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The Call Girls
The Call Arthur The Call Random FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Random House, 1973. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good with a stamp on the flyleaf, and a "Bargain" stamp on the bottom page ends. Dust jacket is very good with light edgewear. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 344215 Literature We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
167 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
9 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Koestler
152 books944 followers
Darkness at Noon
(1940), novel of Hungarian-born British writer Arthur Koestler, portrays his disillusionment with Communism; his nonfiction works include
The Sleepwalkers
(1959) and
The Ghost in the Machine
(1967).
Arthur Koestler CBE [*Kösztler Artúr] was a prolific writer of essays, novels and autobiographies.
He was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest but, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. His early career was in journalism. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany but, disillusioned, he resigned from it in 1938 and in 1940 published a devastating anti-Communist novel, Darkness at Noon, which propelled him to instant international fame.
Over the next forty-three years he espoused many causes, wrote novels and biographies, and numerous essays. In 1968 he was awarded the prestigious and valuable Sonning Prize "For outstanding contribution to European culture", and in 1972 he was made a "Commander of the British Empire" (CBE).
In 1976 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and three years later with leukaemia in its terminal stages. He committed suicide in 1983 in London.
Arthur Koestler CBE [*Kösztler Artúr] was a prolific writer of essays, novels and autobiographies.
He was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in Budapest but, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. His early career was in journalism. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany but, disillusioned, he resigned from it in 1938 and in 1940 published a devastating anti-Communist novel, Darkness at Noon, which propelled him to instant international fame.
Over the next forty-three years he espoused many causes, wrote novels and biographies, and numerous essays. In 1968 he was awarded the prestigious and valuable Sonning Prize "For outstanding contribution to European culture", and in 1972 he was made a "Commander of the British Empire" (CBE).
In 1976 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and three years later with leukaemia in its terminal stages. He committed suicide in 1983 in London.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 22, 2020
Isten hozta kedves látogatóinkat a Szajhák Éves Világmegváltó Konferenciáján, itt az Alpesekben! Látom az Önök arcán a megrökönyödést: de hát mit keres itt ez a sok szakállas, tweedzakós öregúr? Nos, ők a szajhák. Csak épp nem a testüket, hanem az intellektusukat bocsátják áruba, eladják éles elméjüket annak, aki a legtöbbet fizet, kormányoknak vagy multicégeknek, mikor hogy. Legyenek bár maoisták vagy freudiánusok, a robotika vagy a csecsemőkori kondicionálás hívei, befészkelik magukat a jó meleg egyetemi meg laboratóriumi fészkekbe, és nem kérdik, honnan jön a pénz, amiből ezt megtehetik. De most megszolgálják az adóforintokat! Mert nem kisebb okból gyűltek itt össze, mint hogy megmentsék az emberiséget, de most rögtön, mégpedig nem is akárkitől: saját magától. Sőt, kicsit: saját maguktól.
Azt hiszem, Koestler a leggyengébb író azok közül, akiktől mindig szívesen olvasok. Mert ugye ez a regény is olyan, mint a Koestler-regények legtöbbje: gyenge, legalábbis regénynek az. Hisz miről is van szó? A szerző fog egy tucat bámulatos elmét a legkülönfélébb tudományágakból, és bezárja őket egy hegyi szállóba kamaradrámát játszani. No most rögvest beleütközünk egy kvázi megoldhatatlan problémába: hogyan vitatkozhatnának ezek a fantasztikus tudósok úgy, hogy az hiteles szakmai vitának tűnjön, de az olvasó is felfogja, miről hadoválnak? Aki nem tudja a választ, annak ne legyen bűntudata, mert Koestler se tudja. Nemes egyszerűséggel feláldozza az életszerűséget az üzenet oltárán, olyan regényt alkotva, amit én nem hiszek el. De legalább értem. És feltételezem, Koestlernek ez a fontosabb: hogy értsük.
