Promising Genomics [Finished]

I've finished reading Michael Fortun's Promising Genomics. That's the last of my "required reading" for this term -- i.e. reading for school rather than pleasure -- which hopefully means I'll have more time to direct towards my new reading program.

Finished another chapter of Ford's Theology. So far, not much to write home about. I guess I was expecting more of a general introduction to theological terms, discourse, etc. Ford's approach, however, seems much more subjective than that. But I've only scratched the surface, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt thus far.

How to Read Freud [Finished]

Finished How to Read Freud this morning. I found the last couple chapters -- which dealt with the drives -- to be a bit more opaque than the beginning of the book, but that's probably just because I've really only actually read Freud's early works.

Next on my Freud list will be Freud: A Very Short Introduction, by Anthony Storr... But I won't be getting into that book until I finish the others that I am currently reading.

Currently Reading [Part I]

Update:

I've read the first chapter of Prometheus Wired, I've almost finished with the introductory section of Saussure's Course, and I'm about three quarters through How to Read Freud. (Haven't got Theology yet -- though I ordered it through the university library system.)

So far, How to Read Freud seems to be an excellent primer to Freud, although it is certainly not strong enough to stand on its own. Indeed, the book demands an independent, critical reading of Freud's own texts. As far as content goes, I'm increasingly intrigued by the (much simplified, I'm sure) Freudian idea of all love being an attempt to "get back to" the original mother-child sexual configuration, particularly because my own reflections have hinted in that direction (although I did not take my conclusions all the way back into infancy).

As I wrote in my journal last August (and now edit slightly for the sake of public eyes):

"On the whole, I look at life as a series of steadily degrading experiences -- nothing of the future can ever compare to the simplicity of childhood play... The problem, of course, is that childhood, first naïve love, etc are always drowned in desire for the future. One spends childhood imitating and desiring adulthood, and so squanders its simplicity. Likewise, the beauty of the first love lies directly in its prohibition; to consummate it renders it far too earthy, material, and obscene. A consummated first love is no first love at all; it destroys itself while birthing another.

Nostalgia.

Prohibition.

Is not nostalgia a way to relive the prohibitions of childhood and first love -- except that the original prohibitions are exchanged for the prohibition of time? I.e. "You may appreciate it fully now, but only from the distance designated by the intermediary of time!"

Of course, we constantly try to bridge this distance. Every time I've gone longboarding on the Discovery Trail has been an attempt to reclaim the tall dune grass, the smooth pavement, and the cool sea breeze that is fixed into my memory as a record of last August...

And if life is most fully expressed in nostalgia -- that is, the desire for the unreachable, the unattainable... What then?"