cspam book club II -- edification via obsolete mediums

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StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

nathan robinson had basically the same take

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/01/notionally-true

# ? Jan 24, 2018 06:26

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 10:49

Mycroft Holmes: Mar 26, 2010; by Azathoth

if people believed david cameron hosed a dead pigs mouth without a shred of evidence they will believe this book

# ? Jan 24, 2018 07:31

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Mycroft Holmes posted:

if people believed david cameron hosed a dead pigs mouth without a shred of evidence they will believe this book

Can I like ironically believe something because that's how I approach the Cameron pig loving

# ? Jan 24, 2018 09:58

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

https://twitter.com/belledejour_uk/status/956187596215926785

# ? Jan 25, 2018 00:34

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

SKULL.GIF posted:

https://twitter.com/belledejour_uk/status/956187596215926785

is this real and if so, where (pickles needed)

# ? Jan 25, 2018 02:58

forkboy84: Jun 13, 2012; Corgis love bread. And Puro

Mycroft Holmes posted:

if people believed david cameron hosed a dead pigs mouth without a shred of evidence they will believe this book

It's easy to believe when you understand the weird poo poo public school boys do in their little clubs.

# ? Jan 25, 2018 04:24

Neurophage: Oct 11, 2012

For something written by a very reactionary person, The War of the End of the World is extremely good so far.

# ? Jan 25, 2018 09:30

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

The Lathe of Heaven, one of my absolute favorites by Ursula K Le Guin, is only $1 today on Amazon for the ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Lathe-Heaven-Ursula-K-Guin-ebook/dp/B00JTZ95I0

quote:

In a world beset by climate instability and overpopulation, George Orr discovers that his dreams have the power to alter reality. Upon waking, the world he knew has become a strange, barely recognizable place, where only George has the clear memory of how it was before. He seeks counseling from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately understands how powerful a weapon George wields. Soon, George is a pawn in Haber�s dangerous game, where the fate of humanity grows more imperiled with every waking hour.

It owns and if any lurkers in this thread want to get in on why so many are in mourning over Le Guin's death, this is a good starting point that's also a quick and engaging read

# ? Jan 26, 2018 17:03

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Epic High Five posted:

The Lathe of Heaven, one of my absolute favorites by Ursula K Le Guin, is only $1 today on Amazon for the ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Lathe-Heaven-Ursula-K-Guin-ebook/dp/B00JTZ95I0

It owns and if any lurkers in this thread want to get in on why so many are in mourning over Le Guin's death, this is a good starting point that's also a quick and engaging read

Just grabbed this one

# ? Jan 26, 2018 20:03

Yossarian-22: Oct 26, 2014

whomupclicklike posted:

Just grabbed this one

Is the ebook file, you know, good? I own a paperwhite and I've found that some of their ebooks suck ed balls vis-à-vis formatting and whatnot

# ? Jan 26, 2018 22:50

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

finishing up Roman Blood before I start on the Le Guin stuff. I'm finding it interesting how much more I'm liking Saylor's writing in this book, compared to A Murder on the Appian Way which felt dry and matter-of-fact at many times. I floated the idea before that Saylor was churning out books (he wrote about a dozen books total in this series), but I'm also wondering if part of this isn't that Saylor was much younger when he wrote Roman Blood, and as well he also had additional time to write over the book compared to having to write it on a deadline. Anyway, here's a passage I quite liked from the chapter introducing us to a 26-year-old Cicero, who's as of yet unfamiliar with life as a pleb...

Steven Saylor, Roman Blood posted:

'You were about to tell me something of how one goes about arranging a murder in the streets of Rome. Forgive me if the question is presumptuous. I don't mean to imply that you yourself have ever offended the gods by taking part in such crimes. But they say � Hortensius says � that you happen to know more than a little about these matters. Who, how, and how much�'

I shrugged. 'If a man wants another man murdered, there's nothing so difficult about that. As I said, a word to the right man, a bit of gold passed from hand to hand, and the job is done.'

'But where does one find the right man?'

I had been forgetting how young and inexperienced he was, despite his education and wit. 'It's easier than you might think. For years the gangs have been controlling the streets of Rome after dark, and sometimes even in broad daylight.'

