Northwestern Books

One of the greatest avant-garde novels
ever! Very recommended for the deviantly
adventurous.

What else can I say? Daniel Gerould has done a fine job translating other of Witkiewicz' works into English, demonstrating that it can be done. Hopefully someday soon this great novel will be available in a competent English translation. (A great translation would be -- great, of course, but a merely competent one would be a great improvement.)

Insatiability is one supreme novel. The time between the wars was an interesting one in Central Europe, and a great deal of truly great literature appeared or was conceived then. Broch and Musil reigned in Austria, writing their masterpieces which were virtually unknown. Celine wrote his monumental work in France. Doblin experimented in Germany and Poland had both Witkiewicz and Gombrowicz fashioning their fascinating work. Insatiability is, like Gombrowicz' 'Ferdydurke', Musil's 'The Man Without Qualities', Celine's 'Journey', Broch's towering 'The Sleepwalkers' and Mann's superior books, a philosophical novel of enormous dimensions and proportions. It is a fantastical novel, darkly utopian, in which Europe is under a fascistic regime while a Russian revolution dominates that country, and everyone is faced with a Chinese invasion. The leaders in a seemingly invincible Poland succumb to an unusual new drug religion, 'Murti Bing', and in the end surrender to the Chinese. The hero of the novel is Genezip Kapen. His adventures are in the main sexual and philosophical. Witkiewicz uses him to expound his own theories--serious and not so serious--and he goes far afield in doing so. Peopled with a vast assortment of unusual characters, the novel is always interesting, and generally engaging. Witkiewicz does not seem to take himself or his ideas all too seriously, and so in some senses this book is a tonic compared to the general 'novel of education' of the time. He paints and splatters a broad canvas in this novel that could as easily be termed 'dystopian science fiction' as well as a moral or philosophical reference. The philosophy is peculiar but certainly interesting (if only for its bizarreness). Witkiewicz, a talented artist who gave up painting, also argues about the impotence of language, the inadequacy of fiction, rejecting his undertaking while creating such a huge work. It is thoroughly entertaining, but it is an eccentric novel, from a different time and context. A true intellectual, Witkiewicz' thoughts on the many hundreds of subjects he raises are interesting and interestingly expressed. It is a bit of a grand labyrinth, and certainly will not be to everyone's taste, but I highly recommend it. It is an important novel, and an engaging one. It is worth the considerable effort required...

if Thomas Mann had collaborated with William Burroughs and they together wrote the Magic Mountain on amphetamines, it perhaps would have turned out something like INSATIABILITY.

INSATIABILITY, a futuristic, expressionistic, demonomaniacal novel of extremes, records beneath an overwhelming avalanche of thrilling philosophical debate, the tortured comings-of-age of NOT just a young man beautifully blooming into bonafide manhood,( via initiatory sexual debauch, heady doses of ritual drug-use, and an above average nihilism )but charts in the midst of its explorations the becomings of an exemplary monstrous candidate capable of being a leader of men, yet equably capable of being an insane nobody, all the while constantly risking absurdity, and far be it from me to assault the possibilities of giving away the end of such a great work to those it will hold captive for its own. More than any novel (which its author,"WITKACY", has dubbed a "body-bag" he correspondingly fits the reader into with subtle skill) INSATIABILITY affected me to an alarming degree and, in a very definite sense has shaped the monstrous person I have become over the course of the past 10 years. Had I been granted foreknowledge the effect such a rare work of art would have had on me I cannot say with imputiny I'd have so willingly and Insatiably devoured it,(tearing myself out of the confines of the body-bag) as I have done so repeatedly since that first miraculous time I gave up my Literary virginity to its frightening wiles. And I am sure I will return to that accursed book forever with the dedication of a crushed and powerlessly fascinated lover for the rest of my life, even under the futile threat of adultery, so well has it taught me the INSATIABILITY of the human condition.

Let this confessionary review stand as a warning to young influential readers and as a testament to the undeniability of this novels strange powers which I've no doubt will work its fascinations on seekers of great and experimental literary works for centuries to come. How such an immense secret of a work as profound as Witkiewicz's INSATIABILITY has held its breath for so long can only give multiple births to conspiracy theories. When this novel breaks its silence it will be as if a ravenous serial-killer were loosed in your hometown.

I cannot recommend a greater novel in all literary history, of which I am an dedicated adventurous servitor; yet I do so warily, all too well aware of the repurcussions that may be heaped upon me for abandoning moral principles in spreading out the darkness so many have actually thought was the light.

We Detroiters knew Famie before this whole "Survivor" thing, and we knew how great he was at making dishes that are works of art and speak of his passion. This book takes us through his entire career, with recipes from his years at Les Auteurs and the Durgano Grill (I miss that place ...), as well as what he discovered from his trips around the world. The photography is excellent, the descriptions and directions are easy to understand, and the whole book is a loving tribute to a man and his craft. For anyone who doubted his skills at cooking that certain Outback survival dish (hint: it's a four-letter word), this collection will prove you wrong. I can only hope Keith opens another restaurant in Detroit again. Bravo!

