The Books/Reading Thread

[Einherjar86]

I believe the LToV was arrived at first for the same reasons that mercantilism and "broken window" economics were first, and still pervasive today: It's so "apparent". Particularly as a nation underwent industrialism, you had swarms of relatively evenly low-skilled workers who were divided more or less by hours worked. It would be really easy in that environment, when beginning an inquiry on the value of something, to start with "well how did it come to exist", and rather than go back up the chain of contingency, merely look at the literal production. As nothing comes into being without some measure of human labor (and even raw materials require extraction), and as more valuable raw materials tended to require more labor, it would be easy to determine labor as the value basis. But, as Monsieur Bastiat informs us, there is "the seen and the unseen". Value is subjective, and production is driven by the anticipation and/or fulfillment of subjectively valued wants and needs - which, combined with the wants/needs of potential producers, assign value.

Actually, Marx was accused of plagiarizing Bastiat (a charge that he denied). In truth, Marx knows that value doesn't magically derive and subsist on its own; he's also aware of value's origins in needs/wants, which is why he comes up with the concept of exchange value (something Smith and Ricardo didn't have). However, in order to exchange something, there needs to be a form; the commodity-form, or value-form, which isn't conceptual via individual needs since all needs are different. The commodity-as-value-form derives from labor (as it appears under capitalism).

It is true, as you also point out, that this becomes the impetus for revolutionary action; but as I believe I've said in the past, I don't much care for the revolutionary side of Marx (which is what the Manifesto is, in contrast to Capital). I think Marx's primary value cool comes from his identification of the commodity-as-value-form. In order for commodities to be equalizable through currency (i.e. money), they need to possess a ubiquitous marketable value (i.e. the seller sells all copies of a product at the same price; not according to how badly a consumer needs/wants the product). It is true that different people may be willing to exchange different things (or amounts) for a specific commodity; but the commodity-as-value-form still gets tagged with a universal market price, and this price appears in the form of socially necessary labor.

Ok. If you insist. I spent the $.99 on Kindle Das Kapital

Wow.

To say this isn't a good start is an understatement.

The key word in the excerpt you just quoted is "form." Marx is interested in the commodity form as the value form of labor; or, in other words (as you already noted in your post above), in how value readily appears.

This doesn't mean that labor is necessarily the entire source of value; in fact, Marx acknowledges that it isn't (hence why he introduces the concept of exchange value). However, labor presents the form through which value appears. This form has a measurable retroactive effect on how we value commodities.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

Just finished A Dance With Dragons and holy cliffhangers. Victarion Greyjoy's last chapter literally had me laughing out loud. Definitely seems like a tribute to Howard.

Began Deadhouse Gates last night and despite having next to no clue what's going on, I can't put it down. My only complaint so far is that the dialogue and comic relief seems a little lazy in sections.

 

[tagradh]

I got some gift cards for my birthday and picked up:

And yet instead of reading any of them I'm browsing forums and ripping off DsO and Aosoth.

 

[The Ozzman]

Finished Ender's Game. Amazing.

 

[tagradh]

Finished Ender's Game. Amazing.

Have you seen the film?

I feel like one of the only people that had read and enjoyed the book and still liked the film.

 

[unknown]

Started digging into Faulkner's Snopes trilogy because I'm a glutton for punishment

 

[The Ozzman]

Have you seen the film?

I feel like one of the only people that had read and enjoyed the book and still liked the film.

I wanted to wait until I actually read the book to check it out.

 

[Huldra]

I recently picked this guy up. Most of the essays have been pretty interesting, or "pretty fucking doom metal" as one of my good friends put it.
It's been pretty good food for thought though...

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

^
Schopenhauer kind of represents my favorite kind of philosopher, the guy who does what he does more out of a desire to know and understand than for anything else. Sure he's a crotchety old bastard who insults people he doesn't agree with, and his hero-worship of Kant is only acceptable because of the way he later flays the shit out of Kant's categories, but underneath everything like that there really seems to be an honest will to understand existence. There are some problems though, such as suicide. He just kind of skirts around why suicide isn't a good idea, and keeps saying that it wouldn't really end anything, but I just can't see how that's plausible. And he seems so pessimistic it's almost funny, like a goth parody, like Ishmael in the beginning of Moby Dick -

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

Going to get into this soon

 

[Einherjar86]

I had a Schopenhauer "phase," but it didn't last long. I find him too eager to jump ship.

In other news: so freakin' exCITED!!!

