What are you currently reading?

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Varg

#900
Quote from: Haffner on January 10, 2008, 03:29:07 PM



I'm pretty dismissive of Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and Kant. Read Hegel before any of them.  Since you already read Nietzsche and Kierkegaard (my two favorites) I suggest reading Sartre and Husserl as well.

Why Sartre? I find him superficial, and he's not even good at it... "he's not even superficial", as Nietzsche liked to say. To speak more precisely; he's just plain stupid, any idiot of our era could have written such enormities. What i hear when i hear Sartre is: "Lets not give a shit about anything, lets do whatever we want, no matter how harmful it can be to ourselves, mankind, life and earth. Life is short, we must not care too much about things" (it's even worst than Cioran, who, at least, never pretended to be healthy). This is what he had in mind when saying the word "freedom"! I know how this word sounds to people ears, and i also know how easily they make the mistake to not listen what's behind the word. If we compare, for exemple, the freedom of both Sartre and Nietzsche, we'll find out that they are perfect opposites; even if they both have builded a "freedom philosophy", they have builded totally opposites philosophies.

That's how i see him personnaly -- oh wait, i havent said it!! -- (as the "voice of the people") and that's why i'm curious to know what you find interesting about Sartre, especially as a Nietzsche enthousiast? Or maybe you just start to dance when you hear "freedom"?!! ;D

Haffner

Quote from: Varg on January 23, 2008, 12:21:18 AM
"he's not even superficial", as Nietzsche liked to say.


Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works.

Varg

#902
Quote from: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 10:44:11 AM

Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though. No, i'm not a fan of his. The name Varg, as i use it, has nothing to do with Vikernes whatsoever.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century. That's all i wanted to know. I was just being curious.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works. I could only do that in french, that is, if i'm able to find my "worthless books" boxes. But it's not what he's written, it's what i see behind his writing, so there's no way i can be specific about it, or demonstrate it; like every great stains, it never shows it's real face, it's always hidding behind a pretty surface. It's just a personnal thing; i dont expect you to (as i dont wish you to) agree with me, and i'm not trying to make you eat my meal.

Haffner

Quote from: Varg on January 23, 2008, 03:39:38 PM
Quote from: Haffner on January 23, 2008, 10:44:11 AM

Reminds me of another, "dark"(laughing like crazy) Varg....hope you're not a fan of his (unintentionally hilarious) "writings". Cool music though. No, i'm not a fan of his. The name Varg, as i use it, has nothing to do with Vikernes whatsoever.

If your post was meant to be vehemently conclusive, then you have alot more to read. Sartre took copiously from Hegel in particular. In fact, he actually ended up reading like he was attempting to Nietzsche-ize Hegel. I reccomended Sartre because he gives an excellent overview of the French Existentialistic craze of the early to mid 20th century. That's all i wanted to know. I was just being curious.

You aren't specific enough in your attack on Sartre. Please cite quotes (within context) from his works. I could only do that in french, that is, if i'm able to find my "worthless books" boxes. But it's not what he's written, it's what i see behind his writing, so there's no way i can be specific about it, or demonstrate it; like every great stains, it never shows it's real face, it's always hidding behind a pretty surface. It's just a personnal thing; i dont expect you to (as i dont wish you to) agree with me, and i'm not trying to make you eat my meal.




Admirably put. I respect you.

Kullervo


orbital



Had the sudden urge to read this after seeing Last Year At Marienbad.

Lethevich

#906
Been way too single-minded lately. Prior to now:



An extremely good book, despite its age (late 60s) it remains very useful for both the attention he pays to detail, and for the lack of attention he pays to symbolic nonsense. His enthusiasm for the style is very evident throughout, and covers Norman to Perpendicular in one great sweep. Black and white photos, but this is perhaps a benefit. The same photographer is responsible for almost all of them and he is very skilled - all of them are very sharp and well composed. B&W also makes it easier to focus on details such as tracery, and them being taken in the B&W era also means that the surrounding environment of the buildings in the images is less congested than it would be nowadays. Both editions (the later is on better paper, but that isn't a crippling problem for the earlier one - it still looks good) can be picked up for almost nothing (my as-new copy was 1p on Amazon UK).

(New Bell's guides)

This whole series is very good - they can be picked up second hand reasonably cheaply and are very in-depth vs. the common almost pamphlet sized "book"s devoted to single buildings. Plentiful black and white photos, diagrams and detailed text.

(Malcolm Miller)

This is A4 sized and the pictures are too numerous compared to the text (a huge flaw in almost every large book on the subject), but mainly focuses on the stained glass, which is a useful compliment to any other book on the structure. Colour throughout.

(Basil Cottle)

This isn't the kind of book to be read through in one go, but is a useful reference to keep coming back to - it's essentially an alphabetical list, each entry containing a description of varying length, some with photos (and some of the full paged photographs of lesser-known buildings are quite welcome). Coloured photos throughout.