This is a well made and nicely illustrated cookbook, but the few recipes offered are simplistic, and to a large degree, Americanized versions of their native originals. Additionally, there is little here in the way of originality or creativity. I don't know of a single recipe that can't be found in numerous other books. If you are looking for a book with a variety of recipes from different countries that are tame enough for American tastes and simple enough for unskilled cooks, this would be a good book. The more adventurous would be advised to look elsewhere for inspiration.

So I got this book.... I like it. I heard it was being worked on long before Keith was supposed to be on Survivor. It looks that way. I see no refrence to Survivor in the book, just good world food from the restaurants that he has been a part of. The photography is awsome. I would buy this book if you want to see what this guy is really like...about 60 recipes. This book should cost $45 by the looks of the production...they probably put the price tag on before he hit SURVIVOR

Try making the "trout in a bag" or the "Michigan stuffed morels with smoked whitefish mousse"

This is a great book of creativitey. I reccomend this book to all creative cookers, like myselF. This adds to my great collection of cookbooks.

This cookbook is arranged great! The recipes are really gourmet,but easy enough for the novice. Plus I have enjoyed reading about all the restaurants he has worked in or owned.My collection cookbooks is in the hundreds, but I think this one of the very best!!!

By accident I ran across this book in the Cleveland public library, opened it to the middle, & began reading, then laughing, then nearly crying. This book is amazing. Kharms' prose is brilliant/hilarious/tragic. I give copies of his brief stories to friends, put them under windshiedls, or paste them onto bus stops. Little known, he deserves to be read by everyone.

The key to understanding this book, I think, lies in starting with the subtitle: "Russia's Literature of the Absurd." Kharms and Vvedensky are pen names of Russian/Soviet writers who are known in their home country for their children's books. This is because their more serious and creative writings did not agree with the Stalinist conception of proper art. Hence it was almost impossible for them to publish what they wanted. The editor George Gibian compiled in this volume the stories of Kharms and Vvedensky that have been preserved by their friends or simply lovers of literature. Some of my favorites in this volume are "Cashier" and "Power." I also enjoyed Kharms' poem about melancholy, which is printed in English in the Introduction and in its original Russian at the end of the book.

All stories are short, many less than a page long. They can finally take their proper place among important works of Russian literature. I cannot say that I was captivated or dazzled by this book, but it has interesting moments that will be appreciated by anyone interested in Russian literature or the literature of the absurd.

This is strange stuff! Decapitations, Suicides, Murders, Fetus-Eating Corpses... Reader Beware!

This is the first "Absurdism" material I've read. It certainly lives up to its reputation. Its certainly not my favorite literary style but it was a quick and interesting read. My favorite story was "The Old Woman" by Kharms. You've got to keep an eye on those corpse-containing suitcases!

I recommend this book to anyone looking for something completely out of the ordinary. It certainly earns a place in the libraries of those collecting Russian Literature. The book contains several poems in Russian at the end which may be of interest to those who know Russian.

On a side note, I've read many of the Russian literature books published by Northwestern University Press. All their books are good quality with sturdy covers and good quality paper. I highly recommend Northwestern University Press publications.

I don't know how effective Kharms was at making a points about Stalinist Russia, about art in the postmodern world or even about great literature. While you can certainly detect those elements in his short-short stories and his plays, they're more fun to read simply because they're so CRAZY FUN! Perhaps I'm taking some of the more serious portions having to do with death, rape, etc. too lightly, but at the very least you will be always surprised and captivated by these works. Try them out. Besides, when a story's only two paragraphs long (as many of them are) what do you have to lose?

I advise against reading this book in public, as your hysterical laughter could lead to suspicious glances at best, being carted off in a straightjacket at worst.

A Perfect Vacuum is a reference for books on imaginary books. I love comments on imaginary books, an in this field Stanislaw Lem is a master. The difference with Borges reviews on imaginary books (read Fictions, by the Argentinian author) is that Stanislaw Lem recurs to science and locate most of his visionary plots into the future, where humankind is often not human and sometimes not kind. In line of other Lem's works: Imaginary Magnitude, One Human Minute, this "perfect vacuum" is a reference, the best of them all. I eagerly recommend this book.

Here Stanislaw Lem embarks on a pretty unique method of satire - reviews of nonexistent books. Most interestingly, Lem takes the opportunity to advance his own ideas on technology, ethics, and logic while satirizing both writers and the literary criticism establishment. Getting a grip on these multiple levels of satire is the key to understanding Lem's purpose in this book. In several "reviews" here, he skewers literary criticism by pretending to be an exaggerated version of an academic critic, first by criticizing his own nonexistent longwinded introduction to this book, then by over-analyzing his fictitious books to the point of solipsism. Examples include critiques of a book that is apparently about nothing and another book in a language spoken by neither the writer nor the critic. All the while, Lem satirizes the ridiculousness of such endeavors with ironically overblown professor-isms like "The self-novel is a partial striptease; the antinovel, ipso facto, is (alas) a form of autocastration." Just like you would find in any literary critique written by a professor wishing to impress no one but another professor - a phenomenon that deserves to be satirized.

