Mindy's profile

366 ratings | 308 reviews
avg rating: 3.88
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#34 top reviewers
#31 top librarians

Mindy's bookshelves

read (363)
currently-reading (7)
to-read (852)
own-it (778)
fiction (333)
social-science (314)

feminist-womanist-gender (190)
bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff (175)
race-racism-colonialism (168)
religion-spirituality-atheism (155)
class-inequality-economics (155)
theory-philosophy (99)

history-is-not-a-social-science (92)
la-poesie (80)
dark-n-scary-shit (69)
glbtqia-lmnop (62)
antiques-vintage (53)
bibliophilia-writing-language (48)

junkie-recovery-self-help-ish (32)
drama (29)
sexy-sexy-splashy-splashy (27)
artsy-fartsy (21)
not-so-social-science (20)

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Mindy is currently reading

	07/20 Mindy is currently reading: Word of Mouth: Poems Featured on NPR's All Things Considered (Paperback) by Catherine Bowman bookshelves: currently-reading, la-poesie, own-it	my rating:
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	07/03 Mindy is currently reading: Collected Poems in English (Paperback) by Joseph Brodsky bookshelves: currently-reading, la-poesie	my rating:
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	07/02 Mindy is currently reading: Brain & Belief: An Exploration of the Human Soul (Paperback) by John J. McGraw (Goodreads author!) bookshelves: currently-reading, not-so-social-science, own-it, religion-spirituality-atheism, social-science	my rating:
	recommended to Mindy by: Lena Mindy said: "Oooh, this one came today, and even though I am currently reading way too many books already, I have to start on this one now b/c his preface was just too charming and the subject matter just too irresistable! " add a comment

Mindy's recent updates (rss)

July 25

New comment on Jafar's review of The Denial Of Death

Mindy wrote: "I found this one through Brain and Belief , whic...more "

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Mindy read and liked Jafar's review of The Denial Of Death:

"I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live in my apartment. —Woody Allen.

Becker’s main thesis in this ...more I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don’t want to live in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live in my apartment. —Woody Allen.

Becker’s main thesis in this book is that the most fundamental problem of mankind, sitting at his very core, is his fear of death. Being the only animal that is conscious of his inevitable mortality, his life’s project is to deny or repress this fear, and hence his need for some kind of a heroism. Every grandiosity, good or evil, is intended to make him transcend death and become immortal.

To prove his thesis, Becker resorts to psychoanalysis. The depth and breadth of his understanding of psychoanalysis is truly amazing for someone who doesn’t call himself a psychologist. He wants to put psychoanalysis on a different foundation from which Freud put it on: The primary repression is not sexuality, as Freud said, but our awareness of death.

To convince you of this fundamental change, Becker treats you to a rather thorough review of psychoanalysis in order to rearrange it. If you don’t like or don’t understand psychoanalysis, don’t read this book. If you have a love/hate relationship with it (so deeply beautiful, poetic, and philosophical, and yet, so ad-hoc and unscientific), this book will show you more of psychoanalysis’s insight and explanatory powers, and its absurdities. It’s not having a morbid subject that makes this book depressing; it’s its reliance on psychoanalysis. A discipline whose aim, as Becker puts it, is to show that man lives by lying to himself about himself, leaves you depressed, cynical, and pessimistic.

Becker relies extensively on Otto Rank (a psychoanalyst with a religious bent who was one of the most trusted and intellectually potent members of Freud’s inner circle until he broke away) and the Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard (whom Becker labels as a post-Freudian psychoanalyst even before Freud came along). It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the solution that Becker suggests towards the end of book for ridding man of his vital lie is what he calls a fusion of psychology and religion: The only way that man can face his fate, deal with the inherent misery of his condition, and achieve his heroism, is to give himself to something outside the physical – call it God or whatever you want.

A rather disappointing solution, even though he is not talking about any traditional religion. How can we cure ourselves of our vital lie with an illusion? You can rewrite Freud’s The Future of an Illusion based on Becker’s version of psychoanalysis for a different explanation of why man invented God. Religion can’t be of any solace to a mankind who knows his situation vis-à-vis reality. Man, as Becker so chillingly puts it, “has no doubts; there is nothing you can say to sway him, to give him hope or trust. He is a miserable animal whose body decays, who will die, who will pass into dust and oblivion, disappear not only forever in this world but in all possible dimensions of the universe, whose life serves no conceivable purpose, who may as well not have been born.” Or, as Camus says in The Fall: “Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.”

