Something Completely Different

I'm always reading something and maybe you're the same way. What are you reading?

These days, I'm finishing up Stephen King's The Stand, a later version extended with 400 pages or so. Without spoiling too much, there are two reasons I wanted to read it.

• Very minor start-of-book spoiler - it features a pandemic so felt relevant for that reason
• Many claim it to be King's magnum opus. It's been made into a movie / TV show like what.. two times? Three times?

It's a good book with some decent characters. It's entertaining and fairly well written. However:

Spoiler alert for Stephen King's The Stand

I don't care for the good vs evil post-pandemic storyline at all (even if it does entertain me). A few months / weeks into the post-apocalypse and we get this seemingly silly religious scenario with the old woman's gang vs. the slick devil's gang, but there seems to be so little internal logic to it. It's not a fight for space or resources and the people in each camp don't seem that much different. Each group seems to be guessing that the other guys are bad, but why should there even be a conflict? Is it just God's will for some reason?

Right now, it does seem kinda silly. BUT. I'm not quite done with it, so maybe there are some pleasant surprises that will shed some light on this and make me change my mind.

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this isn't a big give away spoiler

Spoiler

I read it a long time ago. I liked that that guy could fuck his girl anywhere except her cunt because that was being saved for satan or whatever it was. I thought it was a standard good SK read. All those books, Cujo, Fire Starter, Pet Sematary, all were about the same to me: fun page turners

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Hey, OH ! Great to see you again! I've often wondered how you got on after leaving MB so completely.

At a friend's insistence, I also read The Stand when he discovered that I'd never read an S King book. Like you say, OH, it's an easy enough thing to read because SK clearly knows how to tell a story, but I was glad when I was done. The book engaged me about as much as the magazines in my dentist's waiting room.

As for me, I'm reading a book about a battle made famous by Abba. Spoiler because everyone will need some time trying to guess which battle it could possibly be  ;) :-

Spoiler

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTaBvnyXHespLltV2FR7Au3dEXEiX0-i2xYxA&usqp=CAU)

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Thanks for the friendly greeting. Nice to see you online as well. The Stand is not SK's best book. The Shining is much better. Carrie and Rage aren't as fully developed as The Shining but they are raw and gritty.

The first book I finished in 2023 is The Way Home: Tales from a Life Without Technology by Mark Boyle. Highly influenced by Thoreau and Wendell Berry and some of the best parts of this book is when he references other books. Compared to others of this genre I preferred both Into the Wild and The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen, probably because they're both more about not just successful off the grid living but also more about seizing the day and exploring life with wild abandon. I invested in a fair amount of foundation building reading in my twenties so I can say from experience that all these books are better put in context if you first read Thoreau, Emerson, and Muir.

I hope people don't settle with just the movie for Into the Wild even though they did do a really good job with it.

Quote...because they're both more about not just successful off the grid living but also more about seizing the day and exploring life with wild abandon.

Not sure that's how I would summarize Into The Wild, but we can agree on it being a great book. Actually, every J Krakauer book I've read has been exceptional. He has a talent for making real life as exciting as a suspense thriller.

On Walden Pond felt like the opposite to me, but I was only 18 or so when I dipped into a few pages of it, so perhaps I wasn't ready for it. Mind you, I did at the same age read The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, which I enjoyed more - partly because I can imagine rural England so  much more easily than I can rural America.

I never read anything in that genre, I believe, but thanks for the recommendation. I did move out into the forest for 2 weeks when I was 17, sometime after my older GF broke up with me ;D it was an interesting time.

About King, I've read quite a bit, but most of my reading was when I was in my teens. My favorite then was Desperation. I liked the theme and how grisly it occasionally gets. Upon rereading it a few years ago, it didn't quite hold up so my opinion has changed. I'm not sure what King-book I like the most anymore.

Now I'm reading Garth Marengi's Terrortome which is just stupid fun and very true to his character from the TV show  :D

Two weeks in a forest at 17 years old is quite impressive.

On the topic of the rural retreat genre:
I think this will always have limited popularity, not just with readers but with writers too. If the most exciting chapter of your book is, "The Day The Goat Got Into My Cabbage Patch", then the author really has nowhere to hide, either as a writer or a thinker: no distractions like plot or suspense to cover up the quality of your craft.
I've also read a couple of genuine diaries, Samuel Peyps, for example, who saw both the Plague and the Great Fire of London. Lucky B*st*rd! ;) The nice thing with a diary is how you get to read the exact details of what people thought worthy of recording; what they ate, who they met, etc. The downside is that our lives are not super exciting on a daily basis, so a diary can get kind of repetitive. For Peyps, his diary catchphrase quickly becomes, "And so to bed." and let's face it, that's how each day ends for us too, 350 years after Sammy Peyps was blowing out his bedside lamp. 

It wasn't hard, really. It was in summer and I already had a lot of hiking experience back then, having been a member of various scout orgs. I had a pet rat called Mambo for company and I got a lot of tick bites. Sometimes, friends visited camp and stayed over.

About reading diaries and the like, years ago when we vacated to Thailand, I thought it would be nice to read British naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace's travelogue The Malay Archipelago. I ordered it online only to find I'd gotten the wrong book. What I got instead was a book containing letters he sent to his sister and others while on his journey.

He had a lot to say about his failing health, bug bites and his brother in law's business. And he made a 19th century joke about the murder of a certain ape that seems extremely inappropriate today :coldsweat:

My other book was a brief history of time, but that also wasn't a great pick for a beach book.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 14, 2023, 10:24 AMI never read anything in that genre, I believe, but thanks for the recommendation. I did move out into the forest for 2 weeks when I was 17, sometime after my older GF broke up with me ;D it was an interesting time.

About King, I've read quite a bit, but most of my reading was when I was in my teens. My favorite then was Desperation. I liked the theme and how grisly it occasionally gets. Upon rereading it a few years ago, it didn't quite hold up so my opinion has changed. I'm not sure what King-book I like the most anymore.

Now I'm reading Garth Marengi's Terrortome which is just stupid fun and very true to his character from the TV show  :D

Whoa! I had no idea there was new Garth Marenghi stuff, the show is one of my all time favorite pieces of media.

QuoteI think this will always have limited popularity, not just with readers but with writers too. If the most exciting chapter of your book is, "The Day The Goat Got Into My Cabbage Patch", then the author really has nowhere to hide, either as a writer or a thinker: no distractions like plot or suspense to cover up the quality of your craft

Yet off the grid reality shows have achieved traction. It's something people like to fantasize about and romanticize. Myself included.

Quotegenuine diaries

Anne Frank - Anais Nin

Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Jan 15, 2023, 03:01 PMWhoa! I had no idea there was new Garth Marenghi stuff, the show is one of my all time favorite pieces of media.

Hey, you know Darkplace :)

Yeah, this took me completely by surprise. It just came out a little while ago too. Some algorithm suggested I pre-ordered it. Those suckers are figuring me out.

As you'd expect, it's really dumb.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 15, 2023, 01:44 AM...What I got instead was a book containing letters he sent to his sister and others while on his journey.

He had a lot to say about his failing health, bug bites and his brother in law's business. And he made a 19th century joke about the murder of a certain ape that seems extremely inappropriate today :coldsweat:

:laughing: That sounds quite intriguing! Yep, books of letters are also good ways to "get inside someone's head". I've read one or two of those, including The Letters of Van Gogh. The only thing I remember about it now is my friend's comment when he saw what I was reading, "Where's the bit where he cuts his ear off?"

A Brief History of Time isn't as easy as the title suggests is it, guybrush? I still have it here on my shelves so perhaps one day I'll have another go at failing to understand it !

Never read the Anais Nin diaries, OH, but Anne Frank's diary must be one of the most famous in the world. Even here in Mexico, my son had to "do" it at school.

And yes, those rural retreat progs on tv are quite interesting. I like the ones, still fairly rural, but focused on renovation: "I bought a stone barn in Italy, etc,etc,"

PS: Hi, Lady Of Synth ! Goodwork on consistently promoting the synthesizer, even in your signature phrase at the bottom of your posts.

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Jan 16, 2023, 01:54 PMA Brief History of Time isn't as easy as the title suggests is it, guybrush? I still have it here on my shelves so perhaps one day I'll have another go at failing to understand it !

No and especially not while feeling drowsy under a parasol on a hot day on a Thailand beach.

The one thing I vaguely remember from it is that Hawking suspected that time moves along with increasing entropy and that's why time moves in the direction from cause to consequence. But that this might change one day, who knows?

Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 16, 2023, 03:21 PM

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Jan 16, 2023, 01:54 PMA Brief History of Time isn't as easy as the title suggests is it, guybrush? I still have it here on my shelves so perhaps one day I'll have another go at failing to understand it !

No and especially not while feeling drowsy under a parasol on a hot day on a Thailand beach.

The one thing I vaguely remember from it is that Hawking suspected that time moves along with increasing entropy and that's why time moves in the direction from cause to consequence. But that this might change one day, who knows?

i read it when it came out and saw the film at the theater

i remember thinking of the entropy as every time the universe contracts to such a dense point again the big bang repeats but like a copy of a copy of copy and with each expansion things change or get slightly distorted each time - it's not what he was saying but something i dreamed up while reading it-

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Jan 16, 2023, 01:57 PMPS: Hi, Lady Of Synth ! Goodwork on consistently promoting the synthesizer, even in your signature phrase at the bottom of your posts.

Thanks! The quote is actually from this:
One of my all time favorite Youtube videos, haha.

^It's a classic :laughing:

just finished The Queen's Gambit (novel)

Spoiler

usually they make books into movies or tv shows for a reason - because it's a really good book - this was no exception-  i really enjoyed both a lot - the show may be even better at pulling on the heart strings - the reason this is under spoiler is because in the book jolene and beth have an awkward sexual encounter when beth was entirely prepubescent and jolene had already reached puberty- by strict definition it was a sexual assault but it could also be viewed as "exploratory" - i feel like leaving it out of the tv show was giving way to two types of social pc moralism - 1) jolene was black so she can't do anything wrong 2) every awkward or unwanted sexual encounter has to have dire consequences and in the book it didn't- it was just something that happened and they moved on to other things and nobody was permanently damaged or traumatized - like in real life it's not always a lifetime of trauma and devastation / also i didnt know the same guy wrote The Hustler / i'm going to read another of his books sooner or later

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Hey Hawk! Good to see you around again. You'll be pleased to know I'm a bestselling author now. Well, I'll be pleased to know I'm a bestselling author now. I'm not a bestselling author now. But still writing, so there is that. Glad you didn't vanish into the Covid vortex: you always seemed like the type who would be against the vaccine, though maybe I'm wrong there? Anyway, glad you made it out the other side.

Currently reading (for Karen) Dean Koontz's "Dark Rivers of the Heart". I'm a big fan of his, and I have to say this is one of his best. Reads, literally, like a blockbuster movie - takes my breath away as I read it for her. You could see it easily being turned into a movie. Gripping stuff, highly recommended. A LOT of description though. And good if you like dogs too.

are you joking about me seeming like an anti-vaxxer?

i'm current on all my boosters

i think it should be forced on overone

the only good news about anti-vaxxers is that they're dying

Yeah now that you mention it I remember you saying everyone should be locked in for a week at gunpoint if necessary. Must have been thinking of someone else. Oh well, good to see you anyway. Keep flyin'!

if we had done it my way millions of lives would've been saved and people with comorbidities would have not had to live in fear for so long - people are so incredibly selfish - they'll still insist on going to get their Big Macs even if a deadlier plague comes around

PS i'm glad you two are mods - don't give anyone else the power - it's the idiot mod squad that ruined mb -

what's the mb user name of the mod at discord and why don't y'all start a new discord?

ps good to see you too

Quote from: TheNonSexual OccultHawk on Jan 20, 2023, 01:30 AMthe only good news about anti-vaxxers is that they're dying

Haha! Cruel but true. It still makes me angry to think how mismanagement and misinformation have caused the unnecessary death of thousands.

Good for you, Trollheart, in reading to your sister. It's a very Victorian thing to be doing - reading aloud to the family, and must give a different spin to your experience of a book. The only time I've done that is with my son, when the language, the sentence length, wasn't too much of a challenge.

I enjoyed the mini-series of Queen's Gambit too, OH: I wonder if, like me, you were noticing the tricks the director used to try to give a sense of drama to something pretty void of visual drama: two people playing a board game. One thing I remember was the whole "imagining the chess pieces on the ceiling" bit. Is that in the book too, or was it just cinematic invention?

it's in the book

the trick about getting you excited about the chess competition in both the book and tv show is outstanding character development - they got you so invested in beth harmon if she cares about chess so do you!!!

the book, i think captured how crushing losing at chess can feel better so the pain for her but mostly her opponents is very palpable

sometimes you read a novel with a solid plot but you don't care because you don't care about the characters- but others aren't so character driven but more plot driven

but Queen's Gambit really hangs its hat on Beth Harmon

ps i'm not saying the chess pieces on the ceiling wasn't a factor - it was effective trick in both the book and translated great to film -

Thanks for answering my question.

Quote from: TheNonSexual OccultHawk on Jan 21, 2023, 12:48 AMthe trick about getting you excited about the chess competition in both the book and tv show is outstanding character development - they got you so invested in beth harmon if she cares about chess so do you!!!

the book, i think captured how crushing losing at chess can feel better so the pain for her but mostly her opponents is very palpable

sometimes you read a novel with a solid plot but you don't care because you don't care about the characters- but others aren't so character driven but more plot driven

Very true about caring about the characters before you can care about what happens to them. Also true about losing at chess: although I rather dismissively described it as a board game, it is unlike almost any other because there's no blaming the luck of the dice or a turn of a card for your defeat. You lost because the other guy is smarter than you :-[

Perhaps luckily for me, I learned chess by playing with my older brother. That meant that going in, I knew I would lose, and it was just a question of "how long can I hang in there before he checkmates me?"

Not quite the same pressure and international scrutiny that Beth Harmon had to face!

trolls, i want to reiterate how admirable what you do for your sister is - also i want to apologize for at times being unnecessarily cruel in attempts at humor on mb and i'm grateful you still consider me an internet friend

i have a new book to recommend

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

if you enjoy the delightful yoshimoto banana (kitchen and moonlight shadow are both wonderful) you should enjoy this writer as well - the novel won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize

the story is about an autistic woman who finds comfort and meaning in the strict setting as convenience store worker where life is easier for her because she's given complete structure - it's also a commentary on the prejudices against neurodivergent people

it's short and deeply engaging

also a couple short stories i've read recently that i think are winners include:

punishment by simon rich

and

Notions of the Sacred By Ayşegül Savaş

Quote from: TheNonSexual OccultHawk on Jan 21, 2023, 03:49 PMtrolls, i want to reiterate how admirable what you do for your sister is - also i want to apologize for at times being unnecessarily cruel in attempts at humor on mb and i'm grateful you still consider me an internet friend

i have a new book to recommend

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

if you enjoy the delightful yoshimoto banana (kitchen and moonlight shadow are both wonderful) you should enjoy this writer as well - the novel won the prestigious Akutagawa Prize

the story is about an autistic woman who finds comfort and meaning in the strict setting as convenience store worker where life is easier for her because she's given complete structure - it's also a commentary on the prejudices against neurodivergent people

it's short and deeply engaging

Ooh, sounds right up my alley! I am quite similar, I work best with total structure in my life.

just finished I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid my second netflix inspired read of 2023

loved the film
loved the novel

probably the finest work of art on the nature of consciousness ever created or at least in the past couple of decades- truly brilliant

i enjoyed this poem as part of my early reading to start the day routine

Poem: 'A Quantum Cento'
Science in meter and verse
By Lorraine Schein on February 1, 2023
Scientific American February 2023 Issue

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poem-a-quantum-cento/

Hyperion (Simmons novel)

i just finished this

it's considered a sci-fi classic

it was ok - it's really a collection of six short novels tied together by putting the characters in close proximity on a pilgrimage

going from plot to plot is tricky business and usually i think books suffer for it only the best can pull it off - the stories here range from pretty good to very good - but for this style to work every story has to be equally engaging and VERY engaging- if there's not complete consistency in quality it's alienating to the reader or at least this reader- i know this is a minority opinion but i think the author bit off a little more than he could chew

by the end i was happy to get it over with

still some parts of it are very cool

The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
It's about a boy who was born with red eyes trying to survive Catholic school in the 1960s. I like the premise, but I'm not sure how well executed it is so far.

Quote from: Janszoon on Feb 14, 2023, 04:08 PMThe Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
It's about a boy who was born with red eyes trying to survive Catholic school in the 1960s. I like the premise, but I'm not sure how well executed it is so far.

Like an albino kid? Or is it some spawn of  Beelzebub?

Quote from: Guybrush on Feb 14, 2023, 06:20 PMLike an albino kid? Or is it some spawn of  Beelzebub?

He has ocular albinism, so it's just his eyes that are impacted.

Hard Candy by Tennessee Williams.  Reading this during my work commute.  His mastery of short stories is just as poetic and perceptive as his plays.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vH2ytWywL.SX316.SY480._SL500_.jpg)

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House
by Kate Summerscale

Written by a tv presenter, it has a style that engages you in the story quickly enough, although B O'Reilly uses the irritating modern device of describing historical events in the Present Tense: "Lincoln walks into the theater..." That really bugs me!! 

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0lUE1C4rx60aMZBlGUK0Ayva45Dwa9704QQ&usqp=CAU)

Still, I learned a lot from this book: about the Confederate surrender at Appomattox and the fanaticism of John Wilkes Booth. Also interesting were the comparisons to be drawn between the US then and how it is today. On the one hand, totally different because The White House, "the people's house" was open to the public, with petitioners to see the President even sleeping in the corridors overnight. On the other hand, something that hasn't changed so much: a bitter lingering divide between two Americas: the Confederate South and the Union North. The exact points of contention have shifted a bit, but the two mindsets are still there, grating against each other, turning every issue, from vaccines to abortion, into a new version of the same old political resentments. (At least, that how it seems to me as an ill-informed outsider.) 

i assume you know O'Reilly is famous for being a former fox news right winger

anti-poor
anti-choice
homophobic
extremely hawkish foreign policy

that doesn't mean it's not a good book but do his political and hateful cultural perspectives shade his historical narrative or did it seem fair?

seems like an interesting read either way

^ No, that surprises me, Dreams. I could see that he was kind of popularizing history, keeping it simple, putting in fictionalized bits about what people were thinking and various other dramatic touches that were just guesses on his part.

As for fairness, it seemed pretty good. He was sympathetic to Lincoln, but also to the poor Confederate footsoldiers. He praised Lincoln's commitment to American unity, and that came across more strongly than his admiration for Robert E Lee's military abilities (which is an attitude I've heard elsewhere.) He presents JWBooth as a pathetic, deluded  but dangerous figure.

Didn't notice anything anti-poor, homophobic, and pro/anti-choice, foreign policy didn't arise as topics at all. One weird thing that did arise: he's written a couple of other "Killing..." books, including one on Jesus Christ, and so, not to waste his research I presume, he throws in some bizarre comparisons about "Lincoln and Jesus Christ were both killed on a Thursday afternoon" or something like that...Ah, here's one of his forced parallels:-

"Two thousand years after the execution of Jesus, there are still many unanswered questions about who was directly responsible for his death and what happened in the aftermath. And so it is, on Good Friday 1865 that...." 

QuoteTwo thousand years after the execution of Jesus, there are still many unanswered questions about who was directly responsible for his death and what happened in the aftermath. And so it is, on Good Friday 1865 that

lol 😂 that's a pretty strong indicator that the author is a weirdo

i still bet it's an engaging informative read

Yeah, lucky for him he has another profession apart from writing books  :laughing:
Still, it was a quick, easy read and has given me enough info to allow me to mouth off like an expert in a bar conversation!

Quote from: Dreams on Jan 24, 2023, 05:32 PMjust finished I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid my second netflix inspired read of 2023

loved the film
loved the novel

probably the finest work of art on the nature of consciousness ever created or at least in the past couple of decades- truly brilliant

I saw this recommendation, so I'll track down the Netflix film, thanks.

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Feb 26, 2023, 03:58 PMWritten by a tv presenter, it has a style that engages you in the story quickly enough, although B O'Reilly uses the irritating modern device of describing historical events in the Present Tense: "Lincoln walks into the theater..." That really bugs me!! 

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0lUE1C4rx60aMZBlGUK0Ayva45Dwa9704QQ&usqp=CAU)

Still, I learned a lot from this book: about the Confederate surrender at Appomattox and the fanaticism of John Wilkes Booth. Also interesting were the comparisons to be drawn between the US then and how it is today. On the one hand, totally different because The White House, "the people's house" was open to the public, with petitioners to see the President even sleeping in the corridors overnight. On the other hand, something that hasn't changed so much: a bitter lingering divide between two Americas: the Confederate South and the Union North. The exact points of contention have shifted a bit, but the two mindsets are still there, grating against each other, turning every issue, from vaccines to abortion, into a new version of the same old political resentments. (At least, that how it seems to me as an ill-informed outsider.) 

