Fritz
A fascinating book about a famous movie director who was part of the most tragic of generations. Having fought in the First World War you would think enough misery has been your portion. But to be a Jew in Germany after that was much worse.
The story revolves around these two tragic periods in Kurt Gerron's life. A tragic story about heartbreak, the improbable human capacity to endure. But also the insanity of the nearly bureaucratic murder machines of the two World Wars
Aldus sprak Zarathoestra. Een boek voor allen en voor niemand
Daunting book. Heavy read. Some of it is really powerful. The turning away from all the negativity towards our own flesh and the turning away from lots of Calvinist denying of self etc. It is interesting to see how many of these statements are not very shocking at all as much of this has trickled down into our societal thinking.
But Nietzsche being Nietzsche there is also a lot that is harder to get through. Lots of allegory that is lost on me.
I liked the story of the Camel the Lion and the Boy a lot.
Good to reiterate the need for big corp to change. For billionaires not to exist. Nothing new. But lovely insights into his campaign. And how funds are being used within the Bernie Sanders movement
One of the best books I have read in a long time. Literary non-fiction at its finest.
The protagonist/author decides to flee Afghanistan with his translator. It is daring. It is brash. It is dangerous and it is full of love for people trying to find a better place and being denied freedom.
Endearing. But it's like Friends. The premise isn't really all that exciting. It's enjoyable but also really predictable.
Nice little technical novel. But a lot of it is just this 30,40-something introspection and regrets about childhood that feels a bit stale. The payoff is sad and a bit nasty.
Very good.
Set in 70s Uganda it details a girl coming of age in a time where danger is everywhere and cultures are changing. Rural vs urban life. Loved it
A wonderful essay on the nature of freedom, of becoming oneself in a society that does nothing else then serve itself. A bureaucracy that makes it impossible to live “in truth” with oneself.
This obviously has a very real bureaucracy in mind: The Soviet Union of the late 70's. But still remains relevant.
In responding to both the “West” and the “bloc” Vaclav encourages everyone to live “within the truth”.
The example he uses for a large part of the book is a greengrocer that receives a poster from the state that says: Workers around the world unite! The point he makes is that the greengrocer hangs this up above the storefront out of habit, not because he agrees with the statement, or has thought about what that would look like if the workers unite.
But in the world of the post-totalitarian regime of the Soviet he “ought” to do this. Now if he starts to think about it and refuses to hang this up, because he decides to live in the lie no longer, there is now a small revolt on the small scale.
Inevitably a regime like this must fall. Because it can't sustain original thought, or people freely expressing themselves. And that will cause conflict, be it open conflict (protest, revolt, or violence) or hidden conflict (meetings, congresses, sharing of pamphlets, educating each other)
While the Soviet Union is long gone. The critique goes further than just that of Soviet politics. It also appeals to democratic societies that are being subdued or “drugged” or kept busy in the Brave New World sense. Are we living “in the truth” or “in the lie” in our own societies.
In a quotation from Patoçka, Havel says: the thing with responsibility is, that you carry it around wherever you go.
There is a lot more to say about the nature of technology and the “automatism”. But I'll leave it at this:
It is of great importance that the main thing - the everyday, thankless, and never-ending struggle of human beings to live more freely, truthfully, and in quiet dignity - never imposes any limits on itself, never be half-hearted, inconsistent, never trap itself in political tactics, speculating on the outcome of its actions or entertaining fantasies about the future. The purity of this struggle is the best guarantee of optimum results.
P.S. Some other interesting bits:
Our attention, therefore, inevitably turns to the most essential matter: the crisis of contemporary technological society as a whole, the crisis that Heidegger describes as the ineptitude of humanity face to face with the planetary power of technology.
Technology - that child of modern science, which in turn is a child of modern metaphysics - is out of humanity's control, has ceased to serve us, has enslaved us and compelled us to participate in the preparation of our own destruction.
