Frobisher Smith
Ballard's intense dystopic sci-fi short stories are generally worth a read, and in this collection won't let you down if you want a look into Ballard's dark meditations on spatial and temporal constraints – the inherent scarcity of physical existence, how modern living pushes us against these constraints constantly, and the paranoia and disorder this leads to.
Hard sci-fi fans might be annoyed by his sometimes very fantastical set-ups, but it might be good to think of these stories as allegorical future fables, mirrors to the insanity of today, rather than as dire warnings of possible futures. It might seem that Ballard is just trying and failing as a trenchant cynic, and predicting futures so dark they are simply impossible, but what is key here are his insights into social psychology and the human condition. He shows us through clarifying extremity the way our lives already operate and how the inescapable absurdity can be deathly oppressive.
Land's thoughts on temporality, Shanghai architecture, and closed time-like loops here are as recursive and convolutional as his subject matter. Touching on the latest as well as some of the greatest time travel fiction and the very real city of Shanghai, he explores time circuits, doubles, auto-production, paradoxes, and finds these are things already with us today, embedded in Modernism and Capitalism, and of course, per Land – these features and the templexity they produce will only increase in frequency and intensity as time goes on.
Wolfgang Smith attempts here a powerful rebuke of relativistic physics, and endeavors to solve the metaphysical morass engendered by quantum theory. His coinage here, of “vertical causality,” certainly has some use to it in understanding the difference between the deterministic, mechanical “horizontal causality” of starting conditions on a closed system and the causality associated with free will and the observer effect on quantum waves and particles. I can't say he really hits it out of the park, as this ingenuity is then followed by an attempt to rehabilitate an Aristotelian, geocentric cosmology.
That said, I found his discussion of the various philosophical issues with modern physics quite interesting, as was his use of the geometric metaphors of line, circle, and point to elucidate a tripartite, traditionalist cosmology where there is time and space, but no space-time. I think while his Thomist apologetics might be forgettable, his conceptualization of “vertical causality” is quite useful and will likely be picked up by future thinkers.
Essentially, this is a mixed bag of early 20th century thinkers involved or associated with the Cosmism movement: a fantastical socialist utopian ideology that revered science to near worship-level and felt the telos of society was pointed, ultimately, towards immortality and interplanetary life. There are many intriguing highlights and interesting portions of this, but also a large amount of absurd notions and half-baked ideas.
The opening essays by Alexander Chizhevsky are very interesting and eye-opening, and the one essay present here by Nikolai Federov is truly inspiring. Valerian Muravyev's essay, “A Universal Productive Mathematics” was a delight, and deeply informed philosophically. It intriguingly prefigures notions currently being developed today, such as the Constructor Theory of quantum physicist David Deutsch. Far less enjoyable were sections written by “Anarcho-Biocosmist” Alexander Svyatogor, which I struggled to get through, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's essays were, in some aspects, interesting, but mostly very dated and bizarre. The final part, a short story by Alexander Bogdanov, is very good.
Overall it was quite enjoyable, though one can't help thinking while reading it, “ah, so this is why Cosmism never really got anywhere...” It's a shame, in a way. We have come so much further with science and technology than the early 20th century when this material was written, but have lost much of the wild imagination this contains, as well as the belief that the stars are our true birthright. Humanity can, and has, done much worse things than to work faithfully (albeit naively) towards physical immortality and an interplanetary civilization.
An exceedingly good book by French polymath scholar Amaury de Riencourt. Riencourt must certainly be in the running with Toynbee for producing the most-prescient Post-Spenglerian account of history. His “spiral” formulation of the path of history deftly accounts for the cyclical evolution of culture to civilization to moribund tyranny and the slow, but real progression and advancement of world civilization as it journeys nomadically from empire to empire.
In this, his most well known work (first published in 1952), he argues that only an abnormally high civilizational self-awareness coupled with supreme effort can stem the historical tide of America's process of turning from a republic to a world empire led by an autocratic Caesar. Not only because the USA purposefully modelled itself on the Roman republic, but because the Western European culture that is the heritage of American culture, is itself the result of this cyclical process, the logic of social organization from loose confederation, to united republic, to world empire is, one might say, “baked in.”
