Ilana's Journal Week 5: Friedrich Nietzsche On Many Things

[Choisya]

Will you be attending any of these seminars Everyman?

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Everyman wrote:
Just got the announcement of the St John's college homecoming this fall. Being St. John's, one of the main activities of the weekend are the alumni seminars where we can pretend we can still discuss seriously. I noticed that this year Eva Brann will be leading a seminar on Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense."

It sounds appealing, but not as appealing as Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Other seminars on tap are Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, Wallace Stevens The Idea of Order at Key West, Homer's Odyssey Books IX-XII, Narrative ofthe Life of Frederick Douglas, and Ibesn't The Wild Duck. There are also seminars open only to specific classes, too many to list, but they include Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man, Husserl's Origin of Geometry, Descartes' Discussion on Method, Euripides Bacchae, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and others.

Don't you wish your college's homecoming included seminars like these, not to mention the Friday Night lecture, followed by question period, on "Knowledge, Ignorance and Imitation in Book Ten of Plato's Republic, and a waltz party on Saturday night?

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[Everyman]

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Laurel wrote:
But when is the football game?

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It isn't. The only intercollegiate sport in which St. John's participates is the annual croquet match against the U. S. Naval Academy, which is located right across the street from the college. We routinely beat them. Brains over brawn.

[Everyman]

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Choisya wrote:
Will you be attending any of these seminars Everyman?

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No. Wrong side of the country. I don't fly unless it is absolutely essential, and in this case it isn't.

[historybuff234]

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Laurel wrote:
But when is the football game? I'll be seeing August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean August 17 at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and I don't know a thing about it yet. And we've talked some about the superfluous man in our Pushkin reading. I STILL haven't read Notes from the Underground, but I shall!

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Everyman wrote:
Just got the announcement of the St John's college homecoming this fall. Being St. John's, one of the main activities of the weekend are the alumni seminars where we can pretend we can still discuss seriously. I noticed that this year Eva Brann will be leading a seminar on Nietzsche's "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense."

It sounds appealing, but not as appealing as Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Other seminars on tap are Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, Wallace Stevens The Idea of Order at Key West, Homer's Odyssey Books IX-XII, Narrative ofthe Life of Frederick Douglas, and Ibesn't The Wild Duck. There are also seminars open only to specific classes, too many to list, but they include Turgenev's Diary of a Superfluous Man, Husserl's Origin of Geometry, Descartes' Discussion on Method, Euripides Bacchae, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and others.

Don't you wish your college's homecoming included seminars like these, not to mention the Friday Night lecture, followed by question period, on "Knowledge, Ignorance and Imitation in Book Ten of Plato's Republic, and a waltz party on Saturday night?

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I haven't read Notes From the Underground yet either. And I've been busy with other books. I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

[APenForYourTho…]

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historybuff234 wrote:
I haven't read Notes From the Underground yet either. And I've been busy with other books. I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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I haven't read Crime and Punishment, but I have read Notes from Underground. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and you'll probably like at least the first section of the novel because it is very philosophical. Dostoevsky has a nice writing style, too. The only thing about Notes from Underground, though, is that the second part of the novel (the story that is meant to illustrate the philosophy in the first part) contains some things that your mother probably wouldn't like. It's not very explicit, but it's there. My mom probably wouldn't have let me read it, but I was required to read it for school, so I guess she didn't feel like she needed to peruse it and see if it was appropriate for me. I can't tell you anything about Crime and Punishment, though. That is yet another novel on my long, continuously growing reading list.

[IlanaSimons]

I do think Crime and Punishment is his best work. I'd really recommend it.

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historybuff234 wrote:
...I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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[Choisya]

I agree Ilana and was going to post the same to HB. I think he will enjoy it.

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IlanaSimons wrote:
I do think Crime and Punishment is his best work. I'd really recommend it.

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historybuff234 wrote:
...I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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[Everyman]

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IlanaSimons wrote:
I do think Crime and Punishment is his best work.

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Which raises in my brain the perpetual question, what makes us think of one book an author's best book? What makes us think book A is better than book B?

It's a cop-out to say just that the majority opinion says this (not that you've said that, of course, but I'm forestalling that argument should anyone try to make it!) because the majority opinion is just the accretion of many individual opinions, so each reader has to have made their own evaluation of the book and a large enough number of them must have decided that this is his best book for that to become the majority view. But what made each individual reader (or a sufficient number of individual readers) along the way reach that conclusion in order that it can be viewed as the majority view?

Of course there's no clear answer to this, but there must be some overall concepts, mustn't there?

[Laurel]

I third that motion. Historybuff, your at just the right age to read Crime and Punishment.

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Choisya wrote:
I agree Ilana and was going to post the same to HB. I think he will enjoy it.

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IlanaSimons wrote:
I do think Crime and Punishment is his best work. I'd really recommend it.

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historybuff234 wrote:
...I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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[historybuff234]

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APenForYourThoughts wrote:

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historybuff234 wrote:
I haven't read Notes From the Underground yet either. And I've been busy with other books. I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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I haven't read Crime and Punishment, but I have read Notes from Underground. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and you'll probably like at least the first section of the novel because it is very philosophical. Dostoevsky has a nice writing style, too. The only thing about Notes from Underground, though, is that the second part of the novel (the story that is meant to illustrate the philosophy in the first part) contains some things that your mother probably wouldn't like. It's not very explicit, but it's there. My mom probably wouldn't have let me read it, but I was required to read it for school, so I guess she didn't feel like she needed to peruse it and see if it was appropriate for me. I can't tell you anything about Crime and Punishment, though. That is yet another novel on my long, continuously growing reading list.

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I wasn't aware that there was things like that in Notes. Oh well, my mom doesn't know about it, she approved of it because the synopsis on the back of the book was enough for her to okay it. I won't tell her, besides it explicit. Actualy I began Notes, I read the first chapter, I read it just to get a small glimpse of Dostoevsky's style. And I loved his style! But I got busy with other books and I never got deep enough into it to really get into it. And now here I am almost done with Heart of Darkness and The Four Feathers and I'm wondering what book (or two) might take theri places. I'm kind of leaning towards Crime and Punishment, and I suppose that it really doesn't matter because I will read most of Dostoevsky's work at point in time.

I'm like you AP, my to read list is piling up too!

I think I might begin Crime and Punishment today.

[historybuff234]

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Laurel wrote:
I third that motion. Historybuff, your at just the right age to read Crime and Punishment.

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Choisya wrote:
I agree Ilana and was going to post the same to HB. I think he will enjoy it.

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IlanaSimons wrote:
I do think Crime and Punishment is his best work. I'd really recommend it.

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historybuff234 wrote:
...I'm deciding if I should read that or Crime and Punishment. Any suggestions? I've never read Dostoevsky before, but I have a feeling that I'll love him!

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I agree with you on that Laurel. Is "the right age" the age at which things can make a big impact on me? I'm just curious on what is the right age? Isn't Crime and Punishment divided into two parts, Crime and Punishment. It sounds like a great work! I think I'll begin it either today or on Wednesday perhaps. I', leaning more toward today though! I do think I'm somewhat at the right age to read many of literature's great classics.

Happy reading!

[Laurel]

I was 13 or 14 when I first read Crime and Punishment, HB, and it had a big and lasting impact on me. It's not a "teenage book" as such (spare us from that--I always hated them) but an adult book that teenagers can and should read. I then went immediately on to The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved and still love.

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historybuff234 wrote:

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Laurel wrote:
I third that motion. Historybuff, your at just the right age to read Crime and Punishment.

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I agree with you on that Laurel. Is "the right age" the age at which things can make a big impact on me? I'm just curious on what is the right age? Isn't Crime and Punishment divided into two parts, Crime and Punishment. It sounds like a great work! I think I'll begin it either today or on Wednesday perhaps. I', leaning more toward today though! I do think I'm somewhat at the right age to read many of literature's great classics.

Happy reading!

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[historybuff234]

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Laurel wrote:
I was 13 or 14 when I first read Crime and Punishment, HB, and it had a big and lasting impact on me. It's not a "teenage book" as such (spare us from that--I always hated them) but an adult book that teenagers can and should read. I then went immediately on to The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved and still love.

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historybuff234 wrote:

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Laurel wrote:
I third that motion. Historybuff, your at just the right age to read Crime and Punishment.

