Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

81) Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism - Bartlow J. Elmore. Audiobook. 2014. A history of the company's economic titanship with a well researched look under the hood of their famously exploitative methods of growth, both against other companies and in third world nations. Dyspeptic.

82) The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone - Edward Dolnick. Audiobook. 2021. A really interesting explanation of the work that went into translating the Stone which, with its text written in Greek, Hieroglyphics and another language, helped to finally up unlock the words of ancient Egypt.

83) A Comedian's Prayer Book - Frank Skinner. Audiobook. 2021. Skinner writes out a series of his own discussions with God. Some good japes, some philosophising, all done via a kind of meditative Catholicism.

84) Wouldn't it Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds - Charles L. Granata. Kindle. 2003. For the most part, a very happy story with a musical genius firing on all cylinders. A really great, in depth detailing of the making of the album. You also get a capsule biography of Brian before and after the making of Pet Sounds. Really, all you could ask for on the album.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Silent Majority wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:29am
81) Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism - Bartlow J. Elmore. Audiobook. 2014. A history of the company's economic titanship with a well researched look under the hood of their famously exploitative methods of growth, both against other companies and in third world nations. Dyspeptic.
Very good. :cool:

Currently listening to Hammett's The Thin Man, about an alcoholic rich couple's misadventures (they do a great deal of drinking in the morning). Hammett was a pioneer of the genre, but his work has suffered compared to Chandler. Before that, I listened to Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, about how the US Civil War altered attitudes towards death. Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes), a wonderful culmination of life and a way of bonding families, but the war unleashed a sense of carnage and anonymous death that brought forth those aspects of modern life, like statistics and accounting to process mass killing. I had to read it (very quickly) during my doctoral comps and was glad to return to it in a more laid back manner.

Recently finished reading the new bio of Mark Hollis, which was pretty meh overall. I can't say I gained any real insight into the man beyond being a vital iconoclast but also more than a bit of a prick.

Starting Scarlett Thomas' novel Our Tragic Universe today. I've read it before but remember nothing other than I didn't care for it. But I really liked her books Popco and especially The End of Mr. Y, so I'm giving it another shot.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:50am
Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes),
I have never heard about this. I wonder how it figures into Ernest Becker's synthesis, if he thought about it at all.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:48pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:50am
Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes),
I have never heard about this. I wonder how it figures into Ernest Becker's synthesis, if he thought about it at all.
I don't know Becker, so I can't speak to that, but Faust writes that one of the things that was traumatic about the war was that so many were unable to die at home, surrounded by their family, a process of connection and reflection that was supposed to ease a person to heaven. Dying alone, far from family, what guarantee was there that the soldier would reach his eternal reward. Letters from comrades were especially treasured when they could be told that young Zeb died thinking of his family and was ready to go.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:55pm
Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:48pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:50am
Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes),
I have never heard about this. I wonder how it figures into Ernest Becker's synthesis, if he thought about it at all.
I don't know Becker, so I can't speak to that, but Faust writes that one of the things that was traumatic about the war was that so many were unable to die at home, surrounded by their family, a process of connection and reflection that was supposed to ease a person to heaven. Dying alone, far from family, what guarantee was there that the soldier would reach his eternal reward. Letters from comrades were especially treasured when they could be told that young Zeb died thinking of his family and was ready to go.
Becker basically posits that the individual levels of success with which we accept our own mortality dictate how we operate in the world. Given a death prime, altruistic people become more so, and assholes become bigger assholes. He thought that the more we thought about death, the more we could be at peace with it instead of terrified of it, which ideally could lead to more of the assholes becoming altruistic instead. The assholes are usually so because other people's "immortality projects" (usually religion, politics, children—whatever will leave your legacy when you're gone, allowing you to be at least partly deathproof) counter their own—"if Muslims are right about their religion and afterlife, what does that mean for me, a good Christian? I'd better kill them just to be sure." It's kind of a weird, Freudian, one-answer-to-describe-all-of-human-behavior kind of thing but I do see some value in keeping our eventual and inevitable death in mind.

