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| Topic Started: May 3 2008, 03:43 AM (2,785 Views) | |
| Belle | Nov 8 2009, 11:52 AM Post #321 |
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Ha! I went to start this waiting for Birds of Tokyo this afternoon, but I ended up napping in the sun instead. |
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| Freki | Nov 8 2009, 12:01 PM Post #322 |
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Heh, maybe I should try. It'd mean I wouldn't have to have subtitles on French cinema either. It's a very interesting read, Belle - have you read The Outsider (or The Stranger, depending on the translation) before? I'm finding it much heavier. |
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| gingerwitch28 | Nov 8 2009, 12:03 PM Post #323 |
twenty-first century ennui
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A friend of mine spoiled the ending in a letter he wrote once. But in true Andy style he consistently referred to it as L'Etranger so I always get confused when I cannot find it in bookstores, as my brain automatically translates that to The Stranger. |
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| Belle | Nov 8 2009, 08:16 PM Post #324 |
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No, I haven't read Camus before, I only really grabbed it because it's in the new Penguin range  But if I like this one, I probably will. I really want to go back and learn French again. I don't think I've forgotten much. The biggest problem I have though is that the only place in Tassie to learn it properly is at UTas in Hobart, and I don't want to move to Hobart just to learn French. I was thinking of going through the University of New England, because they have an amazing distance program, but then I wouldn't have anyone to practise with. |
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| gingerwitch28 | Nov 8 2009, 11:08 PM Post #325 |
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twenty-first century ennui
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Isn't there an Alliance Francaise or something that you could learn it through? |
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| Belle | Nov 8 2009, 11:17 PM Post #326 |
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Hobart. |
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| capricarius | Nov 15 2009, 07:42 PM Post #327 |
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I finished "The White Darkness" a few days back. Shit ending. |
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| Belle | Nov 15 2009, 08:15 PM Post #328 |
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Just finished Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter, and now on to Royal Exile by Fiona McIntosh |
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| Freki | Nov 16 2009, 12:23 AM Post #329 |
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Finished The Plague. It was really good. Started Burmese Days by George Orwell. |
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| stupidstuff | Nov 20 2009, 09:35 PM Post #330 |
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A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Really, Doctor Cors, the evil to which even you should have referred was not suffering, but the unreasoning fear of suffering. Metus doloris. Take it together with its positive equivalent, the craving for worldly security, for Eden, and you might have your "root of evil," Doctor Cors. To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law - a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security. After nuclear strikes have returned humanity back to a pre-industrialized state it is through the Catholic Church that past scietnific achievement is retained to any significant degree. The problem is, they are in possession of the knowledge but have forgotten how to implement most of it. The setting is post-apocalyptic and convincing; the descriptions of everyday events and situations seem reasonable given the ridiculous nature of what is being described. I intend to read thorugh this again. The backdrop is past nuclear devastation with the forecast for there being additional nuclear devastation. The primary action however lies in the interaction between Abbot Zerchi, representing respectively God, deontological argument, and faith and Doctor Cors representing humanistic belief, consequentialism (or, utilitarianism), and science. The two scenes most telling of the conflict are: 1) as the Abbot drives a woman with a horribly deformed baby to a place where she intends to have it killed. - I cannot understand a God who is pleased by my baby's hurting! - No, no! It is not the pain that is pleasing to God, child. It is the soul's endurance in faith and hope and love in spite of bodily afflictions that pleases Heaven. Pain is like negative temptation. God is not pleased by temptations that afflict the flesh; He is pleased when the soul rises above the temptation and says, 'Go Satan.' It's the same with pain, which is often a temptation to despair, anger, loss of faith - - Save your breath, Father. I'm not complaining. The baby is. But the baby doesn't understand your sermon. She can hurt, though. She can hurt, but she can't understand. [...] - Are you going to tell me where you wanted to go, child? he asked at last. - Nowhere. I've changed my mind. [...] The officer waved the car off the road. Zerchi could not disobey.[...] The child was crying again. The mother stirred restlessly. - I'm getting out here, she told them tonelessly. - No! Dom Zerchi caught her arm. Child, I forbid you - The officer's hand shot out to seize the priest's wrist.[...]Zerchi slammed the door and tried to start the car, but the officer's hand flashed in through the window, hit the CANCEL button, and removed the key. - Attempted kidnapping?" one officer grunted to the the other. - Cors? Where's Cors? Hey, Doc! Abbot Zerchi caught a glimpse of a familiar face coming through the crowd.[...] - Listen, Father, he said, I know how you feel about all this, but - Abbot Zerchi's fist shot out at the doctor's face in a straight right jab. It caught Cors off balance, and he sat down hard on the driveway. He looked bewildered. He snuffled a few times. Suddenly his nose leaked blood. The police had the priest's arms pinned behind him. 2) as the Abbot is dying from being crushed to death by rubble he manages a soliloquy. There was little pain, but only a ferocious itching that came from the captive part of him. He tried to scratch; his fingers encounteres only rock. He clawed at it for a moment, shuddered, and took his hand away. The itch was maddening. Bruised nerves flashed foolish demands for scratching. He felt very undignified. Well, Doctor Cors, how do you know that the itch is not the more basic evil than the pain? He laughed a little at that one. [...] The trouble with the world is me. Try that on yourself, my dear Cors. Thee me Adam Man we. No "worldly evil" except that which is introduced into the world by Man - me thee Adam us - with a little help from the father of lies. Blame anything, blame God even, but oh don't blame me. Doctor Cors? The only evil in the world now, Doctor, is the fact that the world no longer is. What pain hath wrought? This is the only full-length novel the author wrote. He flew bombing missions in WW2 and I've found several refernces of his being troubled over having participated in the bombing of a Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassinno. (True?) He killed himself in 1996. |
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9:51 PM Dec 1
