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Title: Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus by Heraclitus, James Hillman, Brooks Haxton ISBN: 0670891959 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 01 February, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.44
Rating: 4
Summary: Heraclitus, Fragments
Comment: These fragments don't always fit together, but because of the unusual nature of a collection like this it is more than tolerable. The fragments are in Greek or Latin on the left side of the page with a translation on the right. The translations are vivid, almost poetic, although some of the terms that are explained in the introduction can throw off the flow of the words. Heraclitus is insightful, intriguing, and startlingly contemporary. The price may be a bit high, but is worth it for those who seek wisdom.
Rating: 4
Summary: Poets Make the Best Translators
Comment: I know enough Greek to question the faithfulness of most of these poetic transliterations of the original. But that is beside the point. If you want a literal translation pick up a Harvard LCL edition and scan the dry as dust academic parallel rendering. I sometimes wonder if poets don't make the best translators. Here is a text vivid and gripping and sounding in modern ears with a booming resonance.
Additional thoughts:
1. This a beautifully produced edition with the Greek on the left and Haxton's fine poetry on the right. As usual, I skipped the foreward and notes preferring to commune directly with the Master rather than through the medium of a posturing chorus of academic factotums.
2. The information age was supposed to witness the twilight of the great age of printing. How wrong. It is a miracle that in this age Viking is publishing a side by side Greek and English version of a book two and half millennia old! Perhaps the great age of the Printed Book is only now dawning.
Rating: 1
Summary: Possibly an "E" for "effort"..... maybe
Comment: As another reviewer said, (and i was thinking the same thing before i read their review), it seems geared toward upper middle class, bored housewives with little or no previous interest in ancient Greek philosophy. To still use the word "God" (capitalized) in a Heraclitus fragment is so blatant that it would surprise me if anyone who knows anything about the pre-socratics, and who has thought about their ideas would bother with such a book. No doubt that is what Mr. Haxton was wagering on before putting the original Greek next to the English translations.
I'm not degrading this merely because it is a coffee table book, i'm attacking it because it is in bad taste and adds absolutely no fresh perspective to Heraclitus' fragments or his life. I suggest looking at, instead, Luciano DeCrescenzo's "The History of Greek Philosophy Volume I: The Pre-Socratics" for a lively and interesting read (including biographical details).
"The Collected Wisdom..." is a hard cover as well, which makes not a lot of sense (other than the nice presentation) considering the length of the book. You could happily buy a book with all the fragments for nearly the same price or cheaper. No doubt the reason why Amazon knocked $6 off the original price was because there were too many unopened boxes collecting dust. Let the bookworms eat these ones.
The last thing we need is for the words of a man like Heraclitus to end up on bad robot-rock album covers or as band names (the same fate that Nietzsche now, regretfully, seems to be suffering from). It would seem that Roger Von Oech has decided to try his hand at the craps table as well with "Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus". Are people really so dumb that they need these pre-digested, refined, books full of preservatives to inspire them? I am all for more simplified introductions, but if that means pandering and studying current trends, then what you'll always get is an ugly bastardization. The whole point of philosophy is to make people think!!
And yes, i realize that basically every translator of any kind of philosophy (regardless of time or place) uses "God" as a substitute for the original thinker's conception and belief system. I would call it Christian revisionism ... though it may also be because most translators cannot give their readers the benefit of the doubt and compromise their writings by pandering or making the work more digestible. Or simply because so few can translate from a more neutral standpoint or stand outside their religion for the sake of the writing.
a.n.
p.s. If anyone knows of any good translations of pre-Christian/non-Christian European philosophy which does not suffer from the aforementioned peccadillos, i would be interested to find out more about them
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Title: Remembering Heraclitus by Richard G. Geldard ISBN: 0940262983 Publisher: Lindisfarne Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Meditations (Modern Library) by Marcus Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays, Marcus ISBN: 0679642609 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 14 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Insearch: Psychology and Religion (The Jungian Classics Series ; 2) by James Hillman ISBN: 0882145126 Publisher: Spring Audio & Journal Pub. Date: 1994 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Essential Epicurus: Letters, Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Fragments (Great Books in Philosophy) by Epicurus, Eugene Michael O'Connor ISBN: 0879758104 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 1993 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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Title: Re-Visioning Psychology by James Hillman ISBN: 0060905638 Publisher: Perennial Pr Pub. Date: 1997 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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