Book Review - Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

 Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated from the French by Robert Baldice

London: Penguin Books, 1990 (first published in French in 1938, this translation first published 1963)

ISBN 0140181806

My first foray into Sartre, and Sartre's first novel. A novel that I'll mull over for quite some time. A story of angst, a struggle to find the meaning of - or at least some meaning in - life. The claim on the back cover of the edition I read is that this is Sartre's first foray into the ideas and philosophy that became known as existentialism. The novel takes the form of a diary of Antoine Roquentin, who is temporarily residing in Bouville where he is undertaking research into a biography that his is writing of an aristocrat from the Revolutionary era.

Antoine is going through a crisis, through which he is stripping away the layers of his life one-by-one. As the diary moves on he becomes less and less sure of his place in the world, of his views about his fellow man and society more generally, and finally about the physical world itself.

He grapples with these questions via interactions with people in the town, in the cafes, the library and on the street, and with the physical buildings, parks and trees that surround him. What does it mean to be a person - if the present is the only thing that actually exists, how can a human life have a trajectory or meaning (we create ourselves and the world through storytelling).

But what is it that we are telling ourselves? How can we be sure of anything when the past doesn't exist or things are merely things and cannot hold other meanings? "Every existent is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance." The book, and Antoine, seem to be heading to the most nihilistic of endings - Antoine even moves beyond the idea of suicide, as to do the deed is just as meaningless as anything else.

The climax of the diary is Antoine meeting his former girlfriend Anny in Paris. She has come to the same conclusions about life as Antoine, and is resigned to "mere existence". Antoine hopes for some sort of reconciliation, as during the meeting he realises that he has in fact missed her presence, but their meeting concludes with Anny explaining how that part of their life is over. Having long since realised that his book is pointless, Antoine returns to Bouville one last time before moving to Paris, and, in what I see as a deliberate ironical twist, begins to think about writing a different sort of book, a book very similar to the one the reader is reading...

Nausea is, I think, both a product of its time and its author. Sartre's existentialism - Antoine's ennui and disaffection - spring from the trauma of World War One: what is meaning after such slaughter, what meaning can the past have and what does the future look like when the old certainties no longer hold? It is also a young man's book. Many of Antoine's insights are not revelatory to someone older, so I wonder if some of the dramatic impact of the thought in this novel was lost on me. I actually bought this for my eighteen year old son who has an interest in philosophy, so I will be interested in his reaction once he has read it.

As someone who has read quite a bit of modernist fiction, it is interesting that so many different people in Britain and Europe were working with fiction in a similar way at a similar time - it really does reflect a change in how people (middle-class people to be sure) viewed themselves, society, and the world at large. In my opinion Nausea fits into that tradition.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Travels with Epicurus by Daniel Klein

 Travels with Epicurus: a Journey to a Greek Island in search of an authentic Old Age by Daniel Klein

Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2012 (first published in the USA 2012)     ISBN 9781922079695

My wife bought this book as she thought it might give an insight into how to approach old age, which is rapidly looming for both of us. I read it because my eighteen year old son who has an interest in philosophy, read it and enjoyed it.

Daniel Klein studied philosophy at Harvard and had co-written a couple of popular philosophy books before Travels with Epicurus. This book is a lightly-paced journey through not only Epicurus, but Plato, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Heidegger and others, as well as Hindu beliefs on end-of-life spirituality.

In some ways the structure of Travels with Epicurus reminds me of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with a narrative of Klein on the island of Hydra, watching the old men there enjoying their old age - particularly Tasso, a retired judge who returned from Athens to live in his home town with (one assumes) his childhood friends. The philosophy is interspersed with these observations.

The crux of the book is Klein's contention that we in the West are trying to actively avoid old age by trying to prolong youth: missing old age altogether and going straight from an extended middle age into what Klein calls "old-old age". He shows us, using the example of Tasso and his friends, leavened with philosophy, that old age is a time for reflection and relaxation, to re-find the aspect of play in our lives, and to enjoy the people we have become.

The striving, jockeying, and pursuit of success that drives us when we are younger can be put into perspective, we can reminisce and enjoy the company of our friends without worrying about needing something from them or having to act in a certain way - no more "keeping up with the Joneses." We also have time in our old age to contemplate the bigger questions, for we have the life experience to do so.

