What are you currently reading?

[Florestan]

Yes I like philosophies of Schopenhauer and Kant, rather than snake oil/alchemy of Hegel. His straight-ahead writing is very likable. S publicly, and Kant implicitly, were probably among the first atheist philosopher in the West. S admired Buddhism and Hinduism while his favorite book was Upanishads (admired by your friend Wagner as well.)

Well, I'm a Christian who greatly admires Schopenhauer --- but Wagner I can't stand either as a composer or a writer. S yes, W no!

Now that you got me started, my favorite non-Romanian philosophers are Pascal, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Unamuno. Two Roman Catholics, a Lutheran and an atheist --- yet all of them have a lot in common with Eastern Orthodoxy.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

First time I read this book in my early 20s, I abandoned it a quarter-way through.

Second time I read it, 20 years after the first attempt, it was a page-turner.

One of those books which can be truly understood and appreciated only by people who have felt, thought and experienced a lot. 

The Parma is a fine book though it is not as exciting/thrilling as Red and Black. If the protagonist were highly intelligent, as well as beautiful, just like Julien Sorel in Red and Black, he could have been more fascinating. Still the book is romantic, dramatic, and beautiful, especially the nuanced description of the relationship bet. the protagonist and his aunt is exquisite.

[Florestan]

If the protagonist were highly intelligent, as well as beautiful,

then it would have been a highly unrealistic book. 

romantic, dramatic, and beautiful

Is there any other kind of good books? 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Is there any other kind of good books? 

Ie. Endo's Silence is neither beautiful nor romantic. It is upsetting and even unacceptable. But the story is thrilling and it proffers important philosophical questions. Also, philosophers and psychologists have discussed why the people are attracted to sad or scary stories (and music).

[Florestan]

Ie. Endo's Silence [is] upsetting and even unacceptable. But the story is thrilling and it proffers important philosophical questions.

Ummm... Werther? Faust? The Robbers? The Hunchback of Notre-Dame? Manfred? The Toilers of the Sea? The Bethroted? Etc, etc, etc?

Look, when in late higschool we were given as class assignment to write down what we personally thought it was the main, most influential literary era, and explain why. I chose Romanticism and explained accordingly --- got an A + !

[aligreto]

Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London





This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Well, I'm a Christian who greatly admires Schopenhauer --- but Wagner I can't stand either as a composer or a writer. S yes, W no!

Now that you got me started, my favorite non-Romanian philosophers are Pascal, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Unamuno. Two Roman Catholics, a Lutheran and an atheist --- yet all of them have a lot in common with Eastern Orthodoxy.

I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.
As you already know, Kant and S explained that what appears to be the world are not real, but our limited and biased perception. Colors are not real. Lights with different wave lengths stimulate eyes, and eyes send electrochemical signals to the brain, which creates the perception of colors. So colors are not there in the real world, but they are a creation by our brain. Same about the sound, odor, taste, etc. Air waves and odor particles stimulate ears and noses, they send signals to the brain, and the brain creates the perception of sound and odor. So there is no sound or smell in the real, physical world.
Kant proceeds that the 3 dimensionality of the world and unidimensional time are perceptions created by our neurological activities as well. The real world is beyond the three dimensional space and time, and unknown to us. We will never be able to see or theoretically understand the real picture of this world because our perception and understanding are constrained within a 3D space and time, according to Kant (and Schopenhauer). Imo, this is also what Niels Bohr indicated in the quote I posted on the other thread.

[Florestan]

The real world is beyond the three dimensional space and time, and unknown to us. We will never be able to see or theoretically understand the real picture of this world because our perception and understanding are constrained within a 3D space and time, according to Kant (and Schopenhauer). Imo, this is also what Niels Bohr indicated in the quote I posted on the other thread.

Yes, exactly and precisely. Niels Bohr was absolutely right --- and so was Kant via Schopenhauer. There is no way any human can escape time and causality.

[Florestan]

I will check out writings of Pascal and Unamuno. Specially, Unamuno looks interesting.

Both of them are well worth reading.

Start with Pascal, though, I'd say.

[SimonNZ]

Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London





This was a very rapid read in comparison to my last read [Dickens: Our Mutual Friend - see Pickwick Club]. My initial reaction to this book is that I am very thankful that I was never that poor so that I experienced the hunger and deprivation that is illustrated in this work. The juxtaposition of this work and the mention of Dickens strikes me as opportune because Orwell was describing the plight of the poor worker in the context of working in some well to do hotels and the gruelling life of servitude that these unfortunate people had to endure in order to serve the well to do their daily meals. The dichotomy of the two modes of life is well contrasted by Orwell even though he primarily focuses on the lower end of the social scale. I am also very glad that I was not dining in those exclusive Parisian hotels that Orwell describes from a cleanliness and hygiene point of view.

The other interesting side of his account is the people and characters that he met and knew and their outlook on Life. Orwell's social commentary and philosophy are also both interesting.

"It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs — and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it"

I think about that line often.

I also like / am intrigued by how dispassionate his tone is throughout the book, given that elsewhere he's capable of writing with considerable venom (Burmese Days, for example).

Glad to hear you liked it.


TD: amongst everything else on the go I'm knocking off Frederick Pohl's Starburst, recommended somewhere as one of his best, and they were right.

[aligreto]

"It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs — and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it"

I think about that line often.

