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frandroidOh, I haven't done this in a while. I've been reading a liiiittle bit though.
I Don't Want to Talk About It, by Terry Real. This is the book of his that I really needed to read. He talks about the gendered expression of depression, how men often have covert depression which is hidden by hidden behaviour, such as addiction (substances, sex, etc), overwork, grandiosity, aggressivity, etc. He talks a bit about love addiction and I'm curious about that one. I'm still just halfway in.
Le capital, par Karl Marx. My friend Corvin, who is über smart, has decided to rope a bunch of his friends into a Capital reading group. I don't belong in this group at all. At least two of the people are university professors, including one who I have huge respect for. One of my great comrades who I think *might* have a masters but not a PhD is in the group, but she has been on the editorial collective of one of the most important radical publications in this city for over a decade, so she's way better read than me. A new arrival in the group is a Hegelian. I'm assuming he has a PhD, like I think Corvin does.
I knew that Corvin read German, but now I've learned that his father did speak it natively, so that somewhat explains that part of his knowledge. One of the profs also reads German. Corvin asked me if I would read it in French, since that would bring a different perspective. At first I didn't want to, because I do 95% of my radical/political reading in English, and I would have to translate my thoughts back and forth when discussing with the others... ugh. But I did a bit of research anyway. I learned that Marx had personally supervised the translation of the book to French, making significant editorial changes. In the end Marx called the French version the most accessible, and said that even if someone had read it in German, it would be worth their time reading the French version too (as one does) since it contains some extra innovations. Apparently people in Trier, where Marx was born, were often fluent French speakers if they had some education, so Marx would know what he was reading when supervising the work. So anyway. We've had two meetings so far but scheduling has been hell. I canceled the pilates class (!) I had registered to to make things easier. We're still on the first chapter of the first section, which is very abstract. Amusingly, people say that this section makes more sense once you've made it all the way through Volume 3. So anyway, I'm reading the French version, even though I still have to do a bit of on-the-fly translation when discussion the book. The others, when they're not peeking at the German version, are reading the brand new translation by Paul Reiter, which is being roundly lauded.
One thing that's great is that Corvin has found a number of ancillary texts and explainers, and we have a large PDF folder to consult from. But of course, other than buy a copy of one of the main support books, I'm barely keeping up. We'll see what happens!
I Don't Want to Talk About It, by Terry Real. This is the book of his that I really needed to read. He talks about the gendered expression of depression, how men often have covert depression which is hidden by hidden behaviour, such as addiction (substances, sex, etc), overwork, grandiosity, aggressivity, etc. He talks a bit about love addiction and I'm curious about that one. I'm still just halfway in.
Le capital, par Karl Marx. My friend Corvin, who is über smart, has decided to rope a bunch of his friends into a Capital reading group. I don't belong in this group at all. At least two of the people are university professors, including one who I have huge respect for. One of my great comrades who I think *might* have a masters but not a PhD is in the group, but she has been on the editorial collective of one of the most important radical publications in this city for over a decade, so she's way better read than me. A new arrival in the group is a Hegelian. I'm assuming he has a PhD, like I think Corvin does.
I knew that Corvin read German, but now I've learned that his father did speak it natively, so that somewhat explains that part of his knowledge. One of the profs also reads German. Corvin asked me if I would read it in French, since that would bring a different perspective. At first I didn't want to, because I do 95% of my radical/political reading in English, and I would have to translate my thoughts back and forth when discussing with the others... ugh. But I did a bit of research anyway. I learned that Marx had personally supervised the translation of the book to French, making significant editorial changes. In the end Marx called the French version the most accessible, and said that even if someone had read it in German, it would be worth their time reading the French version too (as one does) since it contains some extra innovations. Apparently people in Trier, where Marx was born, were often fluent French speakers if they had some education, so Marx would know what he was reading when supervising the work. So anyway. We've had two meetings so far but scheduling has been hell. I canceled the pilates class (!) I had registered to to make things easier. We're still on the first chapter of the first section, which is very abstract. Amusingly, people say that this section makes more sense once you've made it all the way through Volume 3. So anyway, I'm reading the French version, even though I still have to do a bit of on-the-fly translation when discussion the book. The others, when they're not peeking at the German version, are reading the brand new translation by Paul Reiter, which is being roundly lauded.
One thing that's great is that Corvin has found a number of ancillary texts and explainers, and we have a large PDF folder to consult from. But of course, other than buy a copy of one of the main support books, I'm barely keeping up. We'll see what happens!
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Date: 2025-10-23 11:22 am (UTC)