Tom Hodgkinson / Features / Untitled Books

The Perennial Philosophy, Secret Knowledge, and Real England

Tom Hodgkinson

Author of The Book of Idle Pleasures and editor of The Idler.

The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

This is a superb collection of essays on spiritual themes. Huxley in essence argues that at their heart all religions share a mystical approach to things, and he proves his point by quoting the Taoists, the mystical Catholics, the Buddhists and Arab mystics like Rumi alongside one another. The book also offers many of Huxley's own views. For example he laments the environmental destruction caused by man and suggests that this arrogance is related to post-Reformation Christianity's abandonment of the Perennial Philosophy. Thrillingly relevant today.

Secret Knowledge by David Hockney

Hockney argues that the sudden emergence of ultra-realistic painting in the Renaissance was due to the use of lenses which allowed the great painters to trace outlines from projections. The book is also an instructive lesson in art history, and shows that modern art has more in common with pre-Renaissance art than with what came in between. His comments on the "tyranny of the lens" are good and true.

Real England by Paul Kingsnorth

This recently published work attacks the greedy property developers who are wrecking England with their mean-minded corporate vision, and simultaneously celebrates the brave indviduals who resist homogenisation and create projects or live lives of character and individuality. The revolution has started!

Friday, 1 August, 2008