The Golden Compass has just started to get
really good.
I have a feeling I'm going to fly through these books.
Also, after taking a one-night course on Herrn Friedrich Nietzsche, my interest in the guy has been completely rekindled, so I picked up William Kaufmann's
Portable Nietzsche, and will be slowly working my way through that in between my (comparably) lighter readings.
Here's an excerpt from early Nietzsche (24 years old[!]), before writing any major works, articulating an extremely early criticism of Schopenhauer's idea of ethics, ethics in general, and a proto-polemic indicative of his later views of Christianity and religious repression.
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The unchangeable character is influenced
in it's expressions by it's environment and education--not in it's essence. A popular ethics therefore wants to suppress bad expressions as far as possible, for the sake of the general welfare--an undertaking that is strikingly similar to the police. The means for this is a religion with rewards and punishments: for the expressions alone matter. Therefore the catechism can say: Thou shalt not kill! Thou shalt not curse! etc. Nonsensical, however, is an imperative: "Be good!" as well as, "Be wise!" or "Be talented!"
The "general welfare" is not the sphere of truth; for truth demands to be declared even if it is ugly and unethical.
If we admit, for example, the truth of the doctrine of Schopenhauer (but also of Christianity) concerning the redemptive power of suffering, then it becomes regard for the "general welfare" not only not to lessen suffering, but perhaps even to increase it--not only for oneself, but also for others. Pushed to the limit, practical ethics becomes ugly--even consistent cruelty to human beings. Similarly, the effect of Christianity is unnerving when it commands respect for every kind of magistrage, etc., as well as acceptance of all suffering without any attempt at resistance.
i hate sansa 
