and 
I'll be back as more 'badbooks' come to mind.
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?
Blum here alludes to the death of his "creator" -- his father -- who dies on the toilet in a shabby Green outhouse while masturbating.
Hegel is quite clear. His classes were the most popular, which annoyed Schopenhauer considerably.
Like Dr. Suess.
Hegel at least took the trouble to write a philosophy of the state, which while it was off the mark here and there as usual is also something still needed. The state is poorly understood so that even by Conservatives the high mark seems to be Marx. Somebody of American Conservative mind could write a theory of the state and be alone in the modern genre.
I think such a book would truly be inscrutable, certainly opaque, and by all means impenetrable. Perhaps we are unclear about what it means to belong to the modern genre.
BTW, Ortega was aware that the popularity of the modern is the high irony of our age. The people hang their art and claim the circle.
Inscrutability is the special incense of a hierophant.
Absolutely right on. This book makes no sense.
Carlos Casteneda, anyone?
I've never read this but for some reason it was my father's favorite book. He didn't seem to be a fan of the impenetrable. I'll have to check it out sometime.
Yea, Sam got kind of bitter towards the end of his life. Started questioning God and all. Lost his faith. But, some of that stuff is pretty good nonetheless. Pick up a little paperback called "Letters From The Earth". Some good stuff there. Funny too. Sarcastic, cynical. You get the full boat of the later Clemens.
Mr. Alouette says: Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
My mind is a cesspit, from which no useless knowledge escapes.
Spencer wrote on the state, mostly polemics on issues of the day, but didn't publish a theory. He should be a patron saint of Conservatives. The only recent theory of the state was written over a century ago, and while it was a good development as far as it went, it was English, somewhat Liberal, and not American. There is no American Conservative theory of the state, and if someone were to produce one now it would indeed be abstruse since all the basic language would have to be technically defined. Nevertheless, we are adrift without a rudder and have been since 1945. America--country of 300 million truckdrivers and one philosopher; the philosopher died several years ago.
My wife says I have a mind like a lint-trap.
LOL, Allegra!!! You are always good at pointing out the DUH! quotient!!
I'm with you on "Dhalgren" - I had been contemptuous of space opera in SF, but after attempting the 800+ pages of that ridiculous nonsense, all that was needed to persuade me to see "Star Wars" when it came out 2 years later was a comment by a friend that it was "the anti-Dhalgren".
Yes, the entire final chapter when Molly is on that lyrical riff is so evocative of her love for Leopold, even though she wasn't totally faithful to him.
Any book is good mental exercise, and that one was a marathon.
and
I'll be back as more 'badbooks' come to mind.
And it explains why it's the Liberal's Bible. ;-)
The Firm by John Grisham. I actually threw it out of my car window to an ignominous fate in the ditch. "I will yell 'tripe' whenever tripe is served."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.