![Davood Gozli](/img/default-banner.jpg)
- Видео 433
- Просмотров 265 145
Davood Gozli
Канада
Добавлен 17 июн 2013
Reflections, book reviews, and occasional interviews related to various topics in psychology, philosophy, or literature. I host a weekly reading group that meets online on Saturdays at 12:00pm ET.
Reading Group Update: August to December 2024
Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Mentioned in the video:
- Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
- Understanding Poststructuralism by James Williams
- Why Philosophize? by Jean-François Lyotard
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- Capitalism and the Death Drive by Byung-Chul Han
Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Mentioned in the video:
- Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
- Understanding Poststructuralism by James Williams
- Why Philosophize? by Jean-François Lyotard
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- Capitalism and the Death Drive by Byung-Chul Han
Просмотров: 214
Видео
Why Literature? Or, My Obsession with Style
Просмотров 31628 дней назад
Mentioned in the video: - Better Living Through Criticism by A. O. Scott - Scenes from Clerical Life by George Eliot - Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett - What Is Literature? by Jean-Paul Sartre - Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory by Peter Barry - The Bee Sting by Paul Murray - The Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard - The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan K...
Dialogue with @RahulSam | Part 2. "It's Not About You"
Просмотров 1,7 тыс.Месяц назад
Part 2 of a conversation with Rahul Samaranayake about a range of topics from being human, cognitive science, philosophy, culture, and psychoanalytic insights into culture. Listen to Part 1: ruclips.net/video/l7AzEGf-83A/видео.html Raul's website: rahulsam.me/236fcc61fb60449192355f95b3a493d0 Rahul on RUclips: @RahulSam - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com...
Dialogue with @RahulSam | Part 1. "Podcasting Isn't the Point"
Просмотров 214Месяц назад
Part 1 of a conversation with Rahul Samaranayake about a range of topics from podcasting, interview prep work, philosophy, culture, and psychoanalytic insights into culture. Raul's website: rahulsam.me/236fcc61fb60449192355f95b3a493d0 Rahul on RUclips: @RahulSam Mentioned in the video: - Interview with Simon Critchley ruclips.net/video/LniPqDtjHoI/видео.htmlsi=CZFg8OZeWFSsdlNW - Interviews with...
Topology of Violence by Byung-Chul Han | Book Discussion
Просмотров 598Месяц назад
Discussing and reading from 'Topology of Violence' by Byung-Chul Han, translated by Amanda DeMarco. MIT Press, 2018. - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
The Expulsion of the Other by Byung-Chul Han | Book Discussion
Просмотров 658Месяц назад
Discussing and reading from 'The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication Today' by Byung-Chul Han, translated by Wieland Hoban. Polity, 2018. - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Phenomenological Psychology | Book Discussion
Просмотров 3142 месяца назад
Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli The book being introduced is titled 'Phenomenological Psychology as Rigorous Science' by Alexander Nikolai Wendt (2024). doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58638-5 A.N. Wendt, PhD, currently works at the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg. His areas of focuses include psycho...
Discussing Albert Camus: Jonas, or the Artist at Work | Short Story
Просмотров 1653 месяца назад
Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
'The Guest' (L'Hôte) by Albert Camus | Exile & the Kingdom | Excerpt from Discussion
Просмотров 3273 месяца назад
From group discussion on May 25, 2024. This is Part Four in a series based on the collection of short stories, Exile and the Kingdom, by Albert Camus. This discussion was devoted to the short story, The Guest. #AlbertCamus #ShortStories #Existentialism - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
'Far from the Madding Crowd' by Thomas Hardy - Book Discussion
Просмотров 1293 месяца назад
Originally posted on August 23, 2023. Reflecting on Thomas Hardy's novel, Far from the Madding Crowd. - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Discussing Albert Camus: "The Renegade" in Exile and the Kingdom
Просмотров 1924 месяца назад
Excerpt from a group discussion based on a short story by Albert Camus, titled 'The Renegade, or a Confused Mind,' from the collection 'Exile and the Kingdom' (L'Exil et le Royaume). - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Discussing Albert Camus: "The Adulterous Woman" in Exile and the Kingdom
Просмотров 2904 месяца назад
