I read a lot of the canonical figures in continental philosophy on my own time, some with reading groups, others without. It was difficult and took a lot of work. Sometimes I understood most of what they had written, other times very little. If you don't test the limits and push yourself you'll never improve.
Exactly. Also good on you for reading the actual texts. I know many people read analysis of the texts but don’t go near the original material. It demands so much focus, but you’ve gotta stretch the mind!
It's always better to read the primary source if you have the time and energy to do so. Secondary literature is okay, but more as a compliment. I read two reader's guides alongside Spinoza's Ethics.
Well you've either read it or you haven't. Just because it's abstruse doesn't make it any different from reading any other book. If you haven't read it, you've nothing to discuss. In what way do you improve by attempting Derrida, D&G, Lyotard, etc? Many examples not only of them improving on their early work but disowning it all together.
I'm aware people here have read "Continental Philosophy" (deconstruction and postmodernism), it's the kudos for doing so versus... A reader? A guide? Hardly moral failings unless you're buttonholing someone about the Body Without Organs but talking out of your rhizome.
Yes to all of this. This is why I try to read texts that I don’t fully understand on the first read. With Toni Morrison’s writing, I feel like I have to double-take when reading her works, but that isn’t exactly a moral failing. Some things just need more attention than others, and yes, it’ll piss you off so much the first few times.
Agreed — even with fiction, I started a Roberto Bolaño novel a month ago and his style is not what I’m used to, so I put it down. But now I’m like girl, just bc you’re not used it, it doesn’t mean you can’t read it! Like where’d I get that dumb idea from?
I’m challenging myself to read more nonfiction this year. I tend to gravitate towards fiction that lets me escape reality, and unfortunately escapism doesn’t do much in terms of helping to make the world better. That being said, I’ve read 26 books this year and only 3 have been nonfiction 😅
Editing to add that I’d love recommendations for nonfiction reads!
I need to read more fiction! I don’t read nearly enough — closest I get to narrative work is memoir. They work totally dif sides of your brains and both are important. Will come back to you abt nonfiction recs, but would love some fiction ones!!
Due to the decline in my reading comprehension, from a mixture of dry eye disease, chronic fatigue, other eye issues, and then, of course the deleterious effect of social media, I have arrived at a state where reading dense philosophy or literary fiction is only possible during the daytime and far more difficult than it used to be. At times I can be unnecessarily hard on myself, knowing that I could have finished the same book in less than half the time 5 years ago.
That being said, this article is a good reminder to have patience with yourself and to keep making an effort to stretch the mind. If you stop trying, then the brain becomes lost.
Thank you! 💜 yes, pls don’t be so hard on yourself. I do the same tho — when I was a kid; my reading habits were worlds better. Doesn’t help that the superficially frictionlessness of digital life makes encountering real life friction feel much harder than it should. Humans have weathered difficult shit forever; we are so capable of reading books!!
Thanks. And that’s a great point. Regardless of the challenge, it does seem like the current population has been conditioned to have a lower threshold for dealing with difficulty. Just another reminder to stay off instagram and to keep fighting that conditioning by choosing delayed reward
By Continental Philosophy, can we assume people mean deconstruction and postmodernism? I think so. Reading say, Anti-Oedipus, feels somehow like you need to be in 1968 or whatever. What percentage of readers have spent the kind of time in analysis Guattari spent, or Lacan, as analysts of course? (Ok, Lacan would stick his head round the door and say, "C'est finit" it all adds up). Quite different but Debord's Society of the Spectacle applies to the 60s and to the present. Deleuze is good on Nietzsche but that's a different project.
I don't know why British Analaytic Philosophy is held up as a such a worthy endeavour, AJ Ayers Language and Thought is priggish pedantic and dull as weak tea.
Should add I didn't finish Anti-Oedipus or Mille Plateaux. Incorporated a barely half baked understanding of Grammatology into an assignment and did quite well. An almost fully developed argument camouflaged with bits of theoretical twig and leaf. So many intoxicating ideas - Bodies Without Organs, Desiring Machines, wait til I'm brandishing these around... (This was during an MA, my academic jumping off point FYI). The shiny things caught my attention again today.
I read a lot of the canonical figures in continental philosophy on my own time, some with reading groups, others without. It was difficult and took a lot of work. Sometimes I understood most of what they had written, other times very little. If you don't test the limits and push yourself you'll never improve.
Exactly. Also good on you for reading the actual texts. I know many people read analysis of the texts but don’t go near the original material. It demands so much focus, but you’ve gotta stretch the mind!
It's always better to read the primary source if you have the time and energy to do so. Secondary literature is okay, but more as a compliment. I read two reader's guides alongside Spinoza's Ethics.
Well you've either read it or you haven't. Just because it's abstruse doesn't make it any different from reading any other book. If you haven't read it, you've nothing to discuss. In what way do you improve by attempting Derrida, D&G, Lyotard, etc? Many examples not only of them improving on their early work but disowning it all together.
Your insecurity is showing.
Ok
I'm aware people here have read "Continental Philosophy" (deconstruction and postmodernism), it's the kudos for doing so versus... A reader? A guide? Hardly moral failings unless you're buttonholing someone about the Body Without Organs but talking out of your rhizome.
This feels very directed at me
NO!!!!!
You've empowered me already to learn and read new things!! Keep writing and challenging our generation. ❤️
Love this. Trying to read more hard stuff this year. Almost done with Middlemarch!
Thank you :) and hell yeah!!
crying at this image
Might get it framed tbh
Yes to all of this. This is why I try to read texts that I don’t fully understand on the first read. With Toni Morrison’s writing, I feel like I have to double-take when reading her works, but that isn’t exactly a moral failing. Some things just need more attention than others, and yes, it’ll piss you off so much the first few times.
Agreed — even with fiction, I started a Roberto Bolaño novel a month ago and his style is not what I’m used to, so I put it down. But now I’m like girl, just bc you’re not used it, it doesn’t mean you can’t read it! Like where’d I get that dumb idea from?
I’m challenging myself to read more nonfiction this year. I tend to gravitate towards fiction that lets me escape reality, and unfortunately escapism doesn’t do much in terms of helping to make the world better. That being said, I’ve read 26 books this year and only 3 have been nonfiction 😅
Editing to add that I’d love recommendations for nonfiction reads!
I need to read more fiction! I don’t read nearly enough — closest I get to narrative work is memoir. They work totally dif sides of your brains and both are important. Will come back to you abt nonfiction recs, but would love some fiction ones!!
Absolutely. Some recent favorites have been:
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself - Mac Crane
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter - Stephen Graham Jones
The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett
The Sapling Cage - Margaret Killjoy
Due to the decline in my reading comprehension, from a mixture of dry eye disease, chronic fatigue, other eye issues, and then, of course the deleterious effect of social media, I have arrived at a state where reading dense philosophy or literary fiction is only possible during the daytime and far more difficult than it used to be. At times I can be unnecessarily hard on myself, knowing that I could have finished the same book in less than half the time 5 years ago.
That being said, this article is a good reminder to have patience with yourself and to keep making an effort to stretch the mind. If you stop trying, then the brain becomes lost.
Thank you! 💜 yes, pls don’t be so hard on yourself. I do the same tho — when I was a kid; my reading habits were worlds better. Doesn’t help that the superficially frictionlessness of digital life makes encountering real life friction feel much harder than it should. Humans have weathered difficult shit forever; we are so capable of reading books!!
Thanks. And that’s a great point. Regardless of the challenge, it does seem like the current population has been conditioned to have a lower threshold for dealing with difficulty. Just another reminder to stay off instagram and to keep fighting that conditioning by choosing delayed reward
By Continental Philosophy, can we assume people mean deconstruction and postmodernism? I think so. Reading say, Anti-Oedipus, feels somehow like you need to be in 1968 or whatever. What percentage of readers have spent the kind of time in analysis Guattari spent, or Lacan, as analysts of course? (Ok, Lacan would stick his head round the door and say, "C'est finit" it all adds up). Quite different but Debord's Society of the Spectacle applies to the 60s and to the present. Deleuze is good on Nietzsche but that's a different project.
I don't know why British Analaytic Philosophy is held up as a such a worthy endeavour, AJ Ayers Language and Thought is priggish pedantic and dull as weak tea.
Should add I didn't finish Anti-Oedipus or Mille Plateaux. Incorporated a barely half baked understanding of Grammatology into an assignment and did quite well. An almost fully developed argument camouflaged with bits of theoretical twig and leaf. So many intoxicating ideas - Bodies Without Organs, Desiring Machines, wait til I'm brandishing these around... (This was during an MA, my academic jumping off point FYI). The shiny things caught my attention again today.