I've got a lot of nostalgia for the earnester older posts here -- that's what attracted me to the blog. I'm trying to achieve that same level of political earnestness, but am running aground on the fact that most of the news I read just makes me sad these days. Salon has the rest of the Abu Ghraib pictures. A lot of what look to me like cigarette burns.
Gazing at yourself gazing at your navel. Actually, it's more like gazing at your navel while sitting between two mirrors facing each other so there are infinite images of navel gazing.
most of the news I read just makes me sad these days
That's happened to a lot of us, LB. I used to post about politics all the time, but then it all started making me so angry that I just wanted to drive around the country with my middle finger out the window. So it gradually devolved into exploding whales, penile amputations and pictures from space.
"...but then it all started making me so angry that I just wanted to drive around the country with my middle finger out the window"
And there's something wrong with that? Huh? C'mon, I dare ya.
Politics gives me an excuse to eat valium. And I am expecting this entire crowd someday to gang up on me and drive me away with withering and humiliatingly accurate personal attacks. A typical masochistic wet-dream of the weak-willed sociopath. You can call me Al.
Grrr...I finally overcome my inertia and schedule a guitar lesson and the dude flakes on me an hour before our appointment. These are not the high standards of quality I expect from Craigslist.
From what I hear, my brothers in Barrow are eating oilrig guys when they pop out of the compound for a smoke. And my Quebecois relatives have started trying to eat soccer moms. Unfortunately, soccer moms are tough and stringy.
Anybody know if polar bears are more closely related to black bears than grizzlies? The long neck and smaller, more pointed head make them look a lot more like black bears. I understand that there were once supposed to be some hundred or so subspecies of grizzly. Now the European brown bear, kodiak and grizzly are recognised as the same animal, I think.
38: If I recall correctly, brown, grizzly and kermode, and kodiak bears are the same (borwn bears). polar bears are descended from browns ages ago, and are heavier (but kodiaks are bigger). black bears are quite distinct. icbw, though.
I've a soft spot for the booklets in Kermode's Masters of Modern Thought series. Helped you get up to speed about somebody you were embarassed never to have heard of. Function something like "nutshells" do for lawyers. See? it's good manners around here to leave apo an opening.
Becks -- I do not know what kind of guitar you are wishing to study but if it is either folk music or jazz, I can recommend good, non-flakey teachers in NYC.
Thinking more: "slightly" s/b "pretty". But I have never known him to cancel a scheduled lesson. I have known him to give lessons Becks-style, so he might be a good match.
I think the apolitical turn is explained by the more-or-less simultaneous realizations that (i) it's too frustrating to think about this stuff at any length; (ii) we aren't particularly good at it, compared to many blogs we were already reading; (iii) many of the conversations were becoming Eschatonian. Particularly after the election, it all seemed incredibly pointless. The cock joke thus marks the end of a noble dream.
52: That's precisely what happened to my previous blog. It started as a response to the 2004 election, and worked up quite a lather, and eventually the world came around to where I could find my political ideas expressed better elsewhere by truly wonky folks. I quit that one, deleted it, and was eventually drawn back. For what purpose? It's difficult to say.
As a paid representative of the company in question, I say, of course not! As someone who doesn't receive royalties from the product in question, I say, absolutely!
I was hoping you'd appreciate that, baa. What was so annoying is that "animate dead" was available at, I think, level 3, but for "reanimate" or "raise the dead" or whatever-- you know, where the character survived-- you had to wait until level 6, when the serious badassery got going.
I think I'll name my house "the keep on the borderlands."
"It's interesting going back through those old front page posts. Ogged was such a serious fellow, all about the politics."
Thus much of my original compatibility with this blog (though Ogged's pre-using me as his ur-blogroll, asking for advice, etc., were helpful; on the other hand, there have been a couple of bloggers who have otherwise acted not-dissimilarly who are such dull writers my politest response is to valiantly and desperately ignore them [no, you haven't heard of them]).
"...most of the news I read just makes me sad these days...."
I can't say "most," given the variety of possibilities, but when we weight for prominent political/international/policy/front-page news, yeah. Even that, of course, by no means entirely, but that which is is so very.