The Caesars are coming, and it will not be a partisan dispute, as just like in Rome: there will be Caesars from both parties. Some might even argue, they are already here.
A wonderful little compilation of poetry by Classical Roman poet and practical philosopher, Horace (Horatius), rendered in the original Latin as well as in some decent, certainly passable English verse by Stephen Harrison, whose expert commentary is also quite welcome. The choices are arranged by the topics of finding the good life, friendship, love (and lust), and, the final frontier for us all, as Horace reminds us frequently: death. Selections are pulled from the full range of Horace's works, Odes and Epistles featuring most heavily.
I really enjoyed reading this, and if the other editions in the Princeton little hardcovers series of “Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers” are of similar quality, I could see myself having a number of them in my personal library. Very recommended as an introduction to the poetry and wisdom of Horace.
If you can get beyond the silly ostentatious writing and Victorian-era science worship, it is a decent enough introduction to a few key Hermetic principles. However, for such a short book, it is incredibly repetitive. As must be explained, it is not The Kybalion itself, but is a commentary on The Kybalion (which most likely doesn't even exist); written not by three sages, but by one guy, William Walker Atkinson, and is largely comprised of his own ideas informed by the occultism of his day. I hesitate to recommend it at all as an introduction to Hermeticism, but it does organize and explain many principles more inappropriately than incorrectly and is, all said, pretty short.
If you are an educated reader who is ready to jump into the subject with both feet, I would skip this and head directly to something like a translation of The Corpus Hermeticum. If you are just vaguely curious as to what it's all about, this will likely suffice. But, be prepared to be annoyed by it's style if you have little patience for pompous gasbaggery.
Excellent little book of essays examining culture across species lines. Covering everything from gut bacteria to gardens to ants & to the charismatic social mammals, and moving across levels and layers of theory from the work of nigh-forgotten early sociologist Gabriel Tarde to Deleuze and of course to the father of sociobiology, E.O. Wilson, it shows new ways and lines of thought that a biological consideration of culture, and a cultural consideration of biology, can be arrived at.
Through the use of fable as heuristic, which Hartigan deftly demonstrates has been part of social science since its beginnings, and an informed and responsible consideration of the currents of sociobiology, while using domestication and cultivation as conceptual points of departure, we can begin to expand our understanding of culture into new areas. Areas, as Hartigan also shows, where culture has resided, quietly, this whole time: in species outside of the order of primate.
This took me quite awhile to read, but I am very glad I did. Not sure I can do it justice with a short review, it is dense, well argued, nuanced, and highly detailed. The world of Ancient Athens is painted in close detail, as an examination of the material conditions brings into relief the real values and power centers of the city.
There is a full-throated defense of democratic ideals, and of their genuine importance to Athens success. Woods gives a strong argument that the Democracy of Athens was not dependent primarily on slaves for its basic agricultural production and labor, and instead was mostly dependent on the farmer and the peasant farm-worker, and indeed this is why they ended up with such an elevated status, for that time, as Peasant-Citizens and given a democratic voice.
While Guenon is limited in certain ways, and has a few idiosyncratic interpretations of things, he is nonetheless a fantastic source for comparative religion and mythology. This book is his major attack on materialism and the lesser ‘spiritism' of the parapsychological world, which he identifies as a purely psychic, inferior (“infernal”) source of energy, removed as most as can be possible from the true source of spirit, the divine.
He maintains that the materialist scientism inaugurated by Descartes, culminating in the “Reign of Quantity” which can be rather readily described in the world around us today, has already largely run its course, yet a “return to tradition” will not happen. Instead, the development of a false, “counter-tradition” will take place that will set the stage for the final drama of the age, and then in a turn of events that is not comprehensible to us profane, who are trapped within the understanding of things available to us in this age (the Kali Yuga), there will be a final “rectification” and the entire cycle of ages will begin again, complete with its own golden age to start out with.
In some parts Guenon is even accelerationist, describing how this “quantizing” process of modernity will speed up and this will speed up the reckoning of time itself, the tempo of everything will accelerate until a point at which the cycle shifts, and the “quality” of time, seen in the cyclical dance and shifting emotionality of seasons and lunar cycles, reasserts itself. The book is a bit dry and repetitive, but there's still plenty of interesting things in it. I personally think the little esoteric asides and notes are well worth the admission price of the sometimes dreary Traditionalist prose.
Fun read! Actually, a bit gruesome, and suspenseful as well. Action-packed gangland mayhem aboard a luxury train - hard to not enjoy that premise, and it's done well here.
A rather dry introduction to the topic of annotation, with a focus on current projects and technologies making use of comment and annotation systems. I found it interesting, but a little too shallow of a dive into the meaty issues of ethics, power, as well as issues of credibility and access, which were hardly touched on. The book is mostly focused on the educational and social aspects of annotation, and so if that is your background you might get more out of this. There was also only a very minute amount of text covering the history and evolution of annotation, which I feel was a major misstep. I recommend it as a part of a study of the practice of annotation and current issues surrounding it, but not as a casual read – it is too dry and technical for that.
This is a short but highly compelling collection of some of Camus' short writings on subjects such as the second World War, the death penalty, and what it means to make art in these contemporary times. His powerful defense of Humanism and the importance of the individual spirit contains a depth of experience and wisdom that is missing in many such attempts.
To Camus, the meaning we humans make in the world for ourselves is the only real meaning that exists, and it is this humanistic meaning that he dearly values above any overriding ideological concern. The values arising from this existentialist humanism shine through in all of his points and argumentations in these essays and speeches. In many cases, these values can appear as underwhelming and naive, but here with Camus they are cogent, rousing, and inspirational.
This is a very interesting little book. Muammar Gaddafi makes a lot of compelling points in places, and at other times seems like a naive and zealous utopian. He is very strong when he critiques representative democracy from the standpoint of direct democracy, and when he compares the differences between constitutional law and natural law and the deficiencies of constitutions. Gaddafi's system of councils and committees is a very interesting and inspiring model of a broadly participatory, horizontal structure to the governing of society. It is his claim that mankind will inevitably come to adopt this structure, and that the political states of the world will eventually wither away and with them all serious social problems, that he seems to veer off into the realm of religious dogma, and not cultural and political theory. Similarly, his discussion of families, tribes, and the sexes demonstrate a kind of unquestioned biological essentialism that could have used a healthy dose of cultural realism.
Caleb Maupin's introduction is a welcome addition to the text. He paints a sympathetic, but not inaccurate, portrait of the revolutionary Libyan leader, that includes a great deal of context one won't find from say, CNN or the New York Times. I don't think any of his crimes or abuses should be ignored, but Gaddafi should also be understood as a synthesizer of a unique kind of Islamic socialism, who fought against Imperialism in Africa and worked hard to improve his nation. Painted as little more than a raving monster in much of the Western press, reading this will definitely give one a fuller picture of the man and his vision.
This was a very challenging book. I put it down and read other things several times while working my way through it, not because it isn't interesting, but because sections would often get into very deep discussions on formal mathematics and mathematical logic that are beyond my understanding. The book is also structured oddly, not like a normal memoir, biography, or philosophical overview would be and this results in some sections that are exceedingly dry and technical. However, I am overall glad I read it, and it contains many fascinating details about Gödel and his life and work. Everything discussed here is at a depth and level of detail missing from most other accounts. This is not an introductory work, to say the least!
A very dense, very rewarding text by Lefebvre. This is the general theory of the space-time of the everyday: the relative and rhythmic interactions of subjects and objects in space and time, as experienced in everyday, human dimensions. It is wonderful compendium of fascinating thoughts on the rhythms of life, and I think it's quite valuable today for anyone who wants to encounter some deep thinking on how rhythms connect, shape and in many ways, both produce and are produced by the human condition.
