Now Reading

I finished under the dome. flew through it. king said he was trying to write a full paced book and it sure was. not entirely satisfying but very enjoyable and hard to put down

in my head barbie looked like this:

but in the tv show he looks like this apparentely:

harumpf

Currently enjoying The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee by Stewart Lee Allen. Sort of a sarcasticlly told travelogue, it's a refreshingly light and breezy read by comparison as I'm also reading Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. I'm taking reflective notes on just about every line, otherwise it too easily goes in one eye and out the other. It's worth all the extra effort though, I think I'll apply this technique to Kant's Critique of Judgement next.. if I ever finish this one... ;)

Watmm Book Club anyone?

  On 7/19/2013 at 7:42 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

 

  On 7/8/2013 at 7:53 PM, hello spiral said:

^^funnily enough, Finally finished The Tin Drum and now reading:

 

 

loved this.was my first vonnegut. after i went through all his books i went back to reread it and it didnt manage to hold my attention.

 

I'm still having trouble actually starting this, I blame the recent acquisition of an iphone.

I usually get at least 3 hours reading time a day. an hour to and from work and my lunch break, but my commutes are now spent playing with my new toy.

I may just reread American Psycho for the umpteenth time.

  On 7/22/2013 at 8:03 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Watmm Book Club anyone?

Depending what types of books and such, I'd be down. I'm getting a little experience with this one, and it's enjoyable getting other people's perspectives.

  On 7/22/2013 at 8:03 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

  On 7/23/2013 at 6:01 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 7/14/2013 at 3:48 PM, Sprillian said:

What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

 

"breakfast of champions", eh? I do like a good arse in the morn, oh aye.

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 5:37 AM, baph said:

 

  On 7/22/2013 at 8:03 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

 

 

as much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as too much Dick.

 

I'd be in for a Watmm bookclub. Anyways, starting Blood Meridian by Cormac, library's only letting me have it for 20 days and im busy all the time with work and school so im trying to find time to get through it by the return date

  On 7/23/2013 at 6:01 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 7/14/2013 at 3:48 PM, Sprillian said:

What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

 

"breakfast of champions", eh? I do like a good arse in the morn, oh aye.

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 5:37 AM, baph said:

 

  On 7/22/2013 at 8:03 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

 

 

as much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as too much Dick.

 

On page 744 of the Exegesis..

Recently finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway, Flow My Tears... by Dick, Human Knowledge by Russell, Dune by Herbert, Ubik by Dick, The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguru.

Now reading The Evolution of Logic by Hart, (revisiting) Foundation and Empire by Asimov, and various epistemology articles (for work).

Undoubtably. The singularity is no joke even if it doesn't happen the way k says it will.

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

You can read it here if you like.

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

  On 7/23/2013 at 9:24 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

YES

Baudrillard is the man. Check out Passwords if you're interested in more, it outlines a lot of his key concepts - i don't always follow what he's saying but he is phwao

  On 7/24/2013 at 8:30 AM, verticalhold said:

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 9:24 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

YES

 

Baudrillard is the man. Check out Passwords if you're interested in more, it outlines a lot of his key concepts - i don't always follow what he's saying but he is phwao

 

Yeah, he sort of goes on tangents with obscure analogies sometimes. I also think the translations might be a bit odd. Definitely one of those books that it helps to be next to a computer to reference things. It is rewarding to read nonetheless. I think I still like more straight forward stuff like Nietzsche and Thoreau, but only time will tell.

  On 7/23/2013 at 9:06 PM, VIII said:

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 8:01 PM, apriorion said:

Recently finished reading The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway, Flow My Tears... by Dick, Human Knowledge by Russell, Dune by Herbert, Ubik by Dick, The Problems of Philosophy by Russell, A Clockwork Orange by Burgess, and Never Let Me Go by Ishiguru.

 

Now reading The Evolution of Logic by Hart, (revisiting) Foundation and Empire by Asimov, and various epistemology articles (for work).

