“The Purpose-Driven Life”, by Rick Warren.
Answers the question, “WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?”, with the statement that you are here to pass the butter.
…..No, just joking. It says that you are here to spread the word of Christian Evangelism, no doubt to make the world a safe place for other Christian Evangelist nut jobs.
There. Now you know.
“Confronting Reality”, by Bossidy and Charan.
“Doing What Matters to Get Things Right”.
An irresistible lead, wouldn’t you say? Who wouldn’t want to Confront Reality and Get Things Right?
Written in 2004, it describes the changes that international capitalism is bringing to your company and why you can’t afford to pay your workers a living wage in this Brave New World.
Whoa. Bet you didn’t expect that from reading the book cover, did you? But now they have your money and you have their shitty book.
Caveat emptor.
“Causal Space-Time”, by Richard D. Bateson.
The author argues that all of the laws of physics can be derived from the concept of causality. Basically, he’s saying that it’s just one damned thing after another.
But the center console hanging threads to the unknown invisible regions has our 7 chakras. The antidote to too much atop view. There is a problem to all knowledge - you lose faith, in the extreme, the big, the flower of joy. When you let go of calculation, you enter alchemy. Twisted meanings without truth, without cause are more interesting.Originally Posted by Adam Strange
Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ A fair face may fade, but a beautiful soul lasts forever. Lucky Numbers - 53, 10, 29, 14, 1, 21
Mr. Mime = Mastermind
Marius Florin aka LeoSuperCluster as Raging Bolt the Raikou number 1021 and SolitaryWalker brought glory to the years of Silver and forged Pichu, wisdom of force and flair to exhibit dinosaur questing pointers electrocuting cinema and blueprints of emporiums to undertow flows jungle tossing galaxy spanning shivers of essence gems and portals of roads to destruction and arboretums folding castles and swordsmanship of dreams and counters to pleasant vibrations and holy water sprouting evanescent stars and puzzles of grades to saffron climax
https://www.the16types.info/vbulleti...k-2024-edition
From the book I am reading:
Learning of left-hand path exaltation of the Feminine Daemonic might lead those of our readers indoctrinated by the omnipresent feminist cant and dogma that slants much modern esoteric thinking to falsely assume that the left-hand path's alternate definition as the Way of Woman allows it to be interpreted as some sort of feminist movement with spiritual trappings. It must be made clear that these mysteries have nothing to do with the politically correct vision of Woman promulgated by most feminist ideologues, nor can ancient magical and initiatory principles be credibly forced to serve any modern political creeds.
The awe-inspiring dark goddess who flows through the sinister current is far removed from the idealized image of the gentle, nurturing pacifist beloved of modern day feminists. The Woman of the Vama Marga does not fit comfortably into the imagined utopia of a wondrous prehistoric matriarchy ruled by wise, peaceful women posited in the wishful thinking of feminist pseudo-historians.
Nor is the left-hand path exaltation of Shakti a mystical argument for the complete equality of men and women – the left-hand path is actually based on a deep recognition of the essential differences between male and female which are central to every aspect of Vama Marga practice. This is in no way a question of inferiority and superiority. It's simply a recognition that the masculine and feminine principles are unique phenomena in their own right. The left-hand path act of sexual alchemy that creates the spiritual androgyne is based on a deliberate conjunction of opposites; such an alchemy would be impossible to achieve if it were conducted between forces that were basically identical, as modern gender politics insists.
One need only behold the manifold Shakti in her form of Kali, blood dripping from her lips, wearing a necklace of decapitated human heads and brandishing a formidable array of death-dealing devices, to understand that the Feminine Daemonic informing the left-hand path is not a poster girl for feminism. Even less is She a suitable role model for the woman who accepts the submissive domesticated roles of traditional wife/mother/daughter. Immensely powerful though Shakti in her many forms may be, it would be a mistake to confuse this feminine strength with feminist jargon of "empowerment"; the left-hand path cannot be politicized so crudely.
The left-hand path principally honors the nightside of femininepower, even in its most extreme bharaivi force of creative destruction.
Shakti is often said, for example, to possess the force unleashed in hurricanes, which are traditionally given women's names. This violent quality can be understood in an archaic sense as the savage she-huntress red of tooth and claw, or in the more up-to-date cosmic energies of devastation witnessed in an atomic explosion. Kali, in one Tantra, is described as "shining with the light of ten million suns, although black in color like a fresh cloud." The Black Light sought by some Islamic heretic sects in Iran, or the Black Flame revered by some modern left-hand path cults in the West can be compared to the dark side of Kali-shakti – she is often described as an all-devouring black flame.
