Well Trained Mind Readers discussion

Hey, everyone! With the shortness of Ecce Homo I would be tempted to move this one up, but I didn't bring it with me and I'm on vacation until Aug 23rd. Is everyone still okay with keeping this until September? I would like to say I could catch up but with the size of this one, it's doubtful. We could start it Aug 23rd and end September 30th. Or I could perhaps catch up if the start date was Aug 15th. In any case, let me know.

Okay, I just realized that I'm out of order and that we should be starting this August 1st. I guess I'm out of luck then. I may start it when I get back and then skip the Gertrude Stein one or something to catch back up again. I don't want to miss Gandhi!

Do you guys want a month time frame for this one. It is seriously long, or at least my edition is.

I think I will be getting this edition: Mein Kampf - which is listed at 560 pages. I am anxious to get to this, but I don't want to rush read it either.

Oooo, looks interesting. I have an old, old hardcover which probably will have some pretty interesting commentary.

I don't have Mein Kampf, yet, so let me know when you guys want to start it. I will need at least a month to read 500 pages, if that is how long it is.

I'm fine with starting late August so you have time to get your copy from home Cleo.

My daughter (so that translates to me as well) has a booked calendar of events starting this month, so no rush on my end.

Ha, ha, that's funny that your daughter is trying to organize you. If she succeeds, I think you should pay her. Seriously!

FYI: Today I am picking up my copy of Mein Kampf from the library, and I am going to begin very slowly ingesting it. I'll have at least three weeks to keep it, and then I can renew it numerous times after, if no one else requests it. (It is one of two copies available in my lame library system.) But I will be starting on it, though not rushing through it. I expect it will take me a 4-6 weeks to read it, depending how dry it is (which I heard it was).

None of the islands have a copy of Mein Kampf, so I guess I'm hooped unless I find it in the used book recycle hut.

With regard to translations, the Mannheim is supposed to be good and very readable but it has a bias which is probably anti-Hilter comments in it; the Reynal Hitchcock translation gets good reviews and is faithful to the original German; the Murphy translation has paraphrasing with embellishments and parts added. I would really recommend staying away from the last translator. There is quite a bit of translation controversy on this one, with even a book about it, so from what I've researched, if you read Murphy, I doubt you can ever say that you've read Mein Kampf or Hilter's true words. At the time, there was so much feeling about WWII, that certainly some translator's wanted to put him in a bad light. The least biased translation seems to be Reynal Hitchcock and it seems that Mannheim's bias is only in the notes (introduction, etc.) around the book. The problem is that Reynal Hitchcock has been out-of-print, so I would think that it's hard to get a copy.

Since you're starting so early, Ruth, I may jump ahead to Gandhi and then come back to Mein Kampf. I don't want to get behind and I can tend to do that.

OK, no prob. I was able to find the Mannheim translation, and I won't read the introduction (unless I am having problems). Mannheim is one of the translators that Bauer suggests. Her little blurb about suggested editions to read was entertaining.

I was trying to see if I could download a Kindle version but I could only find one that said who the translator was, and it's Murphy, so forget it. Argh!

And I don't even have my TWEM here to read her entertaining narrative! Sigh!

Well, you can read it when you get home. I just picked up my copy, and it's HUGE!!! This will take me a long time, but I'm kinda interested to get started.

Guess its time to breakdown and buy my copy.

Oh wow. My edition of this book is 1000 pages! Yikes!

Another question about editions: I've discovered that my edition has two parts. The first volume says "An Accounting" and appears to be the biography. The second volume says "National Socialist Movement" and appears to discuss just that. There is an Appendix between the two. Do you all have the same, or is the second volume something extra that I have?

I don't have two parts. How long is each part? Maybe that's why you have 1000 pages in yours.

According to my edition, Hitler explains the National Socialist Movement in his autobiography. Who is the author of that section in your book? Is it something else he wrote specifically about?

I have been terrible and not even ordered this yet. I've been so slammed lately. :|

The edition I am looking at does have the two volumes, followed by some additional info.

They're both about 500 pages. For Volume II, The National Socialist Movement, the chapters run:

I. View of Life and Party
II. The State
III. Subjects and Citizens of the State
IV. Personality and the Conception of the National State
V. View of Life and Organization

.... etc. .....

It also doesn't help that the notes in his biography, are almost as long as this biography. It's taking me forever to get through and I'm not a slow reader. That's why I'm wondering if there is something different from my edition.

Bookworm, I have been completely slammed too. It's always this time of year that I have to adjust to a busier schedule and I've got other things going on as well. I sympathize!

Cleo,
I apologize. I was incorrect in saying that my copy does not have two parts. It does. I totally passed over the part that said PART II and thought nothing of it. And part II is where it got redundant.

I need to remember to read Bauer's section from TWEM on each book before I begin b/c for MK she recommended that we not read the entire thing. She suggested reading chapters 1-6 and 11 in part I. And in Part II, read chapters 2-4, 10, 11, and 15.

AHHHHHH!!!! I tortured myself. I hope you don't have to torture yourself as much.

Hitler is certainly being redundant, but do you notice that some of the things that he's noticing that precipitated the war are very familiar for our time ........ globalization ...... the government placing money and the economy before character and human relationship .... etc. ....??? It was interesting because, even though we may not be heading towards a world war, I think we're heading for a crash of some kind. And I think it's important to at least try to tag his thinking pattern because he was a nutcase who was a good speaker and enticed a good number of people into following him. It would be unwise to think that something like that couldn't happen again. But you're right ..... I find my mind wandering while reading and I abandoned my notetaking in chapter 4. I would say that I can't wait until it's over but I'm not looking forward to the next couple of books. I think I'm overloading a little on biographies.

Thanks for your comments on my blog. They were helpful and yes, I will take your advice and skim Volume II! If I don't fall asleep first! ;-)

Yes! Yes! YES!!!

He made important political, economic, and social arguments that anyone in their right mind would agree with; but b/c of the author of these words, we are forced to back away. And b/c he was clearly a racist, by the very basic definition of the word. Nonetheless, I copied a lot of passages that I agreed with. I'll write about them in my review when I get to it.

You should try to read through the suggested chapters that Bauer listed. I wish I knew myself. It really is not necessary to read the entire thing.