201021: i saw the series on tv before i read this, so cannot comment on how good the images are, i only remember the actors, locales etc, but this boo201021: i saw the series on tv before i read this, so cannot comment on how good the images are, i only remember the actors, locales etc, but this book translates well to screen- and back again. we are not asked to do deeply searching exploration of character motivations. everyone is fairly understandable, very human, very real, and in some sense can see this as ideal romance for the relatively well-read young woman: the girl is plain, spirited, smart. the boy is sensitive, smart, unconscious hunk. like the alternating tenses, capturing their years-long relationship- in the moment, informed by the past, true as emotions pass through time......more
yy/mm/dd 200620: i have read some by nz(3) some on nz(11) some by dz(6) some on dzif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
yy/mm/dd 200620: i have read some by nz(3) some on nz(11) some by dz(6) some on dz(20), and this is definitely one of the best. this is an academic text, philosopher on philosopher, and though read intently i cannot claim to fully understand it. it is translation from french translating from german. i understand dz has been selective in what aspects of nz he investigates, focuses on, and in this review i do no more, for there is wide-ranging area covered, as delineated by the table of contents of major divisions: one: tragic, two: active and reactive, three: critique, four: ressentiment to bad conscience, five: the overman, against the dialectic...
in the tragic dz has nz create the concept of genealogy as birth of his thoughts, of 'evaluation' and 'interpretation' rather than 'fact', which can never be 'objective' but carry within buried or ignored aspects of being. genealogy is value of origins and origin of values. thus difference and distinction, everything has some quality of way either base or noble, negation or affirmation, sense that is referred to as 'will to power'- though this is not what it sounds like, it is not will as in schopenhauer that is unitary but multiple, further to which dz contends nz is not 'dialectician', not convinced of synthesis and power of the negative except as negative... at this point dz interprets the 'dice throw' and essential affirmation of chance and necessity...
in the active and reactive dz elaborates the philosophical interpretation by nz of the human being (not scientific) which is a matter of 'forces' that are 'active' and 'affirmative' or 'reactive' and 'negative', in which the 'healthy' is one in whom these forces are balanced, that the negative has its own power too, the 'will to power' is' the genealogical element of force, both differential and genetic' and if you understand this far, you have gone further than i have. yet the five given is sincere. for as i stumble along, there are more and more ideas, better expositions of nz concepts, everything from the 'becoming-reactive' of all forces to ambivalence of sense-value to how 'eternal return’ is not 'return of the same' but the act of 'return' , the doubling affirmation, of becoming, of the being of becoming...
in critique, dz follows nz's critique of Kant's critical philosophy and how nz found he simply did not go far enough, he recoiled at final implications, he invented relationship to 'supra-sensory realm' so that there was, for example, still room for god. schopenhauer went further but was hindered by his essential pessimism, pushing the 'representational' illusionism as far as old philosophy would have it but... not questioning the entire metaphysics of any 'representation'! and this is where i really like nz, when he deals with the arts...
pg 103: 'we the artists'='we the seekers after knowledge or truth'='we the inventors of new possibilities of life' for the artist ‘appearance is truth’ not simply ‘representation’...
in ressentiment and bad conscience nz shows how the 'reactive' comes to dominate the 'active', which is apparently through the priests, judaic then christian, which is where i can certainly see him mischaracterised as anti-Semitic. this is where we deal with how good and bad become inverted from healthy to moral good and evil, where 'i am good therefore you are evil' becomes 'you are evil therefore i am good', the doubled negation of the bad conscience. after his work 'genealogy of morals', in which he tries to explain his poetry in non-poetic, accessible terms, nz contends that in art 'appearance is truth' and dz has helpful little table on pg 146 which shows the 'typology' and 'topology' of 'active' and 'reactive', that is, 'master' and 'slave', and 'artist' is argued into the right upper corner, above 'noble'...
in overman and against the dialectic, dz follows nz in his aspiration not to adapt to the death of god or even man, but towards the transcendence of man, which will not be the result of 'dialectic', which nz really does not like, but through creation, transmutation, affirmation. yes dz certainly finds his 'affirmation' as theme throughout nz. to some degree this book is probably more about dz as interpreted by nz than nz by dz, but either way is fascinating. there are other monographs to read before difference and repetition, and i have been rec'd A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia before that. and it is at this point i am particularly enthused: what i had feared negative, dark, depressing philosophy of nz has turned out to be so positive! joyous, creative, laughing and dancing! i have to read more nz and dz.. there are so many books to read and so little time...
