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Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand. It was recommended by the goons over on the Horror thread. It's a story about two criminals who get a job transporting an alleged werewolf across Florida. It's a horror comedy, for lack of a better term. But in my experience with horror comedy, the horror is usually lightened by a tension reducing wisecrack, and violence is either so over the top you can't take it seriously and/or aimed at mindless monsters. Not so here. Strand has some outright horrific scenes in this book. The humour is never far away, but Strand has the skill to know when to let the horror stand. I really enjoyed it. And apparently this only the first book in a trilogy. Robot Wendigo fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Apr 21, 2024 |
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Apr 21, 2024 00:29
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:17 |
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Until Proven Safe: the history and future of quarantine, from the black death to the space age by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley God, I must be going soft- a lay-facing pop sci book that I mostly liked! This married authorial team pulled together a number of years of research and writing, some for the BLDGBLOG blog on architecture, to provide a well-reported and fairly detailed accounting of the history and practice of quarantine from a wide range of directions, ranging from early medieval practices to COVID responses to more exotic stuff like the steps NASA takes to try to keep our astronauts from giving the moon STDs. The timing was auspicious, since they had the chance to interview people doing global pandemic work for years and weeks before COVID hit, and still had time to significantly talk about the COVID response as well. The authors generally have the right opinions and some degree of nuance. The book criticizes the Trump COVID response and, throughout, highlights historical bigotries and injustices that intersected with the history of disease. The authors do correctly identify some (very broad) policy recommendations. A theme that emerges toward the end of the book is that the authors are unfortunately too credulous with their audiences, something that's made especially clear in interviews with public health officials pre-COVID, and with tech surveillance firms like Palantir post COVID. While the last part of the book is critical of big tech surveillance solutions to quarantine (citing Foucalt more than I'd like), there's still not really sufficient depth of discussion because so much is more poppy gee whiz here's how this worked reporting and controlled interviews with current officials. A better book would spend more time on the concrete elements of epidemiology and associated policy, but then the authors probably wouldn't have been able to tour Italian lazarettes. A good read (with a good bibliography), but not incredible. The Rape of the Mind: the psychology of thought control, menticide, and brainwashing by Joost Meerloo Goddamn it, there's gotta be one every month. This 1950s book is considered one of the original founding texts of propaganda study in the US, but there's a very good reason it's not assigned anymore; it's bullshit. Meerlo was a Dutch psychoanalyst and resistance worker who spent some time as a Nazi prisoner and played a significant role in the Nuremberg trials, making a later career around the study of interrogation and brainwashing methods used by Nazi and Soviet forces. There is almost no specific, useful information on these practices in this book, however. Writing before Popperian falsificationism really became embedded in cultural understanding of truth, Meerloo applies his understanding of freudian psychoanalysis to make broad characterizations of brainwashing and "menticide" (his term) practices, both as practiced by foreign enemies and as a threat of totalitarian control domestically, before discussing ways that individuals can be made more resistant to all brainwashing. On substance, well, there's really nothing of value here. Meerloo does have some correct opinions, even for his time- he's opposed to the McCarthy hearings, which he identifies as a source of totalitarian influence within the US, and he's broadly supportive of more personalized education, racial equality, and civil disobedience- but he's also, uh, very much of his time and movement as well. Lots of "these spies could have been identified by their defects, such as the latent homosexual tendencies caused by their neuroses" and explanations tied to "primitive cultures" and, humorously, a horrified opposition to the use of automobiles and "pushbutton society." The dude says, repeatedly, that "conversation is a lost art" due to the existence of radio! Meerloo does tap into some correct positions, like skepticism of standardized testing and concerns about the role of more passive media in reducing critical thought. However, the fact that some of his concerns are agreeable shouldn't distract from the fact that none of them are justified; Meerloo is basically repeating random midlevel observations from other sources as profound insights with no connection to anything else, which is why he can distribute them among broader psychoanalytic bullshit. As was an issue with so much of the time, most of the book is just...broad, abstract claims, repeated and without linkage to concrete evidence, boundary conditions, or any sort of specific definitional framework. What makes me frustrated isn't that the book is simply wrong, but that it's written in a way that's just infuriating to parse- a combination of the worst stereotypes of period writing. If you've ever wondered about the origins of cold war rhetorical pastiches like this one from bioshock, well, the full force of this style is on display in the book- a combination of false generalizations, deliberately vague, uncited anecdotes presented as absolute proof, repetition and abstract unrelated assertions- I actually reached out to the Linguistics thread to help identify one part of the form which they identified as abuse of the "dramatic present". I hope that y'all can help me better characterize the rest of this infuriating writing style! I've linked a pdf copy of the book above for anyone who can help me recognize what these stylistic features are called. I'm not sure what edition it is, but it's noticeably missing some material from the 2015 Martino reprint of the original 1956 edition that I have in hardcopy. Really, though, consider that a blessing. Beautiful Swimmers by William W. Warner Thank god, a book I can recommend wholeheartedly. Warner, a biologist, Smithsonian official, WW2 veteran and US Information Agency worker (who, reading between the lines, was probably an intelligence analyst during the exact period that the above Meerloo book was written!) spent years preparing this Pulitzer-winning discussion of the Chesapeake bay and its famous crabs- but in truth, this isn't a biology text. Warner gives equal time and grace to covering the history of the region, its broader ecology, and the lives and industry of the watermen who ply it for crabs, oysters, and other riches that continue to be the largest sources of seafood in the US. Warner is an incredible writer and a magnificent researcher, using his experience in the navy to comfortably integrate with and spend days out in the bay with numerous watermen of every stripe, simultaneously playing the role of anthropologist, ecologist, historian and economist with equal skill. Warner is sympathetic to his primary subjects- waterman and crab alike- but also spends the time and nuance to recognize and discuss the pollution that threatens to kill the Bay, as well as the economic forces that press down on the watermen, including the "upstream" systems of factory fishing and industry. It's a book from 1977 by a public official, so Warner doesn't go into the very severe racial dynamics of the region as much as I'd like (if he'd tried I don't think it would've ended well for him, alone in the bay with the caucasian, ah, rural, fishermen), but he does mention it in a couple paragraphs that make it very clear that as bad as the watermen have it, black inhabitants of the region are in a far worse state. In terms of format Warner weaves the narrative of several individual days out with specific interviewees, together with with well-researched profiles of the history and context of just about everything he sees during those outings. The book follows the seasons on the water, interspersed with chapters covering specific locales, issues, and practices. It's incredible the whole thing is only 300 pages for how much information it contains. It feels like less - I burned through it in a couple days, even as I separately looked up information about what happened with many of the individual locations and interviewees mentioned. This is the only nonfiction book I can think of where the writing is so good I don't mind lacking an exhaustive bibliography, but Warner tends to name his sources in-text, and has a list of recommended further reading at the end, which I think I now have to pursue. All told, this is an engaging, enjoyable, detailed, and educational read, perfect for any age. In practice, Beautiful Swimmers was one of the driving forces of the movement to clean up the Chesapeake, an ongoing and largely successful effort that more people should know about (and one which requires constant vigilance). I recommend that everyone- yes, everyone- read this book. I've linked it in openlibrary above, and now I'm going to have to add all of Warner's other writing to my list for next year. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Apr 21, 2024 |
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Apr 21, 2024 03:03
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Robot Wendigo posted:Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand. It was recommended by the goons over on the Horror thread. It's a story about two criminals who get a job transporting an alleged werewolf across Florida. It's a horror comedy, for lack of a better term. But in my experience with horror comedy, the horror is usually lightened by a tension reducing wisecrack, and violence is either so over the top you can't take it seriously and/or aimed at mindless monsters. Not so here. Strand has some outright horrific scenes in this book. The humour is never far away, but Strand has the skill to know when to let the horror stand. I had a lot of fun a few years back with his Andrew Mayhem books. I imagine they fall more action movie or comedy than horror on the scale. I think I picked up the first few of them based on the titles alone, such as: Graverobbers Wanted No Experience Necessary, and Lost Homicidal Maniac (Answers to Shirley). IIRC, whole lot of body horror and violence but not so much read between your fingers scary.
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Apr 21, 2024 04:05
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I just finished The Lord of the Rings for the first time a few weeks ago, and now currently working my way through The Silmarillion.
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Apr 22, 2024 16:44
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I got in a Gene Wolfe mood and found Nightside of the Long Sun as an audiobook. This is a book about a priest trying to save his church. It becomes a heist and then a detective story. The twist is that it takes place on a huge generation ship. However, you would absolutely only know this from the book's jacket. It doesn't seem like any of the characters are aware, at least. It's really well-written and enjoyable. I do wish the generation ship aspect was centred more, but this is a trilogy and I'm sure he gets into it at some point. There were a few great cliffhangers at the end. I enjoyed it but it seems quite aimless and a little strange. The closest thing I can think to compare is a slice of life anime. So this is like a gritty, adult, slice of life sci fi book.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:18
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It's a tetralogy and has a three book sequel series. And yes the ship aspect will become more and more important as the series progresses.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:22
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Long Sun did not have the same staying power as New Sun but was more enjoyable to actually read. Like if Gene Wolfe wrote Discworld.
