BETTER LIVING THROUGH CRITICISM: HOW TO THINK ABOUT ART, PLEASURE, BEAUTY, AND TRUTH Hardcover - 2016

New York City, NY: Penguin Press, 2016. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. New York City, NY: Penguin Press, 2016. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 277 pages. Book-length account on subject. One of the best books on aesthetics and criticism ever written in our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents A. O. Scott's "Better Living Through Criticism: How To Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, And Truth". A worthy companion volume to Harold Bloom's classic, "How To Read And Why" (2000) about the immediate and lasting relevance of intellectual activity to a more productive and rewarding life, "aesthetics-as-ethics". A. O. Scott is best-known as the estimable film critic of the New York Times. This book demonstrates that his knowledge and expertise range farther and wider than film, and encompasses the entire artistic and philosophical tradition of Western culture. "Critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and warm humor, Scott shows that criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative, and urgent activities of existence. Drawing on the long tradition of criticism from Aristotle to Susan Sontag, Scott shows that real criticism was - and always will be - the breath of fresh air that allows true creativity to thrive" (Publisher's blurb) . It is because we live in an illiterate, degraded, and degenerate Social Media Age that critical thinking is all-important, not just desirable: "The time for criticism is always now because the imperative to think clearly, to insist on the necessary balance of reason and passion, never goes away" (A. O. Scott) . An absolute "must-have" title for A. O. Scott collectors. This title is a contemporary classic. As far as we know, this is the only copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: ALL copies available online are subsequent printings even if their dealers do not say so. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. One of the most brilliant critic/aestheticians of our time. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 1594204837.