Posted on 03/09/2007 11:22:35 PM PST by Blind Eye Jones
What is the most convoluted, opaque, impenetrable book you ever read?
Great episode.
(Go Gators!)
Concerning him I have always felt, not only what his greatest British admirer said, that his philosophy was "a scrutiny of thought so profound that it was for the most part unintelligible," but also what John Stuart Mill experienced, who "found by actual experience . . . that conversancy with him tends to deprave one's intellect."Eric Voegelin calls him a sorcerer and says,
The author of the Phänomenologie suffers so badly from the existential conflict between his two Selfs that it almost makes no sense to ask what Hegel really meant . . .The "death of God," finally, is unintelligible without the "death of Hegel" . . . by way of a postscript: The death of God is a dangerous plaything for epigonic intellectuals and confused theologians . . . Hegel's obsession was power.
Oh, I could deal with that. But WTH was up with having two different characters with the same name? I was a hero in my lit class when I figured that out.
Damn I don't need no book for that....
A Cat in the Hat,,,,Dr. Suess
So maybe Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler.
Dh's contribution is Violin by Ann Rice.
The same way one eats an indigestible meal.
Anything by Thomas Pyncheon, James Joyce...
Why the Revelation of John was canonized I cannot figure out.
For great, gripping apocalyptic literature, the Hebrew books win, hands down. Daniel (and the apocryphal additions to it), in particular, is just great writing. Revelation is, accordingly, "impenetrable".
I make it a point to read at least one "classic novel" every year.
Two years back I picked up a copy of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22". I can't begin to tell you how stupid and redundant the book was (I suppose this was an artistic literary device).
I struggled to finish it, which is good because now I can say that I read "Catch 22" and it sucks.
I'm reading it now and enjoying it. I tried a few months ago and just glanced off of it. What's different this time is that I'm not reading it in any particular order. I just flip through the pages and if something catches my eye I go from there. This approach has worked much better. I've now read three or four of the Arcana and my appetite is whetted for more.
Another good trick might be to read this blog for a month or so as a primer.
On the other hand, I love Faulkner. Probably because I started with the relatively linear Light in August and some of his excellent short stories. Faulkner can be a tough read - he sometimes jumps 40 years and changes narrators midsentence, but he generally leaves clues to help the reader keep up.
"The Lamb's Supper" by Dr. Scott Hahn is one of the best reads on Apocalypse/Revelation.
I forgot "Skinny Legs and All " by Tom Robbins.
I didn't finish it.
Rereading Silas Marner for pleasure?
Eepsy, forgive me, but you are not someone I'd hang out with.
Name of the Rose and, of all things, War of the Worlds do that for me.
The movie The Usual Suspects gives a bit of the same feel at the end.
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