tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post7920375757189841930..comments2023-06-20T02:25:36.578-07:00Comments on The Scholar's Stage: Quantum LibrariesT. Greerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-72135961842103292702014-07-30T04:18:16.694-07:002014-07-30T04:18:16.694-07:00My list, off the top of my head, would have to inc...My list, off the top of my head, would have to include:<br /><br />Hermann Hesse, the Glass Bead Game, since I've devoted twenty odd years of my life to developing a playable variant of the game Hesse hints at.<br /><br />Henry Corbin, Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi, possibly the most demanding book I've ever read, and <br /><br />Anon, Meditations on the Tarot, an Charles Cameronhttp://zenpundit.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-11377530780986713552014-07-30T00:41:54.262-07:002014-07-30T00:41:54.262-07:00@T Greer
My reading is nearly-all re-reading- and...@T Greer<br /><br />My reading is nearly-all re-reading- and only a relatively small proportion of my reading is of new stuff. For example, when I go on holiday, I often find that I have brought only books I already know. <br /><br />So, I am continually re-reading the Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis etc), Thoreau and Emerson, Chaucer (and middle English poems) and Robert Frost...<br /><br />And among Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-56270093834788140392014-07-28T08:10:28.087-07:002014-07-28T08:10:28.087-07:00There is no question that the Three Kingdoms is on...There is no question that the Three Kingdoms is one of the great works of Chinese civilization, so I am perfectly willing to believe that the fault is in me, not in it.<br /><br />On the Lord of the Rings, I came down on the enlightenment/edification side after realizing that the distinction between the eternal fate of elves and of men/hobbits had some illuminating parallels to the distinction Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-9445314194523569232014-07-27T05:45:49.548-07:002014-07-27T05:45:49.548-07:00I'm flattered that you consider my essay worth...I'm flattered that you consider my essay worth re-reading.<br /><br />Books that I can recall off the top of my head in my "quantum library" - <br /><br />James Scott "Seeing like a State",<br />William McNeill "Plagues and Peoples",<br />Zhuangzi (Burton Watson translation),<br />Daodejing.<br /><br />Papers:<br />C.S. Holling "Resilience and stability of Ashwin Parameswarannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-4775372345736946032014-07-25T17:42:49.377-07:002014-07-25T17:42:49.377-07:00I just reread Lord of the Rings last month actuall...I just reread <i>Lord of the Rings</i> last month actually. I cannot decide just where I put it. I remember how much impact it had on me the first time I read it (at the end of 5th grade). I balled my eyes out. My parents came to see why I was crying. My father, who had grown up with the series himself, was sympathetic. My mother, who had never touched the books, just laughed! <br /><br />I’ve T. Greerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-61012286984865346082014-07-25T17:40:02.271-07:002014-07-25T17:40:02.271-07:00Romance of the Three Kingdoms, on the other hand, ...<i>Romance of the Three Kingdoms</i>, on the other hand, I would place in the first two categories. <i>Three Kingdoms</i> reads like a paradox – it is a book of both sweeping vistas and ceaseless tedium, glory on the grandest scale filtered through a convoluted succession of events and characters hard for anyone to follow, made even more inscrutable for Western readers by the arcane geography andT. Greerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-82542849077850679932014-07-25T17:38:35.677-07:002014-07-25T17:38:35.677-07:00I have a deep appreciation for Austen’s style and ...I have a deep appreciation for Austen’s style and message. I once read somewhere (I now forget where) that Austen is to the English novel what Mozart is to the classical composition: perfection. When one listens to Mozart every note seems delicate, planned, and just perfectly placed – a trait shared with every word in an Austen novel. Both find beauty’s greatest expression in the marriage of T. Greerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-11099362458281740922014-07-24T13:35:34.427-07:002014-07-24T13:35:34.427-07:00I also reread the Perfection of the West, but whet...I also reread the Perfection of the West, but whether that's for enlightenment or for mourning John C. Reilly, whom I deeply miss, I cannot say.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-81392944910979896512014-07-24T13:19:47.614-07:002014-07-24T13:19:47.614-07:00Oh, and Tuchmann's the Distant Mirror and the ...Oh, and Tuchmann's the Distant Mirror and the Churchill Bio the Last Lion are ones that I keep rereading, though whether for entertainment or enlightenment, I can't say.Adam g.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-3168439187519002962014-07-24T13:18:17.595-07:002014-07-24T13:18:17.595-07:00Valuable. Really great, in fact!
You too on Pri...Valuable. Really great, in fact!<br /><br /> You too on Pride and Prejudice? I thought I was the only sane man in the world. But you are underselling the book and your own experience of it if you think that it's only for entertainment. There is an intellectual learning, but there is also the kind of learning that comes from beauty and sympathy. I re-read Pride and Prejudice because I'Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-48271009713642379962014-07-23T17:43:52.773-07:002014-07-23T17:43:52.773-07:00Additional.
The online Manas you link to is a very...Additional.<br />The online Manas you link to is a very different beast from what Hatto gives up. Because it's an oral tradition, there is no fixed text... The online, I think, has a more elaborate 20th century rendition, while Hatto used the earliest recordings and did not approve of 20th century improvisations. (I'd argue, it's a living oral tradition and didn't stop dead in theBryn Hammondhttp://amgalant.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-41201688696336545432014-07-23T17:23:19.707-07:002014-07-23T17:23:19.707-07:00correction: by my last sentence I meant short, pro...correction: by my last sentence I meant short, probably modern poems.<br /><br />T, in translations of <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i>, my own preference is David McDuff (Penguin), while I have Ignat Avsey (Oxford) lined up -- he sounds an interesting option. However, I discovered the book in the Constance Garnett revised by Ralph E. Matlaw (Norton), and this did me no harm. The Pevear and Bryn Hammondhttp://amgalant.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-38977606179396333792014-07-23T17:05:51.133-07:002014-07-23T17:05:51.133-07:00@Bryn-
A good, literary list.
I have many times...@Bryn- <br /><br />A good, literary list.<br /><br />I have many times looked at a copy of <i>Brothers Karamazov</i> on the library shelf and thought of picking it up. One thing that has always deterred me is fear that whatever copy I see in the library is an inferior translation. <i>Brothers</i> reputation is so great that I want to read the best available. What translation do you prefer?<br />T. Greerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-43591576917535517792014-07-23T16:46:12.445-07:002014-07-23T16:46:12.445-07:00Inexhaustible books: I am with you. I cannot like ...Inexhaustible books: I am with you. I cannot like the conception of ‘short shelf-life books’ and have always believed it more worthwhile to read a masterpiece five times than to read five lesser books. <br />Dostoyevsky crowds out my fiction list. I don’t feel I waste my time to read <i>Karamazov</i> again instead of another great. <br /><br />modern <br />Dostoyevsky <i>The Brothers Karamazov</iBryn Hammondhttp://amgalant.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-63642191053737364272014-07-23T16:16:27.854-07:002014-07-23T16:16:27.854-07:00@Lex-
I believe I But that was before I started ...@Lex- <br /><br />I believe I But that was before I started re-reading books...<br /><br />@Nick- The Hegel quote is on point! On a similar note, I remember reading/hearing somewhere that everybody should <i>Moby Dick</i> at least three times in their life, once as a young man, once in middle age, and once while old. The experience you will have reading the book, and most especially the T. Greerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621529800248145193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7378807093271153119.post-56601715686556929362014-07-23T14:50:28.228-07:002014-07-23T14:50:28.228-07:00I could not agree with you more: it is eminently w...I could not agree with you more: it is eminently worthwhile to master a small number of books to which one returns repeatedly throughout one's life. Poetry especially bears re-reading as one ages. There is a passage in Hegel where he writes about the difference between a young child and an old man reciting a prayer (cf. http://geopolicraticus.tumblr.com/post/4172002291/Nick Nielsen https://www.blogger.com/profile/03900187813927577698noreply@blogger.com