And here and there a Grayling

The philosopher A C Grayling has many claims to fame; for me, he is known as a Trustee of the London Library and a columnist in New Scientist, although you can regulalry find him on the BBC or in the papers.  This is, of course, to leave out the main and primary cause of his fame - his distinguished academic career, with which I am not philosopher enough to engage.  But I was therefore delighted to come across The Form of Things, a collection of short, non-technical writings on a bewildering variety of subjects  - a miscellany, indeed, on the arts, life, civil liberties and much else.  It is a collection of the reactions and views  of a torch bearer for the intelligent defence of Enlightment values, civilised, cultured and liberal. 

The writing is pithy, witty, often engaging you with an out of the way fact or a an intellectual challenge, and while I did not agree with everything he said, by a long way, I was always entertained and stimulated.  There are over 50 varied pieces in just over 200 pages, so its a very varied, accessible read - highly browsable before "lights out".  Subjects vary - here's a small selection: Beauty, Funerals, Montreux, Voyaging, Long life, Perfect numbers, Fox-hunting, Science and faith before Darwin, Rochester and the libertines, Vermeer, Free speech, and Identity cards - so something for everyone.

Here he is on funerals, a piece written on his return from a funeral marked by the smells, bells and Latin of the Tridentine mass:

Most of the congregation were treated to what was assuredly the habitual experience of medieval peasants: not understanding a word of what was going on ...

Societies in which alcohol is seen as the proper fuel for transporting the dead into the new phases of their existence .. have great advantages over those that merely serve tea and monosyllables.

[After discussing funerals in Africa and China] ... whatever its form, a funeral is an absolute parting, and the more clearly that hard fact is seen, the sooner heals the wound it makes; and the prompt for mourning is universal, however individual cultures understand it: for although not all call it love or need, the grief feels just the same.

This is a book well worth reading; whatever you interests or your philosophic views, you will find food for thought and amusement.

And my post title - utterly frivolous, this is of course a quotation from Tennyson's The Brook.

Comments

[glo]

Philosophy matched with a good sense of humour is surely a powerful help for hard times. The second quotation is really funny and "to serve tea and monosyllabes" is a nice zeugma too.
Your title matches so well with the spirit of the book too!