Reading Kundera's essays on the nature of novels. The associations in the human mind are fascinating - at the slightest provocations, whole worlds can seep into your inner being with you barely noticing it happen until it's done. And people wonder how whole ideas dominate and rule human lives?

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Čitam Kunderine eseje o prirodi romana. ( Read more... )

 We were studying at my house yesterday, and one thing led to another (you can totally see this coming), we ended up searching for a synonym for the word 'eclectic'. As I looked in the couple of the dictionaries I have at home, I've discovered something peculiar - they indicated that eclectic, other than the meaning of something comprehensive or ( Read more... )

 Among the geeky population, Alpha Centauri has a cult status. The game is basically a sci fi Civilization, but the Datalinks (Civilopedia) of that game is an unbelievable source of quotations and smarty goodness. For example, the Academician Prokhor Zakharov speaks about the difference between methodical scientific progress and genius ( Read more... )

 Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. This is what uncouples him from belief in his ( Read more... )

Paul K. Feyerabend is a philosopher of science I'm a great fan of. His perspectives on objectivity of science, on scientific methodology and epistemology are a never-ending source of thought-food for me. To start a series of post about Feyerabend, here's one of his more provocative quotations (found in the book Against Method):

'The separation of ( Read more... )

Wilde's flowery style, and flowery is precisely the word I'd use for his writing, was quite a shock after the austere words loaded with meaning in Hesse's books I've read lately. Wilde's a British dandy, a flamboyant gentleman cultivated in controversy and classical education; valued much more in those times than nowadays. Dorian's, and through ( Read more... )

Today I've attended a lecture held by Konrad Paul Liessmann. He is a philosophy professor from the University of Vienna, and some might say a philosopher, but more importantly (for this post) he's the author of a book called Theorie der Unbildung or roughly translated to English - The Theory of Uneducation. The Theory of Uneducation is a quaint and ( Read more... )

Još jedna rasprava koju sam imao s dragom na moru me potakla na razmišljanje. Naime, za kojeg pisca danas možete reći da je zaista klasik (ograničit ću se na hrvatsku književnost sad)? Naravno, proces afirmacije knjige i književnika kao klasika zahtjeva određeno vrijeme - i uvijek treba uzeti u obzir da možda čovjek ne može reći zaista za svog ( Read more... )

Na moru smo sjedili na plaži u šumici, jeli ćevape i razgovarali. Počeli smo igrati igru 'ili ili'. Jedna osoba postavi dva pojma drugoj osobi, koja mora izabrati jedan od njih i objasniti zašto je baš taj odabrala. Kako to bude kada se stvari događaju poslije ponoći, sa jedne strane omeđeni malim šumarkom a s druge morem, i posebno uz ćevape; ( Read more... )

The hypocrisy of our society, and us as people, is nowhere more evident than in our culture's views and taboos of sexuality. I'm not saying this from a position of uninvolved clinical observer, but as a person born, educated and indoctrinated into our values (our values meaning the values of modern, Western if you wish, society). I, as all of you, ( Read more... )