The Books/Reading Thread

[Dak]

Is this serious? Why bother writing over whether men or women are "better"? And what the fuck does "better" even mean? I can't stand shit like that, especially after the mid-19th century. Unless this is Mencken somehow being satirical, of course...

In all honesty, men writing about the status of women is practically worthless. It's much more helpful to read actual women; de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, etc. I'm sure Mencken is an invaluable writer, but when it comes to the status of women and politics of feminism, I don't buy much that any man has ever had to say.

In writing about intergender relations, a man's viewpoint is every bit as worthy of consideration as a womans.

Mencken describes what he means by better. It's possible the book is satirical, either in parts or in the whole, but I imagine it is not. He refers to the majority of men as boastful, vapid creatures only good for "mental tricks" like arithmetic, or brainless brute force applications. The majority of women on the other hand, according to Mencken, had been winning the "Battle of the Sexes" for years, and it is by and large the suffragettes that were bringing women down to the banal level of the average man, out of pure spite.

I think he quite accurately predicted that the "2nd wave" of "freed" women would rebel against their hardcore feminist leadership.

 

[Einherjar86]

Those cannot be universal claims about men or women; they can only ever be historicist claims. Which is fine, but you cannot apply them unilaterally.

And what do you mean by the 2nd wave women have rebelled against their hardcore feminist leadership? Because as far as I'm concerned, the leadership comprised of women such as de Beauvoir have not been left behind.

 

[Dak]

Ill agree to call them historicist, as it appears now many dick owners don't even possess the precious little Mencken was willing to grant them.

I can't recall a specific off the top of my head, but something along the lines of not channeling feminism into a more organized movement, and foreseeing the "sexual revolution" (instead of seeing sex as giving in to men's nasty desires), etc.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

NICE.

That gets me harder than any of the tail posted in the pics thread.

Hahaha yeah. I agree.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

I've finally finished this after a month of mildly serious reading:

It was definitely the best and most engaging non-fiction work I have ever read, and the footnotes have left me with a lengthy list of books that I cannot wait to delve into after the Fall semester. I have a slightly better idea of how to approach my historiographical analysis for my honors project this semester thanks to Novick's work, but I'm still pretty nervous about the venture.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Contemporary authors read their favorite short stories and offer thoughtful commentary on what makes them work]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/podcast

 

[Dak]

Had to read Tuesdays with Morrie to write an extra credit paper. It's got some decent "common sense" content sprinkled in, but I can't believe it gets all the acclaim that it does.

 

[unknown]

I've seen that. Looked terrible. While in Portland, I stopped by Powell's City of Books. My god. It's absolutely amazing. Picked up a few things there: a couple of Paul Auster books and an Ambrose Bierce collection. Currently reading the collected prose of Auster. I love his stuff.

 

[Einherjar86]

Auster is amazing. I've had Moon Palace sitting on my shelf for over a year now; haven't gotten to it yet.

Also, I'm teaching a Bierce story for my lit class this semester: "The Damned Thing".

 

[Cronopio]

Any suggestions on others that might go along in the same line? I've got my eye on Harlan Ellison but I don't know his work enough to pick one.

At your service. Get Angry Candy. People always say Deathbird Stories is the collection, and sure, if you're gonna get two, get 'em both. But if you're only gonna get one, let it be Angry Candy. Beautiful stories. Sad stories. Gut-aching and heart-wrenching and psychedelic stories. Hell, even the introductory essay is worth the price alone. The overall theme of the collection is loss and death, which fits Ellison like a glove.

Should you require further recommendations re his shorter works, I'd recommend Strange Wine and Slippage. Ellison was at his peak late 60's through late 90's imho.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

A Novel by Roger Williams

http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/mopi1.html

 

[monoxide_child]

I made a massive book haul. Fucking 25 cents each. Why the fuck not?

wow
these specific books are all pretty bad-ass

having them all in one picture looks totally awesome

 

[monoxide_child]

 

[Einherjar86]

Have to re-read this for the class I'm teaching:

And also picked up this the other day; it's very short, psyched to start it:

 

[SaxonThunder]

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Should I read Cormac McCarthy? I absolutely love the movie No Country for Old Men, but never really bothered to read any of his work. I saw that The Road was recently added to Netflix instant, so I'll probably watch that and give it a shot. I just have a hard time caring about other genres of literature outside of the classroom when there are thousands of pages that I haven't read in Fantasy yet.

For my 19th Century British Prose course, we are reading Dicken's Modern Times, as well as the typical Carlyle, Mill, Arnold, and others. For my Augustan Satire class we start with Pope's "Rape of the Lock" and move into his mock Epic's which I am extremely excited to read (I fucking love Epic). Then we look at Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" which should be awesome as well.

Busy year for me, but should be fun.

 

[Einherjar86]

Everyone should read McCarthy. And Mike, you will find tons of references to classical mythology and Homeric epics throughout his work. At least, there are tons, and if you pay close attention you'll notice them.

Course work sounds very cool.

 

[Dak]

Have to re-read this for the class I'm teaching:

And also picked up this the other day; it's very short, psyched to start it:

Judging from covers alone they look good.

 

[unknown]

Mike: Check out Blood Meridian. It's McCarthy's most famous novel and if you're at all interested in epic and mythological tales, you'll definitely dig it as an exploration of man, morals, war and the meaning of the American West. Very epic shit.

and incredibly violent

 

[Einherjar86]

At this point, I'd say The Road is probably his most famous in that more people would claim to know it, either because of the movie or because of Oprah. But I know what Mike means, and I agree that Blood Meridian is by far his best work, and probably one of the best American novels ever written (it's my favorite American novel of the 20th century). It isn't aesthetically postmodern, despite being published in 1985; it's more like a great late modern novel that missed the boat, but so accurately and terrifying captures the explosive violence that accompanied westward expansion. And it also contains one of the greatest villains in the history of literature: the Judge is a villain on a Shakespearean level.