Különben meg ez valahol nagyon bátor dolog: ennyire akarni, hogy az olvasó tanuljon. Hogy megértse azokat a paranoiákat, amelyek a szerzőt is foglalkoztatják. Ez olyan erős erkölcsi alapállást feltételez, amit nem tudok nem bámulni. Koestler aggodalma, hogy a dolgok végzetes irányba tartanak, totálisan uralja a regény hangulatát, és képes önmagában atmoszférát teremteni. Jó, persze, ez az aggodalom kissé idejétmúlt, legalábbis ami a témáját illeti: a túlnépesedés, a hidegháború eszkalálódása meg az atomapokalipszis nála a központi elem, ebből egyik félelem biztosan elavult, és a másik kettő is kissé mintha háttérbe szorult volna. Ugyanakkor maga az aggodalom mint közösségi lelkiállapot, és az értelmiség felelőssége olyan kérdéskörök, amelyek alighanem egyidősek az emberiséggel – már egy olyan elképzelt emberiséggel, amely a paleolitikumban is tartalmazott bizonyos számú értelmiségit. (Értelmiségi alatt értve azt a csávót, aki maga sosem vadászik mamutra, de marha jól el tudja magyarázni, miért volt sikertelen a legutóbbi vadászat.) Szóval amíg van fogékonyság a keserű írói kérdésfelvetésekre, addig Koestlernek is meglesznek a maga olvasói.
Azt hiszem, Koestler a leggyengébb író azok közül, akiktől mindig szívesen olvasok. Mert ugye ez a regény is olyan, mint a Koestler-regények legtöbbje: gyenge, legalábbis regénynek az. Hisz miről is van szó? A szerző fog egy tucat bámulatos elmét a legkülönfélébb tudományágakból, és bezárja őket egy hegyi szállóba kamaradrámát játszani. No most rögvest beleütközünk egy kvázi megoldhatatlan problémába: hogyan vitatkozhatnának ezek a fantasztikus tudósok úgy, hogy az hiteles szakmai vitának tűnjön, de az olvasó is felfogja, miről hadoválnak? Aki nem tudja a választ, annak ne legyen bűntudata, mert Koestler se tudja. Nemes egyszerűséggel feláldozza az életszerűséget az üzenet oltárán, olyan regényt alkotva, amit én nem hiszek el. De legalább értem. És feltételezem, Koestlernek ez a fontosabb: hogy értsük.
Különben meg ez valahol nagyon bátor dolog: ennyire akarni, hogy az olvasó tanuljon. Hogy megértse azokat a paranoiákat, amelyek a szerzőt is foglalkoztatják. Ez olyan erős erkölcsi alapállást feltételez, amit nem tudok nem bámulni. Koestler aggodalma, hogy a dolgok végzetes irányba tartanak, totálisan uralja a regény hangulatát, és képes önmagában atmoszférát teremteni. Jó, persze, ez az aggodalom kissé idejétmúlt, legalábbis ami a témáját illeti: a túlnépesedés, a hidegháború eszkalálódása meg az atomapokalipszis nála a központi elem, ebből egyik félelem biztosan elavult, és a másik kettő is kissé mintha háttérbe szorult volna. Ugyanakkor maga az aggodalom mint közösségi lelkiállapot, és az értelmiség felelőssége olyan kérdéskörök, amelyek alighanem egyidősek az emberiséggel – már egy olyan elképzelt emberiséggel, amely a paleolitikumban is tartalmazott bizonyos számú értelmiségit. (Értelmiségi alatt értve azt a csávót, aki maga sosem vadászik mamutra, de marha jól el tudja magyarázni, miért volt sikertelen a legutóbbi vadászat.) Szóval amíg van fogékonyság a keserű írói kérdésfelvetésekre, addig Koestlernek is meglesznek a maga olvasói.
June 11, 2021
Celebrity Death Match Special: Watchlist versus The Call-Girls
[ROGER's pad. ROGER, resplendent in unwashed mauve dressing-gown, is handing the guileless and visibly wilting BASIL a huge stack of books. He pops the last two on the pile.]
