Yet I am heartened by
the beauty of the works which I had the pleasure of encountering
throughout the year, all monuments to human achievement in their own
right. Only the three categories of fiction, non-fiction and movies
appear below as they are the only categories to which I had
sufficient exposure to judge in 2012. It is astounding how many of
the non-fiction books I read in 2012 were the magna opera of
their authors, even though not all of them made the list. If I have seen
further over the last year, it is because I have been fortunate to
have stood on the very top of a totem of giants, whom you will find
below.
Non-Fiction
10. Inverting the
Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson - An engaging read
on the history of football tactics. Wilson brings to life the various
personages that gave us the beautiful game as we know it today. The
parallel strands could have been clearer and more chronological, but
this book is definitely worth a read for a better understanding of
tactics and all the stories that lie behind the spectacle of
football.
9. Inside Jokes,
Matthew Hurley et al. - A book outlining a
new theory of what makes something humorous to our minds. Books about
humour need to be funny to demonstrate an understanding of the
material, and this one exceeds all expectations, from its witty
double entendre of a title to the examples of jokes within. Yet it
does so without sacrificing academic rigour, examining rival theories
and possible objections in a thorough fashion. Inside Jokes
left me laughing out loud and nodding in agreement in equal measure.
8. This
Will Make You Smarter, John Brockman - A
compilation of short essays describing some of the most useful ideas
and concepts. These were taken from responses to the Edge 2011
Annual Question, "What scientific concept would improve
everybody's cognitive toolkit?". Each of these concepts is
discussed by one of today's leading thinkers, numbering 165 in total.
Everyone but the most learned and up-to-date will gain something from
this. All the responses are available to read for free here.
7.
Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb - The
highly anticipated magnum opus of a controversial and
revolutionary thinker. Taleb brings his thought from Fooled by
Randomness and The Black Swan to a culmination in his idea
of the antifragile: things which benefit from volatility. He then
explores the ramifications of this idea and how best to become
antifragile and harness the rare and unexpected. This challenges the
conventional view that intelligence, knowledge and prediction are
essential for best results, which aligns Taleb with the
anti-establishment, performative stance of the cyberneticians.
Antifragile extends the concept to almost every field, and
indeed the strength of the concept is the simplicity and power which
allow it to be thus applied. It is the job of thinkers henceforth to
work out a science of the antifragile, figuring out where and how
exactly this concept applies, but we have here the seminal work of a
new intellectual field.
6. Thinking, Fast
and Slow, Daniel Kahneman - The best book on
the topic of human irrationality. Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman
shares the results of his research together with the late Amos
Tversky (indeed, their story lends the book a wistful tone). This
book reveals how every one of us is irrational much more often than
we think, explains the psychological mechanisms behind this, and
outlines the many errors which we make. This is told through
problems, experiments and anecdotes, making it easily comprehensible
and hence of interest to anyone. A humbling read.
5. The Grasshopper,
Bernard Suits - A short, fun book on the
philosophy of games. One of the rare books in which Wittgenstein gets
schooled, as his off-handed remark that we cannot define what a game
is gets thoroughly debunked by Suits. The point is made with an
engaging mix of exposition and dialogue, with the Grasshopper, a kind
of Socrates-and-Jesus-figure, demonstrating to his disciples what
makes something a game, and also claiming the value of games,
especially in Utopia. The Grasshopper is a brilliant model of
how philosophical writing should be - incisive, yet inviting, and a
sheer joy to read.
4. Cultural Amnesia,
Clive James - A paean to culture and
humanity. Over a hundred essays about famous and not-so-famous
personalities illustrate the fragility and preciousness of truth,
beauty, and love. Through the lives, oeuvres, and quotes from his
subjects, James goes into discussions of prose, poetry, music, dance,
cinema, television, art, and more. His writing, poetic and
aphoristic, is enticing enough to give you a new-found interest in
any of these topics, and doesn't pale when set beside that of the
literary greats whom he waxes lyrical about.
But James also deals
with the acts of courage and cowardice, intellectual or actual, in a
time when values came under siege. The result is a coherent whole
which seems to touch on every aspect of what makes life worth living,
yet which cannot be reduced to a simple idea. Which is good, because
a sincere attempt to chart the scope of humanity undertaken with the
humility to accept the intractability of that task precludes
premature syntheses of the type which bewitched Hitler, Stalin and
Mao. And this book protects us from amnesia of that fact. For the
people who are (like me) interested in everything, this is the
everything in which you should be interested. A highly recommended
read.
3. Incomplete
Nature, Terrence Deacon - This is a book of
potentially epochal import in explaining how things that matter
emerged from a world of matter. Deacon identifies the problems in a
strictly materialist, reductionist science, then proceeds to show how
the process of emergence led from chemistry to life to consciousness,
from thermodynamics to information to meaning. His ideas could herald a profound shift in science as radical as the Copernican and
Darwinian revolutions. If that doesn't make you want to read
Incomplete Nature for yourself, nothing else I say will.
2. Justice for
Hedgehogs, Ronald Dworkin - This looks set
to be one of the key works in ethics and moral philosophy henceforth. Dworkin
defends the idea that objective moral truths exist, and that these
truths, impenetrable as they are by facts due to Hume's Principle,
are mutually coherent and can only be discovered by interpretation of
moral concepts, such as responsibility, dignity and equality. Thus,
ethics, morality, law and politics are inextricably linked and have
implications up and down the chain. Of course, one will find within
this book the expected dose of trolley problems, but the conclusions
are highly practicable and will be of use to anyone.
1. The Beginning of
Infinity, David Deutsch - Possibly the book
of the century so far. Deutsch cuts the Gordian knot of epistemology
by proposing a new theory of how we know what we know. He then draws
out the implications of that, moral, political, and even aesthetic.
