Nerderific!
I read. It’s that simple and yet it’s so much more than that. I don’t just read. I read. Time literally stops when there’s a book in my hands. What better way to lose sight of an often grotesque reality than to lose yourself in an alternate one? It’s a cycle though. I read, get spellbound, come back to reality, get disillusioned, once again escape into prose…. I can’t break the habit. Maybe I’m nothing better than an alcoholic who knows exactly what the morning brings but reaches for the gin anyway. Nah, I’m just nerderific like that.
Books on my noggin right now;
· Alex Comfort - The Anxiety Makers
· Dostoyvesky - Crime and Punishment
· Nietzche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra & The AntiChrist
· Camus - The Stranger
· And the new Harry Potter…..
· Tsitsi Dangarembga - The Book of Not ( sequel to Nervous Conditions,)
.....Gotta read Camus again so I can get his whole Absurdism philosophy....
....By the way, The Antichrist’s preface sounds a lot like Joshi’s post,
“The conditions under which I am understood, and then of necessity—I know them only too well. One must be honest in matters of the spirit to the point of hardness before one can even endure my seriousness and my passion. One must be skilled in living on mountains—seeing the wretched ephemeral babble of politics and national self-seeking beneath oneself. One must have become indifferent; one must never ask if the truth is useful or if it may prove our undoing. The predilection of strength for questions for which no one today has the courage; the courage for the forbidden; the predestination to the labyrinth. An experience of seven solitudes. New ears for new music. New eyes for what is most distant. A new conscience for truths that have so far remained mute. And the will to the economy of the great style: keeping our strength, our enthusiasm in harness. Reverence for oneself; love of oneself; unconditional freedom before oneself.” -Nietzche
4 comments
The alternative universe in literature is good when nobody is shooting at you. I went to live with a friend I found in a Mario Vargas Llosa book. I didn't know he was going to join some rebellion. So we went together. And I nearly got killed. In a far-away land - Brazil.
REPLYI have learnt to be more-discerning in which books I let myself become part of.
Sadly, you are going with Nietzsche. I don't trust him. Maybe it is something about his moustache ...
I'm reading Nietzche to see if he was always crazy or the syphilis made him so. But his moustache? Is it Hitlerish? Ooooh Have you read Mein Kampf? Its genius, psychopathic of course but still, genius. Its quite obvious he was missing more than a few screws but there was this incredible IQ that can't be ignored.... And Mario Vargas Llosa sounds familiar,very familiar. Before I go wiki him, I must ask have you read Che Guevera's Guerrilla Warfare?... its brilliant.
REPLYI see a book club of supporting addicts coming up!
REPLYSyphilis certainly did not make him so, Nietzsche with his crazy thought drove himself to his end... Beyond Good and Evil was torturous to go about reading, interesting, but oh so unfathomable, if that's the word for it.
REPLYhi! thanks for commenting. I'm always open to new ideas. I can't wait to hear yours.