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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   808 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 11, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I finally finished Al-Ghazali's The Book of Knowledge. I thought it would be a quasi-religious manual about logic and argument, but it turns out to be a remarkably interesting attempt to consolidate and support the basic opinions of Islam's Prophet and the Companions on the topic of knowledge in comparison to what was deemed knowledge in his time.

...the most satisfied state of mind for the sagacious is to deem yourself alone in the universe with God, in front of you is death, the day of judgment, reckoning, heaven, and the fire; ponder deeply on what will serve you best in that which is before you and abandon all else.

Otherwise I'm attempting Said's The Question of Palestine, for reasons unrelated to my reading on Islam or contemporary events, being more interested in the idea of Othering. I'm still on Bly's Iron John, and some day soon, I hope, I will make progress in The Dawn of Everything.

Just started The Vorkosigan Saga and I'm loving it so far. Been on my list for a long time and I'm glad I'm finally checking it out. Old sci-fi at its best.

I have fond memories going through the saga, it's certainly doing something pretty unique. Just introducing standard sci-fi tech gimmicks, and then really deep explorations of what having technology like that means for society. I also like how it mostly doesn't take easy outs, plenty of hard consequences for the characters to live with. It's pretty well done, even if it's much more classic space opera than modern hard sci-fi.

It's also an interesting time capsule, for me it's the absolute essence of proto-woke. The breath and depth of the progressive thought surprised me several times considering the release dates of the books. She hits most modern culture war foci decades before they became mainstream.

True! So far there's a lot of feminism for sure. But at least it's early stage feminism where she accepts inequality of outcome, and that women shouldn't try to pretend to be men. Not the insanity we have today.

Yeah, that's the first major theme, and it always has some presence throughout the series. Next big one after that will be ableism, which also stays present till the end. Then classism, critique of empire and colonialism, mental health, fat acceptance, racism against actual new human sub-species, homosexuality, sexual deviancy, even some quick trans side characters.

But yes, most of it is well done.

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