What are you currently reading?

[Mandryka]

I have this strong feeling that Bergounioux is the real McCoy, I mean genuinely poetic and original with important things to say. But it's very difficult for me to read, I'm being challenged in a conceptual and literary way, and I'm really posting this to see if anyone here has thought about the book, who might have some ideas about it. 

[Ken B]

LOL all they need do is use a different language that doesn't have any connotations for English speaking people 0:).

Klingon!

[steve ridgway]

Klingon!

I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness .

[ritter]

I have this strong feeling that Bergounioux is the real McCoy, I mean genuinely poetic and original with important things to say. But it's very difficult for me to read, I'm being challenged in a conceptual and literary way, and I'm really posting this to see if anyone here has thought about the book, who might have some ideas about it.

I must confess I had never heard of Bergounioux.  : . Some information on him on the web looks interesting. Thanks for bringing him to my attention.

THREAD DUTY:

After finishing Pierre Assouline's biography of legendary art dealer D.H. Kahnweiler (which was illuminating and fun to read), embarking on Michel Leiris's autobioraphical L'Age d'homme. So far, Leiris's clinical and detached self-presentation appears strangely fascinating.

[asin]2070114554[/asin]

In Assouline's book (from 1988), Leiris is still referred to as Kahnweiler's brother-in-law. It turns out he was actually Kahnweiler wife's son-in-law, as Leiris's wife (the Louise Leiris who gave her name to the famed art gallery from the German occupation onwards) was a child Lucie Gordon had had out of wedlock years before meeting Kahnweiler (and presented to the world as her sister).

[LKB]

I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness .

An astute observation, as we in the Empire most assuredly do not indulge in the societal frailties of the human species.

Qa'pla,

LKB

[SonicMan46]

Well, still reading a couple of books from my last posting - usually have 4-5 books going at once, both on my iPad and also as hard copies (still enjoy the feel and smell of a real book and them donate then to a local charity for their book sale) - at the moment:

How the Internet Happened - From Netscape to the iPhone (2018) by Brian McCullough - about a third done w/ a lot on the phenomenal early events in the mid to later 1990s which I remember well - for those interested in this history, a strong recommendation.

The Earth is Weeping (2016) by Peter Cozzens - a comprehensive history of the Indian wars for the American West and winner of several book awards - have as a paperback - I've been reading this history for decades so always a topic of interest to me - again, if this history excites you, then another recommendation.

Sword and Scimitar (2018) by Raymond Ibrahim - subtitled "Fourteen Centuries of War Between Islam and the West", yet another expansive coverage of many of the major conflicts between Islam and the European & Byzantine world, starting shortly after the death of Muhammad with the 'Battle of Yarmouk' in 636 CE - the final siege of Constantinople in 1453 and Vienna in 1683 were highlights for me.  Dave

   

[JBS]

Thar last book says it has a foreword by Victor Davis Hanson, who used to be a good classical scholar but has turned into a right wing hack. I would therefore Ibrahim's book is heavily biased against Islam, because Hanson certainly is.

[Ken B]

Thar last book says it has a foreword by Victor Davis Hanson, who used to be a good classical scholar but has turned into a right wing hack. I would therefore Ibrahim's book is heavily biased against Islam, because Hanson certainly is.

Ibrahim is an apostate from Islam, and a convert to Christianity.  I have read a couple of his articles. They are indeed harsh in tone, and polemical, though seemed well researched. He criticizes Mohammed for his murder of Jews, which many Islamic apologists do not do.

I confess I dislike hearing criticism of a religion described as bias against it. All religions are demonstrably false.

[JBS]

Ibrahim is an apostate from Islam, and a convert to Christianity.  I have read a couple of his articles. They are indeed harsh in tone, and polemical, though seemed well researched. He criticizes Mohammed for his murder of Jews, which many Islamic apologists do not do.

I confess I dislike hearing criticism of a religion described as bias against it. All religions are demonstrably false.

Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.

[Ken B]

Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.

God is false too, but I just want to point out that is not what I claimed. I can prove all extant monotheistic religions are false. God is a different question. I freely confess I cannot prove Bal and Thor do not exist, only that there is no reason to believe they do. The only god who canbe proven not to exist is an all all knowing, all powerful, all good god. You know the kind I mean. 

[Daverz]

I'm not 100% certain Klingons actually get the concept of political correctness .

Trying telling a Klingon, oh, say "Kahless wasn't such a great warrior."  You may find out what is politically incorrect for a Klingon.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

More Sherlock Holmes. Blue Carbuncle.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

[Jo498]

More Sherlock Holmes. Blue Carbuncle.

you are a little early, that's a Christmas story, isn't it?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

You're right, it is. I just didn't know it before I started reading.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Religions may be false, but God is very real. Dogmatic atheism is as false as dogmatic Christianity or dogmatic Islam.
I know about Muhammad's penchant for killing others, including Jews. Interestingly, he fits very well into Jewish teaching about prophecy, which takes into account that even valid prophets can be misled by their egos into becoming false prophets.

Religions are true, all of them, they are a manifestation of biology. God is an invention.

[steve ridgway]

Religions are true, all of them, they are a manifestation of biology. God is an invention.

It's amazing what the clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms resulting from the Big Bang have produced over 13 billion years, so much diversity, complexity and beauty and even into the immaterial realms of music and ideas such as those religions with all their commentaries and embellishments .

[Artem]

In the last couple of months it's been mostly rereading for me. Finished Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and planning to finish rereading all the W.G.Sebald's books that I have. So far I'd finished After Nature, Vertigo and The Emigrants. He's one of my favourite writers and it's been a real pleasure to read him again.

[bwv 1080]

In the last couple of months it's been mostly rereading for me. Finished Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and planning to finish rereading all the W.G.Sebald's books that I have. So far I'd finished After Nature, Vertigo and The Emigrants. He's one of my favourite writers and it's been a real pleasure to read him again.

Been doing the same on the two audiobooks that are on audible - Austerlitz and The Emigrants

[bwv 1080]

nice collection of short stories focused on China in the 80s and 90s and the transition to the current state capitalist system and focused on ordinary people trying to make the best of their opportunities