Re: CHAT!: Tao Te Ching (was Re: (OT) Morality (was: Re: aesthetic

J Y S Czhang scripsit:

>     I did not know she also went by a Native Americanized "nom de plume."
Some people have been known to call her that; I don't know that she's
ever used the term herself, but it's possible.  I myself saw it in an
Amazon review of one of her books.

>     BTW I recently acquired Jonathan Star's translation and commentary titled
> _Tao Te Ching: The Definitive Edition_.  I am fairly impressed with his
> format of verbatim translation and "literal character definitions that allow
> the reader to create his or her own interpretation."  My father is also
> impressed... thinks it is the best English translation to date.
Excellent!  Someone has needed to update the Paul Carus version (of 1898!) --
done in just this style -- for a long time.

>     I don't even know who Laurens Van Der Post was... Can you fill me in?
        The extraordinary life of Laurens van der Post is not easily
        capsulized. Author of of many books, farmer, soldier, prisoner
        of war, political adviser to British heads of state, educator,
        humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and conservationist are
        titles that barely indicate the depth and breadth of this rare
        individual. Born in 1906 in the interior of southern Africa,
        he lived among the people who created the first blueprint for
        life on earth, becoming the principal chronicler of the Stone
        Age Kalahari Bushmen. He was also one of C.G. Jung's closest
        friends for sixteen years. Van der Post dedicated his life
        to teaching the meaning and value of indigenous cultures in
        the modern world, a world he felt is in danger of losing its
        spiritual identity to technology, prejudice, empty values,
        and a lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of all
        life on earth. Awarded a knighthood (the C.B.E.) in 1981, Sir
        Laurens died after his 90th birthday, in December, 1996.
                -- a handy Web site

To which one might add to the other functions, prisoner of war,
and according to some: liar, self-promoter, and bullshit artist.
He was among the first Afrikaners to come out openly against apartheid.
His fiction (granted, it can be hard to tell which is which) and
non-fiction about Africa, culture, and the human condition are
incomparable.

A short work of his, "Witness to a Last Will of Man" is online at
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/LvdP/WLWM.html , and gives
very clearly the flavor of his mind.

And here are some selected quotations:
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/LvdP/quotations.html

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_