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Count Timothy von Icarus

Hans Urs von Balthasar's "Cosmic Liturgy: The Universe According to Saint Maximus the Confessor." Aside from being a rare deep dive into IMO one of the most underrated thinkers of late antiquity/the "Dark Age," is is also one of the most exquisite works on Neoplatonism in general that I've ever seen and is expertly crafted despite very challenging source material. The part on conceptions of mathematics in Christian Neoplatonism is especially good and you can see the foreshadowing of Eriugena and Hegel.

It also has some good coverage of John of Sythopolis (a major early commentator on St. Denis) and St. Denis himself.

Here are some of the pages on number if anyone is interested.

https://ibb.co/q11kHL1
https://ibb.co/4ZDhbyK
https://ibb.co/Hgcb9xh
https://ibb.co/XjYYFbk
https://ibb.co/SnZyd5P
https://ibb.co/MgnKntN

Maximus would famously have his tongue cut out and his writing hand lopped off for refusing to recant on his core ideas, so we're lucky that so much of his writing has survived for us. I believe he is the last thinker of the East to be considered a "Doctor of the Church," by the Latin Church.

Maw

The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World by Marie Favereau

T Clark

The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World — Maw

That's something that has always fascinated me. I'll take a look.

javi2541997

First Person Singular, by Haruki Murakami.

There is nothing like coming back to Murakami after a while. Do you still read some of his works, @praxis?

praxis

↪javi2541997

Yes, currently one of his short story collections also, South of the Border, West of the Sun. I like his novels much better so far. Just checked and his new book will be available on November 19th.

javi2541997

↪praxis

:up: :smile:

T Clark

There is nothing like coming back to Murakami after a while. — javi2541997

As we have discussed previously, I also like Murakami, but it always takes an act of will to get me to start a new one. The way he writes and the things he evokes are just so different from what I'm used to. Those Japanese. Don't get me started on their movies.

javi2541997

↪T Clark

Wow, that's interesting though, because Murakami has always been criticised for not being Japanese in the purest aesthetic sense. It takes me a while to turn back to him because his works are very deep. I know I will suffer a big sensation of nostalgia after finishing one of his novels, and I will miss some of the characters. I tend to get very attached to what he writes. I wish I could meet Aomame (1Q84) or Noboru Wataya (The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) in real life. But I am aware this is impossible, because they only exist in the book, and they belong to fiction, and this makes me feel a weird nostalgia.

Pantagruel

When the Sleeper Wakes
by H.G. Wells

fdrake

The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

So far this is light hearted and hilarious, I really don't trust it. But it's great.

What else? The man's a seducer of prelates and a suborner of the judiciary. He's a habitual mailcandler and a practicing gelignitionary, a mathematical platonist and a molester of domestic yardfowl. Principally of the dominecker persuasion. A chickenfucker, not to put too fine a point on it.

T Clark

I really don't trust it. — fdrake

Yes. Never trust Cormac McCarthy. He is ruthless with both his characters and his readers.

fdrake

↪T Clark

Yes. Blood Meridian is my favourite novel. As of recently. I've never been so affected by fiction.

Maw

That's something that has always fascinated me. I'll take a look. — T Clark

I've been interested in the Mongol's since I was a boy. Nearly finished with the book. The first third focuses mostly on the origins of the Mongol Empire via Chinggis Khan but then the narrative shifts primarily towards the Jochi Ulus (the Golden Horde) and the socio-economic impact and development it had on the world.

T Clark

[reply

I've been interested in the Mongol's since I was a boy. — Maw

The thing that fascinates me is how big an impact they had on the history of Europe and China and how little we hear about them.

Jamal

The thing that fascinates me is how big an impact they had on the history of Europe and China and how little we hear about them. — T Clark

Yes, and not only Europe and China. Their invasions in Western Asia (formerly “the Middle East”) had a massive impact. Most famously, the Siege of Baghdad brought the Abbasid Caliphate to an end. As noted in that Wikipedia article, it’s a common view across Muslim cultures that the Mongol conquest caused the Islamic Golden Age to end, hence the subsequent decline of the Islamic world in comparison with Europe.

T Clark

Yes, and not only Europe and China. — Jamal

You just sent me on a 30 minute Wikipedia walk through Mongol and Turkic history in central and western Asia.

Jamal

↪T Clark

You're welcome.

T Clark

↪Jamal

Jamal

Solaris by Stanisław Lem
The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth (RIP) — Jamal

I finally finished Solaris. I was half bored, half fascinated. I absolutely loved the fictional history of Solaristics (the scientific study of the planet Solaris), and the incredible chapter called “Monsters,” a brilliant flight of the imagination describing the mysterious observed phenomena of the planet (mimoids, symmetriads, dendromountains, etc). But everything that happened in the station—the focus of the film adaptation(s)—was a bit tedious. I’ll read it again, because it’s a (thematically) big book that exceeds my grasp, but I admired it more than loved it, although I loved it sometimes. Translation issues were apparent once again, even though I read the newer translation.

Just started The Sot-Weed Factor. Beautifully written, overflowing with ideas, and very enjoyable indeed.

fdrake

All Tomorrows - C M Kosemen

A short illustrated novel, an excellent mix of cosmic horror and speculative biology. The prose isn't particularly artful - it evokes plaques on museum walls in zoology exhibits - but that in itself is very evocative.

Jamal

↪fdrake

:cool:

Someone has made a comic based on it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/126pky7/rise_of_tomorrows_comic_based_on_the_book_all/

fdrake

↪Jamal

Very pretty. My favourites were the Modulars.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/aliens/images/4/48/Modular_People_All_Tomorrows.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171023061528[/img]

And the Mantelopes.

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/aliens/images/d/db/Mantelope.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20230311102713

Wayfarer

Aspect of Truth: A New Religious Metaphysics, Catherine Pickstock.
Thinking Being: An Introduction to Metaphysics in the Classical Tradition, Eric D Perl.

Pantagruel

New Worlds for Old: A Plain Account of Modern Socialism
by H.G. Wells

Vera Mont

Rereading Timothy Findley's The Telling of Lies after ten years or more. Still intricate, unexpected and enthralling, as his novels tend to be. I reread Pilgrim recently, but have not the courage to face Headhunter again.

Jafar

Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, by Arthur Schopenhauer, and the Critique of Pure Reason, by Immanuel Kant. At the moment, I'm trying to get an overview of Kant to better understand Schopenhauer. His 200 page critique of Kantian philosophy I find pretty heavy man. (Also, how do I enter italics on the mobile version of the forum?)

javi2541997

(Also, how do I enter italics on the mobile version of the forum?) — Jafar

The BBCode to enter italics on the mobile version is:

[i] * your text * [/i]

Welcome to TPF, Jafar.

Jafar

↪javi2541997

Thank you :), Javi!

javi2541997

Four Walls by Vanghélis Hadziyannidis.

Don’t miss Greek literature! :smile:

Frog

The Nausea by Jean Paul Sartre.

Favourite quote so far:

There are days which pass in disorder, and then, sudden lightning

Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafīs.

Favourite quote so far:

[Kāmil] also observed the heart within the thorax, its right ventricle full of blood, its left ventricle full of spirit

(Also, if anyone has a PDF copy of No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, please message me!)

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