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Apr 22, 2024 17:36
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The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, consisting of The Blade Itself, Before They are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings. Fantasy England/Britain is at a point where it is top heavy with useless tools while Skyrim and fantasy Ottoman Empire wade into them with their shitkicking boots firmly on. We follow three(ish) main characters - arrogant tosser rich cavalry officer guy, Skyrim survivor type with rabies and the occasional psychotic break and a dude who used to be an officer until he got captured by the Ottomans, tortured to gently caress for two years and then became a torturer himself. Also mages are fundamentally all utter wankers. I really enjoyed the books as people behave like people I have met in real life, up to and including making really dumb decisions while insisting they aren't. Book two has quite possibly the best sex scene I've ever read and holy poo poo do bad guys (and mages) love telling everyone about how loving great they are, no really smugsmug. Abercrombie seems to have kicked off a recent resurgence of GrimDark fantasy in that most of the characters are very unlikable/dislikable but still quite believable as humans. I think there's in the region of six more books to go following various minor and new characters around and some are more genre bending than just basic fantasy. I really enjoyed this intro trilogy and it's nice to have a bunch of books by the same author to get through instead of "It'll be out next year, pinky swear" type poo poo.
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Apr 22, 2024 18:31
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FreelanceSocialist posted:Just finished The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic by Sir Terry Pratchett. I am now a dozen pages into Equal Rites. This is going to consume the next few months of my life, won't it? Wrapped up Equal Rites and Mort. Equal Rites was fun, leaning more towards satire and social commentary than the previous two books. Granny and Esk were both good characters but seemed - unfinished? - in a way? Maybe he cut some material before it went to press? And there were points where the Mary Sue trope was a little flat. Minor complaints, though. Mort had an interesting concept but it just wasn't as compelling a story for me and the ending seemed like he was in a rush to tie things up. It wasn't bad, it just felt like the weakest, so far. Already seeing the jokes and call-backs and recurring characters/places and some minor improvement in his writing. So far, I think Equal Rites is my favorite. Moving on to Sourcery tonight.
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Apr 24, 2024 01:36
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy This started off a bit slow. And the prose felt cloyingly twee. Although as I read through I became less certain of the prose being an affectation of the author and more probably of the main characters, who are presented mostly as children. In the end it's an interesting story artfully told and well structured. I enjoyed the book despite my early misgivings and by all accounts Arundhati Roy seems like a cool person irl so I would recommend reading this book
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Apr 24, 2024 08:47
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Masters of Doom by David Kushner. As it turns out, I found this to be rather a heffalump of a book. It was written in 2003, about id software, the two Johns and the rise of gaming and thus is very much a slightly comedic book in some of its underlying assumptions. It keeps 'splainin' some stuff to the reader, like games and computer games and role-playing games which, in this, the age of the nerd as the centre of pop culture, is ridiculous and some of the explanations of things have not aged well. Anyway, it focuses on Johns Carmack and Romero. Similar in certain ways, complementary in others and super-opposed in yet more. John Romero got into the fame and the culture-surfing and kinda forgot to do the basic stuff for quite a while, culminating in Daikatana, a flailing fiasco of a thing. John Carmack likes to code and just is not arsed about coming across as either human or giving a gently caress about most things. I did not know Carmack was basically responsible for the birth of the modding community and is ideologically baffled and repelled by the concept of patents. Also, he sort of takes poo poo from a lot of people in the book and, indeed, the writer of the book. At the start, he is described as distant and weird and socially awkward/non-existent. Towards the end of the book, all the people around him struck me as berating him and asking him to behave in a manner contrary to his manner (which is a constant) and even the writer starts calling him a psycho. Romero wanted the good times to keep rolling and enjoyed deathmatches (Which I think he coined but I could be wrong) but sorta forgot the coding and art and y'know, the making of the product end of things. He was fairly right about gamer culture though, at least, as regards the gaming part. Anyway, as it leaves the two back in the day, Carmack is getting back into rocketry and it looks like Romero is getting his poo poo together for some phoenix metaphor. These days, Romero lives up in Galway and became an Irish citizen a few years ago. He seems to have chilled the gently caress out. Carmack works for Facebook, er, Meta designing worlds and universes, that better work properly. A really good book that I enjoyed but also of its time and weirdly dated in some respects.
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Apr 24, 2024 18:29
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Carmack is an Ayn Rand fan so I'd argue the psycho assessment is correct at least to an extent.
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Apr 24, 2024 20:43
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anilEhilated posted:Carmack is an Ayn Rand fan so I'd argue the psycho assessment is correct at least to an extent. I can see where her poo poo might appeal to him but he still strikes me as someone just saying things to people that seems to satisfy them when he just wants you to gently caress off so he can code happily.
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Apr 24, 2024 22:13
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