In this brilliantly conceived exploration of doomsaying and revelation, Mark Kingwell argues that the brink tendencies manifested by contemporary popular culture—the popularity of body piercing, for example, or the proliferation of miracles—are, in fact, inextricably linked to the impending fin de siècle. 
 One of Maclean's top ten non-fiction books of 1996

Dreams Of The Millennium: Report From a Culture on the Brink

Politics & Social Sciences

Kingwell, Mark

Social Sciences

Penguin Canada

More and more, as the globe turns into a billboard for corporate propagation, the nature of citizenship is becoming skewed. For the cellphone-brandishing inhabitants of a world carved up into markets and territories determined by production and consumption, transcending the traditional boundaries of nation-states, what does it mean to be a citizen?

World We Want

History

Europe

In Concrete Reveries, acclaimed philosopher and cultural critic Mark Kingwell offers a thoughtful answer to Socrates’ injunction about the life worth living, using the urban experience to illustrate the dynamic between concreteness and abstraction that operates within us.Witty and authoritative, the book is an exhilarating journey through unexpected terrain.

Concrete Reveries: Consciousness And The City

Philosophy

Part memoir, part travelogue, and part reflection on the deep truths of fly fishing, this original and  free-wheeling book brings a philosopher’s (actually a philosophy professor’s) mind to bear  on an avocation that turns ordinary men into philosophers. As he relates the progress of his yearly  fishing trip to British Columbia with his father and brothers, Mark Kingwell considers everything  from work, procrastination, and the way of manhood to the wet vs. dry fly debate and the best ways  of fooling a fish. Sly in its humor, unassuming in its erudition, Catch and Release is a  perfect book for anyone who loves fishing—or anyone who’s perplexed by it.

Catch and Release

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin Group Canada

A philosopher and critic blends elements of memoir, travelogue, reflection, and discussion of the finer points of the sport as he describes an annual fishing trip to British Columbia that he, his father, and two brothers take each year, covering such topics as male bonding, the benefits of wet versus dry flies, the cast, the ethics of fishing, and more. Reprint.

Catch and Release: Trout Fishing and the Meaning of Life

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Penguin??Books

An eloquent look at the first few years of the twenty-first century from acute social critic Mark Kingwell In this collection of his columns published in the National Post from 2000 to 2003, philosopher and critic Mark Kingwell turns his attention to world issues from September 11 to soccer violence, from God to the Gulf War, and from private space to public protest. He also looks at the small, the quirky, and the Canadian in columns such as “Canucks-the gays of North America,” “Cricket-a pursuit unruled by money,” and “The cart ruling: one golfer gets a free ride.” He pre-empts Lynn Truss's global bestseller, Eats Shoots &amp; Leaves, with his 2000 rant “Bad grammar drives me to drink” and laments the demise of civility in “On being civil: it's not enough to say you are.”

Nothing for Granted: National Post Columns 2002 2003

Business & Money

Glenn Gould, one of the twentieth century’s most renowned classical musicians, was also known as an eccentric genius—solitary, headstrong, a hypochondriac virtuoso. Abandoning stage performances in 1964, Gould concentrated instead on mastering various media: recordings, radio, television, and print. His sudden death at age fifty stunned the world, but his music and legacy continue to inspire. Philosopher and critic Mark Kingwell regards Gould as an innovative thinker whose ideas about music governed his life. But those ideas were contradictory, mischievous, and deliberately provocative. Just as Gould played twenty-one “takes” to record the opening aria in the famed 1955 Goldberg Variations, Kingwell offers twenty-one takes on Gould’s life. Each version offers a different interpretation of the man, but in each, Kingwell is sensitive to the complex harmonies and dissonances that sounded throughout the life of the great Gould.

Extraordinary Canadians Glenn Gould

Review\n"Ethics in Architecture is a timely reminder of the professional responsibilities of those charged with making the world a better place through their thoughtful interventions in the built environment." -- John David, Urban Wildland\nA lively and accessible discussion of how architecture functions in a complex world of obligation and responsibility, with a preface offering specific discussion of architecture during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.\nWhat are the special ethical obligations assumed by architects? Because their work creates the basic material conditions that make all other human activity possible, architects and their associates in building enjoy vast influence on how we all live, work, play, worship, and think. With this influence comes tremendous, and not always examined, responsibility. This book addresses the range of ethical issues that architects face, with a broad understanding of ethics. Beyond strictly professional duties - transparency, technical competence, fair trading - lie more profound issues that move into aesthetic, political, and existential realms. Does an architect have a duty to create art, if not always beautiful art? Should an architect feel obliged to serve a community and not just a client? Is justice a possible orientation for architectural practice? Is there such a thing as feeling compelled to "shelter being" in architectural work? By taking these usually abstract questions into the 
region of physical creation, the book attempts a reformulation of "architectural ethics" as a matter of deep reflection on the architect's role as both citizen and caretaker. Thinkers and makers discussed include Le Corbusier, Martin Heidegger, Lewis Mumford, Rem Koolhaas, Jane Jacobs, Arthur Danto, and John Rawls.

The Ethics of Architecture

Business Culture

Oxford University Press

<div>Adventure is always escapist and often utopian, yet we find solidarity with others and Kafkaesque existential rabbit holes within the words we use to celebrate high-flying escapades. Even when adventures are small in the cosmic scope, the terminology of thrilling exploits promotes a life lived at a high pitch. This go-to glossary for the philosophical explorer delves into these contradictions and insights through more than five hundred terms, from A-OK to zoom. Semiotician Joshua Glenn sourced terms from Shakespeare, military and biker jargon, hip hop and surfer slang, survivalist and gamer subcultures, comic books, extreme sports, and beyond to ask questions about meaning and selfhood. This diverting survey, paired with copious illustrations by the acclaimed cartoonist Seth, is introduced by Mark Kingwell in a thought-provoking essay. The Adventurer's Glossary extends the entertaining and incisive critique found in the trio's previous books, The Idler's Glossary and The Wage Slave's Glossary. This third instalment turns its lens to the language of risk, excitement, and journeying into the unknown, taking readers on their own semantic adventure.</div>

The Adventurer's Glossary

Humor & Entertainment

Glenn, Joshua

Humor

McGill-Queen's University Press

Singular Creatures: Robots, Rights, and the Politics of Posthumanism

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

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Books by Kingwell, Mark