Now Reading Thread

[kmik]

So I decided to give Moby Dick another take... It's hard enough with the English but if someone finished it - exactly how much it digresses ?

[speed]

Originally Posted by kmik

So I decided to give Moby Dick another take... It's hard enough with the English but if someone finished it - exactly how much it digresses ?

Hm, I've never read it, and probably never will.

I really enjoyed reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. A rare obvious book of philosophy/ literature that I think worked quite well, and didnt come off as forced or pretentious.

[Demiurge]

Relevance Logic and Entailment by Dunn and Restall

It is fair to say that I have become obsessed with formal logic and rarely read about anything else unless I must.

[Justin S.]

Petersburg - Bely

The Truth in Painting - Derrida

[Demiurge]

Originally Posted by Demiurge

It is fair to say that I have become obsessed with formal logic and rarely read about anything else unless I must.

Anyone else have a strong interest in logic?

[speed]

Originally Posted by Justin S.

Petersburg - Bely

Wow, thats like my favorite book. In my opinion, the best modernist book ever written. If you like it, pick up Kotik Lateav and his Dramatic Symphony, and then read A Silver Dove. All have been translated into english. The rest of his works werent.

Truly I am in awe of how Petersburg was written. So perfectly planned and executed, yet alive and full of humor. The symbolism behind ever single sentence, is just amazing. And his use of descriptions, math and geometry--I could go on.

I am really interested in how you like it.

[Justin S.]

Originally Posted by Demiurge

Anyone else have a strong interest in logic?

I believe the only two posters who showed such an interest were Cythraul and derbeder, and neither post here any more. I've studied my fair share, but lack interest.

It's pretty clear that the majority of posters don't have a background in philosophy, let alone formal logic. So, unfortunately, its just layman BS and the continent around here!

[Justin S.]

Originally Posted by speed

Wow, thats like my favorite book. In my opinion, the best modernist book ever written. If you like it, pick up Kotik Lateav and his Dramatic Symphony, and then read A Silver Dove. All have been translated into english. The rest of his works werent.

Truly I am in awe of how Petersburg was written. So perfectly planned and executed, yet alive and full of humor. The symbolism behind ever single sentence, is just amazing. And his use of descriptions, math and geometry--I could go on.

I am really interested in how you like it.

My presentation and paper for a seminar on the Russian avante-garde is focused on Bely and the novel, so I'm sure I'll post something on it in the near future.

[Demiurge]

Originally Posted by Justin S.

I believe the only two posters who showed such an interest were Cythraul and derbeder, and neither post here any more. I've studied my fair share, but lack interest.

It's pretty clear that the majority of posters don't have a background in philosophy, let alone formal logic. So, unfortunately, its just layman BS and the continent around here!

Right. I'm a bit of a logic nut. Interested in modal logics(esp quantified), relevant logics and paradoxes of the material conditional, many valued logics(including fuzzy), limitative metatheorems in logic and arithmetic, intuitionistic logic, higher order logic, Turing machines, etc.

[Murphy]

...studying French full time and Swedish full time really steals all my time, but since the French have started to replace my English I thought it best to counteract it in the ways that I can, writing on forums being one.

Originally Posted by kmik

So I decided to give Moby Dick another take... It's hard enough with the English but if someone finished it - exactly how much it digresses ?

That rather much depends on what you mean by "digresses". The whaleology (or what he calls it) will surge from time to time. It can be annoying, but for me it was all worth it. Heck, "The Symphony" by itself makes it all worth it.



Due to aforementioned reasons I don't have much time to read these days, but I have at least managed to smile myself through Endgame and re-found this old jewish joke, remade wonderfully by Beckett:

"Raconteur's voice.)
An Englishman, needing a pair of striped trousers in a hurry for the New Year festivities, goes to his tailor who takes his measurements.
(Tailor's voice.)
"That's the lot, come back in four days, I'll have it ready." Good. Four days later.
(Tailor's voice.)
"So sorry, come back in a week, I've made a mess of the seat." Good, that's all right, a neat seat can be very ticklish. A week later.
(Tailor's voice.)
"Frightfully sorry, come back in ten days, I've made a hash of the crotch." Good, can't be helped, a snug crotch is always a teaser. Ten days later.
(Tailor's voice.)
"Dreadfully sorry, come back in a fortnight, I've made a balls of the fly." Good, at a pinch, a smart fly is a stiff proposition.
(Pause. Normal voice.)
I never told it worse.
(Pause. Gloomy.)
I tell this story worse and worse.
(Pause. Raconteur's voice.)
Well, to make it short, the bluebells are blowing and he ballockses the buttonholes.
(Customer's voice.)
"God damn you to hell, Sir, no, it's indecent, there are limits! In six days, do you hear me, six days, God made the world. Yes Sir, no less Sir, the WORLD! And you are not bloody well capable of making me a pair of trousers in three months!"
(Tailor's voice, scandalized.)
"But my dear Sir, my dear Sir, look—
(disdainful gesture, disgustedly)
—at the world—
(Pause.)
and look—
(loving gesture, proudly)
—at my TROUSERS!"

The whole piece can be found here: http://samuel-beckett.net/endgame.html for anyone with an hour left to kill.

Will hopefully come back with more substantial posts soon.