ATM these two:



So far this seems as detailed an overview of the French style (and subsequently, the offshoots) as the Clifton-Taylor book was for the English style. This book is longer than that, and a bit more academic. The detail on the elements of transition from Norman to Gothic that are covered is giving me good reason to expect a lot of insight in the later chapters. Photos are exemplary: black and white, and generally no "imposing"/"beautiful" distance shots - they are plentiful and focus on the article's text very well. Generally showing closeups of vaulting, fascades, etc. Also has plenty of useful line-drawings and floorplans.

(Hans Jantzen)

This one is a translated reprint of a quite old book, from the mid 50s, but books in English providing detail (and not just "pretty pictures") on non-English cathedrals are disturbingly scarce, so beggers can't be choosers (Chartres may be reasonably easy to find books on, but Reims is not, and even Amiens is harder than it should be... My French can get me through conversations sometimes, but is not up to technical descriptions). Fortunately this doesn't seem to contain too much BS. Has a few pages of black and white photos in the middle, but generally it's text and diagrams/line-drawings only (there are plenty of the latter, which is nice).
Peanut butter, flour and sugar do not make cookies. They make FIRE.

SonicMan46

Quote from: Corey on January 23, 2008, 04:31:40 PM


Medieval Music - Richard Hoppin

Corey - please post your thoughts; several years back I was looking for books on Medieval & Renaissance music - bought the book shown on the Renaissance era, another Norton offering; of course, these are texts oriented for college music courses (as least in my mind) - the Renaissance book was published in 1998; the other is about 20 yrs older & I was hoping a 'new' edition might have appeared (so much more known about these musical periods in the last 30+ years), but same one being offered on Amazon.  :)

orbital


I've just started this over the weekend. So far so very good. My first venture into Ms Atwood's ouvre.

bwv 1080



Interesting economic history of the 1970s and overview of current thinking, but marred by his plodding prose.  Reads like one of his prepared statements to congress when he was Fed chief.




Fascinating and well written - it is a layman's guide to physics that does not skip the math.  However I find myself going back to learn more about several topics beyond the depth they are addressed in the text.  I do not think I can tackle any more of this without studying complex analysis more, and will likely put this down and come back to it after I school myself better in the topic, which I know very little of.



paulb

Quote from: drogulus on January 20, 2008, 07:51:43 AM

      The British lost the war, along with the French, the Germans and all of Eastern Europe. The Soviets won with massive help from the Americans (we supplied food, fuel, trucks and planes, they supplied soldiers).

      If you want to understand why military glory no longer appeals to Europeans you just have to read a little history. Europeans don't really understand this any better than we do, though. They have formed the opinion that they reject glorifying war because of their superior virtue. Furthermore, there's no punchline to this joke.

     

     

Sure europe hates anything to do with war, after 2 major horrific conflicts in a span of less than 50 yrs. So obviously the idea of having nothing to do with war by consent of a  superior virtue, doesn't fit image of the historically past. Its  now a   case of 'been there/done that, no thank you".
You'd think the US has already learned its lesson from viet nam. But with the movements into pakistan proves its not so. Apparently The pentagon loves punsihment and misery.
Also the ones who really lost in the war, were by far the germans.

M forever

Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Sure europe hates anything to do with war

Europe is not a person, but a continent with several hundred million people on it with dozens of different languages and cultures.

Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
So obviously the idea of having nothing to do with war by consent of a  superior virtue, doesn't fit image of the historically past. Its  now a   case of 'been there/done that, no thank you".

Maybe, maybe not. If so, then it is a case of having learnt a lesson from experience. Being able to learn is actually a virtue.

Quote from: paulb on January 28, 2008, 03:00:04 PM
Also the ones who really lost in the war, were by far the germans.

Indeed, and most people don't even know to what extent Germany was destroyed in WWII. Yet only a few years later, with just a little help from the Marshall plan, but most simply because they were finally left alone, they had rebuilt most of Western Germany and the strongest economy in Europe going. So the whole post-WWI and WWII thing was basically pointless because the main point of that had been that declining colonial empires wanted to try to keep the country with the second largest population and the by far most developed industrialization from becoming the economically strongest country in Europe. But that didn't work out.

Haffner

Quote from: M forever on January 28, 2008, 03:48:57 PM
Europe is not a person, but a continent with several hundred million people on it with dozens of different languages and cultures.

Maybe, maybe not. If so, then it is a case of having learnt a lesson from experience. Being able to learn is actually a virtue.

Indeed, and most people don't even know to what extent Germany was destroyed in WWII. Yet only a few years later, with just a little help from the Marshall plan, but most simply because they were finally left alone, they had rebuilt most of Western Germany and the strongest economy in Europe going. So the whole post-WWI and WWII thing was basically pointless because the main point of that had been that declining colonial empires wanted to try to keep the country with the second largest population and the by far most developed industrialization from becoming the economically strongest country in Europe. But that didn't work out.




Intriguing post. Makes me want to learn more...