Klein does tackle the inevitable decline into extreme old age, and the decisions we must make as we lose the capability to look after ourselves. He comes to no conclusions as to the correct course of action (I note that at the time of writing this review Klein is 86 years old, and I wonder what his thoughts on this topic might be now?).

Overall Travels with Epicurus is a light-hearted look at what awaits all of us. The message Klein has for us is that there is much to be enjoyed in old age, not much objectively to fear, and if we have the right attitude to it, helped by a judicious reading of the great philosophers, it can be very enjoyable.

 If you are heading into old age, and are worrying about how you are going to face it, I can recommend Travels with Epicurus as a guide to taking the first steps.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects, translation and commentary by Ezra Pound

 Confucius: The Great Digest, The Unwobbling Pivot, The Analects Translation & Commentary by Ezra Pound, Stone Texts from rubbings supplied by William Hawley, a Note on the Stone Editions by Achilles Fang

New York: A New Directions Book, 1951                                 ISBN 0811201546

Ezra Pound remains an enigma - a fundamental figure of the Modernist movement, inspiration to many, balanced by the fact that he was an antisemite and supporter of fascism, his long life had many ups and downs and his work varied in quality if not in quantity. The Cantos remain his main contribution to Western Literature, and many academics have made a living trying to interpret his great work.

One thing that Ezra was fascinated with throughout his life was Chinese literature, and this book is a compilation of his translations of Confucius ranging from 1928-1950. There has been a lot of controversy around Pound's translations from the Chinese, revolving around several factors: Pound was not fluent in the language, and relied on other's notes and his own poetic sense to create his works. He saw his translations as a re-creation as much as a literal translation, and saw the philosophy of Confucius as a counter-balance to the Western thought on government which he saw as a failed project.

The first parts of this work - the translations of The Great Digest and The Unwobbling Pivot - are in this edition juxtaposed with rubbings from the stone tablets from which the text was drawn - I don't read Chinese characters, but it's a great addition to this text. The Analects, which given the original publication date one can assume that Pound worked on when he was incarcerated after the War, are as a text much less developed than the first two works, and has many more textual explanations from Pound than the other two works (interestingly in this edition there were footnotes marked in the text, but no notes at the bottom of the page or at the end of the book).

I think that in many respects that Ezra has done a good job here - a reader gets a sense of what these texts are, of the difficulty in interpreting some of the verses, and he has provided some pithy language as translation: while the hokey Americanisms that he uses occasionally initially jarred, as I read through they seemed quite apt to present Confucius' character, which is by turns scholarly, pragmatic, realistic and prickly.

Honestly, this is not the work to go to for an accurate or up-to-date version of Confucius (I can recommend Simon Leys' translation of The Analects for that), but for any Poundian, they are worth the effort.

A final short rumination on New Directions Paperbacks from the 50s and 60s. I've always loved the design of these books, their understated covers and font, along with higher-quality paper and bindings, somehow give them an air of authority - they are a tactile and visual pleasure.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

London: Penguin Books, 2000 (First Published 1949)         ISBN 9780141187761

I'm not sure how many times I've read this book, and I'm also not sure how many copies I've owned over the years... I always seem to be giving it away to someone who has yet to read some of the most prescient writing on the nature of modern political life, in the hope that it will change the way they think about society, and learn to value individual freedom.

Orwell is rightly seen as the most clear headed writer to tackle the rise of totalitarianism, both Left and Right, in the early to mid Twentieth Century. With Animal Farm and the novel under review, Orwell skewered the falsity of ideological dictatorship, and the absurdity of following a cause even when it had turned on the path to evil. While Animal Farm is a satire of Soviet Communism, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a much deeper look at the way society - particularly politics and tyranny - can destroy the individual.

On this re-reading, I'm struck once again by how far society has headed down Orwell's dystopian tunnel seemingly without coercion from an all-controlling Party. It seems we have willingly submitted to constant surveillance, we participate in the destruction of history, and willfully deny science  ("If he thinks he floats off the floor and if I simultaneosly think I see him do it, then the thing happens"), and we, as mob, make people "unpersons". The prescience of Orwell, his understanding of human nature in that sense, sends chills down one's spine.

