Now Reading

i just finished jon ronson - the psychopath test. very fast read. knew most of the story already from npr/radio/etc but enjoyable all the same. ordered his other 2 books for next up

the psychopath test was excellent. one of the better books ive read in the last few years.

just getting into this-

not too far into it but so far its shaping up to be the definitive account of these sadistic weirdos..

A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

I might have to order that book zeebeezee, I love cults. Scientology is especially fucked. Elrond Flubber looks like what I suppose Cthulhu's asshole would appear like. Operation Snow White should be known about by more persons. IRS infiltration scheme carried out by Scientologists in the 70's.

  On 10/28/2011 at 10:58 PM, Atop said:

Elrond Flubber looks like what I suppose Cthulhu's asshole would appear like.

the great hole one

Isaac Asimov - Foundation and Empire. Not nearly as good as the first one, in the quality of the writing, the pacing or in general. I think I remember reading that he was younger when he wrote this one than when he wrote the first one. It's taking me forever to read it. I hate to say it, but I'll be glad when I finish it.

  On 10/28/2011 at 10:58 PM, Atop said:

I might have to order that book zeebeezee, I love cults. Scientology is especially fucked. Elrond Flubber looks like what I suppose Cthulhu's asshole would appear like. Operation Snow White should be known about by more persons. IRS infiltration scheme carried out by Scientologists in the 70's.

yeah i have an interest in cults myself, especially scientology, and threres a ton of fascinating info in this. im at the point now where hubbard has died and miscavige, through very abusive and brutal means, has taken control of the organization. good amount of info on hubbard. covers his days with jack parsons, through the publishing of dianetics, all the way up to snow white and his descent into paranoid madness. really interested to read about miscaviges reign. the things ive read prior to this about him have been incredibly disturbing/fascinating.

oooh I am sold. You should see 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'. Best film about Cult activities that I have ever seen. Beautiful/frightening stuff.

You should check 'Madame Blavatsky's Baboon' for further cult biographies. Fantastic book.

to baph: Flatulence of the Dark

about to read 'Dreams in the Witch House' by Lovecraft, and 'Neonomicon' by Alan Moore. Yay!

  On 10/28/2011 at 10:58 PM, Atop said:

I might have to order that book zeebeezee, I love cults. Scientology is especially fucked. Elrond Flubber looks like what I suppose Cthulhu's asshole would appear like. Operation Snow White should be known about by more persons. IRS infiltration scheme carried out by Scientologists in the 70's.

You read this?

If you like books about cults you'll love it.

I have not, I will though. I did read the disinfo book "Turn Off Your Mind" and loved that. *orders iain and zeebeezee's recs*

edit: here is my suggestion for you two, a broad spectrum of subjects discussed about the beginning of cult activities in America, an easy and entertaining, possibly enlightening read http://www.amazon.com/Madame-Blavatskys-Baboon-History-Spiritualism/dp/0805210245/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320095423&sr=8-1

anyone know of any good books on the Heaven's Gate cult?

been meaning to check out that process book. is that on feral house? nevermind, ill check

also, atop, 'turn off your mind' is the shit. a wealth of information. you people have good taste in books.

  On 10/31/2011 at 9:55 PM, Atop said:

anyone know of any good books on the Heaven's Gate cult?

no, but worth checking out - http://abraxas365dokumentarci.blogspot.com/2011/05/heavens-gate-definitive-story-2007.html

amazing, thanks man. Even if it sucks I am sure there will some good visuals or possible sampling to be had.

theres some decent info at the very least

bettter link - http://filetram.com/download/megaupload/video/8734963148/heaven-s-gate-the-definitive-story-2007-avi

I just finished Good Omens by Prachett and Gaiman. Awesome book. I've never read any of Prachett's stuff and now I'm tempted.

Also read Slaughterhouse 5 for the first time. I get the hype now.

  On 11/1/2011 at 1:48 AM, Z_B_Z said:

been meaning to check out that process book. is that on feral house? nevermind, ill check

Yeah, I think it is. It's a cracking book. The personal memoirs of Process members are fascinating, there's a ton of original Process material reproduced (including their weird board game, The Game of Rape) but the highlight for me was a very interesting essay from Genesis P-Orridge on the influence the Process had on the Temple ov Psychick Youth.

How Order Emerges From Chaos in SYNC: The Universe, Nature, and Daily Life, by Steven Strogatz.

Awesome.

Just ordered a couple from Amazon:

This largely on the strength of this poem, which I was first introduced to last November:

  Quote

Reasons for Refusal

 

Busy old lady, charitable tray

Of social emblems: poppies, people’s blood –

I must refuse, make you flush pink

Perplexed by abrupt No-thank-you.

Yearly I keep up this small priggishness,

Would wince worse if I wore one.

Make me feel better, fetch a white feather, do.

 

Everyone has list of dead in war,

Regrets most of them, e.g.

 

Uncle Cyril; small boy in lace and velvet

With pushing sisters muscling all around him,

And lofty brothers, whiskers and stiff collars;

The youngest was the one who copped it.

My mother showed him to me,

Neat letters high up on the cenotaph

That wedding-caked it up above the park,

And shadowed birds on Isaac Watts’ white shoulders.

 

And father’s friends, like Sandy Vincent;

Brushed sandy hair, moustache, and staring eyes.

Kitchener claimed him, but the Southern Railway

Held back my father, made him guilty.

I hated the khaki photograph,

It left a patch on the wallpaper after I took it down.

