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How to Live. What To Do.
How to Live. What To Do.
Dec 21, 2024 12:04 PM

Author:Josh Cohen

How to Live. What To Do.

What can Alice in Wonderland teach us about childhood? Could reading Conversations with Friends guide us through first love? Does Esther Greenwood’s glittering success and subsequent collapse in The Bell Jar help us understand ambition? And, finally, what can we learn about death from Virginia Woolf?

Literature matters. Not only does it provide escapism and entertainment, but it also holds a mirror up to our lives to show us aspects of ourselves we may not have seen or understood. From jealousy to grief, fierce love to deep hatred, our inner lives become both stranger and more familiar when we explore them through fiction.

Josh Cohen, a psychoanalyst and Professor of Modern Literary Theory, delves deep into the inner lives of the most memorable and vivid characters in literature. His analysis of figures such as Jay Gatsby and Mrs Dalloway offers insights into the greatest questions about the human experience, ones that we can all learn from. He walks us through the different stages of existence, from childhood to old age, showing that literature is much more than a refuge from the banality and rigour of everyday life – through the experiences of its characters, it can show us ways to be wiser, more open and more self-aware.

Reviews

Weird and wonderful ... Idiosyncratic characters and scripts come to life with eccentric pearls of wisdom and Lewis Caroll-like nonsense, often depicted in a palette of bright cartoon colours ... Many have flocked to Alison's impressive series of works as endless sources of comfort, laughter, or inspiration - whether that be in her distinct visual style or uncanny storytelling capabilities. What makes Alison so distinct is how the whimsical and otherworldly dimensions of her drawings often transmute into something more relatable by way of a quirky aphorism ... Short yet impactful comics

—— It's Nice That

Simultaneously hilarious and insightful, Alison Zai's comics will definitely make you laugh and perhaps send you into an existential crisis - all with irresistible, colourful artwork

—— SARAH ANDERSEN, New York Times-bestselling author of 'Sarah's Scribbles'

Alison Zai's work is full of delicious ironies, juicy colours, and incisive observations about the weirdness of aliveness

—— WORRY LINES, author of 'This Book Is For You'

The Art Of Noticing is a book about reading, verbal and non-verbal reading, which is how we increasingly read now, and how we have always read. Walker encourages us to make a non-literal reading of our world, which can mean non-judgmental and more enlightened.

—— Leanne Shapton, author of Guestbook

Rob Walker's writing has always been wonderful because of his unique eye for noticing what other people miss. With this new book, he's basically teaching you all his secrets for seeing.

—— Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of Ego is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is The Way

From ‘unitasking’ to the ‘mindful shower,’ The Art of Noticing is filled with clever, eminently deployable strategies for getting more from the world around you. It’s a paean to alertness, a sensory upgrade, a delightful field guide to being alive.

—— Tom Vanderbilt, Traffic and You May Also Like

A deliciously digestible read. . . . Read this book. You'll be reminded of just how powerful simple gestures can be when they're fueled by passion and purpose

—— The Free Lance-Star

This book helps to reflect on how you act and what you wish to achieve in life

—— CONNECT

Compelling ... a challenge not just to traditional narratives of political power, but also to liberal assumptions about freedom.

—— Kojo Koram , Times Literary Supplement

A fascinating and important book, which brings to the surface some of the deepest political undercurrents of our times. Crack-Up Capitalism is an exemplary use of history to illuminate the present, forcing us to reassess what we thought we knew about the contemporary world.

—— Hari Kunzru, author of Red Pill

Revelatory. In this head-spinner of a book, Quinn Slobodian shows how zones, islands, micronations, gated communities, and cyber realms are remaking our planet. The capitalist future they portend isn't a borderless utopia but a jurisdictional shatter belt, where democracy is a distant dream.

—— Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire

With each new book, Quinn Slobodian adds extraordinary new detail to his ongoing account of 21st-century political and economic arrangements. Crack-up Capitalism is concerned with the "zones" of global space: the micro-divisions and gradations from which the real atomic force of our system derives. It's very convincing: get ready to throw out all previous maps.

—— Rana Dasgupta

In Crack-Up Capitalism, Quinn Slobodian takes us on a wild ride through the fenced-in compounds and failed states of today's capitalist world. This sharp and wickedly entertaining book is a necessary field guide to the LARPers, bloggers, and grifters of the libertarian and anarcho-capitalist world, a warning that they are closer to fulfilling their fantasies than we might think, and a clarion call for collective action to preserve - and greatly expand - democracy as we know it.

—— Sarah Jaffe, author of Work Won’t Love You Back

Richly documented exposé ... An insightful piercing of the veil of nation-states to reveal capitalism's frightening, anti-democratic tendencies.

—— Kirkus

A gifted storyteller ... a critical wake-up call .... revealing the roots of a rot many have hitherto been unable to name and confront. By opening that portal, Slobodian trusts us to take the next steps, confident that in knowing the beast, we might better be able to slay it.

—— Quill & Quire

Slobodian's vivid description of zones shows us why our political system can no longer be said to be democratic ... Slobodian wakes us up to democracy's underthrow: decentralization is a strategy for its unraveling, not its salvation.

—— Jodi Dean , Los Angeles Review of Books

Democracy is already facing numerous threats from factions on the right who question the legitimacy of election results that don't go their way. Crack-Up Capitalism is a reminder that this political challenge is only one of a number of fronts in the sustained attack on American democracy.

—— Adam M. Lowenstein , The Atlantic

A sound intellectual investment, an insightful read ... Would definitely recommend.

—— The British Army Review
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