A New Book For Reading?

[ckBejug]

I loved the book. =) I just finished it last night. I think what little Newt said about the cat's cradle 'look inside, no cat, no cradle...' just about sums it all up, doesn't it?

[ckBejug]

On page 41, of Cat's Cradle under the chapter of "The Most Valuable Commodity On Earth", Vonnegut writes via the characters in the book that:



This basically reaffirms the old stance that knowledge is power. I just found it interesting, not because of his stance, but because I disagree that knowledge is power. Knowledge is convertible into power, but it itself is not power. Wisdom is power. The purpose of science, religion, education, etc., is to make man wise. If knowledge does not make him so, it is wasted, like water poured on sands.

Don't you thin though that wisdom without knowledge is not as powerful and so knowledge is what makes it even more so?

[steelers10]

Well then I have another recommendation. It's another book by Vonnegut, but this time its about a fictional Armenian painter. The name's Bluebeard.

[MeesterFly]

I believe that sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing It often leads people to suffer when surrounded by idiots who do not fathom the things we know or understand. Sort of like ' Ignorance is bliss' But i happen to also agree with the other viewpoint a few of you pointed out above and also the author. I guess it just depends on whats going on at the time and the situation.

I believe that being wise is more powerful then being knowledgable. Knowledge only goes so far, but being wise is what really takes you there ( to where ever that may be )

[Anonymouse]

Don't you thin though that wisdom without knowledge is not as powerful and so knowledge is what makes it even more so?

Don't you thin though that wisdom without knowledge is not as powerful and so knowledge is what makes it even more so?

Knowledge in itself is nothing. There is correct knowledge and there is incorrect knowledge. As goey pointed out earlier, you can learn something and it may be incorrect, yet go on believing you have gained knowledge, when in reality you have gained a half truth. What wisdom comes from falsity? To know, is simply not enough. To weave that knowledge into applications for the daily pursuits is what it's about.

One may spend a lifetime in studying a single specialty of knowledge -whether it is botany, or microbiology, or linguistics, or ecology - in committing to memory names derived from the Greek, or Latin, and classifying and reclassifying, and yet be no wiser than when he began. It is the great truths as to all that most concerns a man, as to his rights, interests, and duties that we seek.

Knowing is not enough;
We must apply.
Willing is not enough;
We must do.

-Goethe

[Stark Evade]

Codependent .

[ckBejug]

I'm reading Bradbury (I loooove Ray Bradbury)-- Dandelion Wine.

He mentions Armenia and Armenians. Twice. Interesting.

[Darorinag]

I never got to finish Cat's Cradle. Leaving books unfinished is one of my bad habits (one that I'm trying to shake off, but to no avail). Anyway, I'm reading Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia right now, and it has this Armenian character in it, Mr. Mikoyan. Still haven't reached the place where he gets introduced, was just flipping through the book and noticed the name. It's on my course list, that's why I'm reading it.

As for Cat's Cradle, I found a few passages very interesting - I'm going to try and finish the book.

Also, did you know that Virginia Woolf mentions Armenians in her very popular book Mrs. Dalloway?

[ckBejug]

I was reading another book, the name of which I don't remember, in which Armenians are mentioned in the context of-- eat your food, don't you know there are starving Armenians who have less than you do... etc.

Anyway D you should finish Cat's Cradle. It's such a quick read! I personally liked Slaughterhouse Five better, but this one's pretty good too.

[Darorinag]

Slaughterhouse Five was boring at first, but then it got more and more interesting. Although it's not my fav Vonnegut book - I think his best book is Mother Night (in terms of biting sarcasm/satire). I'll do my best to finish the book (but I have 30+ books on my waiting list, and I really need to start reading those as well, since I'm taking 33 credits this year, and there's no way in hell I'm gonna be able to read all those when school starts - yeah, those books are on my course list).

Anyway, for all those interested, here are two passages from Mrs. Dalloway:

He must be off, he said, getting up. But he stood for a moment as if he were about to say something; and she wondered what? Why? There were the roses.

'Some Committee?' she asked, as he opened the door.
'Armenians,' he said; or perhaps it was 'Albanians'.*

* publisher note: It was most definitely the (Christian) Armenians, many of whom, in what some historians have identified as the twentieth century's first act of genocide, were massacred by the (Muslim) Turks in 1915. This followed earlier slaughters of Armenians by the Turks in 1894-6. In 1915, the Turks drove out two-thirds of the Armenian population, forcing them to flee to Soviet Armenia, Syria, and Palestine. During this exodus (1915-1920), one million Armenians were either killed or died of starvation, prompting a great deal of debate in the British press about how best to protect the Armenians and other ethnic minorities. For an interesting discussion of Clarissa's confusion, see Trudi Tate, 'Mrs Dalloway and the Armenian Question,' Textual Practice, 8/3 (Winter 1994), 467-86. See also, Akaby Nassibian, Britain and the Armenian Question, 1915-1923 (London: Croom Helm, 1984). Significantly, the offices of both the British Armenia Committee and the Armenian Refugees (Lord Mayor's) Fund were located round the corner from Clarissa's house at 96 Victoria Street.

"He was already halfway to the House of Commons, to his Armenians, his Albanians, having settled her on the sofa, looking at his roses. And people would say, 'Clarissa Dalloway is spoilt.' She cared much more for her roses than for the Armenians. Hunted out of existence, maimed, frozen, the victims of cruelty and injustice (she had heard Richard say so over and over again) -- no, she could feel nothing for the Albanians, or was it the Armenians?) -- the only flowers she could bear to see cut.

I didn't like that book much, but I found it interesting that Armenians had made it into the plot.