Self-published? The author needs an editor.
Lol, just because I haven't posted the name of the authors + publisher doesn't mean there aeren't any.
Since I'm feeling generous, here is the reference:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...s_of_the_Flesh
The book has been out of print for years though, good luck finding a physical copy that isn't like 300 dollars lol.
Lol. Thanks, but I’m never going to read that. It looks like absolute garbage.
I hope you’re getting something worthwhile out of it, though.
I think there's a chapter where they discuss how one can harness their vital forces and passion to maximize the number of items one could carry to his car from the grocery store and fold socks in the most efficient manner, so don't give up on it yet.
"The Case Against the Sexual Revolution" by Louise Perry
I recently talked with an old friend (now a full-blown TERF and sex-negative feminist) about sex work and hookup culture, and she pointed out this recently-released book, which covers these topics from the perspective of a sex-negative feminist, and which I recommend to anyone who wants to know more about this somewhat obscure part of the political spectrum.
I'll summarize some of her stuff that's relevant to the 'red pill' / incel / 'unequal sexual marketplace' phenomenon, which I'm doing with the explicit purpose of provoking discussion about something with an unpleasantly growing political footprint, and which is topical and difficult to ignore. There are liberal, sex-positive attempts to solve these problems, but I've been expecting a more subtly-conservative counterreaction than that of blunt modern conservatism, whose ambitious solution is the massive re-adoption of old-style religious participation.
Her ideas:
* Men (tend to) mate more opportunistically, women (tend to) look for commitment (but not without significant overlaps between these two extremes, and there are lots of people who don't conform, ostensibly or not, to these binary preferences). This is evolutionary psychology (which is a mixed bag and something to be sceptical about, but which would be premature to disregard completely).
* Sexual liberation is anathema to (most) women, and it has mainly (but not exclusively) benefited men. Rather than promoting women's right to have sex like men, a true feminist project should instead expect men to conform to women's sexuality.
* Like any unregulated marketplace, the sexual marketplace has produced vastly unequal outcomes, 'high status' men being the primary beneficiaries. Women sleep with these men, in the naive belief that men's sexuality works like women's, hoping to form an attachment and procure commitment, and this is often taken advantage of by less-than-chivalrous men.
The rise of these sexual winners has simultaneously created a sexual underclass of unsuccessful men (incels). She promotes monogamous marriage as the best method for dealing with this disparity.
* She rejects the 'consent framework' promoted by sex-positive feminists. Women, being (mostly) more agreeable — something that is intrinsically tied to their biology — often consent to things (like sex) that they don't want to do and later regret. Verbal consent isn't a perfect indicator of real consent. Many sex workers claim to consent while putting up psychological defences, attaching rationalisations to their behaviour, and abusing drugs and alcohol, to numb the trauma of having their preprogrammed boundaries repeatedly violated.
* Porn is a form of 'limbic capitalism' (look it up, it's interesting). The addictive quick-fix of Internet porn is another contributor to the rise of incels.
* Sex work is carried out by a sexual underclass of working-class women. And when it potentially affects the lives of middle/upper-class women, sex work is attacked by default and without controversy. In the UK, for instance, a phenomenon of landlords who charge 'sex for rent' (a proposal that could create a 'race to the bottom') provoked outrage from feminists.
But if sex work was a valid occupational choice, as these same feminists claim, and if the moral value of sex was up to each individual to determine according to her own value-system, then paying for rent using sex is also a valid individual choice. She argues that there is something intrinsically special about sex that makes its commodification repulsive to many people.
* Bonus: nice shoutout to the American economist Thorstein Veblen.
