The Conversations: 66 Reasons to Start Talking

In the vein of Alain de Botton and Adam Phillips, a provocative and diverting book of short essays to get you thinking and talking—conversations to have with friends, partners, or just with yourself
We've all known the heady thrill of a conversation that goes on all night. Once we had opinions on everything, but as life becomes more humdrum we often lose that passion. Sometimes we can't remember what we really think at all. This thoughtful book encourages readers to think anew. Olivia Fane provides the starting points for 66 conversations to be had with a partner, friend, stranger, or simply with ourselves. These thought-provoking and stimulating short discussions on happiness, vanity, infidelity, education, and more offer the questions that will help readers get to know those with whom they share their lives. Whether they lead to agreement or vehement disagreement, these topics provide endless food for thought and a surprising window onto some of the big subjects that define who we are and how we live.

Fane, Olivia

Self-Help

Vintage, UK

We've all known the heady thrill of a conversation that goes on all night. Once we had opinions on everything, but as life becomes more humdrum we often lose that passion. Sometimes we can't remember what we really think at all. This brilliant book encourages us all to think anew. Olivia Fane provides the starting points for 66 conversations to be had with a partner, friend, stranger, or simply with ourselves. These though-provoking and stimulating short discussions on happiness, vanity, infidelity, education, and more, ask you the questions that will help you get to know those with whom you share your life. Whether you agree or vehemently disagree, The Conversations provides endless food for thought, and a surprising window onto some of the big subjects that define who we are and how we live.

Reference

Square Peg

'The sublime rests precariously on the edge of the abyss.' This volume is a collaboration between wordsmith Olivia Fane and painter John B. Harris. Fane's first essay is on the philosophical understanding of the sublime. The sublime first became a subject of serious philosophical thought in the eighteenth century, thanks to Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant. Fane argues for an interpretation of the sublime as the radically other, and argues that its function is primarily epistemological, in that it reveals to us our own being and finitude. She goes on to show how this tallies with ideas of negative theology and post-modernism. In her second chapter,'A Short Essay on Truth', Fane suggests that societies and cultures suffer from a 'hermeneutic circle of knowledge' -- in other words knowledge is based on agreement rather than authentic understanding. She shows how the function of art and religion at their best is to attempt to break through the circle, turning us from sleepwalkers into people who are alive to a truth which is, paradoxically, unknowable. The third chapter, 'Fear and Longing: A Symposium' is named after the painting on the book's cover and is a dialogue between Harris and Fane on the apprehension of the sublime, exploring the syzygy between images and words, intimation and explication.

The Rupture: On Knowledge and the Sublime

Religion & Spirituality

Imprint Academic

When Perdita Tree, the bored and beautiful wife of a conservative Member of Parliment, is kidnapped in Albania, she decides it is one huge adventure. Adored by her kidnapper, who thinks all things English are prefect, she is persuaded to rescue the Albanians from their dire history, and is vain enough to imagine that she can. The year is 1991, democracy is coming, are the Albanians ready for it? And are they ready for Perdita?

The Glorious Flight of Perdita Tree

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Arcadia Books

Josiah Horatio Nelson is born to unusual parents who met in a psychiatric hospital. The authorities are reprehensive of his unconventional upbringing and eventually remove Josiah from his parents' care. He is sent to a home where he finds little comfort, until he is befriended by his Latin tutor. Their friendship is the only bright spot in Josiah's life, until an educational field trip brings accusations of molestation. Olivia Fane's novel is by turns witty, angry, erudite, and touching, and explores modern attitudes to love in all its forms- and the dark side of its obsession with pedophilia and child abuse. "Fane's deft use of metaphor and inclusion of domestic details keep the narrative flowing smoothly. Far more than creating a tale of pedophilic scandal, Fane (God's Apology) unearths thorny moral ambiguities, forcing the reader to consider circumstances in which the unthinkable may be the only sound option."-Publishers Weekly

On Loving Josiah

Literary

Laura Glass's life seems perfect. She's beautiful, wealthy, her husband loves her, and their teenage kids Leo and Jemima are at good schools. One day, Laura's happiness is shattered when she sees her husband kissing a young woman in a doorway. Some of Laura's friends tell her to divorce him; others say ignore it. Instead, Laura goes off on an adventure of her own with the beautiful young Jed. On their return, seeing that her husband is still continuing his affair, she invites his lover to live in their home...and Jed too, just, for good measure. Quite the opposite of a morality tale, Possibly a Love Story is a viciously funny satire on the middle classes and middle-class values, but with a huge heart.

Possibly A Love Story

Olivia Fane deconstructs our cultural obsession with sex, love, and gender. Is Sex Natural? Is Sex Dirty? Is Sex Loving? Is Sex about Beauty? Is Sex Political? Why Sex Doesn't Matter is a necessary and controversial book in these confused, self-obsessed, sex-obsessed and gender fluid times. Western society has packaged sex as one of the most important pillars of our modern lives. It's become ubiquitous, stigmatized and destigmatized in equal measure, used to sell products, choose partners, and define ourselves. But sex is just the quick-fix that will never satisfying our underlying craving for romantic love and real connection, and so as a culture we should value it less and make it less central to our long term goals, our Western sense of moral righteousness, and representations of our lives. InWhy Sex Doesn't Matter, author Olivia Fane argues that gender is a social construct and we should stop focusing on it: "If our 'minds' are a mish-mash of both stereotypically 'male' and 'female' qualities, then our bodies would have to become half-male and half-female to conjure up some perfect fit. It's just not going to catch on."

Why Sex Doesn’t Matter

Mensch Publishing

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Books by Fane, Olivia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fane, Olivia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Conversations: 66 Reasons to Start Talking

The Conversations: 66 Reasons to Start Talking

The Rupture: On Knowledge and the Sublime

The Glorious Flight of Perdita Tree

On Loving Josiah

Possibly A Love Story

Why Sex Doesn’t Matter