Plato At The Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (book review).
Back in ancient times, there was no such thing as scientists. The nearest equivalent was the natural philosopher. One of these was Plato and this book is devoted to him. Well, sort of. The Googleplex chapter and later chapters has Rebecca Newberger Goldstein looks at Plato as if he lived today and discusses his life with modern day interviewers. Oddly, more is learnt about him from the footnotes than the main text. At least they are on the same page as where they come from but when they are as extensive as the text, you’ve essentially got another book there hidden away. More so, when the ends of some footnotes are spread onto the next page. Plato is interviewed by several different people but, I suspect, that unless you live in the USA, you’re not going to know who people like Roy McCoy is or who they are based on. I still don’t.
Oddly, Goldstein does include some information about Plato’s time period, his teachers, gay attitudes and some of what he taught which makes it a shame that she didn’t spend more time focused on that because I found the rest of the book a bit wasteful of my time.
For someone who writes light comedy into my own stories, I tend to read humour books somewhat drily but don’t expect too much in the way of belly laughs here unless you understand the American regime.
GF Willmetts
October 2014
(pub: Atlantic Books. 459 page illustrated indexed enlarged paperback. Price: £16.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78239-557-7)
check out websites: www.atlantic-book.co.uk and www.rebeccagoldstein.com