Alan Watts—In the Academy: Essays and Lectures ed. by Peter J. Columbus and Donadrian L. Rice (review)

Alan Watts (1915–1973) was one of the earliest western promotors of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, consciousness expansion, and the perennial philosophy. His groundbreaking, idiosyncratic books, articles, radio broadcasts, and public appearances made him a leading figure in the emerging U.S. counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s. He was on the cutting edge of nearly every spiritual development—from the popular embrace of Asian philosophical thought to LSD mysticism to the human potential movement, transpersonal psychology and beyond. Whatever the movement, Watts was there first, as a participant, advocate, and often critic. He appeared to know and interact with every leading figure in the alternative spirituality milieu and, as this book demonstrates, he cut a larger-than-life figure on university campuses as well. Many impressionable young seekers embraced Watts as a reliable guide in the quest for expanded consciousness and greater awareness, trusting his analysis and swayed by his persuasive, accessible style. His influence was extraordinary.

Watts styled himself a "philosophical entertainer," a term he invented for his own career path. Though "serious" Asian scholars dismissed him as a popularizer, with a weak grasp of Asian languages and a flexible concern for historical accuracy, Watts was nonetheless extremely erudite and something of a polymath, as this book of collected talks and essays demonstrates.

Watts' early work was surprisingly "Christian" and theologically sophisticated. Though in his later years Watts made light of his early career as an Anglican priest, almost dismissing it as a youthful indiscretion, the essays in this collection reveal a young man challenging traditional Christian thought and creatively reinterpreting scripture, while carefully steering clear of positions that might be deemed heretical.

As a writer living on royalties and speaking fees, Watts published everywhere, from Playboy to the California Law Review. Some of his work, written under the pressure of deadlines, was perhaps slapdash. Nonetheless, the wide range of material in this book is consistently interesting, leading one to suspect that everything Watts produced was engaging. The editors of this book have clearly devoted a great deal of energy to selecting more than thirty relatively academic talks and essays out of Watts' enormous body of work. Many of the selections are fairly obscure, but all are worthy of consideration.

Readers will enjoy Watts' clever wordplay and his inventive use of simple analogies to make difficult concepts familiar. Many will enjoy the genial way he upends conventional assumptions about the purpose and meaning of life. It is obvious that Watts was a charming and brilliant performer.

Pricing of this book is problematic, however. The target market is presumably well-funded libraries. Few students will be able to afford the hardcover text. The ebook, which is cumbersome to navigate, is also remarkably expensive. Fortunately, a reasonably-priced paperback came out in 2018, thereby making it possible for undergraduates to encounter the remarkable oeuvre of this great gadfly and challenger of spiritual complacency.

But price may no longer even matter much, because both video and audio recordings of Watts' lectures are widely available online for free. Alan Watts will continue to philosophically entertain his admirers, young and old, from his perennial position in the Great Digital Beyond.