But to connect it to my wondering above, if death was once seen as somewhat positive or at least accepted, it puts a bit of a damper on that thinking, at least as a universal describer of human behavior. He does make a decent case in his final book about this kind of stuff being even worse in the modern, Capitalist age, so perhaps that's partly the answer there.
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:09pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:55pm
Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:48pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:50am
Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes),
I have never heard about this. I wonder how it figures into Ernest Becker's synthesis, if he thought about it at all.
I don't know Becker, so I can't speak to that, but Faust writes that one of the things that was traumatic about the war was that so many were unable to die at home, surrounded by their family, a process of connection and reflection that was supposed to ease a person to heaven. Dying alone, far from family, what guarantee was there that the soldier would reach his eternal reward. Letters from comrades were especially treasured when they could be told that young Zeb died thinking of his family and was ready to go.
Becker basically posits that the individual levels of success with which we accept our own mortality dictate how we operate in the world. Given a death prime, altruistic people become more so, and assholes become bigger assholes. He thought that the more we thought about death, the more we could be at peace with it instead of terrified of it, which ideally could lead to more of the assholes becoming altruistic instead. The assholes are usually so because other people's "immortality projects" (usually religion, politics, children—whatever will leave your legacy when you're gone, allowing you to be at least partly deathproof) counter their own—"if Muslims are right about their religion and afterlife, what does that mean for me, a good Christian? I'd better kill them just to be sure." It's kind of a weird, Freudian, one-answer-to-describe-all-of-human-behavior kind of thing but I do see some value in keeping our eventual and inevitable death in mind.

But to connect it to my wondering above, if death was once seen as somewhat positive or at least accepted, it puts a bit of a damper on that thinking, at least as a universal describer of human behavior. He does make a decent case in his final book about this kind of stuff being even worse in the modern, Capitalist age, so perhaps that's partly the answer there.
I'm betraying my training and inclinations as a historian to say I'm deeply wary of any kind of universalist argument. Context matters. Geography, sex, gender, race, class, and time period all play a role in how we perceive the world and are perceived by others, and events are constantly emerging, coming to the fore and fading, which influences everything else. What we perceive as universal truths tend to be very, very slowly evolving attitudes, but to assume the eternal and the cross-cultural is way too easy.

I'll just add that I took some comfort from my mother's death, which I told her beforehand. She was 95 when she died and towards the end she was flat-out ready to go. No fear, no regrets, just ready. I told her that that was so good to hear and to know because most of us look upon our death with some anxiety, because of that hardwired will to survive. But knowing that if we're allowed to age, as we begin to shut down, that instinct ceases and we can be good with dying. I hate the idea of someone being scared as they face death—that's no way to go—so knowing that our bodies can cease in that way is a great comfort.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Flex
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:24pm
I'm betraying my training and inclinations as a historian to say I'm deeply wary of any kind of universalist argument. Context matters. Geography, sex, gender, race, class, and time period all play a role in how we perceive the world and are perceived by others, and events are constantly emerging, coming to the fore and fading, which influences everything else. What we perceive as universal truths tend to be very, very slowly evolving attitudes, but to assume the eternal and the cross-cultural is way too easy.
This might be true for most people but I simply choose to objectively perceive the world outside the bounds of personal lived context and experience. But I guess I'm just built different.

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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Flex wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:40pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:24pm
I'm betraying my training and inclinations as a historian to say I'm deeply wary of any kind of universalist argument. Context matters. Geography, sex, gender, race, class, and time period all play a role in how we perceive the world and are perceived by others, and events are constantly emerging, coming to the fore and fading, which influences everything else. What we perceive as universal truths tend to be very, very slowly evolving attitudes, but to assume the eternal and the cross-cultural is way too easy.
This might be true for most people but I simply choose to objectively perceive the world outside the bounds of personal lived context and experience. But I guess I'm just built different.

( :shifty: )
Which of Ayn Rand's rape scenes is your favourite? Don't cheat and say they're all equally fantastic!
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Kory »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:24pm
Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 1:09pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:55pm
Kory wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 12:48pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
01 Jul 2022, 11:50am
Before the war, death was treated as something to be embraced (at least to the better classes),
I have never heard about this. I wonder how it figures into Ernest Becker's synthesis, if he thought about it at all.
I don't know Becker, so I can't speak to that, but Faust writes that one of the things that was traumatic about the war was that so many were unable to die at home, surrounded by their family, a process of connection and reflection that was supposed to ease a person to heaven. Dying alone, far from family, what guarantee was there that the soldier would reach his eternal reward. Letters from comrades were especially treasured when they could be told that young Zeb died thinking of his family and was ready to go.
Becker basically posits that the individual levels of success with which we accept our own mortality dictate how we operate in the world. Given a death prime, altruistic people become more so, and assholes become bigger assholes. He thought that the more we thought about death, the more we could be at peace with it instead of terrified of it, which ideally could lead to more of the assholes becoming altruistic instead. The assholes are usually so because other people's "immortality projects" (usually religion, politics, children—whatever will leave your legacy when you're gone, allowing you to be at least partly deathproof) counter their own—"if Muslims are right about their religion and afterlife, what does that mean for me, a good Christian? I'd better kill them just to be sure." It's kind of a weird, Freudian, one-answer-to-describe-all-of-human-behavior kind of thing but I do see some value in keeping our eventual and inevitable death in mind.

