Books
A lot of you probably know about *An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States* by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. I found out that it's actually part of a series along with six other US history books (Afro-American, African American and Latinx, Asian American, Black Women's, Disability, and Queer histories of the US). Has anyone read these other books or knows if they're good? They're all available for free on Libgen or Anna's Archive.
lithub.com
Anyone else keeping up with the anti-library and book-banning movements?
The previous books in the series were [*The Collapse of Antiquity*](https://michael-hudson.com/2023/03/the-collapse-of-antiquity-release/) and *[…and forgive them their debts](https://michael-hudson.com/2018/08/and-forgive-them-their-debts/)*. I don’t know how he cranks these out, on top of his articles, [YouTube series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP), and endless interviews.
"the more she ate the more she shat" Classic GRRM.
Moar Selmy. Moar "mummer's farce."
"The Ugly Little Girl" Just like me fr
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/18017207 > I heard a lot of praise for Bulgakov's oeuvre in the past, so I decided to give it a go. > > I have read Russian literature in the past by recommendation of family and friends who always showed much interest in it; be it Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov or Pushkin. > > But recently I noticed that knowledge of Russian literature virtually stops at the onset of the revolution. When it comes to the Soviet era, there is a sort of intentional silence regarding the literature of that time, at least in the West and its colonized peripheries. Anecdotally, I once had a conversation with my mother during which she claimed that the Soviet period was a dark time to be living in Russia. When I asked her what's the basis of her statement, she said this is based on the novels she read, citing Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. The awkward smile on her face after telling her that these authors died decades before the revolution was priceless; bless her heart, but I am digressing. > > When a few exceptions of Soviet literature emerge out of the iron curtain, it turns out to be some anticommunist rambling, just like Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. > > Considering the critical acclaim, it feels wrong to say that I found it to be average. Was I supposed to cheer for the devil and his retinue as they terrorize Moscow? Maybe it's my ideological orientation which prevents me from fully engaging with the novel, and I'm alright with that. Though I did enjoy the chapters narrating Pontius Pilate's encounter with Yeshua Ha-Nozri. > > Anyhow, was Soviet literature ever popular? Did it die out after the collapse of the union? Or has it always been curtailed in the West?
Check it out. Get the first book from your local library or for free as well from Z Library (PDF version). First book in the series is *A Game of Thrones*.
Check it out. Start with *A Game of Thrones*, Book 1 of *A Song of Ice and Fire*, and then go from there. I have my mechanical keyboard attached to my tablet so I'm able to type again without the screen, even if I don't have my computer. Take care, folks. Start here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PKNG8t-XPho&list=PLMLTM7CoBZvIs5vNnwL3Ee25qbyudFda4&index=1&t=3s&pp=iAQB You can also get *A Game of Thrones* from your local library; best to patronize it while they're under attack by the right-wing.
*Empire of Normality: Neurodiversity and Capitalism* by Robert Chapman is what I'll be exploring. Anyone want to read along with me?
tværpostet fra: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4611140 > I loved this book just as much as Leviathan Wakes. 9/10. I would highly recommend this to anyone who's a fan of science fiction, and his read Leviathan Wakes
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/4150047 > Just helping someone out.
I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning about the Soviet Union, their trade unions, their working conditions, their technology, or what life was like for visitors.
The best way I could describe Uruguayan Journalist Eduardo Galeano's book is that it's a poetical obituary of the *art* of soccer. As the author writes in the first lines, “the history of soccer is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. When the sport became an industry, the beauty that blossoms from the joy of play got torn out by its very roots. In this fin de siècle world, professional soccer condemns all that is useless, and useless means not profitable.” Galeano recounts the development of the sport from its ancient roots, its bourgeois upbringings in the modern age, through its proletarisation and to its eventual commercialisation by the global market. The history of soccer is one of those few instances whose origins are less grim than their present actuality. >The fact is that professional players offer their labor power to the factories of spectacle in exchange for a wage. The price depends on performance, and the more they get paid the more they are expected to produce. Trained to win or to win, squeezed to the last calorie, they are treated worse than racehorses. Soccer in the chaotic 20th century turned from an innocent sport into a profitable and equally shady industry milked to its last bit by bureaucrats, merchants and corporations. Players are owned and sold and disposed of like slaves in plantations. The profession being shaped by the entertainment industry, the common man fails to regard the soccer player (or of any other mainstream sport for that matter) as a worker with labour rights, and the international bureaucracy tries its best to maintain the status quo. >The machinery of spectacle grinds up everything in its path, nothing lasts very long, and the manager is as disposable as any other product of consumer society. But, despite the chronological narration, this is no history book, far from it. The passion and vividness in which the author describes some of most iconic plays from around the world, old amd new, capture a beaty that no camera or TV screen can ever catch. To Galeano, soccer is an art; the players are performers; and the stadium is a theatre. He denounces the mechanical vocabulary employed by the critics and commentators: the players of the Argentine club River Plate couldn't be a "Machine" when they had so much fun they'd forget to shoot at the goal; the 1974 world cup Dutch team nicknamed "Clockwork Orange" was more of a jazz band. The reader throughout the book ceases to be simply a spectator. No, he is now bonding with the fatigued striker, the goalkeeper criminalised by the fans, the distressed referee, the suicidal star and so on. Galeano remains very much aware that sport cannot be detached from the politics of our age. To some fans, especially in South America, >The club is the only identity card [they] believe in. And in many cases the shirt, the anthem, and the flag embody deeply felt traditions that may find expression on the playing field but spring from the depths of a community’s history. ”Soccer and fatherland are always connected, and politicians and dictators frequently exploit those links of identity.” The championship is a national pride, countries host the world cup to bleach the regime's record of oppression, wins are offrances to the monarch or the tyrant. Being a Uruguayan, the author shifts the spectacle of soccer from the European pitches to the South American turf, breaking the mythological narrative of European dominance and superiority in a sport that had no meaning before the Brazilian Mulattoes Friedenrich and Pelé, the Argentine Di Stéfano, the grandsons of slaves Gradín and Delgado, all dabbled with the ball. The *game* of soccer was and still is the source of happiness and glimmer of hope for the youth of the world. As for the professional sport, we must mourn its beautiful past and cry on the cold body that is shamelessly called “soccer.”
I have made what I believe to be the first reflowable version of "This Soviet World" by Anna Louise Strong. This book is incredibly fucking good. READ IT. (please) Download my EPUB version: https://comlib.encryptionin.space (or https://archive.org/details/this-soviet-world-anna-louise-strong)
> From 2010 to 2020, the world experienced mass protests. Yet, those protests have not brought about more democracy and freedom. Why did these protests lead to the opposite of what they supposedly demanded? In this episode, journalist Vincent Bevins joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution (2023). I haven't read the book, but in this interview they cover the role of mass media in how it portrays and effects street protests, covering examples in Brazil, also touching on the Arab Spring, Euromaidan, and Hong Kong, discussing what the mass media selectively covers and leaves out, how attracting media attention has altered what kind of protests occur, and how decentralized movements without clear demands, a structure of decision making, or plans for how to exercise power are subjected to being co-opted.
Right now, at least 3 publishers are giving away ebooks and promoting reading lists on the topic: * [Verso](https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/5078-palestinian-solidarity-reading-list) * [Haymarket](https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/495-free-ebooks-for-a-free-palestine) * [Pluto](https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745347493/greater-than-the-sum-of-our-parts/) (full reading list [here](https://www.plutobooks.com/free-palestine-reading-list/)) If you know of any others, please share
I'm currently working through Orlando Patterson's *Slavery and Social Death*. Wikipedia says > Orlando Patterson's book Slavery and Social Death, first published in 1982, forms a theoretical point of departure for almost all strands of Afro-pessimism. but also notes that according to Patterson, his concept/definition of social death doesn't apply to contemporary black life in the USA. What should I read next to understand the Afropessimist arguments that Patterson's conception of social death is too narrow, etc.?
www.youtube.com
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/778494 > Is anyone else also into "BookTube" or "BookTok"? > > Just discovered this person randomly, kinda by accident. I saw his video, saw that he had only a few views at best, and decided to watch. I try to patronize YouTube channels that are "new" (not sure of anyone really does the same). I wanted to also promote it as well to help him out. > > On another note, does anyone feel that YouTube algorithms are somehow "better" now? Compared to where they were before? I'm actually discovering interesting stuff now.
