A Backlog of Books for the Antilibrary
Partially finished with this one. It is a reasonable argument built upon recognizable observations but being a philosopher, Dr. James is a bit of a pedant and circles back frequently in the text to reiterate his line of reasoning. This may be standard philo practice but it makes the book slower going than it might have been for a popular format.
Hitler’s Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life by Timothy Ryback
A side of Hitler that neither the German public during the Reich nor the generations of students of history after WWII have normally seen. A useful source for research.
That’s it!
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Lexington Green:
March 30th, 2017 at 5:06 am
The Ambler Anabasis was very good.
zen:
March 30th, 2017 at 4:21 pm
Agreed. I don’t think he has attempted anything of a similar magnitude since
Graham:
March 31st, 2017 at 8:32 pm
Aaron James is responsible for one of the more profound revelations of my recent life. For me, at least worthy of one of those cartoon-style bug eyed scenes of satori, before [again, for me- YMMV] an equal moment of alienation.
In one of his chapters he discusses the archetypal asshole and contrasts it with ‘the bitch’. I believe he was cognizant that there can perhaps be female assholes and male bitches, but the archetypes are fairly gendered for good reason. In this contrast he describes the asshole’s aggression, bluntness, selfishness, crudeness, rudeness, unreliability, etc., and contrasts them with similar or comparable bitch behaviours. IIRC, the distinction ultimately boiled down to the asshole doing all these things in your face where the bitch mostly does it behind your back while maintaining graces to your face. And then the moment of revelation-
He describes the ‘bitch’ as ultimately the less bad of the two archetypes, and ON THAT BASIS.
I am as struck by that now, on being reminded, as when I read it sometime last summer.
I have never before or, to date, since, more deeply considered that I might be wholly at variance with the values of my time and society. Either always or as they are currently developing. I have considered it in the context of left-right, conservative-progressive, male female, cisheteropatriarchal versus feminist, transgender identity, and any other context one might apply, and in general changes in values since my youth.
I still can’t get my head around it. Given only the two options, behind-the-back manipulation behind a false front of friendship is “better” than open versions of the same vices.
As you can see, this one has stayed with me a while and likely will stay with me forever.
Pretty good for one chapter in a book.
Graham:
March 31st, 2017 at 8:41 pm
Further quick thought on that:
On the one hand, I quite appreciate the role that formal manners, outward graces, social formality, ritual, elementary courtesy, etc. play in smoothing out society. One would not want constant bluntness even if the content of the message were non-hostile, let alone if it were hostile.
But I read James as going much farther, giving two undesirable personality types and coming down on a decisive “less bad” for the one that struck me as the more menacing, damaging, and genuinely irritable.
I truly wonder if that is a perennial distinction of personal taste or are we moving in some particular direction on this.
Graham:
March 31st, 2017 at 8:42 pm
Sigh. Please read “irritating” for “irritable” in the foregoing.