Other Interests

[Iota]

I have a book by Nietzsche

Which one?

[trbc08]

I have a couple, actually... "The Basic Writings of Nietzsche," which is entirely translated by the infamous Walter Kaufmann. Of that I'm currently reading "Beyond Good and Evil." I also have a Cambridge translation and edition of "Human, All Too Human."

[Iota]

I'm afraid I haven't read any of them yet. I've read "the Antichrist" and the first few chapters of "Thus spoke Zarathustra" (I haven't gotten around to read on yet. I'm so busy...). Untranslated, of course.

[trbc08]

You're a lucky man. I've been lamenting that I didn't pay more attention in French class, because I want to read some verse by Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire that isn't some hokey translation. English is such a disgusting language, it seems. Of course, some others, poets, etc. can make it swallowable.

[Iota]

I find english much more beauteous than German (let alone French) in every way. I was actually pretty good in French but I don't think that my skills answer the purpose of reading philosophical texts.

[CMB1888]

English is such a disgusting language, it seems.

I disagree with you so much on this one. I love the free-forming mess that's English. I've read some excellent books about its history that have left me excited to speak a language that reflects the changing communities that have spoken it - the invasions and the conquered nations (hello - Irish here!)

[trbc08]

I think I could understand being more of an Anglophile if I lived in Europe. There have been some great English writers (two of my favorites being Irish, Wilde and Yeats). I suppose I'm speaking from the perspective of a culturally stunted American, which many of us (Americans) are.

It'd be nice to read philosophical texts in their original language... Some of them are difficult enough to read in your native language, though, at times. Nietzsche is a notable exception.

[Iota]

Yep. I've just read the introduction to Hegel's Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences (of course in German again) and I have to say that's some close to the bone shit.

[trbc08]

I have a pdf of Hegel's Philosophy of the Right on my PC... And I have had it for a while, though I haven't started it. I hate reading "books" on the PC, for some reason.

[Iota]

Yeah, same here. I have a pdf of Schopenhauers The World as Will and Representation. I seriously wanted to read it (I actually did read 3 pages) but I just can't force myself to read it.