"Bellicism" means you're an asshole on principle. — T Clark

"Bellendism" has similar connotations.

Bellendism — Baden

The only references I found for it on Google were to your post.

Another new word. One it is unlikely I will ever use except here or on the Shoutbox.

Because of the unusual concentration of bellends no doubt.

Because of the unusual concentration of bellends no doubt. — Jamal

It's not just the density of bellends, it's also the density of Limeys, Scots, and Irishmen.

The only references I found for it on Google were to your post. — T Clark

Exposing the poverty of the online imagination? :chin:

It's not just the density of bellends, it's also the density of Limeys, Scots, and Irishmen. — T Clark

Well, there's just one Irish I know of--me, so I'm fully dense, I suppose. @Jamal, having @fdrake as company, is mercifully only half dense.

Well, there's just one Irish I know of--me, so I'm fully dense, I suppose. Jamal, having @fdrake as company, is mercifully only half dense. — Baden

Is there a proper single term for people from Great Britain and Ireland as a group?

The most convenient term is the people of the Anglo-Celtic North Atlantic Archipelago.

The most convenient term is the people of the Anglo-Celtic North Atlantic Archipelago. — Jamal

Why didn't I think of that. [joke] I think I'll just call you all "Limeys." Is that ok?[/joke]

Personally I’m ok with “limey”, but Baden won’t be, since it applies only to Brits.

Personally I’m ok with “limey”, but Baden won’t be, since it applies only to Brits. — Jamal

Correctimundo.

Nova
by Samuel R. Delany

It has always surprised? confused? me how often the Treaty of Westphalia is referenced (blamed?), 375 years later, in relation to current international relations. Let us know what you think when you're done. — T Clark

The book was very interesting and certainly worth a read. While the book's main thrust is to revaluate the Treaty of Westphalia's historical relevancy in modern International Relations in contrast to the (then?) dominate theories of IR, primarily Neorealism and Constructivism, Teschke goes beyond the Baroque period, analyzing Feudal and Absolutist modes of production and property relation in order to establish the Treaty of Westphalia as a outcome of continental European Absolutism, i.e. pre-modern. Modernity, or rather the modernizing process of IR, according to Teschke, begins with the uneven and combined development of the nascent agrarian capitalist Britain as it struggles with continental European powers. In addition to critiquing Neorealism and Constructivism, Teschke examines theories of Capitalist origin and development, siding with Political Marxism, which at the time of publication was at the apex of it's orthodoxy. He does a very good job of outlining Political Marxist viewpoints and contrasting them with World-Systems Theory, and the former's relationship with alternative International Theories. However, here Teschke, as with other Political Marxists (e.g. Wood, Brenner), falls into the theoretical limitations and historical narrowness of Political Marxism, as expounded by Neil Davidson, Alexander Anievas and Kerem Nisancioglu et. al. Certainly well worth reading.

A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard L Winberg

I'm rereading Dubliners by James Joyce after a long time.

My book is in English, or Irish English specifically (IrE), and I bought it in Dublin. Warm and nostalgic memories. By the way, it is time to make a break from Japanese folks. Maybe for a month, if I am able to bear it.

Interesting. Thanks for the summary. That historical period in Europe is really interesting - everything is going on at once - the 30 year's war, the English civil war, Shakespeare, Newton, the effects of the Protestant Reformation and Guttenberg's printing press, colonization of the world.

time to make a break from Japanese folks — javi2541997

I’m in the middle of 1Q84. It's quite a long book, almost as long as War & Peace. Consistently good though, like every other Murakami book that I've read, which so far includes The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, Killing Commendatore, and What I Talk about When I Talk about Running.

I was only a little disappointed with Kafka on the Shore because it seemed almost geared towards an adolescent audience.

Looking forward to his new book coming out in English.

1Q84 is a good book by Murakami, and despite it is quite long, it is worthy to read. Yet, I personally think that Murakami has better "long novels". The wind-up chronicle is a good example.
On the other hand, I fully recommend you to read Underground. What a fantastic essay on 1995 terrorist attacks on the Tokyo metro. He even interviewed some members of the sect, very worth reading.

I am looking forward to his new work being translated too! Do you know that Murakami comes to Spain because he was awarded with a royal prize? I wish I could go to Asturias (Northern Spain) to see him as a big fan. But I will not be able to do so... I am always busy! :confused:

Asturias (Northern Spain) — javi2541997

I was curious so I googled it. It looks incredible. I don’t know how I managed to live in Spain and not know anything about the region. I must go some day.

PS. I’ve read 1Q84, the only Murakami I’ve read. I have things to say about it but I won’t while praxis is enjoying it.

Nova
by Samuel R. Delany — Pantagruel

What do you think? Here’s what I thought (but I’d avoid reading this review if you haven’t finished it)…

First I liked it, then I disliked it, and finally I liked it a lot. It’s a really odd book, not in a “weird fiction” way or because it’s unconventional, but in the way it manages to (or attempts to) be both conventional and unconventional, to be pulpy Golden Age SF while at the same time transcending or parodying that genre. Or maybe the word is appropriating: it appropriates SF tropes to explore wider questions about storytelling, art, language, and culture, and also to take the genre away from its white American traditions (Delany is American but his Earth locations and future cultures are not—only the antagonists represent the WASP aristocracy).

But if you focus mainly on the plot it sometimes feels like a contrived, hokey pulp adventure, with shallow characters, bad dialogue, and a dash of made-up physics. I think that’s why I was in two minds about it, until the metanarrative came to the fore in the last act. Which is not to say that the last act is the best or that the preceding stuff is all bad, just that it made me reassess the whole book following my hasty negative assessment when I was in the middle.