I think with so much surveillance data being gathered and stored by the world governments, they will eventually be able to use it to predict the future like in Asimov's psychohistory concept

 

Yeah, I've been thinking that the notion of psychohistory isn't so far fetched after all. The last time I read this trilogy was about 18 years ago, and when I read it then, I thought the idea was implausible: that someone could mathematically calculate the deterministic behavior of the group without predicting any individual's behavior. I guess that's somewhat different than using our online and telephone data, since that is building off of the behavior of individuals. But something like psychohistory seems possible.

  On 7/24/2013 at 8:44 AM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

 

  On 7/24/2013 at 8:30 AM, verticalhold said:

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 9:24 PM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

Simulacra and Simulation. Seems to have a lot of interesting thoughts. I will probably read it twice to feel satisfied with it. I picked it up, because SR4 referenced Baudrillard in the Zimmerman thread.

 

You can read it here if you like.

 

https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf

YES

 

Baudrillard is the man. Check out Passwords if you're interested in more, it outlines a lot of his key concepts - i don't always follow what he's saying but he is phwao

 

 

Yeah, he sort of goes on tangents with obscure analogies sometimes. I also think the translations might be a bit odd. Definitely one of those books that it helps to be next to a computer to reference things. It is rewarding to read nonetheless. I think I still like more straight forward stuff like Nietzsche and Thoreau, but only time will tell.

 

That book is... is nice to read, and as you say full of interesting thoughts, but it is quite horrible at the same time. It's essentially everything that's bad about Guy Debord and then some. I liked the text about the Beaubourg building, though... I don't know, I always enjoy reading Baudrillard but I'm too much of a left wing loony not to want to punch him in the face (especially when he was alive). That he was telling people to give up, that "history was over", that we should wait until hyperreality "implodes", talking about "the garbagebin of history" (a phrase coined by Marxists in a very different context, by the way), in the time of a not-hyperreal-at-all Thatcherism and Reaganomics, or of a not-hyperreal-at-all dissolution of the French left wing into bland Miterrandism, is simply disgusting. Basically I think he was sort of clever pointing at various cultural phenomena of our times (what he would have termed "ideology" before he went postmodern...), but not a fan of his conclusions nor his non-politics. And his later stuff on perversity and seduction I don't give a shit about.

If you're interested in postmodernism, what it is, where it comes from and most of all what it does, I'd check Fred Jameson's "Postmodernism" out - a bit heavy at times, but definitely worth it, plus for all his cultural criticism he genuinely is interested in postmodernist forms of culture.

I'm reading Freud at the time, taking notes on narcissism. Today I'll read some David Harvey too, I think.

The Martian Chronicles - Bradbury

Just finished Gombrich' A Little History of the World. It was a fun roller-coaster. I'll be starting Invisible Cities by Calvino next.

Just finished Slaughterhouse Five. Didn't like it.

  On 7/26/2013 at 8:06 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

Just finished Slaughterhouse Five. Didn't like it.

finally got to reading gravity's rainbow. long sentences, long sentences, long, sentences, long sentences, rattling off some things, the sentences they are long.

cool so far I guess

Stick with it. One of those books that I'm really glad I persevered with.

just tried to read sirens of titan. vonnegut is the most overrated writer i know of besides philip k dick, and at least pkd has worthwhile ideas. can't stand vonnegut's style, that grandfatherly tone, he's really quite terrible.

  On 7/28/2013 at 9:29 PM, zaphod said:

just tried to read sirens of titan. vonnegut is the most overrated writer i know of besides philip k dick, and at least pkd has worthwhile ideas. can't stand vonnegut's style, that grandfatherly tone, he's really quite terrible.

Yeah, and did a semicolon rape his mother or something?

  On 7/23/2013 at 6:01 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 7/14/2013 at 3:48 PM, Sprillian said:

What's not to love in a book that has an author's illustration of an arsehole by page five?

 

"breakfast of champions", eh? I do like a good arse in the morn, oh aye.

 

  On 7/23/2013 at 5:37 AM, baph said:

 

  On 7/22/2013 at 8:03 PM, Jimmy McMessageboard said:

Watmm Book Club anyone?

No one can withstand that much Cormac/Lovecraft/Dick. No one.

 

 

as much as I hate to admit it, there is such a thing as too much Dick.

 

i feel like this deserved at least one lol.

Again...