Bubbles: Spheres Volume I: Microspherology (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)

I am a new comer to the writings of Sloterdijk; I actually stumbled across him when I was browsing through Amazon. I am a philosophical layman, and I'm not going to even try to give a detailed account of what I learned within these pages, for one, even though I have read through it and greatly enjoyed the book. There is certainly a lot that I have not totally grasped. But I definitely will be reading this book again, probably several times.What I particularly liked about this book, and I’m sure I will like about the other 2 in the series is the depth in which he goes into the topic, there is no subject in his exploration of the personal microcosm, that he is afraid to tackle as it relates to what he is teaching.I particularly enjoyed the sections about negative gynecology and the talk about the placenta. I consider myself a minor feminist and I do agree with Sloterdijk when he comes to the conclusion of trying to understand birth and its intimate impact on both women and baby, or new human life coming into existence, is something which cannot be understood from the outside looking in. The best we can hope to do, is look, listen and perceive, and attempt to diagram philosophically the best we can. Because sad to say, we can’t go in an interview a new born baby.I found the information contained about the term placenta to be interesting, as its relation to the word for cake coming from Latin origins. The German word being Mutterkuchen or mother cake. Why do I find this interesting, is because in our western culture we have particularly demonized childbirth into something which we see is something to be disgusted by, as well, I would go as far to say as to see the after birth or placenta as something that woman should be ashamed of. Which is entirely opposite of how it used to be viewed. I am well aware of traditional cultures, even old European cultures, taking great care that the placenta (after birth) was handled in a sacred way. Which I feel is something personally we need to go back to in a contemporary way. What I mention here is just the tip of the iceberg of what he goes into.The book overall can be a bit heavy going at first, which is the case with most philosophical writings especially when the auther knows his subject matter well. Just be sure to have a dictionary handy, glance at the notes in the back often and don't be afraid to Wikipedia research any topics or terms you may be unfamiliar with. Now if you happen to have a college education in philosophy I doubt you will struggle as much as a layman. But even if you are a layman, this book is worth the struggle. After about the first 100 pages, you will get you footing and the book is much easier going from there.As I said, I’m not going to even try to summarize the totality of the book, because it’s going to take some time and another read for me to get a full and confident understanding of its totality. Plus several reviewers, notably John David Ebert, have already done a phenomenal job in explaining and reviewing this text. JDE’s YouTube video is actually what drove me to purchase the book in the first place, and I would recommend that you watch it before reading the book as his synopsis he gives in his YouTube video helped me immensely when I started reading it.As a side note, Semiotext has produced a very high quality text, the cover and binding are tough but flexible and the paper quality is very high, this book will last a lifetime if it is taken care of. And usually books far more expensive then this one don't even touch on the quality of this book.Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough, and I’m sure once I read the 2nd book Globes which I have recently just received. I will sing the same praises. Though there is no date given as of this writing for the third and final installment of the English translation of his spheres series, titled Foam. I eagerly am waiting to hear!I will be reading more from Sloterdijk I am sure, if what you read in the reviews and description of this book sparks your interest, take a chance on it, I feel that you will not be disappointed!

It's nice seeing ambitious philosophical works still being produced and translated. Normal readers with some exposure to the last 50 or 60 years of continental philosophy should be able to follow this fine, as it's not as stylistically impenetrable as Heidegger, Badiou, Zizek, etc. Sloterdijk writes and thinks with real poetry, and it's (mostly) a pleasure to read his prose and follow his trains of thought regardless of whether you're deep into modern philosophy, or if you've got other things to do with your life as well. I'm not finished yet, but content-wise, viewing the world in terms of bubbles, globes and foam becomes less silly (though has not yet succeeded in feeling completely serious) after reading his theses thus far. Recommended with an asterisk.

I take care of my books, no scratches, no stains, no folds. That is really hard to do with a book damaged by shipping. This book wasn't damaged because of shipping, handling, anything. I appreciate that.

If you like Bachelard and phenomenology, art theory, attachment theory and archaeopsychology, but also want to be inspired by a new and elegant philosophical language then you won't be disappointed by this book. In fact I can't wait for the next volumes to appear ( english editions) . Surely there is (always) a lot of work to do from and beyond its ideas , and for the more scientific minded sometimes it will be probably hard to see "what is going on", but if you precisely want to be be lured into this philosophical womb then read it.

Full of bubbles. It goes on about the shape of bubbles and their importance throughout history. Doesn't talk about dolphins. I would have liked to hear something about dolphins.

