What are you currently reading?

[LKB]

While browsing the Internet Archive I stumbled upon this and was instantly hooked.

Any book concerning melody via Schubert  should be ( Imho ) on every musician's shelf.

[AnotherSpin]

Finally, completed Amo's Antonius Gvilielmus Amo Afer of Axim in Ghana: student, doctor of philosophy, master, and lecturer at the Universities of Halle, Wittenberg, Jena, 1727-1747 : translation of his works

Easily, one of the most important philosophical works, as not only is by a black author from within the unenlightened continental tradition, this is also the origin place of general hermeneutics beating the next closest author by thirty years, as to why you likely never heard of him ... I think should be fairly obvious.

I seem to remember from a university course in the history of philosophy that hermeneutics originated in ancient times. My memory would fail me though.

I've never heard of Amo.

[ando]

Henry VI by Willaim Shakespeare
Whoof. What a mess. But glimpses of the great poet and playwright shine through this obvious collaboration. It's a book club selection where everyone's a bit flummoxed at all of the intersecting houses, lineages and quarrels. Frankly, I find watching (and, of course, listening) to the play infinitely more rewarding than reading the text alone. But at least it gives you an impression, knowing a bit of his later work, that Shakespeare's craft didn't just spring from the cradle or inherited nobility (as some would have it); he worked at it.

[Mandryka]

I have it line. Please share your impressions.

I have read it in French. I really cannot see what the fuss is about - I find nothing interesting in it at the level of style, structure, character, plot or idea.

[Mandryka]

Finally, completed Amo's Antonius Gvilielmus Amo Afer of Axim in Ghana: student, doctor of philosophy, master, and lecturer at the Universities of Halle, Wittenberg, Jena, 1727-1747 : translation of his works

Easily, one of the most important philosophical works, as not only is by a black author from within the unenlightened continental tradition, this is also the origin place of general hermeneutics beating the next closest author by thirty years, as to why you likely never heard of him ... I think should be fairly obvious.

What does he say?

[SimonNZ]

I have read it in French. I really cannot see what the fuss is about - I find nothing interesting in it at the level of style, structure, character, plot or idea.

Plot? Are we talking about the same book?

I'm not finished it yet, but I'm finding it fascinating. I didn't know going in that it would be a memoir that is completely without the word "I", that would tell the author's story avoiding unique subjective experience but focusing on what was the collective experience of a generation of a time and a place, usually "we". Through this it has more of a feeling of stepping back into history, in a way that memoirs seldom achieve beyond a pinhole view, whatever their author's intentions.

I'm more than happy to second the recommendations that led me to it.

This article claims her masterpiece is A Girl's Story, so I'll be reading that in the very near future:

Where to start with: Annie Ernaux

[Mandryka]

Plot? Are we talking about the same book?

I'm not finished it yet, but I'm finding it fascinating. I didn't know going in that it would be a memoir that is completely without the word "I", that would tell the author's story avoiding unique subjective experience but focusing on what was the collective experience of a generation of a time and a place, usually "we". Through this it has more of a feeling of stepping back into history, in a way that memoirs seldom achieve beyond a pinhole view, whatever their author's intentions.

I'm more than happy to second the recommendations that led me to it.

This article claims her masterpiece is A Girl's Story, so I'll be reading that in the very near future:

Where to start with: Annie Ernaux

I think it's a bit France specific to be honest, the France of the trente glorieuses. I can well believe that for a white French person of a certain age, it's amusing. 

Girl's Story is a sort of sequel to the novel she wrote which caused some headlines, Passion Simple.  It's about losing your virginity when you're a teenager to an older bloke when you're on a holiday camp.

The one by her I thought was most interesting was La Honte, but still, I can pass.

[Ganondorf]

Finished today Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady. To be honest, for the majority of the first half I was not sure if I liked the book. However, the second half amps up in quality significantly. It's not Golden Bowl (which was unbelievably good throughout) but still a worthy book.

One thing I cannot forgive James for is his poor review of Our Mutual Friend. 

[Henk]

[Mandryka]

Okay, but the most important thing he is striving to accomplish is a general course of hermeneutics, as prior to this hermeneutics was restricted to legal and scriptural concerns.

Three quotations of his should suffice as it regards general hermeneutics, but he also delves into method including the hermeneutical circle:

"The art of interpretation or hermeneutics is the habitus of the contemplative intellect."

"Hermeneutics differs from criticism as the species does from the genus and the part does from the whole."

"In every interpretation there occur the author, the literary work, and the interpreter."

Now, these quotations seem relatively plain, but given that these were said pre-1750, these are all quite groundbreaking, especially since this near exact wording would be used by Schleiermacher, the author currently credited with the formulation of general hermeneutics.

Interesting to see this word habitus, which I associate with Pierre Bourdieu. I didn't know it was an earlier concept.

[AnotherSpin]

Interesting to see this word habitus, which I associate with Pierre Bourdieu. I didn't know it was an earlier concept.

Are there any new concepts?

[AnotherSpin]

And that is a linkage that is unlikely to be broken given the way citations operate, and how little the works of such vintage are known. The only reason Amo has a little cache is because he is black. Most ideas are lost because the archive is truly infinite.

Likely not, but given how siloed academia is, paired with notions like "obsolescence" and "obliteration by integration," there will always be continual space open for the "new".

There is some very interesting rediscovery work being done in Management (Hinings et al.'s Dusty books), but that readership is likely to be extremely limited.

Alexandre Dumas père's grandmother and Alexander Pushkin's grandfather were black, this didn't seem to interfere with the unequalled success of the grandchildren.

[Mandryka]

It's interesting that Amo got into a German university (Halle) as early as 1727. I just checked and the first black member of Oxford University was in 1868 and the first black at the Sorbonne was in (about) 1920. 

Here's a contemporary racist cartoon of Christian Cole, the first black at Oxford

[AnotherSpin]

[Florestan]

[ritter]

Starting Louis Aragon's Le Fou d'Elsa (from 1963).



Not too long ago I read Aragon's much earlier novel Aurélien, and found it extraordinarily beautiful. The work I am now starting is a long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492). At its length, it is a bit daunting, but most reviews I've read of this book praise through the roof. Voyons...

[Florestan]

a long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492)

Reads like the libretto of a Donizetti opera. 

[ritter]

Reads like the libretto of a Donizetti opera. 

Yep, Boabdil, ovvero la caduta di Granata. But it would have a huge cast: in the first four pages I've encountered Boabdil, Maurice Barrès, Wieland (and Lucian of Samosata), Washington Itving, Wagner, Tchaikovsky... 

Good evening, Andrei!

[Florestan]

Yep, Boabdil, ovvero la caduta di Granata. But it would have a huge cast: in the first four pages I've encountered Boabdil, Maurice Barrès, Wieland (and Lucian of Samosata), Washington Itving, Wagner, Tchaikovsky... 

Seven historical characters, of which only one has got something to do with the fall of Granada. 

Compared to Aragon, Donizetti is a pAragon of cohesion and realism. 

Good evening, Andrei!

To you too, Rafael.

[SimonNZ]

Starting Louis Aragon's Le Fou d'Elsa (from 1963).

Not too long ago I read Aragon's much earlier novel Aurélien, and found it extraordinarily beautiful. The work I am now starting is a long (425+ pages) love poem in prose and verse, with a historical background (the fall of Granada in 1492). At its length, it is a bit daunting, but most reviews I've read of this book praise through the roof. Voyons...

I've had an Aragon novel called Paris Peasant unread on my shelves for a while now. Have you read that one? Do you know if I should move it closer to the top of the pile?