People,

Not quite high intellectual material, but it made me laugh and think fondly of Science, Society and the Human Person: http://xkcd.com/957/


KS

This page hasn't seen much love in a while; just wanted to share that I'm reading Herzog by Saul Bellow.  It's my first encounter with Bellow, and I find him enchanting.  I'm feeling that unique love-at-first-read that I've felt with only a few other authors; Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, and Evelyn Waugh come to mind.  Let's see if he lives up to his promise.

My inspiration to read Bellow rose from Chicago's wonderful One Book, One Chicago program, now in its 10th year.  They pick a (usually) quite good book every spring and fall for the city to (theoretically) read together.  There are a plethora of live readings, celebrity readings and promotions, lectures, themed artworks and theater, etc., surrounding the novel of choice.  This year is particularly hyped because it is the 10-year anniversary of the program.  I'm excited to read the One Book eventually (Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Augie March) but of course there were no available copies to be had at the library.  While I wait, I decided to explore another Bellow work that I'd actually been wanting to read for some time ... cue Herzog.

I shall include a few quotes to entice you from the first 48 pages:

"Looking for happiness - ought to be prepared for bad results."

"You have to fight for your life.  That's the chief condition on which you hold it."

"Hitch your agony to a star."

"O Lord! he concluded, forgive all these trespasses.  Lead me not into Penn Station."

I hope to hear about other people's literary adventures.

Ok not literally, but he did condemn university training that focuses exclusively on job skills at the expense of classical liberal education. Something tells me he'd be a huge fan of PLS (did you know that he was offered a job teaching at ND back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger? He said no, obviously, which was a real tragedy for Notre Dame but a great gain for the universal Church).

Tess

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/another-thing-to-sort-of-pin-on-david-foster-wallace.html?_r=1&ref=magazine  

I was directed here from The Atlantic, in case anyone cares.  Fun and evocative article.  Happy reading!  Also, I just started Cutting for Stone, and so far, so good.  

Nick

Last night, I holed myself up in my room with a glass of red wine to finish Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.  Reminiscent of Salinger, it drew me totally into the harrowing experience of a young woman's disillusionment and eventual insanity in the face of society's hypocrisies.

The writing style surprised me; it was not as lucid as I had expected coming from Plath, who was primarily a poet.  Once I got used to it, however, I began to really enjoy her odd and creative metaphors.  More than anything, I think she captured (in an extreme example) the doubts that face every intelligent, educated young woman who worries about balancing wife/motherhood with her desire for achievement, any young person who worries about the meaning and direction of their life.  It was a difficult read at moments, but I recommend it.

Has anyone read it who would like to discuss?

LC

Oh, it's nice to be among people (even in cyber space) who are still reading voraciously!!  The other intern's reaction to my reclusive literary habits seems to be mildly amused condescension.  If we were related, I know she'd think I was adopted.

Anyway, I just finished a book by Walker Percy:  Lancelot.  And I'd like to recommended it with a major caveat...  It is without doubt the dirtiest book I've ever read.  Parts of it are horribly obscene.  That said, it is also a fantastic work.  I've been thinking about it ever since I picked it up.

None of the obscenity is gratuitous.  It's meant to give a dark, atheistic view of the world (with a strong Nietzschean flavor) - and ultimately to present it as the rival to Christianity, pitting both world views against the world itself and suggesting that one or the other must be right.  Not the lightest book, maybe, but it's a profoundly honest text - nothing didactic or easy about it - and it's also a fascintating examination of the nature of evil.  Lastly, if any of you are Arthurian legend buffs, it's just brimming with allusions - most of which I unfortunately lack the background to appreciate.  (As a PLSer I'm thoroughly ashamed.)  

I would love to discuss it with anyone brave enough to join me on the other side of Lancelot!  :)  It was pretty short, too - you could definitely read it in a couple of days.  


  Laura S. 

