Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Cain]

Now reading Against the Masses: Varities of Anti-Democratic Thought since the French Revolution, by Joesph Femia.

I found a ton of very excellent academic texts uploaded to a torrent site recently.  I might upload some for people here later.

[dr retard]

SATAN, his psychotheraphy and cure. By Jeremy Leven.

I like very much..

[LMNO]

I'm re-reading On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt.  A philisophical inquiry into what bullshit is, and why it exists.

[Cain]

You make John Dolan cry when you read that book:

Here, get a pen - I'll give it to you, in case any of you aspire to a career in "moral philosophy." There are only four little steps to follow:

1. Come up with a title mixing academic and populist diction, like "On Bullshit." The rubes love a cheap oxymoron. They'll giggle and blush: "Oooo, Professor Frankfurt said 'bullshit'!"

2. Then mention other professors, sound like you know what you're talking about. You don't actually have to know anything about your field. In fact it's probably better if you don't. For example, Frankfurt writes 80,000 words on the notion of truth and sincerity in language without so much mentioning Nietzsche's name. Don't worry; your audience is so pig-ignorant they won't even notice.

3. Amplify, amplify, amplify! Pad your little sermon as if it were an offensive lineman with gout, till your little sermon can fill a book. There's a whole genre of rhetoric, Copia, devoted to ways of turning short utterances into grand, meandering sermons. Frankfurt combines two closely related, equally disreputable branches of rhetoric: the ars predicandi, the art of preaching, and de copia. For a man who explicitly excludes rhetorical considerations from his inquiry early on, he has a strange familiarity with the art's most seedy sub-genres.

4. End the book with an attack on that old familiar straw man, Moral Relativism. This line of attack is so familiar to America's militant hicks that they won't even ask for evidence. So Frankfurt is able to discuss "the contemporary proliferation of bullshit" without bothering to prove that the level of bullshit is in fact greater than it was in the past. He actually admits that his historical argument about language cannot be proven: "Of course, it is impossible to be sure that there is relatively more of it now than at other times."

That's all he says. It amounts to saying, "I have no idea whether my argument has any basis at all, but never mind, let's continue with it." It's typical of Anglo-American philosophy to discuss "the past" without ever mentioning what past you mean. When Frankfurt makes this contrast between present and past, what past is he using?

http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7690&IBLOCK_ID=35

[LMNO]

Wow.

Uh, ok, I'm now reading Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett.

[Cain]

 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am reading "My Custom Van" by some comedian whose last name is Black.

[Cain]

Reading the second Fire and Ice novel by George R R Martin now.

Actually, you know who I really like in these books?  Sandor Clegane, the King's 'Hound'.  Sure he's a bastard and a murderer, but he doesn't pretend he's anything else.  His hatred of knights is refreshing, compared to every other idiot who seems to think a Knight will save them, or even be chivalrous.  Plus he despises his brother, which puts a lot of points in the plus column, and I suspect he's no fan of Joeffry either.  And he seems oddly protective of Sansa, though I doubt that will last.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am reading "The Ghost in Love" by some guy. It's really good! I am surprised, as I did not expect it to actually be GOOD.

[Xirian]

I am reading "D-Day with the Screaming Eagles" by George Koskimaki and after that I'll be reading the second of the trilogy, "Hell's Highway: A Chronicle of the 101st Airborne in the Holland Campaign, September-November 1944" and then the third book "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne: The 101st Airborne and the Battle of the Bulge, December 19,1944-January 17,1945".  I've read the third one already, but I want to read it again.  I want to understand positions and follow along with maps, so I can have a better understanding of their actions.

[Mangrove]

Currently reading: Triumph Of The Moon - a history of modern pagan witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

This book is so good, I almost want to pee myself. Inspite of the small type face and monolithic paragraphs, Hutton's writing is intelligent & clear. The author systematically teases out the various historical & cultural strands that lead to the foundations of the modern pagan movement over the course of 200 years.

Sacred cow body count: very high.

This book covers so many areas that it's hard to encapsulate, but the general thrust is this:

That the neo-pagan movement is not a reconstruction of 'old ways' so much as a reconstruction of discredited Victorian era scholarship.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Currently reading: Triumph Of The Moon - a history of modern pagan witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

This book is so good, I almost want to pee myself. Inspite of the small type face and monolithic paragraphs, Hutton's writing is intelligent & clear. The author systematically teases out the various historical & cultural strands that lead to the foundations of the modern pagan movement over the course of 200 years.

Sacred cow body count: very high.

This book covers so many areas that it's hard to encapsulate, but the general thrust is this:

That the neo-pagan movement is not a reconstruction of 'old ways' so much as a reconstruction of discredited Victorian era scholarship.

I've read books like that!

And that's a very interesting view of neo-paganism. I'd love to hear a few tidbits, if you're interested in offering them.

[Mangrove]

Cainad,

My head is buzzing with this book right now, but some stuff that leaps off the top of my head is:

a) That the word 'pagan' probably doesn't have anything to do with 'country dwellers'. More modern etymology suggests that it refers to a civillian that is, someone who is not a member of Holy Roman Emperors army. Another suggestion is that of the form of administration known as a 'pagus'.

b) That William Wordswith, while more known for his 'daffodils' schtick actually wrote poems about violent, bloody, 'pagan' sacrifices which was oddly enough, something of a literary trend in his day.

c) The triple goddess view of antquity is a Victorian/Edwardian fantasy.

d) Same goes for much of what was written about Pan.

e) Dennis Wheatley wrote 'the Devil Rides Out' after recieving a complimentary copy of 'Magick' from Aleister Crowley.

etc etc. Great book. Even better if you want to troll pagan sites...

[Xirian]

Currently reading: Triumph Of The Moon - a history of modern pagan witchcraft by Ronald Hutton

I started reading that book, but since I'm a slow reader, I had to take it back to the library unfinished.  However, I read something about medieval witchcraft that was really interesting.  Any way, about Ronald Hutton, I should probably buy that book and read it fully.  There are many issues regarding witchcraft and paganism that I think his book will address for me.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Mang,

That sounds really neat. I never would have thought of neo-paganism as something that someone would take the time to research.

May need to get myself a copy if I ever feel like jumping in at MysticWicks.