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Alan Horn's avatar

Oh, I read that. You mean the book by Graham Alexander Magee

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Gnocchic Apocryphon's avatar

Yes! the author wasn't coming to mind. What did you think of it? I'd want to have a better sense of Hegel before I tried to revisit it myself.

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Alan Horn's avatar

I read it for a very particular project, and it was useful for that narrow purpose. Overall, the case is sort of circumstantial. The connections he draws are real, but does that make Hegel an occult thinker? Or merely one influenced by Christian mysticism (no secret there) but ultimately seeking to make rational arguments? My hunch is a lot of what makes Hegel seem esoteric is the influence of Aristotle. Essentialism can seem spooky to people today

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Ariel Hessayon's avatar

Depends on what you mean by 'occult' of course. But Hegel did engage seriously with Jacob Boehme (as of course did Blake and Coleridge). If either of you would like to read Glenn's essay on that for a collection I co-edited just message me.

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Alan Horn's avatar

Let me finish, ha ha. I do think it’s a valuable book, even if, as often happens, the most ambitious version of its thesis is open to question

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Bob From the North Country's avatar

Great post! You write that Transmetropolitan is “not quite on the level of the other great Vertigo comics of the 80s and 90s, but very much in the same vein.” What would you consider the great Vertigo comics? I’m currently reading and really enjoying The Invisibles, and I’ve read From Hell and The Sandman, but outside the Moore/Gaiman/Morrison trio I’m totally ignorant.

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Gnocchic Apocryphon's avatar

I certainly haven't read everything they put out, but I'd say the highlights for me outside of that triad are probably Peter Milligan's work, especially Enigma, and Rachel Pollack's run on Doom Patrol, which I briefly wrote about earlier this year.

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Bob From the North Country's avatar

thank you!

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