No, that's basically about right. If one side says the sky is blue, the other side has to swear the sky is yellow. It gets pretty tribal here.

just finished Escape by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer

it's a non-fictional autobiographical account of a woman born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

she was coerced into an abusive polygamist marriage and the book tells the story of how she overcame physical and psychological entrapment

not surprisingly netflix has a follow up on the cult but i haven't seen it

it's not the most shocking cult book around but it's a solid interesting and engaging read

i felt a little too much time was devoted to the health problems of her children which is obviously extremely important to her and my heart goes out to her for how deeply she suffered- but people read books about cults to read about crazy cult stuff but this book certainly has plenty of this

Quote from: Dreams on Mar 01, 2023, 07:28 PM...but people read books about cults to read about crazy cult stuff but this book certainly has plenty of this

That's true, and it was certainly my motive when I read this book, which, point for point, pretty much matches your description of Escape.

(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRW3RBjr0b4icVgit3_grMsa1Nw2cyOR554mg&usqp=CAU)

She was married to Verlan Le Barron, who took his splinter-group of a splinter-group of Mormon fundamentalists to Mexico in order to farm dust, if the photos are anything to go by. What I remember most is reading about the poverty, humiliation and hard work she endured, and also how I got used to reading phrases like, " Verlan and his first five wives..." or this description of the author "...the thirteenth of thirty-one children..."

we both probably shortchanged outselves not reading The Colony by Sally Denton instead but i doubt i'll be reading much more on mormon extremists any time soon

i might get into a podcast on it - i like that podcast just called Cults

https://www.parcast.com/cults it's real matter of fact - doesn't try to be funny or cute or over sensational - episode after after episode is shocking though

it's a very scripted podcast they do Serial Killers too

i know last podcast on the left is very popular and to each their own but they just seem like trendy frat kids to me - i don't find them funny clever or likable

they also remind me of improv comedy people and that's not a compliment

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270048416l/7941013.jpg)

One of the best sci-fi experiences I've had in a long time. Doesn't go the way you think it will and the premise is surprisingly engaging in regards to how an alien species who has modified the human race in ancient times might engage with us again in a first contact-like scenario.

Quote from: Nimbly9 on Mar 05, 2023, 06:19 AM(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1270048416l/7941013.jpg)

One of the best sci-fi experiences I've had in a long time. Doesn't go the way you think it will and the premise is surprisingly engaging in regards to how an alien species who has modified the human race in ancient times might engage with us again in a first contact-like scenario.

looks interesting

just finished:


Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

the best full sweeping history i've ever read

answers not just what but why and how

books that compliment this book imo are

How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going by Vaclav Smil

A (Very) Short History of Life On Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters by Henry Gee

The Social Conquest of Earth by E. O. Wilson

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

just finished

Kobo Abe
The Face of Another

brilliant

i'm going to quote reviews - it's a very difficult book to describe but it deals with mental illness and sexual deviance and war and even though the plot is easy enough to follow the layers upon layers of meaning seem impossibly deep

QuoteReview
"A fascinating book.... The world of Kobo Abe is one in which intellectual concepts have the emotional impact and motivating power of psychotic compulsions."–Newsweek

"A major novel... Since The Woman in the Dunes, Kobo Abe's stock as a novelist has been very high. The Face of Another raises it still more."–The Christian Science Monitor

"Probes the edges of a waking nightmare....The central, shaping metaphor of face and facelessness is brilliant, and Abe's relentless pursuit of its every implication is powerful."–The Saturday Review
From the Inside Flap
Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis, this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident?a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him.

His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self?a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity and the social contract,The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.
From the Back Cover
Like an elegantly chilling postscript to The Metamorphosis," this classic of postwar Japanese literature describes a bizarre physical transformation that exposes the duplicities of an entire world. The narrator is a scientist hideously deformed in a laboratory accident-a man who has lost his face and, with it, his connection to other people. Even his wife is now repulsed by him.
His only entry back into the world is to create a mask so perfect as to be undetectable. But soon he finds that such a mask is more than a disguise: it is an alternate self-a self that is capable of anything. A remorseless meditation on nature, identity and the social contract," The Face of Another is an intellectual horror story of the highest order.
About the Author
Kobo Abe was born in Tokyo in 1924, grew up in Manchuria, and returned to Japan in his early twenties. In 1948 he received a medical degree from Tokyo Imperial University, but he never practiced medicine. Before his death in 1993, Abe was considered his country's foremost living novelist, and was also widely known as a dramatist. His novels have earned many literary awards and prizes, and have all been best sellers in Japan. They include The Woman in the Dunes, Kangaroo Notebook, The Ark Sakura, The Face of Another, The Box Man, and The Ruined Map.

this is the third book of his ive read

Quote from: Dreams on Feb 26, 2023, 04:33 PMi assume you know O'Reilly is famous for being a former fox news right winger

anti-poor
anti-choice
homophobic
extremely hawkish foreign policy

that doesn't mean it's not a good book but do his political and hateful cultural perspectives shade his historical narrative or did it seem fair?

seems like an interesting read either way

apparently Hannity is a Lincoln dickrider too. More proof that John Wilkes Booth was doing the lord's work.

I wonder if O'Reilly had a chapter in the book where he labels Lincoln a patriot and John Wilkes Booth a pinhead?

Quote from: Jwb on Mar 14, 2023, 07:51 AMI wonder if O'Reilly had a chapter in the book where he labels Lincoln a patriot and John Wilkes Booth a pinhead?

Like a cenobite? Angels to some, demons to others?

Quote from: Guybrush on Mar 14, 2023, 09:27 AM

Quote from: Jwb on Mar 14, 2023, 07:51 AMI wonder if O'Reilly had a chapter in the book where he labels Lincoln a patriot and John Wilkes Booth a pinhead?

Like a cenobite? Angels to some, demons to others?

We have such sights to show you.

Jesus christ. I didn't know he made an actual book out of the Pinheads vs Patriots bit when I posted that. I was just looking for an example of the segment and stumbled on this:

i finished children of ruin last night which is the second of three so far in this series by adrian tchaikovsky

i loved this and number one - children of time

this guy ted chiang kim stanley robinson and liu cixin are great new school sci-fi


the one i just finished was mesmerizing, mind bending, and to me very disturbing (it tapped into some of my deepest fears about what life really is)

these two books also offer some of the best speculation about animal intelligence i've ever read - whether science, philosophy, or fiction

i absolutely have to rave - this series is really something special

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/49/Downtown_Owl_%28Chuck_Klosterman_book%29.jpg)

Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
I just started this novel yesterday. So far it's as well written and funny as I expected based on having read some of his non-fiction.

i just finished a book called header by edward lee

spoiler for sexual violence and vulgarity

Spoiler

the book is mostly about a type of necrophilic fetish where a hole is cut in an unlucky female corpse's skull and the brain is used as masturbatory tool - the author was impressively economical and moved the simple but entertaining plot along and a good clip

all horror moves along a spectrum of how far the author decides to take it but i felt sonewhat cheated that the women where given easy deaths - if you're going to go with such a grotesque premise why not make the victims suffer through it while alive

another oddity was that they often referred to the victims as "crackers" but no other indication was given as to the ethnicity of the deviants

the book was written in 95 and was published by a company owned by glenn danzig

i suspect that there were limits to where the author was willing to go in accordance with punk rock moralism

[close]

Quote from: Dreams on Mar 17, 2023, 01:24 AMi just finished a book called header by edward lee

spoiler for sexual violence and vulgarity

Spoiler

the book is mostly about a type of necrophilic fetish where a hole is cut in an unlucky female corpse's skull and the brain is used as masturbatory tool - the author was impressively economical and moved the simple but entertaining plot along and a good clip

all horror moves along a spectrum of how far the author decides to take it but i felt sonewhat cheated that the women where given easy deaths - if you're going to go with such a grotesque premise why not make the victims suffer through it while alive

another oddity was that they often referred to the victims as "crackers" but no other indication was given as to the ethnicity of the deviants

the book was written in 95 and was published by a company owned by glenn danzig

i suspect that there were limits to where the author was willing to go in accordance with punk rock moralism

[close]

Maybe they were called crackers because of the rigor mortis. 

Nothing special. Expected more from the writer all the cool girls are reading.    

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JC+A7xvIL._SL500_.jpg)

Quote from: jadis on Mar 18, 2023, 11:08 PMNothing special. Expected more from the writer all the cool girls are reading.   

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JC+A7xvIL._SL500_.jpg)

i thought it was a fantastic examination into depression and the alure of dropping out of life using chemicals - the complete disengagement with the world

i also found the protagonist beautifully relatable

i think it's good companion read to The Master bt Colm Tóibín and i actually think Moshfegh's novel compares favorably

so, i disagree with you 😊

I would have jerked off to that cover pic when i was like 12.

1000%

i just finished the story of b by daniel quinn

it's a novel - it's called a "philosophical novel" on wikipedia

basically it boils down to using the socratic method to argue in favor of abolishing agricultural (at least as it's practiced today)

it's a follow up to ishmael which actually influenced me considerably

if you haven't i recommend reading ishmael even though i'm sure some of you will find it lacking in nuance and overly simplistic

the story of b was first published in 96

Not because I want to read it necessarily. But because I can't tear myself away. Brilliant book by a brilliant historian, whether you can overcome the horror and revulsion as she advises to (I can't)  https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488795/castration-and-the-heavenly-kingdom/#bookTabs=1


(https://cornellpress-us.imgix.net/covers/9780801488795.jpg?auto=format&w=298)

Quote from: jadis on Mar 25, 2023, 01:43 PMNot because I want to read it necessarily. But because I can't tear myself away. Brilliant book by a brilliant historian, whether you can overcome the horror and revulsion as she advises to (I can't)  https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801488795/castration-and-the-heavenly-kingdom/#bookTabs=1


(https://cornellpress-us.imgix.net/covers/9780801488795.jpg?auto=format&w=298)

😳

it's on the list

I discovered this book via YouTube where it's been uploaded as an audio version. The Youtube narration is via an AI-generated male voice which I find rather lacking, so I decided to find a copy of the book. I'm about halfway through it and find it to be as interesting as it is horrifying. A fascinating but brutal account of the war in the Eastern Front from a German soldier's perspective.

QuoteParticipating in every key campaign on the Eastern Front, a young German soldier keeps a private uncensored diary as he battles the Red Army to conquer Russia.

This book presents the remarkable personal journals of a German soldier who participated in Operation Barbarossa and subsequent battles on the Eastern Front, revealing the combat experience of the German-Russian War as seldom seen before.

Hans Roth was a member of the anti-tank (Panzerjager) battalion, 299th Infantry Division, attached to Sixth Army, as the invasion of Russia began. Writing as events transpired, he recorded the mystery and tension as the Germans deployed on the Soviet frontier in June 1941. Then a firestorm broke loose as the Wehrmacht tore across the front, forging into the primitive vastness of the East.

During the Kiev encirclement, Roth's unit was under constant attack as the Soviets desperately tried to break through the German ring. At one point, after the enemy had finally been beaten, a friend serving with the SS led him to a site where he witnessed civilians being massacred en masse (which may well have been Babi Yar). After suffering through a horrible winter against apparently endless Russian reserves, his division went on the offensive again, this time on the northern wing of "Case Gelb," the German drive toward Stalingrad.

In these journals, attacks and counterattacks are described in "you are there" detail, as Roth wrote privately, as if to keep himself sane, knowing that his honest accounts of the horrors in the East could never pass through Wehrmacht censors. When the Soviet counteroffensive of winter 1942 begins, his unit is stationed alongside the Italian 8th Army, and his observations of its collapse, as opposed to the reaction of the German troops sent to stiffen its front, are of special fascination.

Roth's three journals were discovered many years after his disappearance, tucked away in the home of his brother, with whom he was known to have had a deep bond. After his brother's death, his family discovered them and quickly sent them to Rosel, Roth's wife. In time, Rosel handed down the journals to Erika, Roth's only daughter, who had meantime immigrated to America.

Hans Roth was doubtlessly working on a fourth journal before he was reported missing in action in July 1944 during the battle known as the Destruction of Army Group Center. Although Roth's ultimate fate remains unknown, what he did leave behind, now finally revealed, is an incredible firsthand account of the horrific war the Germans waged in Russia.

on the list

that looks wild

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Mar 27, 2023, 01:36 PMon the list

that looks wild

About as wild as it gets.

Reading through all of the intense combat he was in, it's astounding to me that he managed to survive as long as he did.

Psy-Fi I keep thinking you're Exo because of the Gene Wilder avi ffs :laughing:

Quote from: Marie Monday on Mar 27, 2023, 08:19 PMPsy-Fi I keep thinking you're Exo because of the Gene Wilder avi ffs :laughing:

I was thinking that someone over at MB might've used a Gene Wilder avi at some point but I couldn't remember for sure or who it might've been.

I just finished Welcome to Hard Times by E. L. Doctorow first published in 1960.

This is a rock solid western. Wild and meaningful with wicked tight story telling.

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Mar 28, 2023, 03:36 PMI just finished Welcome to Hard Times by E. L. Doctorow first published in 1960.

This is a rock solid western. Wild and meaningful with wicked tight story telling.

That's a good one. I finally read that book a few years ago after meaning to get around to it for like 25 years.

today i also finished reading Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World by Louis Fischer (1950)

i highly recommend this biography

i've read and watched a fair amount on gandhi but this book more than anything else i've come across explains the methodology of his nonviolent approach and the reason it was so successful

even if sometimes it doesn't sound like it i've always been drawn to radical pacifism as an approach to achieve radical change

this book, without being dogmatic, makes a great case for the power of nonviolent action even against a violent regime

it also makes a good effort to put the uk into a fair light - gandhi was very candid in his criticisms of the colonizers but was also quick to point out ways in which they were morally more advanced than india

i doubt an honest approach to this subject would be published today but the author met with gandhi before he was assassinated and only used direct quotes from gandhi to bring in the realities of the colonization and the resistance and lack of resistance to the independence movement

like i said, i highly recommend this book and i doubt it was ever improved upon

from the latest issue of the new yorker

this is good enough to nod to here

(https://i.postimg.cc/3xN90GBy/E68-DDC70-5667-4-A6-E-A1-ED-A707-C7749-ECD.jpg)

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 01, 2023, 01:09 AMfrom the latest issue of the new yorker

this is good enough to nod to here

(https://i.postimg.cc/3xN90GBy/E68-DDC70-5667-4-A6-E-A1-ED-A707-C7749-ECD.jpg)

I'll read that. Always had a prejudice against quantification, being a humanities guy, but I'm trying to overcome it lately... both cause I'm thinking of becoming a tech bro and also because, per Kafka, in the battle between yourself and the world, second the world. AND YET... the more I dip into the world of data and stats, the more it seems that it promotes a lamentably narrow view of the world where all the parameters are set in advance by people who actually like The Big Bang Theory

Quote from: jadis on Apr 01, 2023, 10:37 PMAND YET... the more I dip into the world of data and stats, the more it seems that it promotes a lamentably narrow view of the world where all the parameters are set in advance by people who actually like The Big Bang Theory

this is true, but that's all the more reason why it needs more people with a solid humanitieas background. The same goes for AI

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Mar 29, 2023, 05:24 AMtoday i also finished reading Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World by Louis Fischer (1950)

i highly recommend this biography

i've read and watched a fair amount on gandhi but this book more than anything else i've come across explains the methodology of his nonviolent approach and the reason it was so successful

even if sometimes it doesn't sound like it i've always been drawn to radical pacifism as an approach to achieve radical change

this book, without being dogmatic, makes a great case for the power of nonviolent action even against a violent regime

it also makes a good effort to put the uk into a fair light - gandhi was very candid in his criticisms of the colonizers but was also quick to point out ways in which they were morally more advanced than india

i doubt an honest approach to this subject would be published today but the author met with gandhi before he was assassinated and only used direct quotes from gandhi to bring in the realities of the colonization and the resistance and lack of resistance to the independence movement

like i said, i highly recommend this book and i doubt it was ever improved upon

Hey, Toy Soldier! I have also read that same book about Gandhi, and found it very interesting! It's an extraordinary insight, by a man with  first-hand experience, into the hard-to-believe story of India's Independence/ Partition, and Gandhi's role and influence over it all. I can't think that there's ever been a world leader like Gandhi before or since.

To be honest though, I struggled with the length of this book, and - at about three-quarters of the way through - said to myself, "There's no way I'm ever going to read this again, so I'd better push on and finish it." For some reason, I found myself helped along by the recurring presence of Miss Madeline Slade, Westerner extraordinaire, who turns up again and again in the closing stages of Gandhi's life. "If she could live it, the least I can do is read it." That was my attitude to the book at times. 

(https://scd.community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-dany_OAbJ9M%2FUZaaSKTImgI%2FAAAAAAAAA0E%2FfbPm1UhS1wo%2Fs1600%2Fgandhipossesions.JPG&hash=c2c761bf5636fe31ea4c07f83e41645f2bfa2493)

^ Gandhi's only possessions at the time of his death: I'm clearly more materialistic than I like to think. :(

QuoteTo be honest though, I struggled with the length of this book

but it was under 250 pages (???)

i visited sabarmati ashram when back when i was twenty something

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarmati_Ashram

that trip was also during the 50th anniversary of their independence and at one point i was on a bus that went through a gigantic celebration of the anniversary- we could only go like 2-5 mph and the sea of people- it was surreal- i went to two demonstrations in dc (gay rights and choice) that were 750,000 people plus and this seemed like ten times as huge
 
i have no idea how many people were really there but it seemed like an ocean

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780060910389-us-300.jpg)

Ah! Same author, same topic, even same year of publication (1950) but apparently not the same book: this one is 530 pages, which of itself is not excessive, but with all the political rallies and factional divisions, I found it a struggle.

Congrats on visiting the great man's ashram; I can't really imagine you as a twenty-something ashram visitor.

Quotethis one is 530 pages

yeah i could see things starting to blur together with an extra 200 pages

i'm glad i got the ramones version and not the pink floyd version

QuoteCongrats on visiting the great man's ashram; I can't really imagine you as a twenty-something ashram visitor.

i stayed for around ten days in a buddhist monastery on that trip as well

it wasn't one that typically took on tourists either - i was with another american i befriended who was a concert level classical guitarist who had his instrument with him - we were looking for a bigger monastery that lonely planet said rented rooms to foreigners but got lost and found this place instead

they were all refugees from tibet

it cost us around 50 cents a day and that included meals with the monks - i thought they were supposed to be vegetarians but we sure ate a lot of water buffalo meat

i just lounged around and read everyday while the monks chanted and this dude practiced his guitar - it wasn't lost on me how fortunate i was to be having such an experience

PROFILES
THE WILD WORLD OF MUSIC
What can elephants, birds, and flamenco players teach a neuroscientist-composer about music?


By Burkhard Bilger


***very interesting article in the new yorker that deals with the neuroscience of music and animal intelligences***

it's behind a paywall, unfortunately

more from this impressive issue of the new yorker - a short story called ALISA by  Lyudmila Ulitskaya

her wikipedia page makes want to read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Ulitskaya

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Apr 02, 2023, 05:17 AM(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780060910389-us-300.jpg)

Ah! Same author, same topic, even same year of publication (1950) but apparently not the same book: this one is 530 pages, which of itself is not excessive, but with all the political rallies and factional divisions, I found it a struggle.

Congrats on visiting the great man's ashram; I can't really imagine you as a twenty-something ashram visitor.

sad that india is turning its back on this proud history

(https://i.postimg.cc/C107NVJJ/B9-E06-BF2-590-F-461-F-BBAA-20-E37-F9-F3-A7-C.jpg)

source nyt


modi will probably retire in florida

just finished

Wendell Berry
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

i've been interested in the dark mountain project for years now

https://dark-mountain.net/the-world-ending-fire/

these essays are essential like thoreau and emerson and muir

i'm glad i finally got it

better late than never

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 05, 2023, 04:14 PMmore from this impressive issue of the new yorker - a short story called ALISA by  Lyudmila Ulitskaya

her wikipedia page makes want to read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Ulitskaya

Is it about the lady whose mother did an Anna Karenina?

Quote from: jadis on Apr 09, 2023, 02:33 AM

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 05, 2023, 04:14 PMmore from this impressive issue of the new yorker - a short story called ALISA by  Lyudmila Ulitskaya

her wikipedia page makes want to read more

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyudmila_Ulitskaya

Is it about the lady whose mother did an Anna Karenina?

yes - good call 🙌

She's a really fine writer. Only read stories here and there, want to read her novel about the translator. First took interest in her when I was obsessively googling an outstanding visiting prof I studied with years ago and it turned out they were friends

She's like my dad in that she studied the hard sciences at uni because the humanities were just Soviet ideological slop. Except she chose genetics, which in Soviet Russia was ideological slop as well

She's one of those rare Russians (at least in her generation) for whom the ideas of "gender as a social construct" or "gender performance" or just gender diversity aren't alien nonsense https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/russian-ludmila-ulitskaya-gay-propaganda-book

Her gut reaction to the Ukraine war is worth reading (https://translatingcuba.com/liudmila-ulitskaya-putin-has-gone-mad-all-this-is-the-act-of-a-man-who-has-lost-his-mind/)

just finished

The Elric Saga #6
Stormbringer

by Michael Moorcock

the copy i have has the same cover as alternate cover of Hawkwind's The Chronicle of the Black Sword

talk about taking your time getting around to reading something- i've been meaning to read this for over forty years

it's the first moorcock i've read and i have to say it's truly rock solid

i was in high school when i read tolkein but from memory the hobbit was the only one i enjoyed this much and i'm pretty sure back to back stormbringer is much better

i found moorcock's universe very intriguing- the monsters are wild and the storyline was also really cool


i'm glad i got to it

The Hobbit was the last book I read in Moscow before we immigrated to Canada when I was a kid. I borrowed it from someone and was pretty sad to return it because I absolutely loved it and thought I'll never find this rare exotic book again...

