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Christianity: the original ‘Western Buddhism’

There has been a resurgence of interest out there on the blogs about Buddhism, its Western interpretations, and the various statements of the provocative Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek on the subject. To represent Zizek’s opinions is to take aim at a moving target, as he develops them over time, dialectically, and often contradicts himself even within a single work; but on the subject of Christianity relative to Buddhism (or indeed Eastern religion generally) he comes down firmly in favour of the Christian legacy, despite being a committed atheist. His arguments are rooted in the potential he sees in Christianity for radicalism and emancipatory politics:

No wonder Buddhism can function as the perfect ideological supplement to virtual capitalism: It allows us to participate in it with an inner distance, keeping our fingers crossed, and our hands clean, as it were. It is against such a temptation that we should remain faithful to the Christian legacy of separation, of elevating some principles above others.

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Written by Joshua Mostafa on 3-11-2010, 10 user comments

Partly about Donalds and zombies

Last year, due to a series of personal catastrophes and unheralded disasters, all unrelated and all of which happened at once, I was able to take a year off. What I wanted to do with that year was – well, a whole lot of things, none of which would be interesting to hard-headed Overland readers. The most relevant one, to this discussion, was to write.

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Written by Stephen Wright on 1-11-2010, 1 user comment

Non-fiction review: art + soul

art + soulart + soul
Hetti Perkins
Pan Macmillan

The first thing you notice about this book is that it is beautiful. The sleeve on the cover balances a contemporary Aboriginal painting across the top, with a lovely landscape shot along the bottom; standing in between is Hetti and the title.

This beauty is continued throughout the pages with ample space given to many of the artworks exhibited. The texts itself is also well laid out, spaced so as not to overcrowd the images when they share the page. All in all, it gives austere to the artworks, allowing them to speak for themselves, to flourish with words that add a history of the artists and their relationship to the art world, to Hetti, and, importantly, Hetti’s own relationship to the artworks. ... read more

Written by Scott Foyster on 1-11-2010, No comments