 

Others I knew stick in the mind,

And Tony Lister often –

Eyes like holes in foolscap, suffered from piles,

Day after day went sick with constipation

Until they told him he could drive a truck –

Blown up with Second Troop in Greece:

We sang all night once when we were on guard.

 

And Ken-Gee, our lance-corporal, Christian Scientist –

Everyone liked him, knew that he was good –

Had leg and arm blown off, then died.

Not all were good. Gross Corporal Rowlandson

Fell in the canal, the corrupt Sweet-water,

And rolled there like a log, drunk and drowned.

And I’ve always been glad of the death of Dick Benjamin,

A foxy urgent dainty ballroom dancer –

Found a new role in military necessity

As R.S.M. He waltzed out on parade

To make himself hated. Really hated, not an act.

He was a proper little porcelain sergeant-major –

The earliest bomb made smithereens:

Coincidence only, several have assured me.

 

In the school hall was pretty glass

Where prissy light shone through St George –

The highest holiest manhood, he!

And underneath were slain Old Boys

In tasteful lettering on whited slab –

And, each November, Ferdy the Headmaster

Reared himself squat and rolled his eyeballs upward,

Rolled the whole roll-call off an oily tongue,

Remorselessly from A to Z.

 

Of all the squirmers, Roger Frampton’s lips

Most elegantly curled, showed most disgust.

He was a pattern of accomplishments,

And joined the Party first, and left it first,

At OCTU won a prize belt, most improbable,

Was desert-killed in ’40, much too soon.

 

His name should burn right through that monument.

 

No poppy, thank you.

And this:

Which is about Tolstoy's radical form of Christian anarcho-pacifism. You can read it online if you like. It's inspirational stuff even for an atheist.

  On 11/1/2011 at 12:13 PM, Iain C said:

  On 11/1/2011 at 1:48 AM, Z_B_Z said:

been meaning to check out that process book. is that on feral house? nevermind, ill check

 

 

Yeah, I think it is. It's a cracking book. The personal memoirs of Process members are fascinating, there's a ton of original Process material reproduced (including their weird board game, The Game of Rape) but the highlight for me was a very interesting essay from Genesis P-Orridge on the influence the Process had on the Temple ov Psychick Youth.

yeah i think its time to read this.

just was on feral houses website, and this new release looks like a nice companion piece

  Quote

To follow up on the Feral House release, Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of The Process Church of The Final Judgment, written by Timothy Wyllie, here are full color reproductions of the Process Church’s notorious and rare thematic magazines, all boldly imaginative and decades ahead of their time. This edition, limited to 1,200 copies, also includes the essay, “The Gods on War,” written by the cult’s “Omega,” which reveals how the Gods Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan have vowed apocalyptic vengeance against man. An audio recording of “The Gods on War,” with Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Adam Parfrey, and Timothy Wyllie is available as a download to every book buyer. When they’ve become available, these extremely rare magazines have sold for a thousand dollars each, or more.

This oversized hardcover edition is co-published by Ajna Offensive and is limited to 1,200 copies. Audio download included.

nice, just ordered 'Lover Sex Fear Death', might have to get this if I still have a hankerin for some Process madness.

The Heaven's Gate documentary was fun and I saw so many parallels between the cult in the film 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' and the Heaven's Gate Brigade. Yay CULTS!

I would love a definitive book on the Heaven's Gate subject from Feral house or anywhere, what Applewhite was studying before he got serious and started infected people's minds with what I think he felt was the truth, the steps that led Peep to become so involved/faithful, perhaps there will be one someday, perhaps I need to write it. So many other duties first though.

it was probably 'the Morning of the Magicians', of which I learned from 'Turn Off Your Mind'. It sparked so much paranoia. I just got that one in the mail. Have been skimming through it. The book that spawned Alex Jones and Art Bell. Crazy French people.

I just finished Claus Offe's "Structural Problems of the Capitalist State" (Strukturprobleme des kapitalistischen Staates).

Now some Foucault: History of Sexuality I, The Will to Knowledge. :sup:

finished 'inside scientology'.. twas good. although i would like to see a book focused solely on the miscavige years..

currently listening to this on audiobook at work-

surprisingly intense. audiobook is the only way to go with this because of morgans tendancy to ad-lib.. and there are times when hes talking about some of the stuff that hes gone through and he'll just break down and cry. very moving, but at the same time it still has a lot of funny parts..

Imperial Bedrooms - Bret Easton Ellis

been on a bit of a content binge as of late. finished the tracy morgan audiobook. i liked it, but im glad i didnt pay for it...

going to order this:

  Quote

When the tourists empty the streets, the rats come out. When the neon turns off is when I’m on the clock. I carry a gun. I’m an alarm agent. Chinatown is another world, existing separate and distinct from the world that surrounds it. It is a city within a city, perhaps even a town within a city. Think you know or understand it - you’re wrong. Beneath its quaint facade lurks a hidden world with its own hidden history and its own hidden laws. It’s a world I inhabit on an almost nightly basis, from around midnight ‘til dawn. If you’re a businessman in the district, I’m your best friend, the only living soul keeping a watchful eye on your assets when the streets are empty but for rodents, night and fog. If you’re a lowlife trying to rip off those busi- nesses, I’m paid to stop you. My job is simple. If an alarm goes off in an establishment, I’m informed by radio and dispatched to the address. If the place appears to be secure and unmolested I call it in as a false alarm. If someone is up to no good, I take ‘em down. My tag is agent 1225, and I work for Twilight Alarm Company. This is my story.

i find boyd rice entertaining so im sure itll at least have some interesting stories. now to scrape together 15 bucks..

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami