What are you reading?

[Lindorm]

Med Lenin på byrån -"With Lenin on the bedstand", a doctoral dissertation by Andrés Brink Pinto, a historian working at the Institution for Contemporary History at Södertörn University College.

This is a very interesting dissertation, carrying the undertitle "Norms and normative formations about class, gender and sexuality in the Swedish communist movement 1921-1939". Brink Pinto studies the (often confused and self-contradictory) discourse of how a good communist ought to act, behave and be, how it interacted with norms of sexuality and gender and how they sought to distance themselves from both the bourgeoisie and the non-revolutionary left, mainly the social democrats.

It is a very interesting picture he paints, where the male communist worker on the on hand has "fists of steel", tempered by communist discipline, but on the other hand also knows where the clitoris of his female companion is located, and certainly knows how to give her an orgasm -in a natural and healthy way, of course, and not in a decadent bourgeoise manner, influenced by jazz music.

The communist woman, on the other hand, is a bright and stalwart companion, of sound mind and body, faithful to her man, her comrades and the Party. Interestingly enough, women "at home", toiling in factories or as domestic servants are often portrayed as downtrodden, prematurely worn down by hard labour and opression, with their feminity supressed by endless drudgery. On the other hand, females "over there" -volunteers in the Spanish civil war, for example, are admired for still maintaining their feminity and natural beauty whilst crawling through the undergrowth and bagging fascists with their sniper rifles.

To a certain extent, the discourses Brink Pinto analyzes are very similar to the equivalent discourses of identity among Swedish anarcho-syndicalists of the same era, a subject that I have written about, but there are also some interesting differences, too. Books like this make me long for (at least certain parts) of theacademic life again! 

[Aggie]

The One-Straw Revolution, by Masanobu Fukuoka.  Makes me long for the fields.... unplowed ones.

[Opsa]

Stephen Clarke's A Year in the Merde, which a friend gave to me. I was hoping it would be more like Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, but it's mostly just a British fellow chasing French derriere so far.

[pieces o nine]

Re-reading Good Omens, a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[Swatopluk]

Re-reading Good Omens, a collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Soon coming to a movie cinema near you iirc

[Sibling DavidH]

'The Great Civil War' by AH Burne & Peter Young.  Some reasonably down-to-earth accounts of the major battles, but still necessarily with a lot of guesswork.  Quite pro-Prince Rupert and therefore to my taste.  They talk good sense about Rupert's problem at Edgehill.

[Swatopluk]

Henry VIII - Wolfman
(from the same author that brought you Queen Victoria - Demon Hunter)

[Lindorm]

Due to insomnia, re-reading the old Foundation Triology by Asimov. Felt a bit quaint, and it was quite fun to play "Spot the idea that was pinched for Traveller".

[Pachyderm]

Kublai Khan, by John Man

Makes me want get on a horse, strap a bow to my saddle and kick the shit out of everyone I meet, from the Middle East to Japan.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

My mother in her religious anguish gave me The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins. I'll read it as homework and report, but I'll admit that I'm not thrilled about it.

[Swatopluk]

Kublai Khan, by John Man

Makes me want get on a horse, strap a bow to my saddle and kick the shit out of everyone I meet, from the Middle East to Japan.

Conn Iggulden is working on a trilogy (following his trilogy on Genghis Khan).

[Sibling DavidH]

Due to insomnia, re-reading the old Foundation Triology by Asimov. Felt a bit quaint...

I loved those books.  Then the old fool dribbled on with about 35 sequels and ruined the whole thing.
But if you really delve in, all Asimov's SF is just futurised detective stories.  Very dated now, as you say.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I still love those books and I still think that his extrapolations from history make a lot of sense even if he indeed milked the cow to the last drop.

Now, his style is certainly quaint although I would say that the whole meaning applies, that is, not only antiquated but charming. Is worth saying that he wrote the stuff more than 60 years ago and science fiction was then a lesser genre (he started writing stories for magazines).

[pieces o nine]

A favorite quote from Second Foundation:

And now her father would be making long, gentle speeches about what young ladies aren't supposed to do. There just wasn't anything they were  supposed to do, it looked like, except choke and die, maybe.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

---

My mother in her religious anguish gave me The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins. I'll read it as homework and report, but I'll admit that I'm not thrilled about it.

Two chapters and I'm already hating the book. He seems to be trying to pull an up to date Thomas Aquinas out of his hat with the same success. In fact his critique of the rationalist camp reminds me of Ayn Rand trying to discredit Kant without making an effort* to understand him.

The guy seems to be justifying his convictions by jumping over rational explanations, and quoting C.S. Lewis. 

Mind you, his goal seems laudable enough -to find a middle ground between religious fundamentalism and a completely skeptic version of science-  but in my mind he fails miserably.

*or consciously making an effort not to understand because it would throw down his (or hers if you follow the parallel) card castle.