What are you currently reading?

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

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Kullervo

Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml

I know he supported the Nazis. Is reading him necessarily an endorsement of his theories? I am only curious.

M forever

Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/heid-a03.shtml

Why not? Charles Lindbergh, for instance, is still seen as a national hero here, the local airport is named after him, and he was very sympathetic to ideas associated with the NS ideology. Or take Henry Ford, he even recieved a medal from Hitler and continued to make money from his factory shares in Germany even when the US was already at war with them. Or people like Washington and Jefferson, all slave holders, they are even on the money, among many other things.


bwv 1080

#503
Quote from: Corey on August 20, 2007, 08:47:45 AM
I know he supported the Nazis. Is reading him necessarily an endorsement of his theories? I am only curious.

ITSM the standard should be higher for someone who held himself out as a philosopher and moral thinker.  I have no regard for George Bernard Shaw (an avid supporter of Stalin) for the same reason. 
If one cannot get something as basic as Hitler or Stalin right, what good is anything else in that person's worldview?
No one in the US admires Lindbergh for his mind or political thinking.

Washington and Jefferson both were born into a slave-holding society and had serious problems with the institution (albeit Jefferson was more or less a hypocrite whose personal conduct came nowhere near the principles he espoused).  Hamilton, as the most ardent abolitionist of the US founding fathers deserves a better place in history than he got.

Kullervo

W.B. Yeats was a supporter of ethnic cleansing and eugenics later in life. His world view was essential to his poetry. Does this completely invalidate the artistic merit of his poetry? I don't think so.

val

ESTEBAN BUCH:  Le Cas Schönberg.

The first part is a review of the critics that Schönberg received during his life. Not very interesting since I already knew most of them. I hope it gets better when we enter in the analysis of the works.

Bogey



Enjoying this one much more than Kite Runner....less contrived feeling and a nice pace about it.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz



Scriptavolant

Quote from: Corey on August 20, 2007, 08:47:45 AM
Is reading him [Heidegger] necessarily an endorsement of his theories?

I think no is the answer, for the simple reason that reading Heidegger is not possible by definition  :D

But since we're in topic, I'm reading some Primo Levi: "If this is a man?" and "The truce". I've read these at least 20 times, but they never stop to challenge me.


Haffner

Quote from: Scriptavolant on August 24, 2007, 01:33:31 PM
I think no is the answer, for the simple reason that reading Heidegger is not possible by definition  :D










Only Hegel could be more difficult than Heidegger. But at least I feel as though I get something out of Hegel; Heidegger (like Sartre) mostly reads like warmed over Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.

rockerreds


Lilas Pastia

#512
Jose Saramago - Blindness (1995).
I'm only halfway through, but totally caught up in this scary and very pessimistic novel.
A filmed adaptation is in the works, with Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal. To be released next year. Obviously it won't give any approximation of Saramago's very special writing style...

Novi

Quote from: Lilas Pastia on August 25, 2007, 07:07:24 AM
Jose Saramago - Blindness (1995).
I'm only halfway through, but totally caught up in this scary and very pessimistic novel.
A filmed adaptation is in the works, with Julianne Moore and Gabriel Garcia Bernal. To be released next year. Obviously it won't give any approximation of Saramago's very special writing style...

Yes, it's good isn't it? There's a sequel to it, Seeing, published a couple of years ago, but I haven't read that yet. I wonder how the allegorical nature of the novel translates onto the screen. In any case, Gabriel Garca Bernal's always nice to look at.
Durch alle Töne tönet
Im bunten Erdentraum
Ein leiser Ton gezogen
Für den der heimlich lauschet.

longears

Emmett Fox, The Sermon on the Mount -- for about the tenth time.  Yes.

jfmac


Haffner

Even more inspiring than I expected!



rockerreds

Theodore Dreiser-An American Tragedy

Anne

The Cobra Event by Richard Preston (author of The Hot Zone.  I started it last night and it kept me awake until 2:00 am.  It concerns the CDC and biological warfare.  Preston does not "dumb down" the subject.  The book even has a glossary.  You will likely learn a few new vocabulary words but not excessively so.  His writing style is gripping from the first paragraph.

Preston's brother is an Md; I wouldn't be surprised if brother helped here and there on medical subjects.

If you haven't tried this author, give him a chance.

Justin Ignaz Franz Bieber

Quote from: bwv 1080 on August 20, 2007, 08:41:58 AM
Why give any creedence to the writings of a Nazi?

I don't see what the problem is. Should all books written by Nazis be burned then? That's what the Nazis themselves did with stuff they disagreed with. I've had Mein Kampf on my list ever since I read a couple excerpts with the word 'communist' in place of the word 'jew' & noticed an uncanny resemblance to US anti-communist propaganda. (it was a book about US foreign policy since WW2) Just because I'd read Mein Kampf doesn't mean I'd buy into any of Hitler's political "philosophies." There's no conection at all between those things.
"I am, therefore I think." -- Nietzsche