What are you reading

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Fanzine themed evenings here, as of late. Special Interests #11 arrived a few days ago, so I've been reading it along with #1 of Dungeon Synth zine Rotstock (and, for some reason I cannot explain, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book far more hilarious and intelligent when you're 15 or so). To top things off, I've been perusing Shocktilt #2, which has inspired a few music purchases.

Additionally, my work situation has changed so that audiobooks are now essential to even exist. Along with various The Great Courses (Indian History, Christian/Islamic/Jewish Mysticism and a long course on Bach), I'm heavily into old AD&D novels now. Mindless Fantasy, with tolerable levels of woke.

[Fistfuck Masonanie]

Just started the PKD Valis trilogy and excited to work my way through it. Even with all of the theological babble, I'm intrigued and enjoying the first book. I've read others say that the second title is even better.

[host body]

Art sex music / Cosey Fanni Tutti

still in the beginning, not out of her childhood years yet. writing style is a bit annoying, but i'll probably get used to it.

Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies / Geofrrey West

very interesting book, the author is trying to come up with a general theory on growth and scaling, meaning that all "complex adaptive systems" such as living organisms, cities and companies all follow similar rules when it comes to growth and lifespan. weird way of looking at the world.

Straw dogs : thoughts on humans and other animals / John Gray

pessimistic filosophy, john gray dissects modern secular humanism and christianity and shows how both are to blame for our problems with the economy and ecology. very compelling book, kind of like linkola without the naturalism.

The atrocity exhibition / J. G. Ballard ; preface by William Burroughs

classic ballard, a book i've read years and years ago and didn't really understand back then. i'm planning on reading all of his books, i've read maybe 5-6 before so i have many to look forward to. one of the most important writers of the 20th century IMO.

The Vory: Russia’s super mafia / Mark Galeotti

interesting if a bit shallow look into the weird subculture of the vory, russias sadly defunct criminal subculture. lots of fucked up crime stories if you're into that sort of thing.

Totuudenetsijät : esoteerinen henkisyys Akseli Gallen-Kallelan, Pekka Halosen ja Hugo Simbergin taiteessa / Nina Kokkinen.

finnish book about esoteric themes in the paintings of gallen-kallela, pekka halosen and hugo simberg. interesting if a bit dry, most likely aimed at art historians.

[Eigen Bast]

Neil Whitehead - Hans Staden's True History: An Account of Cannibal Captivity  in Brazil

Translation of, and commentary on a German traders capture, imprisonment, and escape from a cannibalism practicing tribe in Brazil. Gruesome and harrowing stuff. Whitehead was a brilliant anthropologist deeply interested in what he called 'the poetics of violence' looking at how ritualized violence coded cultural resistance to outside groups. Sadly he passed away unexpectedly in 2012. He had an industrial band too, 'Blood Jewel', though I think their music only exists on myspace.


https://www.dukeupress.edu/books/browse/by-series/series-detail?IdNumber=2880285

Highly recommend this series. Of what I have read, all are soundly researched and embody Whitehead's vision of "a need to better comprehend the role of those who actually do the work of violence - torturers, assassins, terrorists - as much as the role of those who suffer the consequences".

[holy ghost]

The atrocity exhibition / J. G. Ballard ; preface by William Burroughs

classic ballard, a book i've read years and years ago and didn't really understand back then. i'm planning on reading all of his books, i've read maybe 5-6 before so i have many to look forward to. one of the most important writers of the 20th century IMO.

I’ve read Crash & High Rise years ago, just started The Crystal World and planning on making a real effort to read his major works this year. Looking for other authors who evoke this sort of “dystopian / post apocalyptic/ isolationist / weird / hallucinatory” feel as Ballard. Does not need to be “sci-fi” per say. I’m trying to identify the essence I’m trying to describe, somewhere between A Scanner Darkly by PKD and The Wasp Factory by Banks. Any suggestions welcome as well as Ballard books maybe off my radar?

[cantle]

Read Concrete Island to go with Crash and High Rise- they make for a loose thematic trilogy

[host body]

The atrocity exhibition / J. G. Ballard ; preface by William Burroughs

classic ballard, a book i've read years and years ago and didn't really understand back then. i'm planning on reading all of his books, i've read maybe 5-6 before so i have many to look forward to. one of the most important writers of the 20th century IMO.

I’ve read Crash & High Rise years ago, just started The Crystal World and planning on making a real effort to read his major works this year. Looking for other authors who evoke this sort of “dystopian / post apocalyptic/ isolationist / weird / hallucinatory” feel as Ballard. Does not need to be “sci-fi” per say. I’m trying to identify the essence I’m trying to describe, somewhere between A Scanner Darkly by PKD and The Wasp Factory by Banks. Any suggestions welcome as well as Ballard books maybe off my radar?

I get what you mean and I'm always on the lookout for books with that feel. I'll think of some and post them later today.

[absurdexposition]

Finished Ballad's Drowned World a week or two ago and it's definitely one of the best things I've read in recent years. High Rise is good, too. Recently picked up The Terminal Beach while on vacation, as well as Kingdom Come with which I'm looking forward to taking the dive into latter-day Ballard.

[cantle]

For latter- day Ballard I really liked Cocaine Nights

[holy ghost]

Read Concrete Island to go with Crash and High Rise- they make for a loose thematic trilogy

This is my plan - I’m going to re-read Crash and High Rise as well since it’s been at least 20 years and do the “best short stories” at the same time. I’d really like to read the book of collected interviews as well.

