Consciousness: Games and Apps

I could just go on and on and on, I realized, once the titles started coming! Good thing you asked for a short precis of each, Miriam, or I may never have stopped! LOL!

Watts, Alan, Mark Watts, and John Snelling. Seeds of Genius: The Early Writings of Alan Watts. Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1997. Print. (Reading right now)

In my own words:
Just as it says, a collection of the early writings of Alan Watts. Many of the essays concentrate on the differences between eastern and western philosophy, but there are also many pertinent insights on these philosophies as they live in and through particular historical moments.

Dehaene, Stanislas. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness. Cognition special issues. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001. Print. (Reading right now.)

Amazon.com product description:
This book investigates the philosophical, empirical, and theoretical bases on which a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness can be founded. The research questions reviewed include: Does perception occur without awareness? Can the neural bases of perceptual awareness be visualized with brain-imaging methods? What do unilateral neglect and extinction tell us about conscious and unconscious processing? What is the contribution of brainstem nuclei to conscious states? How can we identify mental processes uniquely associated with consciousness? An introductory chapter proposes a theoretical framework for building a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, and two concluding chapters evaluate the progress made so far.

Mascaro, Juan. The Upanishads. London: Penguin Books, 1988. Print.

Amazon.com Product Description:
The Upanishads, the earliest of which were composed in Sanskrit between 800 and 400 bce by sages and poets, form part of the Vedas - the sacred and ancient scriptures that are the basis of the Hindu religion. Each Upanishad, or lesson, takes up a theme ranging from the attainment of spiritual bliss to karma and rebirth, and collectively they are meditations on life, death and immortality. The essence of their teachings is that truth can by reached by faith rather than by thought, and that the spirit of God is within each of us - we need not fear death as we carry within us the promise of eternal life.

Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993. Print.

The Amazon.com review:
When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant.

Dick, Philip K. Ubik. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Print.

From the inside flap:
Philip K. Dick's searing metaphysical comedy of death and salvation is a tour de force of panoramic menace and unfettered slapstick, in which the departed give business advice, shop for their next incarnation, and run the continual risk of dying yet again.

Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. New York: MR, 1972. Print.

Amazon.com product description:
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.

Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.

Morrison, Grant. The Invisibles, the Invisible Kingdom. New York: DC Comics, 2002. Print.

In my own words:
The final volume in the collected comic _The Invisibles_ by Grant Morrison, this is no less than Morrison's intervention, an effort to magically transport the reader into the next stage in the evolution of consciousness. A mind-blower and a must read.

Biko, Steve, and Aelred Stubbs. I Write What I Like. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Print.

Product Description from Amazon.com:
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." Like all of Steve Biko's writings, those words testify to the passion, courage, and keen insight that made him one of the most powerful figures in South Africa's struggle against apartheid. They also reflect his conviction that black people in South Africa could not be liberated until they united to break their chains of servitude, a key tenet of the Black Consciousness movement that he helped found.

I Write What I Like contains a selection of Biko's writings from 1969, when he became the president of the South African Students' Organization, to 1972, when he was prohibited from publishing. The collection also includes a preface by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; an introduction by Malusi and Thoko Mpumlwana, who were both involved with Biko in the Black Consciousness movement; a memoir of Biko by Father Aelred Stubbs, his longtime pastor and friend; and a new foreword by Professor Lewis Gordon.

And seriously, this seems like such a short list! :-)