Lem also "reviews" several fictitious books that adapt the themes and plotlines of old classics to modern settings, which in the real world is the type of literary reinvention that is often slavishly over-praised by academic analysts - making Lem's satire necessary in bringing all these eggheads back down to Earth. In other "reviews" here, Lem provides commentary on the fictitious scientific and philosophical theories of his fake writers, providing him with a very sneaky method of advancing his always interesting thoughts on those same topics. Meanwhile, some brutal social satire (an underappreciated strength of many of Lem's proper novels) pops up in his "reviews" of fictitious fictional works. This book often seems to be the work of boring over-analytical ivory-tower scientists and snobs, but that's exactly who Lem is satirizing, in a sly fashion that would probably go right over their lofty heads. [~doomsdayer520~]

The collection of essais (forewords or afterwords) on non-existent major books of our future. Perfect food for thought, but rather bleak in reading comfort - a little bit too dry and condensed. It's not a blood thriller(s), even if dissecting thrilling matters.
Anyway, it is a must for any real SF fan. Especially after Star diaries, Futurologic congress and things like Peace on Earth and Fiasco.

...must have been Stanislaw Lem's predicament. He had the ideas for a good dozen novels, but didnt' actually feel like writing them, so he wrote reviews of them. The kind of reviews that thoroughly give away the plot.

Well no, that's probably not what happened, but it amuses me to pretend it did.

A Perfect Vacuum is a collection of reviews of non-existing books. In fact, some of them (Gigamesh, written using a battery of computers supplied by IBM, foremost) couldn't even exist. Other books ("Rien du tout") would probably be excrutiatingly boring. Others ("Gruppenfuehrer Louis XVI") sound so good I wish someone would actually write them.

Some of the reviews are lighthearted, commenting mostly on the story. Others, however, wax philosophical about the author's ideas,
and there is my problem with this book. Some of the reviews seem to me polemics against certain literary schools. But if Lem first needs to set up a caricature of something in order to shoot it down, isn't that just a strawman argument? Also, if Lem writes a brilliant review of a very bad book, can I be forgiven for asking `what's the point'? If he writes (review of "Les Robinsonades") about `the full boorishness of the blunder' of the author, am I to find him clever for pointing out an error that he first himself introduced?

However, despite these objections this is a wonderfully inventive book, and many of its chapters have a timeless quality that makes me reread them time and time again.

I forget when I discovered Lem - in college? -- but A PERFECT VACUUM remains one of my favorite works and I'm delighted it's still in print (it may have been out of print once). Lem packages a collections of fake book reviews of nonexistent books, written in a delightful broad array of styles and voices. His wry humor lights every page. He includes a scathing review of his own book !! Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys satires and highbrow whimsy. (If you like this, try Julian barnes: Foucault's Parrot, or,History of the world in 10.5 chapters.

Richard Glazar was one of the few people to have survived the Treblinka death camp. He was around 23 years old at the time. In his account of the 10 months or so that he was there, he does not dwell on things he did not have direct experience of, but describes what life was like for him and the people around him. He does not attempt to explain or analyze or give the big picture. This, for me, is what makes his story so powerful. Moreover, he does not overwhelm the reader with gruesome details, but at the same time manages to give the reader a strong understanding of the total inhumanity of the camp and its operations, and the casual and systematic brutality of the guards. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in a first hand account of this terrible time in world history. (For a very readable history of the Third Reich, I recommend Richard Evans' trilogy on the subject, beginning with "The Coming of the Third Reich".)

This book is just as excellent and disturbing as Willenburg's "Surviving Treblinka", but it has a different feel about it. Its almost as if he is telling the story as a detached observer, which, in some cases, caused the survival of many Nazi victims. It is very detailed but, amongst the suffering among the few prisoners chosed to sort the clothing of the dead, there is a hope you get out of it. There were of course prisoners who has to work in Camp 2, where the gas chambers were located and those prisoners has to unload the chambers and put them in mass graves, later replaced by huge pyres, also called the roasts. But Glazar worked in Camp One, first sorting clothes, and then getting a better position working in one of the sheds where packaged belongings were stored until the objects could fill up a train to head back to Lublin headquarters. One of the most interesting chapters is called "The Hangmen and the Gravediggers", where Glazar, while working in this shed, encountered and actually had relatively normal conversation and mingling with SS men who worked the camp. This chapter describes many SS men, calling some terrible, while others were not as bad as others. Corruption was the name of the game; that is, SS men would come to this shed to get fine clothing and other objects and would often keep them of send them home to their families. This practice was extremely against SS regulations, but it happened anyway. The rest of the book is very interesting as well, such as when Glazar was assigned to the forest brigage, who would collect pine branches and such to camoflauge the fences of the camp. The evolution of the revolt is great, despite terrible things that happended in the course of organizing the revolt, such as military leader of the revolt, Zhelo Bloch, a Jewish captain of the Czech Army, being sent to Camp 2, with its gas chambers and dead bodies everywhere, as punishment for numerical errors that occured one day when trains were being loaded up with the stolen goods of the Jews, trains that would go to Lublin and spread from there. And there was also the death of Dr. Chorozycki. He was found in possession of money that to be used in the purchase of arms to be used in the revolt. Kurt Franz made the discovery and the doctor attacked Franz with a surgical knife and blows from his fist, a great act of courage. The doctor managed to slip some cyanide tablets and he died before the SS could torture him, to try to get information from him. Terrible indeed, but the revolt still took place...ive said enough, just read this book! You will not be disappointed, particularly if you are already interested in the subject of the Holocaust. I would suggest anyone read it though. The book is depressing, but, to me atleast, the way it is told seems almost detached, and theres even monents of dark humor thrown in here and there, atleast thats how i percieve it. A moving book to say the least. Get it!

