Welcome goonlings to the Awful Book of the Month! In this thread, we choose one work of Resources: Project Gutenberg - http://www.gutenberg.org - A database of over 17000 books available online. If you can suggest books from here, that'd be the best. SparkNotes - http://www.sparknotes.com/ - A very helpful Cliffnotes-esque site, but much better, in my opinion. If you happen to come in late and need to catch-up, you can get great character/chapter/plot summaries here. For recommendations on future material, suggestions on how to improve the club, or just a general rant, feel free to PM the moderation team. Past Books of the Month [for BOTM before 2019, refer to archives] 2019: January: Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky February: BEAR by Marian Engel March: V. by Thomas Pynchon April: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout May: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman June: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann July: The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach August: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay September: Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay October: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado November: The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett December: Moby Dick by Herman Melville 2020: January: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair February: WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin March: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini April: The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio May: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Dame Rebecca West June: The African Queen by C. S. Forester July: The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale August: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire, by Howard Pyle September: Strange Hotel, by Eimear McBride October:Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things (怪談)("Ghost Stories"), by Lafcadio Hearn November: A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) , by Matthew Hongoltz Hetling December: Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Drury Clark 2021: January: The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley Current: How to Read Donald Duck by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart Book available here (free online version): https://fadingtheaesthetic.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/33788991-how-to-read-donald.pdf Amazon: (paperback $16: https://www.amazon.com/How-to-Read-Donald-Duck/dp/0745339786/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=how+to+read+donald+duck&qid=1612221862&sr=8-1 ) About the book quote:I was in a safe house when I witnessed my book – along with hundreds of other subversive volumes – being consigned to the inquisitorial pyre. One of the reasons I had gone into hiding, besides my fervent participation in the revolutionary government that had just been overthrown, was the hatred the Donald Duck book had elicited among the new authorities of Chile and their rightwing civilian accomplices. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/05/ariel-dorfman-how-we-roasted-donald-duck-disney-agent-of-imperialism-chile-coup quote:First published in 1971, How to Read Donald Duck shocked readers by revealing how capitalist ideology operates in our most beloved cartoons. Having survived bonfires, impounding and being dumped into the ocean by the Chilean army, this controversial book is once again back on our shelves. quote:The book's thesis is that Disney comics are not only a reflection of the prevailing ideology at the time (capitalism), but that they are also aware of this, and are active agents in spreading the ideology. To do so, Disney comics use images of the everyday world: About the Author quote:Ariel Dorfman, (born May 6, 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Chilean American author and human rights activist whose plays and novels engage with the vibrant politically engaged Latin American literary tradition of Pablo Neruda and Gabriel García Márquez. Pacing Read as thou wilt is the whole of the law. Please post after you read! Please bookmark the thread to encourage discussion. References and Further Materials We will also need some Donald Duck to read! For that, I would suggest people pick up The Life and times of Scrooge McDuck, by Carl Barks and Don Rosa. If you like Ducktales, that's basically the book it all comes from. If you purchase it legally, it is available on Kindle for around $20 or for upwards of $150 if you want a hard copy, because capitalism: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F1C7SK3/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Dorfman wrote this article about writing How to Read Donald Duck, quoted above: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/05/ariel-dorfman-how-we-roasted-donald-duck-disney-agent-of-imperialism-chile-coup Suggestions for Future Months These threads aren't just for discussing the current BOTM; If you have a suggestion for next month's book, please feel free to post it in the thread below also. Generally what we're looking for in a BotM are works that have 1) accessibility -- either easy to read or easy to download a free copy of, ideally both 2) novelty -- something a significant fraction of the forum hasn't already read 3) discussability -- intellectual merit, controversiality, insight -- a book people will be able to talk about. Final Note: Thanks, and we hope everyone enjoys the book! Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Feb 2, 2021 |
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 00:41 |
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# ? Jun 4, 2024 00:01 |
quote:To locate Disney correctly in the capitalist system From the intro -- this actually does exist, it's just suppressed. quote:One of the more interesting elements to emerge from Vulture’s oral history of the Disney animated comedy “The Emperor’s New Groove” is the reminder of a nearly 20-year-old Disney documentary that’s never been released and will most likely never break out of the Disney vault. “The Sweatbox” was directed by John-Paul Davidson and Trudie Styler, wife of musician Sting. https://www.indiewire.com/2021/01/sweatbox-documentary-disney-refuses-release-1234612466/ quote:In 1997, director Roger Allers asks British singer-songwriter Sting to help write the music to a new Disney animated feature titled Kingdom of the Sun. He is intrigued with the project as is the cast and crew who all voice their love over the epic story, the songs and the quirky tone it is taking. The crew then present what they have finished so far to executive producers Thomas Schumacher and Peter Schneider in the titular sweatbox, the room where they screen their half-finished product. However, the producers are harshly dissatisfied and demand that the film be redone, though they underhandedly admit that they liked the "love song" and the "llama song". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sweatbox
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 01:25 |
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This seems like an amazing book, not the absolute crap pitched in the OP. Unless the absolute crap in question is the Disney comics, in which case, fair. Also OH NO WHY ROMAN POLANSKI??