ROGER: ... so yeah, know your enemy. Here's Mein Kampf and The Art of the Deal.
BASIL: We're done?
ROGER: Wait, one more. The Call-Girls. Better start there.
BASIL: It's by the author of Swedish Airline Hostesses on the Job?
ROGER: Cretin. Oaf. Illiterate. Arthur Koestler.
BASIL: Strange name for a pornographer.
ROGER: You need to broaden your cultural horizons, you ignoramus. Well come on!
[BASIL hesitantly opens the book.]
BASIL: I told you it was porn. Here's two lesbos getting it on.
ROGER: You are so missing the point. Let me spell it out in terms even your Peter Jackson stunted mind will be able to grasp. What are you and the magic pixie girl trying to do?
BASIL: Get it on?
ROGER: Can you ever think about anything but sex?
[BASIL considers the question seriously. ROGER loses patience.]
ROGER: Save the world, right?
BASIL: Oh yeah. That.
ROGER: Well the people in The Call-Girls are trying to do the same thing.
BASIL: Who are they?
ROGER: High-powered academics. Nobel laureates. Famous poets.
BASIL: And how are they going to save the world?
ROGER: They decide to meet up for a week in this posh Swiss mountain village. They're going to come up with a plan. And when they've found it, they're going to write a letter to the President and tell him how to save the world. Like Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in 1939 telling him the US needed to build an atom bomb.
BASIL: But isn't that more like ... destroying the world?
[ROGER clutches his head in his hands.]
ROGER: They needed to save the world from Adolf Hitler. You do know who Adolf Hitler was? He wrote one of the books I just gave you.
[Basil looks at the stack, hesitates over The Art of the Deal, then picks out Mein Kampf with a flourish.]
ROGER: Well done, grasshopper!
BASIL: So does their plan work? The people in The Call-Girls.
ROGER: No spoilers!
BASIL: But how could Delia and I do that? We aren't Nobel laureates or famous poets. If we wrote a letter to the President he wouldn't even open it.
[ROGER clutches his head in his hands again. Through gritted teeth:]
ROGER: Of course it doesn't work, you simpleton. You need to read this book to find out what you shouldn't do.
BASIL: So we shouldn't go to Switzerland and write a letter to the President?
[ROGER stares at the ceiling and clasps his hands. But God isn't interested in helping him.]
ROGER: That's enough strategizing for one day. We'll carry on tomorrow.
[Part 2 here]
[ROGER's pad. ROGER, resplendent in unwashed mauve dressing-gown, is handing the guileless and visibly wilting BASIL a huge stack of books. He pops the last two on the pile.]
ROGER: ... so yeah, know your enemy. Here's Mein Kampf and The Art of the Deal.
BASIL: We're done?
ROGER: Wait, one more. The Call-Girls. Better start there.
BASIL: It's by the author of Swedish Airline Hostesses on the Job?
ROGER: Cretin. Oaf. Illiterate. Arthur Koestler.
BASIL: Strange name for a pornographer.
ROGER: You need to broaden your cultural horizons, you ignoramus. Well come on!
[BASIL hesitantly opens the book.]
BASIL: I told you it was porn. Here's two lesbos getting it on.
ROGER: You are so missing the point. Let me spell it out in terms even your Peter Jackson stunted mind will be able to grasp. What are you and the magic pixie girl trying to do?
BASIL: Get it on?
ROGER: Can you ever think about anything but sex?
[BASIL considers the question seriously. ROGER loses patience.]
ROGER: Save the world, right?
BASIL: Oh yeah. That.
ROGER: Well the people in The Call-Girls are trying to do the same thing.
BASIL: Who are they?
ROGER: High-powered academics. Nobel laureates. Famous poets.
BASIL: And how are they going to save the world?
