Uses of Slime Mould Cl

by Mosley,Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9781564783615
• ISBN10: 1564783618
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-06-17
• Publisher: JOHN MUIR

Summary

Including pieces on Gregory Bateson, William,Faulkner, Philip Pullman, Sir Oswald Mosley's,politics and stammering, this diverse collection,gathers essays written by Whitbread award-winning,Nicholas Mosley, author of Hopeful Monsters, over,the past forty years. Resembling the behaviour of,slime mould - a strange organism made up of separ-,ate amoebae that temporarily form a single pillar,which then bursts in order to scatter its seeds,across the forest floor - the ideas found in these,essays converge and disperse, cros disciplinesand create anew way of seeing the world.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What's in a Name?	ix
Part I Speculation
The Coming of Wit	5	(5)
Runaway Mankind on Gregory Bateson	10	(3)
Nietzsche and Creation	13	(4)
Not What the Doctor Ordered	17	(3)
The Heart of a Venomous Squabble on Jung, Freud, and Spielrein	20	(3)
Trust Life to Work with You	23	(2)
The Value of the Clown on R. D. Laing	25	(2)
Do Humans Desire Happiness?	27	(5)
`Two Cultures' Are No Culture	32	(7)
Part II Literature and Reality
From Journey into the Dark, I	39	(8)
What Are Novels For?	47	(5)
William Faulkner's Universe	52	(4)
Seeing It Whole on Patrick White	56	(3)
What Life Is Like on Italo Calvino	59	(3)
The Philosopher Fails -- The Artist Succeeds on Iris Murdoch	62	(3)
Bits of Gold on J. P. Donleavy	65	(2)
Lament for Lost Childhood on Vladimir Nabokov	67	(3)
Desire for Delinquency on Philip Roth	70	(3)
No Answer from the Sky on Joseph Conrad	73	(4)
Dissidence on Fyodor Dostoevsky	77	(3)
`The New Humanism Is Coming, in Spite of All the Barbarism' on Thomas Mann	80	(3)
Against the Tyranny of Genes on Arthur Koestler	83	(2)
Jerusalem: A Novel of Hope that Cannot Find a Publisher	85	(4)
Gilbert Sorrentino and Mulligan Stew	89	(6)
Part III Pathology and Sanity
From Journey into the Dark, II	95	(4)
The Schizoid State	99	(2)
The Burden of Vocation	101	(3)
Self-Deceit and Lack of Courage on Heinrich Himmler	104	(3)
Becoming Free of the Burden	107	(3)
Are Not Humans Responsible for Themselves? on Bruno Bettelheim	110	(2)
Some Do Take Responsibility for Themselves	112	(2)
Jonestown Enigmas	114	(3)
Evil Is Done by Ordinary People Going about Their Ordinary Tasks	117	(3)
Cold Feet on Leon Trotsky	120	(4)
Sparks that Glowed on Andrei Sakharov	124	(4)
Cogs in Wheels	128	(3)
What Makes Life Worth Living	131	(4)
Part IV Philosophy and Practice
From Journey into the Dark, III	135	(4)
A Question of Probabilities on John Maynard Keynes	139	(3)
The Enemy of Paradox on Bertrand Russell	142	(3)
The Moral Voluptuousness of Hell on Michel Foucault	145	(3)
Philosophy Back in the Mainstream?	148	(5)
Part V Religion
The Church and Art	153	(3)
Through a Glass Darkly	156	(3)
A Social Contract?	159	(2)
For Heaven's Sake -- Repent!	161	(4)
The Christian and the Bomb	165	(2)
Mohammed and Monotheism	167	(2)
The Old Testament and Paradise Lost	169	(4)
The Uses of Adversity	173	(2)
Prayer	175	(2)
Freedom Made Available by God	177	(4)
Philip Pullman's Theology	181	(8)
Part VI Science, Self, God
From Journey into the Dark, IV	189	(8)
What Price Political Idealism?	197	(6)
From Journey into the Dark, V	203	(8)
Stammering	211	(4)
From Journey into the Dark, VI	215