Blue

Blue

233 pages

Hardcover

Genre: Philosophy, Sociology, Essay, Nonfiction
A colour, a tone, an atmosphere? An approach to the phenomenon blue written by the winner of the Prize of the Leipziger Book Fair

The world is which we are living is dived in many places in blue: our home is the blue planet with its azure bue sky, we are losing ourselves in Yves Klein‘s blue paintings, we are listening to the lively music of Gershwin‘s Rhapsody in blue, we are abandoning ourselves to the romantic longing for the blue flower with Novalis. Rare and precious is the blue Mauritius stamp, and ordinary the blue jeans. The depth and the pwer of this colour rise from the signification we are attributing it: wild, sensual and fascinating. Like in a cabinet of curiosities of a disappeared museum, Jürgen Goldstein gathers various facets of the richness f blue and immerses us in the secret which moves us so deeply when it comes to this colour.

Awards

Nominated for the Bavarian Book Prize 2017

German title: Blau - Eine Wunderkammer seiner Bedeutungen
ISBN: 978-3-95757-383-4
Publisher: Matthes & Seitz Berlin
Publication date: 2017

Sample translation

Complete German text available

Jürgen Goldstein, born 1962, is a professor for philosophy at the University Koblenz-Landau. His books deal with the emergence of modern subjectivity, the political philosophy of 20th century and the history of nature perception.

By the same author(s)

"In one of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's words, this book is 'blue'. Rarely has a color been explored in all its nuances and connotations as expertly, hilariously and artfully as in these essayistic miniatures. Experience your blue wonder!" - Knut Cordsen, Nomination Bavarian Book Prize/Sachbuch 2017

"Because Jürgen Goldstein formulates succinctly and arranges skillfully, you follow every meander with pleasure, even in Blau." - Maximilian Probst, ZEIT online

"Goldstein's explanations are competent, stylistically elegant, always in love with surprising connections and interesting details. 'Blue' is a rush of thought colors." - Arno Orzessek, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

"Goldstein writes nobly and precisely, a stylist with expertise and virtuoso of digression who draws from his worldly 'Wunderkammer im Kopf'." - Markus Clauer, Rheinpfalz

"For this much is clear: Jürgen Goldstein is the jazzman among philosophers." - Julie Metzdorf, Bayerischer Rundfunk

"The book delivers what it promises - it is a Wunderkammer for rummaging, discovering and rediscovering. Beautiful for the autonomous reader, for flaneurs, for epicures." Birgit Böllinger