Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Takhisis]

And when does each wave take place?

 

[Zkribbler]

[Note: These are my dates, gleaned from the pages of the book. Dr. Fischer tracks many elements: grain prices, wages, rents, prices of manufactured goods, crime, weather, etc. and does so over many countries, first in Europe, then in Europe & North American, and with some nods to the rest of the world. Not everything moves at the same time.]

1st Wave:
Medieval Price Revolution [i.e. inflation]: 1180-1350
14th Century Crisis: 1350-1400
Renaissance Equilibrium: 1400-1500

2nd Wave:
16th Century Price Revolution: 1500-1600
17th Century Crisis: 1600-1660
Equilibrium of the Enlightenment: 1660-1740

3rd Wave:
18th Century Price Revolution: 1720-1760
Revolutionary Crisis: 1760-1820
Victorian Equilibrium: 1820-1900

4th Wave
20th Century Price Revolution: 1900-1990

[Book Published 1996]

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Borrowed and finished (yeah, only 187 pages with only 2 paragraphs on each page, and some pages are just pictures or quotes) Memes in Digital Culture by Limor Shifman. Like them or not, they are essential communication tools of the World Wide Web that need to be studied seriously. The book also makes the distinction between viral (what is shared) and memetic (recreated and remixed) content.

 

[cardgame]

Does that explain how the year of the revolution, 1848-9, fall under an equilibrium age?

Borrowed and finished (yeah, only 187 pages with only 2 paragraphs on each page, and some pages are just pictures or quotes) Memes in Digital Culture by Limor Shifman. Like them or not, they are essential communication tools of the World Wide Web that need to be studied seriously. The book also makes the distinction between viral (what is shared) and memetic (recreated and remixed) content.

How many years out of date was it?

 

[Flying Pig]

Yes, I'm a bit confused by that one. One of the big reasons why unrest grew across Europe in the first half of the 19th century was rising food prices.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

How many years out of date was it?

It was published this year. The latest date reference is in 2012, to PSY's Gangnam Style breaking YouTube view count records. So I suppose anywhere from 1-2 years.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I just finished Sailing from Byzantium, on the Byzantine empire's influence on the Renaissance, Eastern Europe, and Islam.

I'm now starting two works: a novel called Lord of the World, an end of days dystopia in which a triumphant Marxist new world order attempts to deliver the coup de grace by destroying the last remnants of the past, a lingering Catholic resistance. The second book is Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm now starting two works: a novel called Lord of the World, an end of days dystopia in which a triumphant Marxist new world order attempts to deliver the coup de grace by destroying the last remnants of the past, a lingering Catholic resistance.

In the early 21st century, Marxism and Humanism, which are described as the instruments of Freemasonry, have come to dominate both culture and government.

People have no history or hope so they often turn to euthanasia, which is mandatory for the ill, disabled, and dying. Further there is a single global government that uses Esperanto for a common language. Westminster Cathedral is the only church in London that is still used for religious purposes, with the others having become Masonic lodges. Protestantism is virtually dead, Oxford University has been abolished, and the Royal Houses of Europe have been deposed and replaced with Marxist-Masonic one party states.

[...]

Belief in God is replaced by the religion of Humanity modeled on that of Auguste Comte. All those who oppose this doctrine are subjected to torture and summary execution.

This book sounds gloriously deranged.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I'm sure it has a balanced, nuanced view of Marxism and humanism.

Anyway, a collection of hypoxia biology papers for my tablet, and On the Map by Simon Garfield. The last one is about maps.

 

[Smellincoffee]

This book sounds gloriously deranged.

The Freemason stuff is beyond me -- I'm not sure what the Church has against them. It was written early in the 20th century (1907); Jack London's Iron Heel predates it, and that was great fun (1906). One astonishing thing I've noticed is that the author regards the universities as monastery-like, bastions of resistance against modernity, when for most of the 20th century they have been the propagators of whatever is passing for progressivism.

London's Iron Heel predicted a socialist victory (after a fascist coup), and H.G. Wells' The Outline of Things to Come forecast a triumphant progressive, humanistic world government, so it's not so far from what was being expected at the time by those who were familiar with 'scientific' socialism, of inevitable progress. The Antrichrist angle is unusual for a Catholic novel, I suppose; I associate that kind of thing with low-church evangelicals, a la Left Behind.

I'm at the point where the unknown senator who just prevented a war between Oceania and Eastasia- I mean, the West and the East -- is just showing up and working his charismatic magic on people. (There's a western faction, an eastern union between China and Japan, and America; the world is divided between the three powers.)

 

[Flying Pig]

The Freemason stuff is beyond me -- I'm not sure what the Church has against them. It was written early in the 20th century (1907); Jack London's Iron Heel predates it, and that was great fun (1906). One astonishing thing I've noticed is that the author regards the universities as monastery-like, bastions of resistance against modernity, when for most of the 20th century they have been the propagators of whatever is passing for progressivism.

I think the universities like Oxford, Cambridge et al who were around in 1907 have a decidedly uneasy relationship with progressivism.

 

[ParkCungHee]

This book sounds gloriously deranged.

It sounds like A Canticle for Liebowitz on drugs.

 

[sophie]

I'd love to get some recommendations from people if anybody's willing to give them:

So as some of you may know, I've been reading through the German translations of the Harry Potter series to help improve my German. I'm most of the way through book 7 right now, and I'm looking for the next book to read. I've already bought the first two Game of Thrones translations as I figure that might be something really easy to get sucked into, but I would love to find some good German books that were German to begin with, rather than German translations. I'd say I'm probably around the level of a 12 or 13 year old reader at this point. Harry Potter reads fairly easily for me now, but I don't think I'm at all ready for a Goethe or Mann or Kafka. Anybody have any recommendations? It doesn't have to be high literature (obviously) or anything like that. Just something that I'm going to read and understand and enjoy.

Thanks!

 

[_random_]

King David: A Biography by Steven McKenzie. Exactly what it says on the tin. It's a pretty easy read, and I tend to find McKenzie's arguments regarding which parts of the Biblical record are historically accurate and which parts are apologetic or legendary to be fairly convincing.

 

[Takhisis]

(…) Anybody have any recommendations? It doesn't have to be high literature (obviously) or anything like that. Just something that I'm going to read and understand and enjoy.

Thanks!

I recommend that you read Die Abenteuer des Röde Orm by Frans G. Bengtsson. It's seriously good reading.

 

[Verarde]

Starting Unbroken tonight in preparation for the movie. Hoo boy.

 

[Takhisis]

Play my mafia game instead!

btw headed towards Michael Grant's The Classical Greeks. Maybe I should review its predecessor.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Unfortunately, these days, most of my "reading" is actually "listening" as I listen to audiobooks during my 2 hours of commuting every day. Right now listening to the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo, which is a classic for a reason, it's great, although I kind of wish I had gotten an abridged version. It seems like there's a lot of stuff that doesn't tie into the main plot much at all. I mean it's still interesting, but I don't really care about this stuff that's happening in Italy, I want to get to the bits were the guys who set the main character up get their comeuppance .

 

[JohannaK]

Just listen to it all. You'll see how it's worth it.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Finally, after a semester of on and off reading I finished The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth Century Invasion of Korea by Samuel Hawley. Wonderfully detailed and all I could ask for on the conflict. All I need now is to find a book with the Chinese interpretation of the conflict and I'll have all three important perspectives down.

Of course, I don't think one exists sadly. At least in English.