The writing is so incredibly lucid, even when discussing quantum
physics and mathematics, that after reading you will wonder how you
could ever have thought otherwise. The Beginning of Infinity
is a timely antidote to both relativism (whether anti- or
pseudo-intellectual) and dogmatism, and could prove to be a timeless
classic.
Fiction
3. Immortality,
Milan Kundera - This novel is about
immortality in the sense of legacy, rather than in the literal sense.
Immortality sets the story of a woman, her husband and her
sister against that of Goethe and a young fangirl/lover. Kundera
himself appears in the story, where he conceives the character Agnes
from an elderly woman's youthful, immortal gesture and starts off the
novel. The narratives are interspersed with desultory and witty
philosophical musings that are typically and idiosyncratically
Kundera in their subject matter, which includes individuality,
cameras, journalism, images, rights, sentiment, coincidences, and
shame. A great novel to ponder.
2. Catch-22, Joseph
Heller - It's been said that all good war stories are
anti-war stories. Catch-22 is more than that - it is about the
madness and bureaucracy of war, sure, but it uses that as a mirror
for the madness and bureaucracy of society. Many of the characters
are caricatures, yet their exaggerated traits are crucial in
triggering the novel's many occurences, and never seem over-the-top -
that honour is reserved for the faceless soldiers in the background
who actually comply with the madness. The novel starts off with
comical and absurd episodes, but progressively acquires a more tragic
tone which will leave you seething at the injustice. Not too unlike
real life then.
1. The Infernal
Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, Angela Carter
- A fantastic picaresque which is postmodern and magic realist.
Set in Latin America (where else?), the reluctant hero Desiderio
(which comes from the Latin for 'desire' or 'regret', suggesting where this
is headed) embarks on a quest to save his country from the
machinations of Doctor Hoffman, who manifests the desires of people
as apparitions. Along the way, all manner of pornographic genres find
their place, including paedophilia, GMILF, interracial, gangbang, furries, and
bestiality. But this is no mere erotica, as it touches on issues such
as desire, fantasy, reason, identity, the mass media, and feminism.
The writing is gorgeous, and the sentences worth savouring. Infernal
Desire Machines is filled with oneiric imagery which remains
haunting even upon waking, and deserves to be made into an incredible
cinematic experience if it could ever pass through the censors. But
until then, read the book and enjoy the adventure of your
imagination.
Movies
2.
Seven Psychopaths - A funny black
comedy overflowing with psychopathy. Seven Psychopaths is about a
writer Marty working on the eponymous screenplay, but lacking
inspiration. But he shouldn't be; he's right in the middle of
psychopath no-man's-land. Some of his fictional psychopaths turn out
to be very real. The line between fiction and reality is blurred - is
it life imitating art imitating life, or the other way around? The
dialogue is well-written and often witty, and the actors'
performances deliver.
Although
the film starts out in violence, it ends with some of the psychopaths
surprisingly advocating non-violence, such as the Quaker psychopath
and the Vietnamese psychopath. The flashback which transforms the
story of the Vietnamese psychopath is particularly trippy. And the
meta-ness continues all the way into the credits, where Marty's
promise on his life to a psychopath to include a message in the
credits comes back to haunt him. A very interesting project indeed;
couple with Kevin Dutton's pop-psych book The
Wisdom of Psychopaths for maximum
effect.
1.
Wreck-It Ralph - An exceptional piece of animated family
entertainment which was more than 20 years in the making and well
worth the wait. Wreck-It Ralph tells the story of video game
characters in an arcade where they can move between games. The
conflicts occur due to the intersection between three games: Fix-it
Felix, a building repair game, Hero's Duty, a first-person
shooter, and Sugar Rush, a racing game. How the characters
from different universes interact according to their abilities, the
game rules, and the movie premises, is brilliant - anything can be
made into a feature, rather than a curiosity or an incompatibility.
There is a moment when Felix, stuck in a prison with his magic
hammer, feels the curse of King Midas. Yet he is also the Brahma to
Ralph's Shiva, and both are essential to resolving difficulties and
maintaining balance in the story.
The bulk
of the action takes place in Sugar Rush, which has picturesque
environs and looks to be a blast to play, should it ever be produced.
And finally of course there's the clever plot, which intertwines the
quests for recognition of the outcast glitch Vanellope and the
titular villain Ralph, with the infestation and imminent destruction
of Sugar Rush by the aliens from Hero's Duty. And just
what is King Candy hiding in this "candy-coated heart of
darkness"? As with most animations, there are lots of funny
moments, but the movie is also high on emotion, without ever
descending into bathos or kitsch. The director Rich Moore has
expressed interest in making a sequel based on console and online
gaming (I'm thinking World of WarCraft?), but until then, go
watch Wreck-It Ralph if you haven't; it's tremendous fun.
Looking Ahead
2013 promises to be
like 2012, but better. I am unlikely to have the time to finish as
much reading, but hopefully I can whittle down the reading list now
that I've finished so many of the must-reads, even if more must-reads
are published this year. I will be delving deeper into cognitive
science, continental philosophy, and economics. Probably more fiction
this year as well.
Some good entertainment
is lined up. Evangelion 3.0 will finally receive a screening
in Melbourne, with 4.0 scheduled for release as well. The
Grandmaster, starring Tony Leung as Ip Man, could just be the
best of the lot of movies about Ip Man which have all appeared in the
past few years. Man of Steel, being directed by Zack Snyder
and produced by Christopher Nolan, surely can't go wrong. Iron Man
3 is coming out too, and hopefully we'll see Tony Stark return to
form after the mess that was Iron Man 2. The StarCraft II
expansion set Heart of the Swarm is coming out, and could eat
up a few days of my leisure.
Whatever the case, I
hope to learn much, and savour the great moments when they come.
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