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Bonaventure posted:Here, Shattuck gets into the problem of the Marquis de Sade, examining with convincing argument the way that various notorious sexual predators have by their own admission admired and imitated his works, and questioning the degree to which the literary establishment ought to champion the works of de Sade and hold him up as for lack of a better term a 'canonical' author. Citing studies that suggest a causal link between the depiction or advocacy of sexualized violence and the enactment of sexualized violence (he notes other studies that establish no link between the depiction and acts of mere violence without a sexual element), he suggests that the literary establishment has done society a great wrong by elevating de Sade from the rubbish heap and saying to the public at large: "here is an important thinker, you should read him." He compares de Sade to healthier depictions of sexuality and romance to contrast them and to say that 'pornography' is not itself problematic, but rather de Sade's anti-social valorization of crime and of sexual violence. He advocates rather than either continuing to lionize de Sade or on the other hand burning all of de Sade's works, that material of this nature should be regulated in a way like cigarettes: not given to minors and with warning that consuming it might cause deleterious effects. unironically bring back the index librorum prohibitorum
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Jan 30, 2019 23:38
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Paul IV did nothing wrong
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Jan 31, 2019 00:49
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Just finished ICOS (In the Company of Shadows). An incredible dark assasin/dystopian series. Super loving long though as it was originally a web series so not polished in the slightest. Bonus tho: it is all free online. Absolutely recommend.
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Jan 31, 2019 08:31
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I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist (author of Let Me In) - This book is awful. Absolutely awful. I read the entire thing and now realize I should have stopped half way through and given up. The premise is was interesting, a group of vacationers stuck on a weird plain of existence not know how they got there or how to escape. The author took this premise and turned it into a very 1 dimension story. The characters were 1 dimensional. The story turned out to be non-nonsensical about half way through, and the ending sucked hard. Apparently this is book 1 in a planned trilogy and I hope someone far braver than I reads them and writes a wiki article on the series so I can read that and ignore this slog. Apparently after some research the 2 other books in the trilogy are out in Sweden. I hope for everyone's sake no one translates them to English. So the 2nd book in the series is a prequel to this book, which explains a tiny bit more, and the 3rd book is a crime novel. SO yeah, no thank you. Flaggy fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 13:52
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Flaggy posted:I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist (author of Let Me In) - This book is awful. Absolutely awful. I read the entire thing and now realize I should have stopped half way through and given up. I just (almost) finished Harbor by Lindqvist and had the same experience. It was insanely boring with a few interesting and cool ideas very few and far between. I threw in the towel with around 50 pages left.
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Feb 2, 2019 19:07
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Just finished The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan. Really great read. The story is written from the perspective of an insane narrator who questions her own memories of a couple of encounters with the mysterious Eva Canning, one a mermaid one a wolf. If this doesn't sound like it makes sense truest me by the end it will. Excellent stuff.
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Feb 2, 2019 23:40
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remigious posted:I just (almost) finished Harbor by Lindqvist and had the same experience. It was insanely boring with a few interesting and cool ideas very few and far between. I threw in the towel with around 50 pages left. Let the Right One In was the only decent thing he wrote. I also read Harbor, Little Star and the zombie one (I forget the title).
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Feb 3, 2019 03:54
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let the right one in, the book about the castrato vampire child and his pedophile Renfield, is garbage
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Feb 3, 2019 03:57
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chernobyl kinsman posted:let the right one in, the book about the castrato vampire child and his pedophile Renfield, is garbage I have tried multiple times to read it and I just can't, I don't even get that far in the book but it just feels so... bleh to me. Nothing about the book really grabs me.
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Feb 4, 2019 19:38
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Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky I liked it, and it had a dark, comic tone that I wasn't expecting.