It would appear that the traditional parliamentary democracies can offer no fundamental opposition to the automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for they, too, are being dragged helplessly along by it. People are manipulated in ways that are infinitely more subtle and refined than the brutal methods used in the post-totalitarian societies. But this static complex of rigid, conceptually sloppy and politically pragmatic mass political parties run by professional apparatuses and releasing the citizen from all forms of concrete and personal responsibility; and those complex foci of capital accumulation engaged in secret manipulations and expansion; the omnipresent dictatorship of consumption, production, advertising,
Lekker weird boekje over kantoor gezeik. Prachtig.
Dit soort dingen: Het bruine café naast de kantoorboekhandel was wel open, maar daar zaten twee oude mannen boven hun glaasje jenever met lege blik naar buiten te staren, als een reclame tegen alcohol, of ouderdom, of tegen het leven zelf. Cavia zag dit als een teken dat er thuis op de bank naar een nieuwe serie gekeken moest worden.
Leuk. Maar ook wel vast in nostalgie en karakters die niet verder denken dan hun neus lang is.
Waarom dacht NIEMAND er voor 5 jaar in Zuid Frankrijk te zijn waarom Icks ze daar naartoe gestuurd had.
Anyways. Mooi verhaal maar beetje flauw als einde
Prachtige inleiding op een prachtig oeuvre.
Wat mij denk ik het meest aanspreekt is de “sprong” die iedereen uitgedaagd wordt om te maken. Maar daarvoor moet ik misschien iets van context geven.
Iedereen heeft te maken met paradoxen, elke dag in allerlei situaties. Bijvoorbeeld dat van de mogelijkheid of de eindigheid (in de woorden van Kierkegaard). De mogelijkheid beschrijft bijvoorbeeld dat ik ben wie ik ben, maar ik heb kunnen kiezen over alles wat ik ben. De eindigheid beschrijft mij vanuit de context van mijn opvoeding, de dingen die ik mee heb gemaakt en verklaart dat ik een product ben van deze situaties, locatie en omstandigheden.
Maar om in één van deze kanten vast te blijven zitten noemt Kierkegaard “vertwijfeling”. Hier is het juist relevant om de “sprong” aan te gaan en in vertrouwen beiden uiteinden te omarmen en daarmee te leven. Ja ik ben het product van mijn situatie, MAAR ik heb ook ruimte om te kiezen. Ja ik heb ruimte om te kiezen, MAAR ik ben tegelijkertijd ook gebonden aan mijn context, cultuur en opvoeding.
Dit is maar één klein voorbeeld. Maar de “sprong” die mij uitdaagt om in paradoxen vooruit te bewegen is zeker iets wat mij aanspreekt. Om concreet, voorwaarts te leven.
I loathed Aleph, found it horrendous, so someone gave this to me as a joke. But I actually kind of enjoyed it. It is sometimes a bit whimsical and sentimental, but it's a lovely little story about followint your dreams and trying to live close to your passion etc.
This was very good. Funny, crazy. Kind of like Kerouac's On the Road. Frantic dialogues with lots of popculture references that make more sense in the time it was written.
What an utter load of hautain silliness. It's quasi-spiritual and semi-intellectual, but fails at both. There were some interesting themes. But most of the story was conveyed in vague descriptions.
To top that he pretends to be very faithful to his wife while clearly being infatuated with the naked woman sitting on his lap (where invited her to sit). Which is a bizarrely dissonant thing to uphold as true.
Do not recommend this.
Awesome graphic novel.
Witty and original it combines Video Games style points and explanation of people. Very funny
This book took me by surprise. What a lovely profound and unpretentious take on making art and music as a spiritual undertaking. Redemption for the selves and the other. Loved it.
Not extremely profound, but it's a great articulation of a sense of loss and grief. What do you do when all your beliefs stop working? Do you give up? Do you look elsewhere?
Without going into much detail I think this book really struck a chord in a time where I was rediscovering some riches in religions (not just Christianity), in a time where I could relax a bit more instead of just finding things to throw sticks at.
This was fun. Exactly the sort of fun you'd expect from a Star Wars book about a casino. Perhaps a little better than I anticipated.
Hierdie boek was ‘n wonderlike introspektiewe soektog in die hart van die taal en kultuur van die Afrikaner. Wat maak dat ‘n mens in Suid-Afrika wil bly, waar vind ons ons oorsprong en wat gaan ons vashou vir die toekoms.
