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    What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?
    Unavailable
    What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?
    Unavailable
    What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?
    Ebook77 pages1 hour

    What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?

    By Mark Kurlansky

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    What is What? Could it be that noted author Mark Kurlansky has written a
    very short, terrifically witty, deeply thought-provoking book entirely
    in the form of questions? A book that draws on philosophy, religion,
    literature, policy-indeed, all of civilization-to ask what may well be
    the twenty most important questions in human history? Or has he given us
    a really smart, impossibly amusing game of twenty questions? Kurlansky
    considers the work of Confucius, Plato, Gertrude Stein, Shakespeare,
    Descartes, Nietzsche, Freud, Hemingway, Emily Dickinson, the Talmud,
    Charles de Gaulle, Virginia Woolf, and others, distilling the deep
    questions of life to their sparkling essence. What? supplies endless
    fodder for thoughtful conversation but also endless opportunity to
    ponder and be challenged by-and entertained by-these questions in
    refreshingly original ways. As Kurlansky says, In a world that seems
    devoid of absolute certainties, how can we make declarative statements?
    Without asking the questions, how will we ever get to the answers? "Why
    are we here? Why is all of this here? Why do we die? What is death? What
    does it mean that outer space is infinite and what is after infinity?
    What is the significance of birdflight, why does matter decay, and how
    is our life different from that of a mosquito? Is there an end to these
    questions or is questioning as infinite as space?" With his striking
    black-and-white woodcut illustrations throughout, this handsome volume
    is a tour de force that packs a tremendous wallop in a deliciously
    compact package.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateApr 26, 2011
    ISBN9780802779670
    Unavailable
    What?: Are These the 20 Most Important Questions in Human History--Or Is This a Game of 20 Questions?
    Author

    Mark Kurlansky

    Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of Milk!, Havana, Paper, The Big Oyster, 1968, Salt, The Basque History of the World, Cod, and Salmon, among other titles. He has received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Bon Appétit's Food Writer of the Year Award, the James Beard Award, and the Glenfiddich Award. He lives in New York City. www.markkurlansky.com

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    Reviews for What?

    3.5/5

    14 ratings2 reviews

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    • 2/5
      An occasionally amusing little book that has an intriguing underlying concept but relies too much upon gimmickry which qickly wears thin.
    • 3/5
      Would it matter to you if it wasn't? Would you buy this book in any event because it piqued your interest? But doesn't it seem to you that a book entirely comprised of questions is just a little pretentious? And honestly, isn't a small-format book of fewer than 100 pages a bit over-priced at more than $10? Even with illustrations? Even very nice little woodcuts? But the bottom line is, how long do you really think you can stand reading an entire book that is nothing but questions?Yeah, I thought so. Me too.Don't get me wrong, there's an amusement value here, and a measure of thought provocation that is undeniable. Mark Kurlansky has a knack for taking a question and chewing at it, in this case by asking questions about the questions, and either you have the patience for this or you don't. I don't. There is a point at the end of the book where he asks if finally a declarative sentence isn't necessary, and I agree with his conclusion, I really do. Understand, I don't ask to be spoon-fed ideas or facts, but I do ask the right to formulate some of these questions myself. To spend 80-odd pages watching Kurlansky asking them is like watching someone else contemplate his navel; you might try contemplating it too, but it's sure not as riveting as your own.Kurlansky does ask: "Can you spend too much time asking questions?" and perhaps that's a sly wink at those of us who have spent many of the previous 60-odd pages thinking just that. I don't honestly know if there's a real point to this if you're a questioner yourself. And if you're not, this book won't turn you into one. Okay well maybe for an hour or two it will, and then you'll probably fall back into the same lazy habits of mind you've always had. To be blunt, this book would have made a terrific blog post or two. As a book? Well can you guess what I think?