{"product_id":"9781616148768","title":"Hating Perfection (Revised Edition): A Subtle Search for the Best Possible World","description":"The best heaven and the worst hell are the same place. Travel with author John F. Williams into the jungles of Laos and into a new understanding of existence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn lively short stories, \u003ci\u003eHating Perfection\u003c\/i\u003e shows the everyday world as uncanny, equally strange as the imaginary worlds of Borges or Kafka. This engrossing, strikingly original book invites you to experience your life in a new way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHating Perfection\u003c\/i\u003e weaves its stories together with an elegant logic. Our hateful world—painful, unjust, ruthless, fatal—stands revealed as the best of all possible worlds, flooded everywhere by a perfection both alien and addicting. What we want is different from what we get. But the reason why has a divine splendor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this revised edition, Mr. Williams has added a postscript that addresses the well-known philosopher’s paradox of the Chinese room. The author explains for the first time how we know that such a room as usually described would not have consciousness.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStand beside Mr. Williams for a time, and look in the direction he is looking. Your troubles may still be your troubles, but the world will be more than it was.","brand":"Prometheus Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47151600074992,"sku":"9781616148768","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781616148768_p0.jpg?v=1763851219","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781616148768","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}