Revolt of the Angels - Anatole France BOOK REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 16 лип 2023
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Hey Cliff! Gonna send this to my Gaiman-obsessed pal. Do you mind sharing the name of the translator? Thanks, and always so thankful for your reviews!
Clifford, I just finished An Episode of a Landscape Artist and it blew me away! I have read so many great books thanks to your channel and, for me, Aira wrote a life-changing book. I'm experiencing the biggest book hangover that I've had in a long time, as you said might very well happen. Without you and this channel, my reading life would be less. Thanks, man!
Read Thaïs by Anatole France ages ago. Many writers idolized him. Thanks for reminding us about him, Cliff.
It felt like Cliff liked this book the more he talked about it. That's a good sign. Great review as always - thanks for putting a new author on our Hellish radars.
One of the main draws I've always had with the idea of eternity is how it frames bad events. I think drawing meaning and wisdom from suffering would be a lot easier if the bad times weren't spending the time one has. Older people seem to have a lot of regrets on wasting time keeping on with failed things and not doing what they wish. Maybe the lack of lost time in eternity would take too much of the edge of suffering, and you wouldn't really feel the blow or something, but for me that's romanticizing the pain over the lesson.
If we are talking about an afterlife though, would it really be a kind of existence like this, but forever? I feel like an eternal being would be almost by necessity different in other ways too.
I haven’t seen you on my suggestions in ages. Glad to see it, and glad you’re back on it.
Very glad to hear your thoughts on this one. I've debated reading Revolt of the Angels but wasn't sure if I ought to. I knew it was a sort of political satire, but I didn't know it was as thin as you make it sound. I think you're probably right about the missed opportunity with the character of Satan. That's *the* reason why Paradise Lost is as grand as it is, because the big D is so multifaceted in that work. This would probably feel like a letdown for me. Great review! :)
Well, your valued review left me cold to read it. However, it did inspire me to.approach/ tackle, for the first time, Paradise Lost. I'm 81 so I probably shouldn't avoid it much longer or I may learn about it first hand LOL
For sure, I'm a true, dedicated fan. I do cheat a little bit with Benjamin McEvoy; honesty is the best policy in any close relationship. Right?
Going to check if I've missed any more of your oeuvre, so to say. Adoring you intellectually from Chicago, Dahling (a little Freddie ❤️ is always good, nes pa?). Mercury.
I agree. It's not a huge tome so I hope to push through it some weekend; it remains,, after all, a HUGELY popular classic in France. The easy-reading, zany satirical humor sounds a treat. In contrast, Paradise Lost is comparably heavy-going, deep, and meaty; the Shakespearean language requires some commitment and perhaps a companion-commentary to ease digestion. It's thought-provoking, and Milton's prose is a delight. Well worth the investment in your time and effort
Love your reviews!
I just love your reviews
Hi, have you read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann? Absolute classic, amazing author. I first read it when I was 14 and it's been stuck in my head ever since. Would be wonderful to see you review this one. Anyways, love your videos and thank you for your great work.
When you were describing the angels on earth I just kept getting flashbacks of the Goo Goo music video from that movie where Nic Cage is an Angel.
Thank you again for another insightful (and freaking hilarious) review.
What I've read by France: The Gods Will Have Blood, Sylvestre Bonnard, Thais (havent finished). ? A few short stories... I liked them, all of them. The Gods Will Have Blood is a great novel of the Revolution.
I’ve only read Sylvestre Bonnard and I enjoyed it. My copy is a tiny, old hardback in red leather found in a secondhand bookshop. I’d heard of him but not read any by him before, so thought I’d give him a go. Perhaps I’ll try some more.
If you're interested in books carrying the spirit of Paradise Lost, read The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago, another Nobel laureate, and my favourite author. He was an atheist so this book definitely attacks the Church unlike Paradise Lost.
Attacking the church is a very different thing than attacking the Bible.
Glad to see another fan of Saramago. I loved The Double and Blindness.
Revelation is pretty clear for the elect. Eternal worship at the throne of the Devine. It scares me, but I’m working on it. Not that I’m elect, but if that is the afterlife for the elect, what is everyone else doing? The meek will have the earth, but I’m afraid I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between meek and elect.
18:07 if you think that's odd then you'll love to read "the machine stops" by E. M. Forster (1909)
Whenever people talk about eternal life they just about always make immediately the mistake of thinking that eternity is a concept of time. It is not. Eternity is where time does not exist, outside time. And timely beings as we are, there is no way of comprehending what life, or existence rather, outside time could be. The core of the Bible is incomprehension, realizing and admitting that human knowledge is very limited and often flawed. Often very timely, changing, and therefore constantly in need of correction.
Y’all da both.