Tried to read some other Tolkin in my late teens and it was very clear it's not for me

https://apple.news/A_9gapf2USNy2NSVpXjnfIg

(https://i.postimg.cc/6qtPVm3B/97396-AC0-6-FF9-4-E4-B-A0-BC-9-FFF9-EEDAE86.jpg)

if you're stuck behind the paywall- i hope you can still find a way to read this if you're interested in lgbtq history

this story reminds of when i was at a gay rights demonstration in dc and Allen Schindler's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Allen_R._Schindler_Jr. mother spoke - it was so sad - i cannot think about it even still without crying

Looks interesting, TR 🙂

I'm currently reading Mr. Know It All by John Waters. He writes about getting his various movies put together, describing the cast, adding in some advice for young filmmakers, etc. It's good fun.

Quote from: Guybrush on Apr 23, 2023, 07:56 AMLooks interesting, TR 🙂

I'm currently reading Mr. Know It All by John Waters. He writes about getting his various movies put together, describing the cast, adding in some advice for young filmmakers, etc. It's good fun.

i remember him plugging a book he had written-

it bet it's interesting

(https://i.postimg.cc/PrLtjD2d/660-AF8-C4-1-BAD-4724-B514-F1797-F031-B5-D.jpg)

well written short story about an affair where nothing too serious happens

reminded me of raymond carver

oh my she passed away a long time ago

it seems like they would've mentioned that

i generally assume it's new 

i mean i think this is the first it's been published but you know

maybe she's famous enough that a person should know

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Colwin

When Cleopatra was alive, she wasn't categorised by the colour of her skin (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/23/when-cleopatra-was-alive-she-wasnt-categorised-by-colour-of-her-skin)

she wasn't black

now there's this weird thing where some people think blacks can make up any history they want

blacks were the original and only real hebrews

blacks were the first indigenous people in america

blacks built the pyramids

einstein was black

ye's black

on and on

Ludwig van Beethoven? I think you mean Ludwig van Blackhoven

just finished the novel The Death of Vivek Oji

i didn't get engaged in the story

it dealt with lgbtq issues in nigeria but basically it was a whodunnit

i don't think i ever enjoyed a whodunnit and this was no exception

the author introduced like six characters on the first page which alienated me

i really didn't put much effort into this book

maybe it's my fault but there was also a lot of random jumping with the chronology - i feel like these authors are trying to be faulkner

however it seems most people who read this think it's great so you know

I found the third and final edition of Classics Illustrated I've been looking for at a vintage toy and comic show today! It was from the same fellow who sold me the restored edition of Metropolis at the last show I attended.

I now have all 3 of my favorite classic science fiction novels in vintage 1940s-50s comic book form - Frankenstein, The Time Machine, and War of the Worlds. Yay! :)

(https://i.imgur.com/cPhCkjel.jpg)

^ Nice covers, ISB !
_________________________________

On the topic of Cleopatra, I remember reading once how 19th century Europe was prepared to admire the Egyptian civilization, but only on the assumption that it was created by Middle-Eastern-looking types around the Nile delta, as it safely flowed into the good old Mediterranean Sea, which is almost Europe, really. But an earlier culture was pretty much ignored, because it was located up-stream, in Africa proper, and was established by the (black) Nubians.

Here's a quote suggesting that Delta Egypt owed more to the Nubians than to the Middle East:-

QuoteFrank Yurco stated that depictions of pharonic iconography such as the royal crowns, Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in the Upper Egyptian Naqada culture and A-Group Nubia. He further elaborated that "Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia, and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vititates the Mesopotamian-influence argument".[22]

_______________________________

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Apr 25, 2023, 06:38 AMthe author introduced like six characters on the first page which alienated me

i really didn't put much effort into this book

maybe it's my fault but there was also a lot of random jumping with the chronology - i feel like these authors are trying to be faulkner

however it seems most people who read this think it's great so you know

Yep, I agree, T R: I don't like reading whodunnits much, and would prob abandon a book that does those things you mention. To me it's like a lack of courtesy to the reader, saying "I have a story to tell, but I'm going to make it difficult for you."

In contrast, the book I'm reading totally grips you from the first chapter. Ayaan has a hard-to-believe, real-life story about her girlhood in Somalia, and like any narrator with a good story, her intention is to explain rather than to confuse:-

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ozkAAOSw-Rxj0WMc/s-l1600.png)

Quotehave a story to tell, but I'm going to make it difficult for you

i think it started with the sound and the fury which is one of my favorite books ever but faulkner's very difficult approach wasn't just to be artsy - he was taking you into the insanity of disabled and suicidal characters minds

it's worth the work but it's been copied to death and usually without valid purpose

 :thumb:

(https://i.imgur.com/FfUVhi9.jpg)

ᐯ

(https://i.imgur.com/EPR9aqm.jpg)

I agree, Creeme Coling is better than EPcEATSE.

The Inner Life of Gender (https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/gender-neutral)

QuoteA colleague and friend of mine, a Jewish lesbian who has found herself, mostly with pleasant bemusement, teaching at a small Christian university in the Midwest, recently shared with me, outraged, her employer's new policy on "gender" and pronouns. In the solemn, moralizing tone of a land-acknowledgement—a register of piety that the school's administrators no longer use to talk about their institution's religious denomination—officials declared that they understood gender to be an essential component of students' "identities." Students have genders, and those genders must be recognized by faculty through the use of proper pronouns, on pain of administrative sanction. Gender is a vital psychic reality and a site of fraught self-investigation; it is, at the same time, a datum to be tracked and enforced by the university bureaucracy. It can, moreover, be changed at any moment, by a student's declaration of a new gender, which will in turn be registered by administrators and recognized by faculty who want to keep their jobs.

The meaning of the terms around which the above paragraph is organized—gender, identity, recognition—have in recent years become self-evident both in the operations of policy and in people's everyday experience of themselves. Individuals who would be suspicious of the invisible forces around which vanished moral-political orders were built (soul, destiny, telos, Providence, etc.), and who would be baffled by the various concepts by which their ancestors made sense of their selves (chastity, honor, virtue, authenticity), seem to find in gender and its related keywords a means both of expressing their inner life and of remaking the world. The apparently irrefutable obviousness of these concepts conceals from us both their novelty and their strange, self-contradictory logic.

How is it that gender could be something I have, do, understand, declare, register, recognize, and change? Gender has the pathos of a struggle to access the hidden depths of inner life, a quest for the truth of the self that centuries of Christian confession and post-Christian therapy have taught Westerners to regard as sublimely difficult and noble. But gender is also as easy, as public, and as increasingly compulsory as "saying one's pronouns." In what may be the basic bait-and-switch of contemporary liberalism, gender promises us a domain of personal freedom in which we can create ourselves anew and then compels us to expose that intimate self, enrolling it in a public campaign of good against evil, future against past.

Asking questions about gender reveals its status as ideology—as the transformation of a particular, contingent interpretation of the world into an ostensibly natural fact about the world. In critiquing "gender ideology," however, one risks becoming the proponent of a counterideology no less shrilly political in its insistent defense of "common sense." How can we resist an ideology, not least by exposing it as an ideology, without ourselves becoming ideological? How can we question "gender" without thereby becoming "fascists," as gender theorists like Judith Butler insist we are? Is it possible to be neutral about gender—to elude the demands that its proponents place on us rather than silently accepting or screamingly refusing them?

Articles like that are so exhausting. People don't know how awful it feels to have their personhood reduced to "discourse".

I'm sick of my friends and my people being spoken of like this.

Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on May 02, 2023, 11:36 PMArticles like that are so exhausting. People don't know how awful it feels to have their personhood reduced to "discourse".

I'm sick of my friends and my people being spoken of like this.

it's also very poorly written - obviously hiding behind obfuscation and pointless ambiguity

all those words to say fuck your pronouns

here's a fact of life, at least here in america, college is fucking expensive, and in america when you pay for things you expect to get it your way - a professor who wants to ignore pronouns is like a dishwasher who wants to ignore the cutlery - bitch it's your fucking job - people don't like washing forks but folks pay for nice meals and they get clean forks - tuition is 10 grand a year at least - you call me whatever the fuck i tell you to call me

I don't think they're taking the 'fuck your pronouns' stance, fortunately, but I agree that it's poorly written in a way that creates confusion, and that the writer of this article should really realise that they're writing about something concerning actual people, sheesh.
I agree with the text to this extent: the point of the freedom to identify as we wish gender-wise is to avoid being inhibited by externally imposed gender norms. In a way, you could say that the goal is to make gender matter less in our lives. But some people who support self-identification of gender seem to consider it such a big part of our identities and lives that it just comes to matter more. But anyone criticising that should realise how hostile many people are towards gender non-conforming people. And then, is it really so bad? Gender inevitably still matters to us, and as long as we're free to identify as we want that's ok. And dragging proper pronoun use into this kind of criticism is unwarranted and unnecessary.

We'll agree to disagree about the quality of writing, which I find superb

But some of the points he's making can be paraphrased in everyday language: gender theory promises "liberation" yet what it delivers in actual fact is more tedious bureaucracy, HR regulations and coercive ideology.

The author, a gay guy, is a queer theorist and historian.

Engaging with gender theory means being attentive to its contradictions and blind alleys. Doesn't mean we can or should go back to the old certainties about gender roles, not at all, that's a conservative delusion no thinking person can accept. Just that we shouldn't swap one set of certainties for another.

Quote from: Marie Monday on May 03, 2023, 12:22 AMI don't think they're taking the 'fuck your pronouns' stance, fortunately, but I agree that it's poorly written in a way that creates confusion, and that the writer of this article should really realise that they're writing about something concerning actual people, sheesh.
I agree with the text to this extent: the point of the freedom to identify as we wish gender-wise is to avoid being inhibited by externally imposed gender norms. In a way, you could say that the goal is to make gender matter less in our lives. But some people who support self-identification of gender seem to consider it such a big part of our identities and lives that it just comes to matter more. But anyone criticising that should realise how hostile many people are towards gender non-conforming people. And then, is it really so bad? Gender inevitably still matters to us, and as long as we're free to identify as we want that's ok. And dragging proper pronoun use into this kind of criticism is unwarranted and unnecessary.

you're right that's not what i'm saying

i think that's what the author really wants to say

QuoteIs it possible to be neutral about gender—to elude the demands that its proponents place on us rather than silently accepting or screamingly refusing them?

gee what an imposition to call people what they want to be called either silently accept or scream - how about i'm actually happy to have the opportunity to talk to you how you want to be talked to - it's just common decency

if i call someone frank and he says i prefer franklyn i'm not going to be a petulant child and be like i can call you frank you can't control my speech

i know i'm preaching to the choir but goddamn- like lexi said but for different reasons it's genuinely fucking so old it has truly become exhausting

I don't think gender "theory" is "promising" anything. This article is overcomplicating things and putting a lot of words in the trans community's mouth. Whatever their intentions are, they seem to be deliberately obtuse about what trans people actually fight for.

Like for real, most trans people aren't "promising liberation" or whatever, we literally just want to live our lives and have the same rights to common respect and healthcare that cis people do. It's really not that complex.

oh shit sorry marie, i thought you wrote "i don't think YOU'RE taking a fuck your pronouns stance"

now i'm thinking my reading comprehension was off

i'm in a bad mood about something else

i still say that's suck ass writing though

just finished:

All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw by Theodore Rosengarten

which is actually the autobiography of Ned Cobb

(https://i.postimg.cc/ncXbnKyW/3-F8094-CB-7084-4-BE3-9-AD0-C4-F26-DC7-EA05.jpg)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Cobb

it's an oral history of a black farmer in jim crow era alabama

he was extremely industrious and clever and made a successful living despite his circumstances

he also became active in the communist party and was arrested for defending himself from a police officer thief

he spent most of his 12 year sentence in a relatively genteel southern prison and continued making money using various unique skills, like basket weaving and furniture repair, even while in prison

there's a lot of talk about mules which is a subject i find surprisingly entertaining

in some ways this book is a nice complement to the wendell berry literature i recently read

i strongly recommend this book but it's mostly very low key - of course race and social class are large players but so is how much one should feed a mule vs a horse and how to keep cotton and other crops healthy season after season -

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scientists-are-using-ai-to-talk-to-animals/

How Scientists Are Using AI to Talk to Animals

Quotetools such as Google Translate can also be used to detect patterns in nonhuman communication

Bats argue over food; they distinguish between genders when they communicate with one another; they have individual names, or "signature calls." Mother bats speak to their babies in an equivalent of "motherese."

in the future, if humanity doesn't kill itself, people will be able to communicate with other animals in ways that would seem like fantasy magic today

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-social-turmoil-has-increased-witch-hunts-throughout-history/

How Social Turmoil Has Increased Witch Hunts throughout History

this is worth reading

i never looked at witch hunts as a class issue before but it totally makes sense

i recently finished Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

this is an interesting book for discussion if anyone else has read it

even though this is a sort of sociological text and sociology is considered by some to be a soft science i think it's worth pointing out this is soft sociology in the way that michio kaku is soft physics- i mean this is soft science or pop science or whatever as long as you even accept sociology as a science and i think you should

a lot of this book because repeats the mantra that hard work pays off but he avoids the typical bootstrap bullshit by meticulously pointing out how many fortunate things have to be in place that even allows you to work at one thing so monomaniacally in the first place

he didn't event the 10,000 rule but he made it a lot more famous

i think most criticisms of his use of this rule ignore that he's talking about 10,000 hours of very focused practice

people can say a lot of shitty drivers have driven that long but that's not really addressing what he's saying

he doesn't mention coltrane but it made me think of coltrane and one of the most fascinating things about coltrane as a man, to me, is how much he practiced, even when a played two shows a night he would still practice his scales eight hours on the same day - he organized and reorganized the patterns to absurd fractal like complexity and fuck i probably have 10,000 hours of listening to coltrane and it's almost like i can see the patterns - solos that novice listeners might find chaotic or random are in fact extraordinarily well organized

but anyway he does mention mozart and mozart is often spoke of like god was speaking through him and that's why he had so much innate talent- but it occurred to me before even reading this book that while he spent his youth as a professional child prodigy he was actually studying and practicing music nonstop and in fact his great compositions are from his adulthood

i've also heard about korean and japanese pilots being afraid to correct their captain even to the point of disaster

he got called racist for that but probably by people who never lived over there -

old dudes will fire up a smoke right in front of a cop and a no smoking sign and the cop won't say shit - that's a positive example in my opinion but letting a passenger jet hit a mountainside is no beuno

i believe him

he makes a lot of interesting points

but i mean i'm never going to be chess grandmaster even with a hundred thousand hours but that's not what he's saying - he's saying having to opportunity to play chess a lot opens up the doors but i still need the proclivity as well - but focused practice will make me better

i started thinking about it during the book and thought yeah i'm playing chess but am i really focusing- i started following the rule of checking all the positions checking where my opponent can move and not being lazy about it and i start winning- i suck i know that but FOCUSED practice works

he applies it to math all the way back to asian agriculture and the difference between farming rice and wheat

i think it's important to take it as pop science and i don't think it's quite a good as sapiens as far as like having mind bending insights but i definitely recommend it and will also point out it's very engaging- it draws you in - he keeps it simple (maybe to a fault but it makes for enjoyable reading) and it's fun

a good book

I read Outliers like 15 years ago. I don't remember it too well, but I remember liking it and thinking the part about the birthdays of Canadian hockey players was interesting.

Quote from: Janszoon on May 11, 2023, 09:19 PMI read Outliers like 15 years ago. I don't remember it too well, but I remember liking it and thinking the part about the birthdays of Canadian hockey players was interesting.

usually i check the original publication date but i didn't realize it was that old - i thought it was from the last two or three years - it sure seems to squeak its way into a lot of podcasts

however i'm not sure how it got on my to read list or when

Currently reading Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil. For a rather die-hard Resident Evil fan like myself, it's super interesting to hear accounts of how these games were developed and why certain design decisions were made.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61AdQzY5UlL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

just finished endless love by scott spencer

it's a beautiful masterpiece


"She... presented herself as an authority on suicide. She had a categories of suicide: revenge suicide, accidental suicide, instructional suicide, and others that made even less immediate sense, such as lavender suicide, cheesy suicide, and astral suicide."

"Being beaten like that is so extraordinary, there's no point in describing it. Those who haven't been punished like that will never know how it feels, even if a genius describes it, and those who have, know it all too well."

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71La-NckKQL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

QuoteLong a taboo subject in Soviet historiography, the Stalinist policy toward Jews is thoroughly examined in this revealing study by one of Russia's leading historians. Sifting through thousands of recently declassified documents in the formerly secret archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the KGB, Gennadi Kostyrchenko uncovers irrefutable evidence of Stalin's intentionally anti-Semitic policy. The documents describe the suppression of all free manifestations of Jewish life, forced assimilation, and the purging of Jews from most official positions. Soviet Jews fought valiantly against fascism in World War II, yet they discovered after the war that an even greater threat confronted them at home from their national leader. Kostyrchenko documents the systematic elimination of Jews from journalism, the arts, humanities, and industry. He concludes by examining hitherto secret records of the infamous "doctors' plot" launched by Stalin just prior to his death. Out of the Red Shadows is a devastating expose of state-sponsored anti-Semitism comparable in its virulence to the Nazi reign of terror.

was there any escape for jews if they denounced their faith or was just racial cleansing

is it clearly distinct from stalin killing anyone who went to church or kept a cross in their kitchen or whatever

didn't he kill people who believed in evolution as well

i'm not playing devil's advocate - i know he killed jews but did he single them with special intensity cause he seriously liked to kill all kinds of people

i honestly don't know

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy

I just finished this yesterday. I bought this book like five years ago because I loved this guy's book about Chernobyl, but now seemed like a good time to read it. It's entirely possible that I just have a short attention span, but I found the earlier parts of the book about ancient and medieval times hard to follow. Once he got into the twentieth century though, the book was very informative.

i just put the chernobyl one on my list

Quote from: Toy Revolver on May 24, 2023, 12:09 PMwas there any escape for jews if they denounced their faith or was just racial cleansing

is it clearly distinct from stalin killing anyone who went to church or kept a cross in their kitchen or whatever

didn't he kill people who believed in evolution as well

i'm not playing devil's advocate - i know he killed jews but did he single them with special intensity cause he seriously liked to kill all kinds of people

i honestly don't know

Many ways to approach this topic but every way you look it's a resounding yes: he definitely singled out the Jews. One of the darkest moments of his reign was the whole Doctors Plot business toward the very end of his life, just an old school antisemitic blood libel conspiracy   https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/doctors_plot What's so terrifying about it for me is that it was transparently meant as a prelude for something far worse. We can't be sure what exactly though, from what I gather there isn't enough evidence to definitely confirm the deportation theory 
 
On a more general note, those who want to "purify" society or mold and engineer it into something they know will be better than what we have tend to have issues with Jews, because Jews confuse the neat categories with which we operate. "Is it a religion or an ethnic group or a race? Do they want to mix with the rest of us or do they stubbornly insist on maintaining their particularity? How do I integrate something like that into my perfect classless society?" etc. 

QuoteOn a more general note, those who want to "purify" society or mold and engineer it into something they know will be better than what we have tend to have issues with Jews, because Jews confuse the neat categories with which we operate. "Is it a religion or an ethnic group or a race? Do they want to mix with the rest of us or do they stubbornly insist on maintaining their particularity? How do I integrate something like that into my perfect classless society?" etc. 

i never connected that to the reason they have been singled out so often historically and presently

i'm glad you posted that because it makes a lot of sense and it should've occurred to me long before now

outstanding post, that's a perspective i'll never forget now that i've read it

thank you

Thanks man!

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e4/Folk_med_%C3%A5ngest.jpg)

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

I couldn't find an image of the English language version, so that's the original Swedish cover above. Anyway, I've read most of Fredrik Backman's books and have enjoyed them all, so I read this. It's a little different from the others because it's sort of a crime mystery told from different people's perspectives, but it still contains the mix of warmth, humor, and sadness that he's known for. I liked it. I feel like his books are especially good reads if you're currently going through shit.

The second WWII book I've been reading lately. About 1/4 of the way into it...

QuoteIn mid-1943 James Megellas, known as "Maggie" to his fellow paratroopers, joined the 82d Airborne Division, his new "home" for the duration. His first taste of combat was in the rugged mountains outside Naples.

In October 1943, when most of the 82d departed Italy to prepare for the D-Day invasion of France, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the Fifth Army commander, requested that the division's 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Maggie's outfit, stay behind for a daring new operation that would outflank the Nazis' stubborn defensive lines and open the road to Rome. On 22 January 1944, Megellas and the rest of the 504th landed across the beach at Anzio. Following initial success, Fifth Army's amphibious assault, Operation Shingle, bogged down in the face of heavy German counterattacks that threatened to drive the Allies into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Anzio turned into a fiasco, one of the bloodiest Allied operations of the war. Not until April were the remnants of the regiment withdrawn and shipped to England to recover, reorganize, refit, and train for their next mission.

In September, Megellas parachuted into Holland along with the rest of the 82d Airborne as part of another star-crossed mission, Field Marshal Montgomery's vainglorious Operation Market Garden. Months of hard combat in Holland were followed by the Battle of the Bulge, and the long hard road across Germany to Berlin.

