Sunday, October 26, 2008

dystopian or anti-social?

maybe both...i was thinking about authors whose books i re-read on a regular basis ( all, or a portion, on say a yearly basis, if not more often) and as far as sociabillity goes they are a scurvy crew at best...so here's a list (in alphabetical order not by favorite) and something of a reason why...sam beckett...because death renders life absurd and there's nothing funnier than unhappiness...isaiah berlin...because he loathes a teleology and says why...hank bukowski...the only real poet--ever...anthony burgess...he's hilarious because he wants to be orwell and can't...william s burroughs sr. & jr....they know dependency and its issues like only insiders can...celine...he is the most theraputic writer, when i am sick of life all i have to do is open "journey to the end of the night" anywhere and start reading and i will feel much better about myself...crates the cynic...all social conventions are synthetic...thomas homer-dixon because he taught me that people will kill for water just as quickly as for oil...thomas de quincey..."confessions of an english opium eater" might be the closest thing to a bible i have, he goes the burroughs boys one step better...epicurus...for the difference between kenetic and katastematic pleasure and the enjoinment to live simply... gunter grass for bring a fearless social critic...robert kaplan for being a conservative with a realistic worldview...g.e.moore for telling the philosophical world to cut out the dualism and get a grip...fred nietzsche for being difficult about everything...george orwell for distrusting intellectuals and being true to himself no matter how wrong or unpopular he was, he loathed a teleology too...mark reisner for "cadallac desert" and reinforcing my views about water and people...bertrand russell for making me think out if my depth and expand my horizon ( the anthropology faculty at iun gets kudos for this as well)...hunter thompson for being so acidically right when he wasn't out of his mind...kurt vonnegut for being so damn funny...ludwig wittgenstein for saying philosophy can't explain anything, just describe...yevgeny zimyatin for loathing a teleology ( sense a pattern?)...and jan svankmajer the czech surrealist film-maker for being so surreal

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