Gramsci wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 1:12 pm

Dovira wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 6:19 am Not reading but listening to these two lectures of Isaiah Berlin on German philosophy. Fantastic stuff.

Oh, very much my thing. Thanks for sharing.

A marvellous lecturer and a deeply fascinating topic.

In this context it's interesting to think of the duality of Marx, of whom I am ambivalent and apprehensive while I can't deny his actuality. The intellectual milieu which shapes him and which he makes his own is at the same time the near-despotic Enlightenment techno-futurism of total rational organization, and this kind of extremely radical individualism - 'freedom' as not a certain kind of ordered life made possible by the proper delineation of rights to already-constituted subjects, but the very power that creates the subject, a principle of being, a spirit that seeks to break out of its confines ('fetters on production').

In a similar way, how the restrained, sober, regular, buttoned-up outward character of German Pietism nonetheless, due to its central components of self-reliance, self-relation and sentimental simplicity, can find stirring within it this kind of absolute craziness.

Once more showing the difficulty in establishing the causal power of ideas, and determining thereby which ones are "safe" and which ones are "dangerous", if such a thing can at all be done.

Zorba the Greek. It just popped into my head as the library was out of, like, 3 or 4 other things I wanted to read in front of it.

It's...fine, interesting enough for me to read to the end.

zircona1 wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 3:20 pm Zorba the Greek. It just popped into my head as the library was out of, like, 3 or 4 other things I wanted to read in front of it.

It's...fine, interesting enough for me to read to the end.

The Last Temptation of Christ blew my mind the first time I read it and with every subsequent rereading, of which there have been more than a few.

Zorba I don’t think I’ve ever gotten through. Maybe it would stick if I tried it again but it’s probably not fair to compare

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 7:42 pm

zircona1 wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 3:20 pm Zorba the Greek. It just popped into my head as the library was out of, like, 3 or 4 other things I wanted to read in front of it.

It's...fine, interesting enough for me to read to the end.

The Last Temptation of Christ blew my mind the first time I read it and with every subsequent rereading, of which there have been more than a few.

I read that too, but it was long ago. I don't remember if it was before or after I saw the movie (which is underrated, and powerful).