Author | John Ralston Saul |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 352 |
Release | 2012-11-06 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 1476718946 |
A long and distinguished tradition of writers have used the form of a satirical dictionary to undermine the received ideas of their day. Voltaire wrote a sharply humorous "Philosophical Dictionary," while Samuel Johnson's dictionary of the English language was derisive and opinionated. These early dictionaries and encyclopedias were really weapons in a struggle for the soul of civilization between forces of humanistic enlightenment and the forces of orthodoxy and dogmatism. Their authors attacked and exposed the half-truths of their day by showing that it was possible to think differently about the social and political arrangements that everyone took for granted. But as John Ralston Saul argues in this decidedly unorthodox book, modern dictionaries have once again been captured by the forces of orthodoxy—albeit this time a rationalist orthodoxy. Our language has become as predictable, fragmented, and rhetorical as it was in the 18th century, divided as it is by special interest groups into dialects of expertise that are hermetically sealed off and inaccessible to citizens. In The Doubter's Companion, a marvelous subversive contribution to the great 18th century tradition of the humanist dictionary, Saul skewers and discredits the accepted content of common terms like Advertising, Academics, and Air Conditioning (defined as "an efficient means for spreading disease in enclosed public spaces"); Cannibal, Conservative, and Croissant; Dandruff, Death, and Dictionary ("opinions presented as truth in alphabetical order"); and several hundred others, including Biography ("a respectable form of pornography"), Museum ("safe storage for stolen objects"), and Manners ("people are always splendid when they're dead"). There is much in this volume that will stimulate, offend, provoke, perplex, and entertain. But Saul deploys these tactics of guerilla lexicography to advance the more serious purpose of reclaiming public language from the stultifying dialects of modern expertise.
The Modern Classics:Doubters Companion
Title | The Modern Classics:Doubters Companion PDF eBook |
Author | John Ralston Saul |
Publisher | National Geographic Books |
Total Pages | 0 |
Release | 2014-08-19 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0143192108 |
"How are citizens to enter into a public debate if the concepts which define our society and decide the manner in which we are governed are open neither to understanding nor to questioning?" According to bestselling novelist and essayist John Ralston Saul, the ramifications of asking this question are enormous. We live in an era of specialization, where decision makers, administrators, and process-minded experts have fortified their positions of authority by insulating themselves from public accountability. An important instrument in their ascension has been language; or more precisely, a language so technically specific and laden with jargon that it has isolated the individual citizen.
The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded
Title | The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded PDF eBook |
Author | Preston Ulmer |
Publisher | NavPress |
Total Pages | 177 |
Release | 2021-09 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1641583355 |
Is it possible to grow in our Christian faith without engaging the doubter or the skeptic? And if growing in our faith means growing closer to the doubter, how do we do that without compromising what we believe to be true?
The Writing Workshop Note Book
Title | The Writing Workshop Note Book PDF eBook |
Author | Alan Ziegler |
Publisher | Catapult |
Total Pages | 184 |
Release | 2007-11-20 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 1593763395 |
The Writing Workshop Notebook is devoted to making, remaking, and remarking on writing. Ziegler's text is animated by a concern about how we relate to our own and others’ writing and by a desire to have a suitable effect on the reader’s experience with writing and critiquing. The book is supported by the author's experience from decades of leading writing workshops.
How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters
Title | How to Deal with Doubts and Doubters PDF eBook |
Author | Henry Clay Trumbull |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 160 |
Release | 1907 |
Genre | Christian life |
ISBN |
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
Title | Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English PDF eBook |
Author | Eugene Benson |
Publisher | Routledge |
Total Pages | 2597 |
Release | 2004-11-30 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1134468474 |
Post-Colonial Literatures in English, together with English Literature and American Literature, form one of the three major groupings of literature in English, and, as such, are widely studied around the world. Their significance derives from the richness and variety of experience which they reflect. In three volumes, this Encyclopedia documents the history and development of this body of work and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.
Fluidity - the way to true DemoKratia
Title | Fluidity - the way to true DemoKratia PDF eBook |
Author | David Campbell |
Publisher | Lulu.com |
Total Pages | 352 |
Release | 2017-05-07 |
Genre | Business & Economics |
ISBN | 1326933256 |
If we are to save the planet, if we are to save democracy we must create a new way. That new way is Fluidity. Put universal income with a new currency and a monetary flow siphon and you have a stable base to build anew. In two parts and 300+ pages David J Campbell tells us why our economic and social systems are flawed and how to fix them. This is not a flippant ""we should do this"" or ""we could implement that"" but rather a simple but profound change that harmonises the revolutions that are already radically changing our lives. Embracing technological change and innovation, from AI to cryptocurrencies, Fluidity says a lack of work is a good thing. More leisure makes us happier, healthier, smarter and thus more inventive. We do not need our leaders to make these changes but rather we can create a new socioeconomic system in parallel with the old. It will make you question your beliefs. It will inspire you. It will give you answers. Fluidity is the future.