Dr. William Batchelder, associate professor of history at Waynesburg University, recently published an essay titled, ‘Dune: The Perfect Deathwork.’ Batchelder worked with ‘Modern Age’ to release this debut piece essay. Batchelder elaborated on the work of social theorist Philip Rieff, who he attributes as major inspiration for his most recent work and his passion for the genre of science fiction.    

      “In addition to Rief, Dune has profound things to say about human nature,” Batchelder said. “If it wasn’t science fiction it would be taken more seriously which it should be. The movies are beautiful, but miss a large chunk of the point.” 

When discussing Reiff, Batchelder believes that “Reiff is not as well known as he should be.” Giving advice to others, Batchelder said, “When using him for work, you have to find ways to interpret and explain how the theory works before you can apply it to whatever you are using Reiff to analyze.” 

Batchelder is currently working on a book, but he is not working alone. He is in collaboration with co-editor, Michael Harding, as well as10 other contributors. When asked about the people working on the book, Batchelder said, “All of them regard Reiff as an important, overlooked philosophical figure.”

      The interest the writers have in Reif allows the collaboration to “have people from multiple different disciplines come together and do chapters on Reif that seemed to make sure Reif stays in the academic conversation.”

Batchelder continued on with other motivations and inspirations that lead him to making this project a reality.

“My main motivation is that his ideas should not be obscure, but instead should be more widely known.” Batchelder said, adding that he did not publish this essay to advance his career, but,“out of love.”

 According to Batchelder, “If you act primarily to advance your career, you will turn into a striver, and strivers are the worst. You should do things because you like to do them if you are lucky enough to make that choice.” 

Batchelder reiterated  that Reif’’s writing is, “completely interpretable, so it will never be in the popular conversation unless we find ways to apply it.” When it comes to future works, “The Philosophy of Philip Rieff: Cultural Conflict, Religion and the Self” is to be published by Batchelder and Harding in the coming future.