What are you reading?

[Seance]

^ Yeah Kindred is good but brutal! I'd recommend more of her books, I've read the "Lilith's Brood" series and enjoyed them a lot.

Recently re-read Valis by Philip K Dick. Although I sort of wish I had this version
so I could re-read the whole series in order.

The first time I read these I checked them all out sequentially from a library—back when
libraries still trafficked in physical books.

Man I'd love that version! I loved Valis but not got round to checking out the series yet.

Might be interesting to read Robert Temple's new book after that series.

Apparently Robert Temple's book The Sirius Mystery from 1976 influenced PKD to change
the star he thought his pink laser of information beamed into his brain was coming from. Initially
he conjectured Albemuth. Then settled on Sirius.

Talk of "plasmate" and how the universe is a hologram and the pink laser as an info beam in PKD
also sort of seem to have something in common with Robert Temple's new book, A New Science
of Heaven.



Or... human concepts frame how human minds conceive of that which is that we don't understand.
For Newton the universe is like a clock.
Some people now seem to the think the universe is like a hologram/virtual reality construct made by a computer.

Scientists call it "dark matter" and "dark energy" because 99% of the universe is made up of "stuff"
that scientists have no clue about (humans are "in the dark", not the matter or energy).

[coldbrightsunlight]

That sounds pretty wild. Maybe worth checking out

[Seance]

Just finished reading the 800-page Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas (1971).

Lots of interesting stuff. Lots of galling/entrancing parallels in circumstances and mindsets.
We live in a time where self-confirming beliefs have run rampant and amok. The internet
has (contrary to the pitch from the utopian salespeople) exacerbated the situation instead of
dispelling disinformation.


Just started reading Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici (2004).

[Kacey Y]

I've been reading Plain Bad Heroines, it's a lesbian New England gothic novel. I enjoy the vibes of it, but the story is so meta and layered across time jumps and narrative devices that it can get a little difficult to keep focus. It jumps between the story of people making a movie adaptation of a novel, that is sort of a Capote style fictionalization of a morbid tragedy involved girls at a prep school in the 1800s, to the actual lives of the school mistress of that prep school and her lover and their messy secret life (both their back stories and after the tragedy, out of order). There's also a lot of potentially supernatural occurrences that they all have in common, some of which may be staged by the production of the film, because they're semi-secretly manipulating and filming the actors behind the scenes, to get a reaction as a meta narrative artsy angle. It's sometimes hinted at by the narrator that she's unreliable and everything we're reading is subjective and manipulated for our reactions.

I don't dislike it, but I find myself wishing I was reading the fictional novel within the novel, as just a regular narrative lol

[coupleonapkins]

Somehow didn't realize Miranda July released another bewk this year, so I'm gonna haveta get inn on that akshun

I did finally see Kajillionaire (not bewk) this yeer, and it was pleasant in all thee right wheys

Still gotta find a cheep copy of that vegetarian korean cookbook, since my librerry has a waitlist of 45 ppl & the digital version eggspired?!? Either that or one o' dose phaidon spensive dingys if I get a merchant/ivory gift card at thee gift swap next week, but you KNOW I'll just end up with a can of peanut SNAKES instead