One thing though, that I hadn't really picked up on before to such an extent, is the fact that Ingsoc, Newspeak and the Thought Police were all wiped away, as is clear in the Appendix on the Principles of Newspeak. So, Winston Smith's vision that there was "some spirit, some principle - that you will never overcome....The spirit of Man" was in fact the truth, rather than O'Brien's assertion that "The Party is immortal." The hope of Winston Smith is the hope that we all cling to during times when it seems humanity is on the path to destruction: thankfully, amidst the gloom, evidence of the "spirit of Man" keeps re-appearing, to remind us that those that would like to control us are not all-powerful.

The book asks many questions of the reader: what does it mean to be free? What does it mean to have power? and, importantly, what is power for? These questions have resonated for hundreds of years, and are still important now. Freedom, as the Party well knows in this book means many things, but most importantly the ability to think. With Newspeak the Party works to take that ability away, but until that project is completed, they have moved one step beyond the historical totalitarianisms that we have known. It is not enough to confess, it is not enough to betray: in Oceania, one must truly believe before the final bullet in the back of the neck. Power means the ability to coerce, and what is it for? "Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution to establish the dictatorship.

While we may not have dictatorships, we increasingly see in the democratic West the quest for power for its own sake. Our parties have atrophied as politics has become yet another career path. While we bemoan this fact, perhaps the rise of independent politicians will in fact improve our polity, and steer us to a brighter future. Or perhaps, like Winston, I'm dreaming.

As to the literary qualities of Nineteen Eighty-Four, there is not so much to write about. Orwell was definitely a supreme craftsman of prose, but the book rises to no great stylistic or linguistic heights. Partly I'm sure, that was Orwell's plan, given his subject matter and the message he was trying to impart. The story, as it goes, is quite a good one, and the philosophizing, when it comes, can be a little dry, although easy enough to understand.

It seems superfluous for me to add that this is one of the classics of Twentieth Century literature. If you haven't read it, why not?

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values by Robert M. Pirsig

London: Corgi, 1989 (originally published Bodley Head, 1974)

ISBN 0552101664

This has been a book on my "to read" list for many many years. My brother-in-law mentioned to me that he read it in his twenties and it blew him away, and asked me if he should re-read it; I suggested to him that he may be disappointed if he did. I'm sure I would have been blown away by this book in my twenties as well. Reading it in my fifties... not so much.

As the subtitle states, this book is really an inquiry into values: why do we think the way we (i.e. in the West) do, and is it inhibiting our ability to live a fulfilling life. This premise is explored through the description of a long motorcycle trip taken by the author with his son, and for part of the way with some friends. Incidents on the trip lead to discussions about why we think the way we do, especially the division in thought between technological and artistic thinking (or "classical" and "romantic" reason, as Pirsig terms it).

The book intersperses vignettes from the trip with longer pieces, "chatauqua", where Pirsig expounds on his theories. We learn that Pirsig has received shock treatment while at a mental institution, and prior to his incarceration he was an academic who thought he had stumbled upon a new way of looking at the World. His concept, of "quality", an indefinable thing that stood in between and object or activity and human knowledge or use of it, drives him to insanity.

The concept of "quality" drives the good in the World, from mechanics who care about their work to builders of walls in Korea. Pirsig sees much of the ills of the modern World are down to a lack of "quality" in what is done or made. The other point that Pirsig is at pains to make, and uses his friends as examples of, is that the divide between "classical" and "romantic" reason is an artificial one. Just as there is technical skill in a great work of art, so there are elements of art in building or maintaining bikes, for example.

The final section of the work describes Pirsig's earlier self spending time at the University of Chicago, where he learns that many of his ideas were espoused by the diaspora of Ancient Greek Philosophers, and he sees that the difference between Aristotle and Plato's view of the World contains the essence of his own ideas.

Along the way, Pirsig does provide some genuinely useful tips on motorcycle maintenance, showing how the right attitude can change a painful experience into a learning one.

