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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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This took me forever to read, mainly because I've read countless others just like it and have long since arrived at the same conclusions and taken the message to heart. The reading, then, a formality; I know the subject well enough to lecture on it myself.
Another one for the Theosophical Library.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 72
This was a somewhat interesting read, mostly his thoughts on a variety of topics, from God and Religion, the Arts, Women and a whole lot else. Chapters like: "The Indestructibility of Being", "The Will to Live", "On The Vanity of Existence" etc. Some of it's insightful, but conclusions I'd arrived at (or would have, had I thought about the topics with the same investment he had), some of it - well, you can disagree but still take his point of view.
Despite some of his remarkably progressive views I was taken with his views on women, and how they must be humoured and tolerated, a genuinely patronizing tone that simply wouldn't cut it today. Contrast this with John Stuart Mill's, who had a very successful relationship with his muse and was thoroughly in favour of Women being given the right to vote, etc.
Overall a surprisingly easy read for a German Philosopher.
Now to clean up a few other half-finished books so I can enter the New Year with a new reading list.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 67
Foreword by Guillermo Del Toro.
First of all, the foreword will ruin every story. It betrays the plot, the style, theme and characters, it's presumptuous to say the least.
Secondly, the summary in every footnote again - as my Latin & other languages aren't up to par, don't punish me by spoiling the story.
To the text, as described, a collection of "weird" stories, persuasive horrors that warn you of undiscovered spiritual dangers (and realms) beyond our ken, the vague apprehension or intuition of a world just adjacent to ours, invisible but a touching of the unseen order of things, the antediluvian gods, an inspiration to Lovecraft (Who never quite achieved the same depth of prose), a reaction to the new spirit of scientific enquiry that promises to ban all religion and superstition to the shadows.
Very atmospheric, and I quite enjoyed. The perfect read for a dark, wet and rainy Christmas.
On that note, have you seen the trailer to the New Steven Spielberg film? "Disclosure Day"? It has much the same feel..
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 134
This was a much needed read, perfectly suited to the short days and long dark nights.
Classic Japanese Ghost Stories, most dating from the late 19th Century and early 20th, they demonstrate the hold the dead have over the living, the power to kill, vindictive, violent, vengeful, no pale shades half-seen in a graveyard, or ghosts walking in abandoned temples, these are full-on malevolent demons, fairies, spirits, that can interact in ways with the living that the Western Tradition generally doesn't allow.
So worthwhile....
(My other books, I mean Shopenhauer, Jack Kerouac, US Anderson, too many more to list, they've rather stalled on me)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 201
To summarize, a young man first loses his cat, then his wife, and things take a few turns from there...
This was a thick read at some 600 pages, interesting, and I was right, I had read it before, the scenes in the well were all I recalled, and those poorly, so it was if I were reading it fresh again. An interesting pool of characters, the twining of plots, surreal, Murakami is a masterful writer.