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Dogma
(Spurious #2)
by
A plague of rats, the end of philosophy, the cosmic chicken, and bars that don’t serve Plymouth Gin—is this the Apocalypse or is it just America?
“The apocalypse is imminent,” thinks W. He has devoted his life to philosophy, but he is about to be cast out from his beloved university. His friend Lars is no help at all—he’s too busy fighting an infestation of rats in his ...more
“The apocalypse is imminent,” thinks W. He has devoted his life to philosophy, but he is about to be cast out from his beloved university. His friend Lars is no help at all—he’s too busy fighting an infestation of rats in his ...more
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Paperback, 223 pages
Published
February 21st 2012
by Melville House
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Dogma is the second volume of Lars Iyer’s trilogy of novels that started with Spurious.
It has all of the fun, foibles and failings of the previous book, and my review for that can largely suffice for this.
This book is a little more expansive and if Lars and W. reminded me of Beavis and Butthead in the previous book, this one resembled Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip:
W. does impressions of me to cheer them up ... but our hosts are unmoved.
Our hosts don't understand our bickering W. says. ...more
It has all of the fun, foibles and failings of the previous book, and my review for that can largely suffice for this.
This book is a little more expansive and if Lars and W. reminded me of Beavis and Butthead in the previous book, this one resembled Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in The Trip:
W. does impressions of me to cheer them up ... but our hosts are unmoved.
Our hosts don't understand our bickering W. says. ...more

I found 'Dogma' funnier than Spurious, despite it being less concerned by Lars' mould-afflicted flat. I think the difference is that I have become far more bitter and cynical about academia, thus more receptive to the type of mockery advanced here. Once again, Lars and W. wander drunkenly about, fulminating on the precipitous downfall of academia, society, the world, and themselves. W. continually berates Lars and yet apparently sees within him some vain hope for the future. W.'s rants are very
...more

Mar 11, 2012
Victoria
added it
Is there thought outside the university philosophy department? the answer seems to be no, so the reduction and even elimination of liberal arts departments portends a new dark age -- it seems -- or at least, the end of philosophy is thus at hand -- it seems. Toward the end of Dogma, volume two of a trilogy that began with Spurious and will...end...with Exodus, it began to seem possible that that would be A Good Thing.
In any case, I'm on board for Exodus, whatever it might contain, including a pa ...more
In any case, I'm on board for Exodus, whatever it might contain, including a pa ...more

Dogma, unlike the author’s previous novel, Spurious, has received mixed reviews. The latter was welcomed as a masterpiece, but when it came to the former the critics were not that enthusiastic. Now that I have read the novel I can say that I really wonder why? Why did they not like it as much as Spurious? For me this a great novel, as it combines humor, irony, philosophical thought, amazing discussions-monologues and a peripatetic mood.
Even though Dogma is the second novel in a not so closely k ...more
Even though Dogma is the second novel in a not so closely k ...more

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
By all laws of the current literary market, the comedic novels Spurious and Dogma by philosopher Lars Iyer (comprising two-thirds of an as-yet unfinished trilogy) shouldn't really exist at all, and it's a testament to the suddenly hot Melville House that they've not only published them, but have been promo ...more
By all laws of the current literary market, the comedic novels Spurious and Dogma by philosopher Lars Iyer (comprising two-thirds of an as-yet unfinished trilogy) shouldn't really exist at all, and it's a testament to the suddenly hot Melville House that they've not only published them, but have been promo ...more

Part two of the trilogy that started with Spurious. I think it's less of a trilogy and more of a single book published in three volumes: this one starts off as if it is simply the next page of the previous one and continues from there.
More of the same, really. There is more plot here than in Spurious. W. and Lars go on a disastrous lecture tour and set up their Dogma philosophy in response. The tenets of Dogma are a bit variable but seem to always require a lot of gin. The apocalypse is still ve ...more
More of the same, really. There is more plot here than in Spurious. W. and Lars go on a disastrous lecture tour and set up their Dogma philosophy in response. The tenets of Dogma are a bit variable but seem to always require a lot of gin. The apocalypse is still ve ...more

Dark comedy of philosophy, pretension, insults, and frenimosity. Very little actually happens, but the droning, gleefully gloomy voice of the narrator, Lars, and the strident bile of his friend W. (whose most hurtful words are all carefully recorded here by Lars himself) are weirdly engrossing. Hilariously, one of the few actions these two failed philosophers take besides going for walks around Plymouth and drinking is a lecture tour to the American south, where they visit Nashville, Memphis, an
...more

This book is absolutely ridiculous. I didn't want it to end. Can't wait for the third volume in the trilogy. I want to hang out with these characters. They make me feel better about myself and the state of the world.
...more

Like Spurious, Dogma follows the meanderings of Lars and W., two English academics who share a tendency toward the apocalyptic and a fondness for gin. As in the last book, there is a lot of angst: about horrors both big (the end-times) and personal (the failure to read and write and work). And as in the last book, W. spends a whole lot of time disparaging Lars, whose stupidity, according to W., is endless. In this book, W. worries about losing his job—there are rumors that his university is rest
...more

Further adventures of Lars and W., Britain's most misanthropic and despairing professors of philosophy. Perhaps it was a mistake on my part to read this right after reading Spurious, the first novel in this trilogy of eruditely absurdist slagging off. About halfway through I started to find this getting tiresome, and not at all as amusing as I found Spurious. Perhaps my general attitude shifted. Or perhaps the book really did tail off. At any rate, all my notes came from the first half of the no
...more

LOVE IT! Lars and W. back together, this time in America, drinking their way into deeper depression even than in Spurious. Love the flow of these books, now that I'm two-thirds of the way through this Spurious Trilogy, or whatever it's called. But the books are filled with philosophy, misanthropy, a deep hope in the endtimes, and a lot of goodtimes in between. The rhythm of the each little paragraph is hypnotic, tons of reported speech by W. (to Lars, the narrator), like this one from their Amer
...more

It’s not necessary to have read Spurious beforehand but it will help a little (if only to explain a bit about Lars’ living conditions). Really, though, you can just jump into this rollercoaster of a novel and enjoy the ride. Don’t worry that you don’t understand most of it and don’t feel you have to look up every archaic philosophical work or strange expression (I wasted ages trying to understand the concept of eternullity and was none the wiser). Most of what they say doesn’t make much sense an
...more

Two warnings; two ameliorations. Warnings: the following reading is iconoclastic, and I have yet to read either the precursor (Spurious) or the sequel (Exodus). Ameliorations: even should the author publicly decry this review as blasphemous, the reading still works effectively, and as with the trilogies of Davies and Nichols, this middle novel stands alone quite well.
Dogma opens with a lecture tour from Britain to southern United States. Iyer seems to take the South as emblematic of the schlock ...more

