http://4-ch.net/games/kareha.pl/1206548566/
This is a nice thread. Let's have a book edition.
I just read my first book by Haruki Murakami, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Murakami gets a lot of praise in these parts, and after reading this book, I can confirm that it isn't unfounded. The book to me felt a bit weaker towards the end, but I really liked hearing the stories of Nomonhan, Siberia, and such.
Read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Pretty standard fare I'd say, and, though the fact I was familiar with the movie adaptation probably gives me a bias to some extent, I feel the film was in fact a better piece of work, even considering the deus ex machina in the amulet. The novel was surprisingly rather bland and short, the main conflict just sort of came and went without much issue and even that much trouble for Mrs. Frisby aside from her capture; the movie did a lot to show a beautiful advanced world and definitely showed more of the protagonist's emotions and inner challenges. Actually having Jenner present as an antagonist helped the climax a great deal I believe as well, the scientists trying in vain to capture the rats was a lot weaker for an ending.
The story itself was fine at least, but I don't think it's very surprising the adaptation is much more famous.
Just finished reading Neuromancer. Been on my backlog for about ten years at this point, but so glad I finally got around to it. Some aspects are understandbly dated, but this serves only to contrast the amazing vision of “cyberspace” that existed in Gibson’s dreams, long before the advent of the internet. Brilliant stuff.
I read The Depths of Time by Roger MacBride Allen, borrowed from the Internet Archive’s digital library. It was pretty good, I might read the next book in the seties.
Read Raptor Red a little while ago
An alright book, starts off pretty weak but it picks up quickly for the most part. The weird combination of anthropomorphic thoughts/actions alongside these really out of place overly-specific technical descriptions almost killed it for me, though it lessens up as it goes on (or I just got used to it). Word choice was kind of odd throughout the story as well, like the use of "Darwinian" 4 times in the first chapter and the use of the word "shit" like 6 times on one page and then never again. Just obtuse language here and there like the whole sentence "Another vital bit of information was added to the hard disk of her mental computer."
That kind of thing makes it VERY obvious this novel was written by a paleontologist and not a professional writer, which in all fairness has a charm of its own.
Like I said, it does get interesting and becomes a fun read but something about took me out of it every few pages.
Finished The Hobbit. Reread it for the firs time in a long while. Might actually be better than I remembered, it's really charming and such a perfect distilled version of fantasy. Tolkien went a long way to make the story feel like it was actually being related to you in a really cozy way. And not being intimately tied into an overarching epic like LOTR is pretty nice too in that it's a short, pleasant read.
Finally finished Tolstoy's war and peace. it took me nearly 5 years but i'm finally done with it. a lot better than i thought it would be, i kept quitting and putting it off to read other stuff only to come back to it later. its actually pretty good once you get past the ancient writing style and just how slow and dry the start is. i wouldnt recommend it though. save yourself the time and read as summary online.
Just finished Political Theology by Carl Schmitt. It’s a short work, to the point, and can be finished in just two hours. Schmitt dives straight in with his famous definition of the sovereign as “he who decides on the state of exception.” From this he unfolds an infamous critique of liberal democracy manifest in the Weimar Republic. Schmitt argues that politics hinges on a distinction between friend and enemy, a fundamental distinction liberals try to deny or erase while in the process make things much worse. Whereas Schmitt advocates a pragmatic and realist engagement with the enemy, as someone who can be respected and traded with, liberals maniacal obsession with humanity leads to the dehumanization of the ‘other’ and this reduction of the enemy to less than human invites all kinds of brutal atrocities. Schmitt concludes that the ‘depoliticizing’ tendencies make liberal regimes unattractive and incapable. There is a lot of debate over Schmitt’s own politics and he’s relationship with Nazism, although a party member it’s debatable whether he was so out of genuine conviction or simply a pragmatic move to ensure his survival in Hitler’s Reich. Overall, I found Schmitt’s arguments to be thought provoking but not always entirely convincing, why exactly should we accept his claim that the political is founded on an antagonism? Nevertheless, his critique of liberalism helps us understand how that ideology has maintained a stranglehold over humanity despite the numerous atrocities it has inflicted on us.
Industrial Society and Its Future by Ted Kaczynski.
7/10
Ted has a lot of great stuff to say about technological determinism and the creeping effects on human autonomy and freedom. Sadly, too much of his book is spent analyzing leftism, and while he makes a good point it's poorly worded and takes up too much space. It's a shame because you can bring in the Frankfurt School and look at how their criticisms of instrumental reason sit with Ted's anti-technological revolutionism. Nevertheless, it's a good read and worth picking up. Just be careful where you download it. The last thing you want is to end up on a government watchlist.
I'm reading Philip Foner's series on the topic at the moment, but does anyone have any memorable works that they want to share?
Got excited when I saw "I'm reading Philip" and then the rest of that sentence didn't finish with K. Dick I just didn't give a shit anymore.