I read everything there is about Treblinka and I can tell you that this is one of the best accounts yet. Other alternatives are "A year in Treblinka" and Arad's "Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka: Aktion Reinhard Death Camps". Steiner's Treblinka is a very enjoyable work of fiction (but historicaly inacurate).

Richard Glazer, a Czech Jew, mentions his life in German-occupied Prague and then his arrival at Treblinka. Naked for the "shower", he gets pulled out of the line to the gas chamber by an SS man, and diverted to forced labor. Glazer then elaborates his experiences in Treblinka, giving a particularly good description of typhus and how it flourishes under the unsanitary conditions and is spread by lice (pp. 72-73). Glazer escapes Treblinka during the famous August 1943 revolt. He eventually gets caught by a Volksdeutsche, but avoids the death sentence for being a Jew, and ends up a forced laborer in Germany, where he is liberated. Glazer also recounts his "reunion" with 54 still-living Treblinka escapees during the trials of the Nazi war criminals in West Germany in the 1960's (pp. 195-196).

Some Polish Jews discussing the possibility of escaping from Treblinka tried to discourage it by sinking to new lows of Polonophobic mythmaking. They actually asserted that Poles who help Jews no longer exist at all, and that 9 out of 10 Poles betray Jews (p. 84)--all without even stopping to think about the self-refuting nature of their absurdities. Just two sentences earlier, they had spoken about Jews who had escaped from Treblinka and returned to the Ghettos to warn the remaining Jews there (p. 83). If anything other than a trivial fraction of Poles betrayed Jews (let alone 9/10) then no Jews who escaped from Treblinka would've survived more than a day!

In contrast, some Jews who contemplated the possibility of escaping from Treblinka had a realistic view of the situation. They recognized the fact that killers of fugitive Jews in the areas surrounding Treblinka were not, as often alleged, members of the Polish Underground (the AK and NSZ). They were simply bandits, many of whom pretended to be members of the AK and NSZ, and who killed both Jews and non-Jews at will: "A few kilometers farther into the woods you would come upon the partisans, and then a gang with nothing in common with partisans than the name. They rob, and they murder; they don't care whom they attack by night." (p. 105)

When Richard Glazer actually escaped from Treblinka, he spent much time traversing the Polish countryside. He describes his peregrinations and the help he received from Poles. He passed by a long series of Polish villages, including Ostrow (p. 149), Wiszkow, Radzymin (p. 150), Rembertow, Solejuwky (p. 151), "...Piaseczno, Gora Kalwaria, Grojec, Mogielnica--those are the exotic-sounding names of towns passed through, more or less without incident." (p. 153). He had to evade a column of Germans. Yet not once did he indicate any threat from Polish blackmailers or denouncers. And, when he was finally caught, it was not by a Pole but by a Volksdeutsche. (p. 153)

None of the previous reviewers seem to know that Richard Glazar, a young Czech, is one of the most effective eyewitnesses in Claude Lanzmann's epic masterpiece, 'Shoah.' He appears at numerous points during the parts of the film that deal with Treblinka. What comes across is his vitality, integrity, and self-awareness. He was one of the few to survive the Treblinka revolt in August 1943 in which several hundred prisoners finally managed to break out, although most did not finally survive. Glazar appears too in interviews with Gitta Sereny, 'Into that Darkness,' in her study of Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka. Glazar's work is utterly authentic and a MUST READ.

weighing in at 642 pages, this book is a dancer's story. The key to this is located in the subtitled 'Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham' - the word WITH is the key word. Ms. Brown was a dancer, and perhaps the best dancer of the Cunningham company, but she was not John Cage nor Merc Cunningham. While the book was quite informative early on, dealing with the founding of the Cunningham company for example, there was also more than a good deal of "I did this, and I did that".

I read this book and have no desire to own a copy. It may well be instructional to dancers but I didn't enter into the read as one, and left the book with a case of 'please, not another word'. The book was too long. The book was too long.

The wonderful thing about this book is that it gives a very close-up view of the Cage/Cunningham world, especially in the early years of the Cunningham Dance Company. It also presents the two major figures, John Cage and Merce Cunningham, in a critical light. We see them both as the towering creative forces that the outer world knows, as well as the difficult, moody, and complicated people they really are, or were.

The book is exhausting in the way it reveals Brown's life as a dancer, and the tensions and struggles of the Company. Perhaps it could be a few pages shorter, but (in the first half of the book) the insights into the world of modern dance in general, and the NY avant-garde in the 1950's and 60's in particular is fascinating and valuable.

It's also a good example of why people should keep detailed journals.

Merce Cunningham and John Cage are two of the most significant figures in dance and music in the second half of the 20th century. Cage, who is aruguably the most influential artist of the second half of the century, has been much written about, and was himself a prolific author. Cunningham has also published influential books, and the two have been the subject of numerous documentaries. But not until now has there been an insider's view of what it was like to be an intimate part of the Cage-Cunningham inner circle, a world that included artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, composers Earl Brown, Morton Feldman, and David Tudor, and many others. Brown has written an honest, sincere account of what life was like touring the US in a VW bus with Cage at the wheel, stopping for picnics along the way. Moreover, while Brown clearly adores both Cage and Cunningham, she doesn't hesitate to provide occasionally hair-raising accounts of things said and done by these two artists that seem incongruous with the myths built up around them. In that regard, Brown renders them human in a way I have never previosuly encountered. Reading that Cage, while in his cups one night, held forth on how turned on he was by Merce, should finally set the record straight (pardon the pun) about Cage's sexuality. The book is a treasury of great anecdotes about Brown's life on the road with an astonishing group of artists, and I felt privileged to have been privy to the journey. It is also a savvy analysis of Cunningham's choreography from the perspective of someone who actually danced it. This book should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in understanding the lives and work of Cage and Cunningham.

This book is an excellent opportunity to examine Merce Cunningham's work. Carolyn Brown was probably his favorite dancer. She was intimately connected to Merce and John Cage. Many will come away with a more real understanding of what "chance" means to this work. This is very much a dancer's view of things. I only wonder why it took her thirty-five years to write this book. She confesses to the book deal being offered and signed almost as soon as she retired. There are telling comments on State support of the arts and on unions.

As a former student and long time friend of Ms. Brown and Merce Cunningham, I was moved and delighted to revisit the struggles, perseverance and creativity that went into daily life during the years Ms. Brown spent in the Cunningham Company and to understand, from her viewpoint, the inner workings of Merce's choreographic process. I learned so much and appreciate the knowledge, skill and levels of artistry, friendship and as well as travail that made those years so vital. Thanks, CB

After reading the three 5 stars reviews about this book I expected a lot and was disapponted. The subject matter is an important and extremely difficult one. Experience of life with it preconceptionel depth will have to be granted its importance if we want to become healthier beeings. Eugene Gendlin tries to bring a better balance between the lived and the thought : "Meaning is formed in the interaction of experiencing and something that functions as a symbol. Feeling without symbolization is blind; symbolisation without feeling is empty." And there are other coragious thoughts in there. But as a whole to me her approach lacks clarity and elegance.

Gene Gendlin is best known as a psychologist, especially for his book,Focusing, which has achieved near-cult status. Focusing & Gene, a student of Carl Rogers, have also received broad respect within the psychology/psychotherapy community, too -- for many years he edited "Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice", and he received numerous awards, starting with the first Distinguished Psychologist award from the American Psychological Association to, most recently, the Viktor Frankl award. I came to this book, his first full statement of his philosophy, through Focusing, as my wife & I were trainers in Gene's Focusing workshops through the 1980's.

Gene, however, thinks of himself, first & foremost, as a philosopher, and with good reason. Yes, "Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning" came, in part, from his many years of training and work with Carl Rogers. But even more, it came from his philosophy studies. Indeed, Focusing, itself, is an outgrowth of this philosophy. Anyone who knows Focusing can see, in this book, that his philosophy implies Focusing.

And therein lies the rub. What makes this book tough is that understanding it so often needs an ability to touch in with your own, everyday and personal experience of "the implicit" -- that rich source of bodily-felt meaning always within us. Rejecting a dichotomy of logical & illogical or chaos, Gene talks of an implicit dimension, which he calls "experiencing", and which is "more than logical" -- vague in the sense of not-yet-formed, yet capable of transcending all logics, while it also implies them, while it includes them implicitly. For all its being vague, felt meaning, "experiencing", is actually more precise than standard meanings. The interaction words/logic and "experiencing" or the felt sense creates all new & fresh meanings.

"Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning" isn't just a philosophy. It's about where philosophies come from.

To give you a brief taste of simple experiencing: Remember a time when you knew you'd forgotten something. Well, logically, how can you know what you've forgotten? But this feeling, this "experiencing of knowing" is very definite and very precise. While trying to remember, for example, you might recall something you've forgotten. But your bodily feel, your implicit experiencing, or as Gene calls it later, your felt sense (different from an emotion), can agree that, yes, you had forgotten that. But your felt sense lets you know that what you just remembered isn't the right "what I've forgoten".

"Experiencing" is not only "where" philosophers philosophize from. It's also where poets, composers and musicians create from. (I know, because I used to be a conductor & composer; I'm now a psychotherapist.) This is "where" all creativity and many other good things, such as the healing of psychotherapy, "come" or create from.

While "Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning" does have many practical examples, it's an enormous help to be able to Focus. So you may want to read and do Focusing, even if you're a philosopher. (I've worked with philosophers who couldn't "get" what Gene was saying until they had done some Focusing.) Other lead-in introductions, making understanding this book easier, are some of his short on-line articles, freely available in the Gendlin Online Library at www.focusing.org. In particular, read, "The Primacy of the Body, Not the Primacy of Perception," "The Responsive Order" and "Crossing and Dipping". There, too, is Gene's new "Introduction" to the 1997 edition of Experiencing -- well worth the read, and a much better introduction to his book than my review.

