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Star Wars & Philosophy edited by Kevin S. Decker and Jason T. Eberl
March 20, 2012 by Serena
Filed Under: challenges, giveaway, New Authors Challenge, nonfiction, purchased, Read in 2012, reviews Tagged With: book club, Jason T. Eberl, Kevin S. Decker, Open Court Books, Star Wars & Philosophy
I tweeted this at: https://twitter.com/#!/selimthegreat/status/183300261857595393
I’m interested in this book because I’m a Star Wars fan, a philosophy student, and have also met with Jason Eberl and seen him speak on my campus just recently.
I know that this book would be perfect for my husband. he is enthralled with this philosophy and is a Star Wars captive.
I’m glad that you were still able to have a lively conversation about the book. I so could not see myself reading this one.
This book wouldn’t appeal to me personally but I think that my boyfriend would love it. He is a Star Wars fan and he loves all kinds of these philosophy type things. What an interesting read for a Star Wars fan.
I would love to be entered in this giveaway.
dolleygurl[at]hotmail[dot]com.
I tweeted – https://twitter.com/#!/dolleygurl/status/182256285650137088
No need to enter me but I bet you knew that lol. Sounds like with your philosophy minor and grasp of Star Wars you “got” this book more than I did. It was a great discussion though. I will be finishing the Maisie Dobbs book tonight for my review tomorrow and am loving it.
I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised. I looked at one of his crime novels once when I met with his office mate (my go-to lady for philosophy). It looked pretty interesting. We had a short discussion about James Ellroy. Wish I’d asked more questions…
His book The Philosophy of the Coen Brothers came out while I was a student at MMC. It really is a small world.
I may check out another of these kinds of books at a later date.
The man who basically started the “pop culture + philosophy” trend is a professor at my old college. He’s an interesting guy (also writes crime novels). I’m excited to see this book reviewed here!
How interesting…what a small world, Emma. Crime novels too…what a combination..is there philosophy in those crime novels?!
Kudos to you and your book club for reading a book like this. I can see where it would generate a great discussion, but I don’t think it’s for me. No need to enter me.
I was glad that there was discussion even though few of us finished the entire book. I liked the discussion, and we talked about you and your cook book book club and how we should do a cook book just so we could eat the food.
I did manage to finish the book, though I fully understand why nobody else in the group was able; I originally wanted to read each essay twice, so that I could lead the discussion better, but could not bring myself to do so. The essay on the use of a cloned army was, I believe, the most frustrating in this particular collection. I didn’t notice that he hadn’t used references, though it may have been because I was reading the book on a digital device. I did notice that his arguments were extremely flawed. The worst part about it was that the premise of that essay was particularly engaging, and I believe all of us were fairly excited to delve into the morality of using clones in warfare…but the actual essay fell so far flat that it was unforgivable.
The book did do well as a tool for discussions, though, so I was pleased with how our group discussed the various ideas brought up in the book. It was unfortunate that it wasn’t written as well as some of the others in the ‘Pop Culture and Philosophy’ series that I have read. I am currently reading “Philip K. Dick & Philosophy,” which is, thus far, much more satisfying. This could simply be because the works of Dick are a treasure trove of philosophical ideas, or maybe because I’ve read quite a bit of his work.
I do think that it was probably a good idea that we didn’t choose “A Tale of Two Cities,” as having two back-to-back classics may have been overwhelming. I am enjoying “A Lesson in Secrets” thus far, and look forward to discussing it next month.
Thanks for commenting, Gordon. I agree that the book was great for discussion. I also noticed that some of the philosophies talked about in the essays were a bit obvious to those of us who have watched the movies many times.
Tale of Two Cities would not have been read again by or attempted again…I cannot read it and refuse to do so ever again 🙂
I’m pretty sure that I would have been less than thrilled with this pick. My husband, on the other hand, might love it as he is a huge Star Wars fan and loves to read philosophy books. Go figure! So it’s not really that I’d love to read it, but I would love to share it with him!
It does sound like your book club managed to have a pretty good discussion despite not everyone embracing the book.
I love the Maisie series so I hope you enjoy next month’s pick.
I really enjoy philosophy, but having a minor in the discipline made me a more critical reader of the book given at least one essay did not offer secondary sources to support its arguments, but merely referred to another essay in the volume…which made me feel like the author lost some credibility there.
I like that this was selected by the majority because the person nominating this also nominated Tale of Two Cities, which I abhor.