This book was a million-seller on its release, with the structure of the book introducing complex issues and problems in an accessible way. The writing is workmanlike rather than scintillating, and at times Pirsig spends ten pages describing something that could be done in fewer.

The cover of the copy of this book that I have states "This book will change the way you think and feel about your life." It may have done if I had read it in my youth. In my middle-age I have found what Pirsig describes through experience.

While I did enjoy reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, for me it contained no great revelations.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Reason of Things by A.C. Grayling

The Reason of Things : Living with Philosophy by A.C. Grayling

London: Phoenix, 2003                           ISBN 9780753817131

A.C. Grayling, along with Roger Scruton, are probably the best-known English philosophers of the current day, primarily due to their willingness to engage with the mainstream, via mass media and trade publishing. The Reason of Things is a compilation of Grayling's articles and book reviews for various English newspapers. These essays are grouped into various themed sections. Most of them are only a couple of pages long, and thus are not in-depth views of the problems discussed. For me, this was a disappointing book to read.

I was amazed to find within these pages so much generalization where more specificity was required, and some entrenched views that Grayling would do well to re-visit or temper. A glaring example in this collection is Grayling's antipathy to organized religion. He takes every chance to expose the harm that religion has done through human history, but never acknowledges the good done in the name of God by countless thousands over millennia. He is quick to blame religion for war, when politics is just as guilty. In one essay he condemns religion as "worse than an irrelevance" because its strictures of giving to the poor and selflessness are so much against human nature. Yet in many other essays in this book Grayling praises the Stoics and the Ancient Greek search for the good life, which to me seems to be the same thing that he excoriates when it is put forward in the name of God. It suggests to me that Grayling's views on religion betray his feelings rather than logical thought. I wonder how much Grayling has read the religious philosophers such as Augustine and the other Church Fathers, as there is much in them that he would agree with, given what he praises in this book.

Many of the essays in this book are fairly straightforward and unobjectionable in content; well written to fit into a Saturday supplement. The best by far are the final few, which delve into literature and the practice of philosophy itself. Grayling's essay on the art of the essay serves to remind the reader not to neglect the genre, as it is often where the most thoughtful writing can be found. The importance of intelligent reviewing is emphasised in another of the final essays.

The essay "Becoming Philosophical" is an insight into how Grayling became the person he is, and again is a well written piece.

I purchased this book second-hand while on a trip with my family. The short essays - bite-sized bits of thought - make it a perfect travel book. I just wish it had a bit more depth.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Quicksilver by Nicolas Rothwell

Quicksilver by Nicolas Rothwell

Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2016        ISBN  9781925355574

Nicolas Rothwell has been an intriguing and delicate force in the literary world of Australia for quite some time now - as a journalist he has provided us with long-form articles and essays that lead us to re-think our relationship with the country and its indigenous inhabitants, and to perhaps question things we think we know. Quicksilver continues that project.

Rothwell spent his childhood in Europe and could certainly be categorized as a sophisticate in his knowledge of European literature and art. He has also spent many years living and and travelling through the remote North and West of Australia, and spending time with the indigenous inhabitants of the land.

Quicksilver is a grouping of six essays that investigate the colliding of Europe and Australia: how Europe affected Australia, but also how Australia affected Europe. The book is also an extended study of the meaning of art and literature, whether civilization imbues such activities with added lustre, and in fact whether it is not the countryside and nature itself that is transcendent for humankind, rather than the man-made arts.

Rothwell, through his erudition and travel, has discovered some interesting links that show us man's humanity and quest for answers are similar the world over: the similarities, for example, between the Jewish millenarist group the Frankists and the Kurangara cult that flourished in the Kimberley. Both arose in response to dislocation of community, and both came to the conclusion that to discover the true meaning of life the current way of life had to be destroyed through sin. Rothwell then links this idea to the beginnings of the Desert Art movement at Papunya, where the portrayal of secret stories and rites became another way of radicially shifting Aboriginal beliefs and lifestyle.

