Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
He inspires a lot of morbid interest. One Frankfurt school associate, Erich Fromm, believed he was a necrophiliac.
Which book are you reading now? Volume XI
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He inspires a lot of morbid interest. One Frankfurt school associate, Erich Fromm, believed he was a necrophiliac.
I guess WW2 produced lots of opportunity for him then.
GoodEnoughForMe
n.m.s.s.
I'm reading Fates and Furies, which I am finding disarmingly well written so far, funny and and humanistic and just a nice read.
Snerk
Smeghead
I like to sleep in cold rooms too! Does that mean I will invade russia and blame all problems on the jews and the gays?
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
Only after forcing Denmark and Sweden and Finland into a Scandinavian Union under Oslo.
Snerk
Smeghead
So not all bad then.
Snerk
Smeghead
So Leicester is the most supreme city in England? Fair enough! We'll move our embassy tomorrow.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
The Communist Hypothesis - Alain Badiou. A series of essays on May 1968, the Cultural Revolution, and the Paris Commune, and the question of building socialism in the 21st century. Very enjoyable so far.
And I just ordered Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx by Louis Althusser.
And I just ordered Politics and History: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Marx by Louis Althusser.
Finished another two:
What Every Person Should Know About WAR by Hedges - It's a bit morbid and unsettling to read. Basically, it's structured in a question-and-answer and describes army recruitment, service, getting shot and shelled, what happens to your body if you die on the field, etc. and it's sourced to army manuals, literature, and news reports for casualty statistics. Chickenhawks should be reading this.
The Immortal Emperor by Nicol - This is a relatively short work on the final East Roman emperor, Constantine XI, focusing on his time as a despot in Mistra and later as emperor, particularly during the Turkish siege. Also, a chapter covers the mystery/legends/conflicting accounts of his death and final resting place. It references several Greek sources and biographies that haven't, to my knowledge, been published in English. I don't know who first recommended it to me because I've waited for a long while to get my hands on it--it's apparently a rare find in the libraries and it's fairly expensive on Amazon (often runs around $25-30 even in paperback form). I'm not in tune enough with late-empire scholarship to characterize his account on the events, but I liked it.
What Every Person Should Know About WAR by Hedges - It's a bit morbid and unsettling to read. Basically, it's structured in a question-and-answer and describes army recruitment, service, getting shot and shelled, what happens to your body if you die on the field, etc. and it's sourced to army manuals, literature, and news reports for casualty statistics. Chickenhawks should be reading this.
The Immortal Emperor by Nicol - This is a relatively short work on the final East Roman emperor, Constantine XI, focusing on his time as a despot in Mistra and later as emperor, particularly during the Turkish siege. Also, a chapter covers the mystery/legends/conflicting accounts of his death and final resting place. It references several Greek sources and biographies that haven't, to my knowledge, been published in English. I don't know who first recommended it to me because I've waited for a long while to get my hands on it--it's apparently a rare find in the libraries and it's fairly expensive on Amazon (often runs around $25-30 even in paperback form). I'm not in tune enough with late-empire scholarship to characterize his account on the events, but I liked it.
Smellincoffee
Trekkie At Large
Why? Theirs aren't the bodies in bags. So long as the defense contractors get their money, Congress gets its money, and everybody is happy save for the dead kid and his family.
I read Hedges once...Empire of Illusion. I found it dispiriting and now avoid him.
I'm plugging through The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World. Not as informative as I'd hoped so far..
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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Yeah in my experience, once you really delve into what war - any war - means - themes of good and bad sides tend to evaporate into shallow nothingness.
"Assad is evil - we will show him and what is right be killing thousands and thousands of families. I mean, by killing hundreds of evil people and thousands and thousands of families by accident."
The recent French hits did - as I predicted- kill many innocents. No one reports about that.
But hooray vengeance and justice!
It's such an absurd world.
"Assad is evil - we will show him and what is right be killing thousands and thousands of families. I mean, by killing hundreds of evil people and thousands and thousands of families by accident."
The recent French hits did - as I predicted- kill many innocents. No one reports about that.
But hooray vengeance and justice!
It's such an absurd world.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
There is only so much precision in bombing. The killing of civilians is a foregone conclusion when explosives are involved.
Assad has killed at least a hundred thousand, displaced millions, is starving Palestinian refugee camps and torturing hundreds of people. So a hundred people died in the Paris attacks? That's what you call Wednesday in Damascus.
EgonSpengler
Deity
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Amazon is selling ebooks of seemingly everything Arthur C. Clarke has ever written for $1.99 each, so I got Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama. Also The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata, military sci fi published in 2013.
I recommend Future Visions to sci fi fans, not just because it's free. Authors: Harry Shum, Rick Rashid, Seanan McGuire, Greg Bear, Elizabeth Bear, Nancy Kress, Jack McDevitt, Blue Delliquanti, Robert J. Sawyer, David Brin, and Ann Leckie.
I recommend Future Visions to sci fi fans, not just because it's free. Authors: Harry Shum, Rick Rashid, Seanan McGuire, Greg Bear, Elizabeth Bear, Nancy Kress, Jack McDevitt, Blue Delliquanti, Robert J. Sawyer, David Brin, and Ann Leckie.
Started on Terry Pratchett's Strata. Enqueued Jane Austen's Emma, hoping to use this as a guide.
*giggles*
I can't tell if you are being tongue-in-cheek or not.
I mean, I strongly, strongly, suspect it, but you can never tell on the internet.
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