actually, i’m reading it for school. it’s supposed to be important because “it’s a milestone in the philosophy of power” and “the foundational book of political science” and what have you. quite honestly, i don’t see it as groundbreaking, not really.
it’s just yet another treatise on power — how to grasp it, how to maintain it. it suits representative diets — modern-day democracies and dictatorships, as well as the anarcho-syndicalist and communist paradigms, being what i call “representative diets” — but that’s about it. it doesn’t teach you the ways of power in a manorial system (for that you’d have to read Sun Tzu’s art of war), and nor does it teach you how to be powerful in a pure democracy or into a straight anarchy — for that you’d have to consult Aristotle’s rhetoric.
but yeah, sure. read the prince, it’s no bad — in the same sense as going to a renaissance museum ain’t a bad thing. but quite frankly, in terms of political science and the philosophy of power, i’d keep to the german trio: Stirner, Nietzsche, Sloterdijk. now, these guys knew what power means.
At the moment Im reading ingo swann’s book, the “father of remote viewing” - he is an incredibly good writer, everything just more and more fascinating as you go along. Its just like a big jigsaw.
Just finished “komt een vrouw bij de dokter” and the second book “de weduwnaar”. Books that make you laugh and cry at the same time. Written by Kluun, a Dutch writer. As far as I know they are translated in English for the ones that might be interested.
I’ve been dabbling at the start of Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco. My father recommended it to me. I may wait a while to read that, as I’m definitely going to start The Brothers Karamazov again. And as always I’m reading The Gay Science when I feel like it.
i’m almost done with il principe and i’ve picked up Machiavelli’s mandragola which is such a lovely play. yesterday i also read book 10 of Plato’s republic (one of my favourite pieces of Plato, together with Phædro and Gorgias) because it had so much to do with what we were learning in Philosophy classes.
i’m also about to pick up grande sertão: veredas again. if anyone wants to join me in reading that, it’s one of the most incredible pieces of literature ever. there’s a translation to english called “the devil to pay in the backlands”. i’ve no idea whether its good.
about ¼ into grande sertão. i’m completely taken aback, i’ve no words to describe it. it might as well be one of the finest pieces of literature i’ve ever been in touch with. everyone should read it. (apparently the translations to italian and german — both called Grande Sertão — are really good; the english one not as much).
I finally picked up Foundation by Isaac Asimov and started reading it. I also picked up Dune, but I’m already reading 6 books simultaneously, so I’m setting it aside for now. One of the six is Heart of Darkness, which I’m reading for school. I really like it so far.
currently reading Peter Sloterdijk: no mesmo barco[on the same boat],if Europe rises; and João Guimarães Rosa: grande sertão: veredas. also some chapters of Robert Kurz’s com todo vapor ao colapso[full-power toward collapse, a selection of articles published in newspapers and in his Black Book of Capitalism], Hobbes’ leviathan, Kant’s critique of practical reason (it sucks) and Sloterdijk’s critique of cynical reason (it rocks).
Hume: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Plato: Five Dialogues
Huston Smith: The World’s Religion’s
Jim Endersby: A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology
Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Yeah, a lot of various stuff for college. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to get started on the third book in the Eragon series.