link
Last edited by xerx; 10-07-2022 at 10:58 PM. Reason: clarification
@xerx I think those are all as valid points as anything that leaves out a lot of information can be. I'm mostly kind of repulsed by that book cover, to be honest. Thinking that the only alternatives are sexual intercourse and masturbation is still framing everything in terms of sexuality. I'm not one of those people who thinks masturbation is some kind of mortal sin, but I do think frequent masturbation will throw your hormones out of whack and cause you to excrete many of your nutrients whether it's a male or female doing it. I think people should try to avoid masturbating at all if possible, because that definitely releases hormones and rewires nerves and I don't think using up your body's resources and creating those kind of associations is optimal. I don't think people should be trying to think their way to orgasms either since that mostly causes the same problems. I think society just thinks about sex way too much and that's detrimental. However, as long as people think everything is driven solely by reproduction they're going to think too much about sex. It's good to think cerebrally about sex and not be naïve about it, but that doesn't mean everything is actually super sexually charged and seeing a pointy object or a hole should cause you to start orgasming to yourself and everything should be a double entendre. I heard there used to be an order of knights that was formed on the basis that if they accidentally saw anyone's underwear they wouldn't laugh. Innocence is not naïveté. A person really should strive to be as wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove. It's like Jordan Peterson said about meekness: the meek aren't the powerless, the meek are the powerful who hold back. I will add what is probably even more important in the context of the human intellect being what matters more than physical or social might: the innocent aren't the naïve, the innocent are the wise who hold back.
This reminds me of my point about why I think racial equity is a terrible idea. Sexual equity is also a terrible idea. Maybe men who engage in wild reckless sex usually gain power over women who engage in wild reckless sex. Know who benefits compared to both? People who don't engage in wild reckless sex. Men who engage in wild reckless sex still often get STDs, they still often appear on embarrassing sex tapes, then things such as the false rape accusations and being saddled with paternity payments really do happen. Just because you're going to die of something eventually doesn't mean having wild reckless sex is a great thing to spend your life on. Even as a man or one of the few women who gets away with it, you only get power over people who are also playing that game and you're giving up what seems like everything else for it. It's extremely widespread, you can get decent amounts of power by playing it, but look at the people who aren't and compare the outcomes. Who do you really want to be? Someone who goes out in a blaze of tabloid controversy and STDs, or someone who got to live a long life accomplishing the really serious things such as the more highbrow arts, science, and similar?
So, just as raising stupid black people to the standard of stupid white people isn't an acceptable outcome, trying to have women act like pigs because many men act like pigs is not an acceptable outcome. It's better not to be a pig, what with living in a pigsty covered in dirt and all the rest.
I agree.
I'll go further than that. Many people, a significant amount of whom call themselves 'leftists' and vote for leftist parties, feel put-off by libertinism in general (including, but especially not limited to, the sexual variety), feel awkward in articulating their puritanical and stoic preferences in leftist spaces, and dislike both consumerism (commonly attacked by the political left) and over-sexualisation (commonly attacked by the political right). Traditionalist religion has become the prevailing venue to express these beliefs. But a left-wing movement that combines progressive economics, egalitarianism, and social values that elevate modesty, would, I suspect, appeal to a lot of people.
Last edited by xerx; 10-08-2022 at 05:28 PM. Reason: .
Anything by Holly Black is good. I've been meaning to find more fairy inspired books, any reccs?
@Coeruleum Blue, do you like to read Warhammer novels? I just finished my first one, Lords of Silence, about a warband of the Death Guard. Was really good, though completely unfriendly to anyone new to the series as it just assumes you know everything and doesn't really explain much. Love how it exhibits that stunted depression feeling of the followers of Nurgle, and shows just how resilient they are in battle. One character getting absolutely pulverized and still lived through it lol. I can't decide whether to read the Night Lords omnibus or get started on the Horus Heresy series. Really want to read Fulgrim and First Heretic from the series. I already know most of the lore but still.
Right now I'm still trying to work my way through old sword and sorcery novels (e.g. Elric) but after I read those I'd probably find some of the Warhammer novels pretty interesting, so thanks.
I heard Tolkien really hated the fairy books, but that might not mean much. I've heard of his reasoning second-hand, though, and that might mean more.
Oh what was his reasoning? I'm kinda curious
He thought it was making the fae into short childlike people with wings who dance, play jokes, and make shoes was not very dignified compared to Norse mythology portrayals of elves where they're tall, strong, wise, powerful, etc. and people give their children and themselves names with elf in them like Ælfred (elf-council.) To be fair, he seemed to have a thing for turning the fairies into basically the fallen elves who are desperately trying to stay relevant despite humans learning about most of the world.
Soon...
No they're not, I agree with him. But I think there's a reasoning for that. Most myths and folklore behind the fae are dark and gruesome. Even if they did sprout wings and used magic, fairies were still feared by many during those times yknow? Anything like colic babies, unexplained disease, or random missing persons were blamed on the fae folk, mainly. They were a "force" to be reckoned with, and a reality that was believed in.
