Carranza,
One more reply to your Lacquer post. I just took an evening shower and a few thoughts came to mind.
Reading Lacquer's review of Kepel's book, even knowing about Kepel's book (which tekboy suggested because his wife considered it the best book on Islamism as of last spring), is a great tribute to Ken's (FL) idea to start this thread and to the huge change the Internet offers in our lives.
I will now take the Lacquer review into my future readings of Kepel and see if I wish to revise the views I posted to you and will learn a great deal more than I otherwise would.
So I'm learning. And this thread has been a prodiguous learning experience for me. I'm told of things to read I would never have known existed; have conversations with folk who have become "virtual" friends about them and learn much through those conversations; take those thoughts back with me and rethink previous thoughts. It's quite amazing.
I'm in my second year of full retirement (I still tend to think of years as academic ones, begin in Sept, end in May, and the summer disappears into the study). I had planned several projects for retirement, including improving my ability to understand and appreciate classical composers whose work I love with courses in New York City; attending lectures at Columbia; and doing some serious social history studies of New York City. For some family reasons I've not yet been able to get those started.
But I've not missed them because along came Ken's idea and this thread. It's been better than a serious academic seminar while much less disciplined. I go at my own pace or no pace, say what I wish to say, don't have to write term papers (or, heavens forbid, much worse, don't have to grade them), etc.
The wonders of the age in which we live.
My apologies for boring you with this.
And I still owe Nadine some responses about Kepel's views that some Islamist groups claim to be not opposed to democracy. That will still wait for another day, however. I'm taking an incomplete on that one because it will take a couple of uninterrupted hours, or at least I'm afraid it will. But working up that response will imbede those issues in my mind as well. Learning, learning, learning. |
