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Honestly, I think I have a pretty good handle on most of the concepts. Obviously, I don't know a damn thing about any of the math, but none of the ideas really stretch my brain out past its limits...

father of lies wrote:Honestly, I think I have a pretty good handle on most of the concepts. Obviously, I don't know a damn thing about any of the math, but none of the ideas really stretch my brain out past its limits...

anyone can "imagine" the superposition of an electron, but to actually conceive the how and why this is possible can only be done by aliens

mithrandir wrote:

father of lies wrote:Honestly, I think I have a pretty good handle on most of the concepts. Obviously, I don't know a damn thing about any of the math, but none of the ideas really stretch my brain out past its limits...

anyone can "imagine" the superposition of an electron, but to actually conceive the how and why this is possible can only be done by aliens

there's a quote i like about quantum mechanics, that if it doesn't shatter your psyche then you don't understand it.

I should rephrase. It doesn't stretch my brain past its limits ANY MORE.

Oil! - Upton Sinclair - 9

"Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult and Imitation in American Popular Culture" by John Strausbaugh -- 9/10. Great read that addresses the Blackface, minstrel legacy that still influences popular culture today. The author doesn't try to demonize the phenomenon but tries to understand it in its cultural context and its lasting impact.

riley-o wrote:

mithrandir wrote:

father of lies wrote:Honestly, I think I have a pretty good handle on most of the concepts. Obviously, I don't know a damn thing about any of the math, but none of the ideas really stretch my brain out past its limits...

anyone can "imagine" the superposition of an electron, but to actually conceive the how and why this is possible can only be done by aliens

there's a quote i like about quantum mechanics, that if it doesn't shatter your psyche then you don't understand it.

A professor I once had, after explaining super-position mathematically, remarked with an Italian accent and the help of two missing teeth, "So the particle... the physicists they say it is in superposition. It is neither up nor down, neither positive nor negative, it exists as a superposition, you see... Well that's very nice, but WHAT IN THE HELL DOES IT MEAN?!"

VALIS - Philip KDick

HORSELOVER FAT

Glamorama by Bret Easton Ellis - 7/10 - This pretty much takes the style Ellis had worked on in his previous books to its logical high point and conclusion. Sometimes I wondered what the hell was going on and when he was going to get to the point, but about halfway through I realized that IS the point, the reader is supposed to feel as disoriented as Victor does. I'm glad I read it after his other stuff (other than Lunar Park, which I plan to tackle in the future) otherwise this book would've had me in over my head.

Scorsese by Roger Ebert - 8/10 - Ebert's writing style is vivid and fascinating and draws the reader in immediately - even if you haven't seen some of these movies, this book will make you want to. Includes original reviews of every Scorsese film plus interviews, Q+A sessions, biographical info and second looks at some of his films. Definitely a must-have for fans of either man.

12 Months of Mao wrote:More Information Than You Require - J. Hodgeman - 7.5
Very funny, probably enjoyed it more than Areas of My Expertise, although I gave up about 200 names into the list of all living mole men. However, I would like to see Hodgeman try his hand at something with an actual story instead of just these almanacs of retarded facts. Two is alright, but a third would be pushing it.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/john ... ssion.html

In Harm's Way - Doug Stanton

It's the story of the USS Indianapolis. It was the World War II ship that delivered the Hiroshima bomb. After delivering the bomb to the island of Tinian it was en route to Leyte and was sunk by a Japanese submarine. The men in the boat were in the ocean for 5 days before anybody in the Navy realized they were missing. The Captain was the only Captain in US history to be court marshaled for losing his ship.


I give it a 10...great book.

Christopher Steiner - African Art in Transit 7/10
Pretty interesting stuff about "authenticity" and the African art market.

Webb Keane - Christian Moderns 9/10
Incredibly dense but also very good examination of Calvinist missionaries in Indonesia, with special emphasis on "semiotic ideology," ideologies about communication, agency, and materiality.

Saba Mahmood - Politics of Piety 8/10
Rethinking agency through an examination of women's participation in the Islamic Revival in Egypt.

The Dain Curse - Dashiell Hammett: 7/10
The Violent Bear it Away - Flannery O'Connor: 9/10

Erica Bornstein -Spirit of Development 6/10
It's about Christian development NGOs in Zimbabwe. It was very shallow in the theory department.

Roberto Esposito - Bios 5/10
This is of some interest for people really into the Foucault/Agamben biopolitics thing. Ambitious, but poorly developed. There's no "there" there.

Angel Dust Apocalypse by Jeremy Robert Johnson

A quick, brain-candy read for those looking for something entertaining. Short stories that range in subject matter from men constructing cock-roach suits to survive a nuclear winter, to an abortive rebirthing machine that changes fetishistic diaper-wearing men into deformed children. It's an easy, interesting read but it's doubtful you'll read it again.

6.5/10

A Child Called It - David Pelzer
The Lost Boy - David Pelzer
A Man Named David - David Pelzer

8/10 for the whole trilogy, entertaining from start to finish. The first two books would make a great movie if anyone had the balls to do it properly and not all "Lifetime" like.

