Mary Akers

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Thoreau

    “We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.” -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) This quote was in my inbox today, as part of my A.Word.A.Day email…

  • Rescuing the non-Lebanese

    Last night my Internet news page showed a picture of an American family trapped in Lebanon holding up signs and passports. It was a very moving picture and I feel for the family. Their ordeal must be terrible and frightening. But as I looked, I couldn’t help but think, what about all of the innocent…

  • How to Escape from a Leper Colony

    Tiphanie Yanique won the Boston Review’s Short Fiction Award with her fabulous story “How to Escape from a Leper Colony” and (lucky) you can read it on-line here.

  • Interview with Laila Lalami

    You can listen to an interview with novelist Laila Lalami at the Wisconsin Public Radio website. If you are pressed for time and want to skip to her portion of the interview (mind you, all the interviews are good and worth listening to) hers begins at about 39:30.

  • Tackling the Bonus Question

    6. When have you felt that you transcended time and space? Well, there are times when I cultivate such a feeling, and times when it happens without trying. Since the ones that happen on their own are more interesting, I’ll mention one of those. Most recently I think it was when I was in Dominica…

  • Mountain Voices

    If you like southern short stories (and who doesn’t?) stop by Ginger Hamilton Caudill’s blog and read about the anthology Mountain Voices, then click on the link to buy the book and benefit West Virginia’s hard working authors.

  • My answers…

    …to Stephanie’s interview questions. 1. Describe your religious upbringing or lack thereof? How does this affect you today? A: Well, my childhood experience would be closer (on the religious spectrum) to lack thereof. My father considered himself a moralist and a thinker but I don’t remember him ever attending church, and my mother was an…

  • A Carnivore’s Conscience

    There’s a great article about the ethics of eating meat (and other alternatives) here. Here is an excerpt: “With all the problems facing humanity — war, terrorism, poverty, tyranny — you probably don’t worry much about whether it’s right or wrong to eat meat. That’s understandable. Every society lives with two kinds of moral problems:…

  • Stress dreams

    I think I must be reaching some sort of inner peace in my dreamlife. Last night I had stress dreams–I’ve had them all my life at various, busy times–but for the first time ever, they weren’t stressful. Let me explain. In my younger years, my stress dreams corresponded (loosely) to the stresses in my life…

  • "Slotty" thinking

    Check out Joshilyn Jackson’s blog Faster Than Kudzu for a great entry on “slotty” thinking.

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