Comments on: George Scialabba Seminar

By: Keara

Keara — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:57:47 +0000

My copy of the book arrived yesterday, and I’m eagerly awaiting the seminar. Can someone please answer Salient’s question, above – “. . . is this one of the CT “event” seminars for which various guest contributors provide a review of the book . . . or one of the CT seminars for which we read one chapter at a time . . . ?” (I’m hoping it’s the latter, but there are probably too many chapters for that. Maybe we could do, say, 10 chapters?) Also, please, is there a start date yet?

By: geo

geo — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:08:04 +0000

Way to fight free, guy!

Actually, all the credit should go to Voltaire and John Stuart Mill.

By: SqueakyRat

SqueakyRat — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:36:13 +0000

I was a bit stunned to learn that Sciallaba was once a member of Opus Dei. Way to fight free, guy!

By: Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:44:04 +0000

I get a sense—though I’m reaching here—that it’s okay to buy things from Amazon, but it’s also okay to put an apostrophe in “Powell’s”: it’s owned by a Powell, they don’t sell them there.

By: Salient

Salient — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:53:46 +0000

Please forgive a technical question, Henry—is this one of the CT “event” seminars for which various guest contributors provide a review of the book with geo’s response to those reviews comprising the final entry in the set of posts, or one of the CT seminars for which we read one chapter at a time and share our thoughts on the chapter in comments, with a focus on reading and responding to the posted discussion prompt for that chapter?

If this is an “event” style seminar with known guest contributors that could be named/identified, I’d like to go read their blogs or CVs or whatnot in advance of their book event posts. Either way, thank you for offering the seminar: I find geo’s work to be consistently engaging, even inspirational (I’m young enough to say such a thing and have it be coherent), and I’m looking forward to this seminar as a highlight of my summer.

By: novakant

novakant — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:07:31 +0000

Sounds interesting and I liked the interview.

One observation: from what I can gather, the book seems to be about US intellectuals or intellectuals in the English-speaking world and the situation in other countries, say France or Germany, is quite different. This is not a criticism of the author, as it is beyond any individual to summarize the state of intellectuals all over the world and of course there’s a language barrier, but sometimes it seems to me that the English-speaking world operates in a bubble.

By: terence

terence — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:17:35 +0000

“And if you read it, you will be You”
That’s quite a promise Henry…are you sure.

More seriously, thanks for the link – the interview was fascinating. Looking forwards to the forum.

By: Christian

Christian — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:01:35 +0000

What’s with the cover??

By: anxiousmodernman

anxiousmodernman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:29:25 +0000

Second that, I like the cover.

By: bert

bert — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:14:29 +0000

You also had an improving influence on Chris Lydon.
Whenever I’ve heard him he’s been winningly enthusiastic.
But on this occasion he burbled far less.

Ordered a copy, hope it arrives before you get started here.
Good cover, by the way.

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:28:46 +0000

Thanks. That was a good listen. Looking forward to the posts.

By: geo (George Scialabba)

geo (George Scialabba) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:28:42 +0000

Thank you, Henry, but I blush when I remember how heavily that conversation with Chris Lydon was edited.