The Moon is Down - John Steinbeck: 8/10
10/10 if I were living in an occupied country.

Concrete - Thomas Bernhard - 6.5
Sort of an Austrian Kafka, but without that sense of bitter humor. Also reminded me quite a bit of Hunger by Knut Hamsun in the way that the madness of the main character was very circular and self-fulfilling. However, I feel like that would have come across better if I'd just read this in one sitting instead of splitting it up on lunch breaks. It's only 156 pages and one reading probably would have let the whole thing gain more momentum. I'll be reading this again on a day off.

Blood Meridian - 10/10

Honestly there were a few things that didn't work for me in this but it was due to flaws of my character, certainly not any fault of the book, which is flawless.

I'm just about done Creation by Gore Vidal. More infinitely detailed historic fiction about the Persian Empire and its dealings with Greece, India and China. It's good, and has all the requisite humor, irony and hypocrisy, but it's not as interesting as Lincoln, 1876 or Empire, although strangely enough it probably says as much about America as any of those books do.

7/10

good shit. 7.75/10

12 Months of Mao wrote:Concrete - Thomas Bernhard - 6.5
Sort of an Austrian Kafka, but without that sense of bitter humor. Also reminded me quite a bit of Hunger by Knut Hamsun in the way that the madness of the main character was very circular and self-fulfilling. However, I feel like that would have come across better if I'd just read this in one sitting instead of splitting it up on lunch breaks. It's only 156 pages and one reading probably would have let the whole thing gain more momentum. I'll be reading this again on a day off.

woah, i'm really impressed to find some bernhard on here.
while i did enjoy "beton" (concrete) a lot. it's one of his later works, in which he already was noticeably moody, meaning old and grumpy and most of his stories are about alienated intellectuals who try to accomplish something (like writing a text or so), but are hindered by things around them.
his early novels are definitely more recommended for people who are new to his writings and to non-austrian people (the older he got, the more space he dedicated for stabs on austrian society). "frost" and "kalkwerk" (lime works) would be the one's i'd recommend. the topics are similar, but his focus was still on the story and not on his way of writing like later - he had a unique way of writing the same words over and over again, like some kind of machine. i really wonder how much of his work is translatable... but he is very popular in france, so i guess it works sometimes.
he definitely is no kafka - he never has this dreamlike absurdity, he is always very down to earth in his stories -, i think he's more like beckett, just bernhard's characters are much more malignant and most times very much themselves to blame for their isolation. maybe he somewhat like bukowski in spirit, although completely sober and anti-emotional.

Phritz wrote:stuff about Bernhard

I figured that you might have some familiarity with Berhnard. My roommate passed this book on to me. I've also tried to read Gargoyles, but that was also on my lunch breaks and as soon as I got to the Prince's uninterrupted monologue I had to give up in favor of something with chapters. I really do feel that I need to sit down and read his works in one go. I'll definitely be adding your recommendations to my list as I would like to see him work with more direction. I don't know where Gargoyles figures into his bibliography, but that featured a more defined story set of characters than Concrete. As for how it translates, the main character was definitely very repetitive and focused on certain things, so the obsessive loop of his brain comes across.

And yeah, Beckett is definitely a more accurate comparison. I was thinking of both Kafka and Berhard's obvious distaste for the societies in which they lived, but the blatant matter of fact-ness of Bernhard and Beckett is very similar. Beckett's another author who has given me trouble. I'm just no good with streams of uninterrupted text.

12 Months of Mao wrote:

Phritz wrote:stuff about Bernhard

I'm just no good with streams of uninterrupted text.

haha, me neither. i can't even really remember if i ever read "verstörung" (gargoyles - a more literal translation would be: "disturbance" or "disorder") or not. some of his texts are really barely readable, for example "amras" - a guy sitting in some kind of tower thinking about selling the premises - and "watten" - a doctor on his way to play cards with some neighbors.
the wikipedia description is pretty accurate: a hundred-page monologue by an eccentric, paranoid man, a relentlessly flowing cascade of words that is classic Bernhard: the furious logorrhea is a mesmeric rant

but luckily not all of his texts are like that. there are 5 autobiographical works, about him growing up in salzburg (that's where i'm from too) during the world war - those are pretty normal, stylistically, and humourous. then there are the super-repetive works. his later work ("concrete" is pretty good example for it, i think). and a lot of drama plays, most of which were huge scandals at the time. at the time of his death bernhard was most likely the most hated person in his homeland. you couldn't believe that anymore today, but at the time his plays and writing were immensely scandalous in austria.

and i had trouble reading some of beckett's stuff too. i absolutely love his trilogy. but still i haven't managed to read some of his other books, like "texts about nothing" and others.

father of lies wrote:Carlin - When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops? - 7

Live>books

Yeah, maybe, but Brain Droppings is way, way better.


I put down Pork Chops because he kept going on and on about euphemisms...