Megellas was the most decorated officer of the 82d Airborne Division and saw more action during the war than most. Yet All the Way to Berlin is more than just Maggie's World War II memoir. Throughout his narrative, he skillfully interweaves stories of the other paratroopers of H Company, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The result is a remarkable account of men at war.

QuoteAnzio

that's where roger waters father died

QuoteEric Fletcher Waters
"When the Tigers Broke Free" is a Pink Floyd song by Roger Waters, describing the death of his father, Eric Fletcher Waters, on 18 February 1944, during the Battle of Anzio during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War.

i just finished a fun book


Tool of the Trade by Joe Haldeman

it's about a kgb spy who's discovered an incredibly effective way to hypnotize people

there's no shortage of graphic violence- the premise stretched credulity a bit but i was albe to suspend disbelief


he's won nebula and hugo prizes and i've been doing what i can to make my way through their winners

this is the second book of his i've read, the first is called A Separate War and Other Stories -

i loved it

i don't know if this novel was as good as that short story collection but it had me fully hooked from page one -

Quote from: Toy Revolver on Jun 01, 2023, 06:46 PMthat's where roger waters father died

i just finished a fun book


Tool of the Trade by Joe Haldeman

it's about a kgb spy who's discovered an incredibly effective way to hypnotize people

there's no shortage of graphic violence- the premise stretched credulity a bit but i was albe to suspend disbelief


he's won nebula and hugo prizes and i've been doing what i can to make my way through their winners

this is the second book of his i've read, the first is called A Separate War and Other Stories -

i loved it

i don't know if this novel was as good as that short story collection but it had me fully hooked from page one -

Sounds interesting. The only thing I've read by him is The Forever War.

just finished another

Omar El Akkad
American War: A novel

i really loved it

a war breaks out between red and blue states over a fossil fuel ban and tens of millions americans die :) in a dystopian climate change war torn nightmare apocalypse

the author does a great job of moving the character along while not ignoring the horrifying and potentially very realistic setting

Time magazine unveils "THE END OF HUMANITY: How Real is the Risk? (A Special Report)" for June 12, 2023.

I'm about to host 5 events at The Center for Inquiry on the subject of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on economics, society, and human ethics, so it's great to see major publications taking an active interest in the discussion. The events will be timely.

Now I just have to find a shop in my city that will have this on the news stand.

(https://i.imgur.com/aFyndS5l.jpg)

(https://media.bluestonepim.com/1d982375-6379-47aa-94dd-ca50b2d04f46/5d27cc31-3f6f-468c-ba0f-6fa29ef1d706/r821bYcd1Q5YGyNhdRDGv6evb/P7uPc061EpwQXtwT0GF3puJ0Q.jpeg)

Reading this. I've never laughed out loud this much while reading before. It's hysterical 😄 and I'm also a huge Terry Pratchett fan.

It makes me wanna watch The Room again. My wife suggested she also reads it and then we can watch The Room together ❤️

Everyone is obsessed with boundaries in relationships these days, myself included, and this wonderful piece unpacks what's that all about and whence it came

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/boundary-issues/

"Feminism has no absolute right to existence. It must describe something about the world accurately for it to make sense as a political-philosophical position... or else it will be – only – a style."


https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/a-feminist-style

I'm currently reading Hiroshima by John Hersey, the book from 1946 that finally informed the western world a little bit about what it was like in Hiroshima when they dropped the atomic bomb.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/HiroshimaBook.jpg)

An important piece of litterature / journalism and well written as well, it is generally considered important in ushering in the new journalism that used story-telling techniques from fiction to tell non-fiction stories.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jul 25, 2023, 01:49 AMI'm currently reading Hiroshima by John Hersey, the book from 1946 that finally informed the western world a little bit about what it was like in Hiroshima when they dropped the atomic bomb.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/HiroshimaBook.jpg)

An important piece of litterature / journalism and well written as well, it is generally considered important in ushering in the new journalism that used story-telling techniques from fiction to tell non-fiction stories.

My mother gave me that book when I was 12 or 13 and it definitely had a big impact on me.

Moralism Is Ruining Cultural Criticism  (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/oppenheimer-movie-moralizing-reviews-social-media/674823/)
The left has embraced an approach long favored by the evangelical right.

QuoteWhen I was growing up in a conservative evangelical community, one of the top priorities was to manage children's consumption of art. The effort was based on a fairly straightforward aesthetic theory: Every artwork has a clear message, and consuming messages that conflict with Christianity will harm one's faith.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Americanah_book_cover.jpg)

Americanah—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Just finished it this morning. It was ok, but I wasn't exactly blown away by it. It's kind of a meandering story that I guess is supposed to be more character driven than plot driven, but not many of the characters are very compelling. I appreciated some of the "you can't go home again" sensibility in the later parts of the book though.

The new conservative arguments for an un-modern America (https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/07/28/patrick-deneen-regime-change-sohrab-ahmari-tyranny-inc-review/?fbclid=PAAaZUVMVP5wuZ8UlOCVk8Yna3YQsP2BXJXh_AQQ8pDBa7uyU4zr9Em6XMv4Q_aem_AbWrFh3Ai-gjO2bcO68gF9Tz3FIMmHAUmfRQjC5ComWDbttkFpjqHhij1CsjfQNpnZc)

very good

Quote from: Janszoon on Jul 25, 2023, 08:29 PMMy mother gave me that book when I was 12 or 13 and it definitely had a big impact on me.

This was the edition that I found in a secondhand bookshop; I was about 16 at the time and still recall some of JH's ghastly images.

(https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/midnight_birth/13620866/69779/69779_900.jpg)

Yes, I think you're right, Guybrush: this was an early example of journalism expanding its range and ambition, to become New Journalism.

By the way, I've started on Crash by J. G. Ballard:

(https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/influx/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Crash.jpg)

I'm enjoying it so far. What's not to like about all these descriptions of people crashing cars? Bodies mangled, getting stabbed by their own stick shifts while their blood and semen squirts onto the dashboard, etc.

Thanks for the rec, @jadis !

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Haruki_murakami_elephant_9780679750536.jpg)

It's been a long time since I've been motivated to read fiction.

Someone on another corner of the internet I frequent recommended The 2 Hour Cocktail Party by Nick Gray, which I've been reading to get a good handle on improving my hosting skills and help me create and maintain IRL friendships and connections. I exclusively read practical nonfiction and this is right up my alley.

^ Practical non-fiction is a genre I associate with work/study stuff and I don't think I've ever dipped into it by choice - and even less so today, when a quick google search can usually solve the kinds of problems/ doubts I have. So I don't think our tastes in reading overlap at all, Mrs. Waffles :(

Here's a book you definitely won't want to bother with ! I came across it without any prior knowledge or expectations, but have been enjoying it over the last couple of weeks:-

  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CEAV0J2QL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but this book about a doomed slave uprising in Haiti is well-written and tells its story through a series of precisely-described set pieces, which is why the reviewer wrote "reads like a dream" on the cover. This is historical fiction that dodges the normal clichés of historical fiction and delivers the reader to some vivid, unexpected places.

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Aug 22, 2023, 04:43 PM^ Practical non-fiction is a genre I associate with work/study stuff and I don't think I've ever dipped into it by choice - and even less so today, when a quick google search can usually solve the kinds of problems/ doubts I have these days. So I don't think our tastes in reading overlap at all, Mrs. Waffles :(

Here's a book you definitely won't want to bother with ! I came across it without any prior knowledge or expectations, but have been enjoying it over the last couple of weeks:-

  (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41CEAV0J2QL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

I'm not a big fan of historical fiction, but this book about a doomed slave uprising in Haiti is well-written and tells its story through a series of precisely-described set pieces, which is why the reviewer wrote "reads like a dream" on the cover. This is historical fiction that dodges the normal clichés of historical fiction and delivers the reader to some vivid, unexpected places.

These days Google is so full of trash AI generated answers that I've personally found it unusable for anything but the most basic stuff. I like going in depth, and honestly I do consider it work related as a lot of it is related to my domestic lifestyle. You get a lot more insight into the theory of the practical tasks as well. I'm passionate about the little things, for sure.

I like fiction too, but I find a lot more enjoyment in writing it rather than reading it. So that's a fair assessment haha.

I bought this old book:

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=163BdENr-A2TD-iH6xHQfI9Wyo0gB1XbT)

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=166l5t0vZ-17q84CWWxpmH7aKJ_zRb71j)

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=168d22Av4XUiUOB4w-Sqa1uKD2Ld6ZmBu)

So I read this quite a bit in my teens as I borrowed it from our local library. I bought this one second hand and of course made sure it's the same edition as the one I read way back.

There was a time when I was a teenager when I thought some of this stuff might be true. I did a blood ritual or two and tried calling on spirits, etc.

Today I'm the most pragmatic skeptic I know and I've long been embarrassed by this phase in my teens, especially on the rare occasions it comes up  in discussion by people who remember it. BUT the realizations I eventually came to were stepping stones on my way to scepticism.

I do think that those occult topics are still a lot of fun and this book is a great source of inspiration for occult world building. So.. looking forward to retreading some of my witchy teenage past 😄

It's a fascinating topic in many ways

Have you heard of this Danish silent classic? I got into it cause they released the English version with Burroughs narrating. Even bought the Criterion DVD. Some of the sex scenes are really something   

Quote from: jadis on Aug 22, 2023, 08:19 PMIt's a fascinating topic in many ways

Have you heard of this Danish silent classic? I got into it cause they released the English version with Burroughs narrating. Even bought the Criterion DVD. Some of the sex scenes are really something   

Some regional content problems makes this youtube video unavailable to me. What is the title?

Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922)

https://www.criterion.com/films/352-hxan

Quote from: jadis on Aug 22, 2023, 08:59 PMHäxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922)

https://www.criterion.com/films/352-hxan

Figured that could be it, although it is a Swedish film (not Danish) 🙂

It's been on my to-do list for years and years, but so far I've only seen clips / parts of it and never the whole thing.

Maybe Swedish-Danish?

I love it. Always a pleasure to rewatch

Also this is one of my favorite things on YT

Quote from: jadis on Aug 22, 2023, 09:18 PMMaybe Swedish-Danish?

I love it. Always a pleasure to rewatch

Hey, you're right. I'm sorry. I looked it up and while it's a Swedish language film (in text) with a Swedish title (who else does umlauts over their As), produced by a Swedish company, it was filmed in Denmark and has a Danish director.

I might bump it up the list.

Quote from: Mrs. Waffles on Aug 22, 2023, 04:50 PMThese days Google is so full of trash AI generated answers that I've personally found it unusable for anything but the most basic stuff. I like going in depth, and honestly I do consider it work related as a lot of it is related to my domestic lifestyle. You get a lot more insight into the theory of the practical tasks as well. I'm passionate about the little things, for sure.

I don't know about AI generated answers, but you're absolutely right that for quality and depth a book will usually give you much more.

"...the most basic stuff..." :laughing: Yes, that's often what I'm hoping to discover!

Treating myself to a reread of one of my favorite books of all time. It's a 90 page essay ostensibly about some painter called Constantin Guys but really about learning to accept and recognize the beauty of the modern world and not to nostalgize about the past 

(https://www.ivoire-france.com/ddoc-1965684-b1c67bd05191e2133a268f90dfb32db8-74927521.jpg)

I have a great rec for the both of you - @Guybrush @jadis

(https://i.imgur.com/tmTeVI4.png)

Read this while completing my religious studies degree and it's one I revisit often. Not the most pleasurable read, but factually dense and absolutely fascinating.

Fuck that sounds absolutely fascinating and another one I have to just add to the queue and not let myself read right now cause I have things to do

QuoteIn the 1980s, America was gripped by widespread panics about Satanic cults. Conspiracy theories abounded about groups who were allegedly abusing children in day-care centers, impregnating girls for infant sacrifice, brainwashing adults, and even controlling the highest levels of government. As historian of religions David Frankfurter listened to these sinister theories, it occurred to him how strikingly similar they were to those that swept parts of the early Christian world, early modern Europe, and postcolonial Africa. He began to investigate the social and psychological patterns that give rise to these myths. Thus was born Evil Incarnate, a riveting analysis of the mythology of evilconspiracy.


The first work to provide an in-depth analysis of the topic, the book uses anthropology, the history of religion, sociology, and psychoanalytic theory, to answer the questions "What causes people collectively to envision evil and seek to exterminate it?" and "Why does the representation of evil recur in such typical patterns?"


Frankfurter guides the reader through such diverse subjects as witch-hunting, the origins of demonology, cannibalism, and the rumors of Jewish ritual murder, demonstrating how societies have long expanded upon their fears of such atrocities to address a collective anxiety. Thus, he maintains, panics over modern-day infant sacrifice are really not so different from rumors about early Christians engaging in infant feasts during the second and third centuries in Rome.



In Evil Incarnate, Frankfurter deepens historical awareness that stories of Satanic atrocities are both inventions of the mind and perennial phenomena, not authentic criminal events. True evil, as he so artfully demonstrates, is not something organized and corrupting, but rather a social construction that inspires people to brutal acts in the name of moral order.

The one thing from the Satanic panic era that has received some renewed attention in the aftermath of Epstein is the Franklin scandal. Don't have an opinion on it personally but kinda get the fascination.

Quote from: degrassi.knoll on Aug 28, 2023, 11:02 PMI have a great rec for the both of you - @Guybrush @jadis

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Read this while completing my religious studies degree and it's one I revisit often. Not the most pleasurable read, but factually dense and absolutely fascinating.

Yess, looks great! Thanks for the recommendation. And I noticed that the author's name is almost Frank N. Furter 🫦

I'll add it to my queue 🙂

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Quote from: degrassi.knoll on Aug 28, 2023, 11:02 PMI have a great rec for the both of you - @Guybrush @jadis

(https://i.imgur.com/tmTeVI4.png)

Read this while completing my religious studies degree and it's one I revisit often. Not the most pleasurable read, but factually dense and absolutely fascinating.

Yup, that's going on my Amazon wishlist

 ;D

So good.

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^ Didn't hear this was out - need to get!  Thanks for posting it.   :)

Currently reading this, for the umpteenth time, on the train to and from work.  I have many of Swami Vivekandanda's small paperback books, and this may be my favorite of all.

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Philip K Dick and Philosophy discusses Dick's common themes like the nature of the self and of reality from the perspectives of Aristotle, Socrates, Descartes, Sartre, Kant, Hume, Heidegger, and Nietzsche, along with more contemporary thinkers, all in the context of both Dick's direct writings and of the film versions of his works, and all in plain and accessible language.

The essays are each surprisingly concise, making the text a breeze of a read. Though it's worth noting that many readers observed that the book is best-enjoyed AFTER the reader has familiarized themselves with Dick's body of work, (or at least seen the movies), as many plot points are revealed through throughout the course of the text.

This title is #63 of the 100-volume series, Popular Culture and Philosophy, which includes similar cultural examinations of properties like Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and The Matrix.

I enjoyed it.

(https://i.imgur.com/HmZI4GMl.jpg)

(https://i.postimg.cc/fW2y141h/WtOB.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)

Found a copy of this along with several other WWII books at a used book store. Also stumbled across this video on YouTube while reading this book. Several of the people mentioned in the book are featured in the video, including the author. Amazing that he not only survived all of the combat he was in but did so without being wounded.


Peleliu 1944: Horror In The Pacific (1991) | Full Documentary

(https://imgur.com/aTWtmFw.jpg)

I'm hoping to learn something about sex or my vagina I don't already know.

^I wish I had the sexual motivation to want to read that book 😅 but my sex life is in a rut and my libido is at its lowest point.

Also, I don't have a vagina.

I'm reading three books at the moment, but something about my new, active lifestyle makes me so sleepy at night I can hardly read a page in bed before my brain turns to mush.

Quote from: Guybrush on Sep 28, 2023, 12:01 AMI'm reading three books at the moment, but something about my new, active lifestyle makes me so sleepy at night I can hardly read a page in bed before my brain turns to mush.

Oh gosh, I feel this so hard. I have quite a few books on my Kindle app that I've been going through slower than molasses because I make such little progress before I start dozing off.

Thankfully my new work arrangement should open up a lot more time to multitask some reading.

Reading this to and fro on the train lately.  I last read it years ago, and still find the story a bit tedious - but I always return just to read Willa Cather's stunning descriptions of the landscapes and pueblos of New Mexico.

"The rock, when one came to think of it, was the utmost expression of human need; even mere feeling yearned for it; it was the highest comparison of loyalty in love and friendship."

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I haven't read that one yet but I adore some of her books. I agree about her descriptions of nature

Im currently reading ......

The Art and Science of String Performance - Samuel Applebaum (page 20)
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon (page 204)
The cooks dictionary guide (about 3/4 the way through)

And have recently finished some leisurely titles such as .....

Sketching 365 - Katherine Tyrell
Several slow cooker cook books
The Coffee Book - Anette Moldvaer

Quote from: Guybrush on Sep 28, 2023, 12:01 AMAlso, I don't have a vagina.

Never a bad time to learn about vaginas.

So excited! In addition to my handsome hardcover Complete Calvin & Hobbes first edition box set in slipcase beside my beloved crocheted Hobbes doll, I now have 15 original Calvin & Hobbes paperback books comprising the entirety of the strip's history!

My thinking is that the hardcover set is more of an art object than a practical reading copy, and the spines are known to split on that edition, so the paperbacks can be kept at my bedside for enjoyable evening perusal at a fraction of the price.

"It's a magical world." - Bill Watterson

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I've owned this book for a good 15 years and it's always fun to dip in and read something from it.

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It's a collection of over 300 eye witness accounts covering around 2500 years of history, from the great plague in Athens in 430 B.C. to the deposition of President Marcos of the Philippines in 1986.

Highlights include Julius Caesar's own account of invading Britain, The burning of Rome in 64 A.D. Having dinner with Attila The Hun. All the way through The Peasants Revolt, The Battle of Agincourt, The Black Death and The Great Fire of London to Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrins accounts of landing on the moon.

It's not just big events though, there are a lot of every day life accounts, so if you have ever wondered what happened at a Viking funeral or what life aboard a French Galley in the 18th century was like this is the book for you.

There's hours of entertainment in the book. Even after all this time there are still some accounts I have yet to read.

A friend recommended Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. I have his complete bibliography yet unread so I gave it a read tonight. I really enjoyed it! I love how his writing is so archaic as if it was from the eighteenth-century Gothic period, (if I have that right?)

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Oct 14, 2023, 12:13 AMA friend recommended Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. I have his complete bibliography yet unread so I gave it a read tonight. I really enjoyed it! I love how his writing is so archaic as if it was from the eighteenth-century Gothic period, (if I have that right?)

Yes! He's a lot of fun 🙂

If you just want some quick ones, I like the Herbert West stories (though there are ofc many other good ones too).

The Color Out of Space is one of my favorites, but.. he's got so many classics.

His longest stories (like The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At The Mountains of Madness) can be a little slow in places, but they're all fun - eventually 😄

Thanks! My friend also recommended The Color Out of Space and The Shadow out of Time.

Would either of those be apt for a fan of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Ray Bradbury?

I should probably read some Poe as well.

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Oct 14, 2023, 12:21 AMThanks! My friend also recommended The Color Out of Space and The Shadow out of Time.

Would either of those be apt for a fan of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury?

Yes, absolutely 👌

Also consider Dreams in the Witch House or perhaps The Dunwich Horror. Rats in the Wall? You can't go much wrong with good old HP 🙂

D. H. Lawrence, The Man Who Died

Engrossed in this lately. His last work, written in his characteristically beautiful poetic prose style. 

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780880014298-us.jpg)

I had a free afternoon so I tackled two books that had been sitting in my library unread for far too long:

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher

and

Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music by David Stubbs

Now I just have to mind a way to occupy myself Sunday.

BlueJay.

I'm re-reading Pratchett's Pyramids:

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I've read the whole series at least a couple of times, but my favourite books I kept returning to and have read many times.

Pyramids is not one of those. It's about prince Pteppic who travels to Ankh-Morpork to train as an assassin in the assassin's guild, but then has to go back to the stagnant kingdom Djelibeiybi to become king when his father dies.

Last time I read this might have been 2007 or thereabouts. One of the things that makes it less fun is it's a one-off, so protagonist Pteppic only appears in this book.

It's entertaining, but anyone new to Discworld should start elsewhere.

Manly P. Hall. Peehole? That's the funniest author's name I've read all day.

Is it good?

I'm on a Junji Ito manga kick lately. Currently reading Remina. Love his horror art style.

(https://i.postimg.cc/ydhs1Dj5/0305ea5813291759935b9f59c039748d-SX1280-QL80-TTD.jpg)

Quote from: Skittler on Jan 03, 2024, 03:22 PMI'm on a Junji Ito manga kick lately. Currently reading Remina. Love his horror art style.

(https://i.postimg.cc/ydhs1Dj5/0305ea5813291759935b9f59c039748d-SX1280-QL80-TTD.jpg)

He does seem to have an interesting imagination.

I tried watching the Netflix show based on his stories, but it wasn't quite for me. I'm sure the mangas are better.

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Oct 14, 2023, 12:13 AMA friend recommended Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu. I have his complete bibliography yet unread so I gave it a read tonight. I really enjoyed it! I love how his writing is so archaic as if it was from the eighteenth-century Gothic period, (if I have that right?)

It surprises me that HP Lovecraft is better known, better respected, today than he was back in the 1960s. That's when I read his stories, although I only ever found one classmate who shared my enthusiasm.

