Now Reading

[logakght]

Edited December 9, 2021 by logakght

[baph]

I’m about a quarter of the way through Alan Moore’s Jerusalem after 2 years of staring at its cover on the shelf, and then moving it to the nightstand in an effort to commit myself to the task, and then staring at it for another 6 months without starting it. 

And it turns out it’s a fairly pleasant experience after all, so far, despite the wrist cracking weight of the thing. 
 

 

[luke viia]

This was a bit of a trip. The sort of book that requires you to temporarily just fully accept premises that appear to be nonsense and hold your judgment, with a promise that you'll do better to scrutinize the framework only after it's fully assembled. Some parts are obtuse or at least, um, peculiarly argued, some parts are quite profound, but on the whole it's certainly interesting to ride along with one obviously intelligent man's solo intuitive approach to nondual anatman realization (though in many places he doesn't seem fully aware that this is what he is heading toward - it isn't clear that he had made any rounded attempt to study other historical approaches to this problem [of the self], though he does mention Buddhism once or twice, and it becomes clear through the book that he's got a good grasp of world history, so idk really, maybe this omission is just part of the presentation). There is a bit of Christianity here and there, but the book is hardly traditional at its core; there's very little in here that a classic theist would enjoy. It's abstract (lots of half-mystic hand drawn diagrams) and determined to systematically attempt to deal with the metaphysics of consciousness. It really only gets into exploring experiential meaning when it pops up as a side effect of the mechanics of his hierarchies. It is heavily abridged -- I don't know if the original double-bible-sized edition was ever published at all. Being so cropped, it kinda feels like he really did need longer to give concrete examples to convincingly illustrate his points. It got a little hairy for me in part IV, where scales of time finally come to play a prominent role (rather than the theory focusing almost exclusively on extension in space)... but the last two parts of the book were a good payoff. I liked it anyway. Certainly not for everybody. It's hard to follow in places, and will not resonate with either materialists or theists. 

Picked it up inspired by a YouTube video @Milwaukeeeee posted a few weeks ago. I've never read "The Headless Way" or any of Harding's other stuff, but skipped it as i already have a decent enough grip on pop-Buddhist "dharma bum" stuff... this book was really a different thing entirely. And it kinda made me want to re-read Lewis's Mere Christianity, which was not a book I was impressed with ten years ago, but probably deserves another look. 

 

anyway... I'm overdue for my quinquennial Hesse encounter, but might instead finally dive into something by the Big Brain himself ("Wisdom For Life" has been patiently waiting on the shelf). 

[Milwaukeeeee]

On 1/1/2022 at 11:44 PM, luke viia said:

This was a bit of a trip. The sort of book that requires you to temporarily just fully accept premises that appear to be nonsense and hold your judgment, with a promise that you'll do better to scrutinize the framework only after it's fully assembled. Some parts are obtuse or at least, um, peculiarly argued, some parts are quite profound, but on the whole it's certainly interesting to ride along with one obviously intelligent man's solo intuitive approach to nondual anatman realization (though in many places he doesn't seem fully aware that this is what he is heading toward - it isn't clear that he had made any rounded attempt to study other historical approaches to this problem [of the self], though he does mention Buddhism once or twice, and it becomes clear through the book that he's got a good grasp of world history, so idk really, maybe this omission is just part of the presentation). There is a bit of Christianity here and there, but the book is hardly traditional at its core; there's very little in here that a classic theist would enjoy. It's abstract (lots of half-mystic hand drawn diagrams) and determined to systematically attempt to deal with the metaphysics of consciousness. It really only gets into exploring experiential meaning when it pops up as a side effect of the mechanics of his hierarchies. It is heavily abridged -- I don't know if the original double-bible-sized edition was ever published at all. Being so cropped, it kinda feels like he really did need longer to give concrete examples to convincingly illustrate his points. It got a little hairy for me in part IV, where scales of time finally come to play a prominent role (rather than the theory focusing almost exclusively on extension in space)... but the last two parts of the book were a good payoff. I liked it anyway. Certainly not for everybody. It's hard to follow in places, and will not resonate with either materialists or theists. 

Picked it up inspired by a YouTube video @Milwaukeeeee posted a few weeks ago. I've never read "The Headless Way" or any of Harding's other stuff, but skipped it as i already have a decent enough grip on pop-Buddhist "dharma bum" stuff... this book was really a different thing entirely. And it kinda made me want to re-read Lewis's Mere Christianity, which was not a book I was impressed with ten years ago, but probably deserves another look. 

