Great Philosophers Who Failed At Love (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
I was a former philosophy major who has failed at love many times, and thanks to this amazing book, i'm very philosophical about it now. (LOL). A very well researched book that shows how much truth is stranger and often more touching than fiction. I wanted to reach across time and bitch-slap Søren Kierkegaard and marry his jilted fiancé, the incredibly hot Regine. What was the gloomy nut thinking? Somewhere in philosopher purgatory Søren is being forced to listed Adele's Rolling In the Deep, over and over. Heidegger, nazi lap dog, also comes across as a cowardly ass. That his Jewish lover later forgave him is amazing. She should have kicked his ass. It would be great if there had been one Great Philosopher Who Succeeded At Love included in the book, just for the sake of bestowing hope for the rest of us, but the book is true to its theme.As a journalist, I keep saying, "it's the message that's important, not the messenger or the means of delivering the message" but as an amateur philosopher, I sort of have an unfair expectation that the philosopher will live up to his or her philosophy. The book is wonderful in explaining the basic ideas of each Philosopher Love Fool and where they seem to drop the ball. There's a bit of schadenfreude involved in reading this tome, but I think Spinoza would forgive me. Eh. Ok, the concept is great, the book layout is great (picture with pithy quote, summary, another pithy quote) , the serendipity of finding it on the impulse buy shelf at Borders was great (suspicious?). But uh, if you're going to be about philosophy and love, define the terms philosophy love, dude, and ESPECIALLY failure. Seriously. Duh. Is having an affair failure? Is having an open marriage failure? Is loving the same woman tormentedly all your life failure? Is madness by syphilis failure? Well, probably, that one. But lots of these failures sounded kinda fun.Nothing in this book as pithy as it's title, but still, a bit of fun.
What do You think about Great Philosophers Who Failed At Love (2011)?
Fun book--made me feel so much better about my relationship history.
—Tamaragivans
Makes you think your life can't be that bad...
—funnysara
