What's on the Huffy Crew's summer reading list?
Currently I'm trying to work my way through:
50 Years of Dissent
Suite Francaise
Plato's Phaedrus (ed. C.J. Rowe)
Hostile Takeover
The Conservative Mind
Political Theory Today
50 Years of Dissent
Suite Francaise
Plato's Phaedrus (ed. C.J. Rowe)
Hostile Takeover
The Conservative Mind
Political Theory Today
posted by to scranton at 2:09 AM
10 Comments:
Hey man, that's great! Making money is the best, isn't it? That's certainly how I feel. Hey, tell me more about the site. I'm dying to know. I'm going out to cali too and want to make extra cash as well. Then with the money I can buy mad avocados and tacos, maybe even open my own tacqueria! Bangin!
On a side note, while in Berkeley this weekend I spotted the Dissent book. Worth reading? I'm dying to know. Bangin!
No, actually. So far, at least. There's a decent review of Russell Kirk and the conservative philosophy movement by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, but the assessment of the Dwight Eisenhower era by Irving Howe is so kid-gloves, it makes me think that if this was what the *socialists* were saying about the American 1950s, it really must have been a thoroughly conservative period. (It's important to note, though, that American economic policy was Keynesian through-and-through at the time, so the socialists would probably have less to complain about than they would today.)
There's a boring, reactionary essay by some dude named Dwight MacDonald that barely remembers to acknowledge the fact that it's a leftist criticism of American society; otherwise it's your basic "the high arts are falling apart to consumerism" argument. These guys were *obsessed* with this idea, Jesus they never shut up about it. (See Horkheimer and Adorno for a foreigner's perspective.)
The most 'theoretical' piece so far is by Norman Mailer of all people, who embarrasses himself talking about the new capitalist phase of consumerism in vaguely Marxist terms. There's also Howe's "New Styles in Leftism" article that I've blogged about before. I'm looking forward to reading some more Michael Harrington, but that's about it.
Well, I've been in something of a doldrum when it comes to reading recently. But So far I've chewed on some Kathy Acker (Pussy, King of the Pirates), DFW (Girl with Curious Hair, Oblivion) That old new Brett Easton E. (Lunar Park) and some Berthold Brecht. There's been some non-fic in there but I've frankly found the fiction much more enjoyable and worth mention
Listening to Lunar Park on audible--different, but sort of interesting. My evaluation of the book will depend on how he wraps it up.
Just finished Infinite Jest, which I've wanted to read since Scantron cited it in our aesthetics brawl last year (? It's been a long fucking run here, huh?).
Now I'm reading The Brethren, Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong's expose on the Burger court. It's getting me pepped to rock law school, etc.
I want to read McCarthy's The Road and Don Delillo's new book, although I heard it wasn't very good.
I've brought AR Ammons'Glare with me, and piece through it bit by bit. It's so good that I almost want to save it for when I'm depressed and need something beautiful to convince me to live again.
I don't have any philosophy/theory with me in Europe but the fact that I don't have any sort of makes me want to get some Richard Rorty to back me up. Everything I read in the wake of his death has made me want to read him. Perhaps the Sheriff has some Rorty in Cairo??
Wow, lots of similarities...I am halfway through 'Suite Francaise' (in french) and I read the first 2/3 of 'Lunar Park' sitting in Shakespeare's the other day. I don't feel like coughing up the 14 euros for a shitty paperback though, so I too am waiting to see how it ends...
Other books i am mostly not finished with include, but are not limited to 'The Ancestor's Tale' by Richard Dawkins, 'The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills' by Buckowski (not his best), 'El Colronel no Tiene Auein le Escriba' by Marquez to test my Spanish (it's 'meh' at best) and Zizek's introduction to Robespierre's 'Virtue and Terror.'
Also, '10 Days to Great Self-Esteem,' which I have been reading for 20.
In other news, I've been dying to read some Acker lately...seems someone has my copy of 'Pussy, King of Pirates'...
For what it's worth, I am reading Nietzsche's relentless bashing of David Strauß and Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen to find out finally what the big deal about blue flowers is.
Zomg! Brett to the Double-E (EE) par-tee. I want to hear both of your opinions when you're done.
It's been mostly fiction for me. With the exception of the first and last scene the new Delillo isn't very interesting. In general, I'd say the shorter the novel, the better: McEwan's "On Chesil Beach" and "Atonement" are both excellent. "The Road" was pretty stunning, too. It's a real joy to discover two authors more than midway through their career.
All these aforementioned books can be read in a day or two. Something that I presume cannot be said of Infinite Jest. Can you get through it? I've always had a tough time persuading myself to read extremely long fiction. (Although Underworld tempts me, if I don't like Delillo at 250 pp., why should I bother with him at 1000?)
For me, it's been Vineland by Pynchon to prepare for Californian oddities. Nietzsche on Nietzsche to prepare for a Nietzsche seminar. And then, happily, Thoreau, who is more fascinating and correct than I would have imagined, having somehow managed to read no Thoreau during all previous years of living.
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