Black Books and Cult Books

Our memory is weak. I think that a film, or a book can be considered a good one, only when after some time, you can still remember the story, the name of the main characters or maybe some dialogue lines. Books or films which you have recently seen can lead you into confusion: You need to take your time in order to ground an opinion on them.

Call me a fool, but I named myself after a book I have recently read. It's probably too soon to say, but this book is one of the best ones I have read within the last few years (along with the second part: 'The Black Book').

The book tells the story of a man, who is incredibly rich. Rich enough to buy things that nobody else could pay, and to keep being the richest man on Earth. He has the money to start the most extravagant collections that you can imagine, to travel the world without a destination and to arrange interviews with the most influential personalities in the 20th century (see picture).

If I only said that, nobody would probably believe that a book including fictitious interviews could be a good one. If you think that, you should read some biography about Giovanni Papini. He was probably the last humanist, and one of the greatest readers of all times.
Some people say he didn't succeded writing a novel which would have given him a popularity through the years, but the works he wrote are good enough to take him in consideration.

I don't know if in a few years I'll regard this work with so much passion as I do today, but, this book is really in its way to became a personal cult book. It proposes a big thema to talk about in each chapter, and gives an opinion on it. I'd recomend this book to people who enjoy very much comparing, debating or just hearing different opinions on topics, we all already have thought about.

I'll leave here this quote by Papini, so I'll be able to find it easily next time.

"If it's true that in each friend there's a potential enemy, Why can't it be, that behind each enemy, is hidden a friend, waiting for his turn?"

Psycho Cybernetics

Dr Maxwell Maltz (1899-1975) was a plastic surgeon. What brought him into psychology was the point that he observed most of his patients' lives change dramatically with a simple surgery to resize their noses or ears or removing a scar from their faces. Was it really their new face that led those patients' lives into a better and successful ones? No. It wasn't their new face actually but their new "self image" they created after the surgury.

I'm just reading this great book and I read somewhere it was the best seller at the time, and I should say that it's not an old fashioned book at all. Dr. Maltz tries to express and develop the idea that human brain acts like a servo-mechanism, it is based on the simple rules you can apply for such mechanisms. But of course the whole system is much more larger than that. Ok, now what? We have this great machine within ourselves. The most powerful and complicated mechanism in the whole world. But why most of us are "the failure type"? Because every mechanism is designed for a goal. If you do not set a proper goal or if you set a bad goal for the system, simply the result is a failure. This is the very essence of this book. To provide the reader the way to create a "true" and successful type "self-image, and that's what many people really lack but don't know anything about it. The idea seems very obvious, and you can say well, I know the whole about it, but if you read it you can see that no, you don't know the whole about it!

Quotes From Faust

I read Faust last summer. As everybody says only the first part of the book, until Faust meets Helene, is understandable for someone who doesn't have a coverage on Roman and Greek mythology. Anyway it's a great book. Like any other I scribbled some quotes of it that I liked, and since I don't want to lose it, I'll write them here in the blog.

What comes is a translation of a translation:

From the opening of the book:

"Blend a little truth with much imagination,

Paint the clouds with just one ray of sunlight,

Then be sure that you'll overcome all problems,

Your audience get impressed and delighted,

All they need is a mirror not a painting,

Let them come every night and watch themselves in it,

And do not forget the love,

That's only with love that they keep cheering,

And we keep making money,

Make a big fire for the youth to gather around,

To keep it alive, always,

And to take blaze."

God talking to Devil:

"As long as he lives on earth you are allowed to tempt him, Anyone who walks, can get lost!"

"Human gets lazy most of the time, he likes inertia, and I like someone active and agitative beside him, although be able to create, someone like Devil"

Down to earth, hopeless but arrogant Faust talks to himself:

"I see that we cannot understand anything,

That's what makes me nervous,

No longer obsession,

No longer doubt,

No more fear of the devil,

Nor hell,

That's why I have nothing joyful in life."

Mephistopheles interrupts Faust's solitude:

"Evils and ghosts have a rule,

They must get out just from the door,

They've got in,

We are empowered by ourselves at first,

But we are enforced by the other, after that."

Mephistopheles:

"There exists none of the four elements in this animal!"

Mephistopheles gives a sarcastic solution for Faust's skepticism:

"That's the way which needs no money, no medical science, no magic. Go to the farms right now. Hoe the land, and keep your mind in a close circle. Be happy with a simple food, live like an animal among other animals, and do not take it a low job to manure the farm by your own hands, and believe me that's the best way to become 80 years younger!"

Mephistopheles to the Faust's girlfriend and her mother:

"Nice idea! The one who overcomes his ego, will be victorious certainly. The church has a good stomach, it has swallowed whole countries and never has got sick. Dear ladies, the illegitimate money can only be digested by the church"

Mephistopheles to Faust:

"Nature is bound to the sin, and intelligence with the devil. I cansee the doubt as an illegitimate and ugly son between them"

Mephistopheles to Faust:

"who can have either a foolish or brilliant idea that nobody ever had before? Think! The Devil is old. You should get old to know him"

Faust:

"Finally we are dependent to our own creatures."

Who told this?

"You are, before you have the right to be."

The Distress:

"The one I cover under my wings,

Has no tendency to the world,

There's no sunrise or sunset,

In his eyes covered by an eternal mist,

The darkness lingers in him.

The treasures he longs for them, in vain,

He can get with a glimpse of an eye.

Fortune, misfortune,

Everything is annoying for him.

He'll die of hunger as he is rich.

Joy or Sorrow,

He postpones it to tomorrow.

He always thinks about tomorrow."

The Philosopher's Gift

I had a visit to the first big book fair in our small town. A friend of mine, Hossein, is a philosopher. He has the masters in western philosophy, and he has chosen this corner to live and kill the time. We have always argues and I always encourage him to continue his study abroad. I'll persuade him one day I know.

Anyway, he gifted me a book last night, Marcus Aurelius Meditations. Aurelius was the Roman emperor and philosopher (the one who died or was killed by his son in the beginning of Gladiator movie). This book is about his own "moral" issues he had experienced and gained during his life. The point of it is that, he writes about morality in his most powerful time and situation as the emperor. That's in contrast with Nietzsche's theory who says moarlity is an artifact of the weak!
I've just read the first of 12 chapters.