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I agree with you on that Laurel. Is "the right age" the age at which things can make a big impact on me? I'm just curious on what is the right age? Isn't Crime and Punishment divided into two parts, Crime and Punishment. It sounds like a great work! I think I'll begin it either today or on Wednesday perhaps. I', leaning more toward today though! I do think I'm somewhat at the right age to read many of literature's great classics.

Happy reading!

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Okay thanks Laurel. I've never really read any of these "teen books" but my best friend says that they are the most stupid, bad excuses for literature ever written! I agree with him on it. I've never really even wanted to read "teen books" the classics apeal to me more. I think after I'm done with Crime and Punishment I might move onto the larger works of Dostoevsky like The Possessed, The Idiot, and (like you mentioned) The Brothers Karamazov.

My mom has completely okayed all of Dostoevsky's works. The reason? She read about how he was sent to Siberia and then went back to Christianity, stopped being an atheist, and things like that. The Possessed sounds very good! Revolutionaries in a small town in Russia. Is that what it is about Laurel? The Idiot looks great too! Oh I might as well say this, all of hus works look excellent! I can't talk much more now, I have Tae Kwon Do to go to soon. Time to go and practice the anceint Korean fighting techniques! And have a lot of fun! Happy reading everyone and talk to you all later!

[Laurel]

I haven't read Possessed or The Idiot yet, HB, but I plan to read them.

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historybuff234 wrote:

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Laurel wrote:
I was 13 or 14 when I first read Crime and Punishment, HB, and it had a big and lasting impact on me. It's not a "teenage book" as such (spare us from that--I always hated them) but an adult book that teenagers can and should read. I then went immediately on to The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved and still love.

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historybuff234 wrote:

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Laurel wrote:
I third that motion. Historybuff, your at just the right age to read Crime and Punishment.

---

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I agree with you on that Laurel. Is "the right age" the age at which things can make a big impact on me? I'm just curious on what is the right age? Isn't Crime and Punishment divided into two parts, Crime and Punishment. It sounds like a great work! I think I'll begin it either today or on Wednesday perhaps. I', leaning more toward today though! I do think I'm somewhat at the right age to read many of literature's great classics.

Happy reading!

---

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Okay thanks Laurel. I've never really read any of these "teen books" but my best friend says that they are the most stupid, bad excuses for literature ever written! I agree with him on it. I've never really even wanted to read "teen books" the classics apeal to me more. I think after I'm done with Crime and Punishment I might move onto the larger works of Dostoevsky like The Possessed, The Idiot, and (like you mentioned) The Brothers Karamazov.

My mom has completely okayed all of Dostoevsky's works. The reason? She read about how he was sent to Siberia and then went back to Christianity, stopped being an atheist, and things like that. The Possessed sounds very good! Revolutionaries in a small town in Russia. Is that what it is about Laurel? The Idiot looks great too! Oh I might as well say this, all of hus works look excellent! I can't talk much more now, I have Tae Kwon Do to go to soon. Time to go and practice the anceint Korean fighting techniques! And have a lot of fun! Happy reading everyone and talk to you all later!

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[historybuff234]

Great, sorry I haven't gotten back to you very quick Laurel. I've been quite busy lately, reading, writing, Tae Kwon Do, and things like that. I remember that when I was read in the back of Crime (just an abreviated version, after we know what we are talking about we might as well shorten the title up a bit) in the section in the back that says about what people have thought of the book I remember Nietzsche praised Dostoevsky very highly. Why is that? Did Dostoevsky believe what Nietzsche and Keirkegaard thought of , excuse me if I spell it wrong, existialism? I remember reading some place that Notes From the Underground is an existialist novel. But then we can all like authors that we don't agree with, like how we can enjoy music by cetain people even though we don't agree with their beliefs, behavoir, etc.

I'm revising my book right now and after I'm done revising it I'll post it chapter by chapter in the writing room forum. I telling you incase you want to read it once I'm done with it.

Happy reading!

[Little_Jacky]

Well considering that we are not only ignoring the Movement in the 70's for woman's rights we are taking  considerable steps backward. Labor Department records show that women are currently not only recieving less pay then their male counterparts but are being paid less than they were a decade ago.

I feel most women don't realize the severity of the wage gap. It is not solely focused on the financial aspect but the fact that our society is viewing our place in the career world as inferior compared to men.