Some books seem promising then you start reading and just can't read it because you either don't like the style, it's boring, it's crap.... etc.
Name of book:
How far you got:
Why you stopped reading:
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
1/3 of the way through
Couldn't connect with the story or the language.
Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari
I want to read it but it makes no sense to me.
Walden by Thoreau.
Given up for a second time, even after skipping the longwinded first section.
Heavy horrible prose. Sanctimonius sarcasm throughout.
3 Musketeers
I got around a third of the way through.
I wound up so lost and clueless about what the fuck was going on and didn't know where I should flip back to catch up. I also wasn't very interested in the first place, hence why I let my mind wander while reading.
Philip Mainländer's philosophy of redemption. I got into it for the cool hyper pessimism but after like 100 pages of convoluted ontology I dropped it. I knew all the juice stuff beforehand anyway. Now I read the original instead (Schopenhauer)
Logic of Sense by Deleuze. I read it after Difference and Repetition but it was a bit boring imo.
i am a heron. i ahev a long neck and i pick fish out of the water w/ my beak. if you dont repost this comment on 10 other pages i will fly into your kitchen tonight and make a mess of your pots and pans
Biological Exuberence. I started reading it for completely childish reasons(wanted to see how many gay birds there were) but got bored of the concept quite quickly.
Mein Kampf. Bought it when I was going through a childish edgelord phase and took it to high school to everyday to piss everyone off. I never managed to read it all because it’s boring as fuck, especially the biographical parts which are just whiny and annoying. It’s just a dude bitching about his life.
>>82
I’ve never been able to get through any of the books he co wrote with guattari, but his books on Spinoza, Foucault etc are a pretty good read
I've been reading Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Needless to say it is close to unintelligible for me. What secondary lit should I read to properly understand it?
>>1
You can’t go wrong with the Cambridge Companion to Hegel. There is Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History by Buck Morss which is provides an alternative look at Hegel’s intellectual influences. There is a series on YouTube called Half Hour Hegel which goes through the entire Phenomenology including the preface and introduction.
>>2
Thank you! I have heard of Half Hour Hegel but it the book on Haiti, that sounds very interesting.
I've been here, >>1, and I recommend giving up. Whilst it does start to sink in after a lot of study and exposure to dumbed-down explanations I'm not sure it's worth the effort and what little I did gleam from my initial attempts I have long since forgotten. Go read Kierkgaard instead (who likes to poke fun at Hegel)
>>4
You still learn quite a bit by pushing through a dense philosophical book, even if you don’t understand what the author’s trying to get across it makes reading these books in the future a little easier. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination as the old cliche goes. It’s perfectly fine to go through a book and not really remember what the author is doing beyond a vague gist of what they’re trying to say.
>>1
Mind if I ask why your reading Hegel? Have you tried reading Hegel before? your a beginner you shouldn’t really start weigh Hegel and if your new to reading him you shouldn’t start with the Phenomenology but his Lectures on the Philosophy of History which provides you with nice intro to how Hegel sees world history and eases you into his dense writing style.
Anyway, if your looking for secondary sources I’d seriously recommend the Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit by Robert Stern. It’s a really good introduction that’s beginner friendly and written in an easy to follow clear fashion.
The only genre I care about.
Romance is fine too. Porn without romance feels as empty as romance without porn.
>Porn without romance feels as empty as romance without porn.
Found the guy that unironically read pornographic magazines for the articles.
>>2
"Reading" in this context is an euphemism for watching at lewd pictures. The articles in porn mags are usually not pornographic at all.
Seriously, post something
You first
I havent ready any porn books but there's a ton of pornographic writing on fanfiction sites and they're all shit!
https://web.archive.org/web/20201101003536/http://yotogi.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201101003436/http://easy2life.sakura.ne.jp/yotogi2/
Japanese touhou fanfiction, if you can read that.
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/88584244/novels
He wrote ８月のヒメゴト 〜僕と桃香の７日間〜 and currently writes 俺の肉奴隷は11歳, both are pretty good.
Stopped second on #16, stopped first on #8
People to maybe check later
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/1348886
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/62079282/novels
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/42140873/novels
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/6594712
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/43621518
Post your favorites:
秋深き (aki fukaki)
隣は何を (tonari wa nani wo)
する人ぞ (suru hito zo)
>>24
captain hook must remember not to scratch his balls lmao
When I consider Life, 'tis all a cheat;
Yet, fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;
Trust on, and think to morrow will repay:
To morrow's falser than the former day;
Lies worse; and while it says, We shall be blest
With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.
Strange couzenage! none would live past years again,
Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain;
And, from the dregs of Life, think to receive
What the first sprightly running could not give.
I'm tir'd with waiting for this Chymic Gold,
Which fools us young, and beggars us when old.
Если жизнь тебя обманет
Александр Пушкин
Если жизнь тебя обманет,
Не печалься, не сердись!
В день уныния смирись:
День веселья, верь, настанет.
Сердце в будущем живет;
Настоящее уныло:
Всё мгновенно, всё пройдет;
Что пройдет, то будет мило.
1825
"Candidate" by Joy Division/Ian Curtis
Forced by the pressure
The territories marked
No longer the pleasure
Oh, I've since lost the heart
Corrupted from memory
No longer the power
It's creeping up slowly
The last fatal hour
Oh, I don't know what made me
What gave me the right
To mess with your values
And change wrong to right
Here some original haiku written by me!
Tenchi deflowerd!
The girls have their way with him!
No need for consent!
>>32
What an intriguing choice of an image to make haiku out of.
Here's the one I've come across reading recently.
In Answer to Vice-Magistrate Zhang
Late in my life I only care for the quiet.
A million pressing tasks, I let them go.
I look back at myself; I have no long range plans.
To go back to the forest is all I know.
Pine breeze: I ease my belt. Hill moon: I strum.
My lute. You ask - but I can say no more
About success or failure than the song
The fisherman sings, which comes to the deep shore.
You can find the entire thing here -> https://www.gutenberg.org/files/972/972-h/972-h.htm
SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders.
DISCUSSION, n. A method of confirming others in their errors.
DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country.
youre a faggot
SMDD, what does that mean?????
whats some bestseller comix recently? also their sales numbers?
Based on my knowledge of the industry, the real up-and-coming cult hit comic/magazine series is the hot new SAoVQ zine. Like all other subscribers, I devoured each issue eagerly as they came in.
Each issue is 10-20 pages long and features a variety of comics.
Produced by anonymous VIPPERS, this mysterious publication always seems to have new comics out, with news updates sent to subscribers via email every week.
Since they are behind the scenes, we can't help but keep up with the very latest. Given the vast array of comics and magazines I subscribe to, it's difficult to pick out a favorite.
If we're talking sales numbers, DADDYCOOL is still beating most of us on sales over a thousand copies sold.
That's nearly five times more than the most popular mainstream comics.
These numbers just scream instant cult classic.
Comics unfortunately don't sell at all :(
I'm hosting a reading group on Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" (~30pp text) tonight with a friend (6:30 pacific / 9:30 eastern) . Some VIPPER will be joining in. Feel free to join and invite your friends! The first half of the discussion will be recorded and uploaded online later.
https://www.facebook.com/events/4339980456118810
https://blog.philosophy.rodeo/2021/10/22/civil-disobedience-ad/
Imagine not starting with Greek Mythology.
First of all I have only just glanced at titles of the different volumes of this guy's multi-volume magnum opus. You can make fun of me for that if you want to; I just wanted to make this post. Also, fair warning, this will be a bit political, or a lot political. Thus, if the mods do not like this, then feel free to delete.
I took a stats class and this guy came up. He seems to be quite exquisite despite the whole influencing fascism thing. Anyway, one of my friends basically stated the same thing that Pareto did in his four-volume text on society, that is, logical fallacies have entered into the domain of discourse of politics so that everything is now a sore subject and nothing really makes sense anymore with regards to the former. I know that I am not qualified for the following undertaking, but I would like to revisit Pareto's text with another sociological text constructing a scenario where a kakistocracy takes power and
a). Ruins lives with their shitposting;
b). Tarnishes the national discourse on everything;
c). Possibly endangers human life itself if the cabinet takes power at a critical point in human history;
yeah. This last bit is quite grandiose, but do you recall how Euclid basically wrote his Elements with the end goal of constructing the Platonic Solids, and thus the entirety of the cosmos as it was seen at the time? Yes, he actually did this, but I was thinking, "What if we did this same thing, except with Trump at the end?" Yes, I see after writing that I sound essentially as crazy as the "lost gospel of Trump" if you get my drift, although I doubt many will get that reference (I do NOT support that obscure entity I referenced). Any thoughts, or should I just "go back to reddit" or something?
What exactly would be the purpose of such a text? Trump has not demonstrated to be particularly worthy of such a grandiose text.
This thread is also poorly named, I can't see much discussion about Pareto and his work occurring here considering your focus on writing a "lost gospel of Trump." You would have been better off calling it just that, "ITT we write the lost gospel of Trump." Much more attention grabbing too.
>the lost gospel of Trump
Even before he took the biggest of risky gambles, announcing he would run for president in June 2015, Donald Trump already had one very successful business venture going.
A building filled with unit 627m skyscrapers -- just blocks from Times Square, near Madison Square Garden -- it is home to some of the highest-paying condominiums and clubs, marketed as home for the cosmopolitan and elite.
Its highest category, his "Gold" category, has become a calling card of Trump's highly-regulated real estate empire, either a tribute to his wealth or proof of its understatement.
Either way, Trump Tower has the attraction: glass walls lead to gold-leaf fountains connected by gold chandeliers, windows filled with velvet upholstered furniture and gold-plated grille doors opened by gold-plated elevators to private plush living quarters and such gilded highlights as family gazebos and gargoyles.