ROGER: They decide to meet up for a week in this posh Swiss mountain village. They're going to come up with a plan. And when they've found it, they're going to write a letter to the President and tell him how to save the world. Like Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt in 1939 telling him the US needed to build an atom bomb.
BASIL: But isn't that more like ... destroying the world?
[ROGER clutches his head in his hands.]
ROGER: They needed to save the world from Adolf Hitler. You do know who Adolf Hitler was? He wrote one of the books I just gave you.
[Basil looks at the stack, hesitates over The Art of the Deal, then picks out Mein Kampf with a flourish.]
ROGER: Well done, grasshopper!
BASIL: So does their plan work? The people in The Call-Girls.
ROGER: No spoilers!
BASIL: But how could Delia and I do that? We aren't Nobel laureates or famous poets. If we wrote a letter to the President he wouldn't even open it.
[ROGER clutches his head in his hands again. Through gritted teeth:]
ROGER: Of course it doesn't work, you simpleton. You need to read this book to find out what you shouldn't do.
BASIL: So we shouldn't go to Switzerland and write a letter to the President?
[ROGER stares at the ceiling and clasps his hands. But God isn't interested in helping him.]
ROGER: That's enough strategizing for one day. We'll carry on tomorrow.
[Part 2 here]
Read
August 15, 2022A curious little volume satirizing the fine art of the Academic Conference. Always a welcome subject for me after 30+ years "temporarily" employed at universities.
August 29, 2022
Che scrittore, Koestler. Non pensavo, davvero, che si potesse passare così agilmente da un romanzo come "Buio a mezzogiorno" a questa "tragicommedia"!
"Le squillo" (call-girls) sono scienziati e accademici da ogni parte del mondo che partecipano a convegni e tavole rotonde a ripetizione, ovviamente su invito e dietro pagamento di apposito "gettone". Ormai vivono così, sempre con la valigia al seguito, alla ricerca di menzioni speciali e visibilità. Alcuni ripetono a ogni piè sospinto il solito discorso, l'identica solfa, magari adottando qualche lieve accorgimento per dare l'impressione di novità, ancorché posticcia. Altri si portano al seguito i pazienti, posto che non c'è praticamente altro modo per praticare la normale attività di ricerca.
Luogo del simposio, ove è ambientato il romanzo, è una piccola cittadina svizzera ai piedi delle alpi, tema del dibattito: "approcci alla sopravvivenza della specie umana".
Si tratta di un seminario interdisciplinare. Ci sono quasi tutti: psicologi, psichiatri, sociologi, antropologi, zoologi, fisici ecc. ecc. Ognuno espone il proprio punto di vista sui gravi rischi che incombono sull'umanità (su tutti: l'autoestinzione) e, soprattutto, la propria ricetta per la soluzione dell'immane problema. Aleggia, in effetti, lo spettro di un qualcosa di grave, di imprecisato, dall'Asia.
Si apre così un festival del grottesco e del tragicomico: aghi impiantati nell'ipotalamo per neutralizzare l'aggressività del soggetto, controllo e riduzione delle nascite con calendarizzazione decennale dell'inibizione chimica, strampalate teorie sulla levitazione ecc. Ogni luminare è, a modo proprio, un concentrato di ego e di manie e ben difficilmente si può giungere a una sintesi condivisa.
Il testo è breve ma intenso, ricco di spunti filosofici sui destini umani e di satira corrosiva, nel contrasto tra le elevate finalità del meeting e le reali fattispecie umane che ne compongono la platea dei partecipanti.
"Le squillo" (call-girls) sono scienziati e accademici da ogni parte del mondo che partecipano a convegni e tavole rotonde a ripetizione, ovviamente su invito e dietro pagamento di apposito "gettone". Ormai vivono così, sempre con la valigia al seguito, alla ricerca di menzioni speciali e visibilità. Alcuni ripetono a ogni piè sospinto il solito discorso, l'identica solfa, magari adottando qualche lieve accorgimento per dare l'impressione di novità, ancorché posticcia. Altri si portano al seguito i pazienti, posto che non c'è praticamente altro modo per praticare la normale attività di ricerca.
Luogo del simposio, ove è ambientato il romanzo, è una piccola cittadina svizzera ai piedi delle alpi, tema del dibattito: "approcci alla sopravvivenza della specie umana".
Si tratta di un seminario interdisciplinare. Ci sono quasi tutti: psicologi, psichiatri, sociologi, antropologi, zoologi, fisici ecc. ecc. Ognuno espone il proprio punto di vista sui gravi rischi che incombono sull'umanità (su tutti: l'autoestinzione) e, soprattutto, la propria ricetta per la soluzione dell'immane problema. Aleggia, in effetti, lo spettro di un qualcosa di grave, di imprecisato, dall'Asia.
Si apre così un festival del grottesco e del tragicomico: aghi impiantati nell'ipotalamo per neutralizzare l'aggressività del soggetto, controllo e riduzione delle nascite con calendarizzazione decennale dell'inibizione chimica, strampalate teorie sulla levitazione ecc. Ogni luminare è, a modo proprio, un concentrato di ego e di manie e ben difficilmente si può giungere a una sintesi condivisa.
Il testo è breve ma intenso, ricco di spunti filosofici sui destini umani e di satira corrosiva, nel contrasto tra le elevate finalità del meeting e le reali fattispecie umane che ne compongono la platea dei partecipanti.
Read
April 27, 2009Not one of AK's better works. I found it somewhat cloying and forced. Although a cynic would say that perhaps that is because it hits a bit too close to home.
April 3, 2011
Competently written, and occasionally funny, but ultimately nothing compelling in the whole novel. May have ruined the campus novel for me, though it wasn't precisely one.
August 28, 2023
It's bad, but charmingly weird
as a literary trainwreck
Imagine the worst of Bill Cosby with the worst of Dick Cavett and you get something still considerably more interesting than Arthur Koestler.
A total headcase but, i guess charming for the 40s and 50s, because he's more fun talking to at a coffee table, than reading as a coffee-table book!
---
Amazone
I love Koestler. Don't start here
4/10
The Call-Girls is a novel evidently intended as a 'popularization', since people like to read novels (!) of ideas that Koestler covered more exhaustively in his book-length essays, in particular The Ghost in the Machine and Janus: A Summing Up.
The fictional structure is really little more than a skeletal frame into which Koestler has dumped (sometimes verbatim) arguments that he formulated elsewhere:
A dozen "quirky" professor-types (one giggles, one blushes, one's outspoken and gay, one does ten things at once, etc.)
the jetsetting symposia-attending call-girls of the title - come together in Switzerland to discuss how mankind is to be saved from itself.
So that's what they do.
As story, this is less than gripping; and either of the abovementioned nonfiction titles will serve as a better introduction to Koestler's ideas, which ARE gripping.
Imaginary Albums
---
Slightly interesting and mostly harmless
6/10
The introduction is worth the price of the book.
The rest of it left me asking "what's the point?"
I was an academic for some 30 years but I have never been to a conference like the one described in this book but then I wasn't a social scientist!
Normally I like Koestler, but this is not his normal style.
It's so easy to set one protagonist up against another in a series of fictitious debates/arguments but obviously fictional characters have no free will and have to do the bidding of the author.
Maybe that's the whole point.
If so, the introduction is all you need.
RSP
---
Brilliant novel about the utopians
10/10
Do you ever wonder what goes on at Davos or other meetings of those high minded folks who think they have all the solutions that will make the world perfect?
This novella, slightly dated in its content but absolutely up to date in terms of process, describes what the intellectual call girls of those dedicated utopians do at such conferences and what is truly behind their pronouncements and nostrums.
By casting this as a novel Koestler illustrates rather than pontificates about the hollowness and pedantry of those allegedly superior beings whose declarations and recommendations we are supposed to accept with awe and gratitude.