Excerpt from a group discussion based on a short story by Albert Camus, titled 'The Adulterous Woman' (La Femme adultère), from the collection 'Exile and the Kingdom' (L'Exil et le Royaume). - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
Better Living through Criticism | Ratatouille | Art, Pleasure, A.O. Scott
Просмотров 3104 месяца назад
Excerpt from a group discussion on April 27, 2024, based on A.O. Scott's book, 'Better Living through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth' Also mentioned: Ratatouille (2007 movie) and two of its characters Anton Ego and Remy. This movie is discussed in the final chapter of Scott's book. - Reading Group: dgozli.com/reading-group-schedule/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/dgozli
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray | Book Review & Discussion
Просмотров 1,5 тыс.5 месяцев назад
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray | Book Review & Discussion
Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase (Analysis) BOOK REVIEW
Просмотров 9665 месяцев назад
Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase (Analysis) BOOK REVIEW
Cultivating Wonder: Interview with Prof. Steven Knepper
Просмотров 2465 месяцев назад
Cultivating Wonder: Interview with Prof. Steven Knepper
On (Meta)Philosophy: Interview with Dr. Neil Gascoigne
Просмотров 2206 месяцев назад
On (Meta)Philosophy: Interview with Dr. Neil Gascoigne
Review of 'Transland: Consent, Kink, & Pleasure' by Mx. Sly
Просмотров 2196 месяцев назад
Review of 'Transland: Consent, Kink, & Pleasure' by Mx. Sly
The Embodied Philosopher: Interview with Konrad Werner
Просмотров 2586 месяцев назад
The Embodied Philosopher: Interview with Konrad Werner
On Richard Rorty: Interview with Chris Voparil
Просмотров 6726 месяцев назад
On Richard Rorty: Interview with Chris Voparil
Minds, Worlds, & Non-duality: Interview with Sebastjan Vörös
Просмотров 4406 месяцев назад
Minds, Worlds, & Non-duality: Interview with Sebastjan Vörös
Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese by Byung-Chul Han | Book Review
Просмотров 5357 месяцев назад
Shanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese by Byung-Chul Han | Book Review
The Scent of Time by Byung Chul-Han
Просмотров 2,5 тыс.7 месяцев назад
The Scent of Time by Byung Chul-Han
'Creative Schools' by Ken Robinson | Book Review
Просмотров 2197 месяцев назад
'Creative Schools' by Ken Robinson | Book Review
Enactivism: Utopian & Scientific | Interview with Russell Meyer and Nick Brancazio
Просмотров 1527 месяцев назад
Enactivism: Utopian & Scientific | Interview with Russell Meyer and Nick Brancazio
Richard Rorty on Jacques Derrida, Deconstruction & Pragmatism
Просмотров 5038 месяцев назад
Richard Rorty on Jacques Derrida, Deconstruction & Pragmatism
Education & Community: Interview with Andi Sciacca
Просмотров 1058 месяцев назад
Education & Community: Interview with Andi Sciacca
Great analysis. I've read all of his books but always go back to these first two. While, not as polished as the others, there is something honest, personal and 'magical' about these two. Your analysis brought to the surface my suspicion of the Rat being the protagonist either as himself hiding himself or metaphorically, but I was not brave enough to acknowledge it. While his later books are great, full of strange things, I feel in these two he says more with less and leaves me with that 'Murakami feeling' all the better.
Thank you, James! It’s great to hear from readers who have spent more time with Murakami than myself. After reading the first 6 novels and a few short stories here and there, I just couldn’t stay with him.
@@DavoodGozli Totally agree. After the fame of NW, his work became weak. I would suggest Windup bird if you ever do want to read where he picked up again. IQ84? Don't bother. And Kafka, while not his strongest, is a nice tie in to End of the world, which in my mind was one of his best. I am rea reading Pinball as we speak due to your other review I found fascinating and thought provoking. Thanks for your insights!
@@jamesreynolds6195 my pleasure, thank you! I’d also appreciate your quick thoughts on Sputnik Sweetheart, if you have read it-I’m curious about that one, too. And i will keep the Windup Bird’s Chronicles in mind.
@@DavoodGozli It's been years. I never went back to re read it and cannot remember it much if that's a gauge. I think it struck me much like Dance did, which I also found forgettable. I could be totally wrong, but it seemed pulpish compared to Wind/Pinball/Wonderland. Look forward to other reviews, (even Sputnik - who knows I pby missed the point!). Thanks again for your reviews!
I'd actually planned to read this book , and now im even more intrested .thanks Mr.Gozli 💚
Thanks - hope you enjoy the book!