A [comrade](https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2573106) has provided a presumably more long-lived link [here](https://data2.encryptionin.space/fakecovers.zip). On my Kobo Clara 2E, putting them all in **.kobo\screensaver\\** causes the reader to load a random image every time I turn it off. Probably works very similar for other Kobo readers. Non-permanent links: [link1](https://we.tl/t-6fxPM6hQMJ) [link2](https://1fichier.com/?hd7129jdi5jocrocwpfx) [link3](https://pixeldrain.com/u/MALgatv1). If all the links are dead at some point, I can upload again. Honestly stolen from [Paperback Paradise](https://paperback-paradise.com/), [@paprbckparadise@twitter](https://nitter.net/paprbckparadise), [paperback-paradise@tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/paperback-paradise)
www.goodreads.com
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/742102 > What are you anticipating?
www.goodreads.com
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/742101 > Books, books, and more books.
[Goodreads link.](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/112517.Rama_Revealed) A different take on war. The most relevant 25% of the excerpt is in bold: "I have volunteered," their octospider friend said, "to negotiate personally with the human leaders in an attempt to stop this conflict before it escalates into full-scale war. To accomplish this, however, I must Obviously have some help. If I suddenly appear in the camp of the human soldiers, they will kill me. Even if they do not, they will have no way of understanding what I am telling them. So some human who understands our language must accompany me to translate my colors or there's no way that a meaningful dialogue can be started." After Richard and Nicole told the Chief Optimizer that they had no disagreement with the basic concept proposed by Archie, the two humans and their octospider colleague were left alone to discuss the details. Archie's idea was straightforward. Nicole and he would approach the camp near the Cylindrical Sea together and would request a meeting with Nakamura and the other human leaders. At that meeting Archie and Nicole would explain that the octospiders were a peace-loving species who had no territorial claims on the north side of the Cylindrical Sea. Archie would request that the humans withdraw from their camp and cease their overflights. If necessary, as a token of the goodwill of the octospiders, Archie would offer to supply quantities of food and water to help the humans through their current difficulties. A permanent relationship between the two species would be established and a treaty drafted to codify the agreement. "Jesus," Richard said after he finished translating Archie's comments. "And I thought Nicole was an idealist!" Archie did not understand Richard's remark. Nicole patiently explained to the octospider that the leaders of New Eden were not likely to be as reasonable as Archie was assuming. "It is entirely possible," Nicole said, to stress the danger of what Archie was proposing, "that they will kill us both before we are ever allowed to say anything." Archie kept insisting that what he was proposing was bound to be accepted eventually because it was clearly in the best interests of the humans living in New Eden. "Look, Archie," Richard responded in frustration, "what you said is just not correct. There are many human beings, including Nakamura, who do not give a shit what is good for the colony. In fact, the common welfare is not even a factor in the subconscious objective function, to use your terms-, that governs their behavior. All they care about is themselves. Every decision is weighed in terms of whether or not it will increase their own personal power or influence. In our history, leaders have often destroyed their own countries or colonies in attempts to retain their power." The octospider was stubborn. "What you are describing just cannot be true in an advanced species," Archie insisted. "The fundamental laws of evolution clearly indicate that those species whose primary value is the welfare of the group will outlast those in which the individual is supreme. Are you suggesting that human beings are an aberration of some kind, a freak of nature violating a fundamental—" Nicole interrupted. 'This is all very interesting, you two," she said, "but we have some more pressing business. We must design a plan of action that has no pitfalls. . . . Richard, if you don't like Archie's plan, what do you suggest?" Richard reflected for several seconds before speaking. "I believe that Nakamura has committed New Eden to this action against the octospiders for many reasons, one of which is to preclude criticism of the domestic failures by his government. I do not think he will be dissuaded from his course unless the citizens are overwhelmingly against the war, and, I'm sorry to say, I don't think that will happen unless the colonists are convinced the war will be a disaster." "So you think threats are necessary?" Nicole said. "As a minimum. What would be perfect would be a demonstration of military might by the octospiders," Richard said. "I'm afraid that's impossible," Archie commented, "at least under the current circumstances." -------- **"Why?" Richard asked. 'The Chief Optimizer spoke with confidence about winning any war that might occur. If you were to attack and utterly destroy that camp—"** **"Now it is you who do not understand us," Archie said. "Because war, or any conflict that can result in deliberate deaths, is such a nonoptimal way of resolving disputes, our colony has very strict regulations governing concerted hostile actions. Controls are built into our society to make war absolutely the solution of the last resort. We have no standing army and no stockpile of weapons, for example. And there are other restraints as well. All optimizers participating in a decision to declare war, as well as all octospiders engaging in an armed conflict, are immediately terminated after the war."** **"Whaaat?" said Richard, not believing his translator. "That's not possible."** **"Yes, it is," Archie said. "As you can imagine, these factors significantly deter our participation in nondefensive hostilities. The Chief Optimizer knows that she signed her own death warrant two weeks ago when she authorized the beginning of war preparations. All eighty of the octospiders now living and working in the War Domain will be terminated when this war is either concluded or the threat of war has officially passed. ... I myself, since I was part of the discussions today, will be placed on the termination lists if war is declared."** **Richard and Nicole were speechless. "The only possible justification for war to an octospider," Archie continued, "is an unambiguous threat to the very survival of the colony. Once that threat is identified and acknowledged, our species undergoes a metamorphosis and prosecutes the war, without mercy, until either the threat is obliterated or our colony has been destroyed. Generations ago, some very wise optimizers realized that those individual octospiders who were engaged in killing, and the design of killing, were so psychologically altered by their experiences that they became a significant detriment to the operation of a peaceful colony. That's why the termination codicils were enacted."**
What did you think? Is it worthwhile picking up? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekonomics
lareviewofbooks.org
cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/612037 > Claude McKay, I think, was apart of the CPUSA.
