@180 Proof@Jamal

I think both of you will most surely enjoy Novel Explosives — Manuel

:cool: In gratitude for your generous recommendation, Manuel, I reciprocate in kind: the 'metaphysically haunting' duology The Passenger & Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy. Enjoy!

Ohhh, these look very very interesting, I'll definitely take a look. Many thanks. :cheer:

À la recherche du temps perdu #6: Time Regained
by Marcel Proust

The Golden Bough: A New Abridgement
Sir James George Frazer

I think that modernity suffers from an insufferable prejudice of superiority, typified by the sanctification of science and the disparagement and desecration of anything sublime which might possibly predate its own high opinion of itself. I think the more comprehensive view is always the more balanced. The Golden Bough should also be an excellent segue to Cassirer's four volume opus on symbolic forms.

South of the Border, West of the Sun, Haruki Murakami.

Moral Reasoning: Ethical Theory and Some Contemporary Moral Problems, Victor Grassian.

Grassian's book is interesting. He discusses moral and ethics using a variety of dilemmas where it can be analyzed different philosophical arguments.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

It's a science-fiction novel, not a philosophy tome. But, it does involve some deep ethical problems, such as a decision to nuke Antarctica, or not, in order to buy a little more time for the rest of the Earth. Ironically, for sci-fi, it's not a typical adolescent male fantasy with bug-eyed monsters, muscular heroes & curvy females. Even though the alien is strange-looking, his appearance is appropriate for his home environment. And he acts like an intelligent being, not a scary outlandish creature.

As in Weir's previous novel & movie, The Martian, it's mostly about a man alone, and he deals with a series of life-or-death challenges, not with laser blasters & light sabers, but with Science & Technology. So, the book will appeal mostly to those with a good general understanding of basic science : physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Again, ironically, the protagonist is a junior high school science teacher, with no heroic qualifications except intellect & imagination.

As the title implies, the whole story is about a cosmic act of desperation. So there's plenty of tension and feats of courage & intelligence. Oh yes, there is an alien, but no eyes at all. He sees with sound, because his home world has a thick atmosphere, impenetrable to light, but not to sub-luminal vibrations. The book is not at all fantastical, but it's as realistic as anyone could imagine, for a world faced with a potential global extinction event. Never give up hope : science will find a way. :smile:

I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it. — T Clark

Apparently, they are working on a movie based on Hail Mary. Unfortunately, there's a horror flick with the same name coming out in 2023. So, there may be some low-brow competition, to confuse those with higher standards for intellectual entertainment. On the other hand, Weir's story should be relatively cheap to produce : a single major star, routine graphic effects, and most of the action takes place in the mind, putting emphasis on actor & director instead of wardrobe & make-up artists. I enjoyed The Martian, in part because it was contrary to the typical money-making recipe of appealing to the lowest common denominator, to get pubescent butts in seats. :smile:

Apparently, they are working on a movie based on Hail Mary. — Gnomon

I liked the book, but I'm not sure I'd want to see it as a movie. We'll see.

Apparently, they are working on a movie based on Hail Mary. — Gnomon
I liked the book, but I'm not sure I'd want to see it as a movie. We'll see. — T Clark

I also would not imagine Hail Mary as a movie, if I hadn't seen The Martian. It's not exactly a typical action-adventure story, since most of the action takes place in the mind of the protagonist. That's why I said that a really good actor & director would be necessary to pull it off. Lots of voice-overs could become tedious for a bang-boom audience.

Side note : I was impressed with Weir's unconventional but realistic alien concept. By imagining Rocky's home planet as a Venus-like world with thick light-blocking atmosphere, the author gave his species a handicap to overcome in developing intelligence & science. The lack of quick-acting vision, and reliance on slower sonar, would tend to limit the alien's inter-action with local Nature, making scientific observations more difficult. Speaking of coincidences, in my current E-book, I just today came across the Sagan quote below, which could indicate why the alien's Science was inferior in some ways to the human's. :nerd:

"Also fortuitous is the transparency of our atmosphere to visible light, which made important scientific advances possible, as Carl Sagan underscored in his 1980 book Cosmos. There he asked us to imagine intelligent life evolving on a cloud-covered planet such as Venus. “Would it then invent science?” he asked."
The Miracle of Man, by Michael Denton
details the complex web of coincidences that allowed the evolution of Life & Mind in a universe otherwise hostile to living & thinking organisms.