Thanks so much for your insights and review!
My pleasure-thanks for listening and for your comment!
I absolutely took your point that the events of the book felt contrived, especially towards the end. When you have spent 500 pages meticulously detailing the inner world of these characters, the abrupt shift to external events felt melodramatic to me (a storm, being lost, a weapon - really?) . I think the direction was absolutely right but it suddenly felt like I was reading a book driven by plot rather than character. For me, this let down the incredible groundwork that Murray put in…
Thank you 12:16
Thanks!😊
Thank you for your support!
You have gained a new follower
I’m honoured-thank you.
What is good for one is good for all
🎉
Thanks! Love your username
Jones Kimberly Smith Mark Clark Frank
Look forward to listen to this
checked out after he said he didn't find most people interesting.
Fair enough, my friend. I say things like that on occasion ... Thanks for the reminder.
Davood, how do you come up with the selected readings for the reading group?
I put a lot of thought into it. Discuss it with others in the group. Consider various constraints like relevance, significance, and accessibility. We are a generalist group of readers and it’s difficult to get it right, though it happens on occasion.
@@DavoodGozli I am sad to hear that you won't be making as much videos as you used to is everything alright or you just busy with work? Also maybe we can do a live RUclips I would Love to pick you your brain about your new obsession Byung Chul Han!
@TheYoungIdealist Everything is going well, my friend. I’m just busy. Looking forward to catching up with the great work you’ve been doing on your channel. Hope all is well with you.
I re-read 'Capitalism and the Death Drive' the other day. I enjoyed it a lot more this time. I think it could serve as a kind of introduction to Han. Some of the essays seem to be the basis of his longer books.
I’m glad to read this comment from you, because that’s the intention behind selecting this book.
New subscriber here. I absolutely love this video, just came across it because of all the movie “drama”. So glad that this video, of such quality, was brought to my attention, in all this online mess. I wanted a decent, intelligent review of the book because I do not intend to waste my time reading it. I had a hunch that such a complex issue of generational trauma and abuse simply cannot be presented in a constructive and genuinely transformative way by this author. Still, I was afraid I might be too much of a snub… Thank you for this! I also enjoyed reading the comment section and your replies there. I look forward to more of your content ☺️
Thanks a lot, Carina! I appreciate your kind words. I am glad to have been “at the right place at the right time” (reading and reviewing this book) to be connected with such thoughtful fellow readers. I didn’t have the stamina to continue reading the NYT’s bestselling works of fiction, but for the few that I did I tried my best to treat them in the same way I treat any other book-seriously and fairly.
Thanks Davood for the update. The reading group rocks and the community vibe is so cool. The discussions are stimulating and challenging, but not in stuffy, pretentious ways.
Thanks a lot for the lovely testimonial, Patrick! I appreciate it. Your presence and participation greatly enhances our discussions.
I love how obsessed-or would it be better if I say deeply interested-you are in Byung-Chul Han. Keep up with the good work ❤. Many thanks.
Thank you! ;-)
Thank you🌲
I found you through your “It Ends With Us” review. I never read it, so I was looking for someone with a fair perspective. I was impressed by your tone through the entire video, because although you said you wouldn’t recommend it, you didn’t seem to come from a malicious place. That alone made me think “This guy genuinely cares about the craft of literature.” I clicked on your channel where I found this video, and it confirmed my suspicions! As for my own answer to “Why literature?” I write myself (almost done with the first draft of my book, woohoo!) and I would describe my passion for writing as a passion for the human heart. To articulate the growth a soul goes through in a story is immensely fulfilling, because to me, writing (or reading) is an exercise in empathy. To me, literature is a love letter to the highs and lows in life. Its power to reach its reader and cradle their emotions has always impressed me beyond words. That’s why I committed myself to learning how to wield that power. I also loved your talk on style. Of course, style can be defined in a multitude of ways, and one way I define it is by attitude. How an author talks about their writing, their book, and its readers, it’s very telling how they went about their work. It will bleed into how much care they carried when handling their harder topics, or how much empathy they show to characters stuck in whatever circumstance. I hope I didn’t misinterpret the question, but that would be my answer! I very much enjoy your easy-going cadence, and I’ll certainly look into other videos!
Thank you for your beautiful and sympathetic comment! I am so glad to hear my videos are viewed by such thoughtful individuals who have a self-conscious (artful) relationship with language, experience, and thought. Let me know once your book is published and good luck with the rest of the process.
