What I find striking is that Thrasymachus just kind of rage-quits, yet his position wasn’t truly defeated; he simply abandoned the conversation. It makes you wonder whether "might makes right" rests on firmer ground than it first appears in the book. And of course, for Plato, someone who takes such a point of view had to appear as driven more by anger than by reason. — Zebeden

That's right. But Thrasymachus's psychological withdrawal sets the scene for the rest of the book, which is meant to defeat cynical nihilism philosophically, in a different way from that attempted in Book I—since direct refutation according to Thrasymachus's terms is shown not to be conclusive or persuasive.

H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction
by H.P. Lovecraft

Re-reading. The ways in which we integrate the concept of "the unknown" into our worldview and lives is integral to my philosophical perspective on the paucity of scientistic prejudice. Lovecraft masterfully evokes not only the horror and alienation of the unknown, but also the possibility that our own limited view of the true nature of reality is just that. Immersion time.

Green for Danger by Christianna Brand

Also dipping in and out of a book I read a while back:

I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being by Ramond Tallis

Bird on a fence by Dario Dzamonja.

The title of this book was translated by me. I couldn't find on the Internet the exact short story compilation by Dzamonja. However, there is a collection called "Letters from the Madhouse", and perhaps it includes the same short stories.

The Spanish edition is called "Pájaro en el alambre", which literally means "bird on a wire". However, in the Spanish context, the term "alambre" also refers to a fence. And, since the short stories are based on Yugoslavian wars, I thought that the translation and interpretation I did were more correct.

What can I say about Dario Dzamonja? Sorrowfully, he died young; aged 46 in 2001 after finishing the Yugoslavian wars. He left as a legacy several memorable manuscripts, and his friends collected them.

His own biographical note in the 2001 edition (Post-mortem) of Letters from the Madhouse simply said: "My name is Dario Džamonja. I was born in Sarajevo in 1955. I died in Sarajevo in 1993 when I left it. I died again in 1998 when I left America and my children. Now I'm trying to live again in Sarajevo from my writing."

Enjoy.

Finished the book, which I overall enjoyed, although I found the prose to be drawn out at times, which made it difficult to follow. The crux of John Haldon's argument, is that Feudalism as a mode of production can be collapsed into a more general Tributary form of production, with Feudalism being a rent-based superstructural form within the Tributary MoP. I was skeptical at first, but Haldon makes an elegant case. The position of the state, and it's autonomy (or often, lack there of) within modes of production vis-a-vis the dominate class is also discussed. Good read - would recommend.

Fondly remember reading a handful of his short stories a good number of years ago. The Color Out of Space is my favorite.

Thanks :)

:up:
Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath if you don't already know it. It is his longest story and my favourite. I love playing the Audible while I'm falling asleep at night. Gateway to the surreal.

Laws
by Plato

Inspired by :grin:

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow

Just finished Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels (My Brilliant Friend, etc.)
Fantastic.

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon — Jamal

I'm sad to report that after a great first half, I got really bored with this and dropped it.

It's like a spinoff from Against the Day, in the style of Inherent Vice, but without the bite of either. I wouldn't have expected to be wishing, during the reading, that the protagonist did not go to central Europe and had instead stayed in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee section is great fun; the ocean voyage and Hungary become super-zany but lack any real texture or substance.

But maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk.

That's not ideal. I loved Mason & Dixon but not Against the Day.

Still going to give it a shot. Thanks for sharing info though.

The Great Gatsby

I first read this book a long time ago, when I was just coming to grips with the English language. I had only a vague recollection of the plot, but when I started reading Gatsby again all these years later, I immediately recognized Fitzgerald's cadences, as if I read it only yesterday.

Destruction and Sorrow Beneath the Heavens by László Krasznahorkai

Top ten novels I read in 2025:

1) The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
2) The Magus by John Fowles
3) The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño
4)The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5) The Passion According to G.H. By Clarice Lispector
6) Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
7) The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
8) A Naked Singularity by Segio de La Pava
9) The Judas Window by John Dickson Carr
10) Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Eight months ago, I posted here I was reading “Infinite Jest” with my family 100 pages at a time. We’ve finished it now. Here’s what I said back at the beginning.

