Silly me, I always thought the Consolation of Philosophy was written by Boetius.

What's with the name-change, um, "Tobias"? This too hot a topic for you?

Here's a bit from Shelfari:

http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a9123/Alain-De-Botton/summary

The title of this book is a reference to Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, in which philosophy appears as an allegorical figure to Boethius to offer him consolation before he faces his impending execution. In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes, such as unpopularity, feelings of inadequacy, financial worries, broken hearts, and the general problem of suffering. The book has been both praised and criticised for its therapeutic approach to philosophy.

>>Gender differences: yet to be born: the man who slept with a woman principally because she had written a book he liked.

That's probably true, Amy!

Unless agreeing to a sexual favor for a "reptilian old publisher" counts?

Quote from an article reviewing a later memoir by "Fear of Flying" author Erica Jong

Chapter 1 finds the young author at a leisurely lunch at the Algonquin being propositioned by a reptilian old publisher who has promised her half a million dollars for "Fear of Flying." She ends up performing a dubious sexual favor for him. It's that Isadora Wing voice again -- rowdy, self-deprecating and endearing: How could she have been so gullible and naive? Yet she was the one who sold the book (to someone else) and made a bundle, and now gets to make fun of him in print. She makes even meaner fun of poor old Martha Stewart, whose husband she once seduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair: "I have no idea whether she still goes around telling everyone I ruined her marriage, but I do wish I had the sexual power she attributes to me," Jong remarks, a little disingenuously.

Aw, c'mon! This kinda already happened in the movie Something's Gotta Give: The subplot has the handsome young doctor (played by Keanu Reeves) falling for the older woman playwright (played by Diane Keaton).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337741/plotsummary

I thought it was kinda cute! And wouldn't mind at all if it ever happened to me.

>>Do you think he wanted to fuck her because she was a writer or because he found her fuckable?

It was probably a 3 way collision of motivation, means & opportunity!

(Hand on heart, I've found some authors alluring - but never a publisher!)

How many rich, powerful men date and marry waitresses? How many rich, powerful women date and marry waiters?

Amy has written a book that I like...

"The subplot has the handsome young doctor (played by Keanu Reeves) falling for the older woman playwright (played by Diane Keaton)."

Old woman's porn.

Were there horses in that movie?

No, lujy, no horses. Horses' asses aplenty, though! Ol' Jackie-boy was a hoot, I tell ya!
o.O

>>Amy has written a book that I like...

Hee, hee!

Comment on Betty Friedan. In the 80's, I think it was, author of MANHOOD REDUX had a one page humorous article. He said when he had strong sexual desires, he did not take a cold shower as often prescribed, because the shock of the cold water is bad on the system.

He said, instead he contemplates Gloria Steinem. He said in seconds all his sexual urges are gone.

He said he does not contemplate Betty Friedan, because he does not wish to do permanent damage.

> Do you think he wanted to fuck her
> because she was a writer or because
> he found her fuckable?

Amy gets this.

> "The subplot has the handsome young
> doctor (played by Keanu Reeves) falling for
> the older woman playwright

I saw part of that movie once. It was a restaurant scene. Everyone was talking about their feelings.

It didn't seem very real. Also, Keanu Reeves was supposed to be a doctor.

Also, Keanu Reeves was supposed to be a doctor.

More or less plausible than him being Techie Jesus?

I liked that movie, but I wish it had ended right after the restaurant scene, before Diane Keaton runs after Jack. I think they should have had a The Way We Were moment and gone back to their lives (and she should have gone back to the cute doctor). One of the few post-Bill & Ted movies I liked Keanu Reeves in (A Scanner Darkly and The Gift being probably the only others..and he was decent in Much Ado About Nothing).

Amy, I have to ask: who is Tobias? Other than a smug jackass, of course.

Tobias is some guy who's posted here before under another name.

Ah. So I'll ad coward to my above description.

Counterexample: the guys who slept with Ayn Rand.

Well, the "cult" was based on her ideas -- expressed in her books -- so I disagree with your distinction.

Second counterexample: Dashiell Hammett and Lillian Hellman.

How many women get into the authoring business for the tail?

Also, props to Amy for taking the time to find that shot of a young, sex-able Jong. Even if you think her books are tripe, in the early 70's she was part (or an indicator) of meaningful changes in popular thinking about sex. Even if you thought she was silly in those days, "silly" was an improvement over the appraisal that would have been made of someone who said those things just a few years earlier.

"the best authority on self-esteem"? How much does one need to know?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree with the cult characterization (shouldn't've put it in quotes). But are you saying that Branden (and others of her acolytes) were just attracted to her by her weird personal magnetism (or her fabulous physical beauty) and not her ideas?

Also, Lillian Hellman has been accused of many things, but being a knockout looker has never been one of them.