Download or read book The Irrationalist written by Suzanne Buffam and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2010-04-03 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Irrationalist is the acclaimed follow-up to the award-winning poetry collection, Past Imperfect, from one of Canada's best poets. At once whimsical and heartbreaking, these eccentric lyrics investigate the shifting grounds of knowledge while refusing to take any authority -- be it Epictetus, Therese de Lisieux, Nicolaus Copernicus, Ma Yuan, or the fugitive spectre of self, to name only a few of the volume's dramatis personae -- too seriously. Here one inhabits a world on the eve of extinction, in which "astronomers predict a 'Big Rip' in the cosmos resulting in a cold, dark, never-ending end," and yet the darkness is continually illuminated by a pyrotechnics of curiosity, candor, and wit.