The Books/Reading Thread

[CiG]

Good shit.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

is that how you feel? Turn that frown upside down baby boy.

That's the actual lyrics of the song you posted.

You can't read. Sorry, I should have been a bit more sensitive...

 

[CiG]

Why would he read the lyrics to that shitty song? Why would anybody?

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

manic knows the lyrics to that song by heart. You know, since its about him

 

[Einherjar86]

Im not familiar with those, how good are they? Im into cyberpunk/dark science fiction stuff.

Have you ever read anything by Peter Watts? His novel Blindsight is one of the darkest sf novels I've ever read.

(I'm also a huge fanboy, so I take any opportunity to plug his work)

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

Yeah, because wiggers wear tight pannts"

 

[Sophii]

Have you ever read anything by Peter Watts? His novel Blindsight is one of the darkest sf novels I've ever read.

(I'm also a huge fanboy, so I take any opportunity to plug his work)

I have not! I'll give it a read. So far the bleakest sf story Ive read is anything by Harlan Ellison.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

I have not! I'll give it a read. So far the bleakest sf story Ive read is anything by Harlan Ellison.

Harlan Ellison
Writer of the super bleak episodes of the black and white twilight zone

 

[Sophii]

Yep! He also wrote my favorite short story - I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

And sorta wrote the terminator
(It's on Harlan Ellison's Wikipedia page)

 

[Einherjar86]

I have not! I'll give it a read. So far the bleakest sf story Ive read is anything by Harlan Ellison.

In my opinion, Watts is a better writer and explores more interesting ideas than Ellison.

Ellison mostly strikes me as a misanthrope and generally pessimistic grouch who uses sci-fi concepts to enact his bleak fantasies. The premise of "I Have No Mouth" is terrifying, but it's also very paranoid. Watts's fiction works the other way, I think; that is, he discovers bleakness and pessimism within the folds of science itself--which is, to me, far more horrifying.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

Ellison mostly strikes me as a misanthrope and generally pessimistic grouch who uses sci-fi concepts to enact his bleak fantasies.

Stephen King doesn't try to write in genre x or write to entertain target x audience, he doesn't even write books to entertain the fans of his previous books
Stephen King just puts onto paper all the crazy shit that's just floating around in his head

As far as I can tell
Ellison writes the exact same way
He writes super bleak dystopian future stuff because that's what is just going on in his mind when he's not holding a conversation with someone

 

[Sophii]

Ellison and King were pretty close friends too, were they not?

I know King was influenced by Ellison with certain types of horror.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

Stephen King has mentioned multiple times that he spends way the fuck more time per day/week/month reading than other book authors

IIRC Stephen King once or twice mentioned Harlan Ellison as an author he likes
(Stephen King has also mentioned Stephanie Meyer as an author he hates)

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading the C.J. Box thriller Wolf Pack.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Just finished this. Late to the party, I know. So fucking good. Rorschach is one of my favorite characters in all of literature now.

 

[Dak]

Was taking a while to finish this due to school demands, but finally put my head down and plowed through the back half of it. Reasonably thorough coverage of 20th century continental philosophers and sociologists (plus Lacan, whatever category you want to put him into. Psychiatrist is the official label but far too generous). The sections on Sartre and Gramsci were probably the most beneficial to me in shining light on some cladistics I wasn't quite aware of. Sections on Adorno and especially Lacan provided further evidence of the emptiness of their ideas and writing.

 

[Einherjar86]

 

[viewerfromnihil]

When you're looking for something a little less, eh, polemic, I think you'd enjoy giving this a read @Dak . Slobodian has tended to quite a few overdue tasks in this book, including giving a concise, genealogically consistent, and workable definition of neoliberalism, consolidated sprawling interpretations of various schools of thought which are often mistakenly conflated, including the Austrian School, the Mont Pelerin Society, the Chicago School, etc., into the 'Geneva School,' and Slobodian puts forth a historically grounded and primary-source driven argument concerning the relationship of key Geneva School thinkers, such as Mises and Hayek, regarding the State and governance.

 

[Dak]

When you're looking for something a little less, eh, polemic, I think you'd enjoy giving this a read @Dak . Slobodian has tended to quite a few overdue tasks in this book, including giving a concise, genealogically consistent, and workable definition of neoliberalism, consolidated sprawling interpretations of various schools of thought which are often mistakenly conflated, including the Austrian School, the Mont Pelerin Society, the Chicago School, etc., into the 'Geneva School,' and Slobodian puts forth a historically grounded and primary-source driven argument concerning the relationship of key Geneva School thinkers, such as Mises and Hayek, regarding the State and governance.

Sounds interesting. It's definitely false to conflate the Austrian School and the Chicago School, with the latter being more in line with "neoliberal" economics. The Scruton book is polemical, but it was much less polemical than the title suggests. Probably most dismissive of Lacan, Badiou, and Zizek, but there's some appreciation of Gramsci related to his accomplishments and practical focus, if not the particulars of his ideas. I've read some Lacan to help my wife with her coursework and would be even less kind than Scruton (on top of complete disgust with his complete lack of ethics/morals in, but not limited to, clinical practice). On the other hand, while Zizek has written some ridiculous academic texts, he has contemporary takes that are at least worth hearing, an opinion which I don't perceive in Scruton.