I don't invite, I don't even urge you to read this book and learn to Focus: I beg you. It takes work, even hard work. But you'll always be glad that you did.

This is a profound and important book. It reveals the basis of all philosphical thinking. I don't understand why it is not more widely acclaimed.

I first read this book in 1974 (approximatly). I have reread it several times and continue to marvel and dispair at how little circulation or acknowledgement it has been given. Current work in areas of the philosophy of language, and philosophy and cognitive science, especially in their emphasis on metaphor, are anticipated by this work. I have been told by one of the leading authors in the above areas, that he was familiar with this book but could not reference it as it from a phenomenological line of thought and his audience would reject it (paraphrased). There are methods for the productive conduct of discourse, on any subject, contained in this work that are still not utilized anywhere execept for a small number of people. A pity if we really want to arrive at living truths rather than the sterile shells rendered buy logic or empiricism. This book is not an easy read for most (I'm guessing), as the ideas -- the point of viewing it explicates is so uncommon. So If you read it, it may take some work. And still I cannot recommend it highly enough. Thank you.

This book brillantly includes all of Post-Modernisms necessary insights while correcting its shortsights and transcending its possibilities.

This book is a wonderful piece of literature written to the glory of God on a topic that is soooo important for Christianity, particularly Lutheranism. Very well-written and recommended for anyone!

Becker provided a vital and interesting investigation into Luther's concept of reason. What is so useful is finding out about Luther's use of reason as magesterial vs. ministerial.

Being educated and catechized in the medieval theology Luther knew the center as Reason around philosophy, which still dominates RC theology (see Ratzinger's "Principles of Catholic Theology).

Many misinterpret and thus misuse and abuse Luther and his theological offspring by taking him out of context concerning Reason and Christianity. Becker's book is antidote to this.

This book is one of my favorites. I recommend it to many people that I talk theology with, and has shaped my thought significantly.

Becker, in this book, studies Martin Luther's thoughts on Reason and it's relationship to Faith. In the process, you learn how Martin Luther went through his mental machinations and came to conclusions. This book is not for the faint of heart. It's kinda philosophical. But Luther is humorous, and to the point.

Lutherans approach theology in a different way than most Christians do today, and this book chronicles why, points out their presuppostions, and how Lutherans approach God inductively through what Scripture teaches about Himself. Becker's final chapter does a good job at summing up why Lutherans answer debated Christian doctrines like "the Incarnation" and "Predestination/Free Will" differently than most Christian denominations.

Read this book to understand how confessional Lutheran thought ticks, their presuppositions, and be challenged. If you are a theologian (armchair or professional), read this book and learn how to bust theological moves like Luther did.

Siegbert W. Becker's "The Foolishness of God" is an absolutely astounding book from start to finish. Becker gives insight into almost every aspect of Lutheran theology. From the bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist to the paradoxical nature of the bondage of the Will. As I'll point out, Becker delves into the realms of these concepts and never seems to forget to include how they fit with his whole theme of reason.

Thomism: Becker uses Luther's rejection of Thomism (the theology of Thomas Aquinas for anyone who may not know) in order to support his thesis on reason. Becker says of Luther, "[he] consistently held instead that natural theology is always uncertain, inadequate, misleading, and legalistic" (page 50.) Luther outright says that those who try to explain the existence of God with reason and without the Word err greatly. Becker makes perfect sense out of Luther's rejection of Thomism. This chapter can be summed up with this quote of Luther's: "So reason must make idols and it cannot do otherwise."

On Biblical Truth: One of the more intriguing chapters of the book, is Chaper IV, "Reason as Judge of Biblical Truth." In it, Becker attempts to explain the Lutheran position on Biblical inspiration and belief, in the light of reason. Although it's quite interesting to hear his take on biblical inspiration, the following page presents one of the more interesting quotes of the book: "Luther was convinced that the better a person understands the Word of God the harder it is for him to believe it" (page 94.) This quote presents one of the more challenging aspects to tackle in the entire book. However, Becker only deals with this about half as well as he probably could have. However, he still presents an intriguing idea. He suggests that Luther did not mean "reason" as we know it, but rather the German word Vernunft, which means "common sense." This seems to be a fair enough explanation for Becker, because he just continues along with his theme.

The Eucharist (Holy Communion): Yet another interesting aspect of the book is Becker's take on the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist in the light of reason. Luther says that reason can tell us that the Bread is merely Bread and the Wine is merely Wine, however, reason knows that the Word of God defies all understanding. Reason, Luther would have probably said, would be the reason why so many churches today (even so-called "Lutheran" churches) teach the idea of "open communion" and the representation in the Sacrament. They teach that the bread is merely bread, and that the wine is merely wine, for how can it be both the bread and the body and the blood and the wine. And how can Christ be at the right hand of God and in the sacrament at the same time? Luther taught that it was this kind of doctrine that got man in trouble. When the Christian begins to rely more on reason then on the Word and faith. Becker provides some really interesting insight on this and it's yet another reason to pick up this book.

