Want to know what to read this summer? Don’t try these!
Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
Andy’s a Wagner fan.
Some of you may remember literary agent Andy Ross (we’ve written about him here and here), formerly owner of Cody’s Books in Berkeley, back when it was bombed by the adherents of the idea of bombing anyone who carried Salman Rushdie‘s books.
Over at his blog, he has has list of Books Not Recommended for Summer Reading.
Jokes Cracked by Lord Aberdeen. This book is perhaps the greatest oddity in the history of the printed page. It was originally published in 1925 and has been long out of print. The author of the book is either the 4th or 5th Earl of Aberdeen. It is not entirely clear. From the appearance of the dour visage on the cover, one questions whether His Lordship made any significant contribution to the world of Tomfoolery of the late Victorian period. Indeed, one would question whether the concept of “crack a joke” would even enter the same universe of discourse occupied by Lord Aberdeen.
Foundations of a Complete Science of Knowledge (Grundlage der Gesammten Wissenschaftslehre.) Johan Gottlieb Fichte. Once a towering figure in German Idealist philosophy, now happily forgotten. Unfortunately for me, when I was 25 and a graduate student in German history, I foolishly picked Herr Fichte’s thought as the subject for my master’s thesis. I was required to read the entire 660 page work in its original German. The number of expressions in German that I knew at the time was limited. I believe I could give a pretty good rendition of: “Wanna go back to my place?” and also “Shut up, you Nazi”.
I will never forget the impact of those first words upon my mind. (Roughly translated): “X is in the Ego, and posited through the Ego, for it is the Ego which asserts the above proposition, and so asserts it by virtue of X as a law, and must therefore, be given to the Ego;…”
At the time I was doing considerable experimentation with certain (how shall we say) mind altering drugs and attempting at the same time to win my girlfriend back from a free love commune. Fichte’s immortal words restored my hope and gave a new sense of purpose to my life.
Read the rest here.
