What Are You Reading

[Harp]

Allan Bloom's The Closing of The American Mind.

 

[Zig2k143]

I'm reading all these posts on The Fedora Lounge.

 

[Dr Doran]

Allan Bloom's The Closing of The American Mind.

I found this book very accurate and very prescient. He wrote it in the late 1980s, I believe, and he correctly predicted a few trends that became absolutely huge in the subsequent years. Berkeley in the early 2000s is exactly the way he predicted down to every single detail without a single exception. I know a lot of people gave him a hard time for a couple of things. Some people said he was "hard on the brothers." I think this is complete nonsense. What he was pointing out is that blacks have self-segregated; he also opposed the idea that universities are "racist" (perhaps the most overused word in the American lexicon today). However, black intellectuals such as Thomas Sowell and John McWhorter agree with him in all his major points, as I read them. Some complete idiots call Bloom a sexist. I think this is absolutely nonsensical. In his point about whether men in today's world will be willing to marry feminists, he was quite precognizant. Marriage rates have gone down and have been low since the early 1970s. In some people's lights, any critique of orthodox feminism is tantamount to sexism. This is a dangerous point of view. An interesting side note is that he was gay; this is not mentioned in the book. He took his money from the book and spent it on the high life in Paris. I think the hatred this book generated is only due to the closed mind of many intellectuals in the mainstream of academia, the kind of people Bloom excoriates in this remarkable book. I don't agree with all of it; I am not a Friedmanite free market follower as Bloom seems to be. But I don't need to agree with a book to think it is important or to appreciate it. Bloom bucked a lot of trends in writing this and caught a lot of flak and he was brave to do this.

 

[Serial Hero]

The Maltese Falcon

 

[Harp]

I don't agree with all of it; I am not a Friedmanite free market follower as Bloom seems to be. But I don't need to agree with a book to think it is important or to appreciate it. Bloom bucked a lot of trends in writing this and caught a lot of flak and he was brave to do this.

I first read Closing while in grad school. One of my philosophy
profs; whom I often antagonized, was a chief critic of Bloom's, so
I had a ringside seat around the snake pit.... I tried to catch Bloom on
campus and student dives in Hyde Park, but his peripatetic nature proved
too elusive. He was prescient and controversial, and perhaps overly
infatuated with Nobel laureate icons; yet his advice to the budding scholar
is without doubt, priceless.

 

[Dr Doran]

I first read Closing while in grad school. One of my philosophy
profs; whom I often antagonized, was a chief critic of Bloom's, so
I had a ringside seat around the snake pit.... I tried to catch Bloom on
campus and student dives in Hyde Park, but his peripatetic nature proved
too elusive. He was prescient and controversial, and perhaps overly
infatuated with Nobel laureate icons; yet his advice to the budding scholar
is without doubt, priceless.

It is the precognizant nature of his analysis of the trends of the academy that impresses me the most.

 

[Harp]

It is the precognizant nature of his analysis of the trends of the academy that impresses me the most.

The astigmatism that Bloom clearly perceived later focused upon campus
speech, which tore the more moderate progressive soul; while an interesting
facet to the baccalaureate core revision saw a deliberate trend toward
correcting this laxity, to construct admittance barrier against previous
affirmative entrance policy without issuing a more formal repeal.
At the University of Illinois-Chicago, this action was officially directed
toward the city public school system-which ideally was to have been a
feeder of properly prepared students. Bloom's critique of the "Cornell"
experiment, and resultant campus segregation was therefore proven valid.
A sad note to the Emersonian dictum about temporal give-and-take.

 

[Orgetorix]

I'm reading Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

 

[beaucaillou]

Just finished 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' by Stephen Chbosky.

It's a dead sweet book... really lovely and precious. In the vein of 'A Separate Peace,' and other coming of age books. A teriffically enjoyable, warm read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Chbosky

 

[Harp]

Just finished 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower,' by Stephen Chbosky.