It's not just the fae folklore, either. Most of the movies and books (I'm looking at you Disney) that we enjoy today come from stories that have dark themes.
That's not exactly what the public likes to read about, especially if the targeted audience are children. And by the time those re-adaptations are created they're too popular to be changed again. Idk, I think some of it's lazy writing if anything at this point. Writers are afraid their books won't get as many sells or wanted attention if they make a different narrative.
Eat my ass
I'm reading "I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It" by Norman Finkelstein. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/86496466
He's on the political left, but he has some harsh things to say about cancel culture, wokeness and (especially) Barack Obama. He argues that wokeness / identity politics has become part of the Democratic party's electoral strategy, which, although having had its origins in a sincere desire to correct historical injustices, was instrumentalised by the party establishment in order to appeal to (or manufacture) a new Democratic base — with cancellation being a crucial tool used to achieve that affect — as the Democratic party has more or less abandoned the White working class. He also argues that wokeness has been exploited by some leading woke figures in order to make money, by celebrity intellectuals who sell woke books and charge tens of thousands of dollars to give speeches.
Unrealistic causes like 'abolishing prisons' have been adopted by liberal elites because they have no chance of ever happening and will never threaten the existing system. Blaming all 'White men' for social oppression unfairly (or, rather, strategically) lumps working class men and billionaires in the same category. And while it's very fair to say that identity politics has something important to say about certain forms of structural oppression, it can be used, and is being used, to completely displace class politics. Amazon's race and gender inclusivity workshops are an example of how political theater can be used to direct attention away from actual economic inclusivity.
As for my opinion, I agree with a lot of what he says. One commonplace narrative is that wokeness is mainly the result of an overly protected younger generation of teenagers / twenty-somethings (and there is obviously something there to seriously consider — it may even be, and probably is, the result of multiple causes, which I'll leave to future socioligists to work out), but what's lost is how wokeness (and, in fact, any ideology and any religion that gives the outward impression of being sincere) can be deployed cynically and opportunistically for pure political or financial gain (in this case, by the older generation).
I can't go through everything he says, it's better to read the book or watch his interviews. I'm posting this because I believe that it's important to hear dissenting voices, especially in relation to current politics. I also really support the worker's movement and don't want to see it sabotaged, and if this book shines a light on even marginal threats to economic rights, then it has done its job.
By the way, I'm not a fan of prominent anti-woke figures like Jordan Peterson and his ilk; I don't believe that they truly support freedom of speech. I'm not posting this as some kind of declaration of conversion to that side of the political spectrum, so don't bother thinking that.
RE. abortion: I thought that he presented an interesting argument against it; mainly, that when it comes to the rights extended towards life, the arc of history has bended towards the expansion of the definition of personhood (e.g. women and slaves, and, increasingly, sapient animals like dolphins). History hasn't always been on the side of progressives — for instance, it was early 20th century progressives who supported eugenics, which was mainly opposed by Catholics and subsequently discredited (although the idea seems to be gaining ground again).
FWIW, if you support Ukraine or take a hard-line stance in support of transgender issues, you definitely won't like what he says about either. He is also well-known for being one of the harshest critics of Israel and is quite blunt and unapologetic about that. If you align with the American liberal establishment, you probably won't like him very much (he'd probably see that as a compliment).
Last edited by xerx; 06-23-2023 at 03:02 AM. Reason: typo fixed
I'm reading "Real Tigers" by Mick Herron. Really great series of spy books.
𝐃𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐜𝐞
𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬
𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐠𝐨,
𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬
Last month I read “strange sally diamond” by Liz Nugent, “Looking Glass Sound” by Catriona Ward, “Blue Dreams: the science and the story of the drugs that changed our mind”, by Lauren slater…and a few memoirs …”The Dark side of innocence: growing up bipolar” by Terri Cheney, and “Haldol and hyacinths: a bipolar life” by melody moezzi.
all of them were pretty good. I really enjoyed “looking glass sound” the most, though….it’s a psychological thriller/horror and just came out, for people that are into that sort of thing.
I must have missed this! Sorry!
The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire is pretty good. The fist book of the series is called “Rosemary and Rue”.
Also, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas was good, for a while, then it starts to get real boring the later books in the series. But the first 3 or four were pretty good.
