What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

I remember reading that and thinking the shield must be the size of a Diego Rivera mural.

And that if it could have that level of delicate intricate work you wouldn't want to have it all messed up with one days worth of sword strikes.

I argued that whatever it is, it couldn't be a true and literal description of a shield. So it's an interlude about the power of poetry to create illusion.

That didn't go down well - people said that it's just a magic shield.

[Number Six]

Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson

I was listening to a podcast last night, and this book's author was the guest. I don't know anything about him apart from his appearances in the musical 1776, and he's basically the villain of the piece. So I decided to give him a fair shot and picked this one up on kindle and audible. Don't know when I will get to it, to be honest. 

[ritter]

Skimming through Reynaldo Hahn's Diaries...



No mention whatsoever of Le Dieu bleu... 

[Crudblud]

Thomas Wolfe - Of Time and the River

[AnotherSpin]

"There, at the foot of the Third Tower, I understood everything. My restlessness—on the train, in the various hotels and inns, in the periods between excursions, indeed whenever during the entire journey I had been forced into contact with that collectivity of the lonely, the euphoric Italian collectivity. I shielded my solitariness from them, and from the European future that they represented for me. I felt my solitary happiness threatened by their happiness of the herd, because they were stronger than I was."

Taken from Antal Szerb's The Third Tower, a fine little diary of the author's journey in Italy.

[Mandryka]

I read Donne at school and loved it. I bought Carey's book when it came out but never made the time to read it. It has been sitting on my shelves unopened since 1981. Finally got round to it this week - it's very good and indeed more than that - it's methodologically interesting because of the mapping Carey makes from Donne's values, character and beliefs on the one hand, and his writings on the other.

Donne wasn't a nice chap . . . Ambitious, egotistical, shockingly inhumane sometimes in the sermons especially, deeply troubled by his rejection of catholicism for the English church. In one sermon he says that Christians shouldn't give to beggars because they've probably never been baptised and they're all feckless work-shy sinners. In a letter to a friend who'd suffered a bereavement he basically says that he won't say he's sorry for what's happened because he needs sympathy himself more.

[T. D.]

[AnotherSpin]

What did you think of the book?

[T. D.]

What did you think of the book?

Reading it for the 2nd time. Of course I've read the Gita multiple times.
Got this book for the Sankaracharya commentary, which interprets everything in the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta framework. Although this is the earliest (extant) and maybe the most famous commentary, it requires decent familiarity with Advaita and is therefore not the most "accessible". I prefer to read Indian commentaries rather than Westernized ones.

So far I remain unconvinced that the Gita is strictly Advaita-based, but I am no expert.

To add a classical music reference, I have this recording of an opera premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music (it is an archetypal "BAM-type" work  )

[AnotherSpin]

Reading it for the 2nd time. Of course I've read the Gita multiple times.
Got this book for the Sankaracharya commentary, which interprets everything in the Advaita (non-dual) Vedanta framework. Although this is the earliest (extant) and maybe the most famous commentary, it requires decent familiarity with Advaita and is therefore not the most "accessible". I prefer to read Indian commentaries rather than Westernized ones.

So far I remain unconvinced that the Gita is strictly Advaita-based, but I am no expert.

To add a classical music reference, I have this recording of an opera premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music (it is an archetypal "BAM-type" work  )

I have several editions of the Gita, also in different translations, but none with Adi Shankara's commentary. It might seem out of place — after all, advaita doesn't appear to need lengthy texts.

My favorite episode in the narrative is the choice of Duryodhana and Arjuna: coming to the sleeping Krishna to ask for his support before the battle, Arjuna humbly sits at his feet, while Duryodhana positions himself at the head of the bed — and when Krishna awakens, he offers one of them his invincible army, and the other, himself, unarmed.

[Mandryka]

I have several editions of the Gita, also in different translations, but none with Adi Shankara's commentary. It might seem out of place — after all, advaita doesn't appear to need lengthy texts.

My favorite episode in the narrative is the choice of Duryodhana and Arjuna: coming to the sleeping Krishna to ask for his support before the battle, Arjuna humbly sits at his feet, while Duryodhana positions himself at the head of the bed — and when Krishna awakens, he offers one of them his invincible army, and the other, himself, unarmed.

Have you seen Peter Brook's Mahabharata?

[AnotherSpin]

Have you seen Peter Brook's Mahabharata?

I don't remember watching it. What was your impression?

[Mandryka]

I don't remember watching it. What was your impression?

It's one of my favourite films. I saw the stage production too. The scene you mentioned with Krishna's offer of his self is in it of course.

[AnotherSpin]

It's one of my favourite films. I saw the stage production too. The scene you mentioned with Krishna's offer of his self is in it of course.

Your recommendation certainly carries weight with me. I shall try to watch when the occasion presents itself, though I must admit I'm not generally inclined toward long, epic narratives. What I've always appreciated about the Gita is its brevity — the text is concise, yet its meaning runs deep. That, to my mind, is far more appealing than the opposite.

[Mandryka]

Your recommendation certainly carries weight with me. I shall try to watch when the occasion presents itself, though I must admit I'm not generally inclined toward long, epic narratives. What I've always appreciated about the Gita is its brevity — the text is concise, yet its meaning runs deep. That, to my mind, is far more appealing than the opposite.

The Bhaghavad Gita section is very short in the film

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155386015800779

I can always upload the film for you if you want to try it.  (Good distraction in times of war!)

[AnotherSpin]

The Bhaghavad Gita section is very short in the film

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155386015800779

I can always upload the film for you if you want to try it.  (Good distraction in times of war!)

Please do.

I was just thinking about how I've liked the episode I mentioned earlier for a long time — well before the war began. But only now, while we've been exchanging comments, did I suddenly notice how closely it echoes the current moment. On one side, there's this seemingly invincible and unstoppable army — a frightening, ruthless force that targets civilians and abducts our children. And on the other side, there's us — with truth and justice on our side.

[San Antone]

Continuing with my journey again through Cormac Mccarthy. Just picked up Blood Meridian, my favorite of his books, and his best, IMO.  Suttree was very good, but his style was still a bit too abstract for my taste. As he progressed his style became more naturalistic and stronger, IMO. But after the Border Trilogy, my interest in his books began to dwindle until with The Road, which I began but dropped early on - I have stopped reading him since.

I also began The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn simultaneously with watching the Ken Burns documentary film on Mark Twain.  I consider Twain among the greatest of American writers, and Huckleberry Finn his best book, and arguably among the top 5 American novels.

[Ganondorf]

The last fifth of Huck Finn is just one big sadistic game played at Jim's expense. I think even Hemingway commented on it. Otherwise it's excellent.

[ritter]

First approach to the work of Roland Barthes, with his Mythologies (from 1957).



I remember my mother reading (and talking admiringly of)  Barthes almost 50 years ago now. So far, quite interesting in its analysis of the creation of modern myths.

[Papy Oli]

In the last fortnight:

- Completed "The Honjin Murders" by Seishi Yokomizo. Eventually a well written whodunit, een if a bit tenuous and a sluggish start.

- Also read and completed The third volume oF Edna O'Brien's trilogy The Country Girls, i.e. "Girls in their Married Bliss". Told from the perspective, mostly, of the other girl, Baba (instead of Kate in the first two parts), This remained a bleak but gripping journey. Thank god for the occasional flippant and sarcastic remarks by Baba to lighten the tone at rare times. Yet, a trilogy that shall stay with me for a long while and is therefore recommended.

- "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan - Ok-ish thriller of sorts in the journalistic/political world involving three former lovers of a famous writer/artist. Got this as an entry point to Ian McEwan as it won a Booker Prize but was left a bit underwhelmed. Subsequently read some reviews that thought that they couldn't have chosen a worse book of his for a prize..    What else would you recommended ? "Atonement" maybe? Anything else ?

- At the moment, about a quarter of the way through "La fortune des Rougon" by Zola. So far so good but I have spent some time on the wiki pages (and will do some more) of the French historical situation of that period to have a sense of the context of the book/cycle.