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May 21st, 2005 | #21 | |
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A "good" edition of any literature should depart hardly at all from the modes of speech current in the editors own times, inasmuch as nothing is readable for long, which affects any other diction than that of the age in which it is written. We know the charm of the Elizabethan translations, but he who would attempt one that well vie with them must eschew all Elizabethanisms that are not good Victorianisms also. That's because the charm of the Elisabethans does not lie in their Elizabethanisms; these are but as the mosses and lichens which Time will grow upon Victorian literature as surely as has been grown them upon the Elizabethan (upon such of it, at least, as has not been 'afro-rigged' for the purpose). Shakespeare tells us that it is Time's glory to stamp the seal of time upon aged things. No doubt; but he will have no hands stamp it except his own. Though one rot an artificial ruin, it will not be glorified. To genuinely have pride in any work it must be frankly secular when he deigns to take it in his hand, honestly after the manner of his own age, and country. The Elizabethans knew this so well it was second nature to them, and they scarcely realized it. But whether they were conscious of it or not, they did not spread about Chaucerisms and think that they were translating well. Rather, those who would bring us classics aim fearlessly and without taint of affection at making a dead author living to a generation other than his own. To do this one must transfuse their own blood into his cold veins, and quicken him with their own livingness. Then whom is speaking the tale? The new and not the old? In part no doubt it is so; but if they have loved him well enough, his life will have entered into them and possessed them. They will have given him of their life, and he will have paid them in their own coin. If, however, the mouth of the ox who treads out the corn cannot be muzzled, and if there must be a certain give and take between a dead author and his audience that the reader must allow it follows that the leniency must be all the greater when the work belongs to an age and country widely remote from the reader's own. A poem's prosperity is like the humor of a joke - in the ear that hears it. It takes two people to communicate a thing, a sayee, as well as a sayer, and by parity of reasoning, a poem's original audience and environment are integral parts of the poem itself. Literature and audience are like ego and non-ego, they blend into one another. Change either, and some corresponding change, spiritual rather than literal, will be necessary in the other, if the original harmony between them is to be preserved. |
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May 21st, 2005 | #22 | ||
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May 22nd, 2005 | #23 |
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Here are a few:
The Earl of Louisiana and The Honest Rainmaker: The Life and Times of Colonel John R. Stingo by A. J. Liebling The Imperial Order by Robert G. Wesson Anomie: A Study of Political Institutions by Sebastian DeGrazia Which Way Western Man? by W. G. Simpson The War Between Men and Women by James Thurber The novels and short stories of the science fiction writer, Jack Vance |
May 24th, 2005 | #24 |
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For novels, I recommend All the Kings Men, study of Huey Long. Most novels don't make much of an impression on me, but this one did.
I've seen it claimed that at his height, Mencken was popping out 5,000 words a day. That is an impressive output given the quality level he maintained. Note that Mencken tried his hand at writing novels and failed. That is because writing novels requires gift for storytelling, which has nothing in the least to do with writing. Twain had both Mencken's facility with words AND an exceptional storytelling gift. I believe an underrated mencken influence was Schopenhauer. Often Nietzsche is cited as a Mencken influence, but I don't see it, even though Mencken did write one of the first English books on Nietzsche. I can find Schopenhauer in Mencken consistently. The Penguin collection of Schopenhauer bits and longer pieces is just wonderful. I have not read Schopenhauer's main philosophical work, but his "way" and general atittude is beyond pretty much anything else out there. |
May 24th, 2005 | #25 |
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Mostly because the two men were great friends at the time and saw the world similarly, Schopenhauer's influence on Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is profound.
Quite a different intellectual world then when a struggling composer of no fame (at the time of Rienzi) could be friends with Bakunin(sp?) and later, when famous, with Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. |
May 24th, 2005 | #27 |
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Yeah, 'it' seems so clear and almost obvious...as soon as a creative, sharp mind works it out for me
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May 24th, 2005 | #28 | ||
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Old Arthur could have stopped at the phrase "completely chloroformed by the foetor judaicus". |
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May 24th, 2005 | #29 |
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East of Eden by John Steinbeck
A good look at good and bad and man's free will to do either. The Fountainhead Important towards leading me into an artist’s life but drew me away from a more conservative route in my earlier years. Camp of the Saints Brings in the big picture for me. Trust the Communist to be Communist It is like reading a history of modern times but written in the 60’s. Lays out the plans of taking a nation from within. A Nation of Sheep Made me understand Asians better, kinda clicked in a few loose pieces of thoughts I had laying about in the brain involving our Asian wars. |
May 25th, 2005 | #30 | |
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Put it this way: I've not read any Mencken except what's been posted on VNN, but I've read everything Nietzsche wrote (I'm a Philosophy undergrad), and the two sound inseparable to me. Mencken's observations on the Anglo-Saxons/democracy are basically stolen from Nietzsche. Not that Nietzsche was so original (in this he was/is overrated), but Mencken's 'epigrams'/ pithy sentences are basically indistinguishable from Nietzsche. 'Faith moves no mountains but places mountains where there are none: a fleeting visit to a madhouse will provide ample enlightenment on these things.' (Antichrist, 51). Both Nietzsche and Mencken are tarred with having to be 'rescued' from the claims of anti-Semitism, which, if anything, ought to provide ample enlightenment on the extent of Jewish truckling in the West. Schopenhauer was a kind of Kantian apologist/populariser of Kantian thought [according to Roger Scruton], with mystical elements added in.
