zenpundit.com

Fortunately, summer is nearly here and I will have time to whittle down the Antilibrary pile. Three More:

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary

The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

A while back, around these parts we all compared our “antilibraries” of unread books. Well, despite not having any time lately to blog, much less read through the stacks of books that I already have, I went out and bought a few more. LOL!   

Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World

After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405

The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus

Journals: 1952-2000

Thumbing through a few of these was interesting. Schlesinger’s partisanship and hagiographic defense of the Kennedy family are of course, well known but his private writings are sprinkled with many sharp observations that the old historian-courtier never let loose in public when he was alive.

Via a casual visit to Uncertain Times, I noticed from their blogroll that Howard Bloom, author of Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, has a blog.

Dr. Chet Richards has reviewed the latest translation of one of the world’s oldest and greatest military classics:

The Art of War, trans. Thomas Huynh

One significant difference between Huynh and the other two is how they handle comments. Both Griffith and Cleary include remarks by the “canonical” commentators, a group of Chinese generals and pundits from Sun Tzu’s day through about the 12th century. They both also limit their own commentary to introductory remarks, 62 pages in the case of Griffith, 37 for Cleary. Huynh does not provide any of the canonical commentary. He does have a fairly brief introduction and translator’s note (totaling 18 pages), but most of his commentary is incorporated into the even-numbered pages that face the text on the opposite (odd numbered) pages.

Whether you like this is a matter of personal taste. It does allow for a smooth, uninterrupted reading of the Sun Tzu text itself, which is difficult in translations that have commentary interspersed with the words attributed to Sun Tzu. This is a huge plus. As for Huynh’s comments, they fall into two categories. One, which all readers will appreciate, concerns his insights into the language of the text and the environment of Sun Tzu’s day.

….A new translation of Sun Tzu from original sources is a major event, and this one would make a good addition to any library. If you get only a half dozen new insights – and you will (I did) – the book will repay its price many times over. Add it to the translations you’re using now and you’ll gain another source of ideas.

Read the rest here.

I started reading It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, whom I’ve always liked. I’ll leave it up to your interpretation which candidate this year most resembles Berzelius Windrip.