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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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 Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:36 am Post subject: |
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| blurgalurgalurga wrote: |
| Stolen Continents and Blood Meridian changed my perspectives on the colonization of the New World. |
Great post. I haven't read Blood Meridian, though I did read All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing. Good books, I'll have to finish up the series by reading Blood Meridian.
| blurgalurgalurga wrote: |
| A Star Called Henry (revolutionary Ireland), All Quiet on the Western Front, and Goodbye to All That were excellent records of the early 20th Century in Europe. |
If you enjoyed All Quiet on the Western Front, you might also enjoy Remarque's follow up novel The Road back. I personally believe that All Quiet on the Western Front is incomplete without The Road back, as the latter story completes the picture that All Quiet on the Western Front presented: hell in the trenches followed by fear and loathing once they got back home. The Road back presents a vivid picture of what it means to be a soldier who served in vanquished army returning home to a country that doesn't know what to do with you. |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:50 am Post subject: |
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| Omkara wrote: |
| Dawkin's book didn't change my mind, it only helped me to better frame the problem. Although I did not accept a mono-theistic metaphysics, I called myself an agnostic. Dawkins showed me the importance of taking a firm stand on that question in particular. Technically, I am an agnostic, for to claim knowledge of that category of non-being is a logical absurdity. Yet, given the claims made and their political implications, Dawkins nudged me to, as it were, take my leap of faith. . .that is, my leap of rational faith, given the evidence. |
Daniel Dennet expounded the philosophical implications of Darwin's theory in his 1995 book Darwin's Dangerous Idea. That book changed the way I thought about Darwin, because it made me realize how brilliant he must have been to work out 'the answer', and made me much more aware of the true import of Darwin's theories: it really is a universal acid, philosophically speaking. The idea that life is the result of an algorithmic process is profoundly liberating and by postulating it Darwin took the first step out of the demon haunted world. |
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Arthur Dent
Joined: 28 Mar 2007
Location: Kochu whirld
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:04 am Post subject: |
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Thiuda wrote
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| the demon haunted world. |
Clever reference....a favorite of mine too but as someone else said, less of a life changing book but an affirmation and clarification.... |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:56 am Post subject: |
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If the thread topic were expanded to "how these books changed your world view" it's apparent that the anti-theistic ones served to make their readers more pretentious.
"Algorithmic process" doesn't explain the creation of life - if you or any big scientists think that they know the step-by-step procedure for creating life than let's prove it by creating life from inert matter. |
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kotakji
Joined: 23 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Rteacher wrote: |
"Algorithmic process" doesn't explain the creation of life - if you or any big scientists think that they know the step-by-step procedure for creating life than let's prove it by creating life from inert matter. |
Its only a matter of time until someone gets the money and effort together to put together the already existing steps and go from naturally occurring amino acids -> proteins -> all the way up to a self replicating life form. |
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Omkara
Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| howie2424 wrote: |
| Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason |
Did you get through the whole thing? In a seminar? With the aid of a professor? Did you contemplate suicide for his prose? |
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Omkara
Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Rteacher wrote: |
If the thread topic were expanded to "how these books changed your world view" it's apparent that the anti-theistic ones served to make their readers more pretentious.
"Algorithmic process" doesn't explain the creation of life - if you or any big scientists think that they know the step-by-step procedure for creating life than let's prove it by creating life from inert matter. |
God *beep!* into a mud puddle. Poof! (And, Proof!)
I am just being pretentious again. I like make believe!  |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Rteacher wrote: |
If the thread topic were expanded to "how these books changed your world view" it's apparent that the anti-theistic ones served to make their readers more pretentious.
"Algorithmic process" doesn't explain the creation of life - if you or any big scientists think that they know the step-by-step procedure for creating life than let's prove it by creating life from inert matter. |
Rteacher, I don't want this thread to devolve into name calling, nor do I want it to get off-topic. If you want to discuss your views on evolution and theism please do so in The All New Official Evolution/Creation debate thread.
