Endgame and Act Without Words, by Samuel Beckett: I went to see the Cutting Ball Theater production of Endgame in San Francisco with Steve, who later lent me his copy of the play since I hadn’t read it prior to the performance. I don’t know how I would have reacted if I read the [...]
[Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter]
Further progress in Gödel, Escher, Bach has proven delightful. There was this dialogue called “Ant Fugue”, which compared anthills to brains in a rather charming way. The dialogue preceding this one was called “Prelude…”. Makes you wonder at the cleverness of the author in finding an [...]
I took a course on Bach in my last semester of college because of this book.
[Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter]
By the way, there was another really clever dialogue in the GEB, which I read on Wednesday. It was titled, “A Little Harmonic Labyrinth,” which was a Bach composition that modulated [...]
The inspiration for the subtitle of this blog.
[Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter]
A few days ago, I succumbed to temptation and opened up Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter. It is one of the most absolutely amazing books I have ever read. Very difficult to follow though [...]
Not sure if this interpretation of Camus is correct. Sartre, in any case, would not have approved.
[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus (trans. Justin O'Brien)]
But when I realized this, that I’d be liberated if I knew that I had to die in the next few weeks, I suddenly understood what [...]
For the record, I still think Camus’ solution to the absurd is a cop-out.
[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus (trans. Justin O'Brien)]
So if any of you were waiting breathlessly to see how Camus would affirm life when one lives in the condition of the absurd, expect to be disappointed. Basically, he [...]
Having acquired more critical thinking skills over the course of my college education, I don’t think I’d profess a belief in any sort of “magic” now. Nor do I reify human consciousness anymore (which had been a product of my Platonist tendencies). It’s very fashionable in science these days to call consciousness an [...]
Well, I suppose I can provide an explanation of phenomenonology now, albeit not a concise one. There has been some progress in my education in the past five years.
[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus (trans. Justin O'Brien)]
Camus has now discussed how the phenomenologists end up escaping the absurd in a [...]
It still makes me wince to realize how patronizing I sounded at almost-seventeen. I wonder if I would understand Camus better now if I were to read the essay again.
[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus (trans. Justin O'Brien)]
I am still in the middle of The Myth of Sisyphus, by [...]
The following books were read in May 2006. (I’m still catching up on the backlog.)
His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik: Dragons in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. The main character being a Royal Navy officer, Laurence, who stumbles across an egg of a rare Chinese breed, originally promised to Napoleon himself, and finds himself [...]