The sequel to Spurious: A Novel. The continuation of the pretentious, philosophical, drunken ramblings of Lars and W. I think I enjoyed this one more as the two characters do a bit more (e.g., visit America, face unemployment) that forces them to think more about their situation in a more controlled way. Not for everyone, but very amusing.
...more
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Great book, cool words! | 1 | 4 | Mar 09, 2012 06:43PM |
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“You have to be gentle with the young, W. says. They're a gentle generation, like fauns, he says, and require a special tenderness. Their lives are going to be bad--very bad--and, at the very least, we should be tender with them, and not remind them of what is to come.”
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“Akademisyenliğin ritmini hiç anlamıyorsun," diyor W. İlmin mevsimlerini, ekim mevsimini, filize bakıp onunla ilgilenmeyi, hasadı, düşüncenin mahsulünü toplama dönemini hiç bilmiyormuşum.
Her yaz başı W.'nin düşlediği buymuş: Yaklaşan son bahar, düşünce mahsullerinin olgunlaşıp toplanmaya hazır hale geldiği, rüzgarla eğildiği sonbahar. Güneş yanığı kollarıyla suladığı, bin bir özenle bakıp büyüttüğü fikirlerin hasadını toplamayı düşlemiş hep.
Düşünceyi eleme süreci varmış bir de. Düşüncenin harmanını savurmak. Sapı samandan ayırmak. "Ama saman hep karışacak," diyor W. En büyük düşünürler bile samandan kurtulamaz. Yine de buğday vardır. Yıl boyu verilen emeğin kanıtı ortadadır.
Ama ne anlarmış W. bunlardan? Mahsulü bereketsiz olmuş. Her zamanki gibi. Boş tarlada yalnız başına ağlıyormuş şimdi.
"Ah, ne zaman keşfedeceğiz çalışmamızı, gerçekten çalışmamızı mümkün kılacak ritmi? Ne zaman o sabit basınç her günü bir iş gününe çevirecek, her gün önceki günden aldığı güçle bir adım daha ileri gidecek?"
Momentum: düşünce tarafından fırlatılmak, serbest bırakılmak, düşüncenin sapanından çıkan bir taş gibi. İşte o zaman iş dünyevi değil, semavi olacak. Yıldızlar gibi, yörüngesinde dönen gezegenler gibi çalışacağız o zaman. Yaptığımız işler galaksilerin aheste dönüşleriyle, evrenin sabit bir şekilde sonsuza genişlemesiyle bir olacak. Eylemsizlikten, bir tanrının dinlenmesinden farkı kalmayacak.
"Belki de aradığımız şey bir tür Şabat'tır," diyor W. Gözlerimizi kapayacağımız bir zaman; ama sadece dinlenmek için değil, toparlanmak, iyileşmek için. Emeğimize sadece içeriden değil, dışarıdan da bakabilmeliyiz. Kim demişti bunu? Daha büyük eserlerin, ilahi bir emeğin bize dokunmasına izin vermeliyiz. Ancak o zaman gerçekten çalışmaya başlayabiliriz, kendi kanalımızın merkezine gizli bir akımla taşınmış gibi.
Kendimizi kanatıncaya kadar çalışmamız gerektiğini söylüyor W. Gözlerimiz kan çanağına dönene, burnumuzdan kan fışkırana dek. Çünkü kendimize ait bir fikir bulunca olacağı bu: Burun deliklerimizden kan fışkıracak. Kan damlaları, fikirlerimizi yazdığımız sayfalara boşalacak.
Bütün yazılar içinde, kanla yazılanı seviyorum bir tek. Nietzsche demiş bunu. Kanla yazmak, ama bizim kanımızla değil. "Tanrı'nın kanıyla yazacağız," diyor W. gizemli bir sesle. Burun deliklerimizden fışkıran Tanrı'nın kanı olacak..”
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More quotes…
Her yaz başı W.'nin düşlediği buymuş: Yaklaşan son bahar, düşünce mahsullerinin olgunlaşıp toplanmaya hazır hale geldiği, rüzgarla eğildiği sonbahar. Güneş yanığı kollarıyla suladığı, bin bir özenle bakıp büyüttüğü fikirlerin hasadını toplamayı düşlemiş hep.
Düşünceyi eleme süreci varmış bir de. Düşüncenin harmanını savurmak. Sapı samandan ayırmak. "Ama saman hep karışacak," diyor W. En büyük düşünürler bile samandan kurtulamaz. Yine de buğday vardır. Yıl boyu verilen emeğin kanıtı ortadadır.
Ama ne anlarmış W. bunlardan? Mahsulü bereketsiz olmuş. Her zamanki gibi. Boş tarlada yalnız başına ağlıyormuş şimdi.
"Ah, ne zaman keşfedeceğiz çalışmamızı, gerçekten çalışmamızı mümkün kılacak ritmi? Ne zaman o sabit basınç her günü bir iş gününe çevirecek, her gün önceki günden aldığı güçle bir adım daha ileri gidecek?"
Momentum: düşünce tarafından fırlatılmak, serbest bırakılmak, düşüncenin sapanından çıkan bir taş gibi. İşte o zaman iş dünyevi değil, semavi olacak. Yıldızlar gibi, yörüngesinde dönen gezegenler gibi çalışacağız o zaman. Yaptığımız işler galaksilerin aheste dönüşleriyle, evrenin sabit bir şekilde sonsuza genişlemesiyle bir olacak. Eylemsizlikten, bir tanrının dinlenmesinden farkı kalmayacak.
"Belki de aradığımız şey bir tür Şabat'tır," diyor W. Gözlerimizi kapayacağımız bir zaman; ama sadece dinlenmek için değil, toparlanmak, iyileşmek için. Emeğimize sadece içeriden değil, dışarıdan da bakabilmeliyiz. Kim demişti bunu? Daha büyük eserlerin, ilahi bir emeğin bize dokunmasına izin vermeliyiz. Ancak o zaman gerçekten çalışmaya başlayabiliriz, kendi kanalımızın merkezine gizli bir akımla taşınmış gibi.
Kendimizi kanatıncaya kadar çalışmamız gerektiğini söylüyor W. Gözlerimiz kan çanağına dönene, burnumuzdan kan fışkırana dek. Çünkü kendimize ait bir fikir bulunca olacağı bu: Burun deliklerimizden kan fışkıracak. Kan damlaları, fikirlerimizi yazdığımız sayfalara boşalacak.
Bütün yazılar içinde, kanla yazılanı seviyorum bir tek. Nietzsche demiş bunu. Kanla yazmak, ama bizim kanımızla değil. "Tanrı'nın kanıyla yazacağız," diyor W. gizemli bir sesle. Burun deliklerimizden fışkıran Tanrı'nın kanı olacak..”