Brighton

I went to Brighton and drank cocktails. I went to a party. Now I'm back.

Christmas shopping, reading, and writing await me.

I'm now reading Schnitzler's La Ronde which, when it first came out, caused riots in his native Vienna. Planning to write a piece about the philosophical implications of the idea that there is a 'God-spot' in the brain.

So I have polished off the Journals of Sylvia Plath. Beautifully written and surprisingly amusing at times. It appears that, at least as a student, she was an existential humanist.

On to the next!

Gai Paris

So I'm going to Paris on Thursday to deliver my conference paper. Much good may it do me. I plan to walk one of Beckett's favorite routes, though I shall not visit his grave in Montparnasse - his work is quite depressing enough.

Listened to a sermon at Evensong tonight - God uses people who grumble, I was told. From where I stand he's been working overtime.

Read a short story by Balzac called 'The Atheist's Mass'. Raised some interesting questions but I was expecting more. Something that cut deeper.

Trip

The thesis has, I hope temporarily, ground to a halt.

Off to Edinburgh on Tuesday followed by Durham. I shall be on the look-out for gentlemans' outfitters. I've decided too to have my 'Nietzsche phase' whilst away. I plan to start with an article by my former supervisor followed by The Birth of Tragedy, followed by Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I shall stop short of the advice of this man to read them in the bath.

Macquarrie

Well, I've been carrying on with the work. I've been reading a lot of John Macquarrie this week who was an early influence on my thinking (and the writer who first got me interested in Heidegger). It is good to read a mainstream philosopher of religion and systematic theologian denying that the statement "God exists" is strictly true. It's this line of argument, and Tillich's religious symbols, that I'll be writing about in Chapter 4; I hope, over Christmas.

I've reached the conclusion that there is some good stuff in theology but you have to be very careful. Or perhaps I'm just reading philosophers of religion who deceptively call themsleves, or were deceptively called by others, theologians.

The Lake District

More reading: voracious reading! Human potential is more than we give it credit for.

On a different note: Choral Evensong tonight, followed by drinks. Then, I'm off to Keswick tomorrow for a wedding. I shall return with a detailed account and, no doubt, some pictures.

[Edit: I'm hoping for some visitors from California. I suspect that the mere presence of the word 'California' in this post may attract some.]