"The cock joke thus marks the end of a noble dream."
So what's the excuse for leaving the link up inviting people to the "Unfogged Reading Group"?
It takes a long time to read Heidegger in the original German, make your own translation, and then critique all extant English versions. Which is of course the project they're engaged in.
I suppose we should take the link down. Or I could try to finish reading the goddam book and develop something to say about it, but I have to tell you it doesn't seem likely.
Heidegger went wrong with the reading group -- for those of us without a pre-existing background in it, it was perfectly incomprehensible, and there weren't enough people who knew what was going on to keep a discussion going. I'd try it again for a book I could comprehend.
I can't think of when I've reacted like that to another book -- that no matter how much I slowed down and focused on it, I still had no idea what was going on.
What would be a good book to read? It seems like it should be hard enough for the reading group format to be real value-added. Maybe some more accessible philosophy? or some difficult fiction? The problem with the fiction idea is that the books I can think of that I'd most like reading group help with are awfully long.
I cast my vote for accessible philosophy over difficult literature.
Personally I would again vote for something by Kierkegaard, but that may just be me. He strikes me as a relatively interesting philosopher who, relatively speaking addresses normal people rather than just professional philosophers.
I'd love to see an attempt to resurrect the reading group.
I'd take a stab at more accessible philosophy, but someone else would have to select the book and take the lead. My background in academic philosophy is nonexistent.
I don't know his oeuvre well. I've only read some excerpts. That's part of why I suggested him -- I like what I've read, but he's not someone I would read on my own.
I get the sense that Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and Sickness Unto Death are his most famous works.
I think Stages on Life's Way looks interesting (I'm not sure what's considered to be the best translation).
[As for why Kierkegaard, I note this comment from the Amazon reviews of Fear and Trembling:
Most of what I read 30 years ago for college classes remains a blur, but this text, along with "Sickness Unto Death," stands out as a notable exception. It appealed to my romantic nature and ironic temperament, and confirmed my suspicions of all organized religions while leaving room for faith--an insane leap into a relationship that by relating itself to itself is grounded transparently in the power that posited it. Somehow it made sense then, and still does. No one describes romantic fixation and unrequieted love as carefully yet passionately as Kierkegaard, then transforms it from mere narcissistic stasis into life-affirming energy.
I'm not at all religious but part of what is interesting about Kierkegaard is his affirmations of faith, while remaining a unique and independent voice
"romantic nature and ironic temperament" seems appropriate for unfogged.]
I think there's a relatively inexpensive edition of Sickness from Penguin. If we do Kierkegaard, maybe this will finally get me to read the other stuff of his I started years ago. I lack follow through on too much of my reading.
F&T is about Abraham and Isaac. It's the only one I've read. I don't know what Sickness is about.
Also, I've read that the Hannay translations are better than the Hong ones, but since that came from the intro to one of the Hannay translations, that might be a biased opinion.
Once I was TAing an intro class in which, on the day the midterm examination was handed in, the students were expected to have read the first page of The Sickness Unto Death, which is all about the varieties of despair and the relation unto the relation. The prof gave an (I believe knowingly) unilluminating lecture about this, involving various kinds of relations, labeled R1, R2, and R3. In the section that met right after class, the first question was (naturally enough) "What was that about?" Since I had no idea, I explained it in terms of various levels of despair (D1 etc.), such that, when I reached the second level of despair and the second level of the relation the diagram I had drawn on the board looked like R2D2. It was probably my finest hour as a teacher.
The moral being, it may be short but I think it may be too goddamn incomprehensible for the group. Look over that link before you do anything rash. Fear and Trembling is possibly worth rereading. Or how about some nice Nietzsche?
Hmph. I just left a comment that got flagged, possibly because it didn't like my link to an online text of Sickness. Refrain from referring to comments by number till it shows up. Upshot: Sickness, though short, may still be too incomprehensible for a general audience (I include myself).
Has anyone here read Repetition? It's one of the ones I started a long while back and never finished and I don't remember any of it. It's not too long.
(It was an attempt to refer by number to a comment without knowing what comment would appear at that number and instead of saying something in response to the comment as usually happens when one writes "#: [text]" simply ask "which comment is this?" In other words, it was not a response to 89, but a question about it.)
