Cuteness is examined as a pervasive cultural phenomenon, extending beyond mere innocence to reveal its complex and sometimes unsettling nature. Simon May explores various representations of cuteness, from beloved characters like Mickey Mouse to more ambiguous figures, arguing that it embodies a playful yet powerful distortion of traditional qualities. The book addresses cuteness's role as an antidote to societal pressures, reflecting our uncertainties about identity, control, and power dynamics. It offers a nuanced perspective on how this aesthetic influences contemporary life and relationships.
A powerfully moving family memoir of loss, exile and self-concealment in Nazi Germany. The most familiar fate of Jews living in Hitler's Germany is either emigration or deportation to concentration camps. But there was another, much rarer, side to Jewish life at that time: denial of your origin to the point where you manage to erase almost all consciousness of it. You refuse to believe that you are Jewish. How to Be a Refugee is Simon May's gripping account of how three sisters--his mother and his two aunts--grappled with what they felt to be a lethal heritage. Their very different trajectories included conversion to Catholicism, marriage into the German aristocracy, securing "Aryan" status with high-ranking help from inside Hitler's regime, and engagement to a card-carrying Nazi. Even after his mother fled to London from Nazi Germany and Hitler had been defeated, her instinct for self-concealment didn't abate. Following the early death of his father, also a German-Jewish refugee, May was raised a Catholic and forbidden to identify as Jewish or German or British. In the face of these banned inheritances, May embarks on a quest to uncover the lives of the three sisters as well as the secrets of a grandfather he never knew. His haunting story forcefully illuminates questions of belonging and home--questions that continue to press in on us today.
Simon May develops a radically new understanding of love as the emotion we
feel towards those we experience as grounding our life-as offering us a
promise of home-in a world that we supremely value. He also proposes that the
child is supplanting the romantic partner as the supreme object of love.
Exploring Nietzsche's critique of traditional morality, Simon May offers a fresh interpretation of his ethics centered on "life-enhancement." This perspective reveals Nietzsche as both a revolutionary thinker and a conservative voice, providing valuable insights for contemporary society facing the collapse of established values and the implications of the "death of God." May's analysis highlights the relevance of Nietzsche's ideas in navigating modern ethical dilemmas.
What exactly does Nietzsche's famous attack on traditional morality consist in, and how successful was it? What are the elements of his controversial ethic of 'life-enhancement'? In this wide-ranging and provocative study, Simon May addresses these central questions, and illuminates both the greatness and the limitations of Nietzsche's ethics.
