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612-822-4611
Apples and Oranges: In Praise of Comparisons

Apples and Oranges: In Praise of Comparisons

Paperback

PhilosophyLetters & Essays

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1940423066
ISBN13: 9781940423067
Publisher: Four Winds Pr
Published: Apr 28 2015
Pages: 240
Weight: 1.80
Height: 0.80 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.40
Language: English
What does it mean when people say You can't compare apples and oranges? Are comparisons across genres inherently invalid, or can they be insightful and illuminating? In this brilliant and provocative collection of essays, Dutch author Maarten Asscher maintains that comparisons can be the highest form of argument.

Asscher makes his case with examples drawn from classical to contemporary history, art, and literature: Hamlet in Ithaca and Telemachus in Elsinore, the Mediterranean and the North Sea, writing from a prison cell and writing from a room at home, the suicide of Primo Levi and Japanese Kamikaze pilots, and so on. With graceful erudition and idiosyncratic wit, Asscher demonstrates how the comparative method can provide insight not only into two subjects simultaneously, but also into fundamental issues they may have in common.

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