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 01:39 |
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as a bit of expectation-setting for this one, it is (intentionally!) not super dense and deep marxist critique, for better and for worse. for better in that it's pretty approachable and name-drop averse (i had to pull some of my old "super piscou geant"s to remember some of the characters, but i didn't need to brush up on lukács or adorno or anything like that); if you're turned off by žižek's style of pop culture analysis, for instance, then hopefully this will be a better fit for you. for worse in that the analysis is not particularly groundbreaking or "paradigm shifting" or whatever; think more adbusters, tone and depth-wise.
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 02:33 |
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Seems likely I won’t get to it before the end of the month given it’s shipping from the UK, but I’ve placed an order for a copy of the book and am looking forward to this one.
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 16:28 |
Jordan7hm posted:Seems likely I won’t get to it before the end of the month given it’s shipping from the UK, but I’ve placed an order for a copy of the book and am looking forward to this one. There is a link to the free online version in the OP, so you could read that in the meanwhile. (Given that the work is explicitly communist, I doubt the authors care much about copyright). My alternative proposal was going to be that we all read "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" if we can't get copies of this, but the Life and Times now sells for $250 per volume it looks like, and that's the reprint. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Feb 2, 2021 |
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 21:02 |
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I have life and times so I may read that again while waiting for it to come. I can do comics on my iPad no issue but too much text just kills my eyes.
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# ? Feb 2, 2021 23:09 |
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Scrooge McDuck is Adam Smith, and Donald Duck is Karl Marx, and uhh... uh... Huey is Trotsky? In all seriousness, this is so far kind of an interesting artifact of a specific time and place. Like, nobody is going to read this for trenchant commentary of socio-economics but it certainly has a viewpoint.
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# ? Feb 4, 2021 15:04 |
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There's something to their contention that Disney sees childhood as both the past Eden, and also the future innocence of mankind in an idealized future. I think that some Lacan-follower could make something of that, and Walt's own miserable childhood. There's probably more that could have been plumed from Disney from a psychological criticism than a marxist one.
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# ? Feb 6, 2021 19:00 |
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We actually must become as children again to enter the kingdom of Heaven, and that means asking questions, calling out bullshit and not tolerating injustice.
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# ? Feb 7, 2021 01:32 |
Just working through the first few pages, the section about Carl Barks on page 12-13 (in the free version above) is quite interesting:quote:Over the last twe nty years Barks has become something of a cult figure which has generated a small literary industry, while his original comic books and the lithographs and paintings done since his retirement in 1967 have been eagerly sought after and bought at high prices, much In contrast with his . earlier obscurity and relative poverty. His working conditions u nder Disney make him look like a Donald Duck vis-a-vis Uncle Scrooge as Uncle Walt. The introduction to this book reads that Barks quote as resigned self-deprecation, but I find it impossible not to read it as bitterly, bitterly sarcastic. Even though they admit on the prior page that quote:There are elements of satire in Barks' work which one seeks in vain in any other corner of the world of Disney, just as Barks has elements of social realism which one seeks In vain in any other corner of the world of comics. They're already, a mere page later, unwilling to admit that perhaps Barks might not be the pure capitalist stooge that their thesis kinda requires him to be.
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# ? Feb 7, 2021 01:48 |
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They are heavily doing the litcrit thing where you make any and all quotes to fit your narrative as opposed to what is the most apparent way to read them without spin, but never explaining why the obvious meaning is untrue and you have to look deeper. “This work demonstrates greedy misers siphoning off the labor of their subordinates! Clearly the bozo who wrote it doesn’t understand what he’s doing!” E: quote:
poisonpill fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Feb 7, 2021 |
# ? Feb 7, 2021 02:08 |
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poisonpill posted:They are heavily doing the litcrit thing where you make any and all quotes to fit your narrative as opposed to what is the most apparent way to read them without spin, but never explaining why the obvious meaning is untrue and you have to look deeper. sure but "Just as the bourgeoisie conceive social problems as a marginal residue of technological problems, so they also believe that by developing the mass culture industries, they will solve the problem of people’s alienation." is "a banger" as they say i also think that their main central thrusts: 1. disney stuff is weird about families, especially mothers and fathers 2. disney stuff is weird about The Other (especially other countries and civilizations, but also other classes) 3. disney stuff is weird about work are pretty self-evidently true. like i don't think they are stretching to fit a critical theory thesis, like so many supermechagodzillas; i think the weirdness is there, and explaining it as capitalist imperialist weirdness is the most obvious and straightforward explanation (the only other obvious alternative, as you point out, is some sort of weird freudian/lacanian psychoanalytic thing, and i don't know if that is any less contrived)
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# ? Feb 7, 2021 04:38 |
poisonpill posted:They are heavily doing the litcrit thing where you make any and all quotes to fit your narrative as opposed to what is the most apparent way to read them without spin, but never explaining why the obvious meaning is untrue and you have to look deeper. The overall quality of the argument seems to be improving now that I'm out of the introduction and into the actual text by the actual authors. The substantive text seems to not so much be trying to *prove* an argument as to *posit* one, which lets it be more lighthearted and playful. Hieronymous Alloy fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Feb 7, 2021 |
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# ? Feb 7, 2021 20:52 |
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The whole issue with family is due to the fact that these are stories for children, and it wouldn't do to have your mom tell you that you can't go on that adventure because it's a school night and you need to be in bed by 10. Parents, by definition, can't be cool, while more distant family members can.
