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The Shen comprises one hundred and eleven non-fiction 'sections'. The sections often seem ambiguous and random, but in these qualities they attempt to infer a deeper order and a more obscure symmetry. In this obscurity they reflect human reality - the only reality we have. They express a variety of contemplations that are presented organically rather than according to subject matter. The book seeks to portray moral philosophy as an imperative of life: a way of living. It ventures that all ideology must be functional to have relevance. It suggests that ethics are essential, elemental; a litmus of evolution, and as vital to the human spirit as bread is to the body from which the spirit springs. The Shen is a very human observation of the world in that its apparent contradictions and abstraction reflect those we think only we can find in nature, of which we are part. It espouses humility above all, and seeks to encourage humanity's ultimate product: peace.
Nicholas Jonathan Green