But to connect it to my wondering above, if death was once seen as somewhat positive or at least accepted, it puts a bit of a damper on that thinking, at least as a universal describer of human behavior. He does make a decent case in his final book about this kind of stuff being even worse in the modern, Capitalist age, so perhaps that's partly the answer there.
I'm betraying my training and inclinations as a historian to say I'm deeply wary of any kind of universalist argument. Context matters. Geography, sex, gender, race, class, and time period all play a role in how we perceive the world and are perceived by others, and events are constantly emerging, coming to the fore and fading, which influences everything else. What we perceive as universal truths tend to be very, very slowly evolving attitudes, but to assume the eternal and the cross-cultural is way too easy.

I'll just add that I took some comfort from my mother's death, which I told her beforehand. She was 95 when she died and towards the end she was flat-out ready to go. No fear, no regrets, just ready. I told her that that was so good to hear and to know because most of us look upon our death with some anxiety, because of that hardwired will to survive. But knowing that if we're allowed to age, as we begin to shut down, that instinct ceases and we can be good with dying. I hate the idea of someone being scared as they face death—that's no way to go—so knowing that our bodies can cease in that way is a great comfort.
Yeah I agree, although I'd say that if there was to be a single factor determining human behavior, it would be a need for control, not death anxiety or sex drives. Those are too zeroed in to be real contenders, I think.
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

85) Hornblower and the Atropos - C.S. Forester. Audiobook. 1953. The Captain continues his battles in 1800s Royal Navy. A weak and uninvolving entry for the most part, but it is satisfying to read the character rising the ranks from a Midshipman at the start of the series to this point. The next in the chronology was the first written and published, so I'll have dispensed with the prequels shortly.

86) Batman by Neal Adams Vol 1. - Neal Adams and some writers. 1967 - 1969. Comic. Started out with issues of some low grade, low on ideas one shots featuring reheated Golden Age absurdism with easily clobbered aliens, where I was certain that I shouldn't have started this trade paperback but then progressing up to well-written, stylish art filled stories oozing confidence and intelligence with a certain plausibility. That's the crux and the joy of this collection: the progression. Once you get into the swing of this collection, it's got just what I want from comics Batman. The level of maturity and swagger that the character needs without any dives into the coming grimdark.

87) The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury. Paperback. 1951. I had eased away from Bradbury after finding the writing in Something Wicked This Way Comes to be unbearably overblown, but I had enjoyed Farenheit 451. This famous collection of short stories, framed by the moving tattoos of an endlessly wandering carnie, was right in my wheelhouse with a number of Twilight Zone style tomes zipping by page turning-ly. He's alright, really.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

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Audiobook started today:
Image
Somehow I've never read this, which seemed a rite of passage for any Xer in adolescence. Even kids who didn't read worked thru it. So, I'm late to the party as usual.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

Silent Majority
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Silent Majority »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 11:47am
Audiobook started today:
Image
Somehow I've never read this, which seemed a rite of passage for any Xer in adolescence. Even kids who didn't read worked thru it. So, I'm late to the party as usual.
You're about to get really into Frank Zappa, going by the usual trajectory.
a lifetime serving one machine
Is ten times worse than prison


www.pexlives.libsyn.com/

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

Silent Majority wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 7:20pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 11:47am
Audiobook started today:
Image
Somehow I've never read this, which seemed a rite of passage for any Xer in adolescence. Even kids who didn't read worked thru it. So, I'm late to the party as usual.
You're about to get really into Frank Zappa, going by the usual trajectory.
Hit eject! Hit eject!
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by tepista »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 7:34pm
Silent Majority wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 7:20pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 11:47am
Audiobook started today:
Image
Somehow I've never read this, which seemed a rite of passage for any Xer in adolescence. Even kids who didn't read worked thru it. So, I'm late to the party as usual.
You're about to get really into Frank Zappa, going by the usual trajectory.
Hit eject! Hit eject!
I've got one on my shelf, never read it though
We reach the parts other combos cannot reach
We beach the beachheads other armies cannot beach
We speak the tongues other mouths cannot speak

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Whatcha reading?

Post by Dr. Medulla »

tepista wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 8:07pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 7:34pm
Silent Majority wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 7:20pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
04 Jul 2022, 11:47am
Audiobook started today:
Image
Somehow I've never read this, which seemed a rite of passage for any Xer in adolescence. Even kids who didn't read worked thru it. So, I'm late to the party as usual.
You're about to get really into Frank Zappa, going by the usual trajectory.
Hit eject! Hit eject!
I've got one on my shelf, never read it though
To my limited knowledge, there are no apes.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

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