What are you currently reading?

Started by facehugger, April 07, 2007, 12:36:10 AM

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Brian

Quote from: Florestan on July 12, 2020, 10:23:01 AM
Oh, I am absolutely sure about it and I take your word for it, but they are no Levin at all, at all! --- how many of them really do quit their well paid jobs as professors, journalists, psychologists, government clerks etc etc etc whatever, and take to the fields as mere farmers? You see, Tolstoy / Levin was sincere, he eventually practiced what he preached and died in the process. The American educated left on the contrary is as insincere as it gets, not a single one of them would take the Tolstoy/ Levin route; they talk the talk ad nauseam but they never walk the walk. They are all a bunch of hypocrites. If you, Brian, are any different, then kudos to you and my apologies.  ;D
I don't follow Levin because I don't see that it actually helps society. It makes him personally feel better, but it doesn't bring about systemic change.

(A modern Levin might be the philosopher Peter Singer, who argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.)

vers la flamme

Quote from: Florestan on July 09, 2020, 05:32:19 AM
Why don't you go for Turgenev? His novels are not intimidating bricks, his insights are just as interesting as Dostoyevsky's and Tolstoy's and imho he's more delicate, warm, humane and fun to read than both. Ditto for Chekhov's short stories and novellas.

I read both Turgenev (Fathers & Sons) and Chekhov (a bunch of plays), and some stories by Gogol for that matter, back in college. I took a great Russian lit class that was one of the highlights of my time there, as far as classes go. But I would love to reread some of that stuff. Thanks for the suggestions.

I just finished Becket's Waiting for Godot for the first time. Very silly stuff.

vers la flamme

Quote from: BWV 1080 on July 09, 2020, 05:25:18 AM
This site  has free online versions of both books along with every analysis that has ever been published, although it may take a while to find

Hahaha  ;D My brother sent this to me too when he saw I was reading Borges.

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on July 12, 2020, 02:33:43 PM
I don't follow Levin because I don't see that it actually helps society. It makes him personally feel better, but it doesn't bring about systemic change.

I think the main reason you don't follow Levin is that you have no interest in, or calling for, being a farmer to begin with.  :)

Quote
(A modern Levin might be the philosopher Peter Singer, who argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.)

He argues, but does he apply the theory to himself? I'm sure that compared to the poor in Subsaharan Africa Singer is super-rich. Is he willing to renounce his wealth? Why of course not, let others more rich than him begin. You see, Singer is that kind of guy who knows exactly what everybody else should do but he won't do it himself unless everybody else really does it. He talks the talk (and the talk is quite lucrative, actually) but he doesn't walk the walk. This is the hypocrisy I was alluding to. Levin, on the other hand, naive and idealist as he is, practices what he preaches and does himself what he would like others to do without waiting for everybody else to do it. He is honest and sincere. Fiurthermore, Singer is quite totalitarian with his universal prescriptions (which he doesn't follow himself), while Levin wishes to persuade by personal example and acts according to his own theory.They couldn't be more different.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Brian

Do you actually know all of that about Singer, or are you just guessing?

Florestan

Quote from: Brian on July 13, 2020, 04:57:29 AM
Do you actually know all of that about Singer, or are you just guessing?

I'm guessing that the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne and a former chair of the philosophy department at Monash University and the aiuthor of numerous books and articles has a standard of living which, in comparison to, say, the poor of Uganda or Burundi, can be described as rich and accumulated wealth.

Look, I'm not faulting him for that, it would be the top of absurdity. What I take issues with is this:

QuotePeter Singer [...] argues that nobody should accumulate wealth while other people are poor.

This is never going to happen, ever, period. It's just unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky rhetoric. Arguing it might make Singer feel better (just as Levin felt better working the fields) but it won't bring about any systemic change, to use your own words.  :)

(We've drifted way off topic, we should actually stop.)

Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Mandryka

Quote from: vers la flamme on July 13, 2020, 02:06:13 AM


I just finished Becket's Waiting for Godot for the first time. Very silly stuff.

Yep, it's absurd.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka



My feeling is that this is utter crap.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Florestan

Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 06:03:57 AM


My feeling is that this is utter crap.

I see nothing at all. What is it?
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Mandryka

#10009
Quote from: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 06:27:40 AM
I see nothing at all. What is it?

That's amusing after my comment about Beckett and the absurd. It is a book called Au commencement du septième jour by Luc Lang.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Florestan

Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:04:42 AM
That's amusing after my comment about Beckett and the absurd. It is a book called Au commencemen du septième jour by Luc Lang.

Thanks.  :)
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Mandryka

I was thinking of you, in fact, because I just read a comment that Rihm felt an affinity for Schumann partly because Schumann wrote a lot of stuff explaining his music, I was reminded of your thought that it's only modern composers who feel the need to write explanatory texts, give lectures. I'm not sure if the comment about Schumann is true, though the book is seriously serious. 
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Florestan

Quote from: Mandryka on July 13, 2020, 07:07:44 AM
I was thinking of you, in fact, because I just read a comment that Rihm felt an affinity for Schumann partly because Schumann wrote a lot of stuff explaining his music, I was reminded of your thought that it's only modern composers who feel the need to write explanatory texts, give lectures. I'm not sure if the comment about Schumann is true, though the book is seriously serious.

