I do love a well written philosophical book, and one of those that affected me the most over many years is Bruce Lee's Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
I am an experienced martial arts teacher, but when that book was written, it was ahead of its time. Bruce Lee was ahead of his time. Arguably now, only some of his concepts are being truly understood. I continue to wrestle with them myself.
The next thing to say is that I am a fan of Cristiane Serruya's works, without necessarily being a fan of 'hot romances'.
But her TRUST trilogy was, and is, a revelation.
So where does The Modern Man stack up? Written by the author when aged just 18, it shows a great maturity and, in relation to Bruce Lee - someone else who was ahead of her time.
At times, the book seems dream-like, almost stuck between the haze of half-sleep whilst dealing with the brutality of life. Some may even view this as a pro-feminist text. It may well be, but that's not how I took it.
It is a complex narrative, but beautifully written, and every single line engages you. It is a book worthy of many, many re-reads. In The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, many sentences deserve multiple re-reads.
I have read other philosophy books, but few as good as the one I mentioned. Now we can add this one to the list.
One of the most striking parts of the book, for me, was this:-
'The man has forgotten what is hot or cold.
He forgot what is wind or rain.
The man forgot the elements of Nature.'
I believe this is one of the most damning judgements on our lives today. We are controlled by our electronic devices, that makes me actually shudder at former Sun Microsystems supremo, Scott McNealy, who said 'we want everyone to be connected, everywhere.'
I thought that was a fine ideal at the time. Since then, Sun has gone the way of the technological dodo, and Mark Zuckerburg wants us checking Facebook even when we are outdoors!
No. Let's reclaim our place in the universe - with Nature at our centre.
I'd like to think this is the message the author wishes to convey in those few sentences, but I expect it runs much deeper, much more meaningful than that.
I would like to think Miss Serruya is working on a new non-fiction text. One wonders what she would treat us with.
If you want a book that will make you THINK - get this book. It's wonderful, but not in the literal sense of the word. It is not an easy read, despite its brevity. But then, it doesn't need to be long.
The best authors know when they have arrived at the final page.
