What are you currently reading?

[SimonNZ]

These two on the go:

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Just started Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus



This is probably the oldest thing I've read this year, but I've been meaning to explore Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in some more depth (only read about 5 or 6 Shakespeare plays, and not sure I'm ready to take the deep dive into his work just yet, but I am fascinated by the era and style). So far, so good. Quite funny.

I haven't read this well-respected work. I must get a copy!

[vers la flamme]

I haven't read this well-respected work. I must get a copy!

Though I've heard about a billion classical takes on the Faust myth, this is my first time reading any substantial version of it (save half of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus two years ago, which is surely a magnificent book, but I couldn't make it all the way through at the time.) Definitely need to get around to Goethe one of these days.

[JBS]

Though I've heard about a billion classical takes on the Faust myth, this is my first time reading any substantial version of it (save half of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus two years ago, which is surely a magnificent book, but I couldn't make it all the way through at the time.) Definitely need to get around to Goethe one of these days.

As for Marlowe, I would suggest Edward II is actually better than Faustus. Beyond him, look for Webster's Duchess of Malfi, and the very dark and cynical Revenger's Tragedy attributed to Cyril Tourneur.

[vers la flamme]

As for Marlowe, I would suggest Edward II is actually better than Faustus. Beyond him, look for Webster's Duchess of Malfi, and the very dark and cynical Revenger's Tragedy attributed to Cyril Tourneur.

Awesome, thanks! Was looking for more recommendations for English renaissance drama.

[LKB]

This week I've been making brief forays into Alfred Brendel's Music, Sense and Nonsense, a collection of essays, lectures and other offerings spanning a good portion of his career.

I've owned this book for at least a year, and I've read maybe ten pages during that interval. For the most part, the concentrated density of his writing borders on a sort of monolithic grandeur... admittedly impressive in its way, but essentially bereft of humor. ( He does describe a passage in one of Beethoven's works as " hilarious ", but successfully avoids any such failing in the course of his literary exertions. )

Hesitantly recommended for pianists and masochists only...

,

LKB

[vers la flamme]

This week I've been making brief forays into Alfred Brendel's Music, Sense and Nonsense, a collection of essays, lectures and other offerings spanning a good portion of his career.

I've owned this book for at least a year, and I've read maybe ten pages during that interval. For the most part, the concentrated density of his writing borders on a sort of monolithic grandeur... admittedly impressive in its way, but essentially bereft of humor. ( He does describe a passage in one of Beethoven's works as " hilarious ", but successfully avoids any such failing in the course of his literary exertions. )

Hesitantly recommended for pianists and masochists only...

,

LKB

Aw, sorry to hear that; I've been wanting to read that book. May avoid for now.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Rereading The Novels of Hermann Hesse: A Study in Theme and Structure. Theodore Ziolkowski.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

If anybody have read Notes of Seven Decades written by Antal Dorati, please let us know how it is like.

[vers la flamme]

Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo



Just started it. I don't know whether or not this is intentional, but the book feels very Faulknerian.

[Artem]

I remember liking that book a lot, but I remember zero of its plot nowadays.

[vers la flamme]

I remember liking that book a lot, but I remember zero of its plot nowadays.

So far, there isn't much of a plot to speak of. Quite evocative writing, though. The jumps between past and present, the multiple perspectives, the large cast of tragic characters, and the descriptive nature of the writing—all these things draw to mind the Faulkner books I've read recently. As Susan Sontag points out in her introduction, this is a hell of a way to start a book:

I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there. It was my mother who told me. And I had promised her that after she died I would go see him. I squeezed her hands as a sign I would do it. She was near death, and I would have promised her anything.

[aligreto]

Fred Pearce: The New Wild





This book is basically a discussion on the impact that the introduction of non native species ["alien species''], both flora and fauna, has on an any given ecosystem. It illustrates and discusses the how and why of these impacts both for good and for bad. These non native "alien species" can be introduced naturally or by human intervention and they may have many varied effects. Once introduced, their initial effect can be either good or bad for the relevant ecosystem and that initial effect may well change over time. The book illustrates the case, globally, for both circumstances.
However, the inevitable conclusion that I am drawing is that we humans actually have no clue as to what is right or wrong in terms of what is good or bad for our global ecosystems. Ultimately Nature will decide the destiny of this planet. That evidently would seem to be the case as far as current prevailing global climatic conditions are concerned.

The other main major concern for me, if Pearce, a journalist and science writer who specialises in global environmental issues, is to be believed, is the veracity of purported fact in terms of the core data that much of global decision making is based on and also the apparent lack of verification and replication of this core basic data, which is worrying from an empirical point of view. A lot of current thinking and decision making would appear to be based on shaky science at best. Are we all doomed simply because we will not verify the information upon which we are basing policy decisions?

Another one of the things that he purports is that apparently some modern ecologists are moving away from the notion that Nature is fixed and balanced in a pristine state in any ecosystem. It is, rather, in a constant state of flux. Therefore, spending both time and money on trying to maintain stability can lead to instability.

[Iota]

Interesting looking book, aligreto.

The other main major concern for me, if Pearce, a journalist and science writer who specialises in global environmental issues, is to be believed, is the veracity of purported fact in terms of the core data that much of global decision making is based on and also the apparent lack of verification and replication of this core basic data, which is worrying from an empirical point of view. A lot of current thinking and decision making would appear to be based on shaky science at best. Are we all doomed simply because we will not verify the information upon which we are basing policy decisions?

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.

Another one of the things that he purports is that apparently some modern ecologists are moving away from the notion that Nature is fixed and balanced in a pristine state in any ecosystem. It is, rather, in a constant state of flux. Therefore, spending both time and money on trying to maintain stability can lead to instability.

Interesting and rings very true. If it ain't fixed, don't broke it? ..  ()

[aligreto]

Interesting looking book, aligreto.

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.


Interesting and rings very true. If it ain't fixed, don't broke it? ..  ()

Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.

[Iota]

Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.

Quite so. It sounds very right to me!

[JBS]

Yes, an interesting one.

His basic argument purports to be that Nature is in a constant state of flux. There is no such thing as a "pristine" ecosystem. "Alien" species constantly invade, sometimes take over but, seemingly, inevitably increase biodiversity. We should not be fighting against this. This is the New Wild. It is Nature doing its thing.

But it does make a difference if the "invader" is from the next valley or from the next continent, and whether the natural constraints on its growth migrate with or close to it

Interesting looking book, aligreto.

I'm sure the empirical view of data often gets pushed out of view by vested interests, people commissioning research that gets the answers they want to hear. It seems a depressingly common phenomenon in many areas.

That's a generalized version of the argument made by those generally known as climate change skeptics/denialists.

[Iota]

That's a generalized version of the argument made by those generally known as climate change skeptics/denialists.

That's true, though I'm firmly in the camp of believing that global warming is adversely affected by human behaviour, the evidence overwhelmingly seeming to point that way.

My point, which was not about climate change specifically, was simply that I imagine commissioning research to back up your point of view goes on, on both sides of the political fence in many areas.

[Karl Henning]

But it does make a difference if the "invader" is from the next valley or from the next continent, and whether the natural constraints on its growth migrate with or close to it

Tangentially, one of the pieces we of Triad will sing in November is my friend Pam Marshall's How Spiders Came to Hawaii.

[The new erato]

Finally got started on A Fsrewell to Arms. To my surprized it is situated in Gorizia, which I accidentally visited in 2019.

Reresding Hemingway due to Ken Burns' documentary.