3 posts tagged “augustine of hippo”

This is one of my partners favorite books and she's been wanting me to read it for some time. I keep picking it up and reading it for long swatches. It's quite long and involved and I really do love it. I just need to devote more time to it. It's the first Chambon that I've read, and his prose is so detailed. It really is flush with imagery. The scenes are just painted before you as you turn page after page. And it never seems overwrought, which amazes me. Some books seem to describe things on and on and you wish that the plot would just get on with it already! Yet, Chambon does just fine. He really does a fine job of putting you there in New York and you can almost smell it. The characters are wonderful and being a huge comic fan myself, I really do love the story and they way he intertwines the characters with historical events (seemingly minor ones), is amazing. It's a different kind of novel than what I would ordinarily read. It's a very American novel, but even then, it's a special kind of American novel. I think that it's just out of my regular material. I like it a lot. And I'm only 250 pages into it.

This is the next book of my ongoing Philosophy/Theology Reading Project, wherein which I read my entire philosophical/theological library in chronological order. I'm currently in the year 395, approximately. I've not read this work by Augustine in ten years, when I had to read it for an undergrad philosophy class. Looking back on my notes scribbled therein, I had a relatively good grasp of the subject for the level at which I was reading, but I wasn't really able to think outside the box. Now, I'm a more cynical and jaded reader and this book seems more idealistic than I first believed. I do enjoy the read. It's important to remember that Augustine was writing at the end of the Roman Empire (Rome will fall in 410) and that he is not very democratic in his thoughts. The free will that he is discussing is free will in terms of moral choice, rather than political action. On the other hand, he is of the conclusion that each individual is a slave to something, whether that be God or vices. I'd be interested to know if Michele Foucault ever made any observations about this... I've only worked through the first book out of three, so far, so I still have about one hundred pages. But Augustine is enjoyable, even though you want to stick a fork in his head sometimes. He's extremely Platonic, which is good and bad. All in all, it's Augustine. And I have about four books by him, including City of God which will take some time.

I've also started this one and now I've become overcome with sleepiness so I will just post and go back to bed. I still can get another hour before I have to wake up for real.