I was impressed with Weir's unconventional but realistic alien concept. — Gnomon

I agree. The fact that the aliens were not aware of relativity was clever.

Caravaggio: The Complete Works by Sebastian Schutze

Finally finished Leibniz New Essays, though of course extremely interesting and quite brilliant in parts, he is prone to meandering too much for my patience, so the final part was quite a slog. Worth it in the end.

On to The Philosophical Writings of Descartes.

The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

Naomi Oreskes

Language and Death: The Place of Negativity by Giorgio Agamben

An interesting philosophical view of linguistics in contrast to the scientific theories being discussed lately around Chomsky's work.

Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In by C. L. R. James

@javi2541997

Hey, Javi. I'm reading "Killing Commendatori." I'm enjoying it.

I am happy to know that you are enjoying a Murakami's book.

I read Killing Commendatore back in January, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think he [Murakami] expresses a lot of imagination with emotional backgrounds: the sister of the main character; the painting in the big saloon (Tomohiko Amada); Menshiki and his personality, Mary and her grandma, etc...

You will see.

The Last Temptation, Nikos Kazantzakis. An extraordinary novel recommended by @Alkis Piskas. This work is a masterpiece.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville — Manuel

I read it 15-20 years ago and was amazed. What do you think?

I'm curious as well. The City And the City sort of blew my mind, but I tried to read The Last Days Of New Paris and couldn't get through it.

I can recommend all three of the books set in the same world: Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council. Haven’t enjoyed his others as much.

I won’t say more until Manuel is finished.

Thanks. I'm overdue on the Perdido stuff; Last Days turned me off for awhile. Have you read The City and the City?

Yes, I’m pretty sure I thought it was great but it’s fallen through a memory hole.

More lectures by Adorno: An Introduction to Dialectics — Jamal

Finished it. Tremendously enjoyable and stimulating, but because the lectures are improvised it’s definitely not a “Dialectics for Dummies” or a useful introduction to Hegel. It’s more like a rambling demonstration of how to think dialectically, how that differs from other modes of thought, and the problems with doing so. One thing about it that does make it useful in approaching Hegel is that he gives concrete examples. Another highlight is when, over several lectures, he goes through the four rules of Descartes’ Discourse on the Method to show how dialectical thinking differs from it.

Next:

Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Frederic Jameson
Beyond Good & Evil and The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche

I'm reading it slowly, want it to last. So far, amazing. Beautiful language, exotic location, interesting ideas, quite fun too, which never hurts.



This is my first Miéville, haven't tried the rest, though I hear Embassytown and The City and The City are also good.

So far, delightful and lots of eye candy, in a kind of dirty though industrially sophisticated way. Though quite different, reminds me of Imajica by Clive Barker.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville — Manuel

I really like China Miéville. "Railsea" is one of my favorite books and "The City and the City" is great. I also enjoyed "Embassytown" and "Kraken." He writes so well. He uses uncommon words without ever seeming pedantic. I can't imagine reading one of his books except on Kindle where I can look things up right away.

I started reading "Perdido Street Station" before, but got lost about a third of the way through. The writing is dense and visual. The world is so odd. That's true of all his books but not to the same extent. I gave up, but you have inspired me to go at it again. That partly because I don't feel like I should try to read "The Scar" or "Iron Council" till I do. I'm about 30 pages in now. The writing is wonderful, the world is bleak and amazing, and I am determined.

Have you seen the television adaptation of "The City and the City?" I generally don't want to watch movies or TV shows of books I like, but I'm curious.

No, I haven't, like you, I've greatly decreased my time watching movies or tv shows, with minimal exceptions.

I am a compulsive book buyer, had this one for a while, but haven't read anything else by him. Unless it becomes boring for too long, I doubt I'll stop. Once you read 2 or 3 difficult books, Pynchon, Joyce, etc., it's hard to give up a book due to it being dense, with exceptions, of course.

I am reading unusually slowly, but it's very enjoyable and I always like visually stimulating books, of whatever genre.

As for the TV show, I would have a look, but I must read the book first, otherwise, I spoil a good novel reading opportunity.

Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I read the first bit of Perdido St. Station and it inspired me to write a few paragraphs in that style. The insectuous relationship didn't do it for me though and so I dropped it.

The insectuous relationship didn't do it for me though and so I dropped it. — Baden

We all draw a line somewhere.