The Literary Acquisition Thread (1 Viewer)

[Gregor Samsa]

Other people must be buying books too, right?

Ed: Richard Popkin-The Columbia History Of Western Philosophy.
Ed: Richard Bessel-Facist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisons and Contrasts.

All academic-like.

 

[Loz#1]

Bram Stoker's "Dracula" for 8 bucks in the Dymock Book sales on George St.

 

[ameh]

English Patient..

 

[poodle]

well well Gregor i can openly admit of the jealousy that creeps up when i read your lists of books. oh to have the time to read such books and/or the money to acquire them....
catch 22. best money i have ever spent.
anything by george orwell............if he was still with us (god rest his amazing soul) i would worship the ground he walked upon. (i see u purchased his 'collected essays'....the prevention of literature, amazing.) i just bought 'a clergyman's daughter' but havent as yet read it.
farenheit 451 by ray bradbury
and for the historian in me the course of german history by AJP taylor. oh and i, claudius by robert graves. the series is also good. well, really, anything by graves.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by poodle
well well Gregor i can openly admit of the jealousy that creeps up when i read your lists of books. oh to have the time to read such books and/or the money to acquire them....
catch 22. best money i have ever spent.
anything by george orwell............if he was still with us (god rest his amazing soul) i would worship the ground he walked upon. (i see u purchased his 'collected essays'....the prevention of literature, amazing.) i just bought 'a clergyman's daughter' but havent as yet read it.
farenheit 451 by ray bradbury
and for the historian in me the course of german history by AJP taylor. oh and i, claudius by robert graves. the series is also good. well, really, anything by graves.

Some good books in that list. [Fahrenheit 451 is interesting and disturbing.. A world where books are burnt terrifies me, for obvious reasons. AJP Taylor's work is nice too.. I particularly enjoyed his volumes of essays upon nineteenth and twentieth century Europe.]

Unfortunately, the book of essays I bought is 'Selected' rather than 'Collected', (Which encompasses several volumes, including his newspaper journalism..) but still is a nice collection, which I haven't gotten around to reading..

From reading some of these essays elsewhere however, Orwell's talent as an essayist and a thinker is clearly apparent. Much of his work displays prescience, of which 'Politics and the English Language' is a fine example, most current political discourse being all about obfuscation.

I have a considerable backlog of books to read with university committments and readings, but is by no means a bad thing.

Am currently waiting on the delivery of this text;

The Norton Anthology Of Theory and Criticism. (Can't wait for this.. 2,600 pages of writings from 147 influential theorists, writers and philosophers. Everything from Foucault to Fanon to Freud to Frye. Needed a nice reference volume, and it should serve as a stimulus towards further study.)

 

[Joseph K]

Today was ever-so gangbusters with regard to the general weekly trend of capitalistic excess (specifically pertaining to the acquisition of books and paraphernalia related to the consumption thereof!)

I was beginning to feel that my propensity to consume (tomes) at such a rate without having my enjoyment diminished was liable to be construed as in defiance of Friedrich von Wieser's canon of work, notably his marvelous exegesis on diminishing marginal utility (has rather the same biochemical propensity as caffeine, I rather tend to find - keeps me awake for hours after I read it! Gets me ever so worked up!). So of course, faithful readers, I felt that the only means of atoning were to go on a jaunt and spoil myself by acquiring a copy of Natural Value (Don't worry, you haven't read it and probably couldn't understand it if you tried.)

Until next time my minions.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by Joseph K
Today was ever-so gangbusters with regard to the general weekly trend of capitalistic excess (specifically pertaining to the acquisition of books and paraphernalia related to the consumption thereof!)

I was beginning to feel that my propensity to consume (tomes) at such a rate without having my enjoyment diminished was liable to be construed as in defiance of Friedrich von Wieser's canon of work, notably his marvelous exegesis on diminishing marginal utility (has rather the same biochemical propensity as caffeine, I rather tend to find - keeps me awake for hours after I read it! Gets me ever so worked up!). So of course, faithful readers, I felt that the only means of atoning were to go on a jaunt and spoil myself by acquiring a copy of Natural Value (Don't worry, you haven't read it and probably couldn't understand it if you tried.)

Until next time my minions.

Well then, that sounds like a splendiferous concatenation of circumstances occuring in septidaily regularity!

Rousing stuff, as most capitalistic acquisitory jaunts happen to be.

And a slight correction on the imitation, it's 'Bertrand Russell' rather than 'Betrand Russell'. Other than that, good show.

 

[poodle]

yes yes, i understand completely, but replace the word 'university' with year 12!
spare a few minutes for 'Prevention of Literature' everyone, only a few pages, at http://www.resort.com/~prime8/Orwell/preventlit2.html
worth the reading!!!