I also started “The Witcher” series. I read the first book last week and kind of loved it. I loved the show too. I’ll be ping-ponging between both authors this year.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Reliving my early twenties the last couple of weeks, with an all-American read fest:

Charles Bukowski - Women
Charles Bukowski - Tales of Ordinary Madness
William S. Burroughs - Junky
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
James Mason - Siege

I'm literally offending both the American 50's Establishment, and the American 2020's Establishment. That is I would be if I lived in America and anyone cared about my reading habits. Nevertheless, I'm fucking edgy and it feels good to be off the Fantasy/Sci-Fi dreck and back to somewhat real stuff. I will burn through the rest of Bukowski's prose bibliography (he loved alcohol in a similar way as I do, except I'm nowhere near as addicted, and don't really care for his sexual exploits), and then possibly start mucking about with Burroughs' cut up BS. There may be some other beat generation writer I should revisit/discover, but I'm not sure. Even while not being one for PC, I am still very much uncomfortable with the whole gay child rape stuff going on with Burroughs and Ginsberg both in life and in their output. The latter also writes like a turd - James Mason is unironically a more clever and entertaining writer than Ginsberg.

[HESalvo]

The Philosophical Reactionaries


fortunately i am a retarded brainlet so it's not really sinking in, checkmate lefties

[host body]

Reliving my early twenties the last couple of weeks, with an all-American read fest:

Charles Bukowski - Women
Charles Bukowski - Tales of Ordinary Madness
William S. Burroughs - Junky
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
James Mason - Siege

I'm literally offending both the American 50's Establishment, and the American 2020's Establishment. That is I would be if I lived in America and anyone cared about my reading habits. Nevertheless, I'm fucking edgy and it feels good to be off the Fantasy/Sci-Fi dreck and back to somewhat real stuff. I will burn through the rest of Bukowski's prose bibliography (he loved alcohol in a similar way as I do, except I'm nowhere near as addicted, and don't really care for his sexual exploits), and then possibly start mucking about with Burroughs' cut up BS. There may be some other beat generation writer I should revisit/discover, but I'm not sure. Even while not being one for PC, I am still very much uncomfortable with the whole gay child rape stuff going on with Burroughs and Ginsberg both in life and in their output. The latter also writes like a turd - James Mason is unironically a more clever and entertaining writer than Ginsberg.

A compilation of Gary Snyder's essays have been translated to Finnish. He was a poet and an essayist and has deep ecology themes in his writings that really resonate with me. A less dark Linkola wouldn't be far off. He wasn't a central character in the beat movement but he was friends with kerouac and the gang and is considered a member of the movement.

[Eris/Ostia]

A compilation of Gary Snyder's essays have been translated to Finnish. He was a poet and an essayist and has deep ecology themes in his writings that really resonate with me. A less dark Linkola wouldn't be far off. He wasn't a central character in the beat movement but he was friends with kerouac and the gang and is considered a member of the movement.

Snyder was also inspiration for the Japhy Ryder character in Kerouac's Dharma Bums. I like his essays and his poems are from the more tolerable end of the beat movement stuff. I guess I'd recommend Turtle Island most. It has both poems and (a few) essays.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

Charles Bukowski - Factotum
Charles Bukowski - Post Office

Cleared two more today, and I kind of wish I'd gone for the audiobook instead and savored the experience a bit more. I can't pace myself when reading, unfortunately. Regardless, I feel like I'm home. It's been almost twenty years since I read Bukowski and made an ass out of myself on numerous occasions by half-unconsciously imitating his mode of drinking (at least I interpreted things in that way at the time; it is far more likely that my genetic and social predisposition for alcohol made me enjoy his writing at a time when life was pretty wet).

As a side activity I read a couple of online texts about him written in the past few years, and realized that literary criticism these days is, perhaps unsurprisingly, boring, phony, schematic and possibly drawn from some pool of unthinking repetition. These two texts concern the same book, even while they are written seven years apart. It is clear that author #2 read author #1 - or were educated in the same sectarian environment.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/on-drinking-bukowski-book-release-date-alcohol-hemingway-dylan-thomas-a8829511.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/books/review/charles-bukowski-on-drinking.html

This is pretty much the same shit written twice, with a different (stupid) take. These people are mongoloids. Regarding the New York Times review, it is obvious that for a person to write that "although Bukowski revels in being a down-and-out, he always has the upper hand", he can't have read even the major novels, let alone the short stories and poems. Bukowski and/or his alter ego is constantly beaten up, beset by sexual impotence caused by our blamed on alcohol, as well as prone to behavior towards women that isn't "macho" by any standard, but embarrassing and drunken, and very explicitly written out to be perceived as such. The Independent bullshit is perhaps even worse - Bukowski's writing may have been "misogynist" in the sense that he didn't like most women (which makes sense, since most women are terrible), but anyone who reads him without a gender studies degree up the rectum would notice that he is far more hostile and dehumanizing towards men.  The examples in the review - Bukowski writing negative things about a female author talking - can be easily counterbalanced by his constant attacks on almost all male writers he ever encountered, in case you feel that equality is important. And a whole paragraph concerning the hip idea that drunk driving is morally reprehensible..? Shiver me timbers, hot take... The snug stupidity is unlimited in both these pieces, and these disgusting current year snobs pretending to pass judgment on someone like Bukowski is literally like Tommy Robinson reviewing Nasr's The Study Quran. It's like, in a certain reality you may have a point, but unfortunately you're a terrible person and your views are too limited to be of import here. And that is an unfair comparison - to Robinson.