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What'cha Reading?

ceecee

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Apr 22, 2008
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@ceecee my copy of Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters arrived today. I associate him with providing cover for some pretty nefarious stuff, and the fact people other than me rarely brought this up always struck me as odd. Today, I'm inclined to view it as troubling, as it implies that it wasn't something that mattered much to people, which implies other troubling things.

I'm interested to see what this book has to say.
I love Ben Burgis' books and this one was no exception. I think he's worth reading about now - if nothing more than to observe a person go from socialist, anti-Vietnam War protester to totally gone around the bend 9/11 truther and Iraq War superfan among other things. And of course he is wonderfully quotable. Also, I loved his Mother Teresa book and the Trial of Henry Kissinger. No matter what else, he was a great writer and if he had stuck to that and not turned out to be a smug polemicist, eh, maybe he wouldn't be revered by the right. Anyway, let me know how you liked it. Do you ever watch Ben's show on YT? I do sometimes so all of his writings I read in his voice lol.
 

Dr Haight

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Mar 3, 2024
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Many years ago, Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, and that other guy, did a conversation style video which is on YT titled "The Four Horseman." It was good. They might even have turned it into a book. I don't recall.
 

The Cat

Just a Cat who hangs out at the Crossroads
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Oct 15, 2016
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The Eyes of the Dragon. Bronson Pinchot does a phenomenal job narrating.
 

Saturnal Snowqueen

Solastalgia 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
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Reading Understood Betsy relives me of my anxiety. Hearing queer so many times on a different context(it was 1916) is bizarre.
 

Tennessee Jed

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Jul 24, 2014
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I'm reading From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun (published in 2000). Ostensibly it's an historical survey of Western culture from 1500 to the present by a master historian. And for that reason alone it's supposed to be an excellent read. Reviews of the book at Amazon are quite glowing.

But I'm particularly interested in Barzun's ideas on Decadence. Barzun starts the book with the thesis that Western culture is currently in decline (in a state of Decadence), and he traces the cultural threads that got us into this dead end starting all the way back from the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation.

From Barzun's introduction: "Borrowing widely from other lands, thriving on dissent and originality, the West has been the mongrel civilization par excellence. But in spite of patchwork and conflict it has pursued characteristic purposes--that is its unity--and now these purposes, carried out to their utmost possibility, are bringing about its demise. This ending is shown by the deadlocks of our time: for and against nationalism, for and against individualism, for and against the high arts, for and against strict morals and religious belief." (p. xix)

Usually studies on Decadence focus on the fall of the Roman empire, Baudelaire's Paris, Oscar Wilde's London, and Berlin between the two world wars. So it's interesting to see someone apply the concept to modern Western society and take a "holistic" view by tracing the development of modern Decadence across the span of centuries.

It's an 800-page book, and so far I'm only 150 pages in. So I'll be at it for a while to come. But it's a great review of Western culture in general. Also, I read Decadence: A Very Short Introduction by David Weir (pub. 2018) as preparation, so I'm up on the traditional ideas about Decadence, and I'm invested in seeing where Barzun goes with it.

It has my interest piqued enough that I don't mind putting some time into the book and enjoying the ride.
 
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Tennessee Jed

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Many years ago, Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennett, and that other guy, did a conversation style video which is on YT titled "The Four Horseman." It was good. They might even have turned it into a book. I don't recall.

I'm an atheist, but I'm not into New Atheism. New Atheism is too militant for my tastes; when it comes to organized religion, I say "Live and let live." So I never got into the Four Horsemen thing.
 
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Dr Haight

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It's simply a conversation many years ago from the predominant authors on the subject of Atheism. As I recall the range of topic is vast and very interesting. But how you spend your time is purely up to you. To me, knowledge is knowledge. And I am always interested in learning perspectives that oppose my own. The "Scientific approach," if you will.

Also, "From Dawn to Decadence . . . " is a great book. Read it many years ago. I encourage you to keep pushing through all those pages. It's worth your time.
 

Tennessee Jed

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[snipped...] To me, knowledge is knowledge. And I am always interested in learning perspectives that oppose my own. The "Scientific approach," if you will. [...snipped]
I agree. I was going to end my previous post with the comment that I'll probably look into the Four Horsemen in more detail at some later date but it's not high on my priority list.

I recently read Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. That kind of New Age "witchy woman" chest-beating ultra-feminist tripe is usually anathema to me. But the book is a classic of the type, so I figured I needed to sit down with it and read it through, even if it made me puke a little bit in the back of my mouth each time I picked it up.

In the end, it was better than I thought it would be. Pinkola Estes is a legitimate Jungian psychotherapist with a PhD, and she had some interesting observations on female archetypes. But still, it was a grind. A real labor of hate... :)

But yeah, I agree with you. If you encounter a classic in a field that you disagree with, then you have to sit down and give it a fair shot.

[snipped...] Also, "From Dawn to Decadence . . . " is a great book. Read it many years ago. I encourage you to keep pushing through all those pages. It's worth your time.

Definitely. I'm in it till the bitter end.
 
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