The Soul of the Marionette

[Dave Monroe]

Thanks!

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l