I also like / am intrigued by how dispassionate his tone is throughout the book, given that elsewhere he's capable of writing with considerable venom (Burmese Days, for example).

Glad to hear you liked it.

Yes, I enjoyed it but it does not make for pretty reading. I had read it before, decades ago, and I had forgotten how realistic it was.
I have actually started Burmese days again and I am enjoying this immensely so far but, more anon.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Hermann Hesse: Life and Art.  Joseph Mileck

[ritter]

Cross-posted from the opera sub-forum:

Revisiting this recording of one of Gaetano Donizetti's lesser-known operas, the late Caterina Cornaro:



I've never been much of a fan of Donizetti (IMHO, he did not have the genius of Rossini nor the melodic gift of Bellini, and was the precursor of the undeniably vulgar and provincial streak that permeates much of Italian opera in the second half of the 19th century), and this is certainly not one of his better scores.

I'm actually listening to this as background music while reading this book on the conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni:



The recording of Caterina Cornaro was made live in 1995–the year before the conductor's death at the age of 86—in Gavazzeni's (and Donizetti's) hometown of Bergamo, with the conductor's second wife, the estimable soprano Denia Mazzola, in the lead. It could therefore not be more appropriate, and as background music works perfectly well  .

What a fascinating figure Gavazzeni was! A grand seigneur of the baton and the operatic pit, a very gifted writer, and an indefatigable champion of obscure works (many of which, truth be said, lapsed back into oblivion immediately after he had revived them). He was a man of wide-ranging cultural interests, and seems to have met and befriended most of the leading Italian cultural luminaries of the 20th century (in music, painting, and literature). Even if he concentrated his conducting activity mostly on the Italian operatic repertoire of the 19th and early 20th century, his writings display an acute appraisal of —and respect for— styles that were diametrically opposed to his tastes. He was, for instance, a good friend of Petrassi, frequented Luigi Nono, and collaborated with Sylvano Bussotti (the latter was stage director for several opera productions led by Gavazzeni).

Gavazzeni was also a composer, but stopped writing music around 1940 (when he realised his works were out of step with modern trends). As far as I know, none of his compositional output has ever been recorded.

He's one of the few artists who have been given the greatest tribute at La Scala when he died: Riccardo Muti conducted the funeral march of Beethoven's Eroica in the empty theatre, with all the doors open so that the music could be heard on the streets surrounding the opera house.

For someone who never achieved (probably never sought) star status, there's a very sizeable bibliography on the man and his art (apart from his own writings, which are really enjoyable, particularly his dairies from 1950 to 1976, Il sipario rosso). The book I'm reading now is loving tribute to the man, his art, his writing, and the places he frequented (starting with Bergamo). A delightful read!

Alternating between the book on Gavazzeni mentioned above, and Philippe Blay's recently released biography of Reynaldo Hahn:


Clearly the biography the composer needed (previous works by Bernard Gavoty —in French— and Daniel Bendahan —in Spanish— were useful, but incomplete and relying mainly on recollections and reminiscences). Thoroughly researched, with a wealth of detail (excessive at times, TBH), and very readable. An excellent biography as well as a good depiction of the conservative cultural milieu associated with the grand monde (as a result, anything remotely avant-garde or "modern" is conspicuously absent) in France at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. I'm about 200 pages into the book (it has some 600 in total), and of course Marcel Proust plays a significant rôle at this stage.

Philippe Blay is the leading authority on Hahn, and it shows. Recommended to anyone with an interest in the composer or in art in France during his lifetime.

As a matter of trivia, there's a very tenuous connection between Hahn and Gavazzeni, as the latter —in his diaries mentioned above— confessed to being intrigued by Hahn's composition Nuit d'amour bergsmasque (Gavazzeni had a keen interest in anything related to his hometown). AFAIK, Nuit d'amour bergsmasque has never been recorded (or even performed in living memory).

[Artem]

A few books that i finished recently.


Very French little book, almost like a painting.


My expectations for it were high, but it was not all that great in the end.


Essential for Bolano fans. It includes a few interviews and speeches, but mostly short newspaper columns where Bolano talks about his favourite literature, mostly from Latin America and Spain. So that book has been a great resource for me to discover previously unknown to me writers.

[SimonNZ]

Do you know the book Travellers in the Third Reich? If not you might find it a good companion read to your current reading. (I haven't finished reading my copy yet but it was well reviewed)

Found this in a secondhand bookshop and had to go back to remember who it was who gave me the heads-up and say thanks again.



Also found that it was Vers La Flamme I recommended Down And Out In Paris And London to, not Aligreto, which is why I was confused when he said he'd read it before.

Total goldfish memory.

[aligreto]

Found this in a secondhand bookshop and had to go back to remember who it was who gave me the heads-up and say thanks again.



Also found that it was Vers La Flamme I recommended Down And Out In Paris And London to, not Aligreto, which is why I was confused when he said he'd read it before.

Total goldfish memory.

Hey, I have moments like that all of the time 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

E.T.A. Hoffmann.

[SimonNZ]

half way through:



on the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and Rwandan history.

[Artem]

A new author for me. A book that deals with Germany, memory, WWII. A very strong recommendation.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

A new author for me. A book that deals with Germany, memory, WWII. A very strong recommendation.

Nice cover. I will look for a copy.