I remember seeing like a series of books, 4 or 5, about Rome. They were fiction. Anyone know their names or the authors name? Fairly new books, one of them released only a month or two back.

EDIT: Found it! Anyone want to comment on these books? Good or bad? Was thinking mainly Forgotten Legions Chronicle.

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 06:53 GMT

#2505

that reminds me, forgot to post this one:

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stroggozzz

New Zealand81 Posts

September 16 2013 08:06 GMT

#2506

lots of people talking about Wittgenstein here.
i tried reading ludwig Wittgenstein once but i couldn't understand it. I've never taken a course on philosophy, so maybe that's the problem?

i got 30 pages through philosophical investigations and it made some sense but i got bored. I couldn't get past the 1st page of tractatus, but i read in a biography about the wittgensteins that it ripped off a lot from a tolstoy book he read during WW1.

Any tips on understanding Wittgenstein?

books i've read this year:

Bertrand Russell:
Education and the social order 4/10
Political Ideals 5/10
Proposed roads to freedom 5/10

Chomsky:
Manufacturing Consent 10/10
Power systems 9/10
How the world works 9/10

Jared Diamond:
Guns, Germs and Steel 9/10
The world until yesterday 9/10

Dostoevsky:
White nights 10/10
Notes from the Underground 10/10
Humiliated and Insulted 8/10
Crime and punishment 9/10
The gambler 8/10

Singles:
Bad Samaritans 10/10
House of wittgenstein, family at war 6/10
Tolstoy on education 9/10
Breif History of the Future 7/10
Prince 9/10
Anarchism (daniel guerin) 7/10
early writings of karl marx( economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844) 8/10
No ordinary deal: Unmasking the Trans pacific partnership agreement. reading it atm
penguin history of new zealand: reading it atm
The histories: reading it atm

i really recommend reading the two novellas white nights and notes from underground for people that haven't, they are great introductions to Dostoevsky! Chomsky is great for learning about how power functions.

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 08:16 GMT

#2507

welcome!

don't worry about old ludwig. You need a class on it. And even then, probably not worth it

I don't understand how it could be ripped off from tolstoy though, that is a strange claim

I am just about finished with the ec. And phil. Manuscripts now as it happens. Have you read much marx or marxism besides this?

by the histories do you mean herodotus?

anyway welcome to the thread I hope you stick around

stroggozzz

New Zealand81 Posts

September 16 2013 08:51 GMT

#2508

yes the histories - herodotus.

The manuscripts are the first marxism i've read. I'm not a marxist but his theories seem pretty solid, especially the ones on alienation.

Not sure if i want to read das kapital it would take me a looong time to read it haha, but that seems like the next book i should read on marxism. maybe there is a more refined version of that book?

I was thinking of reading the wealth of nations next.

i looked it up, the book that tractatus copied a lot from was tolstoys: The gospel in Brief. I probably shouldn't have used the word ripped off, that makes it sound bad. but wittgenstein was highly inspired by tolstoy, a lot of lines in tractatus are very similar to ones in The gospel in Brief, according to a biography i read about him. But i am no expert on either of them.

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 09:03 GMT

#2509

don't read the text of capital vol 1 unless you are really interested in doing scholarship on marx, but you should check out the series of lectures on the work at davidharvey.org. David harvey is a wonderful wonderful man and he will explain it all to you very nicely

I am the resident marxist 'round these parts so I am always happy to discuss such things :D

there is a lot more to do with marxism that is not marx himself, particularly in the wake of so called 'western marxism' and the frankfurt school which is more concerned with culutural critique and theories of ideology etc than political economy. Perhaps you are familiar with some of this.

edit: this is very strange to me about tolstoy I will have to look into it

stroggozzz

New Zealand81 Posts

September 16 2013 09:43 GMT

#2510

i've done some reading on neoliberalism and free market fundamentalism if that's what you mean by ideologies.

Herzog

Italy23 Posts

September 16 2013 09:57 GMT

#2511

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 13:22 GMT

#2512

On September 16 2013 18:43 stroggozzz wrote:
i've done some reading on neoliberalism and free market fundamentalism if that's what you mean by ideologies.

no, more like literary theory

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21244 Posts

September 16 2013 13:35 GMT

#2513

On September 15 2013 10:47 dmnum wrote:
Finished the gospel according to Jesus christ.
Saramago is a genius, I recommend this book to atheists and religious people. Just be prepared to be surprised no matter what your view on religion is. The ending is one of the best things I've ever read.

In the middle of it now, and yeah, Saramago is fantastic. Slowly working through most of Saramago's bibliography.

oneofthem

Cayman Islands24199 Posts

September 16 2013 14:00 GMT

#2514

wittgenstein was a very spiritual person whose attitude on life was akin to meditation. it's not surprising to see tolstoy mirrored.

after all, wittgenstein did say "a confession has to be part of your new life."

but unless you are talking about his 'cultural' works, wittgenstein did not rip off tolstoy because the latter did not work on language and logic philosophy like wittgenstein's actual works did.

Paljas

Germany6926 Posts

September 16 2013 15:18 GMT

#2515

brecht es numero uno

farvacola

United States18838 Posts

September 16 2013 15:26 GMT

#2516

I find that I'm usually in the minority when saying this, but Philosophical Investigations is way more important than the Tractatus, given that one can deal with its odd arrangement and circumspect stylization. If there's anything specific you'd like to unpack, I'll always be down to throw in my 2 cents.

KillerSOS

United States4207 Posts

September 16 2013 15:27 GMT

#2517

Currently reading Foundation.

Not a huge fan so far.

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sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 19:04 GMT

#2518

^you have to keep in mind that asimov was 19 and still believed too much in 'Science!' wait till you get to the part about the mule, that makes it all worth it

so far the most annoying thing about consciousness explained is that he keeps talking about mental imagery and asking me to picture things to myself, which I can't do. I must not be conscious

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

September 16 2013 23:05 GMT

#2519

Loving Foucault, thanks for encouraging me farva, the 680 pages scared me. I'm starting to see were there could be a problem with the treatment of his sources, but even if there is, I've already had tons to think about, and I'm just at the beginning.

Asimov is soooo cute at the beginning of Foundation, it's pretty awesome to see his faith self destruct

sam!zdat

United States5559 Posts

September 16 2013 23:13 GMT

#2520

actually, it didn't, asimov wanted to keep having seldon win from the grave every time but campbell made him put the mule in, rightly, because otherwise it would have been boring as fuck

after you finish history of madness, move on to the order of things (les mots et les choses)