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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
what a bizarre little book !
a blend of fact and fancy, at once profound and hilarious.
Hegel makes an extended appearance which made me roll my eyes, i must confess, (but not at the book), because I too, like the narrator, have felt as though I have been ruined by Georg Wilhelm's phenomenology since I read it in college, all of which has now escaped me except that bit about spirit and subsuming and history ... never quite the same.
a blend of fact and fancy, at once profound and hilarious.
context:
In the 16th century, an Italian philosopher named Giulio Camillo Delminio decided to build what he called a memory theater, a physical version of a memory palace. No one is quite sure how it was supposed to work; the only person Camillo told, Yates wrote, was the king of France, who financed it. But the intent seems to have been mystical. Symbols of every domain of knowledge were to be installed inside. Once a spectator was initiated into the symbols’ meanings, he could step in and have a conspectus of all the wisdom in the universe.
Hegel makes an extended appearance which made me roll my eyes, i must confess, (but not at the book), because I too, like the narrator, have felt as though I have been ruined by Georg Wilhelm's phenomenology since I read it in college, all of which has now escaped me except that bit about spirit and subsuming and history ... never quite the same.
Are you up on your philosophy?, then you're in for a informative, enlightening ride through the Memory Theatre. Historically, a memory theatre is a mnemonic space (physical or mental) for remembering the history of man and a source of interpretation for one's inner life. In this book Critchley gets more than he bargained for.
A strange and brief little book-- an older philosopher is sent a friend's papers after the friend's death and it resets his critical interests on questions of memory, what it means and what it's worth, and then the novel is off, on a recapitulation of a lot of themes and philosophy that is pretty interesting. The storyline feels like a hook to hang the story's various preces on, but then it isn't-- there's a turn at the end which is surprising, and does make me wonder about where it al was leading.
Engaging, quick, and pretty fun. File it next to something like Name of the Rose, as intellectual history disguised as an adventure book, or the opposite.
Engaging, quick, and pretty fun. File it next to something like Name of the Rose, as intellectual history disguised as an adventure book, or the opposite.
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated