I had a lot of fun recently reviewing Justin Thomas McDaniel’s Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand (NUS Press, 2021) for the International Journal of Asian Studies.
McDaniel is Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Professor of the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, and he researches Lao, Thai, Pali and Sanskrit literature, as well as art, architecture, and traditional manuscripts. His book is essentially a collection of essays, one that began, as McDaniel writes in the introduction, ‘as delightful distractions from my main research agenda but blossomed and became obsessions.’ And it’s a real delight. I particularly loved the chapter on birds in Thai temples (see the photo of human-headed birds that accompanies this article, and that I took when last in Chiang Mai).
Reading McDaniel’s book also gave me a chance to think through some questions about meaning, and whether meaning is as big a deal as some philosophers actually think it is (my hunch is that it isn’t). If the internet gods are looking on you kindly, you should be able to read the whole review HERE.
Image: Thai temple birds, copyright © Will Buckingham 2024
