Reviews
The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy by Dean A. Kowalski, Andrew Zimmerman Jones, William Irwin
tiemzahra's review
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.0
If you’re a fan of TBBT and philosophy, read this. It’s a collection of essays of TBBT from philosophical POVs.
This book was published in 2012, so I read this almost 10 years late. Naturally, the research was only based on up to 4 seasons, where in my opinion, when most the characters haven’t developed yet. Every essay and every argument would be better if it is updated to the whole 12 seasons this series have been.
The essays are quite lighthearted and I wouldn’t describe it as boring. But there are some setbacks reading it when you’ve already finished watching the series. Due to limited seasons quoted, the essays consist of almost the same scenes repeatedly. The characters have especially become more interesting Season 6 onwards (in the essays, Amy was still a-friend-who-is-a-girl to Sheldon, Howard and Bernadette were still engaged, not married yet, Leonard was in an on-and-off relationship with Penny, and Raj still couldn’t talk to women without being inebriated), so I really wish this book could be updated!
This is just one of my minor pet peeves, but I value consistencies in writing. I agree that this book should be edited better. Some reviews stated that one essay disputed another, but that’s the bonus of this collection, you don’t need to have a similar argument. But, the inconsistencies, for example, came from only one essay, where in the beginning the writer named the method as Leslie/Leonard but in the conclusion called it Winkle/Hofstadter(?). Why the name change? Another would be the disparity in terms of the citation, where one essay in Chapter 5 can cite another in Chapter 1, but in another, two different essays could talk about the same scene without acknowledging each other, so if there’s a possibility for a fixed structure, why not standardise it for all?
Overall, still a fun read, serves as a break from serious research reading (or in my case to familiarise with it once again), and provided needed gaps if you’re writing about TBBT.
More...