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PaperclipPerfector  11d ago (text post)   2392 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 20, 2025

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So, what are you reading?

Still on Korzybski and Lovecraft. Trying to finally get through the Iliad.

Just finished "I, Claudius" (big thumbs up) and started "Cute Accelerationism", which is basically about "cuteness" as an inhuman thing summoned from the Outside by technology. One of the co-authors was in the CCRU with Nick Land and this is very much both in the tradition of and sort of a send-up of Landian accelerationism. I haven't yet decided what I think of it or how seriously to take it; some portion of it is definitely a bit/gimmick but it's a really delightful gimmick (the physical book itself being tiny and cute is sort of emblematic here). Whatever it is, I'm really enjoying how it manages to be dense and obscure while simultaneously being really fun.

This interview with the authors tipped me over the edge to buying it after Amazon recommended it to me: https://spikeartmagazine.com/articles/interview-amy-ireland-maya-b-kronic-cute-accelerationism

Ancient Law, by Henry Sumner Maine.

Surprisingly readable for a legal history book last updated in 1906.

Also, while I am reading the Imperium Press edition, nominally intended to re-expose people to classics of rightist thought, it is amusing to read Sir Maine extolling the virtues of the progressive society of the late 19th-century vs. the Roman law.

He seems to have a particular disdain for the Canon Law and the (his words!) retrogressive concepts of coverture and marital power. It’s interesting, because he seems to be on board with the man leading the marriage, however you choose to define leading, but not with the legal doctrines that mandate such a situation. In this regard, he strikes me as a very modernistic, even borderline woke, thinker. It makes me wonder if Imperium Press just pulled the oldest law book they could find that mentions Rome and uses the word Aryan.

I’m only halfway through though, so maybe he takes a 180 and retvrns later in the book.

Was up north with time to kill while watching rain fall on the lake. Read Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama over the weekend. I enjoyed it, though the edition had an appalling forward. I can see why the ending was controversial, as the central mystery of the book is not resolved, but it did not bother me as much as I expected it would. Also started a novel Subsunk about various submarine rescue developments and incidents. However it was printed in 1960 and I suspect may be slightly out of date.

I never read the original RWR, but I did read the sequels and greatly enjoyed them, even if I don't think Clarke was particularly involved in the writing therein.

Interestingly, I was going to reply in the opposite. I greatly enjoyed the original with all of its exploration of Rama and the wonders therein and couldn't get past all of the characters and their various agendas in the sequel, which made it the rare DNF for me. Can you tell me more about what you liked in Rama II and if it ever really gets going?

It's been a while, but I recall enjoying the exploration of the ship itself, the tense standoffs with the aliens, and the drama around the potential of being the last humans alive on the ship. That last bit prompted some funky incest babies before Rama picked up more humans and made that approach obsolete. I don't remember if it was R2 or the sequel that had colony hijinks as the humans tried to settle/conquer the ship, but it was great nonetheless.

After the chore that was Magda Szabó's The Door, I needed some light reading, so I picked up The Disaster Artist, Greg Sestero's account of his relationship with Tommy Wiseau and the making of The Room. It's a very entertaining and easy read. Someone named Dormin posted a review on the Slate Star Codex subreddit in which they compared and contrasted this book with its film adaptation (directed by and starring James Franco as Wiseau, and his brother Dave as Greg), arguing that the film had completely missed the point of the book. While Wiseau in the film adaptation of The Disaster Artist is weird, tactless, continually baffled by concepts which come naturally to most people and completely incompetent when it comes to the craft of filmmaking, he is essentially portrayed as a harmless nutcase. In the book, by contrast, Sestero presents him in a much darker light: rude and unpleasant for no good reason, paranoid, jealous, controlling, conniving, manipulative and indeed emotionally abusive. Given that Wiseau was involved in the production of the film adaptation, Dormin speculated that some softening of his portrayal was necessary to get him onboard. Highly recommended so far.

Dickens' Selected Short Fiction. The latest piece was a satire of British rail train refreshment staff extolling the noble and unchangeable tradition of consciously and deliberately providing the worst food and service possible.

It's amusing to come across these small social insights from history that continue to be relatable.

Desolation Island. Aubrey scammed out of accolades for taking Mauritius for the British. Apparently he's now headed to Australia.

I expect battles, bad puns and likely Stephen Maturin getting excited over a platypus.

@Mihow, I found the ending of For a Few Demons More to be compelling enough that I'm now on to book 6 of The Hollows, The Outlaw Demon Wails.

Sweet - thanks!

Book 1 is on my list now after I finish Gates of Fire.

I finished book six last night and I just have to say: holy shitsnacks did some major stuff go down! I was sorely tempted to start right in on number 7 although I chose a different book, I'll be tempted tonight to put that choice down and go back to the Hollows anyway.

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