The Books/Reading Thread

[Slammed]

Archie has his own pet attack badger when Jughead puts his Super Jughead hat on!

 

[Einherjar86]

probably more accurate to say erikson has more of a tragic, melancholic quality, whereas bakker is more alienating (not a criticism) and, like i said, menacing.

I think that's spot on, yeah. Definitely an alienating quality to Bakker's prose/narrative.

I read most of this last month:

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I bought it after hearing Rickards interviewed about it in a podcast. I'm not as much of a conspiracy theorist as he is, and unsurprisingly much of this is over the top with conspiracy theories, but it's also a good lesson in economic and political history, and whenever I fact-checked it online I didn't see any reason to question the non-opinion parts of the book.

Highlights include examination of the Greek debt crisis in 2015, the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944, the repeal of the British Corn Laws in 1846, and the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter.

The main part I skipped over is this really academic section on complexity theory, complete with tons of formulas. I think the main point of it is to debunk equilibrium models in economics (i.e. the idea that the economy follows a stable pattern of boom-bust cycles), which I'm willing to accept without examining my assumptions with academic rigor. I'd rather lazily conclude that economics is impossible to fully explain by either mainstream or complex models, and wallow in an ideological middle ground.

Sounds fascinating. At this point, I'm convinced that the only way to understand economics is via nonlinear dynamics and chaotic systems. There's minimal rationality to the market.

 

[Dak]

 

[Phylactery]

My New Year’s resolution is to finally read those Malazan books. I’ve owned the first 3 for a few years now, but I just don’t read much anymore. I made a start on the first one, but didn’t get too far. When you have such an intense and draining career, it’s hard to do anything that requires any sort of effort in the evenings. I usually just watch shitty YouTube videos instead.

I need to sort my life out really. There’s so many albums I want to hear, TV shows I want to watch and books I want to read! I can’t do it all!

I have no idea how some of you manage to do all of the stuff that you do. Tell me your secrets.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i hardly ever read anymore either, i miss it. lots of tv i need to see too.

i’ll give you my usual warning re: erikson, the first malazan book is the weakest so don’t judge the series by it. it’s still good fun IMO, but he wrote it in bits over the course of 15 years while still honing his style, and it kinda shows.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I feel like I've watched almost every notable tv series in existence now so that really frees up a lot of time I can spend on other things. I'm going to try to read more this year also.

 

[Phylactery]

Have you watched Buffy yet?

 

[CiG]

I'm starting X-Files at some point this month.

 

[Phylactery]

Good, I fucking love the X-Files. I watched the first 2 seasons again not too long ago. Some of the episodes are not too good, usually the stand alone ones that aren’t advancing the overarching plot. Buffy suffers from a similar problem (in fact some of the episodes are downright dire). But when it’s good, it’s fucking brilliant.

 

[CiG]

Buffy really?

For some reason I have some prejudice against it, same with Angel and Supernatural.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Have you watched Buffy yet?

Nah, that's probably the biggest omission. I have no doubts that it's good but it's just so hard for me to get into episodic shows, especially when they have 20+ episode seasons and supposedly don't get great until later seasons. But I suppose I know how Buffy fans feel because one of my favorite shows, "Person of Interest", is in the same boat. It's amazing, but so hard to get people to watch in the Netflix age.

I once read a long, thoughtful essay on a forum somewhere that explicated on the themes in the sixth season of The Sopranos. The essay ended by calling the Sopranos "the second most existential TV series, after Buffy".

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Look at us, discussing TV in the books/reading thread. We're such a bunch of philistines.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i love buffy, one of those shows that's uneven but when it's on it's reeeeally on. never less than pretty fun in any case. it has plenty of season-long or multi-episode arcs btw, might not be as episodic as you think it is.

 

[CiG]

Fuck your rules, maaan.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

i love buffy, one of those shows that's uneven but when it's on it's reeeeally on. never less than pretty fun in any case. it has plenty of season-long or multi-episode arcs btw, might not be as episodic as you think it is.

I've always assumed it has arcs. Even so I just have a low tolerance for standalone episodes in any quantity. How many seasons in would you say that it gets great?

 

[Phylactery]

Yes Buffy! It’s TV canon for a reason. If you’re going to watch it then I wouldn’t recommend judging it on the first season, where the fight scenes are extremely dated and quite poor (this gets much better in season 2 and onwards). Not that it doesn’t have some good episodes (“Angel” and “Prophecy Girl” come to mind). It also has some truly dire episodes like “I, Robot, You Jane” as well.

But as I said before, when it’s good, it’s fucking brilliant. “Becoming” part 1 and 2 are some of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen. And “The Body” is one of the most harrowing things you’ll probably ever witness.

 

[CiG]

To be fair, I'm extremely behind on TV in general. I really don't know shit.

 

[no country for old wainds]

I've always assumed it has arcs. Even so I just have a low tolerance for standalone episodes in any quantity. How many seasons in would you say that it gets great?

season 1 is a typical opening season in that it's more episodic and light-hearted etc, and season 7 kinda jumped the shark for me, but everything else is generally good from what i can recall. seasons 2 and 3 have a lot of the acclaimed eps, i always had a soft spot for 6 which the critics kinda panned.

and yeah i'm the same with standalone eps, especially if it feels like a show is drifting/filling, and i think there are spells of that in buffy. they also made some of the all-time great standalone eps though.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I guess I'll have to pick it up again at some point (I've seen like 4 episodes of s01.) Though, after sitting through the first two Avengers films, it's hard to imagine Whedon at any point in his career having been involved with anything good.

 

[Phylactery]

This won’t apply to you, but when I was first watching it as a young teenager I found both Buffy and Angel attractive haha.

But yeah give it a shot. I wouldn’t say it takes a long time to get good as there are good episodes in the first season, it just becomes less uneven I guess. Season 2 and 3 have always been my favourites.

Whedon’s supposedly been involved in some other good stuff as well, but I’ve only seen Buffy and bits of Angel.