Several of the essays are meditations on language, and how we use that to describe the country, and how the experiences of those travelling colour what they see or experience. Rothwell particularly looks at the writing of the early explorers, and how they wrestled with language and thinking from Europe to try and describe such a new and alien place. They brought with them their own prejudices and experiences: "the drama-courting Edward Eyre; the vision-haunted Charles Sturt, that schoolfellow of Lord Byron; the Camoes-translating, Sophocles-quoting Thomas Mitchell;". In the end the interior reduces all to silence.

And here we come upon one of the subjects Rothwell approaches in these writings - the constant attempt to control the Australian interior by man, and the indifference of the country to man's impingement.

As with all the points that Rothwell makes in this book, he does not directly state what he thinks. He brings together evidence, from Tolstoy to Art Brut, from Sakharov to Eric Rolls to illustrate connexions and actualities: as he writes "Rather than seeking to provide some sweeping, all-defining set of answers to these questions, my aim is to edge towards them, to move into their foothills, and look up towards their heights". That ineffable truth, the one that Rothwell has been seeking in the Centre, is, like the quicksilver of the title, always slipping away when just within reach, so he is approaching these big questions "slant-wise, stealthily,".

This is a book to get you thinking about Australia, particularly the interior, in new and strange ways. Thankfully Rothwell has signposted his journey throughout the book as to how he has got to where he is, so while there is no bibliography, there are plenty of tomes that he mentions that have now become required reading for me.

Yet another little gem of a book about Australia. Worth Reading

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Bonhoeffer an illustrated introduction by Eberhard Bethge

Bonhoeffer : an illustrated introduction in documents and photographs presented by Eberhard Bethge, translated by Rosaleen Ockenden

London: Collins, 1979             ISBN 0006252443

There has been much written about Dietrich Bonhoeffer since his death at the hands of the Nazis in 1945. Many people have looked to his surviving works, such as the Ethics, as a signpost on how to live a moral life in the modern world. His Letters and papers from prison saw him moving towards an idea of "religionless" Christianity - where the forms and rituals of the Church fade away into action in the community and a personal encounter with Christ.

The book under review deals with Bonhoeffer's theology only in its last section, with the majority of the book given over to a brief life of the man. Bethge was a close friend of Bonhoeffer and if they were both Roman Catholics rather than Lutherans I'd call this work a hagiography rather than a biography.

The things I find interesting in this book are the things that seem to get passed over - such as why Bonhoeffer chose the Church as a career, as Bethge hasn't produced much evidence as to how Bonhoeffer came to this decision. Bonhoeffer later in his short life came to support living in community in a new type of monasticism, but Bethge in this book does not elaborate on how Bonhoeffer came to this idea, or whether he looked to the Catholic tradition to develop his thoughts on monasticism. There is no mention of the Roman Catholic Church at all in this book, which I find interesting. Once the Nazis took power, the Lutheran Church was split in two, rent by the issue of being a state church, and how supporting a Nazi state could be reconciled with Christianity. The problem of working with the Nazis was one which the Roman Catholics also faced, and yet, looking at this book, it would seem that Bonhoeffer had no communication with any members of that Church.

In fact for those of us who are not Lutheran some of this book can be hard to follow, as Bethge takes for granted that a reader will have some knowledge of Lutheran theology and church governance. This may well have been the case for the readers of the original German language edition of this text, but some explanatory notes may have been helpful in this English edition.

Bonhoeffer's religious life, before the Nazis took power, looked to be one of study, writing learned tracts on obscure points of theology, and comfort. On the ascent of the Nazis, his theology took a more practical turn - he couldn't support a church that supported such a regime, and set about assisting in creating a new church. This led in turn to Bonhoeffer understanding that it would be wrong to serve the state in a military capacity, which led to him losing even more legitimacy in the eyes of some of his supporters. Eventually he came to the position that it was the right thing to do to oppose the state directly, and he became involved, via members of his family, in the plotting to overthrow Hitler, which led to his imprisonment and demise.

It was in prison where Bonhoeffer began to develop his idea of a Christianity stripped of the trappings of "religion", and to come to the realisation that it was the weakness and suffering of Christ and God that were meaningful for us in our lives today (another concept that features strongly in Roman Catholic theology). The thinking of Bonhoeffer in prison was leading to a new concept of Lutheranism, and indeed of Protestantism, but his death put an end to all that, and many of his final papers were never found.