Today, my reading choices are resolutely non-fantasy, and here is the latest example:-

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In some ways, his writing style could be said to be the opposite of HP Lovecraft: instead of drumming up drama with all of Lovecraft's OTT horrified prose, Rory Stewart so downplays what he did that sometimes I had to re-read sentences, then realise: "wait a minute! that was something incredible!" Anyone with a little patience and a desire to discover how the world is full of people and places of irl wonder would enjoy this book I think.

Fights by John Christian Gill.

Interesting graphic novel. Will return to this post to give review once finished.

I spent the last two days retaking many of the Enneagram tests I'd documented results from back in 2018 and compiling analytical data on my results.

This afternoon I popped into a Friends of the Library Book Sale and scored this Enneagram book for a dollar.

Hoping it sheds some much-needed light on my varying results.

(https://i.imgur.com/41PTPocl.jpg)

Will be starting this soon:

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I think it's a horror novel about boys in an orphanage or something? We'll see 🙂

I'm still trying to read Game of Thrones. It's so close between the books and the show , at least in the first book, that I'm absolutely bored reading it and basically want to die.

(https://i.imgur.com/6VOl9Mm.jpg)

just finished this, the book is from 1972 and has a note in the front that said it was gifted in 1980.  I bought it for 50 cents at a local used book place, and I found it more humorous in it's tone than I learned anything from it.  Of course, there's some really mind blowing facts thrown in there, but there's a lot of quick jokes and analogies that I suspect I will hear a lot more of in the agriculture field.

The most interesting aspect is that the book focuses very little on plants, only near the end and not for half as long as the insect chapters.  With each new piece of the garden introduced and explained, the book goes into extensive detail about what you can do to make these things decorations in your home lmao.  The weirdest part was when the narrator is saying "insects probably wouldn't mind if you made decorations out of them" but in doing that implied in some way that they needed to be killed or otherwise dead already in order to do this lol, it tickled me more than anything bc ofc I see the worth in keeping (at least already dead) insects framed in your house.

There was also other dated material inside, such as this part explaining how to make an ant farm directly encouraged the reader to burn holes into plastic sandwich containers  :laughing:

It has some really cool drawings and side knowledge, but is otherwise sort of a relic.

Definitely worth the 50 cents!

^ 100% applaud your choice of getting some old second-hand book real cheap, tristan - that's how I've been selecting my books for most of my life. I'm glad you enjoyed the dual pleasures of absorbing the original and comparing it to how we think about things today. The other thing I love about this approach to reading is the way you can find yourself in some obscure random corner in the vast world of knowledge.

Spoiler for two biographies I totally enjoyed even though they are about people that the world has forgotten:-

Spoiler

Life of a painter born in 1894: biography written in 1974:
(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780718112905-uk.jpg)
About an African American woman born in 1920 and her strange contribution to science: 
(https://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/GUEST_9d9773aa-3e37-4817-bcf2-7d86541ab8b2?wid=488&hei=488&fmt=pjpeg)

[close]

Quote from: Hope on Jan 24, 2024, 10:42 PMI'm still trying to read Game of Thrones. It's so close between the books and the show , at least in the first book, that I'm absolutely bored reading it and basically want to die.

^ :laughing: Good luck in your endeavour, Hope !

My son loved the Game of Thrones books so much that I read them too, for the sake of some father/son bonding.
"I'm absolutely bored reading it and basically want to die." I also experienced this, though the feeling didn't really settle in for good until vols 3, 4 and 5 ! By then the short-comings of G Martin as a writer really start to stand out - which is his own fault imo. I remember a time when authors were less ambitious: a book was a stand-alone book, but might occasionally run to a trilogy. G Martin indulges his inventiveness over too many volumes and it starts to wear thin.

Game of Thrones is a TV show, guys.. It's called A Song of Ice and Fire. Don't make me get all nerdy on you.

I enjoyed them and have been waiting for the supposed conclusion, The Winds of Winter. Martin seems to have some sort of hickup. I'm guessing outing all his secrets and spoiling his upcoming book in the TV show may have something to do with it - and perhaps people hating the end of GoT.

He could rewrite the ending and maybe that's what's taking him so long? He seems more interested in world building than anything and so I assume if he makes changes to the planned ending of this series, there's a lot of world building he's done that suddenly becomes invalid or needs to be changed.

About his writing style, he's no Tolkien. There's little poetry to his prose, but I like the world he creates and the stories within it.. and how you can't always predict what's going to happen, at least as long as the TV show didn't spoil it for you.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 26, 2024, 12:38 AMGame of Thrones is a TV show, guys.. It's called A Song of Ice and Fire. Don't make me get all nerdy on you.

oops! Sorry about that !

To his credit, G Martin wrote a set a books that kept my son enthralled through five volumes, so he's clearly doing something right.
_____________________________

Currently reading This Sporting Life, a novel written in 1960 which created quite a lot of interest when it first came out. TBH its appeal is mainly to people who want to revisit the nuances of local life in an industrial town of that era - so, I'm guessing, nobody on SCD. Well, the question is "What are you reading?" and that's my answer; it's not a recommendation as such, though I'm enjoying the book myself:-


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Went antiquing this morning to cheer myself up and found a crate of old Classics Illustrated. I already had several adaptations of my favorite classic sci-fi novels but I hadn't realized there was still another H.G. Wells title in the series so I grabbed it.

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Gullivers Travels, and it's annoying me. The humour is dated and pretty cheap, and the satire is superficial without making intelligent points. The only real amusement (apart from some of the more imaginative bits) is the unintentional irony of a small-minded, self-satisfied writer complaining about small-minded self-sarisfaction in others

Quote from: Marie Monday on Feb 11, 2024, 09:59 PMGullivers Travels, and it's annoying me. The humour is dated and pretty cheap, and the satire is superficial without making intelligent points. The only real amusement (apart from some of the more imaginative bits) is the unintentional irony of a small-minded, self-satisfied writer complaining about small-minded self-sarisfaction in others

Just skip to Book 4, the one with the horses, that's the true masterpiece. You don't have to read the first three ones to get it, it's not a 19th century novel where you can't skip a single word.

I just finished the 3rd book so that tip came too late but thanks anyway! At this point I can't imagine this guy being capable of any masterpiece by modern standards, but I'll suspend my judgement a while longer

I've finished the fourth book now and while it's certainly more interesting than the previous ones, it's still narrow-minded and superficial. Swift just complains about bad symptoms in society without questioning the causes in any depth. His sketch of an utopia also has an odious fascist flavour reminiscent of Plato's republic. And then I'm not even considering the racism and sexism (and homophobia)

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Just gone recently from reading many lightweight books to going back to research the Ancestry Tree I started so now reading History related stories relating to my family. I found a perfect French Translator on Rootschat who I think is Dutch but he loves to get his mits into translations of the really bad writing of the BMD documents and has given me information that nearly knocked me for six's. Hand written documents of many many Thousand including our relative, Pierre Aumonier born 1630 in Fressines, Deux Sevres Poitou-Charente, France. He was Murdered by the French Dragoons...the murderous disciples of the King Louis XVI...one Son Jonas escaped to London injured but alive...........
I have stopped now..... ;D

Well almost because the picture is about another relative that moved as a youngster to New Zealand for the Coromandel Gold Rush where he hit it big time. The community loved him and honoured him with a house they built him next to the first known church as such and an Avenue named after him. He held Charity Fairs each year in his vast garden of 23 acreas and raised huge amounts for the needs of others.

http://www.kelticfair.co.nz/index.php?s=1&page=history LESS (http://www.kelticfair.co.nz/index.php?s=1&page=history%20LESS)

Quote from: Guybrush on Jan 16, 2024, 06:42 AMWill be starting this soon:

(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1674777381l/61884783.jpg)

I think it's a horror novel about boys in an orphanage or something? We'll see 🙂

Finished this. It's got some great reviews (including an endorsement from Stephen King, I believe), but I didn't really care too much for it. It left a lot of questions unanswered and I didn't care too much for the supernatural elements.

Now I'm reading a collection of Lovecraft-inspired short stories, but I don't care that much for them either 🤔

I just picked up Caitlyn Jenners book from the library yesterday. I am excited to see what shit she has divulged in here 😂. I'm hoping there is a lot about the olympics and less about the kardashians but I'll probably be happy either way since I love to hate the kardashians 😂

^ I hope you're enjoying that book, FETCHER; that it's full of insider details, plus a bit of celeb dirt as well, which is what I often hope for in a book.

Quote from: Marie Monday on Feb 11, 2024, 09:59 PMGullivers Travels, and it's annoying me. The humour is dated and pretty cheap, and the satire is superficial without making intelligent points. The only real amusement (apart from some of the more imaginative bits) is the unintentional irony of a small-minded, self-satisfied writer complaining about small-minded self-sarisfaction in others

^  Wow! That's a pretty comprehensive put-down, Marie M ! I haven't really read Gulliver's Travels, despite "doing" it at school at age 11. But, yeah, some books considered classics just don't cut it by today's standards.
___________________________________

Here's a book that I imagine Dianne would love:-

(https://www.bee.pl/images/popups/41E/9781784293376.jpg)

The drummer of The Cure describes his life, in suitably unassuming prose, as an ordinary boy who grew up in the very ordinary town of Crawley. He does a good job of explaining the drab existence that millions of British teenagers yearn to escape from, then name checks some places that Dianne probably knows: The Cure's first gigs in Croyden and elsewhere. If Lol and Robert Smith are exceptional, it seems to be in their determination to actually push their way out of their home environment, unlike so many others who just drift into an unsatisfying life and end up, by force of circumstance, pretty much reliving what their parents did.

Something that's refreshing and disappointing at the same time: there are no lengthly sections about the band's musical endeavours or artistic vision, in fact there's almost no description of their sound or style at all, apart from the occasional reference to punk. Lol comes across as an amiable guy, a drinking companion to roadies and fans alike as the band zigzags around Europe, but I wish he had co-written his book with Trollheart, who could've added some insightful descriptions of what The Cure were actually doing on stage and in the recording studio.

Bottom line: an easy book to read and enjoy, even though Lol's annecdotes about life on tour turn out to be rather hum-drum in the main.

I guess it's a common trait of autobiographies that they don't always go deep into what fans really want to know. I guess it's hard to know what people on the outside want when your perspective has always been from the inside.

Zappa's autobiography comes to mind where he writes very little about the people he played music with, but does take the time to do things like complain about musicians' workers unions. 😄

Quote from: Guybrush on Mar 20, 2024, 07:48 AMI guess it's a common trait of autobiographies that they don't always go deep into what fans really want to know. I guess it's hard to know what people on the outside want when your perspective has always been from the inside.

Zappa's autobiography comes to mind where he writes very little about the people he played music with, but does take the time to do things like complain about musicians' workers unions. 😄

I've not read Zappa's autobiography, but thinking about it, if you spend your working life making music and arguing about it in the recording studio, perhaps it's the last thing you want to write about when you're back home, alone with your journal.
Also, there is this, which I thought was a Zappa quote, but probably isn't:-

Quote"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" is a maxim used to express the futility of translating music through words.
The origins of the quote have never been verified. It has been attributed to musicians, entertainers, and writers such as William S. Burroughs, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, George Carlin, Martin Mull, Lester Bangs, David Byrne, Steve Martin, Elvis Costello, and Laurie Anderson.

I just finished two books.

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The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea (2018)

This is the story of one weekend in the life of the patriarch of a large Mexican-American family. On Saturday is his mother's funeral. On Sunday is his last birthday party, as he has terminal cancer and he knows he doesn't have much time left. It's full of a whole huge family of vivid characters and all too real family dynamics. Some of it is tragic and a lot of it is funny, but overall it just feels like life, and Urrea's prose is both witty and poetic.


(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81bAl1GUYGL._SL1500_.jpg)

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (1958)

I've never seen the movie, so I didn't have much in the way of expectations. I thought it was pretty good. It was sadder than I was expecting.

Quote from: Janszoon on Mar 26, 2024, 07:47 PMI've never seen the movie, so I didn't have much in the way of expectations. I thought it was pretty good. It was sadder than I was expecting.

I've only seen the movie (a couple of times). There's a layer of sadness there about whatever life and people Holly left behind, but the movie doesn't really delve too deep into that. It's actually one of my issues I have with it because it makes Holly seem like less of a sympathetic character (imo).

How's the book regarding this? Not asking for spoilers, but I would guess it digs a little deeper into where she comes from and why.

I'm reading this currently:

(https://cdn.waterstones.com/bookjackets/large/9781/5293/9781529382877.jpg)

It's just a random book that was on sale for a dollar in the Google play bookstore, but it's enjoyable enough 🙂

It reminds me a little of Stephen King's Langoliers. A small group of peeps find themselves inexplicably alone on a cruise ship (instead of a plane / airport) and the mystery hasn't started to unravel yet.

I'm gonna assume reality eating balls aren't going to show up, but still curious about where the story will go.

I don't really know the author or anything from before.

Quote from: Guybrush on Mar 27, 2024, 10:45 AMI've only seen the movie (a couple of times). There's a layer of sadness there about whatever life and people Holly left behind, but the movie doesn't really delve too deep into that. It's actually one of my issues I have with it because it makes Holly seem like less of a sympathetic character (imo).

How's the book regarding this? Not asking for spoilers, but I would guess it digs a little deeper into where she comes from and why.

It digs a decent amount into her background and that's definitely the saddest stuff. She's also not particularly likeable in the book, I'm not sure how much of that was intentional and how much of that is the book showing its age. One thing that was interesting was the character of Yunioshi. Though I've never seen the movie, I've seen clips of the racist caricature that he was on screen. It's such a weird decision because in the book he's an American guy of Japanese descent, so the accent and clothing wouldn't have made sense even if they were done in a less racist way.

I've been chipping away at Age of Surveillance Capitalism forever. I think it's great, if the language is unnecessary flowery, convoluted sometimes.

Also listening to Sapolsky's "Determined." It doesn't offer much new but it is a great overview and makes lack of free will seem kinda obvious, at least currently, once you're exposed to it.

@ Janszoon, Guybrush and interloper: all books and authors I've never heard of, except of course Breakfast at Tiffany's. I also saw the movie, but watching it with friends after a night in the pub means that I don't remember anything about it, apart from Audrey Hepburn's looks. I would, on the other hand, totally recommend Capote's In Cold Blood, which is an extensive factual examination of a murder.

Of the books you three have mentioned, I think J's The House Of Broken Angels sounds most appealing. Sorry, interloper, but that well-chosen phrase, "chipping away" = total red flag for me ;)

I read Angela Carter's Black Venus and liked it quite a lot. I don't always like the writing - sometimes it veers off into silly pretentious nonsense à la Bob Dylan, but usually it's nice and I like how coherent the stories are as a whole, all focusing on female (primal) power and sexuality, and I think she captures the male perception of that very well: a mix of awe, fetishization, discomfort, and fear that Simone de Beauvoir would have loved

Currently reading Scott Pilgrim. I saw the movie but never read the graphic novel that it was based off on. I'm halfway through Volume 1. Maybe I forgot if they did it in the movie also but didn't realize it had a fourth wall breaking aspect to it.

Quote from: Janszoon on Mar 27, 2024, 03:03 PMIt digs a decent amount into her background and that's definitely the saddest stuff. She's also not particularly likeable in the book, I'm not sure how much of that was intentional and how much of that is the book showing its age. One thing that was interesting was the character of Yunioshi. Though I've never seen the movie, I've seen clips of the racist caricature that he was on screen. It's such a weird decision because in the book he's an American guy of Japanese descent, so the accent and clothing wouldn't have made sense even if they were done in a less racist way.

That part of the movie obviously hasn't aged well, but is pretty funny in an outrageous bad taste kind of way. Like even for its time, why would they do this?

It's a while since I saw it now, but I think the worst thing one might say about Holly is she left her kids behind for what.. to be a wannabe socialite trying to live out a fantasy in an apartment somewhere? The goal doesn't seem to quite justify the means based on the information you get in the movie. 🤔

But then of course it's Audrey Hepburn and she sings Moon River while playing a guitar and you can't help but get a little smitten.

I decided to celebrate my new career with a literary treasure. Having already amassed a complete bibliography of one of my most-beloved science fiction writers, I thought I'd take my collection to the next level with a hardcover of my favorite oversized omnibus of Ray Bradbury's short stories signed by the late, great author, himself.

The Stories of Ray Bradbury is an anthology containing 100 of his tales, first published by Knopf in 1980. The hundred stories, written from 1943 to 1980, were selected by the author. And my copy is signed. Bradbury passed away in 2012 at the age of 91.

Thank you for inspiring a magical perspective of this beautiful world, Ray. <3

(https://i.imgur.com/uuRnWutl.jpg)

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/616JTDKMVaL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_DpWeblab_.jpg)

I read Terrortome and this is the direct sequel/ continuation, so of course I had to buy it.

If you're not familiar with Garth Marenghi, maybe you should watch this.


Basically a parody of Stephen King and possibly Clive Barker, Garth is a narcissistic, fictional horror writer who heavy-handedly uses every horror cliché and who, in Terrortome, uses himself as the protagonist through his paper thin alter ego Nick Steen.

Nick Steen is also a successful horror writer with a skin condition, but he has the additional problem of his fiction coming to life due to his sexual relationship with a demonic typewriter and the events that unfold from that.

It's a bit difficult to explain, but rather a fun read.

Chuck Palahniuk - Consider This
World Class Tennis Technique - Paul Roetert
More cooking books than is probably necessary, as I'm still re-jigging my diet to help lose ~5kg.  :laughing:

I'm taking these on holiday with me in a few days.

(https://imgur.com/n4zkmIZ.jpg)

(https://imgur.com/t2Oyx2Y.jpg)

I've begun a whole Anthony Bourdain project. I obtained all three of his tv shows and have a whole list of books to buy. I also watched "Roadrunner", a documentary about him. 

^ I wonder what it is about this guy that intrigues you, Hope ?

I also love reading (auto)biogs, memoirs, etc. but for a holiday, I don't think I've ever committed myself to just the one subject. I prefer to build in a bit of variety in case my mood/interest changes direction.                                         

Quote from: Lisnaholic on May 24, 2024, 03:36 PM^ I wonder what it is about this guy that intrigues you, Hope ?

                                     

I caught his television shows here and there over the years but unfortunately I didn't realize just how fascinating he was until after he was gone. I just want to know more about the life he took.

^ Well, I hope it's an enjoyable exploration.
 
"Down and Out...""...the culinary underbelly...": at least it sounds like it'll be more than some glitzy celeb story. Perhaps I should dip into these books too: when I was a student, I had several jobs as a dishwasher in restaurants. You are the lowest person in the kitchen hierachy, and have to keep working on when the chef has already downed his tools and gone home. What was nice, though, is that, at the end of the night, the waitresses would share out some of their tip-money to you:  a nice gesture of worker solidarity.   

Webb WIlder, Last Of The Full Grown Men:  "Mole Men" & "The Doll", by Steve Boyle and Shane Caldwell

Musician John Webb McMurray acted in the title role in a 1984 short called Webb Wilder, Private Eye In 'The Saucer's Reign' McMurray ended up taking the WW name for his music career, and Boyle and Caldwell wrote this book based on the character (with some input from Webb himself).  The book is in the format of the old Ace doubles, where you read the first story, then turn the book over and upside down to read the second one.  I've finished The Mole Men and am now reading The Doll.  There's a lot of humor, just like in Kinky Friedman's detective novels, but the writing is less focused on the character's personal life, and better for it.  My only complaint is that the stories are a bit too short.  I bought my copy at the merch table from Wilder himself after his 70th birthday concert last weekend.  The show was great, but that's a subject for another thread.

I've been buying old comics I've already read on Google Play because they've had a great sale AND reading comics on our tablet actually is superb.

Reading old ass Hellblazer comics, also bought Watchmen for 4 USD and then Hellboy in hell. I read everything else of Hellboy, I believe. Through a podcast, I became aware that not only had Mignola written more, but also concluded Hellboy's story, I believe.

I'm also reading books without pictures. I finished the Garth Marenghi book which ended considerably weaker than it started (still fun, though) and now I've started this:

(https://www.outland.no/media/catalog/product/9/7/9780765326355__0aeba7444a81629b1b89115404a88350.jpg)

A colleague has talked at me about the greatness of this series at least twice now, so hey.. why not. I enjoy fantasy 👌

I'm only ten pages in or so.

I couldn't be more excited about this book! This is exclusively how I'll be spending my 4-day weekend!

Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge With AI (2024)

I pre-ordered early enough to get a bonus autographed bookplate, laptop sticker, and a high-resolution poster featuring Kurzweil's Law. I'm so thrilled to have a signed edition!

About Ray Kurzweil:

Kurzweil has been a leading developer in artificial intelligence for 61 years – longer than any other living person. He was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizer, music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software. Ray received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievement in music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has written five best-selling books including The Singularity Is Near and How To Create A Mind, both New York Times bestsellers, and Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, winner of multiple young adult fiction awards. He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google.