 

anyway... I'm overdue for my quinquennial Hesse encounter, but might instead finally dive into something by the Big Brain himself ("Wisdom For Life" has been patiently waiting on the shelf). 

I first saw the picture of pointing to oneself (image below) a long time ago and I did not remember where. Years later after seeing some videos a month ago about Douglas Harding I remembered the picture. I've nerver read anything from him, or the Headless Way I suppose it probably takes a similar direction to Advaita Vedanta to some extent, but for me the advaita stuff... I can't really take the whole package of it mostly because it dennies a lot the value of personal voluntary will, freedom, responsability and action.... also what is the point of realization other than that same general speculation of the supposed timeless unity with the divine they and many similar traditions do?. Although all the D. Harding stuff may be good for focus, meditation a calm balanced mind and many other things I do not know about

I'm glad a random vid motivated you to read a whole esoteric speculative book. The last big one I read was "Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson" and  also"Meetings with remarkable men" by Gurdjieff (The Ouspensky's "In search of the Miraculous" is also quite good about the "4th Way") Despite the fact the bald armenian dude may be considered another guru or cult leader, he was a great writer no doubt about it, and certainly those books are some of the most rare and best I've read.

Now I'm reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra which for the moment points to a self created mysticism out of suffering and other times critizising and naming the flaws of the whole spectrum of different types of people you can encounter lol, but it's being great and also fun to read

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Milwaukeeeee

[thumbass]

Started reading American Psycho. I have picked up a book in a while, I should continue my read through of the dune series again as well.

[dcom]

18 minutes ago, thumbass said:

Started reading American Psycho.

Bret Easton Ellis is a great writer, but American Psycho can be a bit infuriating because of the style. Although I like all he's written. Glamorama's my favourite. American Psycho is his third, Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction came before it, The Informers, Glamorama, Lunar Park and Imperial Bedrooms after. White is his latest and only non-fiction, and he got cancelled because of it,  but I'd recommend reading it anyway. He's one of my favourites alongside Chuck Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh and Douglas Coupland.

Edited January 6, 2022 by dcom

[thumbass]

7 minutes ago, dcom said:

Bret Easton Ellis is a great writer, but American Psycho can be a bit infuriating because of the style. Although I like all he's written. Glamorama's my favourite. American Psycho is his third, Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction came before it, The Informers, Glamorama, Lunar Park and Imperial Bedrooms after. White is his latest and only non-fiction, and he got cancelled because of it,  but I'd recommend reading it anyway. He's one of my favourites alongside Chuck Palahniuk, Irvine Welsh and Douglas Coupland.

Thabks for the recommendations! So far I don't have problems with the way he writes. Will check the rest of his works out after finishing it.

[Milwaukeeeee]

https://starman414.wixsite.com/kriyananda?fbclid=IwAR0bSom7nFh4IuJR7YP8F66ZtwVh6RSZSAqYN1FqAb554d_-EK_SGfA3ea0

[Muflontillah]

Joseph Henrich - The Weirdest People in the World

Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens

[Milwaukeeeee]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mythological_objects_(Hindu_mythology)

[Atop]

Judas Unchained by Peter F Hamilton

[Rubin Farr]

reading Logan’s Run for the first time since school, still a classic 

[logakght]

[zkom]

I'm reading Cixin Liu's (or Liu Cixin's) short story collection the Wandering Earth and so far it's been "idea scifi" at its best and worst. Tons of cool ideas but cardboard characters and very little story. And he clearly has his own tropes that get repeated. Still it's pretty addictive because you want to get to the big reveal or whatever at the end of the story.

Anyone can recommend any scifi horror? I feel like I need some of that.

[logakght]

I really, really, really recommend you this book if you're into J Dilla.

https://www.amazon.com/Dilla-Time-Afterlife-Producer-Reinvented/dp/0374139946

[taffer]

re-reading Proust as a new years resolution

 

[logakght]

Reading this yo

[Milwaukeeeee]

https://www.josephazize.com/2020/01/13/george-adie-there-should-be-more-work-11-july-1989-final/?fbclid=IwAR2X7CX_N0XYz1qExRQr5Pvj8ippL4agu9cSSCOvXUFzT9Av4H1webtX6ws

https://www.gurdjieff.org/pentland3.htm

[zkom]

On 2/17/2022 at 7:08 PM, taffer said:

re-reading Proust as a new years resolution

 

I listened through the whole In Search of Lost Time series as a sort of audiobook broadcasted by a Finnish national radio and with 5 minutes each weekday it took fucking YEARS.

