Certain questions are basic to the human condition: how we imagine the world, and ourselves and others within it; how we confront the constraints of language and the limits of our own minds; and how we use imagination to give meaning to past experiences and to shape future ones. These are the questions James Boyd White addresses in The Edge of Meaning, exploring each through its application to great works of Western culture—Huckleberry Finn, the Odyssey, and the paintings of Vermeer among them. In doing so, White creates a deeply moving and insightful book and presents an inspiring conception of mind, language, and the essence of living.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
While this study makes for interesting reading, it is in one sense a disappointment. White's writing is fluid and engaging, yet he doesn't bring into clear focus exactly what he is trying to accomplish. We come nearest, perhaps, in his preface, where he writes that he is trying to understand "what in English we call 'meaning' in our experience." However, the question of the nature of meaning is very much a concern of contemporary linguistic philosophy (see, e.g., Robert Brandom's Articulating Reasons: An Introduction to Inferentialism, LJ 6/1/00), but White (law, English, and classical studies, Univ. of Michigan) shows no awareness of the work in this area. He instead examines a series of literary, philosophical, poetic, and legal texts from ancient times to the present, adding interesting comments about his own life experiences along the way. Because of the wide range of topics and ideas discussed here e.g., Thoughts from Walden Pond, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Odyssey, reading Greek, Phaedrus, rhetoric, love, and Vermeer this book will appeal to the generalist and is recommended on that basis. Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
Certain questions are basic to the human condition: how we imagine the world, and ourselves and others within it; how we confront the constraints of language and the limits of our own minds; and how we use imagination to give meaning to past experiences and to give shape to the future. These are the questions James Boyd White addresses in this book, exploring each through readings og great works of Western culture, Huckleberry Finn, the Odyssey, and the paintins of Vermeer among them. In doing so, White creates a deeply moving and insightful book and presents an inspiring conception of mind, language, and the essence of living.
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The Edge of Writing,
By Jim Schaefer (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Edge of Meaning (Hardcover)
James Boyd White has crafted another excellent exploration of the intersections of writing, law, culture, and society. A must read for those interested both in the art of writing well and in enhancing the ability to understand the various meanings contained in specific texts. While his specific areas of interest are Classical Studies and Law, the precise methods he uses apply to writers everywhere. Want to give an edge to your writing? Then read, "The Edge of Meaning."
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
As a boy of thirteen, lonely and confused in my first year at boarding school, I heard, I don't remember how, of Henry David Thoreau, the man who had gone to live in a cabin beside a pond in the woods, alone for a year, and that he had written a book about his experience. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
claiming meaning, sincere account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Robert Frost, First Amendment, Huckleberry Finn, Supreme Court, George Herbert, University of Chicago Press, Trojan War, United States, Homeric Greek, Tom Sawyer, University of California Press, Oxford University Press, Plato's Phaedrus, The Road Not Taken, Collected Poems, Harvard University Press, New England, Pledge of Allegiance, Princeton University Press, The Temper, Ann Arbor, Clarendon Press, Henry Thoreau, Huck Finn New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
As a boy of thirteen, lonely and confused in my first year at boarding school, I heard, I don't remember how, of Henry David Thoreau, the man who had gone to live in a cabin beside a pond in the woods, alone for a year, and that he had written a book about his experience. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
claiming meaning, sincere account Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Robert Frost, First Amendment, Huckleberry Finn, Supreme Court, George Herbert, University of Chicago Press, Trojan War, United States, Homeric Greek, Tom Sawyer, University of California Press, Oxford University Press, Plato's Phaedrus, The Road Not Taken, Collected Poems, Harvard University Press, New England, Pledge of Allegiance, Princeton University Press, The Temper, Ann Arbor, Clarendon Press, Henry Thoreau, Huck Finn New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 86
books:
See all 86 books this book cites
4
books
cite this book:
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classic) by Mark Twain on 6 pages
- Huckleberry Finn (Macmillan Readers) by Twain on 6 pages
- The Road Not Taken and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions) by Robert Frost on 5 pages
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain on page 28, page 29, and page 45
- Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain on page 28, page 29, and page 45
See all 86 books this book cites
- Living Speech: Resisting the Empire of Force by James Boyd White on page 128, and page 195
- Understanding Experience: Psychotherapy and Postmodernism by Roger Frie in Back Matter
- Law in the Liberal Arts by Austin Sarat in Back Matter
- Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life by Jerome Bruner in Back Matter
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