What are you reading?

[AKA*NYC]

^ have you read houllebecq's essay on lovecraft? the premise is nearly the same except it's presented in plainer, non anglo-heideggerized (if i may sloppily put it this way) prose. once philosophy meets pop culture it loses me i confess.

[trentk]

I have a copy sitting in my library, waiting to be read.

[BSR]

^ have you read houllebecq's essay on lovecraft? the premise is nearly the same except it's presented in plainer, non anglo-heideggerized (if i may sloppily put it this way) prose. once philosophy meets pop culture it loses me i confess.

houellebecq's text on lovecraft is his best book... and it's not a masterpiece though

houellebecq= french 'Litterature' that sells in supermarkets and reads in planes

but AKA i entirely agree on the popXphilosophy disaster

[trentk]

BSR, I'm starting to think Thacker's book is more disastrous than pop philosophy:

What follows is an extended commentary on a basic question: can there exist today a mysticism of the unhuman, one that has as its focus the climatological, meterological, and geological world-in-itself, and, moreover, one that does not resort to either religion or science? But we must be cautious here: this does not mean a mysticism of the Earth or a mysticism of nature, and it does not mean a mysticism of the human subject or “humanity” in general, much less a mysticism of something as grotesque and vague as “life.” Still, the suggestion that something vague called mysticism still exists at all may at first seem a ridiculous, even naïve presupposition. Certainly, as a way of thinking and as a set of contemplative practices, mysticism is today no longer as relevant. This is not only due to the dominance of applied scientific thinking in our globalized, convergence cultures, but it is also due to the hegemony of orthodox, religious extremism in dictating the contours of what may or may not legitimately count as mystical experience.
What follows takes place by way of a poetic text and an accompanying commentary. The poetic text is an anonymously authored poem that has been circulating on blogs, forums, and even in a number of scholarly journals. Because the poem was originally circulated in fragments, its total length is not known, and its rather baroque title – “The Subharmonic Murmur of Black Tentacular Voids” – appears nowhere in the body of the poem itself. In addition, it is unclear whether the poem is of contemporary origin, or whether it is a contemporary translation of an older text (though most are of the opinion it is the former). In spite of all these uncertainties, parts of the poem have been said to have – this is the claim, at least – verifiable geomantic symptoms within the metabolism and physiognomy of those who have, under unspecified conditions, recited its lines. Given this rather melodramatic image of, as one blogger put it, “geomantic shifts in the nature of thought,” the current rumors surrounding the poem are noteworthy for the way they implicitly investigate the relationship between the climatology, geopolitics, and the unhuman – and it is in this spirit that the following commentary is written.

WTF

On a tangential note: For anyone interested in Bataille, I found an english translation of parts of acephale. http://solarluxuriance.com/

[viv1984viv]

yup - will check out that bataille translation pdf, nice find.

Yeah, after 10 pages major doubts started to creep in the Thackers book so I put it down....

Gogols Ukranian Tales are amazing, well underrated, pretty much the most spooky, vivid and haunting russian I've read - totally ripe at this time of year in the NH....

[Czx]

Currently reading Crime and Punishment as a school lecture. Jesus I hate being rushed by school deadlines when it comes to reading such books for class. The same thing I had with Kafka's Trial and Goethes Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther. Takes away so much joy from reading. But I don't mind rereading any of those books, actually I will pick up Faust for the third time come Christmas break.

[viv1984viv]

i'm going to be so sad when i finally run out of bataille to read.

- Ha, that's hilarious, there's always Guyotat if your man enough!

Currently reading Crime and Punishment as a school lecture. Jesus I hate being rushed by school deadlines when it comes to reading such books for class. The same thing I had with Kafka's Trial and Goethes Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther. Takes away so much joy from reading. But I don't mind rereading any of those books, actually I will pick up Faust for the third time come Christmas break.

I just finished C&P, amazing book, Svidigailov is a total don, Raskolnikov, AKA The Rascal, AKA Axeman, AKA The Bad Napoleon is nothing in comparison...

After Finitude by Meillassoux and Sonic Warfare by Goodman is up for me next... not sure about fiction, my leap onto the idiot... probably Ovid too....

[trentk]

After Finitude by Meillassoux and Sonic Warfare by Goodman is up for me next...

After Finitude

If we look through the aperture which we have opened up onto the absolute, what we see there is a rather menacing power--something insensible, and capable of destroying both things and worlds, of bringing forth monstrous absurdities, yet also of never doing anything, of realizing every dream, but also every nightmare, of engendering random and frenetic transformations, or conversely, of producing a universe that remains motionless down to its ultimate recesses, like a cloud bearing the fiercest storms, then the eeriest bright spells, if only for an interval of disquieting calm. We see an omnipotence equal to that of the Cartesian God, and capable of anything, even the inconceivable; but an omnipotence that has become autonomous, without norms, blind, devoid of the other divine perfections, a power with neither goodness nor wisdom, ill-disposed to reassure thought about the veracity of its distinct ideas. We see something akin to Time, but a Time that is inconceivable for physics, since it is capable of destroying without cause or reason, every physical law, just as it is inconceivable for metaphysics, since it is capable of destroying every determinate entity, even a god, even God. This is not a Heraclitean time, since it is not the eternal law of becoming, but rather the eternal and lawless possible becoming of every law. It is a Time capable of destroying even becoming itself by bringing forth, perhaps forever, fixity, stasis, and death.

Watchout - after reading Meillassoux, you may no longer be able to call yourself an atheist. (That is, assuming you currently are an atheist). You may also develop a hyperchaos fetish.... I have.

[The Great Destroyer]

About to dig into David Foster Wallace - The Pale King.

[galia]

ah, I'm about to start reading "the broom of the system"

I already thoroughly enjoyed his "consider the lobster", but that wasn't fiction. extremely entertaining and smart. enev though it makes for a light and fun read, you definitely don't feel dumber after reading him

[Johngd]

Got this one as an early christmas gift yesterday. Havent really read any Hemingway so this will be fun

[belgaux]

All the pretty horses by Cormac McCarthy - COWBOYS!

[kirie]

the collected works of Schopenhauer.


I'm pretty sure I'm never going to leave my house or speak to another human being ever again.

[viv1984viv]

After Finitude



Watchout - after reading Meillassoux, you may no longer be able to call yourself an atheist. (That is, assuming you currently are an atheist). You may also develop a hyperchaos fetish.... I have.

trentk - you may be able to help here, I remember reading somewhere that he hinted at his range of interests being crazy to what we have seen so far.... lists some of the stuff he's looking at and has yet to write about - anyone know where that snippet is?

I'm reading, for fun, the city and the city by china mieville - page turner.

[nictan]

just finished 1984.