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« Last post by teestub on Yesterday at 10:28:16 pm »
…was appalled back when the USA/UK withdrew from Afghanistan and Starmer was calling for us to instead have a perpetual state of war in Afghanistan.
Have you got a ref for this? Pretty much everything I’ve read has said that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a total disaster, so if he was was saying that the withdrawal was mismanaged, rather than calling for a forever war (one for Dan), then I’d probably agree!
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« Last post by SA Chris on Yesterday at 10:27:16 pm »
Max has done quite a bit on rock, he just doesn't feel the need to shout about it and green tick all over his Instagram 
True, Shame he didn't keep up the youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/@t1z188/videos
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« Last post by Duma on Yesterday at 10:18:40 pm »
Loool!
I particularly liked the 3rd level of Sparks of Bright Matter, echoing a 17th century alchemical text which FD happens to have a copy of...
(Not a dig FD, love your reviews and some of these do look great, I've just bought notes on complexity)
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« Last post by stone on Yesterday at 09:49:40 pm »
Are you ok with hawkishness for Russia Ukraine, or would you prefer something more non interventionist? I can’t remember what Corbyn’s foreign policy position was.
I don't think Corbyn got too involved in foreign policy when Labour leader but he had a back story of having been non-interventionist and that was part of what he was reviled for. I'm very unsure myself what is best for Ukraine. Basically I don't feel I know enough to have an informed opinion. I want Russia to be non-expansionist and to be reassured that we similarly are non-expansionist. I want as few Ukrainians and Russians killed as possible. I don't want people to be displaced from where they live or to be ruled by unwelcome invaders. I can see it's very hard to know the least worse options from here. I don't think the west should have got involved in Euromaiden etc. Back then we should have left it to Ukraine to work out its relationship with Russia. Considering Hawkish foreign policy more generally, I was appalled back when the USA/UK withdrew from Afghanistan and.Starmer was calling for us to instead have a perpetual state of war in Afghanistan. To me Afghanistan is a case study of a hopeless miserable mess of a military intervention. An example that needs to be learnt from to avoid similar situations in future. I really don't want to get drawn into a detailed argument about the rights and wrongs of Russia and Ukraine etc. My overarching view is that we shouldn't hope to be "world police". We neither know nor understand foreign situations as well as the people living there and we should focus on sorting ourselves out and just trying to be good neighbours whenever possible.
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« Last post by Fiend on Yesterday at 09:44:24 pm »
Some things I’ve read over the last few months I thought worth sharing.
The Maniac: Benjamin Labatut.
A novel about John von Neumann and his impact on our world. From his childhood as prodigy and genius and into his work as a physicist and mathematician. Inventor of game theory, cellular automata and the first programmable computer and early pioneer of AI. He sounds horrendous to be with. Fiercely intelligent, intolerant and a workaholic. The novel also roots the creation of computing at the heart of warfare and draws out the implications of that for us and society.
The novel takes an interesting turn in its final third long after Neumann’s death, covering the showdown between the South Korean Go Master Lee Sedol and the AI program AlphaGo (which is largely based upon JvN’s original theories). Humans wrestling with the implications of a machine ‘intelligence’. It’s very good. Entertaining and thought provoking.
The Stirrings: Catherine Walker.
A fantastic memoir about growing up in Sheffield in the late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Walker is a superb writer and for all of us who live(d) in Sheffield, especially in the 80’s and 90’s it’s a rich and accurate description of the place and times. The backdrop though is Peter Sutcliffe and the violence of men. It’s really quite brilliant, enjoyable and disturbing at times. Highly recommended.
High Weirdness: Erik Davies.
An edited-for-readability version of Davies’ PhD thesis on the “High Weirdness” of the 1970’s expressed through the lives of Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson and Philip K Dick. I was right into RaW in my teens and early twenties of course so I enjoyed this one a lot. Rather than try to prove or disprove anything, Davies adopts a phenomenological stance toward the experiences of these men (he does acknowledge it is men and has a great chapter on why that might be and the privilege extended to them and himself as the writer). It’s pretty mad and both entertaining and serious at the same time.
Sparks of Bright Matter: Leeanne O’Donnell
A new novel set in the 1700’s around the time of the Jacobite rebellion centered around a budding alchemist Peter Woulffe who has his copy of the Mutus Liber (a real alchemical text) nicked before he can deliver it to Baron (Emmanuel) Swedenborg. On one level it can be read as a historical romp adventure yarn. Another level as a critique of social class and the mores of the time. The sequences in Ireland are brilliant and rich. Finally on another level, the story and characters themselves play out the alchemical transformation portrayed in the Mutus Liber itself (I’ve got one at home). I enjoyed it and suspect it’d make a good holiday read. I’ve never read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but “Sparks” has been compared favourably, so if you liked that I suspect you’ll like this one.
American Cosmic (UFOs Religon and Technology) : Diane Pasulka.