Criticizing wokeness is pointless and in bad faith, because Cuntservatives will just twist your words because they actually do want those minority groups to be genocided/exterminated. Or just put in their 'proper place' being in the kitchen baking a white str8 man a pie as they are humiliated and discriminated against. Of course obviously there's nothing wrong with baking a working class white str8 man a pie - but when it's forced it's pretty eyeroll.
It shouldn't be uncool to do the right thing and not be a fascist Nazi moron. Woke is a nothing insult- considering logically the average human should be awake for 16 hours of the day anyway. Oversleeping is a sign of a neurological disorder.
You'll never stick up for the underdog in this narcissistically perfect way, so people need to stop trying. And yes, sometimes the underdogs need to be more greatful and realize perfect understanding is also impossible - but that's such a petty and dumb issue to people commiting genocide or discriminating against minority groups that overly focusing on it compared to just getting over yourself and doing the right thing is something I won't understand. The important thing is you did say something and did the right thing and weren't some cowardly and spineless bully.
Will it get you laid? Probably not but it's still a good thing to do. Getting laid probably means knowing how to insult minorities without really meaning it or intending the opposite, but only Chads can really do that.
The Gap Cycle books are some of the best sci-fi books I've read, never burned through a series of books as rapidly as I have this series. There's a slight barrier of entry to the series, with book 1 fondly being referred to as "Rape: The Book", due to all the raping that occurs, but it's well worth it. Such incredible writing that you'll even find yourself rooting for the rapist at times!
“Ah, children, ah, dear friends, don’t be afraid of life! How good life is when one does something good and just!”
I’m reading, “The Center Cannot Hold: my journey through madness”. It’s a memoir about a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia. Pretty interesting read. I’ve never read a book about schizophrenia or knew much about it, but this book is very enlightening.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1098486
I’m just starting, “Opening Skinners Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century by Lauren Slater
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/639076
I've been reading the Star Wars Visual Dictionary 2006 a lot lately.
Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ A fair face may fade, but a beautiful soul lasts forever. Lucky Numbers - 53, 10, 29, 14, 1, 21
Mr. Mime = Mastermind
Marius Florin aka LeoSuperCluster as Raging Bolt the Raikou number 1021 and SolitaryWalker brought glory to the years of Silver and forged Pichu, wisdom of force and flair to exhibit dinosaur questing pointers electrocuting cinema and blueprints of emporiums to undertow flows jungle tossing galaxy spanning shivers of essence gems and portals of roads to destruction and arboretums folding castles and swordsmanship of dreams and counters to pleasant vibrations and holy water sprouting evanescent stars and puzzles of grades to saffron climax
https://www.the16types.info/vbulleti...k-2024-edition
Reading The Silent Patient right now. Almost done with it because, Wow, is it a page turner!
Ok, this book shocked the crap out of me! I feel like an idiot for not figuring it out, though. I’m telling everyone to read it !!! It’s good. Really good. It reminded me a bit of shutter island.
Last edited by Aster; 10-25-2023 at 10:44 PM.
now I’m reading, “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. And it’s not going that great. I’m only a little over 20 pages in, but this book is giving me a headache. I feel awful saying this, but I can’t stand how the author writes. I keep reading the same sentences over and over. I don’t know if I can finish this one. It’s going to be a test in willpower if I can trudge through it. It gets good reviews so there has to be some pearls in there , right? Right?
The author wrote a semi-biographical novel about her youth with schizophrenia, and the way she describes her inner world with Yr and gods and eyes watching her, I’m just so lost right now. Part of me wants to just read it because it’s bugging me to want to figure it out.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/..._a_Rose_Garden
Last edited by Aster; 10-25-2023 at 10:52 PM.
The Night Lords Omnibus is so far living up to the hype. People are always raving this as among the best of all 40k books and I can already see why.
“Ah, children, ah, dear friends, don’t be afraid of life! How good life is when one does something good and just!”
Anyone read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, yet? I just got it at the library. I didn’t have many options at the library I went to, so I just grabbed it because I remember seeing it on goodreads. I’m not enthusiastic about it, unfortunately, but maybe I’ll get into it once I start it. I’ve liked a few of Kingsolver’s books that I’ve read so far. The Lacuna and The Poisonwood Bible. So I’m hoping this one is as good as those.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60194162
almost finished with shadow and bone
it tends to drag quite a bit
and also clearly written for a younger audience, but that doesn't mean it's uninteresting entirely to adults
I have like 7 books checked out from the library right now and I haven’t been able to make myself start any of them yet
I’ll probably read The Girls by Emma Cline first.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26893819
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