If you could bring 5 texts to a desert island
Stipulation: collected works and anthologies don't count (i.e. "The Cambridge History of Philosophy" or "The Complete Shakespeare")
Deena:
1. Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
2. Don Quixote - Cervantes
3. Ulysses - Joyce
4. The Bible
5. A La Recherche du Temps Perdus - Proust
Robbie:
1. The Bible
2. Maha Barata
3. The Republic - Plato
4. Leaves of Grass - Whitman
5. The Civil War : A Narrative - Shelby Foote
Sherief:
1. Quixote - Cervantes
2. History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
3. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus - Wittegenstein
4. Pale Fire - Nabokov
5. Being and Event - Alain Badiou
Deena:
1. Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
2. Don Quixote - Cervantes
3. Ulysses - Joyce
4. The Bible
5. A La Recherche du Temps Perdus - Proust
Robbie:
1. The Bible
2. Maha Barata
3. The Republic - Plato
4. Leaves of Grass - Whitman
5. The Civil War : A Narrative - Shelby Foote
Sherief:
1. Quixote - Cervantes
2. History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
3. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus - Wittegenstein
4. Pale Fire - Nabokov
5. Being and Event - Alain Badiou
posted by dchan at 8:34 PM
26 Comments:
1. Bible
2. Iliad
3. Beyond Good and Evil
4. Paradise Lost
5. Greed and Injustice in Classical Athens
I've thought long and hard about this(in the last five minutes), and I've decided that one of these is simply unacceptable given the seriousness of the question. There's no room for frivolity or irony here. So strike "Paradise Lost" from the list and add "Survive on a Desert Island" by Claire Llewelyn (Silver Dolphin Books). Really, I apologize.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
1. why not 'texts' instead of 'books'?
2. the bible and 'leaves of grass' aren't published as separate stories. you can't just go buy the book of job, for example. or at least most people don't. they are cohesive, if they are anthologies, technically.
3. "a la recherche..." can be translated as both 'remembrance of things past' or 'in search of lost time.' i would read it in the original, though, so what's your point.
I too considered a book on either shipbuiling or survival techniques, Scantron. But then I realized it was a thought experiment you striking, ironic man!
Robot-
O daimone! I can't continue in my irony anymore, because if I began to offer yet another list here with a facetious pick involved my irony would pierce through the veil of relativistic truth claims by means of its own subersive negative dialectical tact and strike against the hard core of the Real, following which human actors could only speak honestly and the Sheriff's head would come to resemble a globe of the known world circa 1491. Therefore I submit an honest list to you:
Bible
Iliad
Paradise Lost
Beyond Good and Evil
The Sound and the Fury
Does anyone else feel the weight that resembles the collective loss of Fishtix in all of this?
A different sort of question: if, in addition to whatever else you study during your life, you could have complete mastery of one text (you know it pretty much word by word, all the relevant passages, etc) and know all the secondary literature about it, what would it be? I think mine would either be the United States Consitution (think of all the history and scholarship there) or maybe Rawls' Theory of Justice (which ignited a huge, impressive body of commentary about contemporary liberalism). So there.
I really don't understand where my head comes into this.
Agreed on the constitution.
We were just talking about the arcades project. Its currently coffe-table steez
Re: Scantron's suggestion.
Capital. Knowledge of History, Econ, and not to mention some mad good critical theory.
Ed?
the bigger (thicker) the books, the more opportunities one has to wipe one's ass. just a thought (in leiu of anything intelligent).
1. the word 'text' was ad hoc and has no further implications, pretentious or otherwise. your concern over the word only belies your own insecurities.
2. just because i don't care to take the torah to a hypothetical island doesn't mean i haven't 'heard of it.' i know what it is, it just has no meaning for me. the point of the post is not to criticize other people's choices, by the way, just because you personally differ. why don't you make your own list, doll, and put the torah right at the top?
3. the 'point' is not to 'avoid pretension.' the 'point' is introspection and perhaps entertainment. no one is trying to 'sound smart' on this blog. we are smart. and if this comes across stylistically or through the content of our discourse, who are you to suggest that we dumb our blog down just to 'avoid pretension.'
What sort of ad hominem nonsense is calling dchan "doll"? I'm not going to say that there have never been flame wars or arguments on this blog, but I will say that even insults have been leveled at what someone says or avows, but not at their person. There's no room for that kind of draconian, patronizing bullshit here. You have something to say, then say it, but don't try to be cheeky.
i forgot to mention that forgoing the bible for the torah would imply that i find the new testament expendible. not true.
Abe you're exactly right. I thought I was the only one who was making any sense on this blog. Now, I realize there's someone out there just like me. I see eye to eye with you. Join with me and we'll start our own blog, "Guys and Dolls," leaving these plebeians behind.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I must say, Ed, you've gotten the Sheriff to display real masculinity: "[If] You have something to say, then say it, but don't try to be cheeky". He has slanged!
If I'd have went to Columbia! I'd have built up enough ennui to maintain a safe parodic distance!
This blog will self-destruct in t-minus 60 seconds.
This is the revolution in action! This blog thread will bring dialogue and democracy to the voiceless masses and throw off the oppressive silence imposed by the cultural elite! A sign of the coming singularity...?
Scantron and Josh approach the same point! The zenith is immanent!
--J money, you know I be playin too. Our antagonism is but to make us stronger, like young wolf cubs who will spar to learn how to kill when their true prey is at hand!
All clocks will be reset to midnight and all calenders to January 1 in the year 0. Abefrohman, who once was thought of as Judas, reveals himself as the Christ, the anointed one, and the Hidden 12th Imam. Through his submersive machinations he has brought peace to the warlike, and prosperity to the wretched. Where once there was a lizard, now there is only a sausage king.
1. Why not "books" instead of "texts"?
2. The Bible and Leaves of Grass are anthologies, even if they aren't published as such by Cambridge. It seems that your categories aren't stable.
3. A La Recherche du Temps Perdus=In Search of Lost Time if Братья Карамазовы=Brothers Karamazov, don't you think?
Post a Comment
<< Home