M forever

#913
Where did Jezetha's post go? He surprised me by asking to be more specific. I thought everyone, at least everyone from central Europe knew how WWI ended and what happened after that and what led to the Nazis coming to power and eventually WWII.

J.Z. Herrenberg

#914
Quote from: M forever on January 28, 2008, 11:20:57 PM
Where did Jezetha's post go? He surprised me by asking to be more specific. I thought everyone, at least everyone from central Europe knew how WWI ended and what happened after that and what led to the Nazis coming to power and eventually WWII.

It seems we have a small 'Historikerstreit' on our hands here...

You imply that Hitler and all he stands for is just a reaction to the humiliation Germany suffered at the hands of the stupid (in their vindictiveness) Allies after having lost WWI. But then you completely overlook Germany's real drive to become a world power, in competition with, especially, England. The 'Lebensraum' idea was there before WWI. Germany's 'place in the sun' was an obsession. Those two World Wars are the death throes of the European will to power. It is disingenuous of you to say that Germany wanted to be 'left alone' to only become an economic power. Germany wanted much much more, in emulation of other European (colonial) powers. And it was defeated, but only after Communism (Soviet Union) and Capitalism (USA) joined forces. It was a cooperation that ended immediately after that deed was done. And so the Cold War started, with two superpowers vying for the same trophy.

Now you know where I stand on this.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

Harry

Reading the fine score of the St John passion written by our own Karl Henning, and send to me out of his kindness.
I am playing it on the piano, and singing along.
I had not so much pleasure reading a modern score since ages.
Well done Karl.

ChamberNut

I Don't Want To Talk About It: Overcoming The Secret Legacy Of Male Depression - Terrence Real

Very good.  Provides tremendous insight.  I can highly recommend this to anyone, male or female, that suffers from depression.


longears

Has anyone read:

This seems to have been drawing a lot of fire recently from liberal apologists.

Haffner

Quote from: Harry on January 29, 2008, 12:21:59 AM
Reading the fine score of the St John passion written by our own Karl Henning, and send to me out of his kindness.
I am playing it on the piano, and singing along.
I had not so much pleasure reading a modern score since ages.
Well done Karl.





I saw early on how absorbing the score was, and sat down with and some really fine coffee!


M forever

Quote from: Jezetha on January 29, 2008, 12:07:44 AM
It seems we have a small 'Historikerstreit' on our hands here...

You imply that Hitler and all he stands for is just a reaction to the humiliation Germany suffered at the hands of the stupid (in their vindictiveness) Allies after having lost WWI. But then you completely overlook Germany's real drive to become a world power, in competition with, especially, England. The 'Lebensraum' idea was there before WWI. Germany's 'place in the sun' was an obsession. Those two World Wars are the death throes of the European will to power. It is disingenuous of you to say that Germany wanted to be 'left alone' to only become an economic power. Germany wanted much much more, in emulation of other European (colonial) powers. And it was defeated, but only after Communism (Soviet Union) and Capitalism (USA) joined forces. It was a cooperation that ended immediately after that deed was done. And so the Cold War started, with two superpowers vying for the same trophy.

Now you know where I stand on this.

I am not implying any of the above. I don't think those subjects can be that drastically simplified, and I don't believe in speculative history either, what could or what would have happened or who would have liked to do what but couldn't. That the united Imperial Germany wanted to be some kind of "world power" just like all the other bigger European states around it is obvious and easy to understand - Germany *was* and *is* economically simply one of the strongest regions, like it or not, because Germans are the second largest ethnic group (defined by language, not by racist nonsense) in Europe and the country had been much more developed industrially than any other country in Europe. Which BTW, is also one of the main reasons why the Marshall plan was needed, not just to help Germany, but because its economy played and still plays a central role in the mechanisms of European economy.
Like other European countries at the time, there were heavy tensions in Germany between more progressive and more conservative forces but the more progressive democratic forces which had no imperial designs or interest prevailed at first and it is pretty amazing to see how the Weimar Republic actually lasted for 13 1/2 years even though. That is a fact, not speculation. Fact is also that when the economy of the Weimar Republic stabilized in the mid-late 20s, the Nazis and other extremist groups more or less disappeared from sight (check the results of the elections of 1927, for instance). Fact is also that the WR had to pay immense reparations for WWI and that the entire economy collapsed under that burden, but they still managed to get it going again somehow until the late 20s when world economy went into recession and that hit Germany harder than many other countries because the economy had just been slightly stable. Fact is also that economy in Germany boomed very massively in the 50s, like it had done several times before. A more negative fact is that the military power the 3rd Reich developed itself is a sinister demonstration of how strong the economy there got within just a few years after 1933 when 1/3 of the people were unemployed. It is no speculation therefore to see that if they had just left the Weimar Republic alone, it would easily have regenerated and it is very likely that the more modern progressive forces would have prevailed (and yes, that is speculation now, but only to a certain degree because fact is that they actually did last for quite some time under very difficult circumstances caused by external factors).