#615

Just finished two, both more or less the same material, vastly different level, both great

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300170863/europe-between-oceans

(about 40 hours of reading, excellent illustrations and references, …)

aka

https://www.amazon.ca/Europe-Between-Oceans-9000-BC-AD/dp/0300170866/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525304149&sr=1-5&keywords=barry+cunliffe

and

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300197181/little-history-world

aka

https://www.amazon.ca/Little-History-World-Illustrated/dp/0300197187/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NJ2TNQNF72M34QRNQNDT

(about 4 hours of reading, style oriented at preteens, approachable, often very personal).

#616

https://smile.amazon.com/Buddhas-Brain-Practical-Neuroscience-Happiness-ebook/dp/B003TU29WU

I have mixed feelings about it; a lot of the neuroscience seems vaguely connected (which, for all I know, it is), there’s considerable repetition and it’s very dry compared to some other books I’ve read on Buddhism (this isn’t really a book on Buddhism per se though). I had the chance to download and read it free, and it was at least worth that price :slight_smile: It introduced or re-introduced me to some concepts that have been kind of helpful while I’m dealing with anxiety.

#617

I just wanted to mention that “persons 9-14 years of age” are called children and I don’t see how there could be anything natural, appropriate or understandable beyond mental illness about “romantic or sexual attraction” to them. I mean, I feel bad having to write that as it should be painfully obvious to anyone…

And more directly related to the thread, I recently read :

  • Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hours Bookstore, by Robin Sloan. Very enjoyable, though a number of direct references to companies (most notably Google) might make it dated soon enough but from what I’ve read this is a very conscious decision by Sloan so I might be completely wrong there :slight_smile: .
  • Look To Windward (Culture series) by Iain M.Banks. I started reading another Culture book, “Use of Weapons”, a few years ago but I it was physically huge and I bought it just before getting a Kindle and thus never finished it. That one was quite interesting, made me want to read at least another of the series at some point.
  • and I’m currently reading Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer (Southern Reach Trilogy #3), which is really good. Annihilation is a big, enjoyable chunk of “WTF is going on”. Authority gives lots of context to the first book, and Acceptance does that even more but from various points of view. I’m almost at the end now and so far I really like it.
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#618

currently reading: http://www.valiz.nl/en/activities/book-event-authenticity.html

The everyday connotations of the original, the real, sincere, valid, historical or deep are well-known, and the opposite of the authentic may then be the superficial, false, not-what-it-seems, or just new. Nonetheless 'the real thing’ is still a fruitful starting point to analyze changes in the post-digital society. Digital technology is embedded in almost every personal relationship, in labour conditions, and in aesthetic practices. What does this mean for the ‘authentic’? To unfold the nuances of the concept of contemporary authenticity this book aims to bring together different thinkers to reflect on the meaning of the authentic now. As a process and as a fluid and performative scheme to be enacted at any time—not just in terms of art and art making but flowing into every single nook of contemporary life, from the intimate to the public.

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#619

A very very well realised sci-fi book about the multi species crew of a worm hole drilling ship as they travel across space. Basically a space roadtrip in a universe where humans are a fairly insignificant minority…
IMG_2705

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#620

Sloan just this weekend signed up for a Lines account when he contributed a track to the current Disquiet Junto project:

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#621

I agree with you, but I think that’s because we both come from this place/this time. However, that is not because I am a moral relativist–even though I think other people that hold other positions (as heinous as they might be) have reasons that are as well thought out as my own. It’s just that their justification scaffolding is different. But since I am on ‘team this time and place’ I’m A-OK taking a strong position (thus why I’m not a moral relativist) Ok, enough of a preamble…

Foucault really put a lens on exactly the thing/perspective you’re talking about here in The History of Sexuality I (circling back to the topic of good books to read :wink: ). There is a whole chapter dedicated to the category of pedophilia. And the book at large discusses the medicalization, problematization, and administration of [sexual] acts for the purpose of creating power heirarchies << which all were alluded to in your post (amazingly enough. I genuinely love how relevant Foucault continues to be). It’s SUPER interesting.

So things that come into question are

  1. “mental illness” (the sometimes false authority given to the medical community, which often have political motivations. For instance being gay was a mental illness like 3 seconds ago, and it was even a mental illness for a slave to want to run away < That one is in Renegade History of the United States, another EXCELLENT book.)
    and
  2. what is “natural”
    In The History of Sexuality II, he discusses the origins of the naturalistic fallicies we hold about sex (spoiler: comes from the Romans)
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#622

Love Bluestockings! If I were still in the city I’d probably be trying to make hanging around there easy for myself. White Noise is on the docket soon. Read Calvino’s Invisible Cities and If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler last year and found them really cute. I feel like he’s one of those authors that I need to cultivate a little generosity towards in order to stick through the book, since especially in the latter he writes you, the reader, as a man who relates to women almost solely sexually.

Finished Lolita a few months ago… a really chilling read, as you glimpse the rot through the beautiful prose. The book really refuses to hold your hand as you put together your opinion of Humbert Humbert and what’s going on. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. :wink: Personally I’m completely uninterested in using it to discuss morality, much more interested in, like, the horrors of genteel suburban, “modern” life.

Currently just starting Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote. Started it for a class in college but couldn’t finish it in the tiny amount of time we had. Looooooove this book, and I love the little antics Cervantes is always up to.

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#623

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is a treat. Becky Chambers is a bright light!

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#624

https://smile.amazon.com/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change-ebook/dp/B004G8Q1Q4

I picked this one up at a used book sale because I’m a former game developer – but a bit skeptical of the premise, since I’ve had had a belly ful of the dark side of gamer culture (not just in recent years) and the book predates GamerGate. Perhaps later in the book some issues of gatekeeping and toxic masculinity are addressed, but I’m guessing not.

Anyway – it’s a good read so far. The book argues that “play” is voluntary work to overcome artificial obstacles at a personally engaging level of challenge; it discusses intrinsic vs. extrinsic pleasure seeking, and other concepts.

I think a lot of it is applicable to creative pursuits, particularly music, which we also “play” :slight_smile:

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#625


This pairs nicely with a soundtrack of

#626

I had to take a break from The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Gordon. However, I just finished:

  • On Violence by Hannah Arendt. As with all of her writings, there are some problematic sections, and in particular her views of some of the political unrest following the passage of the Civil Rights Act and subsequent assassinations of prominent figures in the movement are dismissive and patronizing. However, Ms. Arendt has this uncanny ability in her writing to seemingly view all of human history at once and comment on features that are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago. There is just something so universal in her observations of the creep of the language of violence and war into the normal political discourse and the way that it has a way of creating the space for real violence as a political means without effort. Moreover, it hurt to read the optimism that she had about the student led cultural movement in the late 1960’s because it seems like we stand in a similar moment, and one then wonders which way things will break for us.

  • A Generation of Sociopaths by Bruce Gibney. Another in a line of woefully written, underperforming books given the space for its topic to run. The core thesis is that the post-war generation cohort of 194(7)-196(4) – the end points of the interval are flexible +/- 1 year – entered into a unique period of American history in terms of economic opportunity and social mobility, came of age in a world where there were few challengers to their projected hegemony, and cashed out all of the previous investments made in the social, political, and economic systems over the preceding 70 years. There isn’t much new in the thesis, but the argumentation is weirdly moralizing. Gibney blames lax parenting following the uptake of Dr. Spock’s Common Sense[…] child rearing manuals into the zeitgeist for not instilling virtue and discipline in the cohort, which leads to the usual vice-shaming “sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll”, and leads the author through some arm-chair psychology (seriously, quoting the DSM-V at the start of chapters) to conclude that the whole cohort behaved in ways that are diagnostic of some narcissistic psychopathy. While I agree that there has been an unusually naked generational heist, the causal chain that the author builds is weak, and at the end, he throws his hands up and goes limp at any attempted solution [e.g. Piketty’s universal wealth tax or even modest proposals like making income or capital gains taxes more progressive, cranking up inheritance taxes, or eliminating mortgage interest deductions]. The end point of the argument is almost literally the fatalistic sentiment “to some generations much is give/from some generations much is asked”; putting every cohort in the wake of the Baby Boomers in the latter bucket. Thanks for nothing.

