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Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

Started by Thurnez Isa, December 03, 2006, 04:11:35 PM

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Cain

Snow Crash is very accessible as a book.  Zodiac is meant to be OK too, from what I hear.

LMNO

Zodiac, Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon.  I liked all of those.

I could not really begin to care about Quicksilver.

Cain

Also, the excerpts from In the Beginning...was the Command Line make it seem pretty good, even if OS geek wars do not interest you (and probably mean it is now the Bible of Slashdot posters, too).

That One Guy

Quote from: LMNO on May 14, 2007, 06:50:00 PM
Zodiac, Diamond Age, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon.  I liked all of those.

Indeed - great stuff all. Zodiac is especially fun for Bostonians, since it's full of weird little tidbits unique to our weird city. I haven't read In the Beginning ... yet - heard it was excellent though. Also, there's an early novel of his, Interface written under the pen name Stephen Bury, that's all about a presidential election and the making of the leading candidate that gets a chip placed in his head after a stroke that allows him to be "run" by his campaign manager. Some great stuff on the nature of media in campaigns in that one.

QuoteI could not really begin to care about Quicksilver.

I can understand that. I really like historical fiction, though, so that definitely makes it easier for me to get into the Baroque Cycle. After reading all of it, I generally re-read Cryptonomicon right after to see the threads that run from one to the other - some very entertaining bits carry over from Cryptonomicon into the Cycle. I love that sort of thing  :mrgreen:
People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.

Arguing with a Unitarian Universalist is like mud wrestling a pig. Pretty soon you realize the pig likes it.

Mangrove

#154
Almost done with Tibetan Book Of The Dead

Currently working on 'The Closing Of The Western Mind' (Charles Freeman). A ripsnorting trip through history, explaining how the Dark Ages came to be.

What hooked me in, was the author's premise that we have been led to believe that Religion was a dominant paradigm later challenged by Science. He posits that, in fact, it was the other way 'round. The Greek philosophical tradition (before the popularity of Plato & spread of Chrisitanity) was based on rationalism, logic and the necessity of evidence.
What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

Thurnez Isa

Quote from: Mangrove on May 20, 2007, 06:30:50 PM

Currently working on 'The Closing Of The Western Mind'. A ripsnorting trip through history, explaining how the Dark Ages came to be.

What hooked me in, was the author's premise that we have been led to believe that Religion was a dominant paradigm later challenged by Science. He posits that, in fact, it was the other way 'round. The Greek philosophical tradition (before the popularity of Plato & spread of Chrisitanity) was based on rationalism, logic and the necessity of evidence.


one thing that comes to mind immediately is that pagan romans activitly surpressed parts of greek and more importantly Persian philosophy and abstract science that they felt would challenge the status of the state (something that got much much worse when they adapted a pro-state version of Christianity and this was seen in morale terms)

I am so going to track down that book
it sounds fasinating
the period of the Holy Roman Empire and its decline ie. roughly 350 to 470 AD, is my favorite historical period
Through me the way to the city of woe, Through me the way to everlasting pain, Through me the way among the lost.
Justice moved my maker on high.
Divine power made me, Wisdom supreme, and Primal love.
Before me nothing was but things eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.

Dante

Cain

Compare

Lucretius
vs
Anselm

on who was more scientific.  Then look how far they were apart in history from each other.

Mangrove

TI:

"When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the fourth century AD and declared it the official religion of the Roman empire, he initiated a change that would thrust the Western world into a dark age. The Closing of the Western Mind is Charles Freemans' enthralling account of this pivotal point in Western history.

Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the ancient world, Freeman shows how the first alliance of church and state resulted in the abandonment of the Greek intellectual tradition. He explains how the efforts of Christian leaders to establish orthodoxy and solidify their position within the state led them to stifle debate and dissent and to paper over doctrinal contradictions. And he examines early church councils, writings, art, and such personalities as Augustine and Ambrose of Milan in a fascinating chronicle of the church's expanding influence, the origins of its uneasiness with sexuality, its profound opposition to science, and the development of anti-Semitism. With brilliance, clarity, and an eye for the vital detail, Freeman has made a signal contribution to our understanding of the early church and the legacy of faith's subjugation of reason."

(from the back cover blurb)
What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

Cain

Does he go much into the effects of the end of the Republic?  Because when I studied Roman Republican history, one of the things I noticed was almost everyone who had been part of a broader cultural movement against the end of the Republic had been Greek influenced.  Or the other way around, that many of those who had been Greek influenced also happened to be the staunchest defenders of the Republic in its last years.  You can ask Roger about Cicero...Catullus tried to salvage some of the Greek classical nobility and preserve it in Roman poetry, Lucretius was influential in philosophy and metaphysics, Cornelius Nepos wrote a scathing attack against Caesar disguised as historical essays....so on and so forth.

Also, I'm reading The Dark Legacy by R. A. Salvatore.  Its looking good, actually, so far.

Thurnez Isa

wow that book sounds at the least really interesting
Im going to have to call the universtiy library to see if they have or get a copy..
cause Im a distance from the university and not aloud to take books off campus (being a non-student) I can hopefully finish it in one sitting
Through me the way to the city of woe, Through me the way to everlasting pain, Through me the way among the lost.
Justice moved my maker on high.
Divine power made me, Wisdom supreme, and Primal love.
Before me nothing was but things eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.

Dante

Mangrove

Cain - I'll have to get back to you on the Roman republic stuff. I'm about 100+ pages in.
What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

Cain

Thats OK.

I got the name of the book I was reading wrong, so you're doing better than me right now.

Mangrove

Quote from: Cain on May 21, 2007, 10:40:21 AM
Thats OK.

I got the name of the book I was reading wrong, so you're doing better than me right now.

Go to see OB. You need moar gin fountain.  :wink:
What makes it so? Making it so is what makes it so.

Cain

The OB needs a Time of Troubles.  The alcohol spirits should be cast down to walk the forums in mortal form.

Thurnez Isa

rereading "Why Must a Black Writer Write About Sex" - (english translation) by Dany Laferriere for the 3rd time
Through me the way to the city of woe, Through me the way to everlasting pain, Through me the way among the lost.
Justice moved my maker on high.
Divine power made me, Wisdom supreme, and Primal love.
Before me nothing was but things eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon all hope, you who enter here.

Dante