FICTION · AMERICAN
Frederick Turner
Also known as: Frederick Hodson Turner Jr.
EVERY LIFE IS BRAIDED WITH LUMINOUS MOMENTS.
— from Beauty, 1978
Most acclaimed
Genesis
Studying animal behavior to understand human behavior. "For eons, humanity's greatest minds--philosophers, theologians, and scientists--have lacked confirmable answers to the questions that define and explain the meaning of human existence: what we are and what created us. In [this book], Edward O. Wilson, examining evolutionary history further back than he has ever done before, delivers a revelatory account of the deep origins of society. Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry, Wilson argues that the only way for us to fully understand human behavior is to appreciate the long, complicated evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least seventeen--among them the naked African mole rat and sponge-dwelling shrimp--have developed advanced societies based on similar levels of altruism and cooperation found among humans. Just as Darwin, in his 1871 Descent of Man, proposed humanity's origins through the study of apes and human behavior, Wilson here synthesizes the most updated research in evolutionary science to offer a pithy yet path-breaking work of evolutionary theory. In Genesis, Wilson eloquently braids twenty-first-century scientific research with the lyrical biological and humanistic observations for which he is known and admired."--Dust jacket.
The Return
After visiting a graveyard, a man finds his appearance has mysteriously changed. Returning home only to be received with horror and suspicion by his family, he must reckon with the social consequences of his bizarre transformation, while searching for an explanation and solution. Walter de la Mare has a reputation for crafting ghost stories of philosophical depth and haunting ambiguity. The Return, one of only two of his long-form supernatural works, follows this trend, and sees de la Mare exploring ideas of personal identity, spirituality, and the consequences of living in blind adherence to social expectations. Functioning as a fantastical agent of mid-life crisis, Arthur Lawford’s condition uproots the foundations of his existence and casts into doubt all he had taken for granted about himself and his place in the world. There are no cheap scares or easy answers in The Return. It’s a work rich with enigmatic detail, describing a struggle to find meaning in a world where nothing is certain; a theme as relevant and recognizable now as when the novel was first published in 1910.
Beauty
1978
Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference. In this Very Short Introduction the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object—either in art, in nature, or the human form—beautiful, and examining how we can compare differing judgments of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely. Is there a right judgment to be made about beauty? Is it right to say there is more beauty in a classical temple than a concrete office block, more in a Rembrandt than in last year's Turner Prize winner? Forthright and thought-provoking, and as accessible as it is intellectually rigorous, this introduction to the philosophy of beauty draws conclusions that some may find controversial, but, as Scruton shows, help us to find greater sense of meaning in the beautiful objects that fill our lives.