The Bondage of the Will: One of Luther's most interesting (and maybe even flawed) ideas is the Bondage of the Will. This is probably the weakest area of the book for Becker, although it's probably the most interesting. Becker leaves something to be desired here. Although he explains what reason Luther used to explain his concept of the Bondage of the Will, he never delves on anything beyond that. But maybe that was Becker's whole goal. Although, I wanted more on this topic, I think I'll have to read "On the Bondage of the Will" by Luther in order to get some more insight. However, what Becker does write is still interesting and true to the thesis, despite being ultimately unsatisfying.

These are just a few of the many areas of Lutheran theology and doctrine that Becker touches upon in his fascinating book. I highly recommend it for the concerned Lutheran or the inquisitve Christian. Becker provides interesting ideas as to many of the various aspects of Lutheran theology, although there is still much to be desired (hence the four stars instead of five.) Again, this is highly recommended reading. 4 1/2 Stars

What a splendid book! Originally, this book started as Becker's doctoral thesis in 1957, but was, eventually, expanded into a book. Thus, a couple of examples in the book are outdated-but the rest of the book is timeless. Becker's primary point of the book is that our reason is contrary to God's way of doing things. "To make the gospel reasonable to unconverted man in an effort to bring about his acceptance of that gospel is therefore the height of folly. Such efforts can only result in a change in the gospel, consequently a destruction of the gospel." (Pg. 230)

Becker no only delves into Luther's thoughts on human reason, but also how Scripture seems to contradict. For instance, the Bible mentions in many places that "once saved, always saved" as some like to say. Yet Scripture also says, "take heed, lest you fall." Both are correct and true--yet how are we to reconcile these seeming different doctrines? Part of this is understanding the Law-Gospel dynamic, which Becker probes into as well.

This is one book to reread every few years like C.F.W. Walther's The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel. May it find its way onto every Christian's bookshelf.

The book is a true masterpiece. Nothing more can be said of it

I read this book in its original language (bosnian), while on a vacation in Bosnia for 2.5 months. The story's setting in ottoman-ruled Bosnia is very fascinating and one gets a feel of what life used to be like for an ordionary person back then. Apart from its intriguing historical dimension this book also explores the roots of bosnian menality in interacting with each other. It is very hard to describe but this book definately gives one a very thorough look at it. The pace of the book might seem a bit slow to people whom expect an action packed plot. There is a lot of very interesting phylosophical pondering from the part of Ahmet (main character). In short this is a great read of classical bosnian muslim literature.

This is well worth reading even if it may be at first a little difficult to get into. Not least, because we in Western Europe know almost nothing about Eastern Europe and much of the novel assumes pre geographical and historical knowledge of the area. That aside, this along with his Death and the Dervish is an excellent read.

Set in Ottoman Bosnia the story surrounds the life of a former soldier who returns to his native Bosnia after the Ottoman - Russian wars and the trials he faces both from his former comrades at the front and the powers that be. One of the main problems with the book however I feel is that the main character Ahmet is just one you fail to sympathise with. Too busy moping around feeling sorry for himself, too busy drinking himself into stupidity why his wife is the one who has to hold things together not only financially but with common sense also.

While reading this book I found a lot of comparison with early classical Russian writers such as Chekov and Tolstoy and (maybe it is the Ottoman connection) with the Turkish writer Yasar Kemal.

An interesting read if a little disappointing after Death and the Dervish but one worth buying.

Any one who has ever experienced the pain of speaking the truth and has been punished for this act will find Selimovich's Fortress to be a journey of recognition and catharsis. Fortress not only supplies an analysis of the relationship between truth and social stratification, but it also offers a therapy for recovering dignity in the face of injustice. Selimovich defends poetic non-conformists the world round and shows how teaching the young is a refuge for the truth speakers who see the world with melancholy eyes.

I have read this book as well as the 'Dervish' many times. Selimovic unfortunately has managed to make only one true masterpiece. However, he reached the heights with Fortress again, but never as strong and astonishing as he did in Dervish the book that has come from Mesa's great pain for his lost brother. I would say that Fortress is more gentle book. Less philosophical, more romantic. If you enjoyed Dervish you will love this book too.

You know how _frustrating_ it is, reading a platonic dialog? Some question like "What is virtue?" or "What is justice" is asked, and Socretes goes on for pages showing that the so-called "experts" don't have a clue about what it really is?

But what's _really_ frustrating is that you're all expecting, at the end of the dialog, after following a hard line of argument, that you'll be rewarded with THE definitivie definition of 'virtue' or 'justice' or whatever--only to be disapointed. All you get in the end is a new appreciation of your own hopeless ignorance...

...well, imagine a platonic dialog which started the same as any other platonic dialog, but with the question "What is a number?" Only this time, at the end of the dialog, you actually get an answer to the question?

In retrospect, its pretty amazing that Plato didn't write a Socratic dialog concerned with the question "What is number?' After all, Plato considered numbers more real than physical objects, and people like the Pythagorians were going around claiming that everything _was_ made out of numbers. But what the heck _is_ a number, anyways?