It’s hilarious. I rarely laugh out loud at books, but I do all the time with this one. It’s also difficult to follow, non-linear, and absurd. — T Clark

All of that is still true, but I’ll add now it is deeply, profoundly heartbreaking and moving. It’s a wonderful book, although it’s also frustrating and sometimes infuriating. There’s no doubt I would never have finished without my son, daughter, and I pushing each other.

Strongly recommend you read this electronically. There are numerous footnotes, some of them very long. Many of them set as footnotes for no reason I can figure out but important to the flow of the narrative, such as it is. I also found myself looking up words on just about every page many of which don’t exist in the real world of language.

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro — Manuel

I read this in the late nineties when I was totally unprepared for experimental literature, so I was quite confused. Even so, I think I probably read it in the first place because I'd heard it was weird. I found it fascinating and compelling, moving and haunting, and it's stayed with me. I've been meaning to read it again, although I fear it will hit much harder now.

Christmas reading:

Moth­er­land: A Fem­i­nist His­to­ry of Mod­ern Rus­sia, from Rev­o­lu­tion to Autocracy by Julia Ioffe.

After the Bol­she­vik Rev­o­lu­tion of Octo­ber 1917, Sovi­et women gained the right to vote, no-fault divorce, child sup­port, and free high­er edu­ca­tion. Abor­tion and birth con­trol were soon legal­ized. ... Life was a “fairy-tale” for women in the first coun­try to legal­ly eman­ci­pate them, rev­o­lu­tion­ary Alexan­dra Kol­lon­tai would claim. — review

Those gains were real, though Stalin partly reversed some of them. And due to war, terror, and economic hardship, the result was hardly a fairy-tale.

Also some fiction:

Malarkoi by Alex Pheby
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel by Quentin Tarantino

I read this in the late nineties when I was totally unprepared for experimental literature, so I was quite confused. Even so, I think I probably read it in the first place because I'd heard it was weird. I found it fascinating and compelling, moving and haunting, and it's stayed with me. I've been meaning to read it again, although I fear it will hit much harder now. — Jamal

Oh man, it hit me like thunder and that was soon after finishing The Magus which was also shocking.

It reads like a book David Lynch would write, but with constant anxiety. But better. Heck it's hard to describe.

Shame most of his other books are not very good imo. Absolutely read it again sometime. I will do the same. It's an unqualified masterpiece.

What about you, did you find any 2-3 novels that stood out this year?

I didn't read many novels this year, because of all the philosophy. Under the Skin by Michel Faber was interesting and memorable. Jane Eyre was bad. The best fiction I read was probably in The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories.

Jane Eyre was bad. — Jamal

I'm curious what defines a poor novel or piece of literature in your eyes.

I'm assuming it didn't really "fulfill" or hit any note as far as what people tend to expect from novels? Emotional validation, validation of the human spirit, essence, struggle, experience, etc? You were left unfulfilled at the end of it, as if you wasted your time reading it, I imagine?

However, surely you must have noted the authors attempt at fulfilling such. Where do you feel it failed and what would you have done (or perhaps wished) instead to make it a readable and worthwhile novel? :chin:

Edit: Like, at what point would you say it took a dive for the worse and became "unsalvageable"? Surely the book simply shouldn't have ended when it did. I'm reminded of "The Rum Diaries" a friend of mine quasi-forced me to watch. It was good. And yet the ending. It just seemed like they ran out of time or money with the hero character sailing away and a cheap caption "Oh and he became a great leader in the profession he desired, and his romantic interest they got married and lived happily ever after" blah blah blah kind of thing.

'm assuming it didn't really "fulfill" or hit any note as far as what people tend to expect from novels? Emotional validation, validation of the human spirit, essence, struggle, experience, etc? You were left unfulfilled at the end of it, as if you wasted your time reading it, I imagine? — Outlander

I wouldn't say I'm ever interested in validation. That doesn't seem like a good expectation when reading fiction.

But I see what you're saying: yes, it didn't interest me and I found it cheaply melodramatic and sentimental.

Like, at what point would you say it took a dive for the worse and became "unsalvageable"? — Outlander

Good question, and I can answer very specifically. The thing is, I liked it quite a lot when it was just Jane against the world, but when Mr. Rochester appeared it was all downhill. Jane lost her independence and interest and Mr. Rochester was a charmless, boring boor who the reader was, I suppose, meant to fall in love with along with Jane.