Thank you☀🌲
Thank you too!
I really enjoyed watching this video. You've made some crucial points about the importance of literature by sharing your reading experiences and discussing how to build a healthy relationship with this literary world. I’ve come across situations where the idea that “literature answers questions by showing” really rings true. I often find myself turning to literary sources to make sense of things. Recently I had a discussion with my cousin about why some societies or groups accept injustices and inequities as if they’re enjoying it. My cousin pointed out how Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot illustrates this accurately. The character Myshkin, who embodies honesty and transparency, is labeled as an ‘idiot’ by the society around him, while the rest of the society, steeped in its flaws, believes it’s on the right path. People who were listening to our conversation were not literature lovers, but this example was good/simple enough for them to understand some aspects of these societies.(Maybe you already have a video on that 🤔 ) Thanks again for sharing your thoughts with us!
Thank you very much, Sarwa! I appreciate your input and the thought on The Idiot (which I haven’t read yet, but would like to). Something else that I appreciate about your comment is the note about discussing literature with others-bringing it into the medium of conversation-and the possible consequences of that. That’s probably why the idea of book clubs appeals to us, because they can add another layer to our experience of the texts. Hope you’re well.
Thank you, we don’t *teach* but we do learn. Receptionists are able to receive with kindness, not force. The skill of a receptionist is understated. Perhaps we don’t teach receptionists, but demand it? A collection of references is not a quality of understanding. Understanding translates from the heart, it is not robotic. Survival has not been interested in surviving, but existing within a system of confusion and ambiguity. To be tested, is to be conditioned to the ‘appropriate’ not the ‘wild’. With lecture, there is little conversation. Converse argument and the words used. Journalism is an art of no conclusions, the reader has an opportunity of differences. (Individualism is the curse) So far in meeting with terror, is to meet an author with little to no answers or memory of their writings. The world is definitely abstractions from the effort to escape gravity, rather than to just settle for its beauty. I’ll continue to argue ‘fittedness’ is a foundational word sped up for an economy of ‘fitness’. Those who wrote the dictionary, dictated the future we are mired in. Knowledge is knowing where to find it, not to store it.
Thank you for writing! Your notes about knowledge, openness, and receptiveness are important. It's interesting how the task of reception is outsourced and externalized-The main contact person doesn't receive directly. "Reception" becomes another job, and whoever is doing that does not really fulfill the main point of the meeting.
@@DavoodGozli yes, my thoughts are that in a group of three, reception is at an optimal level, despite the ‘world of differences’. I can only say that as a practice, it works, even if the third appears unintentionally distracted if things go into lecture modality. Conversation goes ‘let me stop you right there, I am not sure I understand, politeness goes ‘I understand everything’ and it’s good enough to be in the scroll. Of company.
Why literature? As a young neurodivergent person, how could I have had the context for understanding living in my head. The easy answer is, I didn't like being bullied by my brother... lol. 😊
Thank you for your answer. It's strange how literature opens up that space where the peripheral, ignored parts of our experiences-as individuals and collectives-can become visible, examined, and liberated from. Bullying, being bullied, is indeed a recurrent theme in literature. Giving it voice and visibility can be a first step in (hopefully) being free from it and discovering the hidden self that can exist in that freedom.
1001 Arabian nights... does it present a possible path to infinity? Hmm. 😊 The frame story.
Concerning rhetoric... Chuck Palahniuk [Beautiful monsters]
Jorge Luis Borges The garden of forking paths.
Authors I enjoy. John Grisham Michael Crichton
Thank you for your comments and for sharing the names. I enjoy the short stories of Borges, though I haven't read anything by Palahniuk, Grisham, or Crichton.
It might be more of an exercise in style. Popular novels are that way for a reason.
Hello, I am a big fan and listen to you often. I don't want to contrdict what you said on the topic, but the lady saying that she wrote the book for dummies need some appreciation, because today's dummies are tomorrow's better able pepole because they read her book, which aram them to understand more complicated ideas.❤
I'm very happy you expressed your disagreement. We wouldn't learn without criticism and exploring our disagreements. I think there are different ways a person can write for a general, non-specialist audiences. There is definitely a way to do so without condescending to the audience, and believing that they will always remain in that status. What you allude to is a faith in human growth, which I think influences the work of a writer in positive ways. Also, a minor note: Quite interestingly, you spelled "arm" as "aram", which in my language (and several other languages) means "calming" and "comforting" the readers. That might a task of a writer who addresses a generalist audience, too. Thanks for writing and for your kind remarks.
@@DavoodGozli Oh my God! You not only read my comment, but replied to it as well. You have no idea how much that means to me. The only intellectual person in my life that took the time to connect with me. I am over the moon right now. I misspelled arm😂 and I am so happy that I did, because.... My name is Lily living in the States originally from Ethiopia.
That’s very kind of you, Lily! It’s a pleasure to meet you. The reason I make videos for RUclips is to connect with others and hear from them (i.e., you). I want to be less like an “intellectual” and more like a “social.” Thanks for replying.
I like your genuine and unshowy presentation, a nice antidote to the OTT style of many RUclipsrs. Thanks!
Thank you! I appreciate that.
Han is criminally underrated. Another thing: one accumulates information and data but not wisdom. Other people’s earned wisdom doesn’t suffice for our own.
I was reading The Agony of Eros this afternoon and I had to pause. I said to myself, this man is living in another dimension.
@@abdul_muhsin97 That’s a good one. What was a key takeaway?
"Our contemporary culture of constant comparison (Ver-Gleichen) leaves no room for the negativity of what is atopos. We are constantly comparing one thing to another, thereby flattening them into the Same, precisely because we no longer experience the atopia of the Other." I had to spend 10-15 minutes deciphering what Han was trying to say. When I did, it was quite poetic.
very informational..thank you
You are very welcome!
I love contemporary romance, my reading tastes are over the place. From fantasy to non fiction, to mystery and of course some romance. There are a lot of book or literary snobs and a guilty pleasure of mine is easy reads that I can read in a day of a spicy love story. I’ll start what I liked, i like that Colleen shows that inner turmoil of victim blaming and how it could happen to anyone to get caught up in this situation. Without giving spoilers she was in a situation she had strong feelings about and then found herself in it. The part I don’t like is the unrealistic nature of this serious topic, also by categorizing these books as romance. I do not like how popular books romanize toxic men and relationships. That’s a pet peeve of mine and it’s everywhere in contemporary romance. I have lived through an abusive relationship and this just seemed unrealistic to me. The second book is worse. 😂
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I think I am in general agreement with your points about the book.
the badphilosophy to badscience pipeline is real
Absolutely! The active, ongoing repression of philosophy by bad science might also be a real thing.
I think pragmatism describes me better than anything else I have ever read.
To your point concerning philosophers... what if before modernity, some people with autism were just called philosophers? It really makes you wonder. What if the driving force behind language evolution was the insights garnered by those who felt outside of the nuclear social order, and thus constructed their own explanations for things. Not to say that they were always right...
@@Robert_McGarry_Poems Very interesting point. Hopefully the philosophical insights could stand on their own merit, and be defended regardless of the means by which they were achieved (biological anomaly, sociological contingencies, psychological conditions). I agree with your general sentiment regarding the center/periphery distinction and the general idea that generative insights come from the periphery of the social order.
I fought wild fire for years. I would say that you both need to broadcast and build rapport. The morning weather briefing and the after action review, as minimally involved as they might have been, were probably two of the most important aspects of grounding a routine. That automatically makes it easier for people to buy in on their own terms.
I had the pleasure of working with international exchange fire crews from Australia once. They were trained to walk on flat ground forever. In fact, they have soft bodied flat bottomed boots, no heel. Here, in Oregon, we are trained to hike up and down the cascades and rockies. But generally, don't go very far. Our boots are very rigid and have at least an inch of heel. Fire still burns the same way. Thanks for humoring me. P.S. it just so happens that a New Zealand crew was there at the same time... that was fun to watch.
Came here from a random comment (that had confused Foucault with Vico) on OG Rose's channel, stayed for the poetic logic. Great discussion thank you
Thanks for watching and for your wonderful comment! :)
interesting conversation, thank you for sharing it. Beginner-mindset would be great to have - I think why people do not really dare to show beginner mindset these days is because we have to always show how much we know and how much we have achieved..at least this is what I have experienced when it comes to job searching. Everywhere we have to prove what we have already achieved and it is exhausting and affects the psyche a lot.
Thanks for listening! I think you’re right. This theme is especially picked up in Harry Frankfurt’s short and sweet book “On Bullshit.” I hope I can live up to the idea of the beginner’s mindset.
