tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post3901817123954544349..comments2023-11-22T04:10:49.266-05:00Comments on Dispatches from Zembla: Black Mass ReviewsAlokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-32115075564410332022007-11-26T15:57:00.000-05:002007-11-26T15:57:00.000-05:00Kubla: I have not read the Hardt-Negri book. My kn...Kubla: I have not read the Hardt-Negri book. My knowledge of anti-imperialism is limited to the high-school history textbooks about Indian freedom movement. <BR/><BR/>Mishra is a very well-read person, also very sober and balanced in his judgements and writings. His book reviews and essays are certainly worth reading, though on the subject of India he is very repetitive.<BR/><BR/>richard: Straw Dogs is written in a hurried and impatient style which I agree will put off many serious readers, specially those who already had their doses of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Darwin and other thinkers but it is still a good introduction. Rather than making any arguments of its own, it instead hammers away on preconceived notions.<BR/><BR/>I am particularly interested in what he says about Rationality, the widespread belief that the ability to calculate rationally will guarantee political progress and moral behavior. A lot of political thinking of our time is based on this incorrect notion which has in fact led to so many calamities.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-70216312035200133602007-11-26T15:19:00.000-05:002007-11-26T15:19:00.000-05:00I've long felt that there are interesting connecti...I've long felt that there are interesting connections between Nazism, Communism and Christianity but Gray's book sounds a very hamfisted attempt to elucidate them. Here's AC Grayling's review:<BR/><BR/>http://newhumanist.org.uk/1423<BR/><BR/>"it is still a very sobering account of the way we live now and what future may hold for us."<BR/><BR/>Possibly, though if being sober is as much use as Gray suggests, you might as well get drunk...Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03316636310435451222noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-10761679077675340722007-11-26T14:16:00.000-05:002007-11-26T14:16:00.000-05:00And yes, Have you read Pankaj Mishra? North Indian...And yes, Have you read Pankaj Mishra? North Indian and a brilliant essayist I can say......his response to Martin Amis' rants were well written.<BR/>I just bought his Temtations in the west: how to be modern in india, pakistan and beyond...haven't started it yet though.....<BR/>he seems to be not admired by the right wing in India.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-32711266570184266312007-11-26T14:11:00.000-05:002007-11-26T14:11:00.000-05:00Thanks for your comments re my last post. i have t...Thanks for your comments re my last post. i have tried to answer a few points there. yes, I have read Forster and found his attitude an improvement over other writers writing about "natives".<BR/>Have you read Empire or Multitude by Hardt and Antonio Negri? I am reading these two books these days.<BR/>maybe post left, neo marxist, but brilliant writing.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.com