Rapture

King’s College London philosophy professor Hamilton (A Philosophy of Tragedy) presents a wide-ranging exploration of “rapture,” or that which causes one “to be taken out of oneself” and simultaneously “returned to oneself unburdened, with a sense of freedom.” Among other examples from history, philosophy, art, and literature, Hamilton examines Friedrich Nietzsche’s rapturous mid-1880s return to health after a long illness, which reacquainted him with everyday sensual delights, and director Werner Herzog’s 2005 documentary Grizzly Man, which followed a self-stylized “protector” of bears whose obsessive pursuit of the animal ended in his being killed and eaten by one (this courting of death is a kind of rapture, according to Hamilton). Also discussed is Anton Chekhov’s 1887 short story “The Kiss,” in which a man is kissed by a woman who mistook him for someone else, inspiring rapturous romantic imaginings that he eventually realizes are futile. Hamilton’s take on his subject is more belletristic than analytic, with scholarly rigor sometimes sacrificed for lyrical and moving meditations on living a life that’s sensuous, daring, and authentic. Of tightrope walker Philippe Petit’s “rapturous” 1974 high-wire stroll between New York City’s Twin Towers, Hamilton writes, “he becomes wholly animal, his body completely at one with his mind. And both are at one with the wire.” The result is a captivating if somewhat murky reverie on the extremes of existence. (Apr.)