'But the gangs fight each other.'

"The gangs fight anyone who gets in their way.'

'Their crimes are political. They ally themselves with a particular party�'

'They have no politics, except the politics of whatever man hires them. And no loyalty, except the loyalty that money buys. Think, Cicero. Where do the gangs come from? Some of them are spawned right here in Rome, like maggots under a rock � the poor, the children of the poor, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Whole dynasties of crime, generations of villains breeding pedigrees of vice. They negotiate with one another like little nations. They intermarry like noble families. And they hire themselves out like mercenaries to whatever politician or general offers the grandest promises.'

Cicero glanced away, peering into the translucent folds of the yellow curtain, as if he could see beyond it all the human refuse of Rome. 'Where do they all come from?' he muttered.

'They grow up through the pavement,' I said, 'like weeds. Or they drift in from the countryside, refugees from war after war. Think about it: Sulla wins his war against the rebellious Italian allies and pays his soldiers in land. But to acquire that land, the defeated allies must first be uprooted. Where do they end up, except as beggars and slaves in Rome? And all for what? The countryside is devastated by war. The soldiers know nothing of farming; in a month or a year they sell their holdings to the highest bidder and head back to the city. The countryside falls into the grip of vast landholders. Small farmers struggle to compete, are defeated and dispossessed � they find their way to Rome. More and more I've seen it in my own lifetime, the gulf between the rich and poor, the smallness of the one, the vastness of the other. Rome is like a woman of fabulous wealth and beauty, draped in gold and festooned with jewels, her belly big with a foetus named Empire � and infested from head to foot by a million scampering lice.'

Cicero frowned. 'Hortensius warned me that you would talk politics.'

'Only because politics is the air we breathe � I inhale a breath, and what else could come out? It may be otherwise in other cities, but not in the Republic, and not in our lifetimes. Call it politics, call it reality. The gangs exist for a reason. No one can get rid of them. Everyone fears them. A man bent on murder would find a way to use them. He'd only be following the example of a successful politician.'

'You mean�'

'I don't mean any particular politician. They all use the gangs, or try to.'

'But you mean Sulla.'

Cicero spoke the name first. I was surprised. I was impressed. At some point the conversation had slipped out of control. It was quickly turning seditious.

'Yes,' I said 'If you insist: Sulla.' I looked away. My eyes fell on the yellow curtain. I found myself gazing at it and into it, as if in the vagueness of the shapes beyond I could make out the images of an old nightmare. 'Were you in Rome when the proscriptions began?'

Cicero nodded.

'So was I. Then you know what it was like. Each day the new list of the proscribed would be posted in the Forum. And who were always first in line to read the names? No, not anyone who might have been on the list, because they were all cowering at home, or wisely barricaded in the countryside. First in line were the gangs and their leaders � because Sulla didn't care who destroyed his enemies, or his imagined enemies, so long as they were destroyed. Show up with the head of a proscribed man slung over your shoulder, sign a receipt, and receive a bag of silver in exchange. To acquire that head, stop at nothing. Break down the doors of a citizen's house. Beat his children, rape his wife � but leave his valuables in place, for once head and body are parted, the property of a proscribed Roman becomes the property of Sulla.'

'Not exactly�'

'I misspoke, of course. I meant to say that when an enemy of the state is beheaded, his estate is confiscated and becomes property of the state � meaning that it will be auctioned at the earliest convenient date at insanely low prices to Sulla's friends.'

Even Cicero blanched at this. He concealed his agitation well, but I noticed his eyes shift for the briefest instant from side to side, as if he were wary of spies concealed among the scrolls. �You're a man of strong opinions, Gordianus. The heat loosens your tongue. But what has any of this to do with the subject at hand?'

I had to laugh. 'And what is the subject? I think I've forgotten.'

'Arranging a murder,' Cicero snapped, sounding for all the world like a teacher of oratory attempting to steer an unruly pupil back to the prescribed topic. 'A murder of purely personal motive.'

