In other shoes: music, metaphor, empathy, existence

In Other Shoes is a companion to Kendall Walton's other essay collection, Marvellous Images, published seven years earlier.The volume's subtitle, 'Music, Metaphor, Empathy, Existence' will raise suspicions about its thematic unity (Calvin Klein execs will be pleased to have found names for their next four perfume lines).But careful study reveals considerable coherence; Walton reprises the same motifs throughout, though with different combinations and inflections, the book's reverse chronology revealing how some of these ideas developed.Moreover, every paper exhibits the same accessible, sometimes homespun ("by golly" (101), "care beans" (219), "gosh" ( 279)) style typical of Walton: unburdened by needless technicality, yet deft.This style's downside is perhaps that insufficiently careful readers may misread him.A quarter-century of Charles and faithful sidekick The Slime not so much evading critical fire as watching it spray harmlessly across the pages of philosophy journals is testament to this.