One is left at the end of this book with a feeling of "what might have been" if Bonhoeffer had survived. His life, especially the final years, focused his thought on what living a Christian life meant, and his thinking about Christ in his last years had changed quite a bit from his early theological days, and would have tested many in the Lutheran communion after the War.

It would be interesting to read more about Bonhoeffer's relationship, if any, with Catholic theology and whether his thinking was influenced at all by that. His ideas have moved from his small circle of admirers into the wider world - helped by the proselytising of Bethge - to the extent that a former Prime Minister of Australia cited Bonhoeffer as one of his inspirations.

His life and work form a part of current Christian thinking, and this book is a useful introduction to the man and the outline of his thought.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - The Symposium by Plato

The Symposium by Plato, translated by W. Hamilton

Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1951                     (Penguin Classics Series)


Love, that most mysterious of emotions, is the theme of The Symposium. So many philosophers and religions have dealt with this subject, and it is amazing how all conclusions tend to merge. Plato, writing nearly 400 years before Christ, comes to conclusions that are not so different from those of other belief systems.

Sometimes referred to as The Dinner Party, The Symposium is constructed by Plato around the after-dinner speeches of a group of men at a dinner party, speeches they give in lieu of the usual musical entertainment that would be normal for the after-dinner drinking session. The dinner party guests include Pausanias, Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Agathon and of course Socrates. These are the main protagonists in the discussion, initiated by Agathon, on the nature of the God Love.

The discussion takes the form of each member of the symposium delivering a panygeric on Love, and what they see as the most important features and factors in the makeup of Love. Plato arranges the speeches in a way that leads the reader from the outer surface of Love (Love is noble in that it leads the Lover to show the best of themselves), through to Socrates' contribution, which goes beyond the love of fellow man, to Love being an all-encompassing emotion that can be seen in everything.

Plato leads the reader through several phases - it's hard to disagree with any of the speaker's ideas about what is great about Love, but as each speaker adds more depth, the reader's mind is opened yet more to how Love engenders all that is good in the World.

Socrates himself structures his talk as reporting on a conversation with one of his teachers, Diotima. By the time that Socrates rises to speak we have looked at how love grows, how it brings out the best in men, and how Love is the desire for beauty - at first external beauty, but then the discussion moves on to the desire for the beauty within. Socrates rises to dismiss the notion that Love is the desire for beauty, rather that it is the desire for good.

According to Diotima (and by inference Socrates and Plato) Love transcends the merely physical, it is the desire to propagate the Good, and to achieve immortality by doing so. This can be done in a physical way by producing offspring, but as a man grows in wisdom from love of physical beauty in particular to physical beauty in general, from love of another's soul in particular to love of souls in general; to love of all beauty everywhere "absolute, existing alone with itself, unique, eternal, and all other beautiful things ... partaking of it, yet in such a manner that, while they come into being and pass away, it neither undergoes any increase of diminution nor suffers any change", he has reached the ultimate goal of Man.

Alcibiades then enters the dinner party drunk, and eschews the discussion on love for a panygeric on Socrates himself. Acibiades, in the story of his failed seduction of Socrates, shows the reader that Socrates himself is someone who has reached that ultimate goal.

A short work, there is much to ponder here, as would be expected from Plato. It is interesting to compare Socrates' view of the power of love to the expressions of Christian and Buddhist writings. While Ancient Greece is very different to today, as indeed is shown in The Symposium, human thought on the big questions shows amazing consistency over time.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book review - The analects of Confucius translated by Simon Leys

The Analects of Confucius translation and notes by Simon Leys

New York: Norton, 1997                                     ISBN 9780393316995

Although it is not a religious text, in many ways The Analects of Confucius have had a similar effect on the human race as the Bible, Koran, or other holy books. It became a guide for living a moral life, and defined a society for hundreds of years. Like many other ancient texts, it has become corrupted over the years by accidental or deliberate elisions and insertions. Add to that the difficulty of deciphering the actual meanings of many of the ancient characters, and the syntax of the writing, and it seems the task of translating the work would not be a pleasurable experience.

