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Conference Paper: In the Thick of Things, with Beckett and Zhuangzi
| Title | In the Thick of Things, with Beckett and Zhuangzi |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Issue Date | 2009 |
| Publisher | Warp, Weft, and Way |
| Citation | International Conference on Happiness East and West, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2009. How to Cite? |
| Abstract | This paper addresses the question of the relationship between happiness and things (by which I mean the small objects that populate our everyday lives). I draw on Beckett, who formulated the question ‘what is the correct attitude to adopt towards things?’, and many of whose characters have a heightened sense of both the importance and the disposability of things. I bring Beckett into conversation with one of the core texts of Chinese Daoism – the Zhuangzi – in which things are approached as requiring a particular attitude, which one could characterize as a very ‘light touch’. My aim is to show what, in our world of escalating consumption, can be learned from this modern Western, and this ancient Chinese, reflection on things and their relation to happiness. |
| Persistent Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/187485 |
| DC Field | Value | Language |
|---|---|---|
| dc.contributor.author | O'Leary, T | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2013-08-20T12:51:58Z | - |
| dc.date.available | 2013-08-20T12:51:58Z | - |
| dc.date.issued | 2009 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | International Conference on Happiness East and West, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2009. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10722/187485 | - |
| dc.description.abstract | This paper addresses the question of the relationship between happiness and things (by which I mean the small objects that populate our everyday lives). I draw on Beckett, who formulated the question ‘what is the correct attitude to adopt towards things?’, and many of whose characters have a heightened sense of both the importance and the disposability of things. I bring Beckett into conversation with one of the core texts of Chinese Daoism – the Zhuangzi – in which things are approached as requiring a particular attitude, which one could characterize as a very ‘light touch’. My aim is to show what, in our world of escalating consumption, can be learned from this modern Western, and this ancient Chinese, reflection on things and their relation to happiness. | - |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Warp, Weft, and Way | - |
| dc.relation.ispartof | International Conference on Happiness East and West | en_US |
| dc.title | In the Thick of Things, with Beckett and Zhuangzi | en_US |
| dc.type | Conference_Paper | en_US |
| dc.identifier.email | O'Leary, T: teoleary@hkucc.hku.hk | en_US |
| dc.identifier.authority | O'Leary, T=rp01225 | en_US |
| dc.description.nature | link_to_OA_fulltext | - |
| dc.identifier.hkuros | 219272 | en_US |