Thomas

the true heir w.g. sebald

Revisado: 12-23-21

Labatut is the true heir of W.G. Sebald. No higher praise could be given. The narration is equal to the text.

This is a book is poetic, narrative non-fiction. There are moments of psychological experience which are projected or imagined: not derived precisely from sources but imagined or inferred based on familiarity with overall context and the characters in play. There are also moments of mythologization—where a lyrical transmutation of events reveals a truth deeper than what can be squeezed out of transcripts. But to call it fiction is misunderstand and depreciate the unless we understand that all history—anything above and beyond pure, opaque and unprocessed data (anything deserving of the name of history)—contains elements of fiction. Language acts are descriptive, not objective. That goes for history as well.

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This is my favorite book by CS Lewis

Revisado: 07-01-21

The Narnia Chronicles have to two tributaries that join together to flesh out the flow of the cycle: christian apologetics and medieval scholarship. Far and away his apologetics are more widely read then his medieval scholarship—but readers who cherish his more apologetics or just love the Narnia stories don’t know what they’re missing when they neglect his medieval scholarship. It’s by far the most original and eye-opening territory in his body of work. The apologetics are uniquely fascinating only BECAUSE of the depth and subtlety of medieval scholarship.

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Snyder at the height of hos powers despite illness

Revisado: 02-10-21

More specific in its focus than his other recent work, just as vast in its implications.

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#1 most substantial indictment of Putin

Revisado: 09-12-19

This book is the most substantial indictment of Putin’s criminality. Snyder’s book The Road to Unfreedom provides the most sweeping historical context, Gessen’s books (Man Without A Face, The Future is History) and works like the New Tsar provide biographical and novelistic detail, Mezrich’s Once Upon a Time In Russia tells the story of his rise like a crime thriller. All brilliant stuff. But this is the actual dirt right here and theres more than enough to fill the book. If you wanna know what he did and what hes made of this is the book.

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This is a book of surpassing value

Revisado: 05-24-19

It’s skillful evenhandedness, given the radical background and assumptions of the author, is almost bizarre. A remarkable accomplishment. I’ve been studying the New Right in a relatively concentrated way for years and there were new insights and gap-filling information on every page (or heard something new every few minutes).

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Required reading for anyone concerned w/ politics

Revisado: 05-17-19

People who dont have a firm grip on what the fallacies in this book are and how they operate or manifest in public debate—and I’m inclined to believe that’s most of us most of the time, even smarty-pants Audible listeners—are effectively operating with a handicap every time they try to analyze media-narratives about politics or other issues. This book is a critical, baseline type of resource for critical thinking in general and I wish there was some way to motivate every adult and adolescent to read it before allowing them to declaim their political beliefs and allegiances. Since imposing the book is impractical, all I can really do is promote it.

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Way past time Zizek’s books start being available in audio format

Revisado: 12-03-18

Like a Thief in Broad Daylight is one of Zizek’s shorter and so therefore more accessible meditations—its comparable to Trouble in Paradise or ‘First as Tragedy, Then as Farce’ vs doorstoppers like Absolute Recoil or Less Than Nothing. Warning: It gets off to a very jargon-heavy, indigestible start but starts to level out in the first chapter. Most of the book is eminently listenable. I particularly enjoy the chapter on Lenin.

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this bThis book is more important today than it was when it was written.

Revisado: 09-25-17

Last year Hannah Arendt's book the Origins of Totalitarianism helped me to make sense of the election of Donald Trump in a larger historical context probably moreso than any other book--and I read a few, trying to figure out what happened. Now this book is helping me to think ahead and to understand the difficulties we're facing better. I and the few Arendt fans I know were surprised that Arendt chose the American Revolution as her model and major theme in this book. There are very good reasons for her to do this--but you'll have to read the book to find out what they are.

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A real revelation

Revisado: 09-01-17

Would you consider the audio edition of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind to be better than the print version?

I would pair this book with Moses & Monotheism by Sigmund Freud or even with some of the better prose work by Karl Marx--while the major thesis MAY be overstated or erroneous certain insights that would have be been almost impossible to access by any other avenue-- about what being a human is all about that are starlingly self-evident or otherwise fairly obvious or are not at all obvious but probably true--get laid out here.

The book at the level of prose is smooth as butter, and the narrator does a great job reading it.

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one of the most important works of our time

Revisado: 06-01-17

please read this. please encourage others to read this. it is one of the most important works of our time.

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