I'm not sure how enjoyable Simon Leys (the pen name of respected Sinologist Pierre Ryckmans) found the task, but he has produced something that has, and no doubt will continue to, give pleasure to those fortunate enough to read it. Leys has approached his task with a view to make The Analects accessible to the non-expert English speaker, while still providing a strongly academic work. He explains his choice to publish under his literary pen-name rather than his real name in the following terms - "What I meant to suggest by this choice is that this is primarily a writer's translation; it is addressed not merely to fellow scholars, but first and foremost to nonspecialists - readers who simply wish to enlarge their cultural horizon but have no direct access to the original text."

With this in mind Leys has occasionally added words where needed within the translation to enable us nonspecialists to make sense of what we are reading. Sometimes the original defies even this process, where the original text may be incomplete, or corrupted with later additions. Leys' notes - which run to as many pages as The Analects themselves - scrupulously inform the reader when he has added text, and let the reader know when there are alternative readings of any particular analect. His notes and introduction also help the reader by putting the work into its cultural context, as well as providing other amusing or instructive asides into literature and history. As such, they are a wonderful text in their own right.

To The Analects themselves: so much human culture has developed from them, and they are wonderfully descriptive of the human condition, which it seems remains the same in its essentials through the ages. From the pithy " Clever talk and affected manners are seldom signs of goodness.", to the more obscure "Duke Wen of Jin was subtle but not straight; Duke Huan of Qi was straight, but not subtle.", The Analects lead the reader on a winding and occasionally repetitive road through the best and worst of human nature. Thanks to those that followed him, Confucius presaged a revolutionary change in the way the Chinese ran their states: by accepting his contention that nobility did not necessarily come to a person through birth, but through education, they created a society where intelligence and merit was a way to climb the social ladder. This idea was unheard of in most of the rest of the World at the time, and partly explains how China became such a great power by the turn of the Millennium.

In fact The Analects became so powerful that many rulers turned them into instruments of power; by emphasizing some, reinterpreting others, and suppressing yet more. In fact The Analects came to be seen by the twentieth century as reactionary, and both Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Zedong repudiated them. Leys points out in his introduction that Confucianism had become so ingrained in Chinese thought that, in an ironic twist, the Communist idea of "re-education" harks back to the Confucian idea that "errant behaviour came from a faulty understanding...if only the delinquent could be taught, and be made to perceive the mistaken nature of his actions, he would naturally amend his ways."

Unlike many other classic texts of this type, the Analects is not a long work (100 paperback pages), and the nature of the Analects themselves is such that the reader can dip in and out at almost any point. Short though some of them are, this is a work that makes the reader think - about themselves, others, and society as a whole. This translation, and its notes, is a great way into a classic work, and I highly recommend it.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Nietzsche by Gerald Abraham

Nietzsche by Gerald Abraham  (Great Lives series)

London: Duckworth, 1933


These types of books are, in their presentation at least, things of the past. Publishers produced such series for the edification of the "average" person, as almost a cheat-sheet for readers to bone up on people or a subject. They were bread-and-butter titles for publishers back in the pre-war era. The title under review is number 23 in the Duckworth "Great Lives" series - number one was Shakespeare, number two Queen Victoria....you get the picture....quite British, and quite old-school. Others to make the Duckworth list include Blake, H.M. Stanley, Robert Burns, Edward VII (!!), Nelson.....standard stuff you would think for a mid '30s English publisher. But there are some interesting ones in the list, perhaps not quite to be expected then, but seemingly normal now - Strindberg, Van Gogh and the book under review being examples.

This book is exactly what you might expect it to be a short (140p) exposition of Nietzsche's life, touching on the major events, listing his achievements, and not going too much into the nitty-gritty of his philosophy, although there is enough information here to enable a reader to get started with his works in the right way.

The book is very British, with the faint (but never explicit) feeling throughout the text that the Germans are all a dashed rum lot, with some mighty strange ideas. In fact Nietzsche is treated here as not really a philosopher at all, but a German literary stylist who was showing signs of madness before his final breakdown. Of course one must bear in mind that this book was published the year Hitler ascended to power, so the connection of Nietzsche's thought to the Nazis had not yet been exposed fully. In fact one thing Abraham does point out is that far from being Anti-Semitic, Nietzsche abhorred such views - the beginnings of the fatal influence Nietzche's sister Elisabeth had on his legacy are mapped out here in the descriptions of Nietzche's torturous relationship with her.