It's a dead sweet book... really lovely and precious. In the vein of 'A Separate Peace,' and other coming of age books. A teriffically enjoyable, warm read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Chbosky

I thought Knowles' A Separate Peace a much better treatment of
adolescence than Sallinger's angst-filled The Catcher in the Rye.
I'll look for Wallflower.

 

[beaucaillou]

I thought Knowles' A Separate Peace a much better treatment of
adolescence than Sallinger's angst-filled The Catcher in the Rye.
I'll look for Walflower.

Hey Harp!

That's almost fightin' words for me, 'cause I'm such a Salinger obsessionist. I actually think Knowles' effort is far more coming-of-age than Catcher, which to me is more about madness and depression than coming-of-age, but that's arguable. You can definitely survey the space between those two books by reading Perks/Wallflower. Another book I'd loosely throw into this category is Donna Tartt's, The Secret History, which is like Catcher with more intrigue. Some brilliant moments of writing though.

Please let me know if you read Wallflower. I do highly recommend it.

Cheers!

 

[Harp]

Hey Harp!

That's almost fightin' words for me, 'cause I'm such a Salinger obsessionist. I actually think Knowles' effort is far more coming-of-age than Catcher, which to me is more about madness and depression than coming-of-age, but that's arguable. You can definitely survey the space between those two books by reading Perks/Wallflower. Another book I'd loosely throw into this category is Donna Tartt's, The Secret History, which is like Catcher with more intrigue. Some brilliant moments of writing though.

Please let me know if you read Wallflower. I do highly recommend it.

Cheers!

I agree that Catcher is a psychological study of a troubled adolescent,
and not simply a "coming of age;" however, beneath Knowles' mea culpa
is a studied confession of what the law terms depraved heart,
which lays open an individual act of assault through deliberate harmful conduct.
For this reason both Catcher and Peace are entwined,
at least to my school boy memory....

 

[Dr Doran]

I'm reading Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card.

That's where the kid thinks it's a video game but he's really killing the enemy? Everyone loved that one but me.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

That's where the kid thinks it's a video game but he's really killing the enemy? Everyone loved that one but me.

I took it or left it. And I never read any of the sequels.

That's almost fightin' words for me, 'cause I'm such a Salinger obsessionist.

I've had drunken arguments (read: almost fist fights) considering how much I hate J.D. Salinger. So, I think I'll go ahead and list you as another one of my mortal enemies, if that's okay with you, Beaucaillou. Now, Bukowski's Ham on Rye? That book kills me.

Reading Savage Art, a biography of Jim Thompson. Crazy guy. Good book. So far, it is mostly about his family, but that's been pretty entertaining; Jimmie's father was a Wyatt Earp status Sheriff.

Just finished Homo Zapiens by Viktor Pelevin. A head hurter, but funny. Chalk that one up on the Why I Love Pelevin chalkboard.

--

I recently took a trip to the Bay Area and I spent over 100 dollars on used books. That is one thing I miss about that place. Los Angeles needs some new and better bookshops.

 

[beaucaillou]

I've had drunken arguments (read: almost fist fights) considering how much I hate J.D. Salinger. So, I think I'll go ahead and list you as another one of my mortal enemies, if that's okay with you, Beaucaillou. Now, Bukowski's Ham on Rye? That book kills me.

Bring it, Jack!

Bukowski...???
You would.

 

[carebear]

Reading Savage Art, a biography of Jim Thompson. Crazy guy. Good book. So far, it is mostly about his family, but that's been pretty entertaining; Jimmie's father was a Wyatt Earp status Sheriff.

Jim Thompson wrote some seriously off-kilter stuff.

 

[Polka Dot]

Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union. It has a splendid Art Deco-inspired dustjacket.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Jim Thompson wrote some seriously off-kilter stuff.

He wrote some seriously oft-killer stuff.

 

[carebear]

He wrote some seriously oft-killer stuff.

:eusa_clap

 

[Polka Dot]

He wrote some seriously oft-killer stuff.

Thanks for a good laugh.