EDIT: here's an excerpt from a sweet review (link below):

Echopraxia reads like some dark, twisted superhero ensemble piece, but with all the prose gravitas of a novel by Cormac McCarthy or Philip Roth. Its late twenty first century future feels at one and the same time dizzyingly outlandish and all too grimly real, exploding with high-end concepts, laced through with harsh human truths. If science fiction can really be claimed as a literature of ideas, then Watts is without doubt its premier practitioner – Echopraxia is a depleted uranium shot across the bows of complacent, by-the-numbers SF, and a bright rallying cry for the soul of the genre. Fucking awesome!

And here is my rough-cut, less-than-honed initial impression, once I’d put the finished book down and got my breath back:

Makes Blood Meridian look like Bonanza

Link: http://www.richardkmorgan.com/news/1149/if-you-only-read-one-science-fiction-novel-this-year/

 

[SentinelSlain]

I've been reading Necessary Illusions by Noam Chomsky and Ghost Wars by Steven Coll

 

[viewerfromnihil]

@Jimmy: Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is great, just make sure you pick up the unabridged version.

 

[Huldra]

^
Schopenhauer kind of represents my favorite kind of philosopher, the guy who does what he does more out of a desire to know and understand than for anything else. Sure he's a crotchety old bastard who insults people he doesn't agree with, and his hero-worship of Kant is only acceptable because of the way he later flays the shit out of Kant's categories, but underneath everything like that there really seems to be an honest will to understand existence. There are some problems though, such as suicide. He just kind of skirts around why suicide isn't a good idea, and keeps saying that it wouldn't really end anything, but I just can't see how that's plausible. And he seems so pessimistic it's almost funny, like a goth parody, like Ishmael in the beginning of Moby Dick -

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

Going to get into this soon

Yeah, I didn't really enjoy the essay on suicide either and I felt like I waiting for him to get to the actual point half of the time and as a result it kind of bored me.
I agree with your comment about the type of philosopher he is though. It makes it a little more relatable because we're all essentially going through life trying to understand all the fucking shit in it and I'd rather read someone who's also genuinely trying to understand it as well rather than have "truths" or something tossed at me. Also the pessimism of his work tends to make me see the silver lining of some of the subjects he writes about.

Also been re-digging into this guy too as he tends to be my go to when shit hits the fan. Albeit, he can be a bit too sexist for my tastes at times, but I always enjoy reading his work.
I'm a sucker for pessimists, but somehow their works tend to put me at ease when I feel like my mind is going to explode.

 

[SentinelSlain]

I also bought some used books that looked interesting that I couldn't find on the internet.

Ian Smith - The Great Betrayal
Paul Moorcraft and Peter McLaughlin - The Rhodesian War, A Military History
Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt - Ethology, The Biology of Behaviour
Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt- Love & Hate
L. Langer - The Mind of Adolf Hitler
Begin, Menachem - The Revolt
Henry Garret - Great Experiments in Psychology


I have to say, I tend to feel that I'm wasting time when I'm reading fiction. It's a bit sad. I think I'll dedicate a few full years of reading to reading classic works of fiction at some point.

 

[Nephilim96]

Picked up two books today: The Birth of Tragedy, and a big composition book which features about 20 Lovecraft stories.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

Taking a break from Deadhouse Gates to begin Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories by Algernon Blackwood.

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

Anyone use Calibre to edit ebooks and consider his or herself to be an 'expert' or 'advanced user' with it?

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

Its been about 6 years so I'm diving back into my de Sade collection. This time around I'm mainly focusing on the stuff that doesn't really get mentioned all that often (at least I don't see it mentioned all that often) like his plays Oxitern and Ernestine, a Swedish Tale. I'll probably also revisit Eugénie de Franval at some point too. Currently I'm in the middle of a series of his letters which are fascinating to read.

 

[Einherjar86]

Lots of interesting stuff floating around here. Jimmy, I hope you're enjoying Heinlein...

I've been doing a ton of reading for class, and I also finished Echopraxia, which was a devastating, dense, and very difficult novel (but rewarding).

In the meantime, I've also read Toni Morrison's Beloved (which was incredible), I'm reading Octavia Butler's Dawn, and re-read Gibson's Neuromancer (taught it to my students).

I'm about to go on to Tom McCarthy's C.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

Finally finished Deadhouse Gates and holy fuck. Could not put it down for the last hundred pages or so. I was going to take a break from Malazan but I don't think I'm going to be able to control myself from moving right to Memories of Ice.