Abraham spends a fair proportion of the text on Nietzche's musical achievements, as well as his relationship with Wagner. This comes as no surprise given that Abraham is more noted as a musicologist than a scholar of philosophy.

As a starting point into the milieu of Nietzsche, I guess this wouldn't be bad, but there are better texts around to do that job.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Hitler's philosophers by Yvonne Sherratt

Hitler's philosophers by Yvonne Sherratt

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013                           ISBN 9780300151930

Hmmmm. This book was not at all what I was hoping it might be. I perhaps should have been warned by the following lines in the introduction "The book is written as a docudrama, bringing to life the historical era and personal dramas of the people involved. It is a work of non-fiction, carefully researched, based upon archival material, letters, photographs, paintings, verbal reports and descriptions, which have all been meticulously referenced. However, it is written in a narrative style, which aims to transport the reader to the vivid and dangerous world of 1930s Germany." Hmmmm.

While there is no doubt that 1930s Germany was vivid and dangerous, I'm not sure a book about Philosophy in Germany during that time is best served by being written as a "docudrama". No matter how meticulously referenced a work, the reader struggles to take it seriously when it contains lines such as the following - "It was a hot, humid July day in Stadelheim Prison, Munich, 1943. The drizzle that had started to fall earlier that day increased to a light rain. The caretaker cursed - warm, wet weather made his job even more irksome."  It doesn't help that the endnote that covers this passage states "The details of the caretaker are my (i.e. the author's) own reconstruction."

While this kind of writing might almost have been forgivable if the work delved in detail into the thinking and milieu of the philosophers and philosophy of Hitlerite Germany, what we are given are a series of chapters, which in true "docudrama" tradition dwell on the lives and scandals of a select few individuals, with precious little effort given over to explaining their philosophical theories.

We are also given quite a bit of what I would consider unnecessary background to Hitler and Nazi Germany - I would have thought that someone coming to a work with the title Hitler's Philosophers would already have a handle on the basics of the history of that place and time.

What we do get in the book are two sections - the first being a potted history of Hitler's intellectual formation, with a chapter on German philosophy of the 19th century, mostly to do with Kant and Schopenhauer, a chapter on minor collaborators, and a chapter each on Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger. Section two, "Hitler's opponents" gives us the following chapters - Tragedy: Walter Benjamin, Exile: Theodor Adorno, The Jewess: Hannah Arendt, The Martyr: Kurt Huber, and The Nuremberg Trials and beyond.

The book is strangely polemical in tone - the "baddies" are irretrievably bad, and the "goodies" seem to be unable to do wrong. Whilst there is no doubt that Hitler himself was irretrievably evil, I'm not sure why Sherratt feels that she has to ridicule his claims that he read Schopenhauer in the trenches. It seems probable that he did, and there is no doubt that he was an effective and brave soldier. In fact his experiences in the trenches in World War I would seem to me to be absolutely critical in the formation of his philosophy, and yet Sherratt doesn't linger on them.

The chapter on Heidegger does not focus, except in a very general way, on his philosophy. It focuses instead on his affair with Arendt, his spurning of Husserl after the Nazis came to power, and his famous rectors speech given in 1933 at Freiburg University. While all of this is interesting in a way, I would have preferred a chapter that went into detail about his thought, and about how it aided Nazism, and how Nazism filtered into his work.

Likewise with the chapters on the victims, we get very little focus on their thoughts and interactions with Nazi ideology, and more on their close calls with the Gestapo, attempts to flee Germany, and in Benjamin's and Huber's cases, their tragic deaths.

The most interesting chapter was the Nuremberg Trials and beyond - the gradual (or not so gradual in some cases) rehabilitation of those academics that served under Nazi rule, and the (mostly) continuing exclusion of the exiled Jewish cohort could be a book of its own - touched on here, and worth further reading.

Overall, a disappointing book especially as it seems that Sherratt is an expert on philosophy, having written a couple of previous books. In this case she's erred too much on the side of "docudrama".

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell