Books

Already Read

Mostly been reading/skimming 'science' or Traditional Chinese medicine

Psychology and Alchemy // Psychology and Religion / nonfic / both by Carl Jung. Excellent works, though slightly dry. Both require more knowledge of the humanities than I possess. Jung was a very deep feller. I love dragging out his Synchronizitaet = principle of synchronicity. It’s an acausal connecting principle. It’s a delicious new addition to Western ‘science’.

Atomised / fic / Michel Houellebecq. Houellebecq was the son of a hippie-woman who probably was sort of neglectful. Therefore, he is a conservative Christian and a reactionary. He bemoans crumbling sexual mores, verges on pornographic in most of his works, and describes women mostly as sexual objects beyond reach. Basically, he has the girl-crazy mentality of a celibate and horny 14-year-old boy. However, I find his [conservative] reactionism appealing, because I’m me.

Quantum Mechanics / nonfic /Griffiths. Ah, who am I kidding? Would I read the whole thing? It’s short, but still boring and requires too much brain juice. This was sort of interesting, but I mostly skimmed it. Of note are the EPR paradox and the Aspect experiments. Also known as “spooky action at a distance” = instantaneous communication faster than the speed of light.

Hawking’s Universe in a Nutshell. Introduction to a lot of modern physics. Sort of basic and boring, but great pictures and very good explanations.

The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine / nonfic / Manfred Porkert. This is from the MIT Eastern Sciences Series. It is a very well-written, rigorous treatment of traditional Chinese medicine. The book goes into some depth about a philosophy of the body/mind that really doesn’t like the micro-approach too [there is no talk of cells or enzymes, only of qi force[s], yin and yang principles, and nine ‘organs’ total – they’re more of ‘organ-spheres’, abstract concepts and not actual anatomical thangs, and of acupuncture theory and the meridians]. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in science/medicine/how the body works. Porkert uses the philological approach and really is much better at grasping shades of meaning of Chinese than most chinks themselves. I approve heartily of his methodology. He must be classically trained. Here is an excerpt below:

Huangdi Neijing [‘Medical Canon of the Yellow Emperor’ is a rough translation] / nonfic / author unclear [cf. Bible, Iliad]. This is a great Chinese classic which lays out the principles of Chinese medicine – a blend of Taoist thought and a mutant kind of Vitalism, along with plenty of other junk; so old the I Ching, a classic on divination, is quite possibly the only other older text. I read the bilingual edition; there is simplified Chinese too, not that I could understand that much in the mother tongue, alas...

Dream of a Ridiculous Man / fic / Dostoevsky. This was a pretty boring standard dark Russian-Christian short story. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t find it particularly illuminating. Dostoevsky has ever been a glum moralist

Gideon’s Bible / Gott in Himmel. Hahaha I’ve also been reading the Bible in bits and pieces. I rather love Ecclesiastes. It is my favorite book. . I’ve been struggling with my faith or lack thereof recently. I wonder about the true use of morality. I wonder if my crazy GLBT theories are wrong and that there actually is ‘no reason’ for prohibition of homosexuality. Then, I remind myself that I’m a homophobe. ;-) I kid, I kid. I think gay-bashing is disgusting, but I still think children should be given a norm to cleave to. Here is an inspiring passage I rather like: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, o you of little faith…Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” – Matthew.

Jing ping mei / fic / some Chink. This was a really boring piece of ‘literature’ about a wealthy, lame dude with a lot of wives. A classic, but I hated it.

Currently Reading

NMR: A Nuts and Bolts Approach. A rather dry text about nuclear magnetic resonance. I’ve never been able to wrap my head around electromagnetism in general – it simply isn’t very intuitive. NMR is helping, however. I’m reading this text because I will soon be commencing a research project about NMR techniques and imaging.

Oeuvres de HC Andersen, texts traduits par Régis Boyer [Andersen’s fairytales in French, to practice my French and because I love parables/moralistic fairytales!]

Organic Chemistry / Wade and Wade. I’ve gotten five and a half chapters down out of twenty-six, in 2 months of plodding. This book simply isn’t interesting. It’s for next year. I dread this class. I still have to finish this. I don’t like it that much. Too much …

To-Read

The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71. A recommendation from a friend.

In A Different Voice / Carol Gilligan. A book on moarlity that Czerny told me to read.

Beggars in Spain / Nancy Kress. Friend’s recommendation.

Anything fun by Molière

Madame Bovary / Flaubert

Le Père Goriot / Balzac

Combray / Proust

Le Mariage de Figaro / Beaumarchais [opera !]

Manon Lescaut / Prevost [opera!]

All the French works above are recommendations of my former French teacher, Lauren Pinzka. She’s a great teacher, and I think she felt bad for me because I was so shy and never talked in class. She knows her stuff.

Music

I’ve been listening to Magic by B.o.B. ft Rivers Cuomo [from Weezer], and Dynamite by Taio Cruz. I’ve been listening to terrible mainstream pop 24/7. I’m not ashamed. I’ve listened to Ashlee Simpson for 3 weeks straight this summer [not consecutively, just 3 different weeks].

Ideas

I like: theosophy/theological monism, ontological monism, radical skepticism about science, integrated medicine [read: holistic medicine], the placebo effect – shamanistic healing – using psychotherapy for somatic or physiological disorders.