Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
Floria Aemilia as the fictive former lover of Aurelius Augustinus answers his 'Confessiones' in a letter. Actually, a woman like her existed in St. Augustins life that also was the mother of his illegimate child Adeodatus. Gaarder gives her a voice that argues with Augustinus' way of condemning all physical love and lust. Uses a lot of philosophical ideas, intelligently written, easy to read.
Sebuah kutipan. Bukan dari buku ini.
Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana
dengan kata yang tak sempat
diucapkan kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu
Terlepas dari benarkah Floria yang aslinya menulis Codex Floriae yang ditulis ulang oleh Gaarder ini, ternyata ia tidak bisa mencintai Aurelius Agustinus "dengan sederhana". Di satu sisi saya kasihan, di sisi lain... yah, mau gimana lagi. Memang semua manusia tidak ada yang sempurna, hihi...
Lihat kan, Pak Sapardi sendiri pun baru "aku ingin", bukan "aku bisa"... :)
*niatnya bersambung*
Aku ingin mencintaimu dengan sederhana
dengan kata yang tak sempat
diucapkan kayu kepada api yang menjadikannya abu
Terlepas dari benarkah Floria yang aslinya menulis Codex Floriae yang ditulis ulang oleh Gaarder ini, ternyata ia tidak bisa mencintai Aurelius Agustinus "dengan sederhana". Di satu sisi saya kasihan, di sisi lain... yah, mau gimana lagi. Memang semua manusia tidak ada yang sempurna, hihi...
Lihat kan, Pak Sapardi sendiri pun baru "aku ingin", bukan "aku bisa"... :)
*niatnya bersambung*
My bookcrossing review:
As the title says, this book is mainly a letter written by Floria to Augustine, many years after their love affair had ended. According to the introduction, Gaarder found a copy of this letter (the copy made in the 1600s) in an antique bookshop in South America. I don't know half as much about Augustine and this time in history as I probably should.
So, is the letter genuine? To be honest, I think it's a creation of Gaarder's mind. I think in part it's been an interesting project for him, imagining this woman and what she would write to Augustine after the years of seperation and after she had read Augustine's books. I think it's always an inventive way of him defending women, sensual and sexual love and taking pleasure in the senses against the puritanical, anti-women and general abstinance from everything Christian attitude that came out of this period.
I know it sounds as though it may make pretty dull reading, but I actually really enjoyed it. And it is just a letter - it's not a 1000 page phillosophical rant. Perhaps a very clever way to get us to think, and to increase interest in the classical world.
As the title says, this book is mainly a letter written by Floria to Augustine, many years after their love affair had ended. According to the introduction, Gaarder found a copy of this letter (the copy made in the 1600s) in an antique bookshop in South America. I don't know half as much about Augustine and this time in history as I probably should.
So, is the letter genuine? To be honest, I think it's a creation of Gaarder's mind. I think in part it's been an interesting project for him, imagining this woman and what she would write to Augustine after the years of seperation and after she had read Augustine's books. I think it's always an inventive way of him defending women, sensual and sexual love and taking pleasure in the senses against the puritanical, anti-women and general abstinance from everything Christian attitude that came out of this period.
I know it sounds as though it may make pretty dull reading, but I actually really enjoyed it. And it is just a letter - it's not a 1000 page phillosophical rant. Perhaps a very clever way to get us to think, and to increase interest in the classical world.
I haven't read Augustine of Hippo's Confessions and I am not sure that I might do it in the nearer future in order to write a fairer review of Gaardner Vita Brevis, regardless of its inventive wiseness of bringing about a series of letters written by the unnamed concumbine of the saint, in here given the name Flória Emília. Yet, it is clear that its goal is to confront eros and philia in the face of agape. The former, human, thus dispensable; the latter, heavenly necessary).
Notwithstanding Augustine's thesis to the benefit of the Christian church, the truth is that as many other doctors of the church, they are holier-than-thou to a point that most probably even Jesus Christ would be considered a sinner in their visions of sanctitude. Augustine's thesis on the original sin is a great disservice to the position of women in most Christian societies through the centuries, whereas, why not see both Adam and Eve picking the fruit of the tree of wisdom together? Blaming someone else for our own errors is much easier, not? And if it were for Eve to have picked it alone, why then men condemned women to a life without knowledge, without wisdom? At the same time the Church sanctifies women as mothers, thus closer to Our Lady, the mother of Jesus, it proclaims the female sex is not able to achieve many statuses only given to men. There is also the contestation of the body as a sinful work of God, male or female. If God created beings, it created them for a reason. Everything that turns out to be excessive is bad. And Augustine's biggest mistake seems to have been one to blame on other what he thought as his own errors or sins. This is what Flória most claims about in her long and interesting letters to Augustine. And in this, Gaardene provided us with such interesting work.
Implicit in the book is also the fact that the search for sanctitude for its own sake is the worst of the seven deadly sins: superbia (pride).
Notwithstanding Augustine's thesis to the benefit of the Christian church, the truth is that as many other doctors of the church, they are holier-than-thou to a point that most probably even Jesus Christ would be considered a sinner in their visions of sanctitude. Augustine's thesis on the original sin is a great disservice to the position of women in most Christian societies through the centuries, whereas, why not see both Adam and Eve picking the fruit of the tree of wisdom together? Blaming someone else for our own errors is much easier, not? And if it were for Eve to have picked it alone, why then men condemned women to a life without knowledge, without wisdom? At the same time the Church sanctifies women as mothers, thus closer to Our Lady, the mother of Jesus, it proclaims the female sex is not able to achieve many statuses only given to men. There is also the contestation of the body as a sinful work of God, male or female. If God created beings, it created them for a reason. Everything that turns out to be excessive is bad. And Augustine's biggest mistake seems to have been one to blame on other what he thought as his own errors or sins. This is what Flória most claims about in her long and interesting letters to Augustine. And in this, Gaardene provided us with such interesting work.
Implicit in the book is also the fact that the search for sanctitude for its own sake is the worst of the seven deadly sins: superbia (pride).
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
[a:Jostein Gaarder|1388082|Jostein Gaarder|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1271411783p2/1388082.jpg] is one of my favourite authors, so I'm torn on what to think of this book- one that carries his name, but is allegedly not written by him. I don't believe the letters are real. Gaarder gives a little tongue-in-cheek mention at the end about the truthfulness of these leters:
And indeed, it was incredibly naive of me not to ask the Vatican Library for a receipt at least!
This is basically his way of saying, sup guys, this is just a fictional story, like Sophie's World and The Solitaire Mystery. There's also the fact that Floria writes out several parts of St. Augustine's Confessions verbatim, she also meanders throughout the letters, repeating herself a number of times. She keeps falling back to the part where he asks her if she's ever been to Rome. This continual memory flashback bothers me. It doesn't strike me as true. Floria just strikes me also as being too much of a modern woman. Now, who's to say that the woman of the 4th Century and the woman of the 21st Century aren't very much alike in terms of pre-marital sex, the Catholic Church and sin? But ultimately I just found the entire thing to be too unlikely.
Now, none of this isn't to say the Gaarder made the whole thing up. It is likely he found a letter in Buenos Aires that was supposedly from Augstine's concubine, and it turned out to be a fake. That's definitely possibly. But [b:Vita Brevis|29648|Vita Brevis A Letter to St Augustine|Jostein Gaarder|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168035944s/29648.jpg|30079] being the true thing? Yeah, unlikely. Still, this is a nice, romantic, bittersweet and very quick read.
And indeed, it was incredibly naive of me not to ask the Vatican Library for a receipt at least!
This is basically his way of saying, sup guys, this is just a fictional story, like Sophie's World and The Solitaire Mystery. There's also the fact that Floria writes out several parts of St. Augustine's Confessions verbatim, she also meanders throughout the letters, repeating herself a number of times. She keeps falling back to the part where he asks her if she's ever been to Rome. This continual memory flashback bothers me. It doesn't strike me as true. Floria just strikes me also as being too much of a modern woman. Now, who's to say that the woman of the 4th Century and the woman of the 21st Century aren't very much alike in terms of pre-marital sex, the Catholic Church and sin? But ultimately I just found the entire thing to be too unlikely.
Now, none of this isn't to say the Gaarder made the whole thing up. It is likely he found a letter in Buenos Aires that was supposedly from Augstine's concubine, and it turned out to be a fake. That's definitely possibly. But [b:Vita Brevis|29648|Vita Brevis A Letter to St Augustine|Jostein Gaarder|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168035944s/29648.jpg|30079] being the true thing? Yeah, unlikely. Still, this is a nice, romantic, bittersweet and very quick read.
While I have to admit that I don't have the adequate background, this book is nonetheless engaging and thought-provoking. I devoured half the book and then I had to stop and absorb it.
3.5/5
Given that I don’t have much knowledge about Agustin, I wasn’t familiar with his Confessions. Nevertheless it was an interesting read, and especially since we don’t even know if it is real or not.
Given that I don’t have much knowledge about Agustin, I wasn’t familiar with his Confessions. Nevertheless it was an interesting read, and especially since we don’t even know if it is real or not.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional