The Soul of the Marionette

[Mark Thibodeau]

>From my blog's Suggested Readings from a while back (June 17):

This excellent review of English Professor of Philosophy John Gray's
thought-provoking new book - "The Soul of the Marionette" - serves as "a
short enquiry into human freedom" that "exposes the follies, delusions and
prevailing Gnosticism of our smugly arrogant times." It begins:

In these times the west, or what we used quaintly to call the civilised
world, is threatened by two opposing perils, one actual and near, the other
notional though becoming a reality at an ever-increasing pace. At one pole,
there is the outright, unrelenting and often violent rejection of western
modernity by fundamentalist movements, Islamic, Christian, Jewish; at the
other is the seemingly limitless development of computer technology, which,
as some highly intelligent people,Stephen Hawking among them, have been
warning of late, may well end in producing machines much cleverer and even
more destructive than we are. The future will be another country. John
Gray, in his bleak yet bracing new book, once again addresses himself to
the follies, delusions and willed blindness of our smugly arrogant times,
in which, despite our arrogance, we cower before the twin menaces of old
and new barbarisms.

 Delicious and filling food for thought. I look forward to reading Dr
Gray's book.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 12:05 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:

> THE SOUL OF THE MARIONETTE:
> A Short Inquiry into Human Freedom
> John Gray
> Farrar, Straus and Giroux
>
>
> Compared with that of humans, the life of the marionette looks more
> like an enviable state of freedom
>
> In his brilliantly enjoyable and freewheeling new book, John Gray
> draws together the religious, philosophic, and fantastical traditions
> that question the very idea of human freedom. We flatter ourselves
> about the nature of free will and yet the most enormous
> forces--logical, physical, metaphysical--constrain our every action.
> Many writers and intellectuals have always understood this, but
> instead of embracing our condition we battle against it, with everyone
> from world conquerors to modern scientists dreaming of a "human
> dominion" almost comically at odds with our true state.
>
> Filled with wonderful examples and drawing on the widest possible
> reading (from the Gnostics to Philip K. Dick), The Soul of the
> Marionette is a stimulating and engaging meditation on everything from
> cybernetics to the fairground marionettes of the title.
>
> http://us.macmillan.com/thesoulofthemarionette/john-gray
>
> The Soul of the Marionette by John Gray review – bleak, bracing and
> highly entertaining
>
>
> http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/25/the-soul-of-marionette-enquiry-human-freedom-john-gray-review
>
> Are We ‘Exceptionally Rapacious Primates’?
>
>
> http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/nov/05/are-we-exceptionally-rapacious-primates/
>
> The Gnostic Pynchon
>
> http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=20179
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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