Discussion questions:
What new books are you reading?
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
Question of the week:
What do you think of Brandon Sanderson?
Also, something to look at.
Enjoy!
Currently reading Road to Nowhere What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation by Paris Marx. Only just finished chapter 1 which talks about the growth of cars and how the interests of capital pushed for car ownership and terrible highway design while ruining public transport and urban design.
That book looks interesting. Yes, I already know about it, and I think I saw an interview with the author somewhere. Not sure if I’ll get it in the end, but it does look overall pretty informative.
Nice, I’ll have to check it out. There’s a cool short essay by Andre Gorz written in the 70s about this too.
I’m pretty sure that essay was actually quoted in the first chapter of the book. I’ll have to check later.
Edit: checked it and yes, the essay was quoted in the first chapter but Gorz was also quoted in two more chapters that I haven’t got to yet.
Fiction: I’m reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. It’s a really mysterious book about people living in a never ending house.
Non-fiction: De Meeste Mensen Deugen (Most people are all right) by Rutger Bregman. It goes against the ‘muh human nature’ argument regarding humans being shit, using multiple studies and historical examples. It’s not communist sadly but I find the lukewarm socialist ideas or explanations they offer useful for future debates with libs or centrists.
Oh, House of Leaves, but with more than a few people, I take it.
I read a bit of the German Ideology the other day. I still need to read the rest.
It’s arguably Karl Marx at his most digestible in terms of his writing style.
Otherwise, he’s too hard to understand in his other works.
Currently trying out the culture series… starting with player of games. Its entertaining so far, but I’m only about 10% in.
Also rereading all quiet on the western front with my partner. Such an incredible book that deserves its place as the best war book ever written… world war 1 was a nightmare.
All Quiet on the Western Front was the only book for school class that I liked growing up.
What new books are you reading?
Still stuck on Cornforth. Got sick, so reading is going hard. Also planning to read Lenin’s “State and revolution” after the next chapter, before moving to volume 3.
Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction?
I find it increasingly difficult to read fiction nowadays. Partially because I used to prefer western sci-fi, and in retrospect it was always steeped in various unmarxist beliefs.
Question of the week: What do you think of Brandon Sanderson
I’ve never actually read anything by the guy, not really much into this kind of fantasy. But I know a couple of guys who hate him with a passion. Which is always funny
Just because something is “unmarxist” doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, imho.
I also don’t like Brandons Sanderson.
Anatole France’s “Revolt of the Angels”. It’s about the ‘War in Heaven’ between Satan and God and a sort of romantic reinterpretation of it that portrays Satan as a revolutionary and God as a callous demiurge. France himself was a communist who supported the Bolshevik revolution and it shows in his writing, mostly in his obvious contempt for the aristocracy, organized religion, and liberalism. Very good so far.
Fiction, if that wasn’t clear, not theology. France is considered one of the forebearers of the tradition known as “Romantic Satanism” and the recasting of Satan/Lucifer as a revolutionary rather than contemptuous figure.
Oh nice. How did you learn about this author and his work?
I’ve also tried to do my own research on “proletarian fiction.”
It’s a funny little rabbit hole, but someone here shared something about The Satanic Temple (I think they confused them with the Church of Satan) so it led me to dig into TST’s stated ideology and their beef w/ CoS. Their ideology is unsurprisingly a bit of a mess, and in their official statement they seemingly attempt to synthesize Romantic Satanist themes w/ pseudo-socialist rhetoric sprinkled in with some pretty cringe Americana. Regardless I enjoy both Percy Shelley and Byron’s work, so I got their “Introduction to Romantic Satanism” and they mentioned Anatole’s novel which sounded interesting, a communist’s fictitious retelling of the war in heaven. It’s good so far! Surprisingly funny. Although it’s an early 20th century text translated from French into English, so it can be a little clunky at times.
It’s difficult to find fiction related to communism or workers’ movements without it being some vile reactionary crap for sure.
Funny how things work out.
That book sounds dope, I’m adding it to my reading list. Thx!
Absolutely, I’m enjoying it a lot!
I am currently reading Perfume by Patrick Süskind and Red star over the third world by vijay prishad. The former is decent fiction which I got from a friend, and I haven’t read much fiction in a while. The latter is decent, too, I bought it a couple of months ago. Once I’m done with them, I intend to start Democracy and dictatorship in the Soviet Union by Anna Louise strong (pdf), and V for vendetta (the comic), which I got for Christmas. I prefer reading fiction, it draws me in and keeps me interested better, but I also feel somewhat obligated (and genuinely interested), to work through my long list of Marxism and history related books, which are less captivating, but still very interesting.
Yeah, Vijay Prashad is at least decent in his writing, though he’s not the best, so to speak.
I found he was good at compiling many different events and things related to the topic, but a bit boring. Similar with Washington bullets, which I listened to the audiobook of. At least he’s concise and easy to understand.
Concise and brings you up to speed, but nothing new to say.
I agree.
I am reading the ‘Death Mage Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time’ Japanese fiction web novel which is relevant to the themes of imperialism, colonialism, racism, cultural biases, oppression, repression, international development, etc. The story is driven by 3 incompetent antagonists who, although not truely evil, are incompetent enough to cause problems and their attempts to resolve the problems keeps on worsening the problems. The incompetent antagonists represent the egotistic foreigner-worshipping colonialist mentality of the typical isekai protagonist nd so it can tell alot about the biases that the global north has towards the global south.
I wouldn’t mind reading a Chinese web novel or a Korean or Japanese one. Maybe one from Vietnam.
I’m re-reading Mao’s little red book in Spanish!
Ah, en Espanol.
For fiction, I’m currently reading Children of Memory, the whole series is amazing in my opinion. And for non-fiction, The Society of Mind.
Oh, I plan to read Children of Memory as well!
It’s great fun. :)
Noice.
