Immortal Gestures

journeys in the unspoken
Damon Young

There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light.

I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.

A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.

Our gestures do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated — or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations.

Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem — how we are much larger than we seem.

Join award-winning philosopher Damon Young — author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden— as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.

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Details

Format:Hardback

Size: 198mm × 129mm

Extent:192pp

ISBN (13):9781925849226

RRP:$32.99

Pub date:15 Apr 2025

Rights Held: World English

High-res cover:Download Image

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CATEGORIES / tags

Popular philosophy PHILOSOPHY / Essays Social interaction Philosophy of mind Communication studies SOCIAL SCIENCE / Body Language & Nonverbal Communication PSYCHOLOGY / Interpersonal Relations PSYCHOLOGY / Social Psychology

AUTHOR

Damon Young

Damon Young is a prize-winning philosopher and writer. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including The Art of Reading, How to Think About Exercise, Philosophy in the Garden, and Distraction. His works have been translated into eleven languages, and he has also written poetry, short fiction, and children’s fiction. Young is an Associate in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.