�Well, then, I'm only trying to point out how easy it is these days to find a willing assassin. And not only in the Subura. Look on any street corner � yes, even this one. I'd gladly wager that I could leave your door, walk around the block exactly once, and return with a newfound friend more than willing to murder my pleasure-loving, whoremongering, hypothetical father.'

'You go too far, Gordianus. Had you been trained in rhetoric, you'd know the limits of hyperbole.'

'I don't exaggerate. The gangs have grown that bold. It's Sulla's fault and no one else's. He made them his personal bounty hunters.

He unleashed them to run wild across Rome, like packs of wolves. Until the proscriptions officially ended last year, the gangs had almost unlimited power to hunt and kill. So they bring in the head of an innocent man, a man who's not on the list � so what? Accidents happen. Add his name to the list of the proscribed. The dead man becomes a retroactive enemy of the state. What matter if that means his family will be disinherited, his children ruined and reduced to paupers, fresh fodder for the gangs? It also means that some friend of Sulla's will acquire a new house in the city.'

Cicero looked as if a bad tooth were worrying him. He raised his hand to silence me. I raised my own hand to stave him off.

'I'm only now reaching my point. You see, it wasn't only the rich and powerful who suffered during the proscriptions, and still suffer. Once Pandora's box is opened, no one can close it. Crime becomes habit. The unthinkable becomes commonplace. You don't see it from here, where you live. This street is too narrow, too quiet. No weeds grow through the paving stones that run by your door. Oh, no doubt, in the worst of it, you had a few neighbours dragged from their homes in the middle of the night. Perhaps you have a view of the Forum from the roof and on a clear day you might have counted the new heads added to the pikes.

'But I see a different Rome, Cicero, that other Rome that Sulla has left to posterity. They say he plans to retire soon, leaving behind him a new constitution to strengthen the upper classes and put the people in their place. And what is that place, but the crime-ridden Rome that Sulla bequeaths to us? My Rome, Cicero. A Rome that breeds in shadow, that moves at night, that breathes the very air of vice without the disguises of politics or wealth. After all, that's why you've called me here, isn't it? To take you into that world, or to enter it myself and bring back to you whatever it is you're seeking. That's what I can offer you, if you're seeking the truth.'

# ? Jan 26, 2018 23:17

Finicums Wake: Mar 13, 2017; Can't post for 8 years!

only le guin I've read is left hand of darkness, but i liked it way more than most sci-fi(ish) stuff. what should I read next? I got a kindle recently, so if you wanna flood me with recs don't hold back!!

# ? Jan 26, 2018 23:23

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

Finicums Wake posted:

only le guin I've read is left hand of darkness, but i liked it way more than most sci-fi(ish) stuff. what should I read next? I got a kindle recently, so if you wanna flood me with recs don't hold back!!

The link I posted is a good place to start, it's where I did. After that I recommend The Birthday of the World - it's especially a solid read after Left Hand

Yossarian-22 posted:

Is the ebook file, you know, good? I own a paperwhite and I've found that some of their ebooks suck ed balls vis-à-vis formatting and whatnot

Tough to say, I've got an ebook version of it but I don't know if it's the amazon one. Generally if the formatting or text is bad it'll say in the reviews

# ? Jan 27, 2018 00:31

alsothere: Oct 14, 2014; Taco Defender

What are some some good nonfiction books about the Cuban revolution and post-revolution Cuba?

# ? Jan 27, 2018 02:38

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Yossarian-22 posted:

Is the ebook file, you know, good? I own a paperwhite and I've found that some of their ebooks suck ed balls vis-à-vis formatting and whatnot

I haven't opened it yet but Amazon will let you refund an ebook if the formatting sucks

# ? Jan 27, 2018 05:21

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

just mentioned it in another thread, but wanted to plug walter johnson's river of dark dreams: slavery and empire in the cotton kingdom

there's a paperback now, so i might buy it (i borrowed the hardback from the lib).

it's really illuminating as to how the government worked to prepare the land for partition, sale, and ultimately slavery , and how the South functioned as a critical component of global capitalism and industrialization. 10/10

# ? Jan 29, 2018 22:04

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

Today I finished Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy by Ann Thompson. Really in-depth and rigorously cited account of the uprising, retaking, and legal fallout, with a strong introduction adumbrating the broader social & political conditions leading up to it, and a concise epilogue detailing the racist legislative backlash in the aftermath.

