Book Reviews by Christopher Willard
Dartmouth is one of the more interesting novels we have read recently, and this is refreshing to ... more Dartmouth is one of the more interesting novels we have read recently, and this is refreshing to say. A review by Christopher Willard and Laurel Smith.
A brief critical review of the novel Elizabeth Finch
A Review of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winning novel Trust
A critical review of Cruise of Shadows by Jean Ray.
A review of Monarch, the novel by Candice Wuehle. The book begins brilliantly and shifts to unpu... more A review of Monarch, the novel by Candice Wuehle. The book begins brilliantly and shifts to unpursued potentialities.
A critical review of Dancing in the Dark by Karl Ove Knausgaard that suggest this problematic boo... more A critical review of Dancing in the Dark by Karl Ove Knausgaard that suggest this problematic book is neither Proust nor Hemingway and suggests that the book's style is closer to that of R. L. Stine in his Goosebumps series.
A critical review of The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki.
A review of the novel Rabbit, Run by John Updike.
A review of the novel Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.
If you crave a book in which people spend money they don't have on things they don't need that ot... more If you crave a book in which people spend money they don't have on things they don't need that other people don't care about, then this is your fix. Edith Wharton must join your to-read list. Now, not later. It's not that Wharton says anything important about our contemporary world-she reflects more than she comments; it's not that she has an amazing plot-it's thin and more latent than realized; nor is it that she presents roller-coaster events-instead she focuses upon psychological realism. No, you must read Wharton to read a very fine writer who can show a generation of writers what it means to actually write. In some ways Wharton outshines Jane Austen in the psychological novel, at least Jane Austen as the author of Emma. If you want social satire and irony you'll find Wharton's version much more refined. If you want marriage, you'll find it here-Wharton's main character of The Custom of the Country, Undine Spragg, marries four times (twice to the same man).
A review of John Barth's novel The End of the Road.
Review of More Die of Heartbreak.
"It was bold, spicy, and made out of the stuff men need." No that's not from Dean Koontz's Intens... more "It was bold, spicy, and made out of the stuff men need." No that's not from Dean Koontz's Intensity but from the website of the beef jerky snack called Slim Jim, a snack that one of the store clerks in the book eats "daintily." According to a WIRED video, a Slim Jim is "four inches of spicy, salted, processed meat, but is there actually beef inside the tiny stick? Well, that depends on your definition of meat." Is there anything worth reading in this 300 and some change pages of text? That depends on your definition of things worth reading. If your definition includes intense package labels, intense indices, and intense novels written by the hindquarters of donkeys, you'll flip over this intense book. Why did I read Intensity? Someone online wrote it was Koontz's best, most…oh, I don't care what third graders write in online reviews.
A review of a Station Eleven.
Medium, 2020
Robinette Broadhead is a rich ex-astrogating prospector who spends his time and money interacting... more Robinette Broadhead is a rich ex-astrogating prospector who spends his time and money interacting with his AI Freudian analyst he's nicknamed Sigfrid von Shrink. The book is RB's accounting for the need of therapy where we learn his dirtly space secret, but that's for later. First let's take the Dickensian approach. It was the worst of times. The Earth is a scarred and barren dystopia. Robbie works as a miner for shale oil slime that is the main food of humans. Televisions run morale
A review of The Plague by Albert Camus, translated by Stuart Gilbert. The author considers the ... more A review of The Plague by Albert Camus, translated by Stuart Gilbert. The author considers the relevance of Camus' book to the current Covid-19 Pandemic as a through-line question. Keywords: Camus, plague, pandemic, moral responsibility, evil, fascism, negative utilitarianism, book review, literature.
Reveiw of Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut.
A review of The Fourth Political Theory by Aleksandr Dugin
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Book Reviews by Christopher Willard
The primary objective of this dissertation is to disentangle and arrange a number of issues particular to the sphere of activity designated as artistic research. A bimodal conception of artistic research is proposed as a framework by which confusions in the discourse and in
applications of artistic research may be avoided or resolved.
Mode one indicates that artistic creation is in most instances ipso facto artistic research. A philosophical substantiation is offered for the claim. In brief, a work of art is considered to be a state of affairs, to use Wittgenstein’s terminology, of the artistic kind. The creation of a state of
affairs of the artistic kind and the formulation of propositional belief about that state of affairs are claimed to be necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for artistic research to occur. A state of affairs of the artistic kind provides the artistic component of artistic research; however, the
state of affairs in and of itself does not normally convey propositional belief, and therefore does not satisfy the condition of research in artistic research. For artistic research to take place, propositional belief about the state of affairs of the artistic kind must be formulated. The site of
the initiation of the research component of artistic research is thus located. In normal artistic practices, the class of activities commonly seen as art and the class of activities commonly seen as research exhibit significant class overlap and are inseparably intertwined in the vast majority
of artistic creations. Mode two indicates delimited forms of artistic research. Mode two artistic research does
not accept that the conditions of mode one are sufficient for artistic research and subsequently requires further epistemic justification or criteria. The further justification or criteria delimits the
form of artistic research, usually within particular contexts for particular purposes. Clarity in the discourse of artistic research is promoted when the modes are clearly differentiated, when their purposes are stated, and when the underlying presuppositions held by their proponents are revealed.