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Feb 4, 2019 22:34
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Esmé Weijun Wang - The Collected Schizophrenias. A good read, mixing the personal with the societal. It's a little unbalanced in that it never addresses either fully, or to a functionally complete (in my understanding) way. One nice aspect of it was the essays start at the societal and external then move inwards to ever deeper understandings, all the while plucking bits and pieces from the opposing (internal/external) viewpoint and juxtaposing them. It ends with Wang talking about how she has found meaning in her illness, although it's still an ongoing, chronic illness. There's a lot to be found there as simply informative, and a lot that sheds light on personal struggles. I've read a few reviews that says it's not as horrific as it could be. I'd agree with that to a certain extant. It starts out with the words, "Schizophrenia terrifies," and I guess in a way that's giving the reader an imperative to fully realise it themselves rather than forcing them to do so. Although the science of the illness is mixed throughout, it's either high level readily established science (DSM definitions) or necessarily missing the contestation of science over what schizophrenia is in favour of one or other personal meaning. There's also a very telling essay on appearance, and how she tries to look well put together and fashionable so as to defy the expectations of her illness (appearing not-typically-schizophrenic is a constant theme.) This seems to echo from throughout the essays, where she doesn't fully write into the enveloping of the illness (as others pointed out with regards to the horrific) as though she's attempting to maintain her appearances in writing as well. I think there's a point to that, and again it's asking something of the reader. Whether others will find this meaning I don't know. It's a short read, that I could through in about five or so hours. Worth a go, and illuminating if you treat its implications seriously. Edit: It's about the various forms of schizophrenia, in case the name doesn't give it away. Mrenda fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Feb 5, 2019 |
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Feb 5, 2019 19:29
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A Finnish translation of The Phantom of the Temple by Robert van Gulik. I mostly read crime novels and van Gulik is one of my favourites because he doesn't gently caress about much. It's basically a police procedural set in ancient China, with illustrations by the author. Very easy to read although I wouldn't be surprised if most people found it a bit too dry.
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Feb 5, 2019 21:37
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I just finished Neoliberalism's Demons by Adam Kotsko. In it the author uses political theology (which he defines as the study of how societies justify themselves) to explain Neoliberalism and the situation we find ourselves in, making some very interesting observations about the similarity between the moral justifications for Neoliberalism and Christian attempts to resolve the problem of evil, among other things.
Grevling fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Feb 7, 2019 |
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Feb 7, 2019 04:50
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Just finished The Brothers Karamazov. Holy moley that first half was filler. Reminded me of Les Mis where you could just rip the first hundred pages out because its about how much of a priest the priest is. Interesting theological and moral book, without being too edgelord or godbothery. Well balanced, just wish he fleshed out the brothers a bit more, though I think they were supposed to be blank slate epitomes of different mindsets. I started it on the same night I finished Anna K and had been mentally comparing the two. Tolstoy writes a character's life better, Dostoevsky writes their personality into the book better. Like you could pick a random page and start reading and know who was talking. I'm setting myself a 50 books (fiction and non fiction) for 2019 challenge and just got through those two breeze blocks, I'm going to have to read a couple of pamphlets to get back on course. Dunno what the other books will be but #50 is GED, my white whale.
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Feb 8, 2019 14:52
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The Coup by John Updike About a polygamist dictator of a fictional African country. He recently overthrew a monarchy and is in the process of being overthrown by a new American backed government. The dictator is an awful person who wants his people to suffer rather then risk allowing another culture into his country. Of course, the Americans aren't good either. This sounds like a good concept, but it's significantly overwritten. Long ridiculous sentences that don't accomplish anything. Foreign words randomly inserted add to the slog of reading it. Most of the book focuses on his superficial relationship with his wives. When it does get political, it's eye rolling, like overhearing college students debate politics at a coffee shop.
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Feb 10, 2019 18:06
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Labyrinths by Borges. Beautifully written, dream-like short stories. Man was clearly brilliant and could he write! You go read now.
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Feb 13, 2019 04:38
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The God of Small Things. I bounced off this book really hard. I see what the author was going for with the repetitive, kind of playful writing style, but it read as very affected and obnoxious to me. The story was fine, but there was so much hinting at the horrible things to come that by the time they came I was bored. It took me two tries to get through this, and after finishing it I wish I’d given up and read books I was more interested in.
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Feb 13, 2019 08:21
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The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is one of the most personal stories I've read in years. I learned about the circumstances of Bulgakov's life right before getting into the text and I don't know how my reaction would change if I hadn't. Would I have not noticed the similarity in circumstances between the Master of the title, denied the opportunity to write what he yearns to write by the regime in charge of his government, and Bulgakov chafing under the thumb of Josef Stalin? Would I have momentarily forgotten that we come from different circumstances and rolled my eyes at the wish fulfillment of Woland and company rewarding the Master for his suffering and punishing his enemies? In the hands of a blander, more mediocre writer from a more privileged background, the things Bulgakov tries to do here would be utterly insufferable, but I like most parts of the book even if I can see the stitches between them. The imagery is striking throughout, Woland and his entourage are fun (especially Behemoth), and the scenes focusing on Ivan, the Master and/or Margarita are often poignant. However, it was hard for me to get invested in seeing the objects of scorn getting their comeuppance shortly after they're introduced and without seeing the harm they did to the Master or Soviet society firsthand, and the flashbacks to Pontius Pilate didn't do much for me, either. I was still pleased enough with the book that I'm willing to seek out other translations, because I got the Pevear and Volokhonsky one and I keep hearing about how those two aren't that good at translating.
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Feb 14, 2019 21:23
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It's such a rich novel, but it is lumpy and one's appreciation of various parts of it does depend on contextual knowledge -- for instance, as a former Christian (and a serious one) I found the Pontius Pilate segments to be incredibly moving, and part of that was informed by my knowledge of the traditions within which Bulgakov was working. Knowing only the broad outlines of Bulgakov's personal struggles and how they paralleled the Master's predicament, I found those segments less interesting, and agree that it's hard to appreciate the full poetry of the plot without having seen any of the injustices done by their persecutors. But, one of the very best novels.
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Feb 15, 2019 19:00
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I don't think you need any context per se to appreciate how bureaucreats and theatre directors getting owned by the devil is amusing
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Feb 15, 2019 21:38
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Ras Het posted:I don't think you need any context per se to appreciate how bureaucreats and theatre directors getting owned by the devil is amusing Smythe is some sort of theatre director so I agree.
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Feb 15, 2019 21:41
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Nagash The Sorceror by Mike Lee. A Vanilla Warhammer story about a murderous priest who becomes a murderous king via necromancy and sheer loving evil. If you mixed Dungeons and Dragons, Ancient Egypt and Friday the 13th into a novel, this would probably appear.
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Feb 16, 2019 02:19
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A $4 used copy of How to Mutate & Take Over the World: an Exploded Post-Novel by R. U. Sirius & St. Jude (early computer culture people behind Mondo 2000). Published in 1997, it was supposedly about the events of 2000+ where the author's IRL band was more influential and groundbreaking than the Wyld Stallyns of Bill & Ted movies. It was a very awkward book, full of late 1980s-mid 1990s drugs and computers references that were niche at best when the book was published. The most interesting thing about the book for me was the design layout, the two-tone printing (purple ink) used for meta-plot running gags, and usage of email signature headers to help the reader discriminate which author was writing what at any point in the book. Overall I want my $4 back, but the interesting design layout was worth seeing if you stumble across a copy of this book.
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Feb 16, 2019 04:56
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Grevling posted:I just finished Neoliberalism's Demons by Adam Kotsko. In it the author uses political theology (which he defines as the study of how societies justify themselves) to explain Neoliberalism and the situation we find ourselves in, making some very interesting observations about the similarity between the moral justifications for Neoliberalism and Christian attempts to resolve the problem of evil, among other things. that sounds interesting. I've recently heard of the concept of political theology in the context of byzantine history, however as far as I can tell it has never received widespread or popular interest. Would you recommend the book?
