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[lapsedmodernist]

Oh man, I have SO MUCH to say about this, but absolutely no time at the moment. When I have a minute (or a couple of hours), then.

Comments

[sissyhips.livejournal.com]

that is hilarious.

11 Most Willfully Misunderstood Books

[localcharacter.livejournal.com]

Same list, drop Mein Kampf, add the Bible and the Koran.

Re: 11 Most Willfully Misunderstood Books

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I also strongly feel that, while it is, technically a part of the Bible as it is edited today, "The Book of Revelations" deserves its own place on that list.

Re: 11 Most Willfully Misunderstood Books

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

wait, what?! that is my favorite part!

Holy cats!

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I'm going to teach a course, I've decided, with this list as its useful (and cut-and-pastable) syllabus. Recommended reading: the honorable mentions, especially Mill, Freud, Nietzsche, Darwin. Probably I'll leave Mein Kampf out as unreadable. They wanted to say they didn't like Hitler either; but Mein Kampf actually didn't have so much of an effect qua book. Most harmful book of all time? The New Testament, I suppose. Where's Weineger? Where the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? The Book of M0r0ni?

Re: Holy cats!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

I don't think college students should be allowed to read Nietzsche.

With you on the most harmful book of all time. Should be administered to children only iin conjunction with the Pullman trilogy.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

i use nietzsche as an acid test. i mean, come on! i like evil, i mean, i really do! but i've got better rationalizations, baby! it is one of those things; see who gloms on, & then judge them.

Re: Holy cats!

[apathyfabulous.livejournal.com]

good lord why?
I've heard you say this a few times, but reading Nietzsche was probably the high point of my philosophy minor.

re: this list. Two words: Phyllis Schlafly

Re: Holy cats!

[warpsmith.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And notice how the VP of Regenery is also on the panel, and they namedrop David Horowitz. And the review of The Feminine Mystique has absolutely nothing to say about the book itself or its effect, but focuses entirely on her personal life and work outside of the book.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

jah, mein kamf is about as cogent as an ayn rand book.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Now, now, Ayn Rand books feature far more rape fantasies. They are pretty equal on the Aryan fetish tip.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

<3

Re: Holy cats!

[schrodingersgnu.livejournal.com]

New Testament? Why not old? Or combined?

And Mein Kampf does contain some inadvertent humor... Like the chapter devoted to smearing the japanese as unworthy monkeys copying western technologies, written five years before Hirohito was declared an honorary Aryan. I've always wondered how Hitler weasled his way out of that one...

Re: Holy cats!

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

"japanese make ill-adviced alliance with white supremecists"

-our dumb century headline

Re: Holy cats!

[ladycat269.livejournal.com]

I fully agree that the Protocols of the elders of Zion was highly overlooked here. In my opinion, the Communist Manifesto is only harmful because it poses a threat to the capitalist society, which would be a good thing to everyone except those 5% at the top of the social ladder.

this here is a little "joke."

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

john maynard keynes? wasn't he the guy from tool or something?

pretty great seeing mead on there....she's out to....get you! LOOK OUT!

[bklyndispatch.livejournal.com]

this is great! Take off Mein Kampf and its all books I think are important.

[tigermilkdrunk.livejournal.com]

So I was getting all agitated (and just before my nap, too!), and then I saw the pop-up that came attached (quoted for those with better blockers than me): "You Made the Map Red... Now Wear the Values You Voted For! The official "Red State" hat. Only $19.95 in red or stone." I, um, am glad I left the country.

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

What, no Da Vinci Code?

I'd love to know the "books voted for : books voted for that the voter has actually read" ratio.

[isquiesque.livejournal.com]

I suspect you are onto something there... good point.

[alice-ayers.livejournal.com]

Okay, does EVERYONE EVERYWHERE know each other?

I mean, do you know the person whose comment you just responded to? Because, wow, figuring out how you might is making my head hurt.

[isquiesque.livejournal.com]

Heh. Worry not; I don't actually know rezendi, I was merely replying to the comment. And, of course, I started reading anthrochica upon your recommendation (and an excellent recommendation it was...)

[blainerunner.livejournal.com]

i suspect that they've read or skimmed the majority of them. the problem with conservative crusaders is that they tend to read more than liberals do. they read marx as "we" read their comments about marx. i'd love to know how many young marxians have read marx, althusser, adorno, gramsci, adorno, lukacs, lenin, etc..

[blainerunner.livejournal.com]

i'm always surprised to see marx and nietzsche lumped together. nietzsche was as anti-marxist (well, as anti-dialectical and anti-communal) as any advocate of adam smith. and darwin, unwittingly (i think), served, through an era's misreading of his work, as the backbone of the victorian ethos of global improvement (imperialism). the board's real target should be hume; however, he's too early. the inclusion of nietzsche, marx, AND darwin, however, shows that teh conservative agenda is as a confused as is the liberal agenda, which is a mild consolation. secular conservatives should champion nietzsche (and darwin and mill); however, religious ones can't. from this list, it's, to me, very difficult to extrapolate the board's *positive* stance. let's hope that this odd compilation indicates that the right will succumb to a rift between fiscal conservatism and moral conservatism.

[maga-dogg.livejournal.com]

secular conservatives should champion nietzsche (and darwin and mill)

...carefully selected from, of course. Nietzsche criticises the living hell out of Darwin (mostly for reasons modern evolutionary thought would agree with), and trying to get a common thread out of Nietzsche and Mill would be like trying to reach a Hegelian synthesis between two cats in a sinking sack.

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

The list is kind of hilarious. I showed it to nuclearfruit. I'd go for "bemused" as a cross between appalled and amused.

[duffgallagher.livejournal.com]

Any list which makes as bold a claim as this is bound to attract it's critics, this is good as it stimulates debate.

The definition of 'harmful' is paramount here. Harmful to who, or what?

Many religious tomes are, by their absence, conspicuous. This might go some way to help the definition metioned above

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Harmful, I suppose, to the people who voted their "values" (as opposed to the rest of us heathens who voted because it was a hazing ritual we had to go through before being allowed to worship at the feet of the Golden Calf of Beelzebub).

[isquiesque.livejournal.com]

Well, most of the religious tommes that might have made the list weren't written during the past two centuries, which was the focus. Had it not been, you could almost be certain the Koran would have been included. But yes, I'd like to hear their formal and agreed upon definition of harmful.

oh yes

[duffgallagher.livejournal.com]

good point, oops!

[fengi.livejournal.com]

I think the fact The Feminine Mystique is in the top 10 while The Turner Diaries didn't even make the secondary list reveals where these guys really stand. If they made a list of top criminals of the 90s, I betcha Eric Rudolph wouldn't even make honorable mention.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Just to play the Devil's Advocate for a second here, might not the absence of the Turner Diaries be a good sign as to how little it has permeated beyond its target demographic?

Not that that makes the list any less asinine.

Also: You! Yay!

Also: you should email me that stuff we were talking about.

[theophile.livejournal.com]

jesus, why is Tuesdays With Morrie not on that list?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Do you really want to go down the road of what OUGHT to be on that list?

In that case, I am tempted to start on what would be my "top ten thousand" list, but I've got one foot out the door.

But, since we are on the subject, why isn't She's Come Undone on that list? Why does that book EXIST at all?

[orpheusinhades.livejournal.com]

I want to know why "Unsafe at Any Speed" is listed as a runner-up.

Also, to those listing the Bible, it says 19th and 20th century books...

[theophile.livejournal.com]

I suppose you're right-- "I Know This Much Is True" is a significantly worse book, but I get the feeling it didn't have the cultural penetration from the other. I do want to nominate "the Celestine Prophecy" to the list as well, but-- go! go! don't let me hold you back from whatever exciting plans you've got waiting for you.

[alice-ayers.livejournal.com]

Dunno I should be shocked about the inclusion of The Second Sex.

Is the mood like painfully bemused?

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

"transfixed" is the best one I got.

terrific, though, innit? :)

[marzipan-jesus.livejournal.com]

added you to my photojournal, in case you ever wanted to look at it.
-apathyfabulous.