Curiosity

January 12, 2015
The search for knowledge, and the discontents associated with that search, provide a loose pretext for this rambling literary meditation. Manguel (All Men are Liars) frames his text around The Divine Comedy, his model for a soul-shaking inquiry into the cosmos, examining Dante’s approach to a raft of questions about the nature of language, reasoning, animals, acquisitiveness, good and evil, and much more. Along the way he calls in other writers and philosophers, including Aquinas, Hume, Dickens, and Primo Levi, and visits topics such as economic inequality, environmental devastation, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and language skills among chimpanzees. Manguel’s loose-jointed, free-associative chapters make for a hit-and-miss intellectual tour. At some points, he gets bogged down with ornate self-indulgence, while at others his thoughts focus into sharp, insightful discussions of intriguing themes, such as identity in Alice in Wonderland, the unjust disparagement of the ancient Sophists, and the contrast between the morally coherent punishments in Dante’s hell and the inexplicable torments of Auschwitz. Throughout, Manguel’s main guiding principle seems to be to simply follow his nose to whatever tangentially related topic interests him. The average reader’s curiosity will be piqued by some, though perhaps not all, of the discoveries he makes. Photos.