Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Nearly finished this:





It is uberviolent. Seriously.

Well, he did remove people's toes with bolt cutters and blowtorches.

Bahaha, natürlich! Might I take it that you don't like dear Mr. Barfield?

Not at all. He adds complexity where it is unnecessary. He reminds me of that South Park episode where all the hippies want to organize into units, and live together in harmony; only to have Stan point out that what they're talking about already exist in the forms of towns.

The dude rejects the dialectic, and then proceeds to describe exactly what the dialectic entails. Its almost as if he's averse to the word.

and then

And.



And.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett. I like to vary my reading.

J.Black wrote:One of a few i got for Christmas, i actually bought and lost this book before i could finish it about 8 years ago. Very glad to be able to read it again though; no-one does pretentious sci-fi like Iain Banks

I'm a huge fan of his CULTURE series and eagerly await his next book set there!

BishopGore wrote:

Love the mixture of grimdark crime and magic set in the current time.

Haven't read anything of his since SUNSET WARRIOR series! Loved that one, and his NINJA series too... How's this one?

hcordes wrote:I just finished all seven books in "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King


am currently reading.....

The ONLY thing that made me NOT drive up to Maine and 'talk' to Stevie after reading the end of that series was the fact that I read them all in a row, and didn't wait 22 YEARS for the thing to finish! I really like the ride, but not the finish...

Anyway, here's mine:

Alpharius wrote:[
The ONLY thing that made me NOT drive up to Maine and 'talk' to Stevie after reading the end of that series was the fact that I read them all in a row, and didn't wait 22 YEARS for the thing to finish! I really like the ride, but not the finish...

I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the ride! I loved it! And then the last half of book seven..... ehhh.... but i highly suggest anyone out there too read these books they really are great.
I think it would have been better if i didn't read the epilouge at the end... *sighs* i could have lived with the ending but i had to read that last snipnet.

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, only because I am excited for the game lol.

Curly wrote:The Inferno by Dante Alighieri, only because I am excited for the game lol.

It should be ready anyway. Dante's Divine Comedy was one of the greatest, and most stirring, pieces of poetry ever written. Good on you for reading it. I certainly enjoyed all three parts.

@Dogma: I thought you would say something like that. I must respectfully disagree. Barfield was ridiculously intelligent, but I will admit, he wasn't the greatest writer. I love his books though, even if they don't have the wit of GK Chesterton's books. I certainly prefer his writing to most other modern philosophers...

Barfield was intelligent, he had an excellent grasp of the dialectic, its just a shame that he couldn't bring himself to actually call it that.

Anyway, most modern philosophers are logicians first. Their books, at least those not intended for popular consumption, are roughly analogous to mathematical proofs. In many ways the relationship between logic and philosophy is comparable to the relationship between math and physics.

dogma wrote:Barfield was intelligent, he had an excellent grasp of the dialectic, its just a shame that he couldn't bring himself to actually call it that.

He only wrote one dialectic book as far as I can remember, World' Apart, but I don't recall him writing many, if any more, but I haven't read all of his works either. Certainly his best work, Saving the Appearances isn't a dialectic.

dogma wrote:Anyway, most modern philosophers are logicians first. Their books, at least those not intended for popular consumption, are roughly analogous to mathematical proofs. In many ways the relationship between logic and philosophy is comparable to the relationship between math and physics.

Its funny, most people don't think of them that way. That is why I tend to ignore most modern philosophers. To me it is quite boring. I have never much cared for math, and as you so aptly pointed out, it comes down to logical proofs for many of them. Besides, I am to much of a romantic to ever be fully involved with the works of hardly any of the more recent philosophers. I am to busy soaking up the genius of Ancient Greece, Rome, the Enlightenment and the Victorian Age

JEB_Stuart wrote:He only wrote one dialectic book as far as I can remember, World' Apart, but I don't recall him writing many, if any more, but I haven't read all of his works either. Certainly his best work, Saving the Appearances isn't a dialectic.

I'm not referring to the dialectic as a literary concept, I'm referring to it as a philosophical concept: wherein the dialectic is a reference to the conversation between the past, and present members of the philosophical community. Barfield rejects that process, mostly because he confuses philosophy with theology; rejecting systemic proof (like most British philosophers who disputed Russel).

