Sublime Physick
Essays
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A follow-up to Patrick Madden’s award-winning debut, this introspective and exuberant collection of essays is wide-ranging and wild, following bifurcating paths of thought to surprising connections. In Sublime Physick, Madden seeks what is common and ennobling among seemingly disparate, even divisive, subjects, ruminating on midlife, time, family, forgiveness, loss, originality, a Canadian rock band, and much more, discerning the ways in which the natural world (fisica) transcends and joins the realm of ideas (sublime) through the application of a meditative mind. In twelve essays that straddle the classical and the contemporary, Madden transmutes the ruder world into a finer one, articulating with subtle humor and playfulness how science and experience abut and intersect with spirituality and everyday life.
For teachers who'd like to adopt this book for their classes, Madden has provided a number of helpful teaching resources, including a 40-minute lecture on his writing process and writing prompts for each of the book's essays.
Access the free teaching resources.
Watch a book trailer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like many essayists before him, Madden (Quotidiana) makes a habit of finding the transcendent in the transient. In this new, sometimes moving collection, he ranges over topics including spit, plagiarism, empathy, and middle age. Reflecting on the fleeting nature of time, Madden invokes Charles Lamb's observation that he treasures bygone moments like a "miser's farthings." All of life, he observes, comes down to time: "The things we do to fill it may bring us joy or sorrow, may leave an imprint on memory or meld into our general perceptions or flow off into oblivion." In the longest and most complex essay, "Independent Redundancy," Madden shows how writers often unknowingly incorporate the words, sentences, and even style of others into their own writing. His examples, including the great Renaissance essayist Michel de Montaigne, the modern-day essayist Annie Dillard, and the rock group Pavement, illustrate how necessary it is for authors to recognize their own influences. Madden's work combines elegance with a bumptiousness, illustrating the messy character of human language and lives.
