a fiction author's first encounter with Nietzsche

I stumbled upon this fiction author reading 60 of Penguin's Great Ideas series in 60 days. His post today is on Nietzsche's Why I am so Wise. I hate to think of this as a first encounter with Nietzsche. Birth of Tragedy or Untimely Meditations, The Portable Nietzsche (minus Zarathustra) are probably better places to start.

As I continued on into “Why I am So Clever,” “Why I Write Such Good Books,” and “Why I am a Destiny,” though, my ability to fight off feelings of ennui at the author’s approach began to fade. You have to do a lot of work to get to those nuggets, those secret pockets of substance. You have to wade through a lot of self-detail that began to take on a quality similar to encountering someone at a cocktail party who responds to direct statements with long, convoluted anecdotes about their childhood. It’s possible the details are what’s important, that Nietzsche is setting out parables like some kind of five-dimensional Aesop, but the thought occurred to me that perhaps he was just a raving lunatic who had managed by simple force of will to impress his “brilliance” upon the ages. Or that in this instance Penguin had failed in their selection–that there was some essential other text I required to make this verbiage less spittle-tinged. (I fully expect enlightenment upon reading the comments on this post.)

Jeff VanderMeer Reads Nietzsche

How to win an argument with Richard Dawkins

"A great man once said it is a tragedy when scientists turn theologians in their old age. Oh wait, that was you. Get back to work!"

This is awesome

My latest attempt at not working is xkcd.com This one is particularly awesome. When you mouse over it on the webpage it says "They're both Tyler Durden."



























Mike says I should say something about myself. I'm Chris. I met Mike at a "How to be a cult leader" convention he was hosting on a yacht on Lake Titicaca. Turns out it was a trap to get people into his "become a cult leader" cult. Lesson learned: don't drink the Kool-Aid. Pyrimid scams are a bitch. That about says it all.

soda should be the new sin tax?

Shaun Miller pointed out this video of Dr. Richard Daines, the New York state commissioner of health. I don't much care for sin taxes but perhaps soda could be seen more obviously as neosin given the obesity problem.

Disclaimer: I love beer, especially homebrew which is probably more healthy (in moderation).

not guilty

The case that I blogged about a while ago finally went to a jury trial today. Luckily (?) our Armenian friend lost her job so the court did end up appointing an attorney. More importantly, the court appointed attorney did a great job. Sarah was nervous but she did really well. Only one of the witnesses for the prosecution showed up. Chalk one up for the justice system.

Good to note the positive examples, especially when you hear some of the worst negative examples.

fighting monsters

A cliché Nietzsche quote but this one seemed apt today.

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."

BGE #146 Kaufmann

Jorge Luis Borges on poetry, argument

Had the poet said so in so many words, he would have been far less effective. Because, as I understand it, anything suggested is far more effective than anything laid down. Perhaps the human mind has the tendency to deny a statement. Remember what Emerson said: arguments convince nobody. They convince nobody because they are presented as arguments. Then we look at them, we weigh them, we turn them over, and we decide against them.

But when something is merely said or--better still--hinted at, there is a kind of hospitality in our imagination. We are ready to accept it. I remember reading, some thirty years ago, the works of Martin Buber--I thought of them as being wonderful poems. Then, when I went to Buenos Aires, I read a book by a friend of mine, Dujovne, and I found in its pages, much to my astonishment, that Martin Buber was a philosopher and that all his philosophy lay in the books I had read as poetry. Perhaps I had accepted those books because they came to me through poetry, through suggestion, through the music of poetry, and not as arguments. I think that somewhere in Walt Whitman the same idea can be found: the idea of reasons being unconvincing. I think he says somewhere that he finds the night air, the large few stars, far more convincing than mere arguments.

This Craft of Verse p.31-32 - Jorge Luis Borges

Wittgensteinian foundationalism?

Bringing the views of Grayling, Moyal-Sharrock and Stroll together, I argue that in On Certainty, Wittgenstein explores the possibility of a new kind of foundationalism. Distinguishing propositional language-games from non-propositional, actional certainty, Wittgenstein investigates a foundationalism sui generis. Although he does not forthrightly state, defend, or endorse what I am characterizing as a "new kind of foundationalism," we must bear in mind that On Certainty was a collection of first draft notes written at the end of Wittgenstein's life. The work was unprogrammatic, sometimes cryptic. Yet, his exploration into areas of knowledge, certitude and doubt suggest an identifiable direction to his thoughts.

Recognizing Targets: Wittgenstein's Exploration of a New Kind of Foundationalism in On Certainty - Robert Greenleaf Brice (via Methods of Projection)

This sounds interesting, too bad I don't have access.

ummm...

I'm really not sure what to say about this except maybe, "Is Laura Bush now participating in the war on Christmas?". She did say "happy holiday" instead of Merry Christmas there at the end. ;)

via Andrew Sullivan

Reading, 2009

I thought I read a lot of books this year until I read Robert Archambeau's list. Better than what I read this past year (which you probably already know too much about if you read this blog) is what I want to read next year. If you are reading any of these as well that may guide my reading.

• The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
  
• Breakfast of Champions - Vonnegut
• Anathem - Neil Stephenson (I'm still in the first hundred pages.)
  
• Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by Joyce (started but failed to finish both of these in 2008)
  
• more by Camus, probably at least The Fall and The Stranger
• Demons and The Idiot by Dostoevsky (Camus inspired me to re-read these, still trying to get a handle on those crazy Russians)
• Nietzsche - Karl Jaspers (Still in the first hundred pages of this as well.)
  
• I and Thou - Martin Buber
• Cycles of Conquest - Spicer
  
• Huenemann's book on rationalism
• The Golden Sayings of Epictetus
• The Federalist Papers
• correspondence between Adams and Jefferson
• lots of poetry - I'm open to suggestions.
• more essays by Orwell, Montaigne and Emerson
• something by
  • Max Stirner
  • Stendhal
  • David Foster Wallace
  • Epicurus
  • Rousseau
  • Jung
  • Jorge Luis Borges