AFAIK, Schumann wrote a lot of letters to Clara "explaining" his music to her (insofar as his purple prose can be said to be explanatory at all*) but I am not aware of him writing a lot of stuff explaining his music to the readers of the NZfM.

*For instance, he told her this about Kreisleriana: "I'm overflowing with music and beautiful melodies now – imagine, since my last letter I've finished another whole notebook of new pieces. I intend to call it Kreisleriana. You and one of your ideas play the main role in it, and I want to dedicate it to you – yes, to you and nobody else – and then you will smile so sweetly when you discover yourself in it". I guess it might be seen as an explanation of sorts.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

SimonNZ

#10013
Quote from: Florestan on July 13, 2020, 05:57:29 AM
I'm guessing that the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and a Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne and a former chair of the philosophy department at Monash University and the aiuthor of numerous books and articles has a standard of living which, in comparison to, say, the poor of Uganda or Burundi, can be described as rich and accumulated wealth.



If you'd have scrolled down on the Wikipedia page you got that from you'd get this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Singer#Effective_altruism_and_world_poverty

which then links to this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine,_Affluence,_and_Morality

but try this if you want Singer in his own words:

What Should a Billionaire Give – and What Should You?


and this:

The millennials donating 10% of their pay to save the world
Young high-earners can help the underprivileged with a clear conscience


[...]"Singer says many millennials have become interested and want their donations of time and money to have the most impact possible. After leaving Oxford University in 1971, Singer started to donate 10% of his income. As his earnings increased, so did his level of donations, and today he and his wife, a writer, give away 40%. He recommends 10% as an amount many people could afford. "I think it's an amount that most middle-class people can comfortably afford," he says. "It depends on how much people are earning and how happy they are to live modestly." Singer says he leads a happy yet modest life. "I probably holiday less, and in terms of house purchases we live in a one-bedroom apartment [in New York]. We would have perhaps bought a larger apartment if I hadn't been giving it away but it's a nice apartment in a good area."


Mirror Image

#10014
I started to read this tonight:

V For Vendetta: Absolute Edition



I believe I had read this graphic novel years ago, but I only had the trade paperback of it. I gave away all of my trade paperbacks years ago. I'm certainly glad I invested in the hardcovers as they're easier on the eyes.

Mandryka

Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

ritter

#10016
Quote from: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 10:42:51 AM
Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.



If your willing to spend a bit of money (list price is 65€), then volume 1 of the Pléiade edition if À la recherche... is the way to go. Yes, it is smallish (I recall you've already read or bought something in the Pléiade collection by some other author), and you don't only get Swann but also À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur, but the print is readable, the bible paper is of high quality, and the profuse footnotes and introductory texts enhance the reading experience.

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For Swann alone, sans notes or any other frills, your best bet IMO would be the Gallimard edition in the Collection Blanche (22,50 €). Essentially, AFAIK, this would be the same as the 1913 Grasset first edition, purged of errata over the years. As you may know, Gallimard initially rejected Swann, and Proust had it published at his own expense by Grasset. When the NRF and André Gide realised the huge mistake they had made, they accepted in 1919 to publish À l'ombre... and also struck an agreement with Bernard Grasset by which they bought all surplus copies of the first edition of Swann and rebound them with the NRF-Gallimard livery.

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And then there's these beauties: two huge leather bound tomes with, respectively, Combray and Un amour de Swann, with all of Proust's corrections to the proofs and with the paperolles (the bits of paper he'd paste to the pages to add additional text).



But you only get two thirds of Swann, they're rather impractical, and each volume goes for a small fortune. There's a short video here describing the books (I have the Combray volume  :)).

DaveF

Quote from: Mandryka on July 15, 2020, 10:42:51 AM
Attention French speakers. I want to buy a copy of Du côté de chez Swann. What is a good edition? I mean one that's got a nice typeface, nice paper, not too small, not too heavy to hold. I don't want to buy all of A la recherche du temps perdu, just the first volume.

You could just download it for free from Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2650
"All the world is birthday cake" - George Harrison

ritter

#10018
Another short break from Martin du Gard's Maumort, with sections of the second volume (1953) of Jean Cocteau's diary Le passé défini.

[asin]2070700186[/asin]
In this year, Cocteau headed the jury of the Cannes Film Festival (Clouzot's Le salaire du peur—starring Yves Montand—was awarded the Palme d'Or), and then in July made his first trip to Spain. These diaries (I had read volume 1 many years ago) were written with their posthumous release in mind, and are IMO among the best things Cocteau wrote. Some insightful opinions on what's happening around him (in the arts world, mainly, with a focus on—an obsession at times—Picasso), peppered by the inevitable—for this author—gossipy social chitchat, all in a clear and elegant prose. Then there's self-flattery alternating with self-belittlement. And since Cocteau seems to have known everyone of any notoriety in the French and international cultural world of his time, there's a lot of (rather entertaining) name-dropping. A pleasant read.

Mandryka

Thanks, Ritter. I knew you'd have ethe answer! Galimard ordered.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen