UPDATE - 6/22@1:47PM: Eric over at the Power Windows site noted that the co-editor of this proposed volume - Durrell Bowman - has already published several essays on Rush and Philosophy:
Let Them All Make Their Own Music: Individualism, Rush, and the Progressive Hard Rock Alloy, 1976-77 by Durrell Bowman, chapter nine of Progressive Rock Reconsidered, edited by Kevin Holm-Hudson, Oct. 2001
Textu(r)al Undercoding and the Music of the Rock Band Rush: String Quartets, Death Metal, Trip-Hop, and other Tributes, November 2002 (1 March 2003 version, 2004 update)
Permanent Change: Rush, Musicians' Rock, and the Progressive Post-Counterculture, Dissertation, Ph.D. in Musicology, UCLA, 2003
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Open Court Publishing's Popular Culture and Philosophy book series are collections of essays by academic philosophers exploring the meanings, concepts, and puzzles within television shows, movies, music and other icons of popular culture. Since its inception in 2000 with Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing the series has published over 40 titles including Lord of the Rings and Philosophy, Star Wars and Philosophy, Bob Dylan and Philosophy and Pink Floyd and Philosophy. The publisher recently put out a call for papers via email for their upcoming Rush and Philosophy book:
Call for Papers: "Rush and Philosophy"
The rock band Rush resonates widely for musician-fans and others interested in structural complexity, individualism, and a range of literary and stylistic influences. The group has explored such genres as heavy metal and hard rock, progressive and synth-rock, and post-progressive "power trio," along with various secondary influences. However, the band has also wandered among such lyrical interests as relationships, fantasy-adventure, classical mythology, European and world history, science-fiction, libertarianism, atheism, science, and technology.
We are looking for short articles (of around twenty pages) to add to this proposed anthology for the series that began with "Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing" (2000), but since 2005 has also included (see http://www.opencourtbooks.com/categories/pcp.htm) music-related books about hip hop, Bob Dylan, U2, the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, and Jimmy Buffett. Writers in philosophy, musicology, economics, and psychology have already committed to "Rush and Philosophy," and they are exploring the following areas from across Rush's career (1974- ):
-personal tragedies, self-determination, and Sartre
-the anthropic cosmological principle and atheism
-Canadianness in Anglo-American genres and in lyrics and images
-tribute projects of the band's music in death metal, trip-hop, and classical strings
-the band's combination of secular humanism and mysticism
-libertarianism and left-libertarianism, rather than "right-wing"
-the cognitive function of riffs and other music in expressing difficult ideas
-a roundtable on political economy, Ayn Rand, and Rush's "2112"Contributions from women, minorities, and people from outside of North America are most welcome!
Deadline for one-page abstracts: July 19, 2009 Deadline for completed first-drafts: August 31, 2009
Please send to Durrell Bowman and Jim Berti: db@durrellbowman.com; koors58@yahoo.com
There's currently no word on a release date. Other books on Rush and philosophy include 1998's Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush and 2002's A Simple Kind Mirror: The Lyrical Vision of Rush.
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