What Are You Reading Now?

[SeattleUte]

Finished "At Night All Blood is Black" by David Diop and highly recommend.

Reading Olga Tokarczuk's "The Books of Jacob" which has finally been translated into English. It was just shortlisted for the Booker International Prize. It's massive at just under 1,000 pages but it's supposed to be her masterpiece.

I'm reading The Books of Jacob. Kind of a slow read, as I've bot other reading demands, in addition to work. So far it's great. Transporting and sensual, in addition to historical and philosophical. In addition, unlike some recent Nobel Prize winners' work, high literary quality. Still very accessible if you're patient.

I recently finished James Joyce's Ulysses. Reminded me of reading the Old Testament. Stretches of staggering beauty and depth and exoticism. Much of it a mind numbing slog. Some of it impossible to understand try as I might. It should probably be read like scripture. That's how John E. Woods, the translator of Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, recommends that book be read (I have read it that way but never read all of it). Absolutely essential to get the most out of Ulysses: Read alongside it one of those book-length synopses of the novel.

About halfway through Ulysses I started "The Most Dangerous Book" by Kevin Birmingham, a biography of Ulysses the novel, which is a masterpiece in its own right. Also a wonderful, very literary history of a time in our history that was very illiberal. It took over 10 years for Ulysses to gain publication in our country because customs officials etc. deemed it "obscene." Not even a court, but back then there were 5-10 year prison terms for publishing "obscenity," so disincentives to publishing were massive. Amazing that now porn is protected by the First Amendment. Ulysses is important like 1984 or Uncle Tom's Cabin--in part because of the historical context in which it appeared and how its very existence advanced liberalism.

Ulysses is lusty, sensual, even pornographic in parts. But oddly not arousing at all, even though the writing is terrific.

Presently I have no desire to read Ulysses again. But I'm nearly through rereading Moby Dick, and getting a ton out of it. I'm convinced that rereading great books is not just worth it but sometimes essential.

A very enjoyable easy and lovely recent read was Tove Ditlivsen's recently published in English memoir, The Copenhagen Trilogy.

The David Remnick interview with Stephen Kotkin and Ukraine war made me want to read Kotkin's trilogy of Stalin's biography and I'm about 300 pages into it. If you like Scorcese films, this is for you. So far he details the Bolshevik revolution and brutal fight to retain power. Totally lawless and mass murder. Make the Sicilian Mafia look very tame. Just a massive criminal syndicate, and Stalin is the ultimate crime boss.

I've talked about Masha Gessen's book I finished a bit ago. The Future is History. It's like the one PAC is reading about Russia, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible but more recent. Highly recommend if you want to get inside Putin's Russia

I've tweeted about all these except for the Gessen and Kotkin books as those are outside Twitter book clubs.

[tooblue]

I have been reading Dinosaurs Rediscovered: The Scientific Revolution in Palaeontology by Michael J. Benton. It maps out the origin of the dinosaurs and distills the arguments between the traditionalists in context to the latest discoveries ...

"So why did Romer, Colbert, and Charig argue that dinosaurs outcompeted their rivals? It was partly that progress was assumed in evolution – dinosaurs replaced their inferior competitors (the synapsids, rhynchosaurs, and early archosaurs), and were in turn replaced by mammals, 180 million years later. Each step along the way marked an improvement of some sort, by which the animals became faster, smarter, or at least better competitors. This is in some ways pure Darwin – survival of the fittest, constant improvement. We have learned since 1980, however, that evolution is not unidirectional or relentless."

The catalyst that lead to a modern and better understanding of dinosaurs as "reflecting precisely John Ostrom’s vision of the dinosaur, and a revolutionary depiction of dinosaurs as fast and active" is this drawing by his colleague Bob Bakker:

ostrom_bakker-illo.jpg
Fascinating book. Written with the novice scientist in mind.

[SeattleUte]

I just finished this book. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780...er-liberalism/

An intellectual history of the radical right. I picked it up because Ezra Klein recommended it in an excellent essay. It's actually unputdownable. The premise of all their arguments is undeniable. The vital importance of culture. It is the very means by which we interact with the world. Yet the radical right thinkers all want culture to be immutable and lament its plasticity. In this sense, the radical right and left share identity politics values.

