Chris,
I've been going over your postscript in my mind since I read it, very
slightly trying to guess how this novel I have only read about might
shape a personality, but mostly trying to bring to mind books that might
have affected me in that way. In my case I sort of think they were not
novels. I was affected by the stoics /Epictetus /and /Marcus Aurelius,
Plato's Dialogues (/except for the /Republic/) /Siddhartha /by Hermann
Hesse, the writings of Gautama Buddha, the writings of Lao Tse, etc.,
and a great number of Christian Commentaries and works of theology.
I can't bring to mind a novel that has helped me shape my 'persona' in
the way you describe unless it is some of the novels we discussed in
previous notes, novels we read as adolescents: in my case Zane Grey's
/The Spirit of the Border, /Defoe's /Robinson Crusoe, /Burroughs' the
/Tarzan series, /the /John Carter //Martian series, /A. E. Van Vogt's
/Slan, /Heinlein's /Starship Troopers/, etc.
Also, I was mightily affected by newspaper articles reporting Marines
fighting in the Pacific during WWII which inspired me to join the
Marines during the Korean War which despite my staying in for only three
years affected me more, most likely, than my subsequent five years in
college or any book that I read before or afterwards.
Lawrence
On 2/19/2021 1:56 AM, epostboxx@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On 18. Feb 2021, at 16:24, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Does any Iris Murdoch reader believe that any of her other novels are as goodA FAIRLY HONOURABLE DEFEAT is not on the list. It was the first of hers that I
as the ones Wikipedia lists above?
read that literally helped me shape my 'persona' (as much as such a thing is
possible - about which more later).
Chris Bruce,
feeling he's being drawn out from
behind the mask [persona], in
Kiel Germany
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
