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That man is a God  snipe |
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Jul 1, 2021 17:34
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fart_man_69 posted:That man is a God WHERE DID HE GET THE TROUSERS CUM WELLIES?!?? |
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Jul 1, 2021 18:27
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3D Megadoodoo posted:WHERE DID HE GET THE TROUSERS CUM WELLIES?!?? That's his skin, he's like a superhero made out of boot rubber |
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Jul 1, 2021 19:26
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fart_man_69 posted:That's his skin, he's like a superhero made out of boot rubber "Trousers? Haha I'm naked right now!" |
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Jul 1, 2021 19:45
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I'm still only about halfway through the sixth Expanse book, I haven't been able to get much reading in at work where I've been keeping it. Also, got about three or four chapters of Cixin Liu's Supernova Era in while waiting for my car to get worked on last week, looking forward to finishing this book. Everything I've read by him has been great and I'm really liking how this one starts.
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Jul 1, 2021 21:41
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Nut I started that Lewontin book and so far it really appeals to me. I briefly considered doing my PhD work on early modern medical rhetoric (there are very very weird and poetic 17th century textbooks and tracts about the plague that imo have an influence on medicalized political metaphors later in the century) but I was too lazy to learn Greek and I realized that if I had to spend years reading only about the plague I'd get too depressed, and so far I'm reading along going like yeah that's a good way of thinking about it, that's really interesting. I'm pretty tired so I'm not making a ton of speedy headway but I keep thinking about this contrast Lewontin draws between how much cancer research is geared single-mindedly towards a theoretical grasp of what cancer is and how it operates, versus the very very nitty gritty and empirical methods used to actually do something about patients with cancer. That rings super true but I was still kind of shocked to consider how much it cohered in 1991 as much as in the 1660s. quote:It is not at all clear that a correct understanding of how the world works is basic to a successful manipulation of the world
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Jul 3, 2021 06:19
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quote:It is not at all clear that a correct understanding of how the world works is basic to a successful manipulation of the world iirc isn't this a point that francis bacon made that then like hundreds of years of "empiricists" went on to misunderstand? difference between what works and why it works. |
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Jul 3, 2021 08:57
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How Wonderful! posted:Nut I started that Lewontin book and so far it really appeals to me. I briefly considered doing my PhD work on early modern medical rhetoric (there are very very weird and poetic 17th century textbooks and tracts about the plague that imo have an influence on medicalized political metaphors later in the century) but I was too lazy to learn Greek and I realized that if I had to spend years reading only about the plague I'd get too depressed, and so far I'm reading along going like yeah that's a good way of thinking about it, that's really interesting. I'm pretty tired so I'm not making a ton of speedy headway but I keep thinking about this contrast Lewontin draws between how much cancer research is geared single-mindedly towards a theoretical grasp of what cancer is and how it operates, versus the very very nitty gritty and empirical methods used to actually do something about patients with cancer. I'm glad you're enjoying it! I'm a really slow reader, but I also have lived a very narrow life where I was inundated with kind of unchallenged positivism and reductionism so even his simplest assertions really hit me. The false dichotomies he points out in his work, particularly organism/environment and genetic/environment, have been really nice to read because I have kinda tried to bring them up in a relatively unlearned way in the past only to see them bounce off of peers. I've started some of his other work, which includes an essay where he lays out support for niche construction, or inheritance through the environment, and I remember years ago trying to pitch something like that to my boss who didn't buy it and doubled down on his commitment to genes genes genes. My personal favourite quote is: "It is not that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. It is the properties of the parts cannot be understood except in their context in the whole." Will never get tired of this guy making me feel dum! bad guy posted:iirc isn't this a point that francis bacon made that then like hundreds of years of "empiricists" went on to misunderstand? difference between what works and why it works. I dunno anything about Bacon but I think maybe Lewontin mentions this exact point somewhere along the line e: I'm biased because of a personal connection to a relatively targeted therapy that benefits from mechanistic work, so I will admit that I'm not as cynical as Lewontin about much of the work being done on disease, but I think the limits of such work are valuable to know and recognize while directing research nut fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Jul 3, 2021
