I look at philosophy similar to how I look at my favorite show, Supernatural. Fun, but not really serious or practical (actually, SPN might be more practical than philosophy). After reading some religious texts and a few ancient philosophers, it seems to me that most philosophy is either not saying anything new or anything useful.

So it is with some amusement that I picked up Twilight & Philosophy at the bookstore. Yes, I am surprised this is larger than a pamphlet, but it is still quite small. At close to the same width and height as the novels proper softbacks, this book is about a tenth as thick as Twilight alone. This struck me as funny because, while searching for it, I came across a book I would much rather have: The Logic of Alice which is double the size of my edition of Alice in Wonderland by all three dimensions. I do believe this is further evidence that one can judge a book’s worth by how thick its commentary is.

Also, let me say that this is not a book written by the excellent John Granger. Although I don’t always agree with him, his commentaries on Harry Potter are one of the most well reasoned and thought provoking works I’ve read in a long time. His thoughts on Twilight are usually the most intelligent you’ll find. No, this is a part of a series that gave us such enlightening fare as the philosophy of the Daily Show, Metallica, and the Office. Nothing against any of those, but really, how deep can you go at the shallow end of the pool?

At least the book has Kristen and Rob on the cover instead of that stupid apple. Unless you’re very picky, there’s some eye candy for you.

And that’s everything I can say about the book without actually opening it. Abandon hope, ye who follow after. But part of me is looking forward to this. Will the book be daring enough to include some points from the antis? Will it go for the usual vapid, Hollywood-isk generic advice? This is going to be a bold experiment as I have not and will not be reading the book beforehand. Instead, I’ll read a section at a time and post my thoughts here, as soon as possible. Being prepared is for sissies. Let’s face this book with only our wits to save us, shall we?

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Comment

  1. Kyllorac on 28 February 2010, 22:56 said:

    So you’ve finally been posted. :P

    I eagerly await this series. :D

  2. sakuuya on 1 March 2010, 01:58 said:

    My experience with the Philosophy Of series was that they weren’t discussions of the philosophy in their subjects so much as they were outlines of various philosophic concepts using examples from a particular subject.

    Granted, I’d rather read the former too, but you sound like you’re expecting it to try and explain Twilight’s philosophical goals. It won’t. If it’s anything like the ones I’ve paged through, it’ll use Twilight to explain other philosophical concepts rather than using philosophical concepts to explain Twilight.

  3. falconempress on 1 March 2010, 04:38 said:

    Oh god. This is going to hurt, isnt it?

  4. Romantic Vampire Lover on 1 March 2010, 11:15 said:

    Unless you’re very picky, there’s some eye candy for you.

    I guess I’m very picky, then. ;P
    is waiting impatiently

  5. Chant on 1 March 2010, 20:14 said:

    The more I see actual critics praising and analyzing the likes of Twilight, the more I lose faith in humanity.

    crawls into hole and waits for apocalypse

  6. kaikaikat on 1 March 2010, 21:46 said:

    I confess to having some morbid curiosity as to what might be found in this book.

    Good luck! I hope the pain is minimal.

  7. Snow White Queen on 1 March 2010, 21:51 said:

    I confess having a ‘wha?’ moment when I heard Twilight and philosophy in the same title without it being some sort of joke. Here’s hoping that your IQ will not suffer too much from having to read it.

    (But I do confess to find some philosophy interesting, for all that I don’t know anything about it.)

  8. Devin on 1 March 2010, 23:08 said:

    Looking forward to this. Don’t hurt yourself too much, Nate.

  9. Artimaeus on 2 March 2010, 08:54 said:

    Good luck man. Most of these “philosophy of” books are pretty shallow in any case, even if they’re about a work that you like (as I found with The Philosophy of House MD).

  10. Steph (what is left) on 7 March 2010, 20:31 said:

    It does what sakuuya said, I think.

    (I am definitely not picky)

  11. Steph (what is left) on 7 March 2010, 20:31 said:

    It does what sakuuya said, I think.

    (I am definitely not picky)

  12. Snow White Queen on 14 April 2010, 01:36 said:

    I don’t know if this is the same series as the Twilight one, but I’m reading a ‘Lord of the Rings and Philosophy’ book right now for research and it is distilled awesome. So maybe it just depends on what the pop culture source you’re analyzing is.