I distinctly got a message saying it was going to be held for moderation, most likely because it contained a forbidden word or too many links. It contained an anecdote in which, while pretending to explain the first chapter of The Sickness Unto Death, I draw a picture of R2D2 on the chalkboard. It was left sometime after comment 85. It is has a dark ring around one eye, very affectionate and answers to "Sarah." We miss it very much. Please call if you find it.
Once were earnest.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:38 PM
Shortest hiatus evah!
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:38 PM
Dear. The blog's gotten dumber since the riffraff started posting.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:41 PM
Check out this immortal Ogged utterance from the IA thread: "I think it's telling that you substitute astronomy for homosexuality."
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:42 PM
What makes you think that the action you're performing will have the effect you're claiming for it?
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:43 PM
We've reached the deep waters, I think.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:45 PM
I wasn't sure what the right euphemism would be, Ben.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:47 PM
I'm remembering now why I used to feel intimidated commenting here.
Posted by Chopper | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 1:55 PM
It's interesting going back through those old front page posts. Ogged was such a serious fellow, all about the politics.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:02 PM
He was probably feeling the burden of representing La Raza.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:03 PM
FL unwittingly sees the eternal return, from the IA thread:
This thread is like its own blog. Yikes.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:08 PM
Perhaps it's just a coincidence of timing, but getting unengaged seems to have loosened him up significantly.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:11 PM
Yes, well, he only came to life when flirting in the comments.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:16 PM
I've got a lot of nostalgia for the earnester older posts here -- that's what attracted me to the blog. I'm trying to achieve that same level of political earnestness, but am running aground on the fact that most of the news I read just makes me sad these days. Salon has the rest of the Abu Ghraib pictures. A lot of what look to me like cigarette burns.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:26 PM
Gazing at yourself gazing at your navel. Actually, it's more like gazing at your navel while sitting between two mirrors facing each other so there are infinite images of navel gazing.
Posted by SP | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:28 PM
My comments were much better before I started writing them down. Do you suppose it's a Movable Type problem?
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:32 PM
Who was the "[redacted]" who posted twice?
The Druids thingie -- was that from Spinal Tap?
Anyway the Druids were Celts, whereas the builders of Stonehenge were pre-Celtic and almost certainly non-Indo-European.
Thank you.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:40 PM
That's the beauty of redactions. We'll never know.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:48 PM
Emerson, I'll follow you wherever you try to hide.
Posted by Joe Drymala | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:52 PM
most of the news I read just makes me sad these days
That's happened to a lot of us, LB. I used to post about politics all the time, but then it all started making me so angry that I just wanted to drive around the country with my middle finger out the window. So it gradually devolved into exploding whales, penile amputations and pictures from space.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:56 PM
That's happened to a lot of us, LB.
Which is why.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 2:59 PM
Yeah, I can't deal with politics much lately either. Bring on the exploding whales and starving polar bears.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:09 PM
Starving polar bears is politics -- at least, if not doing anything about global climate change is.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:15 PM
God, Bitch, why keep bringing up such a sore subject?
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:27 PM
Practicing the backstroke, are you?
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:29 PM
It's only funny if you don't know how bad we smell when wet.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:31 PM
"...but then it all started making me so angry that I just wanted to drive around the country with my middle finger out the window"
And there's something wrong with that? Huh? C'mon, I dare ya.
Politics gives me an excuse to eat valium. And I am expecting this entire crowd someday to gang up on me and drive me away with withering and humiliatingly accurate personal attacks. A typical masochistic wet-dream of the weak-willed sociopath. You can call me Al.
Posted by bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:34 PM
Someone throw AWB a fish.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:45 PM
Hey!
