What are we reading?

Started by edison, September 21, 2003, 11:20:03 PM

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socketlevel



great book that gets into christianity and darwin
the one last hit that spent you...

Gold Trumpet

Really on Erewhon? I had a hard time enjoying it because the book was tedious on the everyday details about this foreign society. I chuckled at the good satirical moments that reminded me of English society, but those seemed few and far between. It felt like Butler was translating his scientific notes (which he took a lot of) to novel form when the originals would be more interesting because they would be revealing about our world. The world of Erewhon seems too foreign and fictional to care about on a scientific level. If the novel was more about the cultural world of Erewhon and used those details to mock our own culture, that would be more interesting.

But I recommend Samuel Butler's The Way of all Flesh. It's one of the first modernist novels and a perfect anti Jane Austen novel. Especially illuminating considering it was written in the late 1800s and is so scathing. It feels like was written in the last 20 years by someone who has no sentimentality or interest in that old romantic world. A great comedic work.

socketlevel

i guess i kinda liked the detachment. that's something I'm not normally into, i just feel over melo-drama'd out by everything in current western culture.  normally i care about the cultural world, but i guess this was refreshing in that it didn't do that.  i like satire that does what you wanted from it, but not this time for me. it had a strangeness to it that i would put akin to wells' time machine or the scientific parts of watching master and commander, like a scientific analysis of Darwin and Galapagos, but instead it was all made up.  i found that approach fun, i don't know why i might just be a nerd that way.

i like to hear criticisms on Darwinism because that's actually the weaker voice by today's standards, and not some crazy creationist opposition but a compassionate sensible one.  now at the time this was written i'm sure more people felt the way butler did, so this is one of those rare books that is more poignant now.  that really fascinates me.

also, I'm agnostic myself, so when i feel either side is weighted too heavily i by nature look for a good opposite view.

I totally planed on reading the way of all flesh next, but since you recommend it highly, I'll make sure of it.
the one last hit that spent you...

Neil

it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

Pedro

Good luck, Neil.  Are you using any supplemental materials to help you get through it?  Also, have you read Ulysses?  If not, I highly recommend you read it first!  For that novel use Stuart Gilbert's companion James Joyce's Ulysses.  Lots of insight.  Also, Ulysses Annotated is helpful if a little overwhelming. 

For class/pleasure:


For class/pain:

(I couldn't find a cover of the edition I'm using.  The translation is by Hippocrates Apostle.)

a.santi

Quote from: Pedro the Alpaca on September 14, 2009, 07:06:33 PM

For class/pain:

(I couldn't find a cover of the edition I'm using.  The translation is by Hippocrates Apostle.)


aahh!! poor you..i was tortured with that at school. im more of a plato person myself.

Neil

"supplemental" i like that.  I think my life is full of that, to be honest.  Fortunately, I read Ulysses first! My translation has probably been disregarded by this point, and also haven't read the annotated version, though, i'm looking online for that now. I remember how i felt when i'd read the bible for the first time when i was young, then i read the Odyssey, and felt even more compelled to move. Then i read Ulysses. slept for days, and re read the shit out of that, with a highlighter and pencil.  I read Portrait of an artist as a young man on a plane to North Carolina, and I only get books from this bargain book store, and they had some JJ poetry as well. 

Getting 70+ pages into it, i was considering basing an album off it, truly.  But i think that's just probably because I'm a lousy artist. 

And aristotle is the shit, sometimes you just disregard useless principles for the more important ones, the same with any other woman or man's mind.  Turns out i enjoy knit picking at philosophy, so when consumed in large amounts, it really works for me.  What problems are you facing with Aristotle?
it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Or rather, what problems are you facing Aristotle with?
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

RegularKarate

Quote from: Pedro the Alpaca on September 14, 2009, 07:06:33 PM
Good luck, Neil.  Are you using any supplemental materials to help you get through it? 

Looks like he's using a Guinness.

Neil

it's not the wrench, it's the plumber.

GodDamnImDaMan



Yo Neil, I'm really happy for you, I'm gonna let you finish, but Bunnicula was one of the best books of all time. One of the best books of all time!!!!
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Aclockworkjj:  sucks, when i cough, if feels like i am dying
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Stefen



It's fucking awesome. I fell in love with his show, No Reservations, but the book is like a more hardcore version of the show. Tons of great anecdotes and hi-jinks from inside the kitchen. Good, good stuff.
Falling in love is the greatest joy in life. Followed closely by sneaking into a gated community late at night and firing a gun into the air.

MacGuffin

Quote from: Stefen on September 15, 2009, 02:30:11 PMI fell in love with his show, No Reservations, but the book is like a more hardcore version of the show.

That's good to know. His is the best show on the Travel channel. They can get rid of that bug eating guy.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

I recently got into this show, too.  It's incredibly engrossing.  Not just an excuse to look at food from around the world, but highly entertaining and enlightening.
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

polkablues

Quote from: MacGuffin on September 17, 2009, 05:04:39 PM
That's good to know. His is the best show on the Travel channel. They can get rid of that bug eating guy.

No joke. I'm always amazed by how many different animals' penises can be considered delicacies.
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