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Lädt ... The Philosopher's Apprentice (2008)von James Morrow
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Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. This is a rather disjointed novel, reminding me in some ways of Foucault's Pendulum. (In its disjointedness. In its rather horrifying picture of human credulity and barbarism.) In fact, I had to check the copyright to confirm this wasn't a satire of Trumpism. Actually more an uncanny prophecy. Full of insight. Full of nice lines. Short on cohesion and believable characters. ( ) Morrow likes to reify big questions. This was most obvious in Towing Jehovah and its sequels, but is both the theme and substance here. A philosophy graduate student, who is, and will remain, thanks to the events in chapter 1, ABD (all but dissertation), takes on the job of teaching ethics to a young woman who, her mother claims, lost all ethical understanding through an accident. Within a chapter or two, the true reason is revealed and it suffices to say that a science fictional device is involved. Said device enables most of the key events of the rest of the novel. It is no MacGuffin, but neither is this book a what-if exploration of a technological change. What it is is set up in the 2nd chapter, when our philosopher has to decide how to teach ethics. He decides to use some of the classic conundrums of Ethics 101 courses, situations where no choice is free of ethical downside. And that's what this novel becomes -- a series of extreme ethical choices. The novel is broken into three parts, as much trilogy as anything. Part 1, the story of the ethical education and early life of the young woman, forms a whole. Part 2 reads much like a sequel, a return to the characters and milieu but a new story. Part 3 is a wrap-up novella, distinct yet again, but concerned largely with resolving -- at the plot level -- the themes and character arcs set up in parts 1 and 2. Highly recommended to those who love debate, satire, Morrow, Jonathan Carroll. A fantastical plot had sex with an overachieving thesaurus and this book was born! Even though this was really not a very good book from a literary standpoint, I had a wonderful time reading it - the words the author works in are pretty fascinating. Early on in the book, Morrow describes something blue as being "the same color as unoxygenated blood" and I was hooked.
"Morrow's intellectual fervor irradiates The Philosopher's Apprentice, but the warmth and empathy that characterized The Last Witchfinder is absent." "The odd thing is that Morrow has pulled off this kind of arch diction before - The Last Witchfinder, for example, suggested an heir to John Barth - but here it's torture, and by the end it isn't Londa's humanity that you fear for." "Morrow’s inventiveness is beguiling, as are his delight in Western philosophy and his concern for the sorry state of the world." Auszeichnungen
A brilliant philosopher with a talent for self-destruction, Mason Ambrose has torpedoed a promising academic career and now faces a dead-end future. Before joining the ranks of the unemployed, however, he's approached by a representative of billionaire geneticist Dr. Edwina Sabacthani, who makes him an offer no starving ethicist could refuse. Born and bred on Isla de Sangre, a private island off the Florida coast, Edwina's beautiful and intelligent adolescent daughter, Londa, has recently survived a freak accident that destroyed both her memory and her sense of right and wrong. Londa's soul, in short, is an empty vessel--and it will be Mason's job to fill it. Exploring his new surroundings, our hero encounters a lush Eden abounding in bizarre animals and strange vegetation engineered by Edwina and her misanthropic collaborator, Dr. Vincent Charnock. And Londa, though totally lacking a conscience, proves a vivacious young woman who quickly captivates her new teacher as he attempts to recalibrate her moral compass with the help of Western civilization's greatest ethical thinkers, living and dead. But there's trouble in this tropical paradise. Mason soon learns that he isn't the only private tutor on Isla de Sangre, nor is Londa the only child in residence whose conscience is a blank slate. How many daughters does Edwina Sabacthani really have, and how did she bring them into being? Undaunted by these mysteries, Mason continues to instruct Londa, hoping that she can lead a normal life when she eventually ventures forth into human society. His apprentice, however, has a different agenda. Her head crammed with lofty ideals, her heart brimming with fearsome benevolence, and her bank account filled to bursting, Londa undertakes to remake our fallen world in her own image--by any and all means necessary. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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