Posted by Trout | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:46 PM
Some say that the white bears are thinner because of sexual selection. The Jennifer Aniston look is big up there.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:50 PM
29: Just be glad you're not a wedding gift.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:51 PM
Grrr...I finally overcome my inertia and schedule a guitar lesson and the dude flakes on me an hour before our appointment. These are not the high standards of quality I expect from Craigslist.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:51 PM
I heard that the WHO predicts that by 2035, white haired bears will be extinct.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:52 PM
From what I hear, my brothers in Barrow are eating oilrig guys when they pop out of the compound for a smoke. And my Quebecois relatives have started trying to eat soccer moms. Unfortunately, soccer moms are tough and stringy.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:53 PM
33: They overestimate the sex appeal of grizzlies.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:56 PM
35: but what about kermode's ?
Posted by soubzriquet | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 3:59 PM
Kermodes have niche appeal, like transsexuals. It's like, is he or isn't he? Not my thing.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 4:04 PM
Anybody know if polar bears are more closely related to black bears than grizzlies? The long neck and smaller, more pointed head make them look a lot more like black bears. I understand that there were once supposed to be some hundred or so subspecies of grizzly. Now the European brown bear, kodiak and grizzly are recognised as the same animal, I think.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:04 PM
38: If I recall correctly, brown, grizzly and kermode, and kodiak bears are the same (borwn bears). polar bears are descended from browns ages ago, and are heavier (but kodiaks are bigger). black bears are quite distinct. icbw, though.
Posted by soubzriquet | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:10 PM
Ok, kermode is a kind of bear. Thought y'all were making jokes about Frank.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:19 PM
Mountain lions eat the occasional soccer mom, though they seem to prefer kids.
Barbara Schoener
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:35 PM
I've a soft spot for the booklets in Kermode's Masters of Modern Thought series. Helped you get up to speed about somebody you were embarassed never to have heard of. Function something like "nutshells" do for lawyers. See? it's good manners around here to leave apo an opening.
Posted by John Tingley | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:39 PM
29 -- Kilgore?
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:40 PM
You don't have the kind of opening I'm most interested in, John.
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:52 PM
Becks -- I do not know what kind of guitar you are wishing to study but if it is either folk music or jazz, I can recommend good, non-flakey teachers in NYC.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 5:54 PM
Good work, Apo! Leave no good manners unpunished!
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 6:21 PM
What a bargain.
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 6:46 PM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761943641/qid=1142473423/sr=11-1/ref=sr_11_1/104-0965855-8349545?n=283155
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 6:47 PM
45 - Thanks for the offer, TMK! I'm actually looking more for rock, unfortunately. I appreciate the thought!
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:13 PM
Sure thing. For rock, I know a very good but slightly flakey teacher. If you want his contact info drop me a line.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:20 PM
Thinking more: "slightly" s/b "pretty". But I have never known him to cancel a scheduled lesson. I have known him to give lessons Becks-style, so he might be a good match.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:26 PM
I think the apolitical turn is explained by the more-or-less simultaneous realizations that (i) it's too frustrating to think about this stuff at any length; (ii) we aren't particularly good at it, compared to many blogs we were already reading; (iii) many of the conversations were becoming Eschatonian. Particularly after the election, it all seemed incredibly pointless. The cock joke thus marks the end of a noble dream.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:33 PM
Fontana's exclusion of definite article in the post heading made my day. And if you don't know why, you probably had a happy junior high experience.
Posted by baa | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:47 PM
52: That's precisely what happened to my previous blog. It started as a response to the 2004 election, and worked up quite a lather, and eventually the world came around to where I could find my political ideas expressed better elsewhere by truly wonky folks. I quit that one, deleted it, and was eventually drawn back. For what purpose? It's difficult to say.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 8:59 PM
Holy shit! For free, you can order an exam copy of this, which contains a handy-dandy excerpt and a bio of Adorno written by yrs trly.
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:02 PM
Oh, s/b, obviously, re:48
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:03 PM
I do beg your pardon, AWB. I owe you a dinner.
I know that the polar bear thing was political. I was making a bitter joke.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:11 PM
Bitter and insensitive. Who'd want to have dinner with you?
Oh, yes, me!
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:13 PM
Holy shit! For free, you can order an exam copy of this, which contains a handy-dandy excerpt and a bio of Adorno written by yrs trly.
Should I lie in order to get a copy? Hmm...
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:14 PM
I am like an unripe grapefruit. Or a lovely sachet of wormwood.
