Started In Dubious Battle, my first Steinbeck novel since high school.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 30 April 2022 14:09 (two years ago) link
Finished a few smaller things, also finished Prynne’s new Snooty Tip-Offs. Trying to decide whether to read poems or a novel next, think I might go with the latter and read Dissipatio H.G. by Guido Morselli. Anyone read it?
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Saturday, 30 April 2022 16:18 (two years ago) link
Patricia Highsmith, Deep WaterAlice Oseman, Heartstopper (v1)Emma Healey, Best Young Woman Job Book
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Saturday, 30 April 2022 17:15 (two years ago) link
Oh, I also began What Was I Thinking? by Jalal Toufic, but I am reading it slowly, section by section.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Saturday, 30 April 2022 17:25 (two years ago) link
Just to get away from fiction for a bit, I've started reading a book on the influence of geography on geopolitics, Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall (2015). I picked it up on a whim for $3 at the charity shop. I know nothing about the British author, but I'm finding his tone somewhat annoyingly neo-con. He treats national leaders as if they are automatons programmed to obey some kind of national 'will to power', so instead of simply stating the strengths and weaknesses created by Russia's geography, Mr. Tim confidently asserts Putin has "no choice" but to control Ukraine.
However, after I filter out that sort of toxic nonsense, there is some interesting info in the book which I hadn't known or else hadn't considered from a geopolitical perspective. I'll probably stick with it and just hate the author as I do.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Saturday, 30 April 2022 20:55 (two years ago) link
I can't help with the reference but have to concur (I think) that the images are striking. I've only read the three novellas that were published after the prize and remember the suitcase from the first and the coat worn indoors from the second, and those images make me want to revisit them.
― youn, Sunday, 1 May 2022 06:16 (two years ago) link
Isaac Asimov: FOUNDATION & EMPIRE (1952).
The second in the FOUNDATION trilogy. I always thought this stuff would be vast and stodgy. It's actually a trio of relatively slim volumes, written in an SF magazine style that flies by. Once again we leap decades forward in time, and read of an encounter between the Foundation and the central Galactic Empire. It's getting more into space-opera vein than the first volume, less anthropological or sociological. A point that keeps occurring to me, which I may have said before, is: why does no one ever argue that STAR WARS was partly based on Asimov?
One other reflection: though Asimov is projecting far into the future, he remains rather liberal humanist. I mean: his future humanity continues to do things similar to what humans have historically done, up to c.1950. They govern, dominate, conquer or are ruled. They trade and seek financial advantage, and trade tends to develop civilization and contact. They form religions, as ways of assimilating things they don't understand. All this may be a very reasonable extrapolation. I just note how universalising it is as a projection of what humans have been like up to the 20th century.
In a way Asimov's galaxy curiously lacks alterity. The people are like us - though always with odd names (like Star Wars). There are no aliens yet (no spoilers if they turn up later). There are robots - but not in these books (I'm aware of how much and how well he writes on robots elsewhere).
It's all reassuringly enjoyable.
― the pinefox, Sunday, 1 May 2022 11:32 (two years ago) link
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/118019
^ Asimov on Star Wars
fwiw i was disappointed in the Foundation trilogy having heard such good things about it beforehand. i will stick with the robot books.
― koogs, Sunday, 1 May 2022 11:47 (two years ago) link
Reading Guido Morselli’s Dissipatio HG. Quick and harrowing!
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Sunday, 1 May 2022 12:47 (two years ago) link
are you reading the italian?
― mookieproof, Sunday, 1 May 2022 13:54 (two years ago) link
(apologies for interrupting) I am reading A Promised Land by Barack Obama. I stopped in the middle several months ago and found it easy to pick up again. He is an engaging writer. Also, that there is a partially known ending to recent history gives it a storybook quality that is somewhat reassuring: for better or worse, the past is over and done.
― youn, Sunday, 1 May 2022 14:25 (two years ago) link
Soldaten Sonke Neitzel and Harald Welzerbook based on a cache of tapes recorded of German Army POWS in WWII that were discovered decades later. Shows what the man in the street in German uniform actually thought, epistemology of an average person under that regime like. I was telling somebody about its existence over the weekend and realising i hadn't read it. I thought it was something important to be aware of so trying to get it read . But its my current bathroom book so not sure how long that will take.
Augusto Boal Games For Actors and non-Actors radical theatre theorists book on methodology ,. He was applying the theory that Paulo Freire had been devising for education . I can see where a tone deaf white priviliged idiot running a parochial local theatre group dedicated to his thought could go very wrong with trying to apply this especially if one is being extremely sdelf congratulatory about how one is doing so. So while i think it is important material I also think one has to be careful how one does apply it and there has to be some basic thought always constant. One is not supposed to see oneself as being the all-knowing and I think the group I was in contact with who were supposedly applying it weren't very self reflexive. Just white liberal, arrogant and therefore not really applying this but a negative version of it. Bleurgh, Would love to find a group with a better handle on it, has left a very bad taste in my mouth .
