TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : AUDIOCASSETTES

“The Celebration of Life: A Dialogue on the Immortality of the Human Spirit” by Norman Cousins, with Michael Jackson. Newman/Dove. The variety of spoken-word audiocassettes grows ever more astonishing. Editor/philosopher Cousins and talk-show host Jackson here enact a Socratic dialogue Cousins wrote in 1974. Immortality, in the author’s view, is not a glimpse of paradise but our presence in a chain of life that has been, is and will be. Cousin argues that it is the brotherhood of man that is immortal, each individual a cell in a vast and timeless totality. As in his attitudes toward self-healing, Cousins is both the idealist and the optimist, confident in our powers to avert the darkest scenarios for our future. He speaks in a husky, reasonably conversational way; Jackson, one of the best questioners in the business, is here limited to a surprisingly flat and perfunctory reading of the prepared questions. A curious item, demanding and provocative, whether or not the listener can board Cousins’ train of thought. ***