After reading this book I believe your attitude toward what the superior "smart folks" at various think tanks and institutes and high end retreats will change and will, hopefully, come down to earth.
smarmer
---
Basically Koestler is a blathering weirdo
how a really charming guy with sickening personal morals
wanted to lecture to the world about bad people in positions of power
Imagine a third-rate Dick Cavett with the humor and rapist tendencies of Bill Cosby, and you got Kostler pegged.
as a literary trainwreck
Imagine the worst of Bill Cosby with the worst of Dick Cavett and you get something still considerably more interesting than Arthur Koestler.
A total headcase but, i guess charming for the 40s and 50s, because he's more fun talking to at a coffee table, than reading as a coffee-table book!
---
Amazone
I love Koestler. Don't start here
4/10
The Call-Girls is a novel evidently intended as a 'popularization', since people like to read novels (!) of ideas that Koestler covered more exhaustively in his book-length essays, in particular The Ghost in the Machine and Janus: A Summing Up.
The fictional structure is really little more than a skeletal frame into which Koestler has dumped (sometimes verbatim) arguments that he formulated elsewhere:
A dozen "quirky" professor-types (one giggles, one blushes, one's outspoken and gay, one does ten things at once, etc.)
the jetsetting symposia-attending call-girls of the title - come together in Switzerland to discuss how mankind is to be saved from itself.
So that's what they do.
As story, this is less than gripping; and either of the abovementioned nonfiction titles will serve as a better introduction to Koestler's ideas, which ARE gripping.
Imaginary Albums
---
Slightly interesting and mostly harmless
6/10
The introduction is worth the price of the book.
The rest of it left me asking "what's the point?"
I was an academic for some 30 years but I have never been to a conference like the one described in this book but then I wasn't a social scientist!
Normally I like Koestler, but this is not his normal style.
It's so easy to set one protagonist up against another in a series of fictitious debates/arguments but obviously fictional characters have no free will and have to do the bidding of the author.
Maybe that's the whole point.
If so, the introduction is all you need.
RSP
---
Brilliant novel about the utopians
10/10
Do you ever wonder what goes on at Davos or other meetings of those high minded folks who think they have all the solutions that will make the world perfect?
This novella, slightly dated in its content but absolutely up to date in terms of process, describes what the intellectual call girls of those dedicated utopians do at such conferences and what is truly behind their pronouncements and nostrums.
By casting this as a novel Koestler illustrates rather than pontificates about the hollowness and pedantry of those allegedly superior beings whose declarations and recommendations we are supposed to accept with awe and gratitude.
After reading this book I believe your attitude toward what the superior "smart folks" at various think tanks and institutes and high end retreats will change and will, hopefully, come down to earth.
smarmer
---
Basically Koestler is a blathering weirdo
how a really charming guy with sickening personal morals
wanted to lecture to the world about bad people in positions of power
Imagine a third-rate Dick Cavett with the humor and rapist tendencies of Bill Cosby, and you got Kostler pegged.
January 6, 2023
"The Call-Girls: A Tragi-Comedy with Prologue and Epilogue" is a unique and thought-provoking play that explores the lives of a group of call girls and the men they encounter. The play is structured as a series of interconnected vignettes, each one illuminating a different aspect of the characters' lives.
One of the things I appreciated most about this play was the way it tackled heavy themes such as addiction, abuse, and exploitation with both sensitivity and humor. The characters are fully fleshed-out and complex, and the dialogue is sharp and smart.
Overall, "The Call-Girls" is a powerful and thought-provoking work that is sure to leave a lasting impression on its audience and for Miami Escort alike. Whether you are a fan of theater or just looking for a thought-provoking read, I highly recommend giving this play a chance.
One of the things I appreciated most about this play was the way it tackled heavy themes such as addiction, abuse, and exploitation with both sensitivity and humor. The characters are fully fleshed-out and complex, and the dialogue is sharp and smart.