 

[Joseph K]

My sincerest apologies for the offending error old sport, one can hardly become accustomed to this automated computation when he spends his time writing his memoirs with a feather quill dressed in a smoking jacket.

"Much of his work displays prescience, of which 'Politics and the English Language' is a fine example, most current political discourse being all about obfuscation."

Fantastic analysis, you're clearly one of EAB's more fervent disciples, in fact I should hazard that your favorite Orwellian commandment (if you'll permit the term) is,

"Never use a long word where a short one will do."?

 

[Joseph K]

But on a more serious note apropos obfuscation;

Gregor; I think it's entirely fantastic to see you taking a stand against the emerging trend of prolixity.

Isn't it enough to make one lacrymate that society now venerates at the altar of verbosity? Today's prevailing literary movement, which one could safely term "maximalism" and the rise of writers like Amis, Rushdie and more recently Smith certainly has equated, for mine, to a mainstream cultural adoption of the anaesthetic use of language which you so obviously deplore.

Old-Schoolers like Gregor are refreshing proponents of the golden days where the iceberg theory and Ezra and Ernie ruled, Bravo!

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by Joseph K
Fantastic analysis, you're clearly one of EAB's more fervent disciples, in fact I should hazard that your favorite Orwellian commandment (if you'll permit the term) is,

Tenet if you will.

"Never use a long word where a short one will do."? [/B]

Except for those ever-so-frequent occasions when a longer word-formation better conveys that concatentation of cognitive connexions I'm trying to expound upon within this new-fangled medium to fill a lacuna in my written or verbal expression, my ever-so-satirical doppelganger.

Besides, you're saying 'verbose' (Well, figuratively) as if its a bad thing in this context. I prefer it to the alternative, 'U NO?'

 

[Joseph K]

Originally posted by Gregor Samsa
Tenet if you will.

I thought commandment complemented the previous biblical allusion rather nicely, but as you wish.

So you're suggesting that verbosity is a concomitant of intelligence and thus those who aren't Onanistic (another Biblical allusion, old sport - try Genesis Chapter 38 for a complete definition, although I should think that youre already very familiar, consciously or otherwise.) enough to use phrases like "capitalistic excesses" are primitive? Surely even you can see that there is a significant grey area here, in which you are implicitly slighting some of the 20th Centurys most seminal authors (notably the fellow who created your username)?

In short, I would say that you use extravagant verbiage in the same way that a drunk man will use decorous language in order to mask his inebriation. You hide your superficial understanding under a mask of pretension,

From reading some of these essays elsewhere however, Orwell's talent as an essayist and a thinker is clearly apparent. Much of his work displays prescience, of which 'Politics and the English Language' is a fine example, most current political discourse being all about obfuscation.

Which is usually reserved for the broadest of back-cover blurbs and bad high-school english essays you are the lowest of the literati.

Good day, old sport.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Slings and arrows of misrepresentation aside, (Seeing those criticisms are based upon a misreading of context.. The Orwell talk was not meant to be an academic analysis, instead being a way of saying 'Yes, I also like his essays') obtained some more texts today;

Anton Chekhov-The Plays (Despite being a fan of his short stories, I haven't actually gotten to reading any of these.)
Mark Mazower-Dark Continent:Europe's 20th Century
Geoffrey Chaucer-The Canterbury Tales (Thankfully, this is the Everyman edition. The Penguin Classics version is sadly both abridged and translated.)
TS Elliot-Selected Poems. (A less cumbersome way of having his poetry with me.)

 

[fi_babezy]

Lady Chatterley's Lover- DH Lawrence

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Seamus Heaney-New Selected Poems 1966-1987.

Birthday present.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Patricia Springborg-Western Republicanism and the Oriental Prince. (Analysing the construction of the oriental 'other' in ancient writings, offsetting republics with 'despotisms', application of this thought in the Renaissance, and so-on.. An intellectual background to orientalist thought.)
Margaret Atwood-The Handmaid's Tale. (Read this last year, but when else would I be able to find this new for $3.95?)

 

[Gregor Samsa]

J.M Wallace Hadrill-The Barbarian West 400-1000 (Revised Edition.)

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Huzzah. My Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism finally arrived today.

 

[Loz#1]

I seriously think you need to let this thread die, only because you seem to be the only one posting in it.

Edit: I'd post with you, but I can't afford books at the moment.

 

[gloria*]

Originally posted by Gregor Samsa
Huzzah. My Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism finally arrived today.

from what I'm told, that book will never let you down.

i've opened mine like twice, haha.