JEB_Stuart wrote:
Its funny, most people don't think of them that way. That is why I tend to ignore most modern philosophers. To me it is quite boring. I have never much cared for math, and as you so aptly pointed out, it comes down to logical proofs for many of them. Besides, I am to much of a romantic to ever be fully involved with the works of hardly any of the more recent philosophers. I am to busy soaking up the genius of Ancient Greece, Rome, the Enlightenment and the Victorian Age

It is funny. I am incredibly anti-authoritarian in my daily life, but I do my best work in a world which turns on rigidity. I think its my competitive side (it is quite expansive) made manifest in academia.

dogma wrote:I'm not referring to the dialectic as a literary concept, I'm referring to it as a philosophical concept: wherein the dialectic is a reference to the conversation between the past, and present members of the philosophical community. Barfield rejects that process, mostly because he confuses philosophy with theology; rejecting systemic proof (like most British philosophers who disputed Russel).

Ah, well that clears things up a bit. Keep in mind I am only an amateur philosopher, and a bad one at that I will admit, that Russel intrigues me, but I tend to reject his ideas. I really must spend more time in his work, but I find it hard to do when I already devote so much time to my other writers. Besides the enormous amount of fiction and history books that I read (I just finished a delightful book on Field Marshall Erwin Rommel) I have a stack of philosophy books that I am happily working through. Other then those I listed already I still have several books by Nietzsche, Kierkegaard,Kant, Descartes, Hume, Pascal, Aristotle and of course Hobbes. I really should try and set them in an order and just work through them more diligently, but I can't. I simply love just picking up one of the books I have in a pile, grabbing my pipe, a pen, a pad of paper, and maybe a glass or two of Scotch and sitting outside on the patio and working through something. And I wonder why my Space Marines never get painted!

dogma wrote:It is funny. I am incredibly anti-authoritarian in my daily life, but I do my best work in a world which turns on rigidity. I think its my competitive side (it is quite expansive) made manifest in academia.

Ah, well I would be lying if I said I wasn't much the same way. Admittedly though, I take my anti-authoritarian nature out on colleagues when I write my papers. I wrote a pretty harsh criticism of Robin Seager's views on Pompey the Great. Mr. Seager is often considered to be academia's leading authority of Pompey. Not only did I do this for my class, which my professor was rather shocked at, but I also volunteered to present it at the Phi Alpha Theta academic conference. Needless to say, many of the Classical historians knew Mr. Seager personally, and didn't take kindly to my work. It isn't always a good thing to mix your competitive side, with your tendency to rub against the grain...Incidentally though, I won an honorable mention, and didn't place because I wasn't a member of Phi Alpha Theta

Im currently reading 40 plus,

It is a magazine of transforming power and formal risk. Abandoning gruff but profound male camaraderie, the writer instead sounds the limits of imaginable love and despair between mature large breasted women and the reader being, "each other's world entire". The initial experience of the mag is sobering and oppressive, its final effect is emotionally shattering.

...and mattyrm wins the thread.

Albatross wrote:...and mattyrm wins the thread.

100% agreed,now THAT'S literature.

BrookM wrote:

Show off!

"A Thousand Sons" is ace..well worth a read.

Book wise "Soul Hunter".. apart from that new issue of Private Eye.. some..."preview" ... .. stuff froma games company and any minute now the pizza delivery menu.

This:



Although you'll need to read the first two (The Night Watch and The Day Watch) in order to understand it fully. Far better than the films I hasten to add!

Currently reading this:




Which is pretty good. Also reading a bunch of Phillip Tagg essays, bits of Adorno (tosser!) and various journal pieces.

re: Dante
quite right well worth reading, but i never made it through purgatory!

HMMM! hope that isn't too portentious

Warhammer 40,000:Rouge Trader.

I REALLY REALLY enjoyed the ride! I loved it! And then the last half of book seven..... ehhh.... but i highly suggest anyone out there too read these books they really are great.
I think it would have been better if i didn't read the epilouge at the end... *sighs* i could have lived with the ending but i had to read that last snipnet.

I couldn't agree more. I guess King warned us though, didn't he? I really didn't care all that much for the whole last book but I love the series over all. Have you read The Talisman and Black House?

It should be ready anyway. Dante's Divine Comedy was one of the greatest, and most stirring, pieces of poetry ever written. Good on you for reading it. I certainly enjoyed all three parts.

Dante is brilliant, and not only because he wrote an epic poem describing how badly he wanted his enemies to rot in hell. =D


I'm currently reading:

no i haven't, i have read surprisingly little of Stephen King, compared to other authors i guess... his track record is terrible.... GREAT stories, cop out endings that are usually done right awful.

Finished "Soul Hunter".. overall I was very impressed, deftly handled. For a slight change of pace, and as I picked it up for £3 in a sale, I'm reading Jamie Carragher's autobiography.