Reviews:

"RAY KURZWEIL'S THE SINGULARITY IS NEARER IS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WHAT CHARLES DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES WAS TO LIFE SCIENCE."
Martine Rothblatt, PhD, Creator of SiriusXM, United Therapeutics, electric helicopters and the Bina48 robot

"THIS BOOK WILL CHALLENGE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, LIFE, AND DEATH. IT WILL LIGHT YOU UP WITH ANSWERS TO TODAY'S MOST PRESSING QUESTIONS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY."
Tony Robbins,
Global Entrepreneur, Investor, New York Times #1 Bestselling Author, Philanthropist, and the World's #1 Life and Business Strategist

"May be the single most important contribution to understanding the valuable roles of AI and nanotechnology."
Natasha Vita-More,
PhD, Author, Co-creator of the Transhumanist Movement

https://www.thesingularityisnearer.com/

(https://i.imgur.com/hSnNcGUl.jpg)

Nice one, @innerspaceboy 🙂 I'll add it to my to-read list.

I'm still on book 1 of Stormlight Archive and reading the comic Batman: Year One with my daughter.

@SGR IDK if you saw in the discord but I called you a sick fuck for your book rec that I finally read.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 08, 2024, 06:40 AM@SGR IDK if you saw in the discord but I called you a sick fuck for your book rec that I finally read.

 :laughing:  :laughing:

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'?  :laughing:

Quote from: SGR on Jul 08, 2024, 07:25 PM:laughing:  :laughing:

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'?  :laughing:

I believe so yes.

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Jul 01, 2024, 11:36 PMI couldn't be more excited about this book! This is exclusively how I'll be spending my 4-day weekend!

Ray Kurzweil - The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge With AI (2024)

I pre-ordered early enough to get a bonus autographed bookplate, laptop sticker, and a high-resolution poster featuring Kurzweil's Law. I'm so thrilled to have a signed edition!

About Ray Kurzweil:

Kurzweil has been a leading developer in artificial intelligence for 61 years – longer than any other living person. He was the principal inventor of the first CCD flat-bed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, text-to-speech synthesizer, music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition software. Ray received a Grammy Award for outstanding achievement in music technology; he is the recipient of the National Medal of Technology and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He has written five best-selling books including The Singularity Is Near and How To Create A Mind, both New York Times bestsellers, and Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine, winner of multiple young adult fiction awards. He is a Principal Researcher and AI Visionary at Google.

Reviews:

"RAY KURZWEIL'S THE SINGULARITY IS NEARER IS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WHAT CHARLES DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES WAS TO LIFE SCIENCE."
Martine Rothblatt, PhD, Creator of SiriusXM, United Therapeutics, electric helicopters and the Bina48 robot

"THIS BOOK WILL CHALLENGE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, LIFE, AND DEATH. IT WILL LIGHT YOU UP WITH ANSWERS TO TODAY'S MOST PRESSING QUESTIONS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY."
Tony Robbins,
Global Entrepreneur, Investor, New York Times #1 Bestselling Author, Philanthropist, and the World's #1 Life and Business Strategist

"May be the single most important contribution to understanding the valuable roles of AI and nanotechnology."
Natasha Vita-More,
PhD, Author, Co-creator of the Transhumanist Movement

https://www.thesingularityisnearer.com/

(https://i.imgur.com/hSnNcGUl.jpg)

This one seems interesting! Are you still reading or finish it?

Quote from: Lexi Darling on Jul 08, 2024, 08:31 PMI believe so yes.

In that case, @Lucem Ferre, I sincerely apologize.  :laughing:

Speaking of, have you ever read Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Torture_Garden)? Not quite as fucked up as the one I previously suggested, but still disturbing and illuminating on several seemingly inherent conditions of the human mind. It's sort of a satire without the laughs. But it's also a much better book.

Quote from: SGR on Jul 08, 2024, 07:25 PM:laughing:  :laughing:

I don't use the Discord, but what book did I recommend you? Was it 'The Story of the Eye'?  :laughing:

Yeah lol.

Mindfulness was like "What did SGR ever do to you, he's a good guy, why would you say that about him?"

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 08, 2024, 11:16 PMYeah lol.

Mindfulness was like "What did SGR ever do to you, he's a good guy, why would you say that about him?"

I appreciate @Shhon's defense of my good name in the Discord, but I probably deserved your admonition for that one.  :laughing: In my defense, if memory serves, Frown supported and seconded my recommendation - that probably should've been your red flag.  :laughing:

To be honest, I don't read fiction much at all these days. I generally read non-fiction history books, since history (paritcularly political history) is one of my main interests. Those certainly aren't much fun to recommend though, and they're usually met with dismissiveness, unless someone happens to be particularly interested in that historical event or period in history.

Frown did. :laughing:

Actually, I am reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X now and want more books about revolutionaries.

I have been reading a lot of theory books and stuff like Invisible Women, Caste, an essay by Engles about the development of the family unit, etc. I'm not against a history rec.

I want to read Frankenstien & Dracula first, though.

Just landed - TIME Magazine Special Edition June 2024 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A New Age of Possibilities.

Over 80 pages dedicated to AI news and developments. I'm looking forward to diving into this.

(https://i.imgur.com/GfLzQbHl.jpg)

Quote from: Shhon on Jul 08, 2024, 08:46 PMThis one seems interesting! Are you still reading or finish it?

I read it in 3 hours. While not as groundbreaking as the original text, (but what else could be?), it reinforces all of his key arguments with contemporary data and paints a much-needed optimistic near-future for the world.

Check out my new post of the TIME Magazine Special Edition I just grabbed on the same subject.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 09, 2024, 12:31 AMFrown did. :laughing:

Actually, I am reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X now and want more books about revolutionaries.

I have been reading a lot of theory books and stuff like Invisible Women, Caste, an essay by Engles about the development of the family unit, etc. I'm not against a history rec.

I've read a fair few books about revolutionaries if you're into that sort of thing - not sure if you're focused on a specific political leaning of revolutionary, but if not, here are some recommendations:

Mussolini: A Study in Power - Ivone Kirkpatrick

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41T9uU5endL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81dEbGihMBL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81A169iXn7L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Hitler's Table Talk - Hugh Trevor Roper

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6E8AAOSwhMxlEIsL/s-l1600.jpg)

Hitler's Table Talk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Table_Talk) isn't a biography, but rather a set of curated transcriptions from 1941 of 1944 of all the myriad of things Hitler talked about with confidants, including religion, philosophy, politics, and war. I found it profoundly interesting, and an illuminating look into the mind of one of the world's most reviled men.

And Mussolini: A Study in Power is probably one of my all-time favorite biographies (up there with A. Scott Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson), and I find it very underrated.

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X back in college, but it's probably due for a revisit. :)

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 09, 2024, 12:33 AMI want to read Frankenstien & Dracula first, though.

I've actually never read Dracula, but I have read Frankenstein, and that novel is excellent! Definitely not exactly what I expected going into it.

Quote from: SGR on Jul 09, 2024, 02:22 AMI've read a fair few books about revolutionaries if you're into that sort of thing - not sure if you're focused on a specific political leaning of revolutionary, but if not, here are some recommendations:

Mussolini: A Study in Power - Ivone Kirkpatrick

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41T9uU5endL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81dEbGihMBL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Washington: A Life - Ron Chernow

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81A169iXn7L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

Hitler's Table Talk - Hugh Trevor Roper

(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6E8AAOSwhMxlEIsL/s-l1600.jpg)

Hitler's Table Talk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler%27s_Table_Talk) isn't a biography, but rather a set of curated transcriptions from 1941 of 1944 of all the myriad of things Hitler talked about with confidants, including religion, philosophy, politics, and war. I found it profoundly interesting, and an illuminating look into the mind of one of the world's most reviled men.

And Mussolini: A Study in Power is probably one of my all-time favorite biographies (up there with A. Scott Berg's biography of Woodrow Wilson), and I find it very underrated.

I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X back in college, but it's probably due for a revisit. :)

I'll probably read all of them.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 09, 2024, 09:13 AMI'll probably read all of them.

Definitely let me know what you think about them!

Not a book about a revolutionary, but if you're into history, particularly WW2 or the grisly kind...

'trigger warning for S.A.'

I found this to be a gruesome and insightful account of what the Japanese did to the Chinese people in the Nanking Massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre). Put it this way, if I had to choose between the Nazis invading my country or the Japanese during this time period, I'd probably choose the fucking Nazis - that's how bad it is. It would probably make even Genghis Khan blush.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/617EJpW9FPL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

[close]

Quote from: SGR on Jul 09, 2024, 02:33 AMI've actually never read Dracula, but I have read Frankenstein, and that novel is excellent! Definitely not exactly what I expected going into it.

Dracula is interesting, but not great in my opinion. I don't much care for its epistolary format, being pieced together from various characters' diary pages and other incidental documents.

The story itself is great, though.

Essential Tennis - Ian Westermann
Tennis Anatomy - Paul Roetert
Atlas Obscura - Joshua Foer
Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer
Golf : The ultimate guide - (Dorling Kindersley Books)

Quote from: Guybrush on Jul 11, 2024, 08:16 AMDracula is interesting, but not great in my opinion. I don't much care for its epistolary format, being pieced together from various characters' diary pages and other incidental documents.

The story itself is great, though.

When I read Dracula, I was surprised by the format because it seemed like a more modern way of a telling a story. I'm with you though, it was interesting but not great. I was shocked that Dracula had a mustache though.

Quote from: Janszoon on Jul 11, 2024, 05:58 PMWhen I read Dracula, I was surprised by the format because it seemed like a more modern way of a telling a story. I'm with you though, it was interesting but not great. I was shocked that Dracula had a mustache though.

You'd think a mustache wouldn't be optimal for a vampire in terms of maintaining his secret on the offchance that, ya know, he forgets to wipe the blood off.  :laughing:

I had a gothic literature class in college, and one of my favorites, besides Frankenstein, is Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I actually have some funny stories about that class, particularly with verbal spats I got into with a pretentious egghead who thought he was the smartest guy in the room.  :laughing:

I read Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde as well. I remember it was a relatively short and quick read 😄

I remember reading Lord of the Flies around the same time.

epistolary novels were actually quite common in old times

Survival Horror games are kind of like epistolery novels if you think about it.

I think that was their version of found footage horror.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 12, 2024, 03:38 AMSurvival Horror games are kind of like epistolery novels if you think about it.

I think that was their version of found footage horror.

Only the bad ones. In good survival horror games, notes/documents found should only serve as enrichment to the broader narrative.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jul 11, 2024, 11:55 PMI read Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde as well. I remember it was a relatively short and quick read 😄

I remember reading Lord of the Flies around the same time.

I'm a bit pissed off that everybody knows the story's twist by now. I really liked it but I can only imagine how impactful the reveal that they are the same person used to be back in the day.

Quote from: SGR on Jul 11, 2024, 10:20 PMYou'd think a mustache wouldn't be optimal for a vampire in terms of maintaining his secret on the offchance that, ya know, he forgets to wipe the blood off.  :laughing:

Maybe it's how he styled his mustache. Just comb it and wait for the blood to coagulate—your mustache will stay styled all day!

I finished Frankenstein. Just a book about Dr. Frankenstein & his monster having a trauma dump competition. Frankenstein won, that monster was just hideously ugly then whined about ruining somebody else's life.

Speaking of hideous monsters that ruin lives, I'm reading the Mussolini book next.

Lol
You're a little bit harsh on the monster but you're not wrong about him. Frankenstein himself though, he's worse. Imagine being so afraid of sex with your quasi-incestuous girlfriend that you inflict a monster upon the world and then you're too much of a coward to help him (out of it). What a pathetic asshole

I think retellings of some of these stories have improved on aspects of them. Particularly, I actually didn't mind the romantic Dracula/Mina Harker angle from Coppola's movie, even if a bit 90s cheesy. I realize purists will hate, but it elevates Dracula from being more monster man to being this tragic being with a lot more depth to him.

The dated and cheesy Frankenstein movie from the 90s with Robert De Niro made a good decision having Frankenstein bring his wife back. Though, it really doesn't make sense unless he for what ever reason kept gallons of extra amniotic fluids and for some reason saved all of his tools and devices and made the laborious effort to bring them back to Geneva with him. Glaring plot holes aside, it was a good idea.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Jul 30, 2024, 04:37 PMThe dated and cheesy Frankenstein movie from the 90s with Robert De Niro made a good decision having Frankenstein bring his wife back. Though, it really doesn't make sense unless he for what ever reason kept gallons of extra amniotic fluids and for some reason saved all of his tools and devices and made the laborious effort to bring them back to Geneva with him. Glaring plot holes aside, it was a good idea.

I never watched that one, but I liked the one with Sting when I was a kid.

(https://imgur.com/rG4c70q.jpg)

"What if we didn't consider death the worst possible outcome? What if we discussed it honestly, embraced hospice care, and prepared for the end of our lives with hope and acceptance?
In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as "Hospice Nurse Julie"—shares the valuable lessons she's learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden's first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life." - From Goodreads

I finished the Mussolini book. Really interesting. He was kind of clueless on ideology, not knowing what he believed in and just appropriating what ever he thought would be most opportune at the moment. He was almost like a political Diddo that reflected what ever personality made the biggest impact on him at the moment. His fragile ego landing him in a position where he basically became Hitler's bitch was almost satisfying. Even though he created Fascism, and political nihilism is definitely a key feature, I think Hitler really seemed to give Fascism a real identity when Mussolini couldn't because he didn't exactly know what he wanted be himself.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Aug 09, 2024, 07:44 AMI finished the Mussolini book. Really interesting. He was kind of clueless on ideology, not knowing what he believed in and just appropriating what ever he thought would be most opportune at the moment. He was almost like a political Diddo that reflected what ever personality made the biggest impact on him at the moment. His fragile ego landing him in a position where he basically became Hitler's bitch was almost satisfying. Even though he created Fascism, and political nihilism is definitely a key feature, I think Hitler really seemed to give Fascism a real identity when Mussolini couldn't because he didn't exactly know what he wanted be himself.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! How'd you read it by the way? Did you need to order a physical copy?

I've read a few Mussolini biographies, and for whatever reason, Kirkpatrick's book seems to rarely get mentioned. I'm not sure why, his writing style kept me constantly engaged while being very informative on the war and the political shenanigans of the time.

Nah, I pirated that shit.

So many PDFs. @YorkeDaddy would be proud.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Aug 09, 2024, 07:17 PMNah, I pirated that shit.

So many PDFs. @YorkeDaddy would be proud.

Are you also a libgen fan?  :laughing:

Yeah, I've used a lot of sites. That particular book was harder to find, though. I'm not a quitter, though.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Aug 09, 2024, 07:36 PMYeah, I've used a lot of sites. That particular book was harder to find, though. I'm not a quitter, though.

(https://sanseverything.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/nixon.jpg?w=656)

Quote from: Hope on Aug 06, 2024, 01:24 PM(https://imgur.com/rG4c70q.jpg)

"What if we didn't consider death the worst possible outcome? What if we discussed it honestly, embraced hospice care, and prepared for the end of our lives with hope and acceptance?
In this compassionate and knowledgeable guide, TikTok star Julie McFadden—known online as "Hospice Nurse Julie"—shares the valuable lessons she's learned in her fifteen years as an RN in the ICU and in hospice. Expertly interweaving emotional insight and practical advice, Nothing to Fear demystifies end-of-life care for both patients and caregivers, covering topics including:
the biological details of dying
which medical interventions help and which only make things worse
the otherworldly beauty of deathbed phenomena
financial and logistical preparations for death
facts and myths about hospice care
the most important conversations to have before you die
the grieving process, before and after death
Sure to be a go-to resource for years to come, McFadden's first book proves a better death goes hand in hand with a better life." - From Goodreads

^ That book looks like a very interesting, but also very sombre, read; I'm not sure if I'm ready for something which (demystified or not) is prob pretty depressing.
___________________________________________

This excellent memoir by Alan Bennett also has a lot about people's deaths and hospice care, as AB remembers his parents and how his mum spent 15 years of dementia in a nursing home: a mere existence rather than a life:

(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/P/0571248128.01._SS250_SS250_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)

I suspect that AB is not much known in the US, but he is a small-scale celeb in England due to his playwriting and career in  TV comedy. His writing style is the opposite of flamboyant: his speciality is plodding dispassionately through humdrum details that other people overlook. To get an idea of his writing, here he is summing up his impressions of the funerals he has attended during the course of the book, most of them conducted in municiple crematoriums:-

QuoteThe building will be long and low, put up in the sixties, probably, when death begins to go secular. Set in country that is not quite country it looks like the reception area of a tasteful factory or the departure lounge of a small provincial airport confined to domestic flights. The style is contemporary but not eye-catchingly so; this is decorum-led architecture which does not draw attention even to its own merits. The long windows have a stylistic hint of tracery, denomination here a matter of hints, the plain statement of any sort of conviction very much to be avoided.
       Related settings might be the waiting area of a motor showroom, the foyer of a small private hospital or a section of a department store selling modern furniture of inoffensive design: dead places. This is the architecture of reluctance, the furnishings of the functionally ill at ease, decor for a place you don't want to be.
       It is neat with the neatness ill-omened; clutter means hope and there is none here, no children's drawings, no silly notices. There are flowers, yes, but never a Christmas tree and nothing that seems untidy. The whole function of the place, after all, is to do with tidying something away.

Quote from: Guybrush on Jun 11, 2024, 12:35 AMnow I've started this:

(https://www.outland.no/media/catalog/product/9/7/9780765326355__0aeba7444a81629b1b89115404a88350.jpg)

A colleague has talked at me about the greatness of this series at least twice now, so hey.. why not. I enjoy fantasy 👌

I'm only ten pages in or so.

Finished this one - it took a while - and am now on to the second book in this series. Despite a few minor annoyances, the first book was actually very good and the ending of it impressed me. Definitely worth a read for fantasy fans.

I finished Dracula & am 22 chapters into Stalin retsarded or what ever that book is called.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Aug 22, 2024, 10:15 PMI finished Dracula & am 22 chapters into Stalin retsarded or what ever that book is called.

(https://gifdb.com/images/high/joseph-stalin-communist-leader-hats-off-salute-s2pa0cj085abrks8.gif)

Ah, Stalin. He always looks like such a happy and warm individual. It's hard to believe he could do anything bad.

(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000000541862_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqGvhb9W2OXJTDsHlQ2Gi2bfA0jC8qsylJ6EbNmZnOg9M.jpeg)

Quote from: Guybrush on Aug 22, 2024, 11:26 PMAh, Stalin. He always looks like such a happy and warm individual. It's hard to believe he could do anything bad.

(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000000541862_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqGvhb9W2OXJTDsHlQ2Gi2bfA0jC8qsylJ6EbNmZnOg9M.jpeg)

He was a really nice guy, once you got to know him. That's what I hear anyways.

I never liked Stalin and this book so far just reinforces my dislike for him.

He seems like less of a socialist and more like a fascist. Why would anybody who wants to liberate the working class start a war with the working class? And they had farting contests while their people starved.

I finished the Stalin book and I stand on the perspective that Stalin was far more fascist than socialist.

Well yeah thats true for all those communist leaders, that's what happens if your road towards an utopia involves a period of chaos and power vacuum

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Aug 28, 2024, 06:50 PMI finished the Stalin book and I stand on the perspective that Stalin was far more fascist than socialist.

It's been a while since I read the book and dug through Soviet / Communist history, but I believe there are some stark differences between Trotsky and Stalin, and that of course was a key part of their power struggle in Lenin's declining years. These are just some thoughts of mine, not specifically a contention of your belief that Stalin was far more fascist than socialist.

Trotsky believed in the idea of a 'permanent revolution', which shaped his ideas on foreign policy. Trotsky (like Lenin before him) believed that the USSR should support, vocally and financially, communist uprisings in other countries around the world writ large. Stalin believed in more of 'one nation' socialism - at least at first. He didn't believe the USSR was powerful enough in terms of its political influence or financial heft to effectively achieve what Trotsky wanted, so his focus was primarily on revolutionizing the USSR, in both industry and export, to achieve his ends, with little regard to the cost. Stalin was also, at least in his more early days, something of a political opportunist. His views and stated beliefs shifted, as he morphed himself and shifted positions to attempt to conform to what he thought would most greatly benefit his stranglehold on power, in light of the other political actors around him.

So out came the five year plans, and despite the human devastation of some of Stalin's policies (collectivization and the resulting famines come to mind), Stalin was able to fast-track a country that had just recently escaped the Tsardom and feudalism and turned it into something of an industrial powerhouse. If he hadn't, World War 2 might have gone quite a bit differently. Though the USSR bore the biggest brunt in human lives in their efforts against the Nazis, they greatly relied on munitions and vehicles provided by the USA through the lend-lease act. If, in an alternate reality, Trotsky rose to power and similarly aligned with the USA eventually against the Nazis, I'd be willing to wager the US would have incurred a much greater loss in lives of the military, as Trostsky's stated goals weren't so much focused on industrializing the USSR quickly, but supporting the spread of communism/socialism globally.

Which isn't to say that Stalin passes any 'socialism purity' tests. I'm sure he doesn't. But I've always found his story and his period in Soviet history (morbidly) fascinating.

In a political theory sense, communism/socialism and fascism are mutually exclusive things. But in practice, as we've seen throughout history, applying Marxian communism on a big scale (larger than local) often simply doesn't work without the threat (and inevitable execution) of state violence, persecution, and repression - and at that point, you've abandoned some of the important communist principles to achieve your ends. As soon as you have one man acting as dictator, you have no 'dictator of the proletariat'. But now you've got me curious - are there historical leaders of government that you think were strictly socialist or communist in a theoretical sense? If so, who?