I also just read The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. (Lilly and I were actually reading it at the same time, by complete coincidence.) I second what Lilly said and strongly recommend this book to everyone. It is one of the most profound and beautiful books I have ever read. It's kind of like Buber's I and Thou in that it is vaguely religious without being connected to any specific religious tradition. The writing is simpler than Buber's, and for that reason perhaps more powerful. It's basically just a series of aphorisms, but each aphorism lends itself to profound meditation. If you're just reading it straight through, you can probably read it in about an hour, but you'll probably want to spend more time soaking it in.

Anyway, I would like to mention some other books I have been reading. To prepare for my job reporting on religion news, I have been trying to read the Qur'an a bit at a time, but it's slow going. The book is incredibly repetitive and monotonous. It makes the Old Testament look like a fast-paced thriller. I am also reading the book A Rumor of Angels, which those of you who were in Power's SSHP class might remember. We read a chapter of it for his class, but I wanted to go back and read the whole thing. I think it gives a pretty good overview of the present situation of theology, and it sketches out a possible course for reconciling theology with the social sciences. I haven't finished it yet, but I'd already recommend it to anyone who is concerned about the modern malaise of religion.

I have also been reading a few books that relate to my novel-in-progress in some way. The most significant one for me, by far, is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe. This book chronicles the exploits of Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and his group, the Merry Pranksters, in the 1960s. The Merry Pranksters were some of the first people ever to take LSD, and from their experience emerged what could be called "one of the greatest experiments in human consciousness ever devised." They were basically the precursors of the hippies, but don't be fooled by any stereotypical images of hippies you have in your mind: Hippies were basically the bastardization of what the Merry Pranksters were trying to do, and the cultural stereotypes that we now associate with hippies are a further bastardization of what hippies were trying to do. Anyway, this book is actually a great follow-up to Sem. 6, as authors like Freud, Nietzsche, and Weber play heavily into it. Also, for anyone who has read Kerouac's On the Road, this book is like the logical next step after the Beats. In fact, Kerouac himself makes an appearance, and Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsburg became important parts of Kesey's entourage (especially Cassady). To top it off, the writing is fantastic. Wolfe does an amazing job evoking the delirious atmosphere and the acid experience (well, what I assume the acid experience is like), and he is a very insightful, balanced commentator. Bottom line: everyone should read this book.

I've also read The Strawberry Statement, a book that is basically the diary of a student at Columbia during the big student strike they had there in 1968. It was a good inside look at the student activism of that period. I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw, and I just read The Little Prince for the first time (I know a lot of people probably read it in middle school). That's about it.

Next on my stack to tackle: books about ecstasy and raving.

I recently finished a book every PLS major would enjoy.  It's ridiculously short and simply written; you could finish it in a sitting (although I didn't - this is a book to be savored).  Joey also just read it, so that's 2 votes of confidence.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (available online! but I like tangible books better) is profound, gentle, and wise.  It's also apparently one of the 20th century's best-selling books.  Win-win.

If anyone has read it, please share your thoughts.  If not, dash to the bookstore as soon as you can (not the library; you want your own copy to write in and treasure), read it with a slow glass of wine at your side, and share your opinion as well.

LC

Helllooooo!

Like most PLS-ers, I instantly delved into about 12 different books after graduation.  Right now, my primary focus is a short collection of Franz Kafka's basic works.

Has anyone read Kafka?  If yes, I'd love to discuss him... I find his work difficult to read for its morbidity and grittiness, but I'm enjoying his occasional illuminating moments of humor and fine writing.

I think any PLS-er would enjoy this short pensee-like fragment, "Paradise" (read from the bottom of p. 168 - 170).

I'm particularly moved by his "Letter to My Father", which I think is essential to understanding all of his other works.  It really put stories like "Metamorphosis" and "The Burrow" into context for me. 

Does anyone else have other opinions or details about Kafka's work?  I'd love more biographical information and literary interpretation, if anyone has studied him in detail.

Lillian