Books
Australia in three books: π.O.
π.O. is advancing a radically new and delightfully anarchic method, not just for Australian poetry but for our entire age.
Love at the ends of the earth
Reviewed: Kairos, Jenny Erpenbeck, New Directions At the start of the first essay in her 2018 collection Not a Novel, Jenny Erpenbeck observes: ‘There is nothing better for a child than to grow up at the ends of the earth.’ For her, that was a street in East Berlin around the corner from the Wall. From her apartment on the thirteenth floor, she could watch the double-decker buses, which at the time only existed in the West. In her telling, it was a happy childhood. Later in the collection, reflecting on the common critique of East Germany as ‘gray’, […]
“A vulnerable, she called me”
In an excerpt from The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez, a writer contemplates the first spring of the COVID-19 pandemic....
Forget This Book
Whether we remember them or not, the details of life still drive our lingering emotions. ...
Economic Memories and Sense-making of the Profound Institutional Change
by Till Hilmar* My recent book Deserved reconstructs people’s experiences with, and memories of, disruptive economic change. It foregrounds the voices of individuals who endured the “shock therapy” of the 1990s – the transition from communism to market society – in two societies.The analysis is driven by a historical-comparative argument: Before 1989, East Germany and […]
The Little Prince Haunts New York
When I moved to New York, I set out to discover how my new adopted home had influenced that sense of tristesse in The Little Prince, which Saint-Exupéry wrote during his 1941–1943 stay in the city....
The Hunger Artist
“I watched my body shrink in the mirror,” Clein writes, “proud to discover how powerful my mind was.” I know the feeling....
Books vs. Articles in Philosophy
“I’ve heard people joke on more than a couple of occasions that publishing a book is the way to get around Reviewer 2 at the journals.”
An assistant professor of philosophy has a query about the relative career-value of books and articles.
He writes:
When I was a grad student, I viewed the publication of a book as the pinnacle of publication prestige. Publishing a few articles in journals like Noûs, Ergo, etc. was an achievement, but publishing a book with Oxford University Press, Routledge, etc. was even more impressive. My anecdotal impression is that this kind of view is widespread.
I suppose I’m wondering whether it’s true that this kind of view is widespread, and if so, whether it ought to be.
The latter question has been especially salient to me since becoming an assistant professor and speaking with several other assistant professors over the last couple of years. All of us have, since becoming assistant professors, been invited by various presses to publish with them. (These are profs from all kinds of institutions, by the way). And many of us have also noticed in providing referee reports to such presses, that the barrier to publishing with them is quite low—much lower than a series of papers with top journals. Indeed, I’ve heard people joke on more than a couple of occasions that publishing a book is the way to get around Reviewer 2 at the journals. All of this makes me think that perhaps books shouldn’t be held in such high regard if they are. But are they? And should they be if so?
What are your impressions, readers?
The post Books vs. Articles in Philosophy first appeared on Daily Nous.
Best of 2023 in Australian Reading
Four of Meanjin's finest book critics look back on their favourite reading of 2023.
Latest Book on Evangelical ‘Extremism’ Reflects Pervasive Tendency to Beat Up on Judaism to Save Jesus
Perhaps you’re in the crowd that’s baffled by the behavior of American evangelicals. How could...