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# ? Feb 8, 2021 03:12 |
Or more fundamentally, if there are responsible parents around, they should be solving the problems, not leaving the kids alone to do it. Nd then you have no story.. But uncles can be irresponsible.
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# ? Feb 8, 2021 03:25 |
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Very interesting thesis statement here on page 73:quote:Just as money is an abstract form of the object, so adventure is an abstract form of labor. If there's an idea that they've upon which I haven't seen elsewhere, it's the way these formulas (adventure stories in general) reduce and break the connection between history and the way things are. Treasure is always gold (or diamonds, silver, etc.), the abstract store of value. The labor and craft that went into the creation of the treasure (cup, idol, coins, it doesn't matter) is basically ignored; the value of the treasure is in the gold, which is the monetary value it can be liquidated for. In a similar way, the seeking out and finding is basically broken from the actual act of labor (working a 9-5, being an artist, whatever). Adventure is a game, going halfway across the world and stealing things from an exoticized culture is a way of killing time. The bad guys also want the treasure and are bad because they're less deserving, because (according to this) they actually need and care about the money.
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# ? Feb 8, 2021 06:16 |
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Tree Goat fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Feb 20, 2021 |
# ? Feb 10, 2021 06:26 |
poisonpill posted:Very interesting thesis statement here on page 73: I haven't gotten that far into the text, but yeah, Scrooge's treasure hunting allows him to make his vast wealth without visibly exploiting any living workers. He's just *discovering* it all himself, ex nihilo, like an inventor or artist, free of any explicitly visible sin of exploitation. It lets him be the One Good Billionaire and allows the mythology of the self-made rich man to exist. Of course in practice this breaks down and he's exploiting Gyro Gearloose and the nephews and Donald left and right. How many worker's comp claims should Launchpad have filed by now? But that's ok, because it's family and friends.
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# ? Feb 10, 2021 21:44 |
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Massive Kendal Jenner Pepsi ad energy
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# ? Feb 19, 2021 19:01 |
Need nominations for next month!
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# ? Feb 23, 2021 02:10 |
https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1365213726484418561?s=20
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# ? Feb 26, 2021 09:17 |
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Points for sword-mans instead of swords-man, but minus points for being a how-to book. Treasure Island (now a major motion picture, Disney's Treasure Planet) is the classic pirate adventure that all those pirate cliches come from, so is probably not bad. Wired Love is about the transformative impact of technology and the dawn of on-line dating, probably a bit to discuss there, and Carrier Wave is a self-published horror novel? The confidence to publish it yourself instead of going through a traditional publisher can only mean good things, I'm sure. Carrier Wave.
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# ? Feb 27, 2021 02:47 |
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Treasure Island, of course. We can utilize our recently acquired close-reading skills to form a Marxist interpretation of the plot.
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# ? Feb 27, 2021 22:16 |
there's a poll! vote in the poll not here! votes here don't count!
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# ? Feb 27, 2021 22:31 |
https://twitter.com/alloy_dr/status/1366723717502533634?s=20
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# ? Mar 2, 2021 13:26 |
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Just a note that How to Read... really is a great book. I read it in college and it haunted me over years as I lost my copy and kept thinking about it, knowing that as a silly undergrad I hadn't completely digested it, or really tried. Re-read it about a year ago from a much shittier copy than https://fadingtheaesthetic.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/33788991-how-to-read-donald.pdf, will re-read again. How lucky was I to have this as assigned reading? How stupid was I to half-rear end it? Christ I wish I could take my entire liberal arts undergrad again.
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# ? Mar 2, 2021 18:52 |
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# ? Jun 4, 2024 00:01 |
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System Metternich posted:
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# ? Mar 13, 2021 12:57 |