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Feb 17, 2019 06:29
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A Finnish translation of Stallion Gate by Martin Cruz Smith. If it were a motion picture, it would be a pretty intense thriller, but it's not so I don't know what it is. The Finnish title pretty much gives away the setting (a lot of other translations seem to be called Los Alamos as well), and the protagonist is a native American soldier hired to drive Oppenheimer around as well as spy on him. He also fucks a lot and boxes a bit. I thought he'd get owned by the Demon Core after causing a criticality, but whether he did or not isn't part of the story. I wish Smith's editor had told him no-one gives a poo poo about what kinds of flowers and trees and bushes were around during any given scene, which is one of the reasons it would've worked much better as a movie script. The disjointed (at chapter level) narrative is another. I don't even know if I liked the book or not. 
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Feb 17, 2019 06:45
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Kim Newman's The Hound of the D'Urbervilles Bad fanfiction about how Colonel Moran came to work for Professor Moriarty, and their adventures (which naturally parallel Watson and Holmes stories, except when they "parody" other well known 19th century adventure plots). This fails (and barely even tries) to be a parody of Sherlock Holmes as such. It doesn't even mention Holmes for most of the book. I genuinely expected the premise to be that Moriarty was actually manipulating events behind the scenes of all Holmes stories, which... I don't know how that would have been interesting, but any coherent premise would have been an improvement. The book makes token overtures towards and attempts to say something about society / race / class issues in Victorian England, but... well, it doesn't actually have any concrete point to aim towards (Moran and Moriarty as anarchist revolutionaries would have been pretty tight). And it's not even a good action adventure, which is the lowest bar imaginable and the only thing half the stories are aiming towards. Last but not least - there's a lot of really tedious "banter" written by a person absolutely convinced their complete waste of ink is comedy gold that would put Oscar Wilde to shame. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 16:06 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 16:04
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Squalid posted:that sounds interesting. I've recently heard of the concept of political theology in the context of byzantine history, however as far as I can tell it has never received widespread or popular interest. Would you recommend the book? I certainly do, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't have the book with me now but Kotsko mentions other theological treatments of neoliberalism that he flips on their head, from calling neoliberalism something demonic to saying it makes demons out of people to justify its internal problems. I also think his analysis of the current political climate is good. It's short too, so it can be finished in a couple of sittings.
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Feb 17, 2019 20:22
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Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett. A short short story collection that slowly builds the setting of a small New England town taken over by mysterious grey men, goats, a leech cult, all narrated by a mysterious radio station. Really creepy and vile, evocative writing. Quite a lot of fun all in all!
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Feb 19, 2019 05:23
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House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. A sort of "poor little rich girl" story about a woman who is not actually rich but is obligated to live as if she is. A very sad story. I greatly enjoyed the balance and play between Lily's continuous bad decisions and the society that demands she make them. Near the end she finally starts to accept that her life is not destined to be one of glamor, but by then it is too late; this offered plenty of reflective "what if" thinking after finishing. My only criticism is that the romance between Lily and Selden was a somewhat underdeveloped, mostly because his character was a bit thin - I did not quite understand why he was positioned at the margin of high society yet also uncritically accepted by it. "Big New York City lawyer" must have had different connotations in the 19th century than it does now.
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Feb 19, 2019 06:24
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So I just read an abridged version of the Bible that has parts of both the old testament and new testament. It's really hard book to understand not because it is complex but what is it's purpose. If you are going use it as a way of life or a self help book. It honestly teaches pretty basic stuff that any civilized person should know by now but I can see how this book could have been useful at the time it was written. If you read it s a fantasy/historical it is still actually interesting. The version I read didn't have the revelations but that is like post Christ joining god. It just predicts future possible events. This version I read was like half the regular Bible so it basically cut of the useless events but there is still a lot of anecdotes and random events that seem to have nothing to do with God or his prophets. The old testament is basically what most Atheist refer to the Abrahamic god as, he is revengeful, jealous and petty. I actually prefered the Old Testament as it is actually hilarious, many of the characters/people Joseph/Jacob/David all have actually fun stories. The new testament is basically part 2 and where we get close to the birth of Jesus and John the Baptist. Jesus part was honestly the most boring, he seemed like a genuinely nice person compared to his "father". He just goes around spreading his ideology until he gets betrayed. Honestly how you "enjoy" this book just comes down to what you want out of it. I am an atheist and I just read it so the next time I talk about Christianity I know more about the subject. Another thing is that, reading this book actually kinda makes it clear how much MEDIA the bible has actually influenced. I am sure some of the anecdotes/sayings from the Bible are stolen from previous idols/gods but it popularized them. I can now see a lot of Biblical references in other books/movies I had previously missed. I love history so it was kinda of interesting to learn about the people and lands of that era through the bible. It is pretty much a historical book even though some events definitely are very questionable.