On the other hand, liberalism (this isn't liberalism as American politics politicizes it) celebrates culture's plasticity and at its worst atomizes us. As Klein notes, it's actually thrilling for a liberal to read radical right critiques of their creed.

A thread throughout the book is that Christianity is in liberalism's DNA and the radical right detests Christianity and is atheist and pagan (apparently Mike Lee missed the memo). The book concludes with this:

"Even the most zealous secularist now defends human equality, social justice, and special concern for the marginalized and suffering—ideas that would have seemed foolish, if not incomprehensible, to our pagan ancestors. Christianity is no longer an assumed premise of civic life, and its doctrines are often rejected or derided. But according to the radical right’s sweeping claims, its ideological offspring fill our public life. Liberalism is a secular expression of the Christian teaching that the individual is sacred and deserving of protection. Socialism is a secular expression of Christian concern for the poor and downtrodden. Globalism is a secular expression of the Christian hope that history is leading to a kingdom of universal peace and justice. In the past, Christianity spread through religious conversion. In the present, it spreads through secular creeds that preach equality and freedom. It is a sign of Christianity’s unique power and enduring hegemony, the radical right claims, that it continues to spread its teachings even while pretending to subvert them. And here we reach the essence of the Christian Question. Christianity denied what antiquity had serenely assumed: that the strong are destined to rule the weak, that we have no obligations to strangers, and that our identities are constituted by our social status."

[SteelBlue]

But I'm nearly through rereading Moby Dick, and getting a ton out of it. I'm convinced that rereading great books is not just worth it but sometimes essential.

I read Moby Dick three times last year. I keep it on my bedside table these days for times when I just want a paragraph or two of near perfection.

[Pelado]

I read Moby Dick three times last year. I keep it on my bedside table these days for times when I just want a paragraph or two of near perfection.

A lot of talk of phalluses around here lately. I'm starting to understand why.

[falafel]

A lot of talk of phalluses around here lately. I'm starting to understand why.

Kind of a dick response.

[SeattleUte]

I read Moby Dick three times last year. I keep it on my bedside table these days for times when I just want a paragraph or two of near perfection.

We already knew your reading Moby Dick is huge! That's so awesome. Moby Dick, the great American novel.

[SeattleUte]

Yesterday I read again about the Bachelor. The Bachelor is 21st century America. The great and spacious building. Moby Dick is timeless. My Book of Mormon.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I re-read Moby Dick a couple of years ago. I liked it better this time around.

[Pelado]

We already knew your reading Moby Dick is huge! That's so awesome. Moby Dick, the great American novel.

Size doesn't matter.

[SteelBlue]

My Book of Mormon.

Honestly, I feel this way.

Best quote from the bachelor was Ahab's "Thou art too damned jolly."

[SeattleUte]

Honestly, I feel this way.

Best quote from the bachelor was Ahab's "Thou art too damned jolly."

https://twitter.com/johnrneeleman/st...BwsW5Zaxsu0IuQ

[SeattleUte]

Finished "At Night All Blood is Black" by David Diop and highly recommend.

I read this. Devoured it is more like it. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Diop's second novel is a perfect novel. Easier to accomplish if the novel's 150 pages long, but still a major achievement. An instant classic. So often the novels that win awards are overrated. This one is most emphatically not.

It has everything. A stunning opening, authentic voice, dark dark humor, spectacular imagery, weighty themes, plot, an ending that leaves you puzzling and wanting to reread the book but actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. A great French novel.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I was about 1/3 of the way through The Brothers Karamazov when Russia invaded Ukraine. I have tried to pick it up again but I can't. Doesn't make sense, but anything about Russia right now stirs up anger in me.

[SeattleUte]

I was about 1/3 of the way through The Brothers Karamazov when Russia invaded Ukraine. I have tried to pick it up again but I can't. Doesn't make sense, but anything about Russia right now stirs up anger in me.

TBK is great but it's not perfect. You can find nonsense in there that contributes to the current problem. Dostoevsky had the typical messianic view of Russia, blathered about the white star of Russia, etc. but liberalism's hallmark is it perceives the redemptive stuff as making the novel truly great.