[logakght]

On 2/11/2022 at 12:17 AM, logakght said:

Just finished it and, damn, what a wonderful piece of work. Really recommend it even just for music fans. Theory, history, tears. 

[thefxbip]

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

3/4 through

Certainly one of the best novels i've read.

Found: ''The Norton Anthology of short fiction, 3rd edition'' for 5 bucks at thrift store. 108 stories. Now that's a good deal.

Read a few including:

“The Babysitter” by Robert Coover

''Rape Fantasy'' by Margaret Atwood

Both excellent.

 

Edited March 14, 2022 by thefxbip

[zkom]

It's actually been a couple of years since I read this but it's now available also in English. Jessikka Aro's Putin's Trolls: On the Frontlines of Russia's Information War Against the World.

As the name says it's about Russian troll factories and disinformation campaigns especially in Finland and in the Baltics.

She's been targeted and harassed for years by far-right groups in Finland. There was also some kerfuffle when the US State Department International Women of Courage Award was rescinded apparently because she criticized Trump.

The book also mention's one former watmmer's sister, who you might remember from back when the Russian annexation of Crimea happened.

[T3551ER]

On 3/14/2022 at 12:18 AM, thefxbip said:

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

3/4 through

Certainly one of the best novels i've read.

Found: ''The Norton Anthology of short fiction, 3rd edition'' for 5 bucks at thrift store. 108 stories. Now that's a good deal.

Read a few including:

“The Babysitter” by Robert Coover

''Rape Fantasy'' by Margaret Atwood

Both excellent.

 

Funny, just finished Slaughterhouse V. Heard such great things about it for years, finally decided to pick it up. 

I .... don't know what I was expecting. Somehow in my mind it was going to be a "jolly good, mind bending sci-fi time travel romp" and uhhhhhhh it turns out the guy who writes back of the book synopses for books I've never actually read got it way wrong. 

Fantastic, but really gut wrenching. Probably the best anti war novel I've ever read. On par with Requiem for a Dream as being the best anti drug movie I've ever seen, and vaguely The Jungle being the best anti meat book I've ever read. By which, I mean, all of these make me never want to fight in a war, do heroin, or eat meat, respectively. 

It also made me think about the horrors that are going on in Ukraine right now. It's like... fuck, human beings never really change do they? I know that's cynical but. ... oof. 

On the flipside it also made me really grateful to just exist in a non-war state. Like, it does such a good job of evoking the numbing claustrophobia of war and PTSD that simple things like crapping in a toilet suddenly seem like a godsend. 

1 lovable scamps / innumerable moments of existential dread

 

[thefxbip]

1 hour ago, T3551ER said:

Funny, just finished Slaughterhouse V. Heard such great things about it for years, finally decided to pick it up. 

I .... don't know what I was expecting. Somehow in my mind it was going to be a "jolly good, mind bending sci-fi time travel romp" and uhhhhhhh it turns out the guy who writes back of the book synopses for books I've never actually read got it way wrong. 

Fantastic, but really gut wrenching. Probably the best anti war novel I've ever read. On par with Requiem for a Dream as being the best anti drug movie I've ever seen, and vaguely The Jungle being the best anti meat book I've ever read. By which, I mean, all of these make me never want to fight in a war, do heroin, or eat meat, respectively. 

It also made me think about the horrors that are going on in Ukraine right now. It's like... fuck, human beings never really change do they? I know that's cynical but. ... oof. 

On the flipside it also made me really grateful to just exist in a non-war state. Like, it does such a good job of evoking the numbing claustrophobia of war and PTSD that simple things like crapping in a toilet suddenly seem like a godsend. 

1 lovable scamps / innumerable moments of existential dread

 

Yeah i started it just before the war in Ukraine started.

It kinda hit even more when there is a war going on. The tragedy of it, the absurdity, the foolishness of men.

Makes you cry and laugh at the same time.

It's a beautiful book.

also this is worth a watch:

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by thefxbip

[T3551ER]

3 hours ago, thefxbip said:

Yeah i started it just before the war in Ukraine started.

It kinda hit even more when there is a war going on. The tragedy of it, the absurdity, the foolishness of men.

Makes you cry and laugh at the same time.

It's a beautiful book.

also this is worth a watch:

 

Cheers! Watched part of this at lunch, look forward to finishing it up. Weirdly comforting to hear his voice sounds eerily similar to what I heard in my head while reading....