Definitely recommended - my only hangup about it is that the detailed write ups on all of the subsequent court cases begins to get repetitive as a lot of evidence & testimony was used in multiple grand jury hearings, criminal trials, and civil suits. Still, it�s a serious and crisply written account of a critical historical moment.

# ? Feb 5, 2018 04:13

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Could anyone please recommend a book about the credit/financial system to me? I already read Creditocracy and I want more.

# ? Feb 5, 2018 06:37

KaptainKrunk: Feb 6, 2006

Perry Anderson writes like a loving G and knows everything so yeah read his stuff.

# ? Feb 5, 2018 06:51

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

KaptainKrunk posted:

Perry Anderson writes like a loving G and knows everything so yeah read his stuff.

Seconding this. In fact the two books I have out from the library right now I found out about through Anderson's America's Foreign Policy and its Thinkers. Highly recommend that for a clarifying survey of ideology in American foreign policy circles.

# ? Feb 5, 2018 14:49

nah: Mar 16, 2009

i'd like a good general economics book that isnt abhorrent to read

# ? Feb 5, 2018 16:35

hackbunny: Jul 22, 2007; I haven't been on SA for years but the person who gave me my previous av as a joke felt guilty for doing so and decided to get me a non-shitty av

SKULL.GIF posted:

https://twitter.com/belledejour_uk/status/956187596215926785

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and Le Guin to be revealed as a secretly terrible person like so many other sci-fi writers, but it doesn't happen

# ? Feb 5, 2018 23:53

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

hackbunny posted:

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and Le Guin to be revealed as a secretly terrible person like so many other sci-fi writers, but it doesn't happen

Fret not because she loving ruled

# ? Feb 6, 2018 00:04

Badger of Basra: Jul 26, 2007

whomupclicklike posted:

Could anyone please recommend a book about the credit/financial system to me? I already read Creditocracy and I want more.

I just finished Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink by Louis Hyman. It's pretty good but also obviously a dissertation turned into a book (lots of typos, some arguments are difficult to follow). It also has some arguments that will make CSPAM regulars roll their eyes real hard (capitalism is not inherently bad but must be sufficiently regulated). However that argument mostly comes in the foreword and the epilogue, and the middle parts are interesting history about the growth of consumer credit in the US up to the 90s.

He also wrote Borrow: The American Way of Debt which from its description sounds like it's basically the same book. I imagine since it's an actual book and not his dissertation it might be better, but who knows.

# ? Feb 6, 2018 00:24

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Badger of Basra posted:

I just finished Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink by Louis Hyman. It's pretty good but also obviously a dissertation turned into a book (lots of typos, some arguments are difficult to follow). It also has some arguments that will make CSPAM regulars roll their eyes real hard (capitalism is not inherently bad but must be sufficiently regulated). However that argument mostly comes in the foreword and the epilogue, and the middle parts are interesting history about the growth of consumer credit in the US up to the 90s.

He also wrote Borrow: The American Way of Debt which from its description sounds like it's basically the same book. I imagine since it's an actual book and not his dissertation it might be better, but who knows.

Thank you comrade

# ? Feb 6, 2018 00:46

GoluboiOgon: Aug 19, 2017; by Nyc_Tattoo

Just picked up Year of Meteors, about the election of 1860 and the political crisis that led to the US civil war.

quote:

One furious Republican ... wondered how the Chicago Republican convention could have denied the selection to "the most experienced & most competent Statesman."

As 1860 dawned and the American political system began to unravel, even seasoned journalists realized that there was no way of knowing how the race would finish, or who among the forty-two candidates would be sworn in in 1861.

