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- Godless in America: Conversations With an Atheist - by George A. Ricker
- Interventions - by Noam Chomsky
- Religious Expression and the American Constitution - by Franklyn S. Haiman
- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future - by Bill McKibben
- The God Delusion - by Richard Dawkins
- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal - by Jared Diamond
- The Woman in the Dunes - by Abe Kobo
- Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction - by Eugenie Scott
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - by Michael Pollan
- I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 - by Robert Graves
- Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - by Daniel Dennett
- A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East - by David Fromkin
- The Time Traveler's Wife - by Audrey Niffenegger
- The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - by Sam Harris
- Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - by Mark Haddon
- Value & Virtue in a Godless Universe - by Erik J. Wielenberg
- The March: A Novel - by E.L. Doctorow
- The Ethical Brain - by Michael Gazzaniga
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- Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark - by Carl Sagan
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - by Dee Alexander Brown
- Future Shock - by Alvin Toffler
Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132
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Chris OConnor |
Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132 |
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Indisputable BookTalk Master
Posts: 9511 01/26/06 23:11:30 BookTalk Owner |
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Pages 89 - 132)
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MadArchitect |
Re: Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132 | #1 | ||
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Posts: 3169 02/08/06 19:59:44 Indisputable BookTalk Master |
Wow. Chapters 149 and 157 are heavy stuff. They pretty much change the nature of the story from here on out. I definitely appreciate the realism that Haddon brought to the father's reaction. And the shoddy spelling in the letters gave me a real sense of the mother's vulnerability and flaws. I was sucked in, but I decided to stop after 157 to let the big events of the last few chapters sink in a little. I'll be resuming tonight, I'm sure. I wanted to take this book at a more leisurely pace, but at this rate, I'll probably be done before the weekend.
Good book, and I don't usually say that about contemporary fiction. |
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MadArchitect |
Re: Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132 | #2 | ||
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Posts: 3169 02/08/06 20:12:58 Indisputable BookTalk Master |
Oops, I lied: I did read past 157 last night. I almost forgot that I wanted to ask what everyone thought of Christopher's discussion of the mind in chapter 163. Do you think he really understands the mind?
(Well, come on, who really understands the mind? But do you think he understands it in a basic sense, the way that we understand people having minds that are like our own, but distinct, and so forth.) And what did you think of his description of the mind, particularly his reduction of the mind to a kind of computer? |
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LanDroid |
Occam's Razor | #3 | ||
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Posts: 380 02/15/06 19:36:46 Amusingly Clever |
At the end of Chapter 139 (p. 90 in my version), Christopher quotes Occam's Razor as "No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary". That's quite a bit different from my understanding, which is more like "Given multiple solutions to a problem, the simplest one tends to be correct". Those two versions are compatible, but not equivalent. If Christopher's is accurate, I suspect it was re-written as the version I've heard to make it more useful for business/engineering situations. Anyone else familiar with Christopher's version of Occam's Razor?
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MadArchitect |
Re: Occam's Razor | #4 | ||
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Posts: 3169 02/16/06 20:34:34 Indisputable BookTalk Master |
pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html
Christopher's is the more direct summation of the Occam. The principle has been manipulated to a lot of different ends in recent years. |
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ADO15 |
Re: Occam's Razor | #5 | ||
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Masters
Posts: 192 02/17/06 21:11:48 Graduate |
Yes, I was brought up short by his use of Occam, but it is closer to the original, and more convenient to him.
On the subject of mind, 'Theory of Mind' is a significant part of the scientific understanding of autism, but I'm going to have to read up on it again before commenting. _________________________________________________________ Il Sotto Seme La Neva |
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ginof |
Re: Occam's Razor | #6 | ||
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Posts: 207 03/04/06 02:20:03 Ph.D. |
ADO15: what does your tag line mean? I haven't been able to translate it....
grazie |
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ginof |
Re: Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132 | #7 | ||
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Posts: 207 03/04/06 02:24:34 Ph.D. |
Quote: Mad: you can that again! I have to admit, I had figured out that the father was guilty, but I had no idea that it would be revealed like this. It's really heady stuff. I was laying in bed next to my wife (who had read the book) and I just kept muttering to myself. I thought it was just wild! |
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ADO15 |
Re: Curious Incident: Pages 89 - 132 | #8 | ||
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Masters
Posts: 192 03/05/06 12:44:54 Graduate |
OT: Ginof - it means 'The Seed Beneath the Snow'. It's the title of a novel by a great Italian socialist author, Silone. Here's a link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignazio_Silone Edit: Should have added that the 'seed beneath the snow' refers to the human spirit under fascism. _________________________________________________________ Il Sotto Seme La Neva |
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- Member Introductions & Journals
- BookTalk News & Development
- Religion, Philosophy & the Arts
- Politics, Current Events & History
- Science, Nature & Technology
- General Discussion & Miscellaneous Topics
- Book Suggestions, Polls, & Reviews
- Additional Book Discussions
- Godless in America: Conversations With an Atheist - by George A. Ricker
- Interventions - by Noam Chomsky
- Religious Expression and the American Constitution - by Franklyn S. Haiman
- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future - by Bill McKibben
- The God Delusion - by Richard Dawkins
- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal - by Jared Diamond
- The Woman in the Dunes - by Abe Kobo
- Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction - by Eugenie Scott
- The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - by Michael Pollan
- I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, Born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 - by Robert Graves
- Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - by Daniel Dennett
- A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East - by David Fromkin
- The Time Traveler's Wife - by Audrey Niffenegger
- The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason - by Sam Harris
- Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - by Mark Haddon
- Value & Virtue in a Godless Universe - by Erik J. Wielenberg
- The March: A Novel - by E.L. Doctorow
- The Ethical Brain - by Michael Gazzaniga
- Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism - by Susan Jacoby
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - by Jared Diamond
- The Battle for God - by Karen Armstrong
- The Future of Life - by Edward O. Wilson
- What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live - by A.C. Grayling
- Civilization and It's Enemies: The Next Stage of History - by Lee Harris
- Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space - by Carl Sagan
- How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God - by Michael Shermer
- Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain - by Antonio Damasio
- Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right - by Al Franken
- The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - by Matt Ridley
- The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature - by Stephen Pinker
- Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder - by Richard Dawkins
- Atheism: A Reader - edited by S. T. Joshi
- Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century - by Howard Bloom
- The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History - by Howard Bloom
- Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - by Jared Diamond
- Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark - by Carl Sagan
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - by Dee Alexander Brown
- Future Shock - by Alvin Toffler
