Tosh Berman on Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

Tosh on Ludwig Wittgenstein

Tosh on Wittgenstein

 

Tosh on Wittgenstein

Tosh Berman on "Private Notebooks 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

Tosh Berman on Private Notebooks 1914-1916 by Ludwig Wittgenstein

"On Certainty" by Ludwig Wittgenstein (Harper Torchbooks)

Reading Ludwig Wittgenstein is a series of moments when one thinks of language and what it truly means.  'I think there is a tree' and 'there's a tree' is a vast difference, that can fit an entire universe. Or at the very least in the world of Wittgenstein.  For me, I 'think' I understand Wittgenstein, but the lasting impression he has on me as a writer is to write as clearly as possible, but without surrendering the poetics in a specific description.  

For inspiration and getting my brain exercised in a natural manner, unlike reading the tweets of a specific idiot in a building in Washington DC, is my spring water that is Wittgenstein.  "On Certainty" is later Wittgenstein, and the title is actually an exact and accurate description of the book.  Wittgenstein challenges the notion of being certain through language and what one sees.  What is perhaps a given factor knowledge is in theory, challenged by Wittgenstein's observations on what certainty means to an individual or even group.  

I bought this book at John K. King Books in Detroit, Michigan.  I started reading "On Certainty" in a coffee shop in the New Center, which is a district in Detroit.  Actually in the Fisher Building.   The juxtaposition of reading this difficult book in a splendid structure was an additional pleasure for me.  Me 'being' there, or thinking I was there, is an actual thought in my head as I did know I was truly at the Fisher Building, reading Wittgenstein's "On Certainty."

- Tosh Berman

"Zettel" by Ludwig Wittgenstein Edited by G.E.M. Anscombe & G.H. von Wright (University of California Press)

ISBN: 978-0-520-25244-8

"Zettel" by Ludwig Wittgenstein is a collection of short writings that were put in a filing cabinet by the author, and later collected by G.E.M. Anscombe and G.H. von Wright. Wittgenstein is probably the most difficult, but yet, enjoyable read for me. As a writer, I often think of him as a role model of sorts. The way he looks at the world is unique, and his thinking of what an image is and what is the thought of that image has a profound effect on me. And again, I may have misread him, and made my own version of Wittgenstein!

I usually re-read his pocket size statements or observations twice. But in the long run, I think it's good to read him straight through, and not worry about getting 'it' on the first try. He's a philosopher where it's best to meditate on his words and the meaning of his sentences through your own dear time. "The limitlessness of the visual field is clearest when we are seeing nothing in complete darkness." That statement stays in my mind the most because I find myself writing in a state of mind that is very much a dark void. I then fill that space with words, that is usually connected to something visual or a sensuality of an object of some sort.

Wittgenstein didn't write a lot. Some of his 'literature' is from his lectures in class. I'm presuming that this book is him working through his philosophy/thoughts. Which is another reason why I love Wittgenstein's work so much is that it's not about the answer, but the journey. He focuses on the senses, and how that communicate to our brain. His writing is not scientific, but almost poetry. In fact, I tend to look at him as a poet than anything else. 

- Tosh Berman

"The Witkiewicz Reader" by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Edited, Translated, and with an introduction by Daniel Gerould

"The Witkiewicz Reader" Edited by Daniel Gerould (Northwestern University Press)

There is the joy of going to a used bookstore, for instance, Alias East, on Glendale Blvd. and picking up a totally unknown author and his book. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewiez, or better known in his home country of Poland, as Witkacy. "The Witkiewicz Reader" is an anthology of his various writings from 1914 to the date of his death (by suicide) in 1939. He lived through tough times in his country or part of that world, and his writings reflect, not realistically, but at least spiritually or aesthetically, the period that he lived in. Which, looking back, was not so good.

He was not only a writer, but also painter, commercial portrait painter, philosopher, playwright, photographer and a huge experimenter in narcotics. In that sense of structure he sort of resembles Artaud, but without the madness, but clearly with the emotional attachment to his life and the things that went wrong in that life as well. Personally I don't find his fiction that interesting, but on the other hand, his essay on drugs is very interesting, as well as his letters to a friend. He is probably one of the first 'aesthetic' writer to focus on the effects of peyote and cocaine. Almost scientifically minded, but.... well, he's an artist, so that aspect totally rears its head in. In that specific sense, he resembles William S. Burroughs - in fact, if he lived just a tad longer, I think he would be a Beat. 

Reading a best of, which is basically selections of that author's writings, one gets a pretty good snapshot of one's work. I'm curious to actually read an entire novel by him. If that's possible, and in English. Daniel Gerald, did a good job in choosing the material and he also places his life in chronicle time - so it's very much of a biography as well.