I've always understood socialism as an umbrella term and communism being a form of socialism with the USSR implementing state socialism with the belief that once they've perfected it class, money & the state would dissappear and thus they'd achieve communism.

I don't have an answer on who I'd consider more socialist because I don't know enough about these regimes which is why I'm interested in reading about them.
Trying to understand communism in practice is hard when both communists and anti-communists are equally dishonest when talking about it. Either you get people that say Stalin did nothing wrong or people that quote The Black Book of Communism. Did you know that in North Korea they are both starved and malnourished & strong enough to physically push trains?

Here's a political analogy to rival your one about the plumbing fixtures in a house, SGR ! ;)

(https://previews.123rf.com/images/thithawat/thithawat1803/thithawat180300095/97967263-trees-in-the-park-with-green-grass-and-sunlight-fresh-green-nature-background.jpg)

Communism is the grass, and the trees are countries.
To organise a big group of people into a country, you need a system that is strong, which is the trunk of a tree. Given human nature, pure communism isn't strong enough to bind a huge group of people together, which is why you don't see trees that have trunks made of grass: communism has to abandon its grassy nature if it wants to support a tree, and that's why any attempts at running a country on communist principles ends up abandoning many of those principles.

To me, the fundamental communist principle is this: "to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities". This ideal does exist, but only on a small scale: in fact, it operates in most nuclear families around the world. A typical family is its own little communistic blade of grass, but grass doesn't grow very tall: it'll never reach the size of a tree. Same with communism: it's not strong or popular enough as a principle to sustain a country, although it can motivate groups larger than just a family: some small isolated tribes, some religious cults (including, perhaps medieval monastries), the original kibbutzes of Israel and of course, those small, struggling idealistic communist parties that were more common in the 1930s than they are today.

So we can see lots of grass, some of it quite tall, but imo you'll never see a whole tree made of grass.   

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Aug 31, 2024, 04:13 PMHere's a political analogy to rival your one about the plumbing fixtures in a house, SGR ! ;)

(https://previews.123rf.com/images/thithawat/thithawat1803/thithawat180300095/97967263-trees-in-the-park-with-green-grass-and-sunlight-fresh-green-nature-background.jpg)

Communism is the grass, and the trees are countries.
To organise a big group of people into a country, you need a system that is strong, which is the trunk of a tree. Given human nature, pure communism isn't strong enough to bind a huge group of people together, which is why you don't see trees that have trunks made of grass: communism has to abandon its grassy nature if it wants to support a tree, and that's why any attempts at running a country on communist principles ends up abandoning many of those principles.

To me, the fundamental communist principle is this: "to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities". This ideal does exist, but only on a small scale: in fact, it operates in most nuclear families around the world. A typical family is its own little communistic blade of grass, but grass doesn't grow very tall: it'll never reach the size of a tree. Same with communism: it's not strong or popular enough as a principle to sustain a country, although it can motivate groups larger than just a family: some small isolated tribes, some religious cults (including, perhaps medieval monastries), the original kibbutzes of Israel and of course, those small, struggling idealistic communist parties that were more common in the 1930s than they are today.

So we can see lots of grass, some of it quite tall, but imo you'll never see a whole tree made of grass.   

I think you do yourself a disservice comparing this analogy of yours, which is quite cogent and comprehensible, to my plumbing fixture analogy.  :laughing:

But yes, it would appear I'm in complete agreement with you based on your analogy. Communist-systems can work quite well in a small scale, but when you scale it up, it just doesn't work very well - in large part due to something you mentioned: "human nature".

1) What aspect of the human condition makes communism impossible?

2) A lot of what we deal with today goes against human nature. Working hours since the industrial revolution is legitimately unhealthy, the overly processed food we eat, the isolation of social media, the stress of paycheck to paycheck poverty. Etc. But we adapt. The huge thing that makes humans so different from most animals is the ability to overcome nature.

3) And to that point how much of the "human nature" that you think makes communism impossible is just conditioning from our material reality? The family unit that we claim is natural was far different before the development of private property. The idea of hoarding resources, something capitalists keep attributing to human nature, makes no sense to hunter gatherer tribes. If it goes against human nature that much then it shouldn't be able to exist on any scale at all.


Edit: if anything, communism goes against how we've been conditioned to exist which is why it can happen on a small scale easier than a larger one. People on a commune are already primed to adapt to that way of life. On a larger scale you have to find a way to condition people into the way of existing in a communist society, which is what the socialist stage is supposed to do, I guess, but it does a horrible job because a it's still a drastic and sudden change.

Which is why I'd rather learn more by reading about communist systems than hear opinions like this. Has any communist regime tried a more incremental and gradual shift towards socialism? Is that impossible? What are the specific reasons that cause failures or atrocities to happen in communist nations? What happens if you try a more democratic approach or copy the liberal form of control over the authoritarian one?

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Sep 01, 2024, 08:27 PMWhich is why I'd rather learn more by reading about communist systems than hear opinions like this. Has any communist regime tried a more incremental and gradual shift towards socialism? Is that impossible? What are the specific reasons that cause failures or atrocities to happen in communist nations? What happens if you try a more democratic approach or copy the liberal form of control over the authoritarian one?

Absolutely, Lucem ! Keep reading and don't rely on my off-the-cuff opinions.
As to one of your questions, perhaps in post-Mao China you'll find a communist system that gradually shifted towards socialism.
"Failures and atrocities" happen to so many nations, I have no idea if there are some causes that are specific to communist ones.

Quote1) What aspect of the human condition makes communism impossible?

2) A lot of what we deal with today goes against human nature. Working hours since the industrial revolution is legitimately unhealthy, the overly processed food we eat, the isolation of social media, the stress of paycheck to paycheck poverty. Etc. But we adapt. The huge thing that makes humans so different from most animals is the ability to overcome nature.

3) And to that point how much of the "human nature" that you think makes communism impossible is just conditioning from our material reality? The family unit that we claim is natural was far different before the development of private property. The idea of hoarding resources, something capitalists keep attributing to human nature, makes no sense to hunter gatherer tribes. If it goes against human nature that much then it shouldn't be able to exist on any scale at all.

Edit: if anything, communism goes against how we've been conditioned to exist which is why it can happen on a small scale easier than a larger one. People on a commune are already primed to adapt to that way of life. On a larger scale you have to find a way to condition people into the way of existing in a communist society, which is what the socialist stage is supposed to do, I guess, but it does a horrible job because a it's still a drastic and sudden change.

Regarding your point #2, I'm not quite sure what your point is, but I'd like to say this:
(a) it's human nature to make an effort to improve your personal circumstances. The factory worker on a long shift shares the same natural motivation as the caveman scraping an animal skin so he'll be warm at night.
(b) Yes, plenty of modern life demonstrates how we can overcome nature, with elec light, a/c, trains, etc. and how we can adapt to these things. But that's a different topic, isn't it ?

Point #3: "The idea of hoarding resources, something capitalists keep attributing to human nature, makes no sense to hunter gatherer tribes." IMO, this isn't really true: I bet hunter gatherers hoard resources, but it's at a very small scale: maybe they've got a favourite spear or a pouch-full of berries that they're not willing to share with complete strangers. In that sense, they're no different from plenty of animals who defend territory, or fight over and drag off a carcass. I think that that drive to hang on to stuff (for the benefit of yourself or for a small, select group) is a much deeper instinct than you appear to be suggesting. It predates Capitalism and that's why I think of it as part of "human nature".
In terms of larger communist societies, I consider that that instinct is going to remain a problem: you can have 99 sincere, committed communists, but I suspect that it only takes one person motivated by self-interest to threaten that ideal society from within. That's really the message of Animal Farm, which of course illustrated the corruption of communism under Stalin. I suppose my depressing argument is that if it hadn't been Joe Stalin, it would've been someone else.   

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Sep 02, 2024, 01:28 AMAbsolutely, Lucem ! Keep reading and don't rely on my off-the-cuff opinions.
As to one of your questions, perhaps in post-Mao China you'll find a communist system that gradually shifted towards socialism.
"Failures and atrocities" happen to so many nations, I have no idea if there are some causes that are specific to communist ones.

Sure, if we want to measure atrocities commit under capitalism vs communism, capitilsm is objectively worse and never gets the same stigma.

QuoteRegarding your point #2, I'm not quite sure what your point is, but I'd like to say this:
(a) it's human nature to make an effort to improve your personal circumstances. The factory worker on a long shift shares the same natural motivation as the caveman scraping an animal skin so he'll be warm at night.

The factory worker isn't improving their circumstance. They're improving somebody else's while staying stagnant. It's either work or starve.

My point is more about the working hours. The caveman didn't work that long or hard. The current day working hours is proven to be detrimental to our health, but early industrialization was even worse than now. It is not human nature to work 40 hour weeks.

Quote(b) Yes, plenty of modern life demonstrates how we can overcome nature, with elec light, a/c, trains, etc. and how we can adapt to these things. But that's a different topic, isn't it ?

No, the point is that becoming civilized is the act of overcoming what was once considered human nature.

QuotePoint #3: "The idea of hoarding resources, something capitalists keep attributing to human nature, makes no sense to hunter gatherer tribes." IMO, this isn't really true: I bet hunter gatherers hoard resources, but it's at a very small scale: maybe they've got a favourite spear or a pouch-full of berries that they're not willing to share with complete strangers. In that sense, they're no different from plenty of animals who defend territory, or fight over and drag off a carcass. I think that that drive to hang on to stuff (for the benefit of yourself or for a small, select group) is a much deeper instinct than you appear to be suggesting. It predates Capitalism and that's why I think of it as part of "human nature".
In terms of larger communist societies, I consider that that instinct is going to remain a problem: you can have 99 sincere, committed communists, but I suspect that it only takes one person motivated by self-interest to threaten that ideal society from within. That's really the message of Animal Farm, which of course illustrated the corruption of communism under Stalin. I suppose my depressing argument is that if it hadn't been Joe Stalin, it would've been someone else.

Okay, but how much of your opinion is based on fact? Do you have any examples? Everything I've read about hunter gatherers is that they don't selfishly hoard resources which is why they are consistently brought up to debunk the idea that greed is just human nature. When you live in a system that rewards greed and exploitation with no experience of anything different it of course seems natural. I think it's conditioned human behavior and there are a few studies to back it up.

Thanks for the prompt response, Lucem :thumb:

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Sep 02, 2024, 02:47 AMSure, if we want to measure atrocities commit under capitalism vs communism, capitilsm is objectively worse and never gets the same stigma.

Historically, capitalism has been more widespread than communism, so I'd expect more atrocities to take place under capitalism. As for who gets more stigmatised, I suspect that depends on who you listen to or read. Today there's plenty of literature about how terrible slavery and colonialism were (= capitalists' fault), but then SGR is not alone in his interest in the spectacular disaster of Stalin's collectivisation/paranoia years (=communists' fault).

On one level I'd agree with you though: many people right of centre are ready to stigmatise communism as being some horrendous regime that must be erradicated, even when facts don't justify it. I'm thinking of McCathyism, Trump and Nikki Haley, who recently branded the Inflation Reduction Act "a Communist manifesto".
Here's what's in the Inflation Reduction Act:

  (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth103/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.earth103/files/module12/InflationReductionBudgetICE700px.png)

So, yeah, communism is stigmatised for things that don't exist (McCathy's "reds under the beds") and for... er... using tax benefits to promote clean energy :yikes:

QuoteThe factory worker isn't improving their circumstance. They're improving somebody else's while staying stagnant. It's either work or starve.

My point is more about the working hours. The caveman didn't work that long or hard. The current day working hours is proven to be detrimental to our health, but early industrialization was even worse than now. It is not human nature to work 40 hour weeks.

I don't have facts and figures available, but I still question the bold, because I'm guessing that you don't have facts or figures either. How long does it take to find edible berries, or to track and kill a wild animal: it's my suspicion that the latter especially takes hours and hours with no guarrantee of success. In that case, the poor caveman has to go out again the next day and repeat his labours just in the hope of some reward. TBH I think a factory worker has an easier life: 40 hours a week during which he's "enjoying", but not paying for, a/c, heating and lighting, but more importantly, he's sure that his work will be paid for, as per his contract.

(Also, if I may make a flippant comment, isn't "not starving"  just a rock-bottom level of "improving your circumstances" ?) 

QuoteNo, the point is that becoming civilized is the act of overcoming what was once considered human nature.

^ Yes, that's a good point !

QuoteOkay, but how much of your opinion is based on fact? Do you have any examples? Everything I've read about hunter gatherers is that they don't selfishly hoard resources which is why they are consistently brought up to debunk the idea that greed is just human nature. When you live in a system that rewards greed and exploitation with no experience of anything different it of course seems natural. I think it's conditioned human behavior and there are a few studies to back it up.

No, I don't have any facts or examples at my fingertips. To do that would require more effort than I'm prepared to put into our conversation, which I find quite agreeable at this kind of level of putting forward ideas without footnotes, sources, etc, etc.
Perhaps you feel the same, because although you refer to "everything I've read....consistently brought up......a few studies", I'm not seeing many facts or examples. That's not a criticism, Lucem, just saying that that's how a forum chat should go. I'm not here to write a dissertation, and I don't suppose you are either. 

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Sep 02, 2024, 04:15 PMThanks for the prompt response, Lucem :thumb:

I don't have facts and figures available, but I still question the bold, because I'm guessing that you don't have facts or figures either. How long does it take to find edible berries, or to track and kill a wild animal: it's my suspicion that the latter especially takes hours and hours with no guarrantee of success. In that case, the poor caveman has to go out again the next day and repeat his labours just in the hope of some reward. TBH I think a factory worker has an easier life: 40 hours a week during which he's "enjoying", but not paying for, a/c, heating and lighting, but more importantly, he's sure that his work will be paid for, as per his contract.

(Also, if I may make a flippant comment, isn't "not starving"  just a rock-bottom level of "improving your circumstances" ?)

Just one thing to know is that most of the time when I have a strong opinion I do have information behind it.

Prior to the agricultural revolution, through out most of human history, we typically worked 15 hours a week. It wasn't until the agricultural revolution that we started working more. During Feudalism we worked roughly 40 hours a week, but work was more sparodic, they had a lot more days off and a lot more holidays, and many peasants could save up enough money to take months off at a time. When the industrial revolution happened capitalism had people working 14+ hours a day in some of the most inhumane conditions, which is the only time in history people on average worked harder.

https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/for-95-percent-of-human-history-people-worked-15-hours-a-week-could-we-do-it-again.html

Other than the study that said that people over 40 suffer mental decline if they work over 25 hours a week, I don't think there are studies on the health effects of working 40 hours a week. However, there are on working over 40 hours a week, they are not good, and as somebody that has worked a lot of factory and warehouse jobs I know that mandatory overtime, not to mention voluntary, is very very common.

QuoteNo, I don't have any facts or examples at my fingertips. To do that would require more effort than I'm prepared to put into our conversation, which I find quite agreeable at this kind of level of putting forward ideas without footnotes, sources, etc, etc.
Perhaps you feel the same, because although you refer to "everything I've read....consistently brought up......a few studies", I'm not seeing many facts or examples. That's not a criticism, Lucem, just saying that that's how a forum chat should go. I'm not here to write a dissertation, and I don't suppose you are either. 

I won't go searching for links unless I think the person would be interested or if I feel like my perspective isn't trusted because I'm lazy and searching for things you've read at what ever point you read it is tedious.

But if want to just keep it casual, I'll keep it casual. And we'll just have to disagree.

Well, I owe you an apology, Lucem, as you have clearly done more investigating than I gave you credit for. Your earlier statement, that I doubted, about cavemen not working long and hard, has been completely vindicated. Thanks for that link you posted; it was quite an eye-opener for me, and I was particularly struck by this part:-

QuoteSuzman argues that looking at the long sweep of history is important because it reveals our obsession with hard work arose in a very specific context, namely the early days of agriculture. At that time, the land could barely support the population, and a single unlucky event, like a drought or a flood, could lead to mass starvation. Hard work was essential to survival.

So the birth of agriculture, so often lauded as the starting point for civilization, was a bit of a mixed blessing for the working man !

Work experience: I've had several jobs that required a 40-hour week, with various deals regarding overtime. As for factory work, I think I've only done that once in my life, and not for long enough for it to give me any health probs. Something I wouldn't do again for anyone is this: work an all-nighter, which I occasionally had to do to meet a deadline: go to work at 8 a.m., work right through to lunchtime of the following day, so about 29 hours with barely a break, except for a midnight pizza paid for by the company. Strange days indeed.

I don't need an apology man, you had your doubts and spoke your mind honestly.

And I feel like what I said does sound preposterous.

And I'm not the most educated man around.



I think, over all, agriculture, industrialization and even capitalism were blessings in a lot of ways when it comes to improving a lot about society and our quality of life. I, of course, don't like the insane amount of exploitation that came with it, but the abolition of scarcity was awesome. We don't need to be working like this, though. Especially not now.

If the 'AI revolution' really comes to pass, with AI taking over many jobs currently done by people, and boosting corporate revenue while reducing corporate expenses, is UBI really that farfetched of an idea?

I'm not suggesting this as some kind of obvious in-road to communism or anything (which would take a lot more work), but Andrew Yang's 2020 campaign really did get me thinking about the idea. I wasn't sold on it back when he was running, but if, hypothetically, hundreds of thousands of workers get displaced by AI in rapid-fashion, before the market can progress and create new jobs for them, it would seem like something at least similar to the concept would become much more attractive.

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Jun 01, 2023, 11:34 PMTime magazine unveils "THE END OF HUMANITY: How Real is the Risk? (A Special Report)" for June 12, 2023.

I'm about to host 5 events at The Center for Inquiry on the subject of Artificial Intelligence and its impacts on economics, society, and human ethics, so it's great to see major publications taking an active interest in the discussion. The events will be timely.

Now I just have to find a shop in my city that will have this on the news stand.

(https://i.imgur.com/aFyndS5l.jpg)

How did those events go?

Quote from: Shhon on Sep 12, 2024, 05:41 PMHow did those events go?

Thanks for asking! I'm pleased to report that they were some of the highest-attended events we've ever held, and each inspired vigorous conversation. The community response was overwhelmingly positive.

I've launched a subsequent new event series where we screen conspiracy theory themed films and debunk/debate their validity. It's just a little trickier because we have to secure screening rights for each film.

Quote from: innerspaceboy on Sep 12, 2024, 11:16 PMThanks for asking! I'm pleased to report that they were some of the highest-attended events we've ever held, and each inspired vigorous conversation. The community response was overwhelmingly positive.

I've launched a subsequent new event series where we screen conspiracy theory themed films and debunk/debate their validity. It's just a little trickier because we have to secure screening rights for each film.

You're welcome

Congrats on it going well! The lecture on Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe with Will Kinney, looks very interesting.


https://cfiwny.org/lecture-series/

The short story, "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury has long been one of my favorites, up there with Asimov's "The Last Question," "The Last Answer" and Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Today someone mentioned Bradbury's "Kaleidoscope" as being similarly impactful as "Summer."

I pulled out my signed complete Bradbury hardcovers and dug up "Kaleidoscope." Bawled like a child, just like "Summer." I needed that.

After reading the book about Washington, a huge take away I got is all the people arguing that Amercans couldn't have intentionally spread small pox to the natives are utterly full of shit because it's very clear that they did understand that you could spread the disease through infected items.

Not only that but they were inoculating people back then, too.

It was a very good and interesting book. Learning how most of the founding fathers abhorred slavery, how the French revolution was inspired by America and the birth of blatantly false & inflammatory propaganda by the Replubican movement against the Federalists.

I grabbed this Pictorial History of Science Fiction oversized coffee table book by David Kyle at a library sale this week. Brimming with beautiful illustrations from the golden age of sci-fi. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are featured. I may scan a few for party and event flyers. ❤

Spoon for scale.

(https://i.imgur.com/ZMTe0akl.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/lUsT7M5l.jpg)

Nice find, @innerspaceboy 🙂

I am still reading the Stormlight Archive series, now on book three.

The last book I bought was Mein Kampf! for like.. a quarter of a dollar. It was nearly for free and so I thought why not. I could think of some reasons why not, but also some for.

So I'm not a nazi, but I thought it might be interesting to get a look into the mind of such a notorious figure.. although I assume it may be more marketing / propaganda than anything actually genuine.

I read the Hitler book. I don't have much to say about it other than his religious takes were interesting.

Other than that and his geopolitical perspectives, everything else was predictable.

It got really redundant by the end, too.

Quote from: Guybrush on Oct 12, 2024, 12:38 AMNice find, @innerspaceboy 🙂

I am still reading the Stormlight Archive series, now on book three.

The last book I bought was Mein Kampf! for like.. a quarter of a dollar. It was nearly for free and so I thought why not. I could think of some reasons why not, but also some for.

So I'm not a nazi, but I thought it might be interesting to get a look into the mind of such a notorious figure.. although I assume it may be more marketing / propaganda than anything actually genuine.

Coincidental post.

But if you want to crawl in that Austrian bastard's head more, the book SGR recommended definitely is a book that does that.

Edit: It's called "Hitler's Table Talk" it's a catalogue of different things he's said and ranted about in private.

Quote from: Lucem Ferre on Oct 12, 2024, 07:27 AMCoincidental post.

But if you want to crawl in that Austrian bastard's head more, the book SGR recommended definitely is a book that does that.

Edit: It's called "Hitler's Table Talk" it's a catalogue of different things he's said and ranted about in private.

