tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post2197280741961091976..comments2023-07-08T09:00:54.916-07:00Comments on A Common Reader: Roberto Calasso's lecture on “The Last Superstition”Dwighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13688525659034403580noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post-3184856634276819922014-11-09T11:06:38.523-08:002014-11-09T11:06:38.523-08:00"a mythic belief in society" Ain't t..."a mythic belief in society" Ain't that the truth? People continue to invent new gods, on a daily basis. I know people who pray every night before bed, hoping for the Singularity. Et cetera. I always think of Nietzsche writing about the death of the gods, and what damage that ritual killing-of-the-fathers does to the surviving societies. Claims that religion and superstition are idiocy are made by people who believe--for no clear reason--that computer programs will somehow "save" mankind from itself, ushering in a golden age, etc. Maybe everything we say or write or paint or build is a form of myth building, or portraits of gods we can't recognize. I have to find my Calasso and read it again.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post-75915675794437926992014-11-08T16:11:18.074-08:002014-11-08T16:11:18.074-08:00I read Literature and the Gods back in 2009. I can...<i>I read Literature and the Gods back in 2009. I can't tell you a single thing that was in it, but I remember that I thought well of the book.</i><br /><br />If I remember anything of it, it's the amazing essay on the Comte de Lautreamont! I'm curious to read his book on Kafka one day.LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post-7087728166619131272014-11-07T19:13:54.969-08:002014-11-07T19:13:54.969-08:00I happened to be reading The Eighteenth Century Co...I happened to be reading <i>The Eighteenth Century Confronts the Gods</i> by Frank E. Manuel this past week. His closing has been stated in different ways, before and after his this late-1950s book, but I thought it appropriate for Calasso's lecture:<br /><br />"Historians of the human psyche have warned that the mythic cannot be exorcised without danger to the soul of man and without his utter spiritual impoverishment."<br /><br />Adapted for Calasso's lecture, it could be restated that after the destruction of the gods and of God, man had to find something to replace that core belief...and that was a mythic belief in society.Dwighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13688525659034403580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post-57410334611240812612014-11-07T14:34:09.214-08:002014-11-07T14:34:09.214-08:00It strikes me (and take this with a grain of salt ...It strikes me (and take this with a grain of salt since I've read a limited amount of his work) that fully understanding Calasso's subject matter before reading his lectures, which I think <i>Literature of the Gods</i> is, is the only way to make it stick. <br /><br />I was reminded of Miklos Szentkuthy's <i>Marginalia on Casanova</i> when I was listening to Calasso, wishing I knew more about his references in order to better understand his commentary. As if I didn't have enough I wanted to read as it were...now I have so much more!Dwighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13688525659034403580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26428110.post-76838465769341586082014-11-07T09:14:12.058-08:002014-11-07T09:14:12.058-08:00I read Literature and the Gods back in 2009. I can...I read <i>Literature and the Gods</i> back in 2009. I can't tell you a single thing that was in it, but I remember that I thought well of the book.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com