Hebrew Adonai (add an I)
Jesus + I = Je Suis
I Am / I Follow
Wow- you totally missed that one. France is writing satires about people like ewe.
Demiurge means half creator. I saw a friend the other day, and he said to me, “times are hard. I’m half the man I used to be.” And I tried to relate and make them feel better, so I said, “Yeah, me too, man. I’m half the man I used to be too, but I’m also still the other half too…still.”
Man I loved this one. I had never heard of it and bought it for the gorgeous book itself, but man the story was a shockingly subversive and hilarious satire I was not expecting
Saramago’s “Death with interruptions” might be a good follow up for the question on desiring an eternal life.
How do you keep the walet in your pocket ? I don't want aerotags just a way to keep it in my pocket.
I would definitely recommend giving 'Penguin Island' a spin. It's a hilarious satire on history, theology, art etc.
You can see how it influenced Kurt Vonnegut's 'Galapagos'.
I wanna know what you would think of (the unconsoled) by Kazou ishiguro. It’s toooo long for what it’s trying to do but it’s really interesting.
Please review The Rivethead by Ben Hanper
I'm sure you're aware already, but the concept of a demiurge (Jaldabaoth) comes from Gnosticism. I've yet to read this one but I wouldn't be surprised if the author was a gnostic or at least heavily influenced by it.
17:11 something interesting, apparently you go to heaven to work not to enjoy yourself, at some point heaven got confused with paradise.
I'd love to watch you react to more Jarry's books. He's quite only known for Ubu (as he's and was himself as a person even mingled with Ubu, living a life often perceived as absurd as he drank himself to death) but he wrote stupendous novels :
- The Supermale, which is just the best erotical novel in my opinion, starting with this : "The act of love is of no importance, since it can be performed indefinitely" then challenging it and the whole era of positivism up to reach desperately the core of pure love.. Using all this bizarre 'pataphysical, proto-surrealistic, almost magical science but still so naive and powerful.
- Days and Nights, which is just an absolute novel about desertion, not only on a military's stand point but to reach the visions of the other side true poetry is all about (as ultimate as Rimbaud or Lautréamont back then).
Someday. Someday... I will win this drawing!
Tendentious moral literature tends towards the bland and nuanceless stodge end of storytelling.
"Eternal life" for a group of people who get so bored on a rainy Sunday they'll watch masses of young men damage their bodies for entertainment is a chilling concept.
Μας έχεις διαλύσει ρε Cliff! Πόσα βιβλία θα μας κάνεις να αγοράσουμε;
Anyone wondering what heaven is like should listen to the finale of Mahler's 4th Symphony, a soprano orchestral song titled: Das Himmlische Leben (Life in Heaven), from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. "Wine doesn't cost a penny In the heavenly cellars." Basically, it's all a good time and a never-ending feast. Prepare to enjoy, you righteous ones!
Wow!!!!
even though you are not a Neil Gaiman fan, would still love to hear your thoughts on American Gods... if you ever come around to it. it made believing in god, cool again, it added color to the world for me.
7:46 which implies that there IS an almighty god, it's just not this one, this one is the demiurge, which makes the whole point quite redundant because you end up in the same place as you started, that is: in a world with an almighty-god and some lower spirits ruling over you. what a waste of time.
did you hear the new Swans record?
Oh, is it out?
@@billyalarie929it is
To Be Kind is still standin' as The Recording of This Century for mahself....
Penguin Island forever!
Sorry for the irrelevance, and if you take offense, but you look a bit like Arthur Shelby from the Peaky Blinders.
That's what I was thinking .
fi and only fi you need a book to read to throw up for real it´s pure...( you know when the devil speaks through humans...
No such thing as a philosophy of atheism. After 40 years as an atheist after 20 as a christian, I can certainly point out christian philosophy. I guess if you want to call, 'I need evidence for your claim ' a 'philosophy' in a loose sense , go ahead. I believe you're wrong. Is not believing in Bigfoot, miracles, ghosts and a truthful politician a philosophy? If so, everything is a philosophy and it's up to the individual observer to determine what makes them feel cozy inside that they are right. If that's the case, there is no honest search for the 'truth' and philosophy is relegated to pedantic ramblings. Oh wait, it usually is.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the review. I'll read the book.
Cliff! Don't be reading stuff like this! Your soul is in danger.
Read your Bible, listen to country music, and your soul is safe.
Okay thanks!? @!!!!!!!?
I don't like paradise lost. Because it makes satan look like a chump
Only once? Sad
I'm sincerely trying to pay attention to cliffs book review.. But find myself terribly distracted by his jutting TOOTH. 😳... A poor sufferer of lycanthropy perhaps ?..i just cant say 🤔