Bubbles: Spheres Volume I: Microspherology (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents) Hardcover – October 14, 2011

I am a new comer to the writings of Sloterdijk; I actually stumbled across him when I was browsing through Amazon. I am a philosophical layman, and I'm not going to even try to give a detailed account of what I learned within these pages, for one, even though I have read through it and greatly enjoyed the book. There is certainly a lot that I have not totally grasped. But I definitely will be reading this book again, probably several times.What I particularly liked about this book, and I’m sure I will like about the other 2 in the series is the depth in which he goes into the topic, there is no subject in his exploration of the personal microcosm, that he is afraid to tackle as it relates to what he is teaching.I particularly enjoyed the sections about negative gynecology and the talk about the placenta. I consider myself a minor feminist and I do agree with Sloterdijk when he comes to the conclusion of trying to understand birth and its intimate impact on both women and baby, or new human life coming into existence, is something which cannot be understood from the outside looking in. The best we can hope to do, is look, listen and perceive, and attempt to diagram philosophically the best we can. Because sad to say, we can’t go in an interview a new born baby.I found the information contained about the term placenta to be interesting, as its relation to the word for cake coming from Latin origins. The German word being Mutterkuchen or mother cake. Why do I find this interesting, is because in our western culture we have particularly demonized childbirth into something which we see is something to be disgusted by, as well, I would go as far to say as to see the after birth or placenta as something that woman should be ashamed of. Which is entirely opposite of how it used to be viewed. I am well aware of traditional cultures, even old European cultures, taking great care that the placenta (after birth) was handled in a sacred way. Which I feel is something personally we need to go back to in a contemporary way. What I mention here is just the tip of the iceberg of what he goes into.The book overall can be a bit heavy going at first, which is the case with most philosophical writings especially when the auther knows his subject matter well. Just be sure to have a dictionary handy, glance at the notes in the back often and don't be afraid to Wikipedia research any topics or terms you may be unfamiliar with. Now if you happen to have a college education in philosophy I doubt you will struggle as much as a layman. But even if you are a layman, this book is worth the struggle. After about the first 100 pages, you will get you footing and the book is much easier going from there.As I said, I’m not going to even try to summarize the totality of the book, because it’s going to take some time and another read for me to get a full and confident understanding of its totality. Plus several reviewers, notably John David Ebert, have already done a phenomenal job in explaining and reviewing this text. JDE’s YouTube video is actually what drove me to purchase the book in the first place, and I would recommend that you watch it before reading the book as his synopsis he gives in his YouTube video helped me immensely when I started reading it.As a side note, Semiotext has produced a very high quality text, the cover and binding are tough but flexible and the paper quality is very high, this book will last a lifetime if it is taken care of. And usually books far more expensive then this one don't even touch on the quality of this book.Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough, and I’m sure once I read the 2nd book Globes which I have recently just received. I will sing the same praises. Though there is no date given as of this writing for the third and final installment of the English translation of his spheres series, titled Foam. I eagerly am waiting to hear!I will be reading more from Sloterdijk I am sure, if what you read in the reviews and description of this book sparks your interest, take a chance on it, I feel that you will not be disappointed!

If you like Bachelard and phenomenology, art theory, attachment theory and archaeopsychology, but also want to be inspired by a new and elegant philosophical language then you won't be disappointed by this book. In fact I can't wait for the next volumes to appear ( english editions) . Surely there is (always) a lot of work to do from and beyond its ideas , and for the more scientific minded sometimes it will be probably hard to see "what is going on", but if you precisely want to be be lured into this philosophical womb then read it.

It's nice seeing ambitious philosophical works still being produced and translated. Normal readers with some exposure to the last 50 or 60 years of continental philosophy should be able to follow this fine, as it's not as stylistically impenetrable as Heidegger, Badiou, Zizek, etc. Sloterdijk writes and thinks with real poetry, and it's (mostly) a pleasure to read his prose and follow his trains of thought regardless of whether you're deep into modern philosophy, or if you've got other things to do with your life as well. I'm not finished yet, but content-wise, viewing the world in terms of bubbles, globes and foam becomes less silly (though has not yet succeeded in feeling completely serious) after reading his theses thus far. Recommended with an asterisk.

Full of bubbles. It goes on about the shape of bubbles and their importance throughout history. Doesn't talk about dolphins. I would have liked to hear something about dolphins.

First Amazon review.So this book took me 13 months to finish as I was/am not in school and had other things going on in my life [I also wrote like 100 pages of notes on it], but I knew I had to finish it. It is well worth the effort and furthered my goal of getting a handle on the present layout of human history. Some pages are very difficult to get through and suffer [it seemed] from maybe niche interests of Sloterdijk or from overly technical philosophical language [a vague charge, I know] or references--and some of it can get repetitive--but I'd say overall it's a very understandable philosophical text compared to others I've read, and it doesn't require that much prior reading to jump into [I mean don't start here, you need to know how to read philosophy {and want to}, but he's not going to constantly be referring to the work of such and such without any explication]. I read a lot of Paul Virilio before I started with Sloterdijk, so some of Slot's conceptual themes were already somewhat familiar being of a similar contemporary European landscape, and so it was easier to see his vision. An anthology or some kind of "This is philosophy today" book might help in getting to a good place to read this book. John David Ebert's book "New Media Invasion" is a decent intro to such contemporary European philosophical ideas for American readers who can't stomach academic pretension. I actually got excited to read Sloterdijk by watching Ebert's discussion of Sloterdijk's "With" in his Bubbles video series. It's all such a very clever and almost magical way of understanding reality and ourselves.My request, as I've had a number of conversations about Sloterdijk's ideas where people were very quick to tune them out because they do not necessarily fit neatly into the predominant historical thrust of correct knowledge: even if you can't follow every sentence, or you're like "this is way too oblique of a way to understand human relationships," please read it with an open mind, be sympathetic to Sloterdijk's ideas, try to connect the pieces he creates into a larger whole, AND THEN try to find holes and impracticalities [which I'm sure there are some]. There's a lot of depth psychology, and medieval religious anecdotes, and mesmerism, and art theory that may not be your thing individually, but I promise you, if you want to understand how life can be the way it is today on a level that incorporates more than brute historical facts, read this book. It's a very clever, nuanced rendition of human relationships and history that will only add to your intellectual tool belt.AND I'm only writing this now because I see that Volume 2 is coming out in English in a few weeks!! I will definitely be reading.

The three volumes of Spheres constitute a master class in Being-in-the-world conceptualization.