Commentaries on Living: First Series

Alenka Zupancic

The Odd One in: On Comedy

A Lacanian look at how comedy might come to philosophy's rescue, with examples ranging from Hegel and Molière to George W. Bush and Borat.Why philosophize about comedy? What is the use of investigating the comical from philosophical and psychoanalytic perspectives? In The Odd One In, Alenka Zupančič considers how philosophy and psychoanalysis can help us understand the movement and the logic involved in the practice of comedy, and how comedy can help philosophy and psychoanalysis recognize some of the crucial mechanisms and vicissitudes of what is called humanity. Comedy by its nature is difficult to pin down with concepts and definitions, but as artistic form and social practice comedy is a mode of tarrying with a foreign object--of including the exception. Philosophy's relationship to comedy, Zupančič writes, is not exactly a simple story (and indeed includes some elements of comedy). It could begin with the lost book of Aristotle's Poetics, which discussed comedy and laughter (and was made famous by Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose). But Zupančič draws on a whole range of philosophers and exemplars of comedy, from Aristophanes, Molière, Hegel, ...

Julia Kristeva

Hatred and Forgiveness

Julia Kristeva refracts the impulse to hate (and our attempts to subvert, sublimate, and otherwise process it) through psychoanalysis and text, exploring worlds, women, religion, portraits, and the act of writing. Her inquiry spans themes, topics, and figures central to her writing, and her paths of discovery advance the theoretical innovations that are so characteristic of her thought. Kristeva rearticulates and extends her analysis of language, abjection, idealization, female sexuality, love, and forgiveness. She examines the "maladies of the soul," utilizing examples from her practice and the ailments of her patients, such as fatigue, irritability, and general malaise. She sources the Bible and texts by Marguerite Duras, St. Teresa of Avila, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, and Georgia O'Keefe. Balancing political calamity and individual pathology, she addresses internal and external catastrophes and global and personal injuries, confronting the nature of depression, obliviousness, fear, and the agony of being and nothingness. Throughout Kristeva develops the notion that psychoanalysis is the key to serenity, with its processes of turning back, looking back, investigating the ...

Musashi Miyamoto

The Book of Five Rings

"You can attain an understanding with which to win against ten thousand." Toward the end of his life, the great samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi set down the secrets of his legendary success--the timeless principles of craft, skill, timing, and spirit that result in victory. His emphasis on strategic thinking, concentration, appropriate caution, choice of weapon, and the work ethic reflects the traditional Japanese approach to life. Today The Book of Five Rings has become an underground classic in the American business community, where it is studied as a text on Japanese management techniques. At once pragmatic and philosophical, The Book of Five Rings is an enduring guide to enlightenment that enriches all aspects of life--both public and private--and provides the tools and wisdom necessary for success in any human endeavor. This acclaimed English translation was prepared jointly by a team of Western and Japanese scholars for the Nihon Services Corporation, and interpreting, translating, and business counseling service dedicated to breaking down cultural and communication barriers between Japan and the United States. This edition includes explanatory notes ad commentary on each ...