Books!

[dsheinem]

This was a great pick to read this weekend as a lead in to the "month of horror"

It's more bleak and cutting than any dystopian film I've seen, if only because of its ability to so aptly describe the relationship of the present to the past in a way that makes his argument about the future a convincing one. Virilio's long been one of my favorite thinkers, and this book (which is a series of short interviews) brings together several different ideas from across his work.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Just finished up The Kubikiri Cycle by Nisio Isin. Full title translates "The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer." It was fascinating as expected from him.

What a strange murder mystery. A bored heiress invites some eccentric geniuses to a deserted island to hang out, but soon people start getting beheaded. The main character, a tagalong and non-genius who sleeps in the storage room, tries to solve the case, but almost no one is cooperative.



As it turns out, this is his first published novel! He also wrote the -monogatari series which is being adapted into a fairly popular anime. Even though it's part of a series, it stands completely on its own. I don't want to spoil much of anything, but Isin has a lot of respect for his readers. As a fan of mysteries, absurdism, and Nisio Isin's work, I really enjoyed it.

Now that Del Rey Manga has been bought out, I don't know if anyone will keep translating this series. I understand why - it's pretty unapproachable. Shame.

[J T]

I recently read this (which was very funny):



and this (which was an intense, real-life, culture-clashing medical drama):



and am now reading this (which is full of kick ass ancient asian sword fightery):

[Pulsar_t]

Thanks to ebooks, more backlog than ever before!

[SirGawain]

I've been on a kick lately and going back and reading some of my books from college. So far I have reread these this year:

[Pulsar_t]

This was a great pick to read this weekend as a lead in to the "month of horror"

It's more bleak and cutting than any dystopian film I've seen, if only because of its ability to so aptly describe the relationship of the present to the past in a way that makes his argument about the future a convincing one. Virilio's long been one of my favorite thinkers, and this book (which is a series of short interviews) brings together several different ideas from across his work.

A very interesting book indeed, introduced me to a few concepts that I was unaware of. Got others like it to recommend?

Btw, anyone else listens to the Hardcore History podcast? They're like mini-audiobooks.

[dsheinem]

This was a great pick to read this weekend as a lead in to the "month of horror"

It's more bleak and cutting than any dystopian film I've seen, if only because of its ability to so aptly describe the relationship of the present to the past in a way that makes his argument about the future a convincing one. Virilio's long been one of my favorite thinkers, and this book (which is a series of short interviews) brings together several different ideas from across his work.

A very interesting book indeed, introduced me to a few concepts that I was unaware of. Got others like it to recommend?

Btw, anyone else listens to the Hardcore History podcast? They're like mini-audiobooks.

ha! where to start?!

Virilio has a ton of books, and I'd recommend any of them as he's one of my favorite theorists. Probably two of his best known are War and Cinema and The Information Bomb, but stuff like Pure War, Lost Dimension and Ground Zero are all pretty interesting too. I wish I could say I've read his oeuvre, but not yet - it's a goal.

I got turned onto Virilio in my graduate work and took an independent study based on both his work and the work of Jean Baudrillard, a theorist who folks are more familiar with generally. Both are pretty squarely in the dystopian/post-modern/futurist vein, both write about technology and communication, and both were clearly shaped by post-war European history and the French academic tradition (e.g. 1968). If you haven't read Baudrillard the standard-bearer is Simulacra and Simulation, but I quite like For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, and The Spirit of Terrorism as well.

Some of this stuff can get pretty dense at points and so knowing something about each author's references and their general intellectual underpinnings will help you get more from them, but they are also quite accessible at certain moments.

[Pulsar_t]

Awesome thanks, these themes I find most interesting. Baudrillard and Virilio it is then, after I'm done with my current batch lol.

[noiseredux]

I just finished Scar Tissue, which I started early January. Nearly 500 pages that went by pretty damn quick.

[Pulsar_t]

(thanks dsheinem)