BOOK AND PODCAST REVIEWS - NON-FICTION

Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth (1969) R. Buckminster Fuller I came to this 1969 cult 'classic' in the fervent hope that it might allow me, finally, to 'get' modern environmentalism for which this is a seminal text. Part of my subsequent lack of enthusiasm is down to style. There is no doubt that Buckminster Fuller was a genius of sorts - at least as an engineer, planner and technologist - but he writes like a 'speak your weight' machine with a propensity for creating neologistic compound words that would put German philosophy to shame. Far from inspiring, the man just cannot write imaginative prose and yet his subject cries out for imagination. I am sure that he says precisely what he means but it is next to impossible to sustain an interest while being hectored by a person, no doubt kindly in intention in his way, who is egotistical to the nth degree - a 'speech-talker', as my daughter would term such types. Still, great thoughts are

The Principles of Taoism (2000) Paul Wildish The Principles of Taoism is an excellent and very readable basic account of Taoism in Thorsons' 'Principles of ...' series. It covers not only the basics of the belief system in both its philosophical and religious forms but gives a solid and rounded account of its history and its influence on Chinese medicine and martial arts. Personally, I find Taoism a highly amenable philosophy and approach to religion even if I cannot wholly engage with it myself. It is possibly the most humane of ancient philosophical paths but it is highly culture-specific in its general forms even if its basic philosophy can be studied with profit outside East Asia and the Chinese diaspora. It is not, however, without flaws. The most obvious one derives from what tends to happen when 'essentialist' a priori reasoning gets hold of reality and then tries to bend it to its will - this is the so-called Outer Alchemy, derived from an ove