In progress, The Storm Before The Storm by Mike Duncan. I’m a sucker for analyses of the Late Republic era of Rome, and Mr. Duncan’s voice on the subject comes from a place of real joy about the project. It is enjoyable and elucidating thus far.

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#627

this is a totally fair criticism and it’s not entirely unique to If On a Winter’s Night…, but I think it’s by far the most pronounced in that book (of the Calvino I’ve read).

@sellanraa, what did you think of Cosmicomics?

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#628

Definitely. I really enjoyed that book. Especially the almost episodic format.

Anyone read the follow up, A Closed and Common Orbit?

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#629

I’ve got it from the library. At the moment, it’s vying with

and a distant third

for my attention. All are losing out in a sprint to Google I/O where a bunch of stuff I’ve been working on is getting some attention (wish us well!) Not to mention all the norns anticipation! :tada:

Super curious if anyone has read A Closed and Common Orbit. I’m still savoring the first one!

#630

Things have been slow for me. Busy times in my life in a number of ways and I just haven’t had the energy and time to read. I’m 4 or 5 stories in though and I’m enjoying it. I find he writes in a way that takes me some time to adjust too. I’ve not been able to express how, but I’ve never read someone’s work that requires so much time to adjust mentally to their writing style.

#631

I’m back to reading a lot lately. Things are much better when you’re consistently reading and making music.

Annihilation - This made me deeply uncomfortable for almost its entire length. Everything is just out of grasp from the reader, yet it all makes a vague amount of sense in nightmare logic.

Fire and Fury - See my review for Annihilation above.

Childhood’s End - This is an immediate all-timer for me. I didn’t know anything about the plot going into it, and that paid off. Highly recommended for sci-fi fans.

The Lathe of Heaven - I really enjoyed this. I ended up reading the opening few paragraphs three times in a row before handing it to my wife and saying “You have to read this”. The last section has been rattling around in my brain for the past few weeks.

Gravity’s Rainbow - I made my every-few-years attempt at this, and made it much farther than usual. When it’s on, it’s brilliant. There are bi-lingual puns next to toilet humor next to incredible prose. However, it turns into a slog whenever one of the characters goes into a dream state (without spoiling anything). I might continue, as the most recent fifteen page dream slog turned into a hilarious punchline about five pages later.

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#632

Keep going!! Gravity’s Rainbow was my favorite read of last year and definitely an all-time fave (although, like, I love Pynchon). Definitely not a book for everyone, but I think it gets more page-turny as the plot unfurls.

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#633

Yeah, having the GR Wiki has helped explain a lot of the more obscure references. It’s also given me an exercise in remembering all of the German that I learned in high school and college.

His writing really is amazing when it’s focused. One of my favorites is the opening of one of the chapters of Inherent Vice where he starts describing the comings and goings of various cars on the Southern California highways.

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#634

Recently finished László Krasznahorkai’s newest collection of ???*, The World Goes On, which definitely felt like throwing myself into an abyss. Though his work engages with collapse on all levels (especially in regards to language), there’s nonetheless an exhilarating feeling in subjecting oneself to his ceaseless experimentation. Once you’re in his flow, it’s hard to get out.

Maybe not quite as awe-inspiring as his last major work, Seiobo There Below, but definitely worth it.

*short stories? philosophical riddles? experimental novel? who cares!

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