On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 11:53 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com> wrote:
> Awhile back, James Heartfield made an interesting observation about the
> publishing industry, noting that there was a rash of books that focused on
> just one thing, tracing history and culture through, say, the use of salt or
> cultivation of broccoli (or somesuch).
>
> I have noticed other trends like that, particularly the recent trend toward
> popularizing philosophy. "Driving with Plato" is an example. There's the
> whole series of philosophy and pop culture (e.g., "Madmen and Philosophy",
> "Spongebob Squarepants and phil," ...) and "Plato and a Platypus Walk into a
> Bar . . .,"
>
> Any academics on the list use them in courses or have you taken a course
> that uses them? I'm curious if they are any good. They look so gimmicky, and
> I can't fathom that anyone can squeeze every thinker into the same framework
> for analysis - like it's going to be stretching it to subject every bit of
> popular culture to the same analysis, forcing it to have something
> interesting to say to the question of, say, essentialism (or whathaveyou).
>
> Anyway, curious about these books and if they are good, bad, meh?
>
> shag
>
>
>
> --
> http://cleandraws.com
> Wear Clean Draws
> ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
>
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-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com