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Feb 21, 2019 17:38
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Civilization existed longer before the Bible than it has since. It’s, at best, a derivative work.
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Feb 21, 2019 17:58
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Yeah, I'd say the historical accuracy in the Bible is questionable to say the least. Reading an abridged version of the Bible is making me grit my teeth a little. There are at least a hundred stories you're not going to get. Which version of the Bible did you read, anyway? Was it an abridged KJV? ESV? NLT? Or one of those "Stories From The Bible" anthologies?
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Feb 21, 2019 18:48
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Like are you even really reading the Bible there aren't donkey dicks and people dashing infants against the rocks?
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Feb 21, 2019 19:16
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Ben Nevis posted:Like are you even really reading the Bible there aren't donkey dicks and people dashing infants against the rocks? Oh you mean like a public library?
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Feb 21, 2019 19:27
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Ben Nevis posted:Like are you even really reading the Bible there aren't donkey dicks and people dashing infants against the rocks? Or women seducing soldiers so they can drive tent spikes into their skulls? Or an entire city of men getting circumcised for a political wedding, only for all of them to be slaughtered by the bride's brothers when they can't fight cuz their dicks hurt?
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Feb 21, 2019 19:36
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Just finished Kiln People by David Brin. It was a wild ride with a lot of great, thought-provoking material in the best traditions of speculative fiction. Also, a lot of puns about clay. Like, almost too many. Sort of fell apart at the end for me. I kind of which the villain’s schemes had been less pie-in-the-sky but it was at least in keeping with the general “science keeps pushing back the boundaries of the spiritual” motif.
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Feb 25, 2019 09:20
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Also the visuals were great. In the right hands it would make a great “Altered Carbon” style Netflix miniseries.
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Feb 25, 2019 09:23
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Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. - I liked it I guess. It is pretty by the numbers military ficition. Heinlein-esque boot camp. A Black Hawk down retelling. And a Aliens-lite finish. But do any of the interesting plot threads pay off? For example during the Black Hawk Down rip off in the middle of the book, why does the welfare city of Detroit rioters have military grade weapons and training? The POV character make it a point the let the reader know that they do and it is strange. Also the Lieutenant on the ground during the same battle seem to be willfully ignorant/unknowing that one of the potions is being overrun by 100s of rioters despite everybody wearing a super HUD that gives situational awareness to all your fellow soldiers. But he is shot and killed and the question lingers. What is the political situation on Earth? 100 millions live in welfare cites, 1,000 are killed in one riot that seem to happen monthly, it is a but a shooting ware between two USA block and China/Russia, and both blocks are colonizing the stars. I just started Book two. does it get better?
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Feb 26, 2019 01:23
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ScottyJSno posted:Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos. - I've only read book two and and I don't think the military-grade riot weapons get brought up in that book. Haven't kept up with it since.
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Feb 27, 2019 22:44
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Solitair posted:I've only read book two and and I don't think the military-grade riot weapons get brought up in that book. Haven't kept up with it since. Just finished book 2 - Lines of Departure This was a snooze fest. It could have been a bad Tom Clancy novel. All the weapons could be replaced with modern day equivalents. Nothing very Sci-Fi about shooting HARM missiles to destroy a Airport's radar. It ended with a decent cliffhanger though. Gonna give it one more book to see if Kloos is putting it together.
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Mar 1, 2019 13:52
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