Reviews and Comments

Osi

osifisher@bookwyrm.social

Joined 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Essays, mostly.

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René Descartes: Descartes: Meditations on First Philosophy (1996)

I follow him in agreement further than I expected, approximately halfway through the Third Meditation, past "cogito ergo sum" and into ontology. One line of argument that's surprisingly interesting is the notion that ideas must come from -somewhere-; and if there is nothing in the world that corresponds to a god-like notion, and/or we were not created by some similar notion (and thus take on some of its attributes), where exactly could the notion come from? This is subtle and striking - I do agree that things must come from somewhere, and that careful examination of how we "have" this notion could be fruitful.

He then immediately loses me with the assertion that this implies the existence of a God, and I avidly disagree with the ontological notion later put forth in the Fifth Meditation that existence is a "perfection", and any being conceived as truly perfect must exist. I …

finished reading The Wild Iris by Louise Glu ck

Louise Glu ck: The Wild Iris (1993, Ecco Press)

From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louise Glück, a stunningly beautiful collection of poems that encompasses the …

Very sad.

Highlights: Witchgrass, The Red Poppy, Midsummer, Vespers (End of August...).

Extended thoughts:

The book is in a semi-circular shape, tracing the arc of the seasons, The book is considering the perspective of the flowers-of-the-field. The poems move through the seasons, with the center of the book being Midsummer, and the speech of people (as in humans, I assume, and not flowers; those who are maintaining the flowers and, I assume, being maintained themselves - or not - by the gardener above) labelled with either "Matins" or "Vespers" depending on which side of Midsummer they are. Shortening or lengthening shadows.

finished reading Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag (Penguin Modern: 29)

Susan Sontag: Notes on Camp (Paperback, 2018, Penguin Books, Limited)

Sontag drops a lot of names, a trait which is of varying attractiveness. Many of these references are interesting, but what am I to make of a sentence like (from One Culture and the New Sensibility):

Some of the basic texts for this new cultural alignment are to be found in the writings of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Antonin Artaud, C.S Sherrington, Buckminster Fuller, Marshall McLuhan, John Cage, André Breton, Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Siegfried Gideon, Norman O. Brown, and György Kepes.

That's quite the reading list, and she neither cites any texts or expands upon what these authors have in common.

That is the worst example (she cites McLuhan later in a more sensible way) but it gets at what I don't like about her writing.

finished reading On Photography by Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag: On Photography (Paperback, 2001, Picador)

On Photography is a 1977 collection of essays by Susan Sontag. It originally appeared as …

Fine and interesting series of essays on photography. Written in the 1970s, it feels quite dated in today's online culture of images; but it's insightful to know how far back the philosophy of images actually stretches. I didn't know how far the philosophy of photography had got in the 19th century, when the technology was barely there.

finished reading The ten principal Upanishads by William Butler Yeats (Faber paper covered editions)

William Butler Yeats, Shri Purohit Swami, Shri Purohit: The ten principal Upanishads (Paperback, 1970, Faber)

Again, not sure of purchase date but in the last few months - Definitely this year. Speakings on moral education and the nature of the self. One to annotate or read commentary on - to talk about the nature of reality is very serious without knowing what parts of it reflect culture and which parts are mystical.

reviewed A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic, #1)

V. E. Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic (Hardcover, 2015, Tor)

STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.

Kell is one …

Average. Fine if you like swash and buckle.

Negatives: A setting of average to low interest, and a feeling of railroading toward the end to "finish", with some things resolving much too easily. Not much to distinguish it.

Positives: Good character writing! Even those that are one-dimensional are quite lively in their particular dimension, and they remain memorable writing this review now.

Not a series I will continue with, but a fine diversion.

finished reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic, #1)

V. E. Schwab: A Darker Shade of Magic (Hardcover, 2015, Tor)

STEP INTO A UNIVERSE OF DARING ADVENTURE, THRILLING POWER, AND MULTIPLE LONDONS.

Kell is one …

Some books begin with a world. Others begin with their characters. I believe this was the latter (I heard something about the author starting from the part where Kell and Lila run into each other in an alleyway). It feels it - the setting lacked interest to me, but the characters pulse with inner life and feeling.