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Hate Hurts - Wogs Kill 'At the end of his life he organized a financial offering for the poor in Jerusalem [Jew city] from the gentile churches he had founded.' - St. Paul [Jew], Oxford Companion to Class. Civ. |
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May 25th, 2005 | #31 |
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Ahhh... the days of the Penguin Classics. What ever happened to that era?
I have read Menken, Nietzsche, Gibbon, Toynbee, Rand, ect... we can't forget the writings of Dr. Pierce can we? Others not mentioned: Robert J. Ringer - Looking out for Number One Michael Newton - Journey of Souls Charles Askins - Unrepentant Sinner Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations Henry David Thoreau - Walden Pond B.F. Skinner - all works Isaac Asimov - Robot Novels Napolean Hill - Think and Grow Rich Edwin Lefevre - Reminices of a Stock Operator Jeff Cooper - To ride, shoot straight and speak the truth James A. Michener - The Source Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 451 Claire Wolfe - all works George Orwell - 1984 and Animal Farm Steven Plinker - How the mind works Rachel Carson - Silent Spring Arthur C. Clark - The promise of Space George Rockwell - White Power Jefferson Mack - Secret Freedom Fighter Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Victor Hugo - Les Miserables Voltaire - Candid Charles Dickens - all works Richard Stark - all Parker novels John Norman - Gor novels Anne Rice - Lasher, Memnoch the Devil Ernest Van Den Haag - The Jewish Mystique Zecharia Sitchin - all works Richard Leigh - Holy Blood, Holy Grail Anton Lavey - The Satanic Bible, Satanic Witch I've read a lot more but I've forgotten a lot of 'em. I like reading jew books cuz you see how they think and communicate w/ each other... just for clinical purposes. As far as reading less and killing more... Maybe but the leaders of such an outing would have to be learned in books. You can get addicted to reading and never act due to the fact that so much has been written. It's still good for everyone to read to get a grasp of what is right and wrong. Xtianity ain't doing it for our young people. Books by white men first can. After that books by jews for comparison. |
May 25th, 2005 | #32 |
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Reading philosophy puts me to sleep. I go for tangible things like history and for clear straight thinking/writing in general. Philosophy is anything but clear and straight being about as un-linear as possible. It generally strikes me as the highest form of double talk, seems (for the most part) futile and encourages sitting on one's duff thinking rather than acting. For me, reading philosophy is like reading about perception - I know it's important and real, but the whole thing gives me a headache.
If you want Schopenhauer, listen (and follow along) with Tristan und Isolde as Wagner makes similar ideas tangible and he humanizes them as well. Art is not only the greatest solace in life but maybe humanity's major justification for existence. We screw up just about everything, and are pretty twisted fucks as well (I speak from experience on this). In most thing having to do with being nice and good, the average human comes in as a 2 out of 10 while the average dog comes in as an 8 out of 10. But dogs didn't paint the School of Athens or write Don Carlos. |
May 25th, 2005 | #33 | |
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May 26th, 2005 | #34 |
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Remember that gag years ago when some guys tied a brush to a donkey's tail, dipped it in paint and petted the nice animal so he would wag said tail? He wagged over a piece of canvas and the results were shown to some 'experts' (without explaining the provenance) who declared the arrival of a new genius in the world of modern...or maybe it was post-modern art.
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May 26th, 2005 | #35 | |
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May 26th, 2005 | #36 | |
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Jack O'Connor is another great author of guns. He writes about his trips all around the world. His book "The Hunting Rifle" is a classic. Elmer Keith is another great shooter/author. John Ross and William Johnstone are good but by no means are they WN. |
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June 1st, 2005 | #37 |
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Bill Simpson's Which Way Western Man?
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