In the end, the only practical solution might be what most people do (but not everyone can do) and what Kierkegaard called tranquilizing with triviality. Numb yourself with the banalities of life to forget the insignificance of your existence. Go to school, get a job, marry, pay mortgage, raise children... Fret over every little thing you can think of: your promotion at work, the car you drive, the cavities in your teeth, finding love, getting laid, your children’s college tuition, the annoying last five pounds that are defying your diet program... Act like any of these actually mattered....less "

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Mindy marked as to-read:
Shadow of Childhood: Neoteny and the Biology of Religion (Hardcover)
by Weston La Barre
bookshelves: religion-spirituality-atheism, social-science, theory-philosophy, to-read

my rating:

recommended to Mindy by: the John McGraw book Brain & Belief

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Mindy marked as to-read:
The Denial Of Death (Paperback)
by Ernest Becker
bookshelves: religion-spirituality-atheism, social-science, theory-philosophy, to-read

my rating:

recommended to Mindy by: the John McGraw book Brain & Belief

add a comment

Mindy gave

to:
Oedipus Rex: Oedipus the King (Paperback)
by Sophocles
bookshelves: drama

my rating:

recommended to Mindy by: Various English teachers along the way
read in January, 1999

Mindy said: "Traaa-ge-dee! "

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Mindy made a comment in the group True North—Bottom of the Barrel topic:

Mindy wrote: "Atlas Shrugged

Ooops, it has to be a book I've finished? But I hated it so much I couldn't finish...more "

Mindy added a quote:
"Are you the new person drawn toward me?" — Walt Whitman

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July 24

Mindy marked as to-read:
The Inhabited Woman (Paperback)
by Gioconda Belli
bookshelves: bio-memoir-ethnog-true-stuff, fiction, to-read

my rating:

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Mindy added a quote:
"Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." — George Burns

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Mindy read and liked a piece of writing titled "An open letter to my people" by RatsRGods

"Today was a day to remember.
Today I discovered a group of humans who seem to actually like me.
This is what self-esteem must feel like.

Thank you for your kind words.

Now, I know the right " ...read more »

see all 363 of Mindy's books »

Mindy's favorite quotes

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
— Albert Einstein

tags: einstein, human, humor, infinity, nature, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe

2238 people liked it

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

tags: books, soul

2202 people liked it

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

tags: life

1997 people liked it

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
— Groucho Marx

tags: animals, books, dogs, friends, humor

1563 people liked it

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
— Oscar Wilde

tags: intelligence, self-deprication

1360 people liked it

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Mindy's groups (recent posts)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die — 3115 members — last activity 4 minutes ago
For those attempting the crazy feat of reading all 1001 books!

For discerning bibliophiles and readers who enjoy unforgettable classic literature, ...more

True North — 60 members — last activity 5 minutes ago
To discuss important issues, book-related and not. To talk about the things that matter most to us, the things that get us up in the morning, the thin...more

Language & Grammar — 300 members — last activity 2 hours, 54 min ago
This group is for word lovers and has topics both serious (grammatical questions and concerns) and not so serious (word play and word games of all sor...more

Atheists and Skeptics — 152 members — last activity 7 hours, 52 min ago
This is a group meant for the discussion of atheism and skepticism and the books associated with both. Recommending books arguing for or against relig...more

BOOK-A-HOLICS — 825 members — last activity 12 hours, 1 min ago
WHEN I GET A LITTLE MONEY, I BUY BOOKS; IF ANY IS LEFT I BUY FOOD AND CLOTHES.

DESIDERIUS ERASMUS
1466-1536

THIS IS A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO SH...more

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Mindy's friend comments

showing 1-2 of 2. (add a comment | view all)

from James

2 days ago, 10:26AM

Thanks Mindy! Looks like you've got a good collection there and are real well read! Books are hot!!!!

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from Adam

20 days ago, 05:54PM

Hey Mindy. I saw you added "Snuff" to your to-read list and thought I'd drop by to say hello and thanks for the support. Let me know what you think when you get a chance to read it.

Adam

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Mindy's friends (60)

	Nancy 1318 books 118 friends
	Randomanthony 158 books 56 friends
	Paul 1027 books 114 friends
	Ginnie 2311 books 105 friends
	Brooklyn 339 books 229 friends
	David 244 books 91 friends
	John L. 15 books 1966 friends
	RatsRGods 88 books 11 friends
	Rusty 1591 books 418 friends
	Ashley 642 books 140 friends
	Katherine 193 books 25 friends
	Kelly 236 books 5 friends
	Robert 2 books 1185 friends
	Tracey 325 books 346 friends
	Ellenjsmellen 810 books 2331 friends

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