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:19 PM
As a paid representative of the company in question, I say, of course not! As someone who doesn't receive royalties from the product in question, I say, absolutely!
Posted by A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:19 PM
I was hoping you'd appreciate that, baa. What was so annoying is that "animate dead" was available at, I think, level 3, but for "reanimate" or "raise the dead" or whatever-- you know, where the character survived-- you had to wait until level 6, when the serious badassery got going.
I think I'll name my house "the keep on the borderlands."
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:22 PM
Pithy, b.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:24 PM
Book ordered! Whee!
Posted by bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03-15-06 9:26 PM
There goes that ravening inbox again.
Certainly Adorno is a great antidote to political bitterness and hopelessness.
Posted by John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 7:21 AM
it all started making me so angry that I just wanted to drive around the country with my middle finger out the window
These days, lots of sweet, delicious booze keep me from wanting to do that so much. Life is a cabaret, old chum!
Posted by Paul | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 8:05 AM
"It's interesting going back through those old front page posts. Ogged was such a serious fellow, all about the politics."
Thus much of my original compatibility with this blog (though Ogged's pre-using me as his ur-blogroll, asking for advice, etc., were helpful; on the other hand, there have been a couple of bloggers who have otherwise acted not-dissimilarly who are such dull writers my politest response is to valiantly and desperately ignore them [no, you haven't heard of them]).
"...most of the news I read just makes me sad these days...."
I can't say "most," given the variety of possibilities, but when we weight for prominent political/international/policy/front-page news, yeah. Even that, of course, by no means entirely, but that which is is so very.
"The cock joke thus marks the end of a noble dream."
So what's the excuse for leaving the link up inviting people to the "Unfogged Reading Group"?
Posted by Gary Farber | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 1:51 PM
It takes a long time to read Heidegger in the original German, make your own translation, and then critique all extant English versions. Which is of course the project they're engaged in.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 1:56 PM
I suppose we should take the link down. Or I could try to finish reading the goddam book and develop something to say about it, but I have to tell you it doesn't seem likely.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 1:57 PM
I was thinking of looking back over the old "What went wrong with the reading group" thread and then trying to start a new one.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 1:59 PM
What went wrong with the reading group
Heidegger went wrong with the reading group -- for those of us without a pre-existing background in it, it was perfectly incomprehensible, and there weren't enough people who knew what was going on to keep a discussion going. I'd try it again for a book I could comprehend.
I can't think of when I've reacted like that to another book -- that no matter how much I slowed down and focused on it, I still had no idea what was going on.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:02 PM
What would be a good book to read? It seems like it should be hard enough for the reading group format to be real value-added. Maybe some more accessible philosophy? or some difficult fiction? The problem with the fiction idea is that the books I can think of that I'd most like reading group help with are awfully long.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:07 PM
I cast my vote for accessible philosophy over difficult literature.
Personally I would again vote for something by Kierkegaard, but that may just be me. He strikes me as a relatively interesting philosopher who, relatively speaking addresses normal people rather than just professional philosophers.
I'd love to see an attempt to resurrect the reading group.
Posted by NickS | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:23 PM
I'd take a stab at more accessible philosophy, but someone else would have to select the book and take the lead. My background in academic philosophy is nonexistent.
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:28 PM
Mine is nonexistent as well. Do you have a particular Kierkegaard title you were thinking of, NickS?
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:30 PM
The Sickness Unto Death is short.
I have, or could formulate, some suggestions, but not right now; I've vowed to crank out some writing before 2:15.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:33 PM
I don't know his oeuvre well. I've only read some excerpts. That's part of why I suggested him -- I like what I've read, but he's not someone I would read on my own.
I get the sense that Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and Sickness Unto Death are his most famous works.
I think Stages on Life's Way looks interesting (I'm not sure what's considered to be the best translation).
[As for why Kierkegaard, I note this comment from the Amazon reviews of Fear and Trembling:
I'm not at all religious but part of what is interesting about Kierkegaard is his affirmations of faith, while remaining a unique and independent voice
"romantic nature and ironic temperament" seems appropriate for unfogged.]
