Since I had Ursula Le Guin’s edition from the library, I picked up Stephen Mitchell’s as well. Reading them side by side: Mitchell’s version is what wSince I had Ursula Le Guin’s edition from the library, I picked up Stephen Mitchell’s as well. Reading them side by side: Mitchell’s version is what we expect spiritual texts to be; Le Guin’s is what spiritual texts should be.
In the introduction, he says he played with the text, but there’s very little playfulness involved. Also he says he wants to exhort femininity, but the main way is just by swapping ‘she’ for ‘he’ at various points. (Where neither is necessary; note how Le Guin fails to need either.)
Also, he’s very quick to denounce that wei wu wei could be passivity. Oh no! It’s like an athlete! Le Guin, in contrast, isn’t scared off by passivity (see also: Lathe of Heaven).
His metaphor is an athlete “in the zone”; hers is a very good teacher, or the truest voice in a group of singers: “uncompetitive, unworried, trustful accomplishment, power that is not force.” Note the profound difference in those images.
Incidentally, Le Guin comments on Mitchell’s translation, which I had forgotten and didn’t find again until her translation notes at the end of the book. It’s one of the versions that blur the language into dullness and vagueness, she says. “Lao Tzu is tough-minded. He is tender-minded. He is never, under any circumstances, squashy-minded. By confusing mysticism with imprecision, such versions betray the spirit of the book and its marvelously pungent, laconic, beautiful language.”
I was reviewing Carmilla, audiobook by Megan Follows, and it made me realize I never added AOGG to Goodreads, which I’ve read so many times since so lI was reviewing Carmilla, audiobook by Megan Follows, and it made me realize I never added AOGG to Goodreads, which I’ve read so many times since so long ago, so formative for me that I don’t even know where to start....more
I suppose I should be talking about the book, but Megan Follows does the audio, so my actual takeaway is: my Megan Follows crush has not abated after I suppose I should be talking about the book, but Megan Follows does the audio, so my actual takeaway is: my Megan Follows crush has not abated after 25 years.
Not everyone in book club was a fan, but I loved it, but it was brutal, but I’m glad I read it, but I’m glad I won’t be in a rush to read it again. ⠀ “Not everyone in book club was a fan, but I loved it, but it was brutal, but I’m glad I read it, but I’m glad I won’t be in a rush to read it again. ⠀ “Somebody,” said Jacques, “your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour—and in the oddest places!—for the lack of it.”...more
I rarely do this, but there’s another review that says it so well, I’m going to quote it instead of sum up my own thoughts:
Sade the philosopher is in
I rarely do this, but there’s another review that says it so well, I’m going to quote it instead of sum up my own thoughts:
Sade the philosopher is in force, and his treatises - like his other novels delivered by key characters - are interspersed with the sex and violence one expects. And yet…is it Sade who speaks through his canon’s most libertine characters, or is he an ironist an order of magnitude more accomplished than Swift? I recommend a brief familiarity with his biography and political beliefs, and probably reading his Philosophy in the Bedroom, before reading Juliette. When a reader falls in stride with Sade, and any prudish shock wears off, it becomes easier to discern what’s true to his idealistic vision of humanity, what’s buffoonery, and what are prescient satirical riffs and exposés of the cultural idiosyncrasies he endured in eighteenth-century France. Otherwise Sade can appear to be a mass of contradictions. He respects the state and the institution of democracy yet rejects law. His characters expound on their superiority over other living things yet he writes brilliantly on the equality of animals and humans. And so on.
Agreed. Read Philosophy in the Bedroom first, acquaint yourself with Sade the philosopher instead of Sade the grotesque distortion, and proceed accordingly.
The one thing I’d argue is that instead of only appearing to be a mass of contradictions, he is a mass of contradictions, intentionally, provocatively, profoundly. As I said before, I get the feeling he very pointedly and gleefully contradicts himself, over and over, just to get readers to think. Don’t take it all as read, even what he’s saying. Think you get his point? Wrong again, think some more....more
Thinking about the tragedy that occurs when we disown parts of society + parts of ourselves. A Psalm 139 epigraph in a turn of the century queer book Thinking about the tragedy that occurs when we disown parts of society + parts of ourselves. A Psalm 139 epigraph in a turn of the century queer book will always get me....more
I’ve been making myself take a brain rest, which means not reading twelve books simultaneously every week. It also means big, thick books full of old I’ve been making myself take a brain rest, which means not reading twelve books simultaneously every week. It also means big, thick books full of old fashioned words that I can read slowly and savor, and Dorothy Sayers—and Peter Wimsey, and Harriet Vane—fits that bill. ...more
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