I like people who like thinking.
I wonder, is the gaze instilled in us or natural?
30:20 The meta host. The self-aware emboldener of the subject. Genius observation, it's not just for journalists.
I think the capacity to develop a sense for the gaze is probably natural in us, but the particular form it takes is probably a process of inculturation, which is why the feeling and qualities of the gaze is different in different people.
@@Robert_McGarry_Poems Thanks for listening :)
@@DavoodGozli Curiosity must be one of them...
Great talk guys, looking forward to Part 2!
Thanks a lot, Cadell!
Thanks for having me on, Davood. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The pleasure is all mine, Rahul! Looking forward to talking with you again.
Wonderful. 😊
Why this surge of interest by quite a few here on RUclips for this 1950's gay novel ? Would it be read if Baldwin had written it from Giovanni's point of view and a purely gay point of view ? I doubt it. The room in question is after all Giovanni's place of sexual gay pleasure, and symbolically at the end his death cell. Like Camus's ' The Outsider ' it would have been tougher to read while awaiting the death penalty. In the 1950's gay novels were vilified and some no doubt unpublished. Even this book of destructive bisexuality was under threat.
Thanks for your comment and for raising an interesting question. Could it be that a sustained interest in the novel is accompanied by a surge of RUclips participation in book discussions? I'm not sure. My introduction to this book was through Azar Nafisi's The Republic of Imagination, in which the final chapter is devoted to Baldwin.
Novel explores the possibilities of existence...
Every time I finish a Murakami novel, I end up looking it up on youtube as a sort of coping mechanism. Great prose throughout, but I'm always left feeling frustrated by the end. Now that you mention it, it might be partially due to the way he writes protagonists. I remember having a visceral reaction like never before, when I first read Camus' The Stranger. For some reason I'm deeply repulsed by descriptions of this total apathy towards death, sex, the self and the world at large.
That's an excellent comparison with The Stranger. I think Camus grew out of that apathy in later works, perhaps as a result of his engagement with politics and international relations. If you read, for example, his collection of short stories (Exile and the Kingdom) you will find characters that are intensely moved with passion and a sense of meaning.
I wonder instead of choosing to base our reading on the narrator's action what if we base it on what he says to us. Privileging his dialogues about his desire. What if he really wanted to be with that person instead of the story. Now he is just left with a sad story. I relate to him a lot and maybe that's why I might be projecting my desire onto the text.🤣 Anyways, thank you for introducing Murakami's writing to me. This is my first time reading anything by him.
Yes, we can certainly take the narrator at his words. But doing so raises a lot of questions for some readers (myself included) which is why we might be inclined to consider the deeper layers of his thoughts, actions, or even his unconscious desire. Regardless, all we have is still the words on the page… the rest is our own play, our choices and speculations. For my part I don’t take my own interpretations too seriously, while at the same time (to the extent that I take them seriously) I try to be responsible for them, and not put it all on Murakami. Thanks for your comment! :)
@@DavoodGozli I agree with everything you said here Dr. Davood. Thank you for replying back to me! Cheers!
I enjoyed your talk. I definitely found it difficult to understand a lot of the things he was saying, but after this video the pieces really fell into place.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Interested in this book now. Thanks for reviewing. Will see if I can check it out. I had read before how the history of weapons keep increasing the distance from perpetrators to victims. It would have started with our fists to rocks to spears to arrows to gunpowder, missiles, now biological. IMHO it makes sense it would increase tribalism.
@@atxmaps thanks for your comment! You’re extending the topic in a very interesting dimension, not necessarily what Han covers in the book but relevant. Namely the possibility of technowarfare decreasing actual encounter with the enemy, and helping the construction of tribalist caricatures.
Criticism is not constructive and positive in my eyes because it focuses on the negative and past with no solution. Feedback is positive and focuses on the future. It teaches how to improve and get better without being scared to fail. EX: if i said you are a terrible writer, that is criticism because you are attacking the person and there is no solution to solve a problem. Hete is feedback. EX: I think you should add more commas and periods to separate each sentence and make the paper fluent. It provides a solution to solve a dilemma. Criticism is not constructive to me while i think feedback is. No disrespect, nothing you say will change my mind and nothing i say will change my mind. I dont think you will truly understand that criticism is not constructive and that is ok. We can agree to disagree.
We have different definitions of criticism - thanks for your comment.