― Stevolende, Sunday, 1 May 2022 15:19 (two years ago) link
mookie, I'm reading the new-ish translation on NYRB classics.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Sunday, 1 May 2022 16:48 (two years ago) link
ah, cool -- i have a copy but haven't gotten around to it
― mookieproof, Sunday, 1 May 2022 17:14 (two years ago) link
I can't help with the reference but have to concur (I think) that the images are striking. I've only read the three novellas that were published after the prize and remember the suitcase from the first and the coat worn indoors from the second, and those images make me want to revisit them. What book is this?
― dow, Sunday, 1 May 2022 18:29 (two years ago) link
SUSPENDED SENTENCESThree NovellasBy Patrick ModianoTranslated by Mark Polizzotti213 pp. Yale University Press. Paper, $16.
― youn, Sunday, 1 May 2022 19:53 (two years ago) link
the reference in question being the memory pond thing Tim was asking about upthread
― koogs, Sunday, 1 May 2022 20:09 (two years ago) link
Suspended Sentences is the source of the passage I was asking about.
― Tim, Sunday, 1 May 2022 21:12 (two years ago) link
the wild shore - kim stanley robinson, felt like minor KSR. less interested in the stuff he's good at (wonky politics stuff) and more interested in the stuff he's bad at (characters)
the little drummer girl - le carre - extremely minor le carre! hearing tradecraft described at great length and in punishing detail is boring. still had the odd magical description though.
small things like these - claire keegan - extremely well done domestic novella about abuses by the irish church
the verge - patrick wyman - made insufficient effort to write and arrange ideas in a more booklike way than he does for his podcast, and as such pretty hard going
crying in h mart - michelle zahner - made a huge impact on my wife, and i can see why, but ehhh.
small town in germany - le carre - absolute banger
cormac mccarthy - child of god - short and incredibly bleak.
this is how they tell me the world ends - nicole perlroth - well-reviewed book about the history of infosec/cyber. extremely and credulously pro USA. says things like "Atkins was something of an anomaly among the mostly male, testosterone fueled coders she managed. Most had a deep distaste for authority. They buried their heads in code by day, and lived vicariously through virtual role playing games by night", despite being written recently, not in 1990.
patrick o'brian - post captain - reread. absolute banger.
arthur c. clarke - rendezvous with rama - meh
toni morisson - sula - very good! (also short)
invisible bridge - rick perlstein - the watergate stuff was great, but the second half (ford and ford vs jimmy carter) was a bit of a slog.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 2 May 2022 03:56 (two years ago) link
well-reviewed book about the history of infosec/cyber. extremely and credulously pro USA. How do these go together? How does her description about resentful testosterone heads buried in code fit 1990 but not today? Haven't read it but now curious.
― dow, Monday, 2 May 2022 04:29 (two years ago) link
it's extremely Voice of the Reasonable New York Times in its politics, and the description of hacker culture rings false throughout. the example line is like a line from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine (1981) or from a local news piece about surfing the internet ca. 1999.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 2 May 2022 05:11 (two years ago) link
(soul of a new machine is a great book, btw, highly recommended, but it's also 40 years old, and i wouldn't expect it to describe google engineers ca. 2020 accurately)
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 2 May 2022 05:13 (two years ago) link
Yeah that was a slog. Read it in anticipation of the Park Chan-wook miniseries (one of my fave directors) and by the time I'd finished it I couldn't bother to watch the show.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 2 May 2022 09:17 (two years ago) link
I watched the TV programme of that novel and didn't greatly enjoy it. The one positive was the use of the Institute of Education, Bloomsbury, as a setting.
― the pinefox, Monday, 2 May 2022 09:36 (two years ago) link
i finally finished season of migration to the north. i'm a little flabbergasted tbh. it's hard to know what to say about it, other than i can't stop thinking about it. one thing is don't recall ever reading a novel so compelling.
― the cat needs to start paying for its own cbd (map), Friday, April 29, 2022 3:41 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink
yaaaaaay i love this book! i teach it every year and this year my students did not love it, so i am extra-glad you did. it rules.
― horseshoe, Monday, 2 May 2022 13:40 (two years ago) link
Read it in anticipation of the Park Chan-wook miniseries (one of my fave directors) and by the time I'd finished it I couldn't bother to watch the show.
haha yes me too!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 2 May 2022 17:23 (two years ago) link
it's extremely Voice of the Reasonable New York Times in its politics, in what respect? Examples? Also, how has code head culture changed so much? Less male-dominated and/or better attitude? Hope so, but haven't heard that.
