Stan Persky
Stan Persky taught philosophy at Capilano University in N. Vancouver, B.C. He received the 2010 B.C. Lieutenant-Governor's Award for Literary Excellence. His most recent books are Reading the 21st Century: Books of the Decade, 2000-2009 (McGill-Queen's, 2011), Post-Communist Stories: About Cities, Politics, Desires (Cormorant, 2014), and Letter from Berlin: Essays 2015-2016 (Dooney's, 2017).
Deathwatch
Casting a cool eye on the Pope, a prince, and a severely brain-damaged woman in Florida. Horseman, pass by!
Letter from Berlin: The Sound of …
Perched in the upper reaches of a Berlin concert hall, Stan Persky is all ears.
Letter from Berlin: The Sane in Spain
Yeah, yeah, Bush in Europe. No big deal. The real news? Spanish sanity, Portuguese socialismo, electoral squeaker on the Danish border, and rum, sodomy, and the lash on the gay British high seas. Our European bureau chief checks in.
Reading Philosophy (2): Richard Rorty and Contingency
Admirers call Richard Rorty the most interesting philosopher working today. Critics say he doesn’t believe in Truth. Stan Persky surveys a mind.
Biopics: I Say Epicky, You Say Opicky
We send our chief popcorn cruncher to the movies. We want to know about Oscar, but he’s interested in The Glory That Was Greece.
The Marrying Kind
A devout bachelor clears up all the questions about the same sex marriage debate that you’ve been too bored to ask.
Reading Philosophy (1): True Confessions
Bryan Magee is a philosopher who lets us in on what he’s thinking. Stan Persky finds it all pretty interesting.
2004: Book of the Year
Stan Persky saw the so-so minds of his generation prowling the library stacks, picking the books of the year. He was “shocked and appalled.”
Letter from Berlin: Lies for Life
The commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall last month was a pretty low-key affair. Stan Persky marks it by pondering the life of the German-Jewish author of a book about lies, survival, and storytelling.
The Horses of Instruction: Teaching at Capilano College
William Blake declared that “the tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.” In a passage from his forthcoming book, The Short Version, Stan Persky puts in a word for the plodding horses.