Thanks for the tip. I will check out Creation , sounds like a similar time frame for what I'd like to use.

Guess Herodotus and Xenephon will be on the menu since you need to include the classic sights. I'm thinking if there is a metaphysical big evil it will be up north, above the Scythians, since there are way less sources on them so more can be changed. Of course Hyperborea is up that way too, and said big bad can be blamed for the Bronze Age collapse and burning of Knosis, so there is plenty to work with.

:cool:

Like a number of folks loitering on these fora, I've been "working on" a (novel) for some years too. A 'near-future, about-to-happen-singularity, climate apocalypse' scifi-thriller –

a spicy gumbo (of primary influences) such as

Neuropath by R. Scott Bakker,
Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman,
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler,
The Children of Men by PD James,
A Philosophical Investigation by Philip Kerr

& the movies Ex Machina & Blade Runner

– whether a novel or an anthology of "stories" (like Max Brooks' World War Z), I haven't decided – the narrative hasn't dictated which – yet. It took over three years just to start writing after several years of gestating / procrastinating, then the pandemic hit and sapped the project's mojo. I think I've got a real tiger by the tale – not "grimdark" or "misery porn" as post/apoc stories tend to be – and hope sooner rather later this beast turns and bites me harder and harder till the writing gets done. Mention of your project, Count, is quite encouraging. :up:

Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History by Steve Fraser

FWIW I did think the Moretti book was very interesting.

Verso is doing a May Day Sale. 40% off all books until May 17th.

Any recommendations? I previously bought a bunch of Ellen Wood books and Domenico Losurdo's Liberalism: A Counter History, all of which I recommend.

Allison's Kant's Transcendental Idealism has been phenomenal, albeit dense.

April-May readings:

• The Framer's Coup, Michael J. Klarman
• The Self-Assembling Brain: How Neural Networks Grow Smarter, Peter Robin Hiesinger
• Echo Tree: The Collected Short Fiction of Henry Dumas, ed. Eugene Redman
• Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

still reading:

• Holes and Other Superficialities, R. Casati & A.C. Varzi
• Mama's Last Hug, Frans de Waal
• From Communism to Capitalism: Theory of a Catastrophe, Michel Henry

Neil Davidson - How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? An 800 page doorstop. Gonna be on this for a while.

How are you finding Henry? I've only read bits of his phenomenology which seems miles removed from politics, so I've been intrigued. Does he square the one with the other, or are they relatively independent?

Any recommendations? — Maw

Mike Davis, Andras Malm, Wolfgang Streeck, Erik Olin Wright, Gindin and Panitch! I think I'm going to pick up The People's Republic of Walmart next week.

I'm ambivalent so far but pressing on. His 'political philosophy' from what I gather is a critique of how modern political systems, or ideologies, deny or negate (the autonomy? sovereignty? of) phenomenal subjectivity. Despite Henry's 'Christianism', what intrigues me is the radicalization of immanence (re: interiority of subjects) at the core of his project. Anyway, yeah, the politics & phenomenology (tend to) converge, much more subtly and nuanced than e.g. Sartre's Critique of ... or even Merleau-Ponty (other relevant names escape me at the moment).

a critique of how modern political systems, or ideologies, deny or negate (the autonomy? sovereignty? of) phenomenal subjectivity. — 180 Proof

Ah, ok, I can see how that would work for him. Cool.

Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy by L. Haas.

This book seems a good introduction to Phenomenology and Merleau-Ponty's main ideas.

The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

I read half of Huxley's' The Perennial Philosophy'. I may finish it later this week amongst replying to comments on my threads and applying for jobs. I am impressed by it so far.

Have you read his book Ends and Means yet Jack?

I don't have 'Ends and Means'. I can't download any more books at present because I have filled the capacity of my Kindle and tablet. This is probably a good thing. But, when we have both finished 'The Perennial Philosophy', do you wish to discuss it?

Absolutely.

Can you add an SD card to your tablet for more capacity?

I think that I am seeing my devices being full to mean that I need to read the books which I have. But, now that shops are open I will look out for paper books again.

How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism by Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu

:starstruck: :love:

This is one I keep coming back to, it's so, so good.

I'm about 1/3 the way through it and it's absolutely brilliant. Definitely one to return to again and again. Unfortunate title though, not sure how How The West Came to Rule perceptively plays out with passing neighbors when I read outside....

Now reading:

An Outline of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell

Up next:

Enemies of Hope - Raymond Tallis
Pure Invention - Matt Alt

You should have seen my paranoia in public when reading Zizek and Millbank's The Monstrosity of Christ.

I think I can one up you here with when my copy of Zizek's First as Tragedy, Then As Farce fell out of my backpack on to the security belt in full view of the TSA agent at the airport a number of years ago.

Portraits: John Berger on Artists by John Berger

Neil Davidson - How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions? — StreetlightX

Should I buy this? I know Anievas and Nisancioglu cite it multiple times.

I picked it up based on those references too and I'm really enjoying it. It isn't quite as engaging as West, but it's incredibly comprehensive. So far (I'm about 200/650 pages) it's very much a review of various approaches to (bourgeois) revolution rather than a history of the revolutions themselves (i.e. revolutions against the feudal order that installed the bougies rather than the proles into power - French, English, American mostly, some stuff on the Russian). It really goes through everyone though - like all the early thinkers - Paine, Locke, Burke, Adam Smith, etc - all the way up to 3 chapters on Marx and Engles' evolving approaches to the topic. Right now on Lenin and Trotsky. I assume the book keeps on like this till the present day. The thing I'm most getting out of it is the power of historical materialism as a tool of analysis and critique. The kinds of distinctions it makes and how it contrasts to more liberal-democratic approaches to society and history.

I'm learning a ton, and it's pretty easy to read. would recommend.

The thing I'm most getting out of it is the power of historical materialism as a tool of analysis and critique. The kinds of distinctions it makes and how it contrasts to more liberal-democratic approaches to society and history. — StreetlightX

Sells it for me!

Logical Investigations
Vol. 1 & 2
by E. Husserl

May-June readings

How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism by Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu — Maw

:up:

• John Rawls: Reticent Socialist, William A. Edmundson
• Helgoland, Carlo Rovelli

Currently rereading:

Never Let A Serious Crisis Go to Waste by Philip Mirowski

And also reading a novel:

The Good Son by You-Jeong Jeong

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens