Simon > Recent Status Updates

115: Faust selber ist ja der Prototyp des genialen Dilettantismus und seiner Tragik.

256: Wir lieben die Wissenschaften, ein jeder die seine, und wissen doch, dass die Hingabe an eine Wissenschaft einen Mann nicht unbedingt vor Eigennutz, Laster und Lächerlichkeit zu schützen vermag,
die Geschichte ist voll von Beispielen, die Figur des Doktor Faust ist die literarische Popularisierung dieser Gefahr.

At first Counterpoint.
Originally i just wanted to read The Tale of the Man who was Too Lazy to Fail, the contained short novella.
But then i thought i should try the beginning. Should have looked at page numbers.

skimmed the already read part to get up to speed again and set myself here. I feel i'm now in a tolerable state of knowledge and memory of what the book contained up to here again.

left on page 260 for more than 7 months to read and do other things... high time to get back to it

oops, i forgot i was reading this. I thought i had finished this last volume already. Shows i'm not half as invested in this as in Knausgaard or other actually interesting stuff.

12 down, 25 to go. Maybe Henry 4 and 5 next. Or maybe i should rather read all the sonnets now that i'm through his most important plays.

so far the best volume in the series, maybe actually a worthy modernization of Proust, minus the musings on time and memory.

"You don't have to say everything you think. That's what kids do. Adults have the option of quality assurance of their statements."

German translation released today. I'm not waiting for the english one in Fall 2018. The original was released in 2011, how can a supposed pinnacle of contemporary literature be neglected for so long?

10 down, 27 to go. i'll probably try some histories next, like the Richards and Henrys.

started my second read, still fantastic.

on to the last volume now!

Finished volume 4 of 7

Our theories about phenomena
change, but the phenomena stay the same. A beautiful rainbow continues to be a beautiful rainbow even after it has been explained in terms of
electromagnetic radiation.
(And Feynman would say the marvelous explanation makes it even more beautiful)

The names of things always express a view of the mind, which is foreign to our genuine impressions of them, and which forces us to eliminate from them whatever does not correspond to that view.

The Weapon Shop - 1/5. stupid deus ex machina guardian angel concept on a stupid protagonist.

Microcosmic God - 4.5/5

Proust found the Dunning-Kruger effect first:
"Inaccuracies and incompetence in no way reduce self-assurance. The opposite is more usual"
(p. 351)

"Were it not for habit, life should seem delightful to beings constantly under threat of dying, in other words to all humankind."

The first story, Dark Integers, is mindblowing. It probably requires some geeky background though, as it's basically scifi built from mathematics and programming concepts. Communicating between parallel universes by proving arithmetic inconsistencies according to its differing physical laws... or something ^^ The most amazing short story I read in a long time *-*

continued this at IK with its advocacy of solitude when the proper philosopher for that week of friendship would have been Epicureus ;)

Into week 3. Doesn't get any less marvelous (though some parts more demanding or to one's interests than others)

2015 week 2 goal. especially fascinating this part, made lots of notes.

started from scratch, worth it