Posted by NickS | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:40 PM
I think there's a relatively inexpensive edition of Sickness from Penguin. If we do Kierkegaard, maybe this will finally get me to read the other stuff of his I started years ago. I lack follow through on too much of my reading.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:42 PM
I would selfishly prefer not to read F & T because it's one of two philosophy books I've actually read.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:43 PM
I would be into reading The Sickness Unto Death if it is, as I am thinking it is, Kierkegaard's book about the story of Abraham and Isaac.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:44 PM
No, TMK, that's F&T.
Posted by Tia | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:46 PM
Kierkegaard rules. For parodic purposes anyway.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:46 PM
F&T is about Abraham and Isaac. It's the only one I've read. I don't know what Sickness is about.
Also, I've read that the Hannay translations are better than the Hong ones, but since that came from the intro to one of the Hannay translations, that might be a biased opinion.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:47 PM
Also: I am thinking that we might get some interesting threads spinning off from a reading of Zarathustra with this crowd.
Posted by The Modesto Kid | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:47 PM
No,. that's Fear and Trembling.
We could try the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. It's wicked long.
My translation of the "Or" part of Either/Or (the translation's in two volumes) has my favorite footnote ever, though I now can't remember it.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:48 PM
Also.
Posted by Standpipe Bridgeplate | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:52 PM
The teleological suspension of the edible.
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 2:54 PM
Once I was TAing an intro class in which, on the day the midterm examination was handed in, the students were expected to have read the first page of The Sickness Unto Death, which is all about the varieties of despair and the relation unto the relation. The prof gave an (I believe knowingly) unilluminating lecture about this, involving various kinds of relations, labeled R1, R2, and R3. In the section that met right after class, the first question was (naturally enough) "What was that about?" Since I had no idea, I explained it in terms of various levels of despair (D1 etc.), such that, when I reached the second level of despair and the second level of the relation the diagram I had drawn on the board looked like R2D2. It was probably my finest hour as a teacher.
The moral being, it may be short but I think it may be too goddamn incomprehensible for the group. Look over that link before you do anything rash. Fear and Trembling is possibly worth rereading. Or how about some nice Nietzsche?
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:01 PM
For those that have read more K, what is the general opinion about Stages on Life's Way?
Posted by NickS | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:02 PM
Hmph. I just left a comment that got flagged, possibly because it didn't like my link to an online text of Sickness. Refrain from referring to comments by number till it shows up. Upshot: Sickness, though short, may still be too incomprehensible for a general audience (I include myself).
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:03 PM
Has anyone here read Repetition? It's one of the ones I started a long while back and never finished and I don't remember any of it. It's not too long.
(89: To which comment does this refer?)
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:06 PM
(One that is currently not visible, because it got held for moderation by the spam filter.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:11 PM
(That was a joke. Not a funny one, but one nevertheless.)
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:21 PM
(Is it a joke that your comment is going to be addressed to NickS once mine is approved? HUH?)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:27 PM
(If I were the sitelords I would not approve my comment now, just to show me.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:27 PM
Dude, I don't see your comment.
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:32 PM
(It was an attempt to refer by number to a comment without knowing what comment would appear at that number and instead of saying something in response to the comment as usually happens when one writes "#: [text]" simply ask "which comment is this?" In other words, it was not a response to 89, but a question about it.)
Posted by eb | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:33 PM
I distinctly got a message saying it was going to be held for moderation, most likely because it contained a forbidden word or too many links. It contained an anecdote in which, while pretending to explain the first chapter of The Sickness Unto Death, I draw a picture of R2D2 on the chalkboard. It was left sometime after comment 85. It is has a dark ring around one eye, very affectionate and answers to "Sarah." We miss it very much. Please call if you find it.
(That's very clever in an abstract kind of way.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:38 PM
(Which is to say, very clever and I didn't get it.)
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:38 PM
Fine, fine. I finally found and approved it. It's now #88. You'd better really like that comment, Weiner. Was it worth it?
(Oh, and it didn't like the fact that the URL had "-online" in it.)
Posted by Becks | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 3:59 PM
Thank you Becks! Becks is the hero!
Posted by Matt Weiner | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 4:03 PM
The footnote.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 03-16-06 4:25 PM