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Jul 3, 2021 10:12
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There's a term I can't remember right now for something that sounds very tidy on the surface, but doesn't hold up well to scrutiny, and that quote sounds like one of those things. I like it, it sounds true. But I can't help thinking it's glossing over the whole development of tools, technologies, and techniques thing. |
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Jul 3, 2021 12:13
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Are there any time-travel novellas that don't feature cats and/or Adolf Hitler? |
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Jul 3, 2021 14:33
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Are there any time-travel novellas that don't feature cats and/or Adolf Hitler? It's a full novel, but The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland was a really good unconventional time travel story. There may be a cat in it though, I don't remember. |
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Jul 3, 2021 14:43
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Finger Prince posted:There's a term I can't remember right now for something that sounds very tidy on the surface, but doesn't hold up well to scrutiny, and that quote sounds like one of those things. I like it, it sounds true. But I can't help thinking it's glossing over the whole development of tools, technologies, and techniques thing. leaky abstraction?
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Jul 3, 2021 16:23
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Finger Prince posted:It's a full novel, but The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland was a really good unconventional time travel story. There may be a cat in it though, I don't remember. Seconding D.O.D.O. as a good time travel story. There's a sequel too, but I haven't read it. And if memory serves, unlike novels Stephenson writes by himself, the ending wasn't incredibly dissatisfying.
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Jul 3, 2021 19:39
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I'm not looking for new novels right now but thanks, I'll add it to my list'o'recommendations (which is like three A4 pages now  )
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Jul 3, 2021 19:44
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Oh yeah, another good time-travelesque novel is The Peripheral by William Gibson. It has a sequel too, but... Ehhh... Not as good. |
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Jul 3, 2021 19:49
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Finger Prince posted:Oh yeah, another good time-travelesque novel is The Peripheral by William Gibson. It has a sequel too, but... Ehhh... Not as good. the peripheral started strong with the weird exmil rednecks but devolved into some dumb poo poo and wrapped up too smoothly imo gibson can miss me so hard sometimes its kind of ridiculous but w/e i would prolly rec it if ur looking for an interesting twist on time travel anyway ---------------- |
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Jul 3, 2021 21:25
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Finger Prince posted:Oh yeah, another good time-travelesque novel is The Peripheral by William Gibson. It has a sequel too, but... Ehhh... Not as good. I had the opposite reaction, thought Peripheral didn't give you enough about The Jackpot while Agency at least explored that more interesting idea more thoroughly |
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Jul 4, 2021 10:01
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Dr. Yinz Ljubljana posted:I had the opposite reaction, thought Peripheral didn't give you enough about The Jackpot while Agency at least explored that more interesting idea more thoroughly What I liked about the peripheral was that nobody really had any idea what was going on, except maybe the mysterious police officer (can't remember her name). Agency removed all that mystery and everyone was just doing a job now. You even found out what the deal with the police officer is, which was cool, but also I kind of liked not knowing. |
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Jul 4, 2021 11:04
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I would like to read this but I'm sadly no longer at a point in life where I can just email an academic publisher and say "may I please have this" It looks good because it seems to go against a lot of what I've read elsewhere a bit... eg most of the scholarship I've read about the Mattachine Society in the early days is about them being quite stodgy and cautious in many ways, and more politically active members getting fed up and quitting (eg Jack Spicer or a bunch of people in the mid-century Philly milieau). I'm really interested in seeing the other side of the story and thinking it over.
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Jul 4, 2021 20:09
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How Wonderful! posted:Nut I started that Lewontin book and so far it really appeals to me. I briefly considered doing my PhD work on early modern medical rhetoric (there are very very weird and poetic 17th century textbooks and tracts about the plague that imo have an influence on medicalized political metaphors later in the century) but I was too lazy to learn Greek and I realized that if I had to spend years reading only about the plague I'd get too depressed, and so far I'm reading along going like yeah that's a good way of thinking about it, that's really interesting. I'm pretty tired so I'm not making a ton of speedy headway but I keep thinking about this contrast Lewontin draws between how much cancer research is geared single-mindedly towards a theoretical grasp of what cancer is and how it operates, versus the very very nitty gritty and empirical methods used to actually do something about patients with cancer. Richard Lewontin? Weird seeing him mentioned in YOB, I just got word that he passed away yesterday (3 days after his wife, as often happens). Sad, evolutionary biology looses another major figure.
OMGVBFLOL posted:if you have the money and the patience, you can Hello Kitty anything   Thank you deep dish peat moss! |
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Jul 5, 2021 21:06
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sorry. was stressed out & edited this out so im leaving it like this. its all good tho books good take the moon fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Jul 6, 2021 ---------------- |
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Jul 5, 2021 21:29
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rip richard lewontin, the guy i learned about from this thread |
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Jul 12, 2021 17:01
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bad guy posted:rip richard lewontin, the guy i learned about from this thread i been reading essays by him for the past two weeks and only found out about him passing a couple days after ever hearing of him in the first place. I am so mad/sad I never found him earlier. Everyone I know in science is so head-down and unquestioning of things like biological determinism or technological supremacy as the basis of "good science". I can't blame them because you are rewarded and advanced for relentlessly publishing within such confines but it sucks that the spaces to challenge anything feel so small.
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Jul 12, 2021 17:21
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I read Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoong Frazier since I'm trying to read some Lamba nominated stuff from this year. It was ok, huge bummer though. I'm reading a big huge book about Barry Goldwater now and still working on that humungous Sarah Schulman book about ACT UP. I also did unpack the three Proust books I own and started rereading Swann's Way. I started reading those newer Penguin translations back before grad school and when I got done with #3 they hadn't released anymore so I put a pin in it. And now I don't remember who anybody is.
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Jul 12, 2021 17:52
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im getting into If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler after sleeping on it for a while. it’s a little tricky to follow, but it’s a trip when it clicks. |
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Jul 13, 2021 05:16
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nitsuga posted:im getting into If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler after sleeping on it for a while. it’s a little tricky to follow, but it’s a trip when it clicks. I think it's my favourite Calvino book. Certainly in my top 20 in general. I just finished a book about the dumping of toxic waste into the sea in 1982 by a former booze-smuggler, written by the former booze-smuggler who dumped toxic waste into the sea in 1982*, while in jail. The book wasn't good and I was too young then to have any personal memory about "Toxic" Ojaranta, but I did find his defense of "well I dumped the barrels of toxic waste here but I meant to dump them in the Soviet Union's waters" rather bold, for the time. e: I did appreciate that every chapter title was a pun on a popular schlager song title. ee: Also read a Polish biography of Kopernikus, from 1972 (for his 500th birthday in 1973  ) and now I know a lot more about Kopernikus; especially the fact that he was not, in fact, burned at the stake, as I for some inexplicable reason had thought.*) Like hell, but published under his name anyway. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Jul 15, 2021
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Jul 15, 2021 01:09
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ya i love if on a winters night a traveller very fun book im having a great time reading war and peace everythings going great right now for all my favorite characters hope nothing bad happens https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
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Jul 15, 2021 18:14
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I thikn I'm gonna re-read it later (it's too hot now to read anything good). It's been like 15 years now? e: more like 20 ee: not war and peace
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Jul 15, 2021 20:00
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i’m on a reread of Ulysses after that I’m either gonna hit Trieste by Dasa Drndic or Journey by moonlight bu Antal Szerb |
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Jul 16, 2021 23:22
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war and peace ruled and then i read primeval and other times by olga tokarczuk which is s multi generational magical realist novel that felt a lot like polish 100 years of solitude but its much shorter which i think made it work less well bc the pace was too fast for there to be much gravity now im reading the rings of saturn by w g sebald and its great https://i.imgur.com/xQxnooW.png |
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Aug 19, 2021 00:04
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im reading the bone clocks rn and its a bit too much iraq and some cheap shots at various subcultures but its p chill
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Aug 19, 2021 00:20
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beer pal posted:war and peace ruled and then i read primeval and other times by olga tokarczuk which is s multi generational magical realist novel that felt a lot like polish 100 years of solitude but its much shorter which i think made it work less well bc the pace was too fast for there to be much gravity drat dude you've been reading so many stone cold classic works of genius over the past few years. what's it feel like? can you actually feel your soul expanding? |
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Aug 19, 2021 04:13
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ulvir posted:i’m on a reread of Ulysses i forget if i already posted about this but an unabridged audiobook of Finnegan's Wake was recently released. it's the first unabridged audio version and it's really good... it's still garbeldy barbeldy of course but it's wonderful to listen to even if you lose track of what's going on |
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Aug 19, 2021 04:16
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i'm reading "a commonwealth of thieves" which is about the early british settlement of australia and it's good brisk reading, very enjoyable |
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Aug 19, 2021 04:17
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This summer I did not finish In Search of Lost Time but I got pretty far. It has taken me a ton of years because I don't like the old Montcrieff translations and really liked the job Lydia Davis did on Swann's Way. Well, I still wish she'd just been allowed to do all of them because the different Penguin translators feel pretty uneven to me, but they're all definitely a lot better than what was available when I was younger. I think Proust is the pinnacle of weird creep pervo novelists, I think his obsessiveness and luridness is a billion times more persuasive and narcotic than more explicitly over-the-top people like Dennis Cooper or whoever. You sort of get roped into the narrator's mania and soon enough you too are afraid of telephones and just wandering around going Albertine Albertine... Anne Carson was right about this all along. You kind of just get stoned off his methods of looking and unpeeling things. It's too bad he has such an unfounded reputation as this very delicate, brittle novelist, because he's not, at all. I also read my friend Alice Hall's new book Universal Casket this week, wonderful.
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Aug 19, 2021 04:35
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I’ve still be on a lewontin kick but I’m wrapping up the dialectical biologist this week and I just finished post-growth living by Katie soper which was really insightful and convincing until the backhalf-ish when I think she makes too many concessions about her beliefs vs how they could be implemented (understandably, though) DFKG and beer pal convinced me to knock out the metamorphosis a couple days ago and it was totally not what I was expecting (don’t ask me how I had such different expectations when it is very obviously a story about exactly what it suggests) and that was funny and very sad—so, good! I finished capital vol 1 a week or two ago after months of working on it, which definitely overshadowed everything but I’m glad I could cram all this in while I have the time.
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Aug 19, 2021 12:44
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nut posted:
hero poo poo, i think you're first person i've ever heard of who's actually read the whole thing, i'm pretty sure even marx never read it all |
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Aug 19, 2021 13:07
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bad guy posted:hero poo poo, i think you're first person i've ever heard of who's actually read the whole thing, i'm pretty sure even marx never read it all i owe it all to david harvey and his companion guide and also the notebook I filled with "notes" (i just rewrote most of capital verbatim)
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Aug 19, 2021 13:11
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the David Harvey guides are so good, did you watch the lectures too?
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Aug 20, 2021 04:37
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How Wonderful! posted:the David Harvey guides are so good, did you watch the lectures too? I tried watching some before I got anything, but I just have a hard time absorbing anything from video compared to writing where my slow mind can reread the same paragraph multiple times! Though, maybe now that I'm on the other side, it would be a lot easier to watch.... The guides were so great that I hope I can read some of his own work later on, too!
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Aug 20, 2021 11:05
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