If you want to tell us how the books that you wrote about in a previous post changed the way you view the world and made you a spiritual revolutionary, I would appreciate it. |
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Thiuda
Joined: 14 Mar 2006
Location: Religion ist f�r Sklaven geschaffen, f�r Wesen ohne Geist.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| kotakji wrote: |
| Its only a matter of time until someone gets the money and effort together to put together the already existing steps and go from naturally occurring amino acids -> proteins -> all the way up to a self replicating life form. |
The most lucid explication of exactly that process (that I've read) can be found in Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. In his book he not only outlines the theory behind the universe tending towards 'stable states', but also talks about experiments in which inert elements coupled with UV light and electricity have yielded organic compunds, i.e. simple amino acids. |
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blurgalurgalurga
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Thiuda wrote: |
If you enjoyed All Quiet on the Western Front, you might also enjoy Remarque's follow up novel The Road back. I personally believe that All Quiet on the Western Front is incomplete without The Road back, as the latter story completes the picture that All Quiet on the Western Front presented: hell in the trenches followed by fear and loathing once they got back home. The Road back presents a vivid picture of what it means to be a soldier who served in vanquished army returning home to a country that doesn't know what to do with you. |
Cool, I've not read it, nor had I even heard of it.
Remarque was a fine writer, and the two I read of his were so damn good; strange that I never bothered to seek out the rest of his stuff.
The other by him that I enjoyed very much was an on-the-cusp-of-the-second-war story, called 'That Night in Lisbon.' It's a bit maudlin, perhaps, if you view it unkindly, but I found it very moving. I wonder if it's been made into a sweeping epic blockbuster? It should be...
Speaking of fine writers who are undeservedly obscure, and whose depths I've not come near to plumbing, I should mention Par Lagerqvist, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature (in the 1950's, I think). His 'Barabus' is awesome. Also 'the Dwarf' and 'the Sybil.' It's really great writing, even in translation; very misanthropic, very cold; very Nordic, I guess you could say. |
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Omkara
Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Just to refresh the point, how was The World as Will And Representation? |
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Sleepy in Seoul
Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: Going in ever decreasing circles until I eventually disappear up my own fundament - in NZ
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| Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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| 'Reach for the Sky' by Paul Brickhill. I've read it at least 17 times since I was 11; it taught me that we can do whatever we really want to, no matter the obstacle. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 12:31 am Post subject: |
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| Nierlisse wrote: |
| Atlas Shrugged. That may sound pretentious, but it's true. |
Great read. By the same author (Ayn Rand), I can't recommend The Fountainhead too much. I'm not exaggerating when I say it changed my life.
To anyone interested, I got my copy from Bandi and Lunis bookstore and I've also seen it at Kyobo. |
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it's full of stars
Joined: 26 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:29 am Post subject: |
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Mark Twain set the tone for me when I was a boy. Adventures, and a fight against inequality, prejudice, and stupidity.
In the 1980s I read Sean O'Casey's plays set in early 1900s Ireland/Dublin and they made me think more about the nature of politics, inequality, violence, and nationalism.
I enjoyed some of Albert Camus' novels in the late 1990s and upto 2004, but haven't read enough of his works. I haven't read them in the original language either, but liked the tone (as I see it) of despair, and unconnectedness with other people, and of difference/individuality.
But I was especially impressed with his political activism and personal points of view, during World War II, the Algerian War, and later.
I would say that these writers and their books, engendered and strengthened my cynicism of the world and peoples' motives for their actions. |
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Jati
Joined: 13 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 5:17 am Post subject: |
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They Pay Me to Catch Footballs by Tommy McDonald was my favorite book during grade school days, and I wrote a brilliant book report on it (to my mind, and the teacher's, since I earned an A), in the Sixth Grade.
When I went into Seventh Grade -Junior High School- I again had a book report due, but procrastinated until it was too late to read my book choice (The Last of the Mohicans). So the night before the report was due, I pulled out and dusted off my report on They Pay Me to Catch Footballs by Tommy McDonald, presented it, and received another A.
How this expanded my world view is that I learned that one can often eliminate a duplication of effort, by re-using effort that had been expended before. That, and the fact that They Pay Me to Catch Footballs by Tommy McDonald had as much usefulness in understanding our world as anything written by Richard Dawkins.
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