― dow, Monday, 2 May 2022 18:23 (two years ago) link
the author presumes good faith and good intent from all US govt sources throughout, and seems like a bit of a mark for russiagate related conspiracies.
the sentence i quote is just lazy facile superficial cliched writing about tech. it's such bad writing that i wrote it down. there's a kernel of truth here in the way lazy facile superficial cliches often have a kernel of truth. (except "testosterone fueled", which does not mean male-dominated in common usage and seems like an editing mistake tbh.) but it's a book about the culture of the infosec community, so you might expect it to contain richer and subtler ideas than the evening news.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Monday, 2 May 2022 19:12 (two years ago) link
best guess at the meaning of code head culture: has trimmed beard spends more time on facial hair than code uses words like gnarly wears black long sleeve t-shirtsbest case image of code head culture: writes clean code understandable by anyone and with expertise according to constraints that take into account those served and the culture itself
― youn, Monday, 2 May 2022 20:29 (two years ago) link
(deeply regret the implicit assumption (viz. facial hair) that the term applies to males)
― youn, Monday, 2 May 2022 20:33 (two years ago) link
the culture itself meaning what counts among savants of the culture according to existing constraints
― youn, Monday, 2 May 2022 20:35 (two years ago) link
security seems to have traditionally been ranked low in the hierarchy that exists within this amorphous culture (viz. the respect shown sys admins ... I don't think the culture includes mathematicians ... )
― youn, Monday, 2 May 2022 20:47 (two years ago) link
Things I have been reading, an inconclusive list:NANA - Ai Yazawa. I don’t really read much manga in general but I loved Yazawa’s Paradise Kiss which a good friend recommended me and have been reading the back volumes of Nana on and off for a few months. (There’s a lot of it!) Two young women, both called Nana, meet and end up as housemates in Tokyo. Nana K is sensitive, flighty and vaguely ridiculous; Nana O is a tough no-nonsense type who is a talented singer who dreams of stardom. Despite this cliché beginning, the story expands and unfurls and grows. More characters, more tiny events that build the picture piece by piece. I’ve never cared for the art style much but it’s useful in illustrating the many expressions in this story. And I love her lineart and detailing. The story, of the particularly intense relationships you form in your early twenties (and particularly those with other women) is familiar and sad and I read like five chapters every time and I still leave gaps cos in the back of my mind I’m aware that it’s been on hiatus since 2009. Anyway, love this very much.The Club & People Like Her - both Ellery LloydFrom time to time I like to read some trash, ok, basically most of the time. These two novels are both by the same husband and wife couple and one is about a thinly veiled Soho House murder mystery (I loved this a lot and read it all in an evening) and the other is the story of an influencer with a murderous stalker. The characters are sketched - this is very much plot driven work from start to finish - but that’s fine, and I found them both very easy to read and a good palate cleanser. Strongly recommend for travel reading. Red as Blood - Tanith LeeI’ve read these before but they are still fantastic reading - Lee’s retelling of classic fairy tales across the ages and genres is great and can always snap me out of any lull. Like all the good retellings, Lee leans on the creepiest elements of the original stories - the Pied Piper taking all the children, princesses being dispatched to new lands with their husbands that they barely know, what it means to sleep for a century. Anyway, strongly recommend this collection as always, the reissued cover is fucking appalling and gives you zero indication of the quality of the stories.
― gyac, Monday, 2 May 2022 21:11 (two years ago) link
Cool, can always use more variety around here, and thanks for reminder for me to check Tanith Lee---btw, was thinking that the xpost Brad Watson novel Miss Jane is a happy example of male author writing from POV of female central character (also does some of that with other characters, including men), good for your thread about that.
xpost "testosterone fueled", which does not mean male-dominated in common usage and seems like an editing mistake tbh.) Seems like it pretty much is assumed to mean that, at least in American common usage.
― dow, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 00:17 (two years ago) link
I love Nana also. What I know about manga you could write out twice on the back of a postage stamp but Martin Skidmore wrote about it here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/wedge/2010/02/comics-a-beginners-guide-girls-comics/ and I bought in. The hiatus hadn’t lasted long when I was ripping through it, I had every expectation of new issues emerging :(I miss Martin Skidmore too. Quite often things crop up I wish I could ask him about. Information I can get elsewhere but I miss his taste and the pleasure of having him tell me about stuff.
― Tim, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 06:24 (two years ago) link
Oh Tim, thank you for this link, and I love that you love it also. I never knew MS but he seemed a nice sort from what everyone says about him.
