What, Why & How do we Know ?
“UNEASY RIDER” George Steiner, The New Yorker, 15th April 1974 The first review of Robert M. Pirsig “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” Told by the blurb that we have here “one of the most unique and exciting books in the history of American letters,” one bridles both at the grammar of the claim … Continue reading ““UNEASY RIDER” by George Steiner”
8th July 1968 was a Monday 50 years ago when Robert Pirsig set off from the Twin Cities on his Honda CB77 Superhawk with son Chris riding pillion and friends John and Sylvia Sutherland alongside on their BMW. That road trip to California formed the narrative of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM). You … Continue reading “After the Fireworks”
Fun (pleasure or jouissance), was part of Zizek’s agenda noted below. I finished his “Living in the End Times” a week or so ago; a good provocative read in many places, but I was just left with an inconclusive anti-climactic “so what ?”, and no further specific review subjects to publish, so I moved straight … Continue reading “What’s So Funny ?”
1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (X) 2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien () 3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (/) 4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling () 5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (X) 6 The Bible – (/) 7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (/) 8 … Continue reading “Too Much Reading ?”
Greg Proops presents a BBC review of Kerouac’s influential 1957 book, with interviews with the survivors. (The 127 foot continuous roll manuscript was real, auctioned recently, but being the product of the single benzedrine trip is apocryphal, apparently – several edits too before publication, already ten years old when first pubished. Interesting that Jack was a … Continue reading “50 Years On The Road”
Been away from blogging for a week, spending a week at a business development and golf sales conference in Koh Samui, Thailand. Beautiful location, fun time. Flying back, Bangkok to London, I continued to read Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”. 75% through, it’s a great read. Whacky style, funny, serious period of childish biographical Indian history … Continue reading “Reading Rushdie”
I was struck at the MoQ conference by the number of passionate musical connections, (not to mention the Liverpool location). There’s a running musical thread in my blog, which I’d never really connected to the world-model mainstream, except I guess through Hofstadter’s Bach and Minsky’s musical appreciation, but Ant kept this one quiet. Some interesting … Continue reading “Zen – The Musical”
Just started Douglas Hofstadter’s “Godel, Escher, Bach – An Eternal Golden Braid” – A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. So far, I’m reading his 1999 Preface to the 20th Anniversary Edition of his 1979 original Pullitzer prize winner. It’s a book about life, mind, and the evolving psychology … Continue reading “Another I Wish I’d Read Sooner”
Too soon to write on Perth, except very mild, even chilly yesterday, and everything closed early on Sunday. More later. Catching up on Melbourne … excuse my indulgent diary … Never did mention the bird-life. Even first day in Victoria Garden … Magpie Lark, Magpie and various other Crow species, not to mention various Gull … Continue reading “Melbourne – Perth”
Just finished Kerouac on BA2027. Aren’t west-bound transatlantic flights a great place to read – 90% of the book in the one sitting. I guess I need to understand a little of the circumstances under which it was written – one drug induced sitting ? – published 1955 about 1947 to 1949 period in which … Continue reading “Off The Road”