How to Escape: Magic, Madness, Beauty, and Cynicism

by Crispin Sartwell

Passionate and rollicking personal and intellectual essays by philosopher Crispin Sartwell.

210 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

Crispin Sartwell was born 6.20.58 in DC. His Dad (and his and his) were DC newspapermen. His Mom and Step-pa were high school teachers and later organic farmers. He got kicked out of the public school system in tenth grade for fomenting revolution, and attended the New Education Project, aka Bonzo Ragamuffin Prep, then U Maryland, Johns Hopkins, UVA. He worked as a copy boy in 1980-81 at the Washington Star, where he started writing about pop music. He was a freelance rock critic through the eighties for, among others the Balt City Paper, Record Mag, High Fidelity, and Melody Maker.

He lives in Glen Rock, PA with his wife, the writer Marion Winik, and their five children. He's Visiting Associate Prof of Political Science at Dickinson College. He writes a weekly op-ed column, distributed by Creators Syndicate. He has also appeared in Harper's, the Washington Post, and on Weekend All Things Considered.

He is the author and editor of a number of books, and he's taught philosophy and communications at Vanderbilt, the Unversity of Alabama, and Penn State Harrisburg.

Reviews

[Cru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for a collection of essays written in the turn of the millenium, whose hypothesis might seem mundane to our present gaze (especially the ones about gender and sexuality), but he really had it in the y2k. Let’s face it, he is dudish and annoying sometimes, but ultimately his writing is devoted to pertinent questions, correct predictions and the right causes. A very punk and abolitionist spirit might seduce you into the classic of anarchist literature. The “how to escape essay” is great for my own research — thinking about stage magic and western modernity.