Beyond philosophy …

… Wittgenstein Jr — The Barnes & Noble Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Wittgenstein Jr is, among many things, a pointed satire of the academy (dons come off poorly, Cambridge and Oxford alike); an elegy for the death of serious thought; and a lovely treatment of the intensity of youth, the paradox of intimate friendships that dissolve with the end of a semester. Iyer is unsurprisingly at his best evoking these fierce college days, when everything feels so critical, and everything — studying, drinking, loving — is done to extremes.