#42193
09/18/2001 3:26 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Two books to consider
Isaac Singer's "Enemies a Love Story" enwraps the theology of a Vishnuesque God of the Jews in a story of love and survival in mid-century New York. When I read this, years ago, I'd thought of Singer as little more than a writer of pleasant stories, but this book is staggering. He is the rabbi of the 20th century.
Out of print is Eric Maria Remarque's "A Time for Love and a Time for Death," the fractals of life in war. Only one person I've recommended it to has been able to read it -- and simply because it is so unbearable. I believe it has relevance to the events of the day. If you've seen the movie, don't be put off. No movie could ever hope (or should ever try) to equal the writing, but this one doesn't even equal the film. If you read German fluently, I recommend the original.
Movie: "Come And See" I don't know where you'll get a hold of it, perhaps Evergreen Video in New York--they will ship a rental copy to you. This is a requiem by a Byelorussian for his people after the Nazi invasion of their country. This may or may not be the time to watch it. It is harrowing. If not the greatest movie ever made, it is certainly among the greatest and certainly the greatest war movie.
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#42194
09/18/2001 4:35 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
I don't read novels (as a personal rule), but I did read "Enemies, A love story" about 5 years ago and don't remember anything "staggering" about it... I'll try again with my new eyes... 
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#42195
09/18/2001 6:14 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
<I don't remember anything "staggering" about it.
Muse,
To be honest, I'm the only person I know who did, and I'm not suggesting you take the time to read it again. The importance of the novel is what has to do with the protagonists[/narrator's--I may have conflated this book and Singer's memoirs on this point] surviving the war in a box or an attic. That is, in isolation from the conflict, and the insista=ence with which he and his peers pray to a God they do not--will not--believe in *and who wreaks holocaust: the God whose creation emerges from His self-creation in the cataclysmic act of anihilation. The people of the holocaust, which, I am sure Singer would extend to all humanity, are in that respect children of their own destruction. By extrapolation, man's redemption is in willing the destruction of the God who wills destruction. Who is, in His very essence, destruction. And the tragedy of that redemption is that in willing His destruction, we will him into being. This is the theological equivalent of what I take to be the concentration of Being in the diversity of substance in Aristotle's Metaphysics. But, I can assure you, if I dropped that line at an academic symposium, I would receive the one word rejoinder, "WHAT?!"
I do, however, recommend you read/see the others.
Note: please forgive punctuation, etc.
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#42196
09/18/2001 9:16 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
... the tragedy of that redemption is that in willing His destruction, we will him into being.
Makes perfect sense... even in this day/age!
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#42197
09/19/2001 2:25 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
I've been reading "The Stones of Venice" by Ruskin.
I've even almost finished it. I particularly like his long chapters in praise of Gothic and against Renaissance architecture. I was surprised that it was so easy to read, and even better at sending me to sleep, any problems sleeping .. just get out "The Stones of Venice" and off you go again.
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#42198
09/19/2001 11:00 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
I was surprised that it was so easy to read, and even better at sending me to sleep, any problems sleeping .. just get out "The Stones of Venice" and off you go again.
Hmmm. HTML manuals do that to me every time. If fact I don't even need to open the book. Just thinking about reading it sends me off in no time at all!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#42199
09/23/2001 10:01 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I have within the hour had the delirious happiness to discover The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson. The subject-matter is fascinating for linguaphiles, and (as those of you who have read other Bryson will know) the style is so hilarious that you should not read this book in public, where your constant laughter disturb your neighbors.
I personally had five laugh-alouds, all linguistic, on the first page alone. Example: English is full of booby traps for the unwary foreigner. Any language where the unassuming word fly signifies an annoying insect, a means of travel, and a critical part of a gentleman's apparel is clearly asking to be mangled.
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#42200
09/23/2001 10:19 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#42201
09/23/2001 10:23 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Max, I was presuming you'd read it six months ago and were, as always, ahead of all of us northerners. 
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#42202
09/23/2001 11:20 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Max, I was presuming you'd read it six months ago and were, as always, ahead of all of us northerners
Beware, my dear--Max, as all us old-timers know very well, lives in the north. He is on top of the world! [Big grin at Max e] Also, I believe Mr. Bryson is one of jmh's, AnnaStrophic's, and possibly tsuwm's favorite authors. I like him, too.
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