Perhaps the reason was that everybody thought they already understood what numbers were. But Frege, like Socretes before him, realized that this so-called knowledge was really just a collective ignorance. So Frege starts out this book with a thorough, merciless review of what his coleages and predicessors were saying about what numbers were, showing that they ranged from cocksure to confused, from pompously-wrongheaded to just plain silly.

But then Frege does something really amazing--for the first time in history, he goes on give a real answer to the question "what are numbers?" Building on the work of Hume, he gives a sustained argument now known as "Frege's theorem" which shows how numbers can be grounded on an understanding of one-to-one correspondence.

Unfortunately, this work had to wait almost a century for the rest of us to really catch up to its significance. Russell found a contradiction in the arguments presented here, and for the next 80 years attention shifted elsewhere. But first Charles Parsons, in 1964, and then Crispen Wright and others in the 80's and 90's begain to realize that Frege's theorem could be reconstructed without the paradox. This sparked a whole flurry of neo-Fregean studies which is one of the most active branches of analytic philosophy today.

This revival means that Frege's importance, and the importance of reading and comming to grips with the arguments presented by Frege in this book, are going to continue to grow. Although tragically Frege didn't live to see the day, we now realize that the line of reasoning he followed in this book was one of those signature moments in human history, every bit as profound as the invention of the wheel or the discovery of the pythagorian theorem--it was the moment where, for the first time ever, the question "what the heck _are_ numbers, anyways?" got a real answer.

This book written by Gottlob Frege is one of the most influential books of the 20th century philosophy of mathematics. In here Frege establishes the nature of arithmetics as founded in logic, which is his logicist proposal. For that, he refutes the assertion that logic as such is founded on psychology.

Sometimes he distorts a little bit what others say about logic, so he argues against those thinkers more effectively. In here he establishes the anti-psycology difference between concept and object; though he has not made a difference yet between sense and reference. He also refers to a principle called the contextual principle, in which the word makes reference to something depending on the context. Afterwards after he wrote the book, he would reject this principle, because of his doctrine of sense and reference: the sense of the words determine the sense of the sentence; and the reference of the words determine the reference of the sentence.

This is a great philosophical work, and I would suggest it to anyone who is starting to study Analytic philosophy (philosophy of mathematics, logic and language), and also those who want to consider the platonist proposal.

*The Foundations of Arithmetic*, one of the most durable works of philosophy of mathematics ever produced, is something of a curiosity as presented by J.L. Austin (who translated the work for the use of an Oxford undergraduate course); and perhaps Frege's platonism got the best of Austin, and this work is really just as , well, Kantian as it appears, "a good sight" more Kantian than "standard" Frege is typically allowed to be. Frege's definition of number in terms of equipollence (one-one correspondence of sets) is legendary: that is to say, it is traditionally understood to do a great deal more work than the "thin" version allowed by mathematical logic as reconstructed to avoid Russell's paradox.

But here Frege's work-up of the concept for a general readership is so "genteel" as to suggest that this may not in fact be the case, and that Frege actually partook more heavily of Neo-Kantian bromides than his *theory of arithmetic* suggests; to wit, that this theory was always intended to be situated within a general philosophy of mathematics obeying the strictures of reasoning involving Kantian "intuition" (as is typically said of Frege's last efforts in the field). As such, it would be unfortunate that we cannot effectively read this book (formerly available *en face*, and unfortunately much the worse for the original's omission) in conjunction with its contemporary geometrical counterpart: long out of print, rarely making its way into the philosophical Frege literature, and perhaps in all parts an *anticipatory* if "crochety" rebuke to Hilbertian formalism.

Perhaps Frege was to a certain extent wholly other than the mathematics of his time; perhaps we are not well-served by a Frege "out of time"; we certainly have one of the great prose stylists of English on hand here, and perhaps it would actually do to consider his aptitude for "gold" extraction here as a clue to puzzling out the rest of Frege -- a figure supremely unconcerned with sameness of meaning, and already owing a certain debt to those para-philosophical figures all his work is at cross-purposes with (the German '70s having been quite a time indeed). A great help to understanding number theory, a marvelous thing for a library to have.

His conclusion (p.99e) is that the laws of arithmetic are analytic judgements and consequently a priori.

Note that he is very consistently hard on Mill.

Some interesting quotes: p. 115e #106. "...number is neither a collection of things nor a property of such, yet at the same time is not a subjective product of mental processes either, we concluded that a statement of number asserts something objective of a concept.

... (p. 116e) We next laid down the fundamental principle that we must never try to define the meaning of a word in isolation, but only as it is used in the context of a proposition: only by adhering to this can we, as I believe, avoid a physical view of it.

#107. (p.117e) "A recognition statement must always have a sense."

possibly one of the greatest works in history of philosophy and the founding book of 20th century analytic philosophy... I read it only once and a better appraisal will be coming shortly..I can say right away this is not simply a 'technical' work in philosophy of mathematics but a broad although short philosophical investigation in notions of truth, meaning and identity - although it expressly deals with defining numbers in purely logical terms. continental philosophers who read this work might change some of their negative ideas about where analytic philosophy is coming from.