― gyac, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 06:38 (two years ago) link
I feel as if I could happily watch them together in their flat, at the table in the bay window, forever.
― gyac, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 06:41 (two years ago) link
Go Went Gone, Jenny Erpenbeck. Not sure where it's going but already feel gently scolded for my comfortable life.
― buffalo tomozzarella (ledge), Tuesday, 3 May 2022 12:55 (two years ago) link
I don't know much about manga either -- this podcast has been fun to dip into and is relatively podcast-banter-free: https://www.mangasplaining.com.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:24 (two years ago) link
Ah, I listened to the episode on there about Helter Skelter, and it was great! I learned a lot about it, like the fact that the nudity was hugely controversial in Japan (and some of it was technically illegal, being uncensored where it normally would be iirc?!) It still won awards in Japan though, so that clearly didn’t matter much. I thought of this before the last ILB FAP actually beside I went to the Courthauld beforehand and was reading notes on paintings about controversial nudity - anyway, can second the recommendation based on the one episode I listened to and recommend Kyoko Okazaki always, ofc.
― gyac, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:40 (two years ago) link
I'll check that episode out!
Unrelatedly I believe one of the hosts, Chris, was the model for Wallace in Scott Pilgrim
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:46 (two years ago) link
read THE CARTOGRAPHERS by peng shepherd. fucking awful
its central conceit, which apparently some reviewer called 'borgesian', is obvious and trite. every plot point is both telegraphed and then beaten into the ground just in case we missed it. the characters act in completely absurd ways and the plot ultimately makes no sense
worst novel i've read in years, which is the kind of shit that happens when one is up all night
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:48 (two years ago) link
Chip Zdarsky on this episode illustrates Sex Criminals, which I really like (and am behind on). I really enjoyed listening to him talk about the art.
― gyac, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:48 (two years ago) link
mookieproof have u considered reading nhl fic josei manga
― gyac, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 14:50 (two years ago) link
I couldn't help wanting to read a sample of The Cartographer's after your post, and it definitely has a touch of the Lanchester about it
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 3 May 2022 15:37 (two years ago) link
― horseshoe, Monday, May 2, 2022 2:40 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
i picked it up in no small part because of your touting it in these threads, so thank you.
― the cat needs to start paying for its own cbd (map), Tuesday, 3 May 2022 17:21 (two years ago) link
paul takes the form of a mortal girl by andrea lawlor
have any of y'all read this? it's a fucking delight. highly recommended if you've ever been gay in college
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 15:09 (two years ago) link
Finished Morselli’s Dissipatio HG. Glad to have read it, tho somewhat unsatisfied with it— I felt like the lushness of the narrator’s interior landscape was occasionally cracked by his reverence and love for the natural world, but the descriptions of the latter felt piddling in spite of his abstracted, almost anarcho-primitivist reactionary belief system.One thing that was interesting for me was that the style of interior monologue reminded me a bit of Christa Wolf’s work, particularly in Accident and No Place on Earth.Not sure what’s next, have a few different options, but might go with another novel— not sure why I’m feeling novels this spring, but I am.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 16:46 (two years ago) link
One thing I remark about Asimov's FOUNDATION & EMPIRE: I hazarded, on no evidence, that future work might just contain some women characters, and indeed this one does - a woman called Bayta, who has a degree of strength and independence* though is still sometimes referred to as focusing on 'fripperies' like serving dinner while a war's on.
*these may sound like poor criteria for judging women characters but I remind the reader that vol 1 only contained one woman character, a surly wife, who appeared twice in 230pp.
Leaving aside the above point, I'm not sure I'm enjoying this volume as much as the first, because of the way the plot has turned halfway through towards yet another war, this time with a seemingly indestructible foe. But 50pp to go.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 19:03 (two years ago) link
Will Sergeant Bunnyman Just read the first couple of chapters so he's still a young child i think. He's gone to school and things but not got much further than that. I just listened to his appearance on Curious Creatures the podcast done by Lol Tolhurst and Budgie which seems to be a good one.
The music of Africa J. H. Kwabena Nketia,not really started this yet but got it from the library yesterday. 1974 book on African music and its history. Should be good, I think i had it recommended or at least cited by Paul Gilroy.
Soldaten Sonke Neitzeld and harald WelzerJust been reading some tales told by captured Luftwaffe pilots about how they enjoyed shooting bullets at people . & targeting ships and things. The writers/editors have compared their descriptions as analogous to video game players. With a similar level of dismissal of collateral damage, like it has no effect on them and is actually something they enjoy doing. I think this book probably gets a lot more scary, examples given in the introduction would certainly suggest so.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 4 May 2022 19:39 (two years ago) link