Pasulka is a professor of religous studies whose research and previous books were about Catholicism and purgatory. Someone suggested she should take a look at the UFO/UAP phemomenon which she did and has written this brilliant book. A reviewer at Vox described the book as not "so much about the truth of UFOs or aliens as it is about what the appeal of belief in those things says about our culture and the shifting roles of religion and technology in it. On the surface, it's a book about the popularity of belief in aliens, but it's really a deep look at how myths and religions are created in the first place and how human beings deal with unexplainable experiences."
I really enjoyed it and then went on to read…
Unidentified Hyper Object: James D Madden.
Madden is Professor of Philosophy at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. His research has included phenomenology, philosophy of mind, analytic philosophy, and cognitive science. After reading Pasulka’s book, Madden decided to risk sticking his head above the parapet of the academy and bravely takes a look at the UAP phenomenon from a philosophical perspective. I loved it of course, especially the sections on Graham Harman’s object oriented ontology and Timothy Morton’s related development of the notion of a hyperobject. The proposal here is that “the UFO/UAP is not the many, disparate things that barely show up in our Umwelt, but one gigantic thing, a hyperobject, existing on a scale and complexity that defies our understanding”. It’s pretty mindbending, but serious and grounded in solid theoretical discipline.
And then I went on to read…
Notes on Complexity, A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being: Neil Thiese
A professor at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, pathologist and stem cell biologist, Thiese has written this quite brilliant work on complexity and its implications for us as human beings. Many of the boundaries we take for granted are not just scientifically artificial but intellectually, spiritually and psychologically suffocating (there’s a parallel here with Iain McGilchrist’s hemispheric studies and theories). It’s a theory that attempts to provide rigorous scientific underpinnings to timeless questions of consciousness, of being, self and our place in the world and the universe. Very good.
How we break. Navigating the wear and tear of living: Vincent Deary.
The sequel to his quite brilliant “How We Are” from 2014 that I must have reviewed several pages back on this thread. Deary is a psychologist who works in the fatigue clinic in Durham or Northumberland. Here’s a good review in the Grauniad https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/01/how-we-break-by-vincent-deary-review-look-after-yourself . Be gentle with yourself and others.
Derek Jarman: Pharmacopoeia (A Dungeness Notebook).
A beautiful collection of Jarman’s journal entries, poems and prose from his time at prospect cottage on the shingle isle of Dungeness. He was gardening, planting and tending to the cottage he built and lived out the remainder of his life after the HIV diagnosis.
“I waited a lifetime to build my garden,
I built my garden with the colours of healing,
On the sepia shingle at Dungeness.
I planted a rose and then an elder,
Lavender, sage, and Crambe maritima,
Lovage, parsley, santolina,
Hore hound, fennel, mint and rue.
Here was a garden to soothe the mind,
A garden of circles and wooden henges,
Circles of stone, and sea defences.”
Lovely stuff.
Frontičres, the food of France’s borderlands. Alex Jackson.
Have we had a recipe book on this thread before? I’m a keen cook so like to read these things as well as cook the dishes. Jackson is the chef at Noble Rot and this book contains recipes and history from the edge lands of France. The South coast with its North African influence (my partner W is French with Morrocan parents - she’s a Berber), the Southwest and Spanish plus Basque influences, the Alps and Alsace. Mouthwatering and full of interesting history, people and places.
Right now I’m halfway through Hellhound on his trail by Hampton Sides. A non-fiction account of how Martin Luther King and James Earl Ray (his assassin) came to be in the same place in Memphis and what happened afterwards. It reads like a taught thriller and is really worthwhile, not just on the people but the atmosphere and politics of the time.
TOO MUCH INTELLECT <head explodes>
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« Last post by seankenny on Yesterday at 09:38:29 pm »
If anyone fancies a somewhat lighter exploitation of the intersection of American new age religiosity and UFOs then I can recommend Hari Kunzru’s novel Gods Without Men. The Californian high desert setting is very prominent in the book, so a nice treat for anyone who loves that environment.
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« Last post by joe-m on Yesterday at 09:15:04 pm »
Thanks, hadn’t found that!
Used it today had a great day!
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« Last post by chriss on Yesterday at 09:14:12 pm »
Doing his dad proud. What a racer.
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« Last post by Moo on Yesterday at 08:26:15 pm »
I get the feeling that a silent majority of people are sitting quietly waiting to either not vote for trump or get out and vote for Biden.
As ever the swing states will be the only ones worth watching and they haven’t been given a particularly compelling reason to vote for trump.
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Nice one, Ben, lot of interesting sounding stuff to explore there... The Stirrings: Catherine Walker. It's Taylor innit? Been intrigued by this since - weird flex alert - she followed me on Twitter (no idea why). Will pick up a copy as Ellie was curious too and is squarely in the core audience. High Weirdness: Erik Davies.
American Cosmic (UFOs Religon and Technology) : Diane Pasulka.
Unidentified Hyper Object: James D Madden
Notes on Complexity, A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being: Neil Thiese
These all sound great! Which would you recommend first? Have you read John Higgs' book on the KLF, I will have recommended it many pages back? Touches on similar ground although no doubt in a lighter manner. Also reminds me I ground to a halt half way through a McGilchrist tome a couple of years back... need to revisit.
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