books: what are you currently reading?

[ducktrapper]

D'accord. Clouseau isn't bad either.

[Tycho]

Well....I'll go ahead and admit it...I'm a super Dork!!!!  I'm 2/3s of the way through vol 7 of Harry Potter....and I love it!!!  just great so far....what a blast to read...can't wait to see what the end of this epic is like!!



Blue

My SO bought the book last Saturday morning and literally spent the whole weekend reading it, finishing it at about 2:00 a.m. Monday morning.  We have a couple of friends who did the same thing.  I've never read any of them, so I was immune to it all.

[sunburst]

Our household has 3 copies of "The Deathly Hallows,' and nobody was allowed to discuss it until everyone was finished. Our oldest daughter finished it in about 5 hours. The rest of us were a little slower.

Deb

[jeremy3220]

I just received a book containing a collection of a few books by Nietzsche. I think I'm gonna start with 'Beyond Good and Evil'.

[Caleb]

Just finished up To Kill a Mockingbird. Man, what a great story......


Just started The Stranger by Albert Camus


jeremy - I'm curious....what exactly is interesting to you about Nietzsche? 

[jeremy3220]

jeremy - I'm curious....what exactly is interesting to you about Nietzsche? 

The prospect of gaining valuable knowledge

I've been interested in the ideas of existentialism for some time now.

"If something worth living for is worth dying for, what about something not worth dying for?" ~ Camus

[Caleb]

The prospect of gaining valuable knowledge

I understand.  I guess how "valuable" his writings would be is highly debatable, but interesting none the less.

[tuffythepug]

Just finishing up "Skydog" :  the biography of Duane Allman.  How good would he have been now with another 35 years or so under his belt ?  Terriffic talent who burned out way too young.

[poki]

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
just started this book that shines new light on the people and cultures of the americas going back tens of thousands of years before columbus "discovered" it.

[ducktrapper]

God is dead - Fred
Fred is dead - God.

I've always preferred Jack Nietzsche.   

[jeremy3220]

I understand.  I guess how "valuable" his writings would be is highly debatable, but interesting none the less.

What have you read of his?

[Caleb]

What have you read of his?

I got familiar with his writings through some philosophy lectures I went through and by studying the life of Adolf Hitler.  He was definitely Hitler's favorite author. 

[jeremy3220]

I got familiar with his writings through some philosophy lectures I went through and by studying the life of Adolf Hitler.  He was definitely Hitler's favorite author. 

What's your point? That because Hitler liked him his ideas are wrong?

Hitler also liked waffles but that doesn't stop me from eating them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myCUwXEaDFI

[Caleb]

What's your point? That because Hitler liked him his ideas are wrong?

Hitler also liked waffles but that doesn't stop me from eating them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myCUwXEaDFI

Hilter not only liked him, but based pretty much his entire philosophy of madness off of Nietzsche's writings.  I don't think that made his ideas wrong, I think they were wrong to begin with, but that's my opinion. 

[ducktrapper]

Man and Superman. What's the problem?
" ... If life is a struggle, for existence in which the fitest survive, then strength is the ultimate virtue, and weakness the only fault. Good is that which survives, which wins; bad is that which gives way and fails." - Will Durant.
Mr. N. criticized other philosopher's who were brave enough to to reject Christian theology but did not dare to be logical, to reject the moral ideas, the worship of meekness and gentleness and altruism, which had grown out of that theology.   
Yeah waffles.

Again I believe he is refuted thus.
God is dead - Nietzche
Fred is dead. - God. 

[jeremy3220]

Fred is dead. - God. 

God didn't say that.

[SteveO]

Does reading the Manuel on a Palm Treo 680 count....

[ducktrapper]

God didn't say that.

Like He had to.

[bearsville0]

Hey Jeremy 3220, Ducktrapper, the creature,

keep going, I'm enjoying your exchanges. Keep it cool, no need to get defensive, after all Neitzsche and those who quote him remain deliberately provocative IMO. And I think the guy had something of value to say, regardless of whatever Hitler liked (and what say you we just dismiss Hitler completely of having anything of value to say). Poor Neitzsche and Wagner, getting lumped in with that nut.

[ducktrapper]

I'm not totally blaming Hitler on Nietzche but his ideas were paramount to the likes of Bismarck, German imperialists and unfortunately put to their ultimate test by Der Fuhrer. All it took was for Hitler to define who were the supermen and who were the weak untermensch. I guess we could also put blame on Darwin, as his ideas had a large affect on N.
Ideas can be dangerous things when actually put in practice. Admittedly, they become corrupted by the end user but millions of ordinary, decent people get caught in the middle. If ideas lead to evil, do they contain the seed of this evil? Can we lay (some) blame on Marx for the excesses of Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot? I think we have to. Christopher Hitchens (see link) lays this blame on the doorstep of religion. I don't happen to agree with him. Especially on Christianity. However, hindsight is, of course 20-20 and in some cases, the results are in.   
Is radical Islam going through the same process or something entirely different?

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118247644823044329.html