Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Philosophy

ERIC BRONSON is a visiting professor in the Humanities Department at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is the editor of Baseball and Philosophy and Poker and Philosophy and the coeditor of The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy and the forthcoming The Hobbit and Philosophy. WILLIAM IRWIN is a professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He originated the philosophy and popular culture genre of books as coeditor of the bestselling The Simpsons and Philosophy and has overseen recent titles including House and Philosophy, Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy, and Mad Men and Philosophy.

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Confidential Sources xvIntroduction: The Girl Who Kicked the Sophists’ Nest 1Part One Lisbeth “the Idiot” Salander1 Labeling Lisbeth: Sti(e)gma and Spoiled Identity 7Aryn Martin and Mary Simms2 The Mis- Education of Lisbeth Salander and the Alchemy of the At- Risk Child 19Chad William Timm3 The Girl Who Turned the Tables: A Queer Reading of Lisbeth Salander 33Kim SurkanPart Two Mikael “do-gooder” Blomkvist4 Why Are So Many Women F***ing Kalle Blomkvist?: Larsson’s Philosophy of Female Attraction 49Andrew Terjesen and Jenny Terjesen5 Why Journalists and Geniuses Love Coffee and Hate Themselves 65Eric Bronson6 The Making of Kalle Blomkvist: Crime Journalism in Postwar Sweden 75Ester PollackPart Three Stieg Larsson, Mystery Man7 The Philosopher Who Knew Stieg Larsson: A Brief Memoir 91Sven Ove Hansson8 “This Isn’t Some Damned Locked- Room Mystery Novel”: Is The Millennium Trilogy Popular Fiction or Literature? 107Tyler Shores9 Why We Enjoy Reading about Men Who Hate Women: Aristotle’s Cathartic Appeal 120Dennis Knepp10 The Dragon Tattoo and the Voyeuristic Reader 128Jaime WeidaPart Four “everyone Has Secrets”11 Hacker’s Republic: Information Junkies in a Free Society 141Andrew Zimmerman Jones12 Kicking the Hornet’s Nest: The Hidden “Section” in Every Institution 155Adriel M. Trott13 Secret Meetings: The Truth Is in the Gossip 166Karen C. AdkinsPart Five 75,000 Volts of Vengeance Can’t Be Wrong, Can It?14 The Principled Pleasure: Lisbeth’s Aristotelian Revenge 181Emma L. E. Rees15 Acting Out of Duty or Just Acting Out?: Salander and Kant 189Tanja Barazon16 To Catch a Thief: The Ethics of Deceiving Bad People 198James Edwin MahonCONTRIBUTORS: The Knights of the Philosophic Table 211INDEX: Code Words 217

"In this excellent and timely addition to the series, Bronson (humanities, York University, Toronto) pulls together 18 international scholars and writers who examine both Stieg Larsson's novels and the movies based on them. Main characters Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist each receive a section devoted to essays on identity politics, feminist dimensions in culture, and other salient and philosophical concerns they personify. Larsson is treated in a third section of essays, with the final two sections taking on secrets and ethics. Contributors include Karen Adkins (philosophy, Regis Coll.), Ester Pollack (journalism, Stockholm University), Andrew Terjesen, who has contributed to other volumes in the series, and James E. Mahon (philosophy & law, Washington and Lee Univ.). They take up such specific considerations as Lisbeth's sexual identity, Mikael's investigatory methodology, and the ethical nature of social institutions; of course, each essay suggests philosophical assertions that can be and are argued against as well as for, making for a heady and welcome whole. You'll learn how Aristotle and Kant—among others—can be illuminated through the "Millennium Trilogy." VERDICT This volume belongs in both popular and scholarly collections." [The book is not an officially licensed product of the Larsson books or the movies.—Ed.]—Francisca Goldsmith, Infopeople Project, Berkeley, CA (Library Journal, November 15, 2011)