Part theory, part manual, part love story and soul-history, Peter Sloterdijk's work "Bubbles" is a high octane masterpiece. It is a membrane that breathes. This meticulous and elegant translation by Wieland Hoban will be a resource for decades. In what follows, I'll try to paraphrase what I see is at stake and provide a few supporting examples from the book, in hopes of enticing you to this profound work.In the preface to the Spheres trilogy as a whole, Sloterdijk warns: "let no one enter who is unwilling to praise transference or to refute loneliness." A cogent presentation of this material ought to begin by unpacking this double inscription. Together, they indicate these two ontological tasks, both in terms of the position or whereabouts of the modern "individual": (1) Refute loneliness: Expose us to the dual or doubled-up nature of self, the plural aspect of being, or to a subjectivity that is resonant. From the discussion of the Greek genius to mesmerism; from Giotto's painting of inter-facial space to Magritte's tree of infinite recognition; from Odysseus and the Siren's Song to the idea that, "as soon as breath exists, there are two breathing," this primary dyad that we are forms the bubbling center of microsphereology. Sloterdijk does not revise our notion of the self; he exposes its premises, and reminds us that we begin shared. (2) Praise transference: Expose us to these spaces of resonance that constitute our being-wholly-in-relation, being as "in-relation." To praise transference is to praise the transferential nature of my being: I am only in transmission, I "am" transmission. I'm here so that sense can bounce and rebound off of me, in the infinite relating of shared truths, or the infinite creation of interiors. As Sloterdijk writes, "The limits of my capacity for transference are the limits of my world." In other words, the creation of a world and the sharing of the world are very similar. Ultimately, to praise transference simply means to make room for another (in me or outside me).These two tasks are supported by countless intimacy-models (biological, therapeutic, theological, interfacial, poetic) that are weaved together chapter by chapter and across the trilogy, which show how the self/individual is preceded by "nobjective," resonance-based with- and in- relationships. Bubbles explores various spherical models that figure strong relationships of mutual intrication and coinherence. This "introduction to a medial poetics of existence" compiles histories, references, and revelations that have animated us since time immemorial. And you can tell that Sloterdijk himself loves what he recounts.The most vital model of spheric resonance exists between mother and child, who are each "poles of a dynamic in-between." Drawing equally from Lao Tzu's birth-myth and Thomas Macho's research into the uterine-amniotic environment, Sloterdijk unveils the model of an original biune bubble that is ternary in structure: mother-child and their shared medium (blood, air, sonic space). One-and-two is always already three because, when each one is IN the other without exteriority, each one IS the dynamic in-between. Each one is its augmentation coming from elsewhere. Each one is the other's partner AND ALSO the medial bond between them. Each of them are themselves, the other, and the in-between medium as such: blood. Blood (like words) is the gift of relation before establishes a system of relations (mother-child, author-reader). Likewise, inter-uterine listening and filtering begins long before there is some "one" to listen. Mother and child are relational, dyadic, and dual because before they are themselves they are relations across media. Mother and child do not exist as physical realities so much as they exist according to their interrelationship. The meaning of the two "poles" or "selves" is in-relation, "coinherent" or rounded, such that "the history of the self is first of all a history of self-conveyance." While this is never more apparent than in the inter-uterine blood-exchange and sonic resonance, it is this condition of being-self that we've forgotten (and in forgetting it, we've lost the magic of transference). This is why Sloterdijk asks us to "Find a rooting in the existing duality": we started out in such a sensation-substance-welcoming-opening in the first place!Thus, existence is medial. "The soul cannot be anything other than a studio for transactions with inspiring others" (p. 124). To be is to relate, to be space, to make room for, or to salute. (In parentheses, there is a great deal shared between Sloterdijk and Jean-Luc Nancy: to praise transference is not unlike the latter's "adoration," and for both men, greeting each other is our ultimate horizon.) Paired with the idea of the "a priori or strong" relationship, this idea is the St. Elmo's Fire of this book. Voila: being-in-relation is your being's ownmost being. It's a priori, in a sense, although we have forgotten it. It means, as Heidegger said: "Everyone is the other and no one is himself." But as Bataille says, being is communication: the birth and burst of being doubled up.Here and there, to respond to what you hear is to come into existence. It's to experience happiness at inter-listening, filtering, pursuit, and finally, habitation-- such that listening, enjoying, intending and emerging are the same "thing": you. Here is your first devotion, which means: rousing yourself to the state of alertness necessary to open up to the sound that concerns you (pg. 504).When we only exist vis-a-vis each other -- before either of us have a "vis" of our own -- we are each like a "third" that trembles between both of us- different from both of us, yet only bubbling because of the heat and the mixture. There's no absolute boiling pot, but a foam that sometimes bubbles over, on both micro and macro levels.Reading "Bubbles," you yourself bubble up. The challenge of this reading is an existential challenge (perhaps reading ought to always be so). It calls you out into the open, beyond the personal "point" and into plural-transferential spheres: encounters, engagements, and encodings with/in externality, "outside." I want to emphasize that it is no mere combination of thoughts and techniques that led to the creation of this work. There is a mystic, ecstatic, communicative dimension to it that draws the reader out in to the open and creates an interior with/in them: a solidarity-bubble in transference. In other words, it asks that the bubble be broken and bubble infinitely -- that loneliness be refuted, and praise be to transference.