200620: in the mahayana interpretation of buddhist thought, i must note the vital if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
200620: in the mahayana interpretation of buddhist thought, i must note the vital difference between the terms ‘nothingness’ and ‘emptiness’, that has led many commentators, western and eastern, to mistake this way as essentially nihilistic. there is not an opposing metaphysics common to the ‘west’ of ‘being’ and ‘nothingness’, not negation, rather the contention is that all is ‘empty’ of ‘inherent being’, that is, only has qualified essence relative to everything else. there is no god, no source, from which ‘essences’ derive but only the interplay of emptiness...
240320: great resource for a lot of the buddhist reading you need, excellent commentaries on sutras as primary texts this includes part 1 metaphysics and ontology, 2 language and hermeneutics, 3 epistemology, 4 philosophy of mind and person, 5 ethics. all of which support each other and clarify the goal of buddhist liberation. technical, challenging work, i recognize certain recurrent themes in mahayana buddhism because i have read so many texts (62), so might seem repetitive, but i love this way of thought... i am only going to try and clearly review one i (thought?) understood...
favourite early chapter is 12, chinese buddhist zongmi offers 'yuaren iren', 'inquiry into the origin of the human condition', which is examined as 'hermeneutics of doctrinal classification' by peter gregory. this covers the buddha's teaching from the superficial to the profound, through five categories 1) teaching of humans and gods, 2) teaching of the lesser vehicle, 3) teaching of phenomenal appearances of the Dharmas within the great vehicle, 4) teaching that refutes the phenomenal appearances in the great vehicle, 5) teaching of the one vehicle that reveals the nature
1) 3 periods of time, past, present, future, karma as origin of being. according to which reborn as god, human, animal, demon etc critiqued as incoherent because body is empty of being 2) time without beginning, rebirth, karma continues like wind, water, fire but what is it that experiences 3 poisons if empty of self, if 5 sensations do not arise absent conditions 3) time without beginning, 8 kinds of consciousness, the rest are not important, this is the one when one is dreaming and holding onto dreamed objects 4) refuting critically 3- if objects illusory, how so not consciousness? and all thing must be born of causes, conditions- therefore empty, critique this: if mind and objects both nonexistent who knows they do not exist? the four views must not be clung to: from the superficial to the profound, they are partial, 5) all sentient beings have buddhahood, merely obscured, unaware, deluded etc, we have clung to illusory phenomenal appearances, must be unconditioned return to buddha
there are other chapters i enjoyed reading as well, but as i am not sure if i understood this one i do not want to compound mistakes. i can simply say i have enjoyed over the months reading these... there are so many books to read and so little time...
080120: every year in february i visit my mom’s hometown of waimea, kauai, where sif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
080120: every year in february i visit my mom’s hometown of waimea, kauai, where she and dad now have a condo. on the beach. so far we have had no tsunamis or hurricanes to wipe out the town, though the last two hurricanes did some damage. this is nothing compared to the future in this book, for the town is mostly less than two metres above sea level... even in the kindest projected rise it will be gone in hundred years or less...
i also recognize the desire for people who want to stay in low-lying areas, people who want to visit the water, because that is my desire. i have been going to the islands virtually every year of my life. family who have lived there for centuries. this is home. and according to this book and much accepted science, things are going to change irrevocably, so sea-level rise has very personal dimension to me. it is not like i am happy to have fears confirmed. i am angry but must accept my own role as well. i did not know about global climate change as a child... now i do, yet i still live comfortably north american life, still fly to the islands...
forgive me, future. the call of home is still too strong......more
291219: the blurb has it. chilling, heartbreaking, darkly humorous... best le carrif you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com
291219: the blurb has it. chilling, heartbreaking, darkly humorous... best le carre i have read in years. in two sittings, one day. sort of postmodern deconstruction of espionage, it helps to have read some, in particular le carre, it offers paranoia as operating systems for readers. plausible, likeable protagonists, nauseating obtuse antagonists, avuncular narration. plot confused by coincidence. ‘office’ politics the way of the world. easily switch from dismay, horror, disgust- to sympathy, sentence by sentence... fun reading experience......more
281219: read this as a child, an original prehistoric romance/fantasy. i do not know how plausible its invention is, let alone gender roles, behaviour281219: read this as a child, an original prehistoric romance/fantasy. i do not know how plausible its invention is, let alone gender roles, behaviour, how much current anthropology has dated this (38 years...) but when i was a kid this worked well. so rating is by sentiment......more
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