November readings:

• In the Presence of Absence, Mahmoud Darwish
• The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow
• The Good Old Days, eds. E. Klee, W. Dressen, & V. Riess

rereading:

• Pyrrhonism, Adrian Kuzminski
• The World of Parmenides, Karl Popper
• Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein

His menagerie of linguistic ills - language in idle, being mislead by grammar, being captured by a picture, and so on - all bear upon words employed without a language game; that is, without even a role like a rook that could, even in principle, be said to be 'wrong'. This distinction is what is novel and important in Witty. — StreetlightX

The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wen — 180 Proof

I cannot wait to read this!!

Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein — 180 Proof

Yay!! A qualification: alot of the time, Witty is also talking about words in language-games where they "don't belong". Words which, in one language-game work perfect fine, but, when employed in another with the expectation that it will 'work' in the same way as it's 'original home', makes for wild confusion (this is 'being captured by a picture').

The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow — 180 Proof

:cool:

TPF - the place where theories of everything come to be born.

Definitely going on the short list.

Damasio's Error and Descartes' Truth: An Inquiry into Consciousness, Metaphysics, and Epistemology
by Andrew Gluck

Now for the other side of the coin.....

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean

@StreetlightX looks like the Verso end of year sale has started. Could have sworn it was 50% off last year though.

Damn man, Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann was an awesome book. 1000 pages, one sentence (yes, one.), stream of consciousness. Delightful, quirky, empathic, intelligent, demanding, insightful and more.

It might not be "postmodern", but surely a masterpiece. It will take considerable effort and you may not like it but, I must add to the "hard books worth reading".

@180 Proof @jamalrob @Deleteduserrc

You guys might want to consider checking it out, if you're up for the challenge. I can't vouch for it like I do for Novel Explosives, which is a must for philosophical-literature fans but, it's worth knowing about.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Ducks Newburyport — Manuel

I read the first few pages on Amazon's "look inside" and thought it was a fun read. The form looks interesting, less so the themes and subject matter. It might be a matter of taste.

And there's the blurb:

"A scorching indictment of America's barbarity, past and present, and a lament for the way we are sleepwalking into environmental disaster"

Yawn! But I guess I shouldn't judge the book by the blurb.

And then there's ... "the fact that". Would I be a middlebrow philistine fool to point out how ugly this phrase is? Maybe it takes on a pleasing hypnotic quality as you get into the book, I don't know. Think how much paper and readers' time could have been saved if every instance of "the fact that" had been removed. Now, I expect the sentence wraps up at the end brilliantly or movingly or shockingly or whatever, when "the fact that" finally pays off, but still, I wonder if it justifies making the reader put up with it for almosty the whole reading experience.

Of course, these are just initial reactions combined with my tastes and prejudices.

It might not be "postmodern" — Manuel

I suppose it's kinda modernist in that it has a superficial resemblance to parts of Ulysses, though maybe without the poetry. Whether it's postmodern, I don't know. I don't even know what "postmodern(ist)" means when it comes to fiction. It can't be about the cool stuff like self-reference, metafiction, nested stories and so on, because that was going on at the beginning of the novel in Don Quixote, and hasn't stopped since then.

Yay! I get two books from them everytime this happens lol. But yes I have this vague memory of it being 50% last year.

All my 'booky' friends are really into this. Rave reviews all around. I might read it in a decade or two.

I don't even know what "postmodern(ist)" means when it comes to fiction. It can't be about the cool stuff like self-reference, metafiction, nested stories and so on, cos that was going on at the beginning of the novel in Don Quixote, and hasn't stopped since then. — jamalrob

:up:

It's what she uses as a way to connect sentences, it could be annoying to some, I thought it worked well. As for the subject matter, yes, it doesn't sound interesting at all, it actually surprised me that it was interesting.

I said "postmodern" in relation to Pynchon and Wallace which you were thinking about reading eventually. Good point about Don Quixote. Maybe challenging book might be a better term.

I can't say you'll enjoy it, it might turn out to be very boring for you, but given that you were talking about GR and IJ, difficult books or unique books in general. Now you know about it.

All my 'booky' friends are really into this. Rave reviews all around. I might read it in a decade or two. — StreetlightX

:lol:

Given the books you discuss, I'd say there's no hurry. I think David Graeber's upcoming book, is going to be really worthwhile.

I said "postmodern" in relation to Pynchon and Wallace which you were thinking about reading eventually. Good point about Don Quixote. Maybe challenging book might be a better term.

I can't say you'll enjoy it, it might turn out to be very boring for you, but given that you were talking about GR and IJ, difficult books or unique books in general. Now you know about it. — Manuel

:up:

Yep, and I enjoyed looking into it for a few minutes. Who knows if I'll go further with it. Maybe in two decades.

Let me know what you pick up. I have a list but want to be a bit selective since I want to get an order from Haymarket too.

1000 pages, one sentence (yes, one.), — Manuel

Krasznahorkai is shaking right now.

He's upcoming for me later this year. I hear he's excellent.

He's upcoming for me later this year. I hear he's excellent. — Manuel

I admittedly don't read a lot of novels but I do love me some Krasnahorkai.

One of his came out a week ago:

https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Homer-L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3-Krasznahorkai/dp/0811227979/ref=sr_1_1?crid=149FD2G9HHW6K&keywords=lazlo+krasnahorkai&qid=1636510031&s=books&sprefix=lazlo+kra%2Caps%2C197&sr=1-1

I'm gonna pick up McNally's Against the Market and Hito Steyerl's Duty Free Art. There's a few others I want (specifically Enzo Traverso's Revolution: An Intellectual History, and Losurdo also has a newly translated book coming out in 2022, Democracy or Bonapartism, which I'm looking forward to) but I need to limit myself otherwise I will go broke.

Also currently reading I guess:

Edmund Leach - Rethinking Anthropology
Roland Barthes - Elements of Semiology
Claude Levi-Strauss - Myth and Meaning
Radhika Desai - Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization, and Empire

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt.

Thanks for reminding me this was coming out in English, just picked it up. Interesting concept.

:cool: Ordered a copy.

Enjoy, I'll be joining you guys soon! :victory:

Reading The myth of Sisyphus for the second time. Last read is about 5 years ago. Giving it another read since Friday.

The Psychology of Intelligence
by Jean Piaget

Revisiting some Anglophone classics about language from mid-century:

J. L. Austin – How to Do Things with Words
J. L. Austin – Sense and Sensibilia
John Searle – Speech Acts
S. I. Hayakawa – Language in Thought and Action
C. L. Stevenson – Ethics and Language

Chasing Homer, László Krasznahorkai

Obedience To Authority, Stanley Milgram.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
Chasing Homer by László Krasznahorkai

The Story of Psychology
by Morton Hunt

Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism by Melinda Cooper