What Are You Reading?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Me, I'm reading:

L’Illusion de la fin ou la grève des événements; and Le Paroxyste indifférent, by Baudrillard.

In this postulate, the erosion of meaning via its excess, Baudrillard —against Foucault, Kantian rationalism, and liberal humanism— sought to understand the world neither in terms of the subject's desire to coherently know the world, nor in terms of the interpolation of power within subjectivity (in the manner of Foucault), but in terms of the object, and its power to seduce (its power to stand for, or to simulate). His political stance led him —drawing upon the anthropological work of Marcel Mauss and Georges Bataille— to oppose semiotic logic —meaning, sign, signification, and commodity exchange— in favor of the symbolic realm —gift exchange, potlatch (the practice of sumptuous destruction), and analyses of the principle of Evil (and the meaning of invoking said principle). This prompted him to characterize the world in terms of the binary opposition of symbolic cultures (based upon gift exchange) and the expanding 'globalized' world (based upon sign and commodity exchange), a world which has no answer to symbolic logic.



And Astérix at the Olympique Games.

[KukriKhan]

In this postulate, the erosion of meaning via its excess, Baudrillard —against Foucault, Kantian rationalism, and liberal humanism— sought to understand the world neither in terms of the subject's desire to coherently know the world, nor in terms of the interpolation of power within subjectivity (in the manner of Foucault), but in terms of the object, and its power to seduce (its power to stand for, or to simulate). His political stance led him —drawing upon the anthropological work of Marcel Mauss and Georges Bataille— to oppose semiotic logic —meaning, sign, signification, and commodity exchange— in favor of the symbolic realm —gift exchange, potlatch (the practice of sumptuous destruction), and analyses of the principle of Evil (and the meaning of invoking said principle). This prompted him to characterize the world in terms of the binary opposition of symbolic cultures (based upon gift exchange) and the expanding 'globalized' world (based upon sign and commodity exchange), a world which has no answer to symbolic logic.

Oh, I AM sorry. Take 2 Ayn Rand's and call Don Corleone in the morning. '... a world which has no answer to symbolic logic...' is a sad (tho' pretty) place, indeed.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Oh, I AM sorry. Take 2 Ayn Rand's and call Don Corleone in the morning. '... a world which has no answer to symbolic logic...' is a sad (tho' pretty) place, indeed.

It was a joke.
The discrepancy between the self-inflated postmodern philosophical works and the children's comic was meant to make you laugh.
Oh well, it works better in a bar.



What I'm really reading right now is:
The European City by Leonardo Benevolo, Italian architect and architectural historian.

And an animal atlas book, don't remember the title. Lots of pictures and descriptions of animals and ecosystems.

[Banquo's Ghost]

It was a joke.
The discrepancy between the self-inflated postmodern philosophical works and the children's comic was meant to make you laugh.
Oh well, it works better in a bar.

I found it amusing, Louis - but that's hardly a recommendation, to be fair. Asterix is my idea of a good read in philosophy, particularly the observations on post-imperial British national identity.

Don't give up the day job.

[Adrian II]

Niall Ferguson's latest, The War of the World, and Lucianus' How to Write History properly (De Historia Conscribenda). And occasional paragraphs from Edward Castronova's Synthetic Worlds about the economy of on-line role-playing games.

[Don Corleone]

Semiconductor Device Physics, for a class I'm taking.

Winning (Jack Welch) for some management tips.

And while I appreciate the nod from Kurki, I'm afraid I'm not reading anything so heady for personal reading. Right now, I'm reading "In the Name of Rome" (a series of biographical essays of Roman generals). Though if I had it in me to do some serious thinkin, Ayn Rand would be top of my list.

[AntiochusIII]

Brilliant book; real art. Shame the mangaka stopped. That and the Naruto-crazed (boo) US oh-so-proud otaku community completely ignored this masterpiece.