Overall, "The Call-Girls" is a powerful and thought-provoking work that is sure to leave a lasting impression on its audience and for Miami Escort alike. Whether you are a fan of theater or just looking for a thought-provoking read, I highly recommend giving this play a chance.
January 29, 2020
Satir om nobelklassforskarnas förmodade oförmåga att höja blicken utanför sitt eget insnöade perspektiv, trots att de står vid katastrofens rand. Märkligt aktuell trots att den är skriven 73, och välskriven och rolig som 70talets bästa böcker är, som en skarp burgess eller greene, men uppehåller sig för länge vid forskarnas märkliga teorier för att egentligen vara en bra berättelse.
January 7, 2023
Даже не знаю, вроде идея крутая, но совершенно ничего не ёкнуло в груди при прочтении. Юмор натяжный, конструкция просвечивает некой искусственностью….
Больше всего попахивает затянувшимся рассказом, раздутым на 300 страниц.
Больше всего попахивает затянувшимся рассказом, раздутым на 300 страниц.
June 7, 2017
a very funny book that questions the authority of science and its actual link to reality.
March 12, 2018
Aburrido
December 1, 2019
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Currently reading
March 24, 20202 Hb copies, both 1st American ed. 1 with protected jacket.
February 23, 2022
If you read this when it came out you were probably a pretty cool dude
February 17, 2017
Это, конечно, не "Слепящая тьма", и по накалу это произведение уступает самому знаменитому роману Кёстлера.
"Девушки по вызову" – тревожный роман о тревожном будущем человечества. Сюжет, который целиком и полностью закручен вокруг группы ученых и развивается на одном отдельно взятом симпозиуме, будет близок и понятен не каждому, но для меня эта "академичность" – главное достоинство книги.
Подпортили впечатление два момента:
- Вступление и эпилог. Кажется, я поняла, какая идея объединяла их с основной частью романа, но, тем не менее, первая часть вызвала отвращение, а третья – убила "послевкусие" от истории.
- На мой скромный взгляд, последняя глава основной части лишняя. Насколько более эффектной была бы концовка, если бы она закончилась на моменте, когда... но, в общем, почитаете сами :)
"Девушки по вызову" – тревожный роман о тревожном будущем человечества. Сюжет, который целиком и полностью закручен вокруг группы ученых и развивается на одном отдельно взятом симпозиуме, будет близок и понятен не каждому, но для меня эта "академичность" – главное достоинство книги.
Подпортили впечатление два момента:
- Вступление и эпилог. Кажется, я поняла, какая идея объединяла их с основной частью романа, но, тем не менее, первая часть вызвала отвращение, а третья – убила "послевкусие" от истории.
- На мой скромный взгляд, последняя глава основной части лишняя. Насколько более эффектной была бы концовка, если бы она закончилась на моменте, когда... но, в общем, почитаете сами :)
November 6, 2015
αναλύοντας με άπλετο σαρκασμό και χιούμορ το πως η υπέρεξειδίκευση της ήδη ειδικευμένης επιστήμης και της φιλοσοφίας που την συντροφεύει, την έχει ουσιαστικά αχρηστευσει ως φορέα συμβουλής και βοήθειας.
Βρισκόμαστε λοιπόν σε ένα συνέδριο κοινωνιολογικης φύσεως που έχει ως θέμα την εξεύρεση νέων μεθόδων που θα συμβάλουν στο να επιβιώσει το ανθρώπινο είδος σε μια εποχή που πρεσβεύει η καταστροφή και ο όλεθρος. Σύνεδροι είναι οι παγκοσμίου φήμης αναγνωρισμενοι και διακεκριμένοι επιστήμονες, οι οποίοι είναι ειδικευμένοι πάνω σε διαφορετικόυς τομεις την ανθρώπινης φύσης, αλλά και ζωολογοι, συμπεριφορισιολόγοι, περιβάλλοντολόγοι, εναλλακτικοί μοναχοί ενός τάγματαος που αναλύει την τηλεκινηση και την καθυποταγη της δυναμης της θελησης του νου, ένας φυσικός (ο Νικολαι που προεδρεύει του συνεδρίου) και όσο να ναι πολλές διανοιες ή και παράνοιες που όλες μαζί αποτελούν συχνά τα απόλυτα μέλη ανάλογων συνεδρίων και συμποσιων ανά τον κόσμο ( εξ ου και η πολυ πετυχημενη ονομασία κολ-γκιρλς).