# ? Feb 6, 2018 00:47

viral spiral: Sep 19, 2017; by R. Guyovich

David Harvey - Marx, Capital, and the madness of Economic Reason

# ? Feb 6, 2018 01:31

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

for an entertaining and readable insight into the salience of modern markets, I highly recommend Drinking Cheap Vodka from a Paper Bag Under a Bridge by Epic High Five

# ? Feb 6, 2018 01:32

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

hey I'm startin a book club through a Discord, a more normal sort of setup, who's in?

thinkin 250-400 page book with a 4 week timeline, everything else is flexible based on how many sign up

# ? Mar 10, 2018 03:51

SKULL.GIF: Jan 20, 2017

Epic High Five posted:

hey I'm startin a book club through a Discord, a more normal sort of setup, who's in?

thinkin 250-400 page book with a 4 week timeline, everything else is flexible based on how many sign up

What sort of books?

# ? Mar 10, 2018 20:11

Epic High Five: Jun 5, 2004

SKULL.GIF posted:

What sort of books?

Everybody is welcome to pitch an idea and we'll vote on it, probably around 9pm tonight. https://discord.gg/sZs7Jrv

# ? Mar 10, 2018 20:33

Gunshow Poophole: Sep 14, 2008; OMBUDSMAN
POSTERS LOCAL 42069; Clapping Larry

didn't realize there was a thread specifical y for this so, good

# ? Mar 12, 2018 02:04

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

I always forget to reply to the thread when I'm done with something, but I read Anarcho-syndicalism: Theory and Practice by Rudolf Rucker recently. I agree with a lot of the points made in the book, but I can't help but wonder how one might address the needs of those who do not or cannot work, like the disabled and chronically ill. My main takeaway, however, is that unions are probably the best way of immediately changing the world for the better. I never really fancied myself an anarchist before, because I didn't figure anything could get done without organization under a party, but apparently anarchy doesn't mean a lack of organization!

# ? Mar 19, 2018 01:12

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

Recently read Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Kruschev by Oscar Sanchez-Sibony. Amazing study of the constraints international political economy and trade flows placed on Soviet foreign policy, and the degree to which the Western liberal order maintained a genuinely hegemonic power in international relations.

Also finished Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World by Jeremy Friedman. It's a useful and thoughtful adumbration of the ideological fissures between the CPSU and CPC & how those were expressed in differing approaches towards the West (Peaceful Coexistence vs. no-holds-barred Anti-Imperialism) and towards the new states emerging from the anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century. Recommended.

Currently have a stack of fiction out from the library -- The Vagrants by Yiyun Li, a novel set during the Cultural Revolution; A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, recommended by a coworker; The First Wife: A Novel of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane (the first novel by a Mozambican woman ever translated into English according to Sheila Heti's glowing review in the LRB.

Also just read The Leavers by Lisa Ko on a friend's recommendation. It's mediocre. Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish covers some of the same ground (the post-9/11 anti-immigrant turn) more profoundly and in a more bitingly political tone, with more realistic dialogue.

# ? Apr 5, 2018 16:25

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

GalacticAcid posted:

Recently read [url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/red-globalization/DAE3ADBABBEF84748E9E14D4BE9C82A2]Red Globalization: The Political Economy of
Also just read The Leavers by Lisa Ko on a friend's recommendation. It's mediocre.

I also read this and I felt that it could have been better, but it was still alright for a debut novel.

# ? Apr 6, 2018 03:43

GalacticAcid: Apr 8, 2013; NEW YORK VALUES

Yeah it wasn�t terrible or anything, and the long sections from the mother�s perspective were excellent. I just thought some of the dialogue and undeveloped secondary characters gave it an out-of-place YA feel, idk.

# ? Apr 6, 2018 03:52

unbutthurtable: Dec 2, 2016; Total. Tox. Rereg.; College Slice

I read Animal farm a few years back. It has animals that talked, which was obviously wild, but don't worry it's not really a spoiler cause it starts happening right at the beginning

# ? Apr 6, 2018 04:03

StashAugustine: Mar 24, 2013; Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

uphold old major thought

# ? Apr 6, 2018 05:37

Man Musk: Jan 13, 2010

Has anyone seen the HBO series, K Street, from executive producers George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh?

# ? Apr 6, 2018 05:42

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 10:49

im on the net me boys: Feb 19, 2017; Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjhhhhhhjhhhhhhhhhjjjhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh cannabis

Book club report: Everyone agrees that "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky loving blows

# ? Apr 8, 2018 06:09

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > cspam book club II -- edification via obsolete mediums

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