I can’t wait for this! Perhaps I should spend less time posting things on blogs and more time actually finishing my chapter …

For die-hard fans, here is an excellent 30 Rock website — especially useful for remembering scenes from episodes, favorite jokes, etc. Hey, it still counts as research for me.

More details coming soon.

Just in time for the release of the much anticipated new movie (March 5, 2010), Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy is now available!

Ever since Lewis Carroll first dreamt up the Alice stories at Oxford in 1865, the fantastical, nonsensical inversions of Wonderland have presented an ideal setting for philosophical reflection. While over time we’ve seen a Wittgenstein essay here, a Carl Jung quote there, this is the first book devoted solely to exploring philosophy through Alice in Wonderland. When we stop to consider it, the need to know and the search for meaning are fundamental characteristics to both children’s literature and philosophical writings alike. Perhaps why there has been such a profound and enduring love for Alice in Wonderland for so many readers over time is that its deeply imaginative sense of wonder has an ability, like all great works of fiction, to take on different shades of meaning and to grow along with its readers.

I’ll include more thoughts on the book and additional Alice-related posts … once I can get my hands on a copy. (Do you think the Blackwell’s bookstore will give me a discount on a book I helped write?)

And now you can even become a fan of our Blackwell Philosophy and Popular Culture Book Series on Facebook.

In the meantime, here’s a brief excerpt from my chapter, “Memory and Muchness: Alice and the Philosophy of Memory” –

…………………………………………………………………………………………

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly,“I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then” (p. 47).

Alice’s conversation with the Caterpillar shows us how sometimes even the most complicated and important philosophical questions can lie just beneath a seemingly straightforward exchange. The ordinary question “Who are you?” leads Alice to confront one of the fundamental philosophical questions:  “Who am I?” As the Caterpillar’s cryptic responses begin to bewilder her more and more, Alice wonders at the Caterpillar’s question, “So you think you’re changed, do you?”—

“I’m afraid I am, sir,” said Alice. “I can’t remember things as I used”. . .

“Can’t remember what things?” said the Caterpillar (p. 48).

Alice cannot answer the question of who she is, because she can’t seem to remember who she was. From this, we can begin to understand how memory is inextricably tied to questions of what we know (or perhaps think we know). Indeed, memory is crucially important for understanding ourselves as conscious, thinking individuals. But what is memory?

In celebration of The Simpsons reaching 450 episodes, KCBS had a feature on the show this morning, where I was invited to speak along with Paul Cantor, Professor of English at University of Virginia. By the way — be sure to check out this Sunday’s The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special: In 3-D! On Ice hosted by Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame). While you’re waiting for Sunday, you might also enjoy this article or this blog post on the upcoming event.

Teaching a college course on The Simpsons? Anytime I get to mention Foucault and a Simpsons episode in the same sentence, it’s a pretty good day. Click on the image below for the full podcast of the show!

Paul Cantor is brilliant, and certainly a highly-regarded figure in American popular culture studies (check out his book, Gilligan Unbound) – so this was quite a thrill for me! I particularly enjoyed his comparison of The Simpsons and Charles Dickens during the interview. You can check out an excerpt from one of Cantor’s essays on The Simpsons here.

Interview on The Simpsons

The book’s set to be released next month, in time for the exciting new Alice in Wonderland movie coming out on March 5, 2010. Mark your calendars!

Who isn’t at least a little curious to see what a Tim Burton-version of Alice in Wonderland is going to look like? Here’s the trailer for a sneak preview:

Alice in Wonderland The Movie Trailer

Written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson),  the origins of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be traced back to the halls of Christ Church at Oxford.

[Random Fun Fact]: Many Alice in Wonderland fans will remember when Alice finds that mysterious bottle labelled DRINK ME, which causes her to grow to enormous proportion, and then shrink to a tiny size. But did you know that there’s even a known medical condition (“Alice in Wonderland syndrome“) describing such hallucinatory and distorted changes of  size perception?

(Hope to add a new entry on Alice in Wonderland trivia, folklore, and real-life pictures next time!)

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This talk was given at Google in Mountain View, CA on August 28.

Is that really what I look like and sound like? Well, anyways — some of the things that I discuss are: what is it specifically that makes “Heroes” philosophically interesting? What can we learn from a book about “Heroes” and philosophy? How does a show about heroes and villains give us a chance to reflect on questions of good and evil, right and wrong?

In my chapter on Nietzsche, time, and meaning I explore the ways in which specific examples from the show prompt us to examine our relation to time from both a philosophical standpoint and also what this means to us in our everyday lives as living, thinking beings.

I’m only about 708,000 views behind Ron Paul’s YouTube video, so feel free to rate it if you like it!!

For those that are interested, here’s a link to the video on YouTube. Authors@Google is one of my favorite things in the entire world – check out the rest of this wonderful video series. It’s one of the things that makes Google so cool.

Here’s a link to the actual book:  Heroes and Philosophy: Buy the Book. Save the World