Yeah, that was the main draw of the book to me - what the hell is going on in the head of a guy like Hitler? What does he talk about to people when he's in private? Unfortunately, Hitler did know that all the stuff he was saying would be transcribed, so there's an element of open honesty that may be missing, but I definitely found it interesting - for better or worse, you mostly get what is advertised.

I too once tried to read Mein Kampf out of curiosity (hoping to get similar kinds of insights into the man's mind), but I never managed to finish it. Too often it gets stuck in tedious minutiae like the obscure history of Austria and Hitler's personal grievances and rivalries. I expected it to be a hateful screed (sort of a trainwreck you couldn't look away from), but instead, at least as far as I got into it, it was more of a boring yawn-inducing screed. I'd have to force myself to finish it, and I don't see it ever happening.

^ My personal take on all the Hitler stuff:-


Joking of course, but given that we have only a limited lifetime to explore all the world's books, why go rooting around in the ragbag of Hitler's mind?
____________________________________

Here's a book of stories I'm reading:-

(https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0290-1/%7B9E7B12EF-9FE0-48C0-B3EB-AC5FC66C5224%7DImg100.jpg)

Actually, it's not his best tbh, as a couple of the stories are over-long and fall a bit flat. But I'd recommend these three collections, written when he was at his prime as a story teller:

The Day We Got Drunk on Cake and Other Stories (The Bodley Head, 1967)
The Ballroom of Romance and Other Stories (The Bodley Head, 1972)
Angels at the Ritz and Other Stories (The Bodley Head, 1975)

Why should you check these books out? Because they tell (to quote a reviewer of WT) "Extraordinary stories from ordinary lives". He writes with affection about people who are often overlooked, and takes you into the secret mindset of ordinary, but marginalised people. That solitary guy in the park, that girl at work who never says much, that woman in the supermarket queue with a far-away look in her eyes. They all have a story, and WT is there to suggest what it might be - and in doing so, he teaches us to respect and tolerate our fellow man, even those who don't seem that interesting at a glance. It's all fiction, of course, but his stories "are always true to the human heart" (to quote another reviewer), which means there are plenty of "aha!" moments as you read, and recognise character traits, small habits, etc, that you have surely encountered yourself irl, but never put into words.   

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Oct 15, 2024, 04:50 PM^ My personal take on all the Hitler stuff:-

Joking of course, but given that we have only a limited lifetime to explore all the world's books, why go rooting around in the ragbag of Hitler's mind?

It's because I have morbid interests 😄 but I've put it on the to-do pile and shuffled some ways down on my list of priorities, somewhere behind 120 days of Sodom.

I like a book that's exciting enough to be a page turner, and a genre that does it for me every time is the travel book. I always want to know where the travellers are going next: how they get there, who they meet, and what the place is like.

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/Blood_River_A_Journey_to_Africa%27s_Broken_Heart.jpg/220px-Blood_River_A_Journey_to_Africa%27s_Broken_Heart.jpg)

This book delivers on its promise of a difficult journey through a mysterious land; Tim Butcher heads into The Heart of Darkness, but rather than Conrad's journey up river, he follows in the footsteps of Stanley, who took a boat down the Congo River from the highlands around Lake Tanganyika to its estuary on the Atlantic coast. Tim Butcher toughs it out, sometimes by local dugout canoe, sometimes on the only option available: on the back of someone's motorbike, struggling along muddy jungle paths, while dodging armed rebels and murderous militia.

Not only is it a great adventure, but TB does his journalistic job really well by explaining Congo's colonial past and how the country has just gone from one misery to another, with today's Congo being a variation of the same:  a land that is largely without law and order, hospitals or electricity. The place has been so bad for so long that the world's conscience suffers from "Congo fatigue" while (in an estimate from The Lancet medical journal) 1,200 people die there every day "as a direct result of endemic violence and insecurity".

Aid organizations working in the Congo are ineffective because it is such a kleptocracy that it's impossible to get resources intact through to the people who need them. As one guy says, "If you think you can solve Congo's problems with money then you are a bloody fool. You solve Congo's problems by creating a system of justice that actually works and by making the leaders accountable for their actions." That opinion caught my attention because they are precisely two things that America, of its own volition, is currently walking away from.   
     

So I went back and checked my book, which I made a note in at the end as to when I finished it (back in college for me), it was on 12/18/16 that I finished Jean Edward Smith's biography of President Grant.

(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71dS+RWsx8L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg)

My brother bought me a new biography on Grant, which I've had on my wishlist for a while now, for my birthday. From the excellent biographer, Ron Chernow (who wrote an excellent biography on Washington and Alexander Hamilton):

(https://www.nationalarchivesstore.org/cdn/shop/products/IMG_20220706_104751505_1024x1024.jpg?v=1657127173)

So this biography on Grant is nearly 1000 pages in length (longer than the JES biography on him), but I'm gonna stick with it! Grant himself is one of the presidents I admire the most, and I think more recent contemporary historians unfairly dismiss him as a drunk and as an incompetent executive. When you learn more about the man though, and his emotional depth, his courage, his obligation to duty, and his fearlessness in the face of a terminal illness in an effort to not leave his family destitute, you come to find that popular history often misses the measure of people. He is not flawless, but his flaws humanize him to me. And considering his background, what he achieved is utterly remarkable. He may not crack my list of top 5 presidents objectively, but to me, he will always be one of the presidents I most revere, if not the president I most revere.

Happy Birthday SGR ! :banana:  :band:  :banana:

I hope you enjoy your new Grant biog, though for me 1000 pages on one president sounds a bit daunting, especially if I'd already read another biog of the guy previously.
I find military campaigns more interesting than politics, and that interest sustained me through my deepest dive into US history:-

(https://i.etsystatic.com/9115085/r/il/9cdde2/3528952825/il_570xN.3528952825_94q3.jpg)

I learnt a lot of fascinating info about the long-drawn-out tragedy that was the American Civil War but, although I still have the books on my shelf, I 'm not sure that I'll ever reread them. Recommend them, though, I certainly would.

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Dec 01, 2024, 03:38 PMHappy Birthday SGR ! :banana:  :band:  :banana:

I hope you enjoy your new Grant biog, though for me 1000 pages on one president sounds a bit daunting, especially if I'd already read another biog of the guy previously.
I find military campaigns more interesting than politics, and that interest sustained me through my deepest dive into US history:-

(https://i.etsystatic.com/9115085/r/il/9cdde2/3528952825/il_570xN.3528952825_94q3.jpg)

I learnt a lot of fascinating info about the long-drawn-out tragedy that was the American Civil War but, although I still have the books on my shelf, I 'm not sure that I'll ever reread them. Recommend them, though, I certainly would.

Thanks Lisna!  :)

Grant's life fascinates me, and Chernow writes so well, that I think I'll be invested all the way through the book - though that was part of my concern...since I'm already familiar with many of the details, hoping that I don't lose interest halfway thru - I'm around 50 pages in though, and very much enjoying it.

I guess I'm the opposite of you - I much prefer politics over the detail-ridden minutiae of long military campaigns. The longest book on purely politics I think I've ever read was Richard Nixon's Memoir, which clocked it in at a cool 1,111 pages. I somehow found time in college to read through it all - at points, it felt like a marathon sprint.  :laughing:

That said, I'll add that series to my list, as I do read books on military campaigns occasionally, though they usually are about WW2. :)

Mind Your Brain - Dr Kailas Roberts (book on dementia)
Good Arguments - Bo Seo
Win Every Argument - Mehdi Hasan
Indistractable - Nir Eyal
Declutter Your Life - Gil Hasson
Speak With Impact - Alison Shapira
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Passing Exams for Dummies - Patrick Sherratt (quite a bit better than I was expecting)
Chaos Kings - Scott Patterson

Quote from: Meatwad on Dec 04, 2024, 01:11 PMMind Your Brain - Dr Kailas Roberts (book on dementia)
Good Arguments - Bo Seo
Win Every Argument - Mehdi Hasan
Indistractable - Nir Eyal
Declutter Your Life - Gil Hasson
Speak With Impact - Alison Shapira
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Passing Exams for Dummies - Patrick Sherratt (quite a bit better than I was expecting)
Chaos Kings - Scott Patterson

^ Judging by the titles alone, it looks like you enjoy reading books aiming at self-improvement.

Quote from: SGR on Dec 01, 2024, 07:40 PMI guess I'm the opposite of you - I much prefer politics over the detail-ridden minutiae of long military campaigns. The longest book on purely politics I think I've ever read was Richard Nixon's Memoir, which clocked it in at a cool 1,111 pages. I somehow found time in college to read through it all - at points, it felt like a marathon sprint.  :laughing:

That said, I'll add that series to my list, as I do read books on military campaigns occasionally, though they usually are about WW2. :)

...the detail-ridden minutiae of...

:laughing: That's a great phrase - and it made me think immediately of Ten Days That Shook The World, which I found hugely disappointing. That book goes into endless details about Trotsky calling to order the first meeting of the Siberian Coal-Workers Union, and how they ratified the decision to support the First Soviet of Volga Farmworkers, but denounced the Kalingrad Oblast of Furnituremakers for disseminating pamphlets promoting bourgeios revisionism, etc, etc... You'd probably love it - and compared with a 1,111 pages on Nixon, you could breeze through it in an afternoon, I should think !

Plenty of politics in those Bruce Catton books, though often it's the politics of appointing this general/scapegoating that general. What made the book fascinating to me was how the fighting took place during a period of transition in the "art of warfare" and included both the old school of cavalry charges and the tactics of trench warfare, made infamous by WW I.

I hope you give his books a try and get caught up in drama of the conflict, just as I did. 

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Dec 05, 2024, 04:07 PM^ Judging by the titles alone, it looks like you enjoy reading books aiming at self-improvement.

Hi Lis. Yes, quite a few there are of the pop psych ilk as they're the most accessible of the titles I've been chasing recently at my local library.

I have an extremely long list of books on various subjects geared to get me back into the habit of good studying habits, so that I can then think about going back to tertiary education soon. That is the plan at least lol.

^ Good for you, Meatwad ! I wonder what, specifically, you're planning to study ?

Two public libraries that I used to know well:-

(https://www.streathamsociety.org.uk/uploads/2/2/8/6/22863074/balham-library_orig.jpeg)
( By amazing coincidence, I think that's ISB, standing on the right of the little group by the notice board !)(https://primeofficespace.co.uk/officeimages/31079_1.jpg)

^ They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in this case that works to the book's disadvantage: I love the simple but unusual design and the grey colour, with a texture that I can almost feel from your photo, Quantum

I wouldn't want to win every argument.

What if I'm wrong?

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Dec 24, 2024, 01:10 AM^ They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in this case that works to the book's disadvantage: I love the simple but unusual design and the grey colour, with a texture that I can almost feel from your photo, Quantum

I didn't realize this post was about me  :-[

It's such a great book : )

I am going slowly, each section is 3-4 pages and it's been nice. I agree the design of artwork on the cover is cool. The texture of the book is great too

No probs, Quantum ! In fact, your post of the book has disappeared. ??? 

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Jan 12, 2025, 04:28 PMNo probs, Quantum ! In fact, your post of the book has disappeared. ??? 

I removed it but it's all clear now

Here is a picture now with your screenname in it lol

I've read 4 books on the Cuban revolution.

The 1st was the Autobiography of Fidel Castro.

It's more of a huge interview than a biography and you have to take what Fidel says with a grain of salt.

The 2nd was Cuba: An American History.

It covers the history of Cuba from the Spanish landing there to the beginning of Biden's presidency.

The 3rd was Cuba Libre: Che, Fidel & The Improbable Revolution That Changed World History.

This book focuses mainly on Guerilla War.

The 4th was Che.

This was a biography about Che Guavara, of course.


I have to say Che is one of my favorite political figures and somebody that I would consider a true socialist, if thar matters.

I do have a few criticisms though.

I think Cuba tried too hard to force socialization before industrializing. I think that if they would have opted for gradual change over sudden change it would have helped them industrialize their nation quicker. More importantly, breaking off US relations instead of exploiting them to industrialize the same way they tried to do with the Soviet Union would have helped, but I understand why they didn't.

They put way too much effort into sugar crops rather than diversifying their exports.

But hey, what do I know?

Che focused too much on spreading the revolution over fixing the revolution at home. If he had a little more patience and didn't try to force revolutions in countries that were not ready he would not have been killed.

Despite all the mistakes, Cuba has still accomplished many great things that makes me wonder where Cuba would be at if they weren't economically isolated.

books I've read lately:
Charlotte Brontë - the professor: trash, honestly. A world of difference from Jane Eyre (it has some of its faults in common, but none of the charms). It's essentially a self-indulgent exercise in wishful thinking without any introspection.
Anthony Trollope - Barchester Towers: Lacks the refinement of Doctor Thorne (and other later books I guess) mostly because it suffers from some annoying affectations à la Dickens and its message is a bit muddled and inconsistent, but still very entertaining and solid. Some of the 'love scenes' between men and women are brilliant.
Sylvia Townsend Warner - Lolly Willowes: This was an absolute blast. I just wish it was developed more; it's novella-size but it gives a great perspective on feminism and human independence (and nature) which I think contains plenty of insights to fill a long novel. Wonderful and memorable as it is though. Recommend to @degrassi.knoll if she hasn't read it.
Goethe - Faust: Also great. Very imaginative, very trippy and funny, I had not expected that. I can't help but assume somewhere deep down that anything by Germans will be a bit humourless and pedantic, which is obvioulsy nonsense. Lots of allegorical meanings to it which are generally elegantly developed, you can puzzle them out as much as you like (which in my case means, as long as I understand the themes and general meaning I'm fine, I'm not willing to delve into which petty historical personage is portrayed where, like with the Divine Comedy, although I'm glad I looked up the fact that Goethe makes fun of some other writer he had beef with somewhere). Great fun. I read the prose translation by Barker Fairley though, which is not ideal; very readable, but so free and modernised that it feels more like reading an adaptation of Goethe than Goethe himself.
 
currently reading the master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is brilliant. Also very funny and imaginative, and sometimes straigt up scary. I don't know what's scarier, the spooky devilry or the doings of the Soviet regime. It reminds me a lot of Salman Rushdie: reflections on history, religion and philosophical themes hidden in a kind of humorous magical realism. Also funny that you can tell, despite those similarities, that the main influences here are probably the classic Russians rather than Victorians like Dickens. It also gave me a vivid nightmare about being an evil witch, 10/10

anyway lots of books about witches and devils lately, whatever that means

It means your ready to hail Satan.

(https://i.imgur.com/hWathuG.jpeg)

Quote from: Marie Monday on Feb 02, 2025, 10:03 PMbooks I've read lately:
Charlotte Brontë - the professor: trash, honestly. A world of difference from Jane Eyre (it has some of its faults in common, but none of the charms). It's essentially a self-indulgent exercise in wishful thinking without any introspection.

I'm happy to read a criticism of a Brontë novel :thumb: I grew up in a family in which the Brontë sisters were revered, with books passed around and commented on, so aged about 17, almost as an obligation or a desire to join in, I read Wuthering Heights, but didn't like it. I could see that it was quite vivid and impactful, especially given its date (1847) but there was way to much romance, passion and melodrama for my liking. I wonder if this was the template for a zillion Victorian and Hollywood clichés about some romantic love, that becomes the unquestioned dynamic for the entire plot ? To me, that is such a tedious story-line.

QuoteAnthony Trollope - Barchester Towers: Lacks the refinement of Doctor Thorne (and other later books I guess) mostly because it suffers from some annoying affectations à la Dickens and its message is a bit muddled and inconsistent, but still very entertaining and solid. Some of the 'love scenes' between men and women are brilliant.

I tried one vol of the Barchester books, but I wasn't motivated to read another, although I was curious enough to read Trollope's An Autobiography, which tome was disappointing in a different way. I found that I couldn't get very interested in this guy who was a sedate, established author who took an almost businessman-like attitude to his craft:

"I have known authors whose lives have always been troublesome because their tasks have never been done on time...Publishers have distrusted them and they have failed to write their best...I have done double their work -though burdened with another profession- and have done it almost without an effort. I have not once, though my literary career, felt myself even in danger of being late with my task."
 
Well, good for you, you smug man !!

To be fair, I think the other Brontë books I've read are brilliant despite their flaws. The professor is really an outlier.
I also think you're doing Trollope a bit of an injustice! He was a poor man who managed to successfully make a living from writing, I think it's fair that he was proud of that. And more importantly, in a time when writers and other artists were often narcissistic and pretentious about their profession (and they still are of course) I think it's refreshing to see artists who were conscious that art is also craft. Looking down on that, as people have done on Trollope, is a misunderstanding of art, I think

You make some very good points that I can't really argue with, Marie !

Quote from: Marie Monday on Feb 08, 2025, 07:40 PMTo be fair, I think the other Brontë books I've read are brilliant despite their flaws. The professor is really an outlier.

Yes, I shouldn't be lumping all the Brontë books together. I think I have only read the one, and luckily I did acknowledge that Wuthering Heights was a powerful book. If its main theme didn't appeal to my unromantic soul, or if it paved the way for a whole genre of romantic stories - well, that's more my problem than Emily Brontë's.

QuoteI also think you're doing Trollope a bit of an injustice! He was a poor man who managed to successfully make a living from writing, I think it's fair that he was proud of that. And more importantly, in a time when writers and other artists were often narcissistic and pretentious about their profession (and they still are of course) I think it's refreshing to see artists who were conscious that art is also craft. Looking down on that, as people have done on Trollope, is a misunderstanding of art, I think

Actually, after I posted my comments, I felt I was a bit harse on Trollope; out of context, I picked out one paragraph out of the thousands he must've written and used it to bash him down on a forum where he can't defend himself! Luckily he has you to fight on his behalf :thumb:
As you say, other people have also criticised him for on his workman-like approach, and your comments have motivated me to reread his autobiog. and perhaps this time I'll be more appreciative of him and his achievements. 

I have never read his autobiography to be fair, for all j know I'd find him a huge prick

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes


It talks about the Russian revolution while comparing the new regime under Lenin with the Tsarist regime making the case that Russia was doomed to a dictatorship because the people had never had a democracy & didn't know how to handle one. It opened up talking about how the three economic systems; Feudalism, Socialism & Capitalism, were all run the same way so I thought it was going to go all the way through to Putin but it stopped right as Stalin took power & Lenin died realizing that he'd made a mistake in creating a dictatorship now that he was falling out of power.

I recently finished Agency by William Gibson.  It was good, but I didn't like it as well as the first book in the series, The Peripheral.

Currently reading both Tad Williams' Empire of Grass, the second book in his Last King of Osten Ard series, and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.  I think I started The Secret History when it was first published back in my college days and didn't finish reading it because it never really hooked me.  My memory could be off, though, and I might be remembering a different book.  I like The Secret History well enough so far, so I'm continuing with it.  Apparently the book has accrued cult status popularity with the dark academia crowd, of which I was unaware... so, hey, look at me, trying to appeal to the 'edgy' subculture bunch.  ;D

^ Books and authors both, I'm afraid I recognise absolutely zero of those names you mention, costa. :(

Actually, I'm here to continue a chat about Anthony Trollope, on which score, I owe AT and Marie something of an apology:-

(https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9780192815095-us-300.jpg)

I'm halfway through this book which I first read in about 1993, and this time round I am more sympathetic to old AT. He was clearly a decent guy who had a tough start in life, and by his own efforts overcame difficult circs and a sense of inferiority. All that is to his credit, of course, but in doing so, he turned himself into a bit of a stuffy bore, imo.
From about 100 pages in, he is mainly describing his life as an established literary figure: books writ, fees received, clubs joined (The Athenaeum, etc.), magazines contributed to (The Pall Mall Gazette, etc.), literary friends (Thakeray, etc.).  For relaxation/excitement he liked to go fox-hunting, and his other main topic is his work for the Post Office, which remains a little mysterious - not in an intriguing way, but in a not-properly-explained way.

So, a bit of a stodgy read, imo, although let me make clear 2 things in defense of AT's autobiography:-

i) I haven't read any of his thirty-odd novels, so AT's little glimpses behind-the-scenes of his inspiration were of limited interest to me. (And yes, in connection to the stuff Marie and I were talking about, almost every novel mentioned is introduced with info about how much he sold it for.)
ii) the Autobiog was not so much written for publication as it was written for the benefit of his son, as a kind of record of "this is what your dad did". One effect of this is that some of the big chunks of Trollope's more dramatic adventures (overseas, for example), are dismissed with the phrase "which I have written about elsewhere".

TL:DR: If anyone is tempted to read Trollope's Autobiog, don't expect some scandalous kiss-and-tell blockbuster confessional, ok ? - which, come to think of it, you can probably work out for yourself from a glance at the book's cover !

Quote from: Lisnaholic on Feb 27, 2025, 03:05 PM^ Books and authors both, I'm afraid I recognise absolutely zero of those names you mention, costa. :(

The only one I recognized was Donna Tartt, but that's only because my brother is a big fan of her. Just to irritate him, as a good older brother should, I always refer to her as "Donna Fart"  :laughing:

Quote from: SGR on Mar 06, 2025, 05:45 PMThe only one I recognized was Donna Tartt, but that's only because my brother is a big fan of her. Just to irritate him, as a good older brother should, I always refer to her as "Donna Fart"  :laughing:

You should've gone with "Gonna Fart".

I love her books by the way.