In its far-future world-building, it has some great ideas. Some of the most interesting:

• Tarot card reading is respectable, and it’s the scepticism about it that’s regarded as simplistic, superstitious, and a relic of the ignorant past.
• Personal cleanliness is a thing of the past now that contagious infection has been wiped out.
• The vast majority of people are cyborgs with sockets that enable them to plug into various tech like spaceships, production lines, and drilling machines. (This idea has been very influential, though whether it was entirely original I’m not sure).
• This allows Delany to imagine a society that, while still capitalist and socially stratified, has banished alienation and to some extent the division of labour, giving everyone job-satisfaction and self-respect by restoring craftsmanship to the individual.
• But he presents conservative arguments against this state of affairs, which now seem prescient, viz., that the freedom and mobility of workers leaves them unmoored from tradition and community (arguments that he proceeds to knock down).
• Earth and its sphere of influence are reactionary and still ethnically divided, while the breakaway colonies of the Pleiades are revolutionary (though in the bourgeois rather than socialist sense), liberal, and ethnically mixed.

Beyond those purely science fiction ideas, Delany also uses his characters to comment on the novel itself (that is, Nova) and to explore his own artistic personality. The battle between the hero and villain is paralleled by a metanarrative conflict between two other characters, one, Katin, who is writing a novel, and another, “the Mouse”, who is a kind of musician or multisensory entertainer. Katin is an intellectual concerned with permanent artistic legacy, and the Mouse is only interested in moving people sensually and in the moment. This has the effect of creating a two-sided novel, with action on one side and commentary on the other, formally revolving around the idea of the Grail narrative and themes of revolution and rebirth.

The writing itself, I was again in two minds about. It’s slapdash and yet full of energy, confusing yet sometimes stunningly effective and original. The flashback sections set in Istanbul, Paris, and Athens, are immensely involving and evocative, but at other times I couldn’t keep track of exactly what was happening, who was standing where, what kind of place the characters were in, why he just said that, etc. I put this down to Delany’s youthful exuberance (he wrote it in his twenties) and sloppiness rather than my inability to read experimental literature, but I could be wrong—or it could be both.

Some of the dialogue seems awkward, the subject-object-verb dialect of the Pleiades can be annoying and unconvincing (and unfortunately now brings to mind Yoda), the antagonist is an unrealistic camp villain, and exposition is dumped on the reader in an unsubtle way. But focusing on these criticisms is probably to miss the point: it’s not a realist novel (although it does have excellent realist sections, such as the party in Paris) so much as a playful meta-romp. I particularly appreciated the way that the metanarrative aspect of the novel, rather than dropping away in the final denouement as you might expect from the shape of the plot and the conventions of popular fiction, actually ramps up towards the end.

Close to the end, the character Katin says something that might be straight from young Delany himself:

Right now I’m just a bright guy with a lot to say and nothing to say it about.

In summary: :100: :confused: :starstruck: :nerd: :cool:

Currently reading Triton by Samuel R. Delany.

I was curious so I googled it. It looks incredible. I don’t know how I managed to live in Spain and not know anything about the region. I must go some day. — Jamal

The North of Spain tends to go unnoticed, and I don't know why. Maybe it is their "bad" weather (it is rainy and cloudy most of the time, so it is not likeable for tourists which are looking for sunny Mediterranean beaches). I hope you can go there one day. I think you would like it, as well as Cantabria, their brothers. Santander, Pola de Siero, Avilés, etc. are top cities, but underrated by the public in general.

PS. I’ve read 1Q84, the only Murakami I’ve read. I have things to say about it but I won’t while praxis is enjoying it. — Jamal

I know that 1Q84 is not your cup of tea. But, trust me when I say that Murakami has books which are worth reading.

I hope you can go there one day. I think you would like it, as well as Cantabria, their brothers. Santander, Pola de Siero, Avilés, etc. are top cities, but underrated by the public in general. — javi2541997

I dream of doing a cycle tour around the region over a period of weeks.

You must be right about the reasons it isn’t a popular travel destination. The Mediterranean is pretty special and the cold rough Atlantic is no good for beach holidays. The wet weather, of course, is the reason it’s so green and beautiful.

I know that 1Q84 is not your cup of tea. But, trust me when I say that Murakami has books which are worth reading. — javi2541997

I did like parts of it, so I haven’t given up on Murakami entirely.

Wow, that's quite a detailed analysis. I'll follow up in a few days when I've finished. I will say that the narrative style of the first chapter was tortured and confusing in many places. However now that's settled into a more traditional form in Lorq's history I'm warming. If I was less of a finisher I might have put it down in the first chapter.

Yep, I felt the same and actually gave up in the first few pages. Then I went back to it a week or two later. It was worth it.

I read Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man recently, and it was one of the most gleefully inflammatory things I've read. Radical feminist goes under cover as a man for 18 months, gains access to traditionally male spaces - a bowling club, a strip club, a monastery, a men's group therapy collective - and tries dating.

One of the things in it that will stick with me is that she actually experienced misogyny based on her failures in dating, as in she became prejudiced - from time to time - against women based on how they treated her male persona. It's going to stick with me because it's an amazing demonstration that developing a personal prejudice is still a broadly structural phenomenon.

Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies
Noam Chomsky

developing a personal prejudice is still a broadly structural phenomenon. — fdrake

Yes. Sounds very illuminating. It's very hard to escape social context.

I thought the ending the best part of the book. For me, there was too much meta-commentary throughout. I like my fiction to be either transparent, or poetic. The device of the socket finally humanizing labour didn't fully make sense to me either. But the ending was rewarding. I'm curious about his other works.

Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Finished:

Chomsky & Me by Bev Stohl

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein