What, Why & How do we Know ?
After a large family Christmas and a few days away over New Year, just the two of us in Ireland, I’m back at the desktop using more than my thumb-sized brain system. The Divine Comedy were excellent in Dublin, outdoors on Friday 29th, on form with strings and brass backing to a great selection of … Continue reading “So, this is 2024”
“Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms – Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East” is a 2014 book by Gerard Russell. The Yazidi Peacock Angel (c) Tawûsê Melek Rory Stewart provides the foreword. Like Rory, Gerard was a British officer and diplomat in the region and, like T E Lawrence before them, their knowledge comes … Continue reading “Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms”
Robbie & Rosie bought me Michael Della Rocca’s “Oxford Handbook of Spinoza” as a birthday gift. It was one of those on the book list, but which was a little pricey as an academic textbook, primarily for my interest in the one chapter mentioned previously, so it is great to have the full text of … Continue reading “Goldstein on Literary Spinoza”
I mentioned Salman Rushdie’s latest “Victory City” a couple of times. First impressions here, and again once I’d got into reading it here. I noted in that last post that there were already lots of real-life philosophical applications and that the clever narrative tricks in the trajectory of the 250 year first-person story were providing … Continue reading “Everything I want is in my words.”
Started reading Salman Rushdie’s latest Victory City during the past week away in Sevilla. But for various reasons didn’t get much concentrated reading time and and am only part-way into Part 2 of 4 (*). It’s very good on so many levels and I want to continue with proper attention and concentration. As a novel, … Continue reading “Value in Victory City”
Unrelated, but I just watched two unplanned programs the last couple of days. Netflix had Lawrence of Arabia available, and it turned out to be the full 4.5 hour long director’s cut, complete with blank screen audio overture and intermission. The film that impressed me as a small schoolboy aged 6 back in 1962. Everything … Continue reading “We Can Be Heroes 2022”
I am at last re-reading Mikhail Bulgakov (1929 / 1966) “The Master and Margarita”. The first time I started (and failed to complete) reading it in April 2017 I said this: All I can say so far is M&M’s seriously weird and compelling. Some cross between Salman Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses” and Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” … Continue reading “Master and Margarita – Reloaded”
A new overload of bookmarked pages to capture. Life remains complicated for reading and writing for domestic and work reasons, so I’ll dump most here without reading or reviewing in detail for now. Resources for later. Philip Goff on this old chestnut … Hacking, White and McGrath all referenced (but not Anthropics …) ‘Is the … Continue reading “Link Dump”
I’m reading Dan Brown’s latest in a similar mode to my readings of Lee Child. That is it’s a genre and author that really holds no interest other than witnessing what a best-seller looks like and attempting an understanding how it’s constructed. Who am I to call it drivel? Stylistically neither has won me over. … Continue reading “Our Destiny in Dan Brown’s Origin?”
Loved reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, the so-called “author’s preferred text” version from 2004 with the extra epilogue chapter. It made a big impression but I never did get round to writing a full review, beyond this passing reference. Never been a fan of fantasy or sci-fi fiction generally, with a few satirical and philosophical … Continue reading “#AmericanGods”