Και ενώ οι κοινωνίες βρίσκονται στο χείλος της καταστροφής και οι πόλεμοι κατασπαραζουν ότι έχει διακριτικά απομείνει, οι επιστήμονες μας διαχωριζονται σε στρατόπεδα βάσει τος ομοιότητες στην αλήθεια τους κι αδυνατούν ξεκολλήσουν από το δέντρο και να κοιτάξουν το δάσος.....
Σατιρικό βιβλίο, γραμμένο με ευστροφία και χιούμορ βάζει το μυαλό σου σε ενεργεία ενώ απολαμβάνει ταυτόχρονα και ένα ωραίο ανάγνωσμα.Το μηδέν και το άπειρο μου άρεσε περισσότερο μα και αυτό είναι πολύ καλό. Το χα στο ράφι χρόνια είναι η αλήθεια.
Το συνιστώ φυσικά. εκαστος μπορεί να βρει και κάτι από την αλήθεια του.
Βρισκόμαστε λοιπόν σε ένα συνέδριο κοινωνιολογικης φύσεως που έχει ως θέμα την εξεύρεση νέων μεθόδων που θα συμβάλουν στο να επιβιώσει το ανθρώπινο είδος σε μια εποχή που πρεσβεύει η καταστροφή και ο όλεθρος. Σύνεδροι είναι οι παγκοσμίου φήμης αναγνωρισμενοι και διακεκριμένοι επιστήμονες, οι οποίοι είναι ειδικευμένοι πάνω σε διαφορετικόυς τομεις την ανθρώπινης φύσης, αλλά και ζωολογοι, συμπεριφορισιολόγοι, περιβάλλοντολόγοι, εναλλακτικοί μοναχοί ενός τάγματαος που αναλύει την τηλεκινηση και την καθυποταγη της δυναμης της θελησης του νου, ένας φυσικός (ο Νικολαι που προεδρεύει του συνεδρίου) και όσο να ναι πολλές διανοιες ή και παράνοιες που όλες μαζί αποτελούν συχνά τα απόλυτα μέλη ανάλογων συνεδρίων και συμποσιων ανά τον κόσμο ( εξ ου και η πολυ πετυχημενη ονομασία κολ-γκιρλς).
Και ενώ οι κοινωνίες βρίσκονται στο χείλος της καταστροφής και οι πόλεμοι κατασπαραζουν ότι έχει διακριτικά απομείνει, οι επιστήμονες μας διαχωριζονται σε στρατόπεδα βάσει τος ομοιότητες στην αλήθεια τους κι αδυνατούν ξεκολλήσουν από το δέντρο και να κοιτάξουν το δάσος.....
Σατιρικό βιβλίο, γραμμένο με ευστροφία και χιούμορ βάζει το μυαλό σου σε ενεργεία ενώ απολαμβάνει ταυτόχρονα και ένα ωραίο ανάγνωσμα.Το μηδέν και το άπειρο μου άρεσε περισσότερο μα και αυτό είναι πολύ καλό. Το χα στο ράφι χρόνια είναι η αλήθεια.
Το συνιστώ φυσικά. εκαστος μπορεί να βρει και κάτι από την αλήθεια του.
June 14, 2015
A slim book building up to a great punch line: It's the end of the world, but have no fear: professional international junketeers are holding a conference to discuss it, inconclusively. A good read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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