The Soul of the Marionette

[Ian Livingston]

Count me in. It's an argument I've carried on privately since the middle
80's, when I learned to abhor Skinner.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 9:15 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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/?listpynchon-l
>
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