How Are Things? A Philosophical Experience by Roger-Pol Droit
Can we learn anything from the objects that surround us, the things we use in everyday life? If you look closely, yes. They may ignore us, they mostly outlive us, but they are the secret sharers of our days, as close to us as our spouses, our pets, our bodies, our selves. Things coexist with us, they store meanings for us - memories, desires - but do they inhabit the same world? Are they alive or dead? Do they have language? Can we make friends with them?
Over the course of one year Roger-Pol Droit assigned himself an experiment: to keep a cross-border record of his meetings with unremarkable things: sunglasses, an alarm clock, a chest of drawers, a train ticket, a statue, a tombstone, a wheelbarrow, a bottle-opener, a razor...This book is the diary of that quest.
We might discover in these pages that a paperclip is a model of ethics, that a bunch of keys or a streetlamp are figures of love; that a washing-machine offers a lesson on the migration of souls, and that there is wisdom in the umbrella. That we are not the only life on earth.
Here, taking one thing at a time, are fifty close encounters.
Format: Hardback | 224 pages
Dimensions (cm): 20.5 x 13.4 x 2.4 | 356g
Publication Date: 01 Dec 2005
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication City/Country: London, United Kingdom
Language: English
Edition Number: 1
ISBN10: 0571223729
ISBN13: 9780571223725
Condition: Good
A book that has been read but is in good condition. No obvious damage to the cover. The dust jacket is included and in an acceptable condition (scuff marks and minor tearing along the edges). The majority of pages are undamaged with no creasing or tearing, no pencil underlining of text, and no highlighting of text. On the top-right corner of the title page a previous owner has written their name, a date and SYDNEY in black pen. No other writing in margins. No missing pages.