Quote:
Originally Posted by BTM
That's right books 
Ficciones: Jorges Luis Borges (Latin American author but the translation is very good, dense and somewhat intellectual but overall very intriguing/thought provoking fiction) |
Don't know how I missed this the first time through. I picked up his collected fictions (translated) after reading a short story by him in "
The mind's I : Fantasies and reflections on the self and soul". I believe the story was barely two pages long where he debated the duality of the mind and body, believing there to be two separate "Borges" and trying to figure out which one is in control of his own writings. I liked many of the stories in his collections. They explored many philosophical ideas while set against the Argentinian version of the "wild west", with the characters getting into (or threatening) knife fights at the drop of a hat. I haven't read all of his works, I stopped at (hope I remember the title right) "Brodie's hat, or Brodie's diary", which he wrote in the seventies I believe.
Speaking of, I also recommend "
The Minds I : Fantasies and reflections on the self and soul" Which was arranged by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel C Dennet. It's a collection of short stories that explore the function of the human brain, the soul, life, death, fate, god, etc... I liked it so much that I read it cover to cover 3 or 4 times in high school. One particular story I enjoyed reading the "
The soul of the Mark III beast" that explored the distinctions we make in the moral decision to kill something living or to destroy something mechanical, and how personification can blur those boundaries. Fantastic.
if you like that and want to read something dense pick up "
Goedel, Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. It's starting to get a little dated but I it won the Pulitzer prize in 1981 I think. I enjoyed the music history lesson about Bach and his compositions, and also the short and sometimes whimsical stories of Achilles, Tortoise, Anteater, and Crab. The math stuff was way over my head though. Took me a long time to read this one, my head felt like jelly after trying to understand the math portions, I ended up skipping all of them on the 2nd read through.
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For some reason I am eternally at odds with Ayn Rand's "Atlas shrugged". I just don't get it. I read it, had someone explain it to me, then re-read it about three fourths of the way though and ended up stopping there (probably picked up another book, I don't remember as it's been awhile). I can appreciate its popularity as feel like there must be something there, but I just don't feel that compelled by it or it's message and it appears to contradict itself in many areas. I read "the Fountainhead" also and didn't really care for it either. To each their own I guess.
-BMW2006