I read him in gs and had totally different ideas, that he proved human nature and showed history was cyclical [which I knew from studying art history which gives the best picture of the zeitgeist] and that mahn is the conceptual center of all things. My G-d, hero, man view was far more optimistic in that man increasingly gained G-dly faculties and that thought followed a similar pattern from poetry to symbol to concept. My major professor was a noted thinker who was into Vico and Pragmatism above all else and the entire pattern of all great thought is the messianic role which the intellectual alone can create and which Vico champions in the heroic mind.
@@ALTHEGREAT101 thanks for listening and for your lovely comment. I relate to your note on optimism and the youthful reading of text that is tacitly formed (directed) by an optimism that of which one becomes aware only years later. But I hope optimism, and even heroism, itself can go through transformations (through a poetics of optimism) without being totally lost. All the best from Toronto.
a very fun listen, my second time
For academics, violence is invisible and nebulous. Because academics do not, generally speaking, experience actual violence. When they do, they cannot sustain acedemia.
That’s a very interesting statement, especially in light of what Han discusses in “What Is Power?” We might be tempted to generalize your statement about academics, and extend it to anyone who identifies strongly with their organization or institution. They don’t experience power as violence, but simply as mediated action.
In attempting to validate the ability to reason and justify moral intuition in the examples presented by Haidt, this content provider misses the crucial point. It is not that they cannot be rationalized; it is that there is validity in moral intuition without moral reasoning.
I don’t disagree with you.
Hello. I always enjoy your tender style, and your thoughtful and fresh analysis. I have read several of Han's books over the past year or two, I like his work a lot. I was thinking of buying this as I feel a bit like I might have been 'beating myself up'; perhaps it will help? You mentioned the translator briefly at the beginning, but you didn't say whether you thought it was a good translation or not. Do you have any thoughts about that? All the books I've read by Han were translated by other people. Thanks : )
Thank you for your kind note and observations. The translation of this work was good, but perhaps not as energetic as the ones done by Erik Butler or Wieland Hoban. If you tell me which books you have already read by Han I could better respond with regard to recommending this book. Based on your description, I am also inclined to suggest Alice Miller’s work (The Drama of the Gifted Child), which impacted me more deeply than Han’s work on the topic of aggression to oneself.
@@DavoodGozli Thanks. I've read 'Agony of Eros', 'Saving Beauty', 'Transparency Society', 'Expulsion of the Other', 'Crisis of Narration', 'Philosophy of Zen', 'Absence', 'Shanzai', 'Vita Contempletiva', 'Scent of Time', 'Palliative Society', 'Capitalism and the Death Drive', and most recently 'What is Power'. Ouf! So kind of a obsession I guess more than merely liking his work... Probably I am better off re-reading some of them, which why I have been hesitating over 'Topology of Violence', but something about it just looks appealing for some reason. Probably it's just the orange cover! ... That Alice Miller one does look really good. Thanks for the recommendation. Perhaps you can re-view it (or already have?). Or did you ever consider to re-view some of the other books in the 'Untimely Meditations' series. I never read any, but some of them look interesting : )
Wow! You have read a lot. If it’s Han’s own ideas that motivate your continued reading, then I suspect you won’t encounter much new material in Topology of Violence. But I may be wrong. Sometimes an old idea comes to life when it is encountered in a new context or within a different discussion. I might review Alice Miller’s book(s) later-it might come across as self-helpy. There are too many ideas when it comes to this RUclips channel, but there isn’t much time to execute them.
@@DavoodGozli It must be hard, but you are doing great, I like your channel a lot. Whatever you decide to do, I am sure your thoughts will be interesting. Yes, true sometimes it can help to read things in slightly different context. I think Han's idea about too much positivity and how it can lead us to depression and attacking ourselves is an interesting one; similar perhaps to the Lacanian/Zizekian idea that the superego tortures us with the imperative to 'Enjoy!'. It seems to explain a lot. It seems almost impossible to get out of that lived reality though. Based on what you have said in video and comments, I imagine that there is not too much different in the Topology of Violence, that is not already in Transparency/Palliative Society and Expulsion of the Other. But I might grab it anyway, I'll see : )
In thinking about your concern about “getting out,” I am reminded of what Alice Miller writes. She says we need to witnesses in our path to healing… one is a therapist and the other is the body. I agree with her regarding the body, though I think the therapist may be substituted by a friend or a social circle.