The Wisdom of Pleasures
Title | The Wisdom of Pleasures PDF eBook |
Author | Julien Offray de la Mettrie |
Publisher | Independently Published |
Total Pages | 69 |
Release | 2018-11-05 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781730916687 |
He's known for his audacious claim in 'Man a Machine' that humans can be reduced to their mechanism: but La Mettrie wrote other books too. In these hidden gems, the most radical of all Enlightenment thinkers lays bare his hedonistic ideas. In a godless universe that seems to be engineered only around pleasure and pain, how should we act? Should we just give in to all-out debauchery as our destiny, or is there a nobler path?This is the first-ever English translation of these books, which were originally published in 1747 and 1751.
Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures
Title | Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures PDF eBook |
Author | Arielle Zibrak |
Publisher | NYU Press |
Total Pages | 169 |
Release | 2021-05-04 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 1479807095 |
"Avidly Reads Guilty Pleasures reclaims the femme fictions dismissed as "trash" to celebrate the surprisingly cathartic pleasures of domination, privilege, and the material trappings of patriarchal culture"--
The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love: After which Follow the Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love. Translated from the Latin
Title | The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love: After which Follow the Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love. Translated from the Latin PDF eBook |
Author | Emanuel Swedenborg |
Publisher | |
Total Pages | 564 |
Release | 1811 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
Why I Read
Title | Why I Read PDF eBook |
Author | Wendy Lesser |
Publisher | Macmillan + ORM |
Total Pages | 200 |
Release | 2014-01-07 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0374709815 |
"Wendy Lesser's extraordinary alertness, intelligence, and curiosity have made her one of America's most significant cultural critics," writes Stephen Greenblatt. In Why I Read, Lesser draws on a lifetime of pleasure reading and decades of editing one of the most distinguished literary magazines in the country, The Threepenny Review, to describe her love of literature. As Lesser writes in her prologue, "Reading can result in boredom or transcendence, rage or enthusiasm, depression or hilarity, empathy or contempt, depending on who you are and what the book is and how your life is shaping up at the moment you encounter it." Here the reader will discover a definition of literature that is as broad as it is broad-minded. In addition to novels and stories, Lesser explores plays, poems, and essays along with mysteries, science fiction, and memoirs. As she examines these works from such perspectives as "Character and Plot," "Novelty," "Grandeur and Intimacy," and "Authority," Why I Read sparks an overwhelming desire to put aside quotidian tasks in favor of reading. Lesser's passion for this pursuit resonates on every page, whether she is discussing the book as a physical object or a particular work's influence. "Reading literature is a way of reaching back to something bigger and older and different," she writes. "It can give you the feeling that you belong to the past as well as the present, and it can help you realize that your present will someday be someone else's past. This may be disheartening, but it can also be strangely consoling at times." A book in the spirit of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Elizabeth Hardwick's A View of My Own, Why I Read is iconoclastic, conversational, and full of insight. It will delight those who are already avid readers as well as neophytes in search of sheer literary fun.
The Pleasures of Japanese Literature
Title | The Pleasures of Japanese Literature PDF eBook |
Author | Donald Keene |
Publisher | Companions to Asian Studies Series |
Total Pages | 133 |
Release | 1988 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780231067379 |
Introduces Japanese culture, and discusses the aesthetics, poetry, fiction, and theater of Japan
Ideas to Save Your Life
Title | Ideas to Save Your Life PDF eBook |
Author | Michael McGirr |
Publisher | Text Publishing |
Total Pages | 320 |
Release | 2021-11-02 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1922459321 |
A profound, uplifting and accessible introduction to key philosophical ideas and their relevance to everyday life.
How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
Title | How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like PDF eBook |
Author | Paul Bloom |
Publisher | W. W. Norton & Company |
Total Pages | 304 |
Release | 2010-06-14 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 9780393077117 |
“Engaging, evocative. . . . [Bloom] is a supple, clear writer, and his parade of counterintuitive claims about pleasure is beguiling.”—NPR Why is an artistic masterpiece worth millions more than a convincing forgery? Pleasure works in mysterious ways, as Paul Bloom reveals in this investigation of what we desire and why. Drawing on a wealth of surprising studies, Bloom investigates pleasures noble and seamy, lofty and mundane, to reveal that our enjoyment of a given thing is determined not by what we can see and touch but by our beliefs about that thing’s history, origin, and deeper nature.