[.ca] How Like a Leaf: An Interview with Donna Haraway (ISBN 0415924030)

From Amazon.com:
Donna J. Haraway is one of the most significant postmodern philosophers of science; essays such as "A Manifesto for Cyborgs"--as well as several books--have made her a star in academia and even a common reference point for many "cyberpunk" science fiction writers. In How Like a Leaf, a book-length interview with Thyrza Nichols Goodeve (one of her former graduate students in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz), Haraway opens up about her private life and the gradual development of her philosophy. While Goodeve does probe for details, her interview technique is completely sympathetic to her subject, lending an opportunity for Haraway to explain herself at leisure rather than under critical fire. Some readers are bound to find her too "out there" for their tastes, but for others, How Like a Leaf may serve as a prelude to further consideration of her more academic texts.

Review: How Like a Leaf:
I really like this book. It's inspiring to read an interview that weaves personal, biographical, scholarly and political testimony into such an attractive afghan; this is a book that manages to be more than interesting, though. It is also useful, and rare, in that it reaffirms the marriage of a human being to her work. Academics who wonder if they lead reprehensibly pointless lives might be helped to remember their own humanity, responsibility, courage, and life by a perusal of this volume. Goodeve's intelligent conversation illuminates what Haraway's chosen art form, the essay, often unintentionally obscures. This book is nutritional; I know more than a few people who should read it.

Meeting of minds:
Interviewing is a special skill, but effectively interviewing those cultural figures who are working out new ways of thinking is a rare one. With her many interviews of figures like Matthew Barney and Jeff Koons, Thyrza N. Goodeve has become known to art audiences as a remarkable interviewer and writer who is able to work with her subjects to articulate in new and accessible ways the complex ideas that motivate their work. In this book she turns her attention to her mentor, Donna Haraway, whose brilliant and innovative writing yet remains obscure and often misunderstood. The result is a remarkable portrait of a mind and a helpful guide to some of the most compelling thinking of our time.