I'm only really interested in books written in the last 30 years and ones that are accessible to complete newbies. Thanks!
As the title says , is it a good read?
The Upton Sinclair classic is filled with labor relations, leftist struggle sessions, and disproving American imperial propaganda, but we get a movie about mean oil man doing mean things. What a travesty and an erasure of Sinclair's message. The man could layer irony on so thick that it would make Chapos jealous. Has anyone here read the book, and, if so, what are your favorite passages? Mine is: >Someone mentioned another stunt of the returned soldiers—their setting up a censorship of moving pictures. One Angel City theatre had started to show a German film, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” and this Hun invasion had so outraged the Legion men, they had put on their uniforms and blockaded the theatre, and beaten up the people who tried to get in. Tommy Paley laughed—the courage of each of those veterans had been fortified by a five-dollar bill, contributed by the association of motion picture producers! They didn’t want foreign films that set them too high a standard! >Then Schmolsky. He was too fat to comprehend such a thing as irony, and he remarked that the directors were mighty damn right. Schmolsky, a Jew from Ruthenia, or Rumelia, or Roumania, or some such country, said that we didn’t want no foreign films breaking in on our production schedules. An hour or so later Bunny heard him telling how the Hollywood films were sweeping the German market—it wouldn’t be three years before we’d own this business. “Vae victis!” remarked Bunny; and Schmolsky looked at him, puzzled, and said, “Huh?” Vae victis, indeed. The entire text can be found here for free: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70379
Discussion questions: What new books are you reading? Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction? Question of the week: What books are you eager to read that you haven’t read yet? Enjoy!
I'm talking works by Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, Joseph Heller, Stephen King, Art Spiegelman, Elie Wiesel, Daniel Keyes, etc. I haven't read any from these I've mentioned, I just have a bias that tells me they're overrated trash. I think it's quite common on american "classics" (not just books but also films) a certain political defeatism or instead a very liberal surface level criticism of "bad things" (Steinbeck stays winning). And then these barren ideas get louded as incredible literature classics (which makes sense as far as the rulling class's efforts for maintaining the status quo are concerned). But as I've said this is my analysis a priori of having read such novels, but are there actually redeeming qualities on those novels that make them worthy of pursuing? I'm not that interested in style but I can see that some of the authors mentioned have that idiosyncrasy going for them. Also I'm sure some do get the problems they're writing about and maybe that analysis, even if it doesn't go all the way, is a good enough quality. (I write this about american novels in particular but it clearly expands to other 'classics'. Unfortunately I have read stuff by that Orwell fella which is a clear perpetrator of the crimes I've mentioned. I focused on the american side because most of the 'classics' lists are filled with them (they're anglocentric in general but more american-sided))
I'm reading *The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce* (Delphi edition) on my tablet. Just finished *Legendborn* as well. *The Dark Forest* by Liu Cixin is also what I'm reading (second book in the trilogy of *The Three-Body Problem*) In terms of non-fiction: *Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism (2nd Edition)* by Otto Wille Kuusinen (*highly* recommended!) *Class, Race and Black Liberation* by Henry Winston (also *highly* recommmend! ...Though not before reading the prequel to the book *Strategy for a Black Agenda*) Discussion questions: What new books are you reading? Do you prefer fiction or non-fiction? Question of the week: What books are you eager to read that you haven't read yet? Enjoy!