This is a great introduction to Gnosticism and its influence in thought down through the ages!
A good overview for a beginner looking to find out about the subject, but lacks depth and substance. I've found better lucid dreaming knowledge and techniques just browsing the internet.
Fantastic little book. It is a collection of Lévi-Strauss's spoken answers to a set of interview questions. Yes, it would be very nice if it were twice as long. Given what it is, depth and detail is sacrificed in the name of accessibility and clarity. And even at that, Lévi-Strauss manages to cite numerous books and monographs here. Perhaps most memorable and interesting in this short collection of spoken essays is the last, which is a discussion of how myth and music are very similar branches of the original art and technology of language. Very stimulating stuff, and I would say a good, short introduction to the French structuralist perspective on mythology and culture in general.
A very nice introduction and summary to Gödel's famous Incompleteness Theorem in which he proved any sufficiently complex formal system that can be represented within an arithmetic system has to be in some way incomplete. In short, he demonstrated that within a formal system there are statements that it will be capable of generating that must remain undecidable, as well as the existence of theorems which are true but which cannot be derived from the axiomatic statements of the formal system.
I highly recommend this if you are curious about Gödel's Theorem and have a basic understanding of set theory and formal logic. I think it does a great job taking you through the steps of the theorem and explaining things along the way, as well as explaining why it is important, as it points to the limits of formal systems and to the nature of their meta-statements, which cuts to the quick of mathematics; limiting certain notions about provability in maths all the way down to basic number theory and arithmetic.
It is a bit of a strange book, but extremely interesting from a number of different angles. The author's basic thesis is that the material of the Grail legends within the Arthurian romances originated as part of ceremonial reenactments performed in pre-Christian ‘Mystery' traditions, primarily those associated with the gods Attis and Adonis. Over time these became either de-sacralized, as part of the material for spring and harvest festival melodramas held publicly in villages across Europe, or as Weston argues, Christianized and transformed intentionally into stories fit for Chivalric ballads. Is it a slam dunk case? I don't think I know enough about these subjects to say, but Weston certainly was persuasive here, and undoubtably had done quite extensive research and scholarship to arrive at the position she presents in this book.
Beyond the main thesis, it is stuffed with interesting tangentially-related details about ancient religion, the Grail lore's symbolism, medieval Europe, and so on. She not unfrequently quotes other authors in their original French and German, which I could not read in their entirety, but I understood the gist in some of the German passages. Her intended audience for this book was clearly other European folklorists and philologists, but fortunately there is a lot of context around these quotes, so it certainly it does not make reading this impossible or pointless if you can't read them. Definitely a book worth reading and owning for anyone interested in the history of religion and folklore.
Mark Fisher deftly outlines the contours of our world as it appears today in Late Capitalism, and how Capital rules even our very imaginations through its logic of desire and production. He shows how everything in our world, even public services and universities, must act as though it is a business providing a product, that we are rational actors, that science and statistics can guide us to the truth, etc. His blistering critique points out that it can't be actual reality that capitalist realism is dealing with, as we are all anxious, miserable, confused, and alienated; and this shows no sign of being resolved through Capitalism, as it is in fact the result of Capitalism and of Neoliberalism's reign legitimized via Capitalist Realism.
He makes a good case, however, that Neoliberalism, while it employs capitalist realism to enforce its ideological supremacy, is not identical to capitalist realism, which does not, by necessity, have to carry a neoliberal flavor to it. Neoliberalism, Fisher argues, stands defrocked and delegitimized by its handling of the 2008 global financial crisis, and as such we, here among the ruins at the “End of History,” can still find new alternatives and build them – alternatives which embrace collective responsibility and a generative constraining of desire in ways the Neoliberal world order, by its own ideological constraints, can not.
Chris Hedges makes a lot of salient points but then he repeats them and repeats them again. This whole book would be better as just one essay. Poor Chris just comes across as a cranky contrarian instead of an insightful social critic.