Cars are tools and nothing more. My dad always wants to wash mine for me and I just say "why?" I use it to get from A to B. It doesn't mean anything else.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:08pmThere were probably a good couple dozen guys from high school who would also have strong feelings, too, tho they might want him peeing on Chevy or Hyundai or whatever. Guys who have emotional attachments to their vehicles unnerve me. Seriously.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:02pmI ONLY LIKE IT WHEN HE PEES ON FORD. I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 1:41pmEven tho his stuff, far more so than most, justifies descriptors like indispensible and essential. So there's kinda sorta an extra layer of humour there.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 1:20pmI like how Bill Watterson called his C&H 2-book collections things like The Indispensable, The Authoritative, The Essential...he thought they were funny titles because those books were none of those things.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 11:54am
Oh, definitely. I should have added that I wasn't necessarily dumping on the author for that. It certainly smells of dumb marketing, like the reader is getting a glimpse of the taboo, the history they don't want you to know about. Possibly the only thing worse is a description that a work is definitive. Well, I guess we don't have to debate the subject anymore then as it's all been settled by Prof. Oswald Q. Smartypants' definitive study.
(Man, Calvin sure has a weak bladder when it comes to car company logos …)
Whatcha reading?
Re: Whatcha reading?
"Suck our Earth dick, Martians!" —Doc
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Re: Whatcha reading?
My father in law's like that. He'll talk about football and cars long past my faning any kind of interest.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:08pmThere were probably a good couple dozen guys from high school who would also have strong feelings, too, tho they might want him peeing on Chevy or Hyundai or whatever. Guys who have emotional attachments to their vehicles unnerve me. Seriously.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:02pmI ONLY LIKE IT WHEN HE PEES ON FORD. I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 1:41pmEven tho his stuff, far more so than most, justifies descriptors like indispensible and essential. So there's kinda sorta an extra layer of humour there.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 1:20pmI like how Bill Watterson called his C&H 2-book collections things like The Indispensable, The Authoritative, The Essential...he thought they were funny titles because those books were none of those things.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 11:54am
Oh, definitely. I should have added that I wasn't necessarily dumping on the author for that. It certainly smells of dumb marketing, like the reader is getting a glimpse of the taboo, the history they don't want you to know about. Possibly the only thing worse is a description that a work is definitive. Well, I guess we don't have to debate the subject anymore then as it's all been settled by Prof. Oswald Q. Smartypants' definitive study.
(Man, Calvin sure has a weak bladder when it comes to car company logos …)
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Re: Whatcha reading?
I had a prof as an undergrad who once stated that he got weirded out by people who have bumper stickers that say “I Love My [car model].” What kind of person develops an emotional attachment to a car? And what does that say about their feelings toward living beings? He had a point, I think.
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
Re: Whatcha reading?
Yep. VH is always trying to get me to clean my car out or wash it. What part of "I don't give a shit" does he not understand? It's an eight year old Prius. It's not even really a car.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:21pmCars are tools and nothing more. My dad always wants to wash mine for me and I just say "why?" I use it to get from A to B. It doesn't mean anything else.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:08pmThere were probably a good couple dozen guys from high school who would also have strong feelings, too, tho they might want him peeing on Chevy or Hyundai or whatever. Guys who have emotional attachments to their vehicles unnerve me. Seriously.Kory wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 2:02pmI ONLY LIKE IT WHEN HE PEES ON FORD. I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THIS.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑17 Nov 2017, 1:41pmEven tho his stuff, far more so than most, justifies descriptors like indispensible and essential. So there's kinda sorta an extra layer of humour there.
(Man, Calvin sure has a weak bladder when it comes to car company logos …)
Got a Rake? Sure!
IMCT: Inane Middle-Class Twats - Dr. M
" *sigh* it's right when they throw the penis pump out the window." -Hoy
IMCT: Inane Middle-Class Twats - Dr. M
" *sigh* it's right when they throw the penis pump out the window." -Hoy
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Re: Whatcha reading?
Bedtime reading:
Started this last night, reading just the intro, about the appeal of growing a beard after you have nothing left to prove as a man (i.e., having secured a spouse and reproduced). I was amused as I seem to have stumbled into another one of my periodic bouts of shaving laziness that might become something more. Which is to say, I end up looking like a hobo.
Tub reading:
So apparently I bought this within the last year or so, but have no recollection of doing so. I was just looking for something to read and found it on my bookshelf. That's one mystery. The other is why I bought this. It's a collection of entries that are obviously about punk and many that are not obvious. It's postmodern pastiche, an argument (apparently) about punk's cynical(?) nature without wanting to be all upfront and state what it is. It's not nearly as clever, wry, or persuasive as the author thinks. Still, a few entries led me to hunt down some things that are useful to me in my current research.
Biking audiobook:
Starting this tomorrow morning, as I finished that Matheson collection (note: they're mostly forgotten novels for a reason; I endured two, skipped one). Andersen, if the name is unfamiliar, was one of the founders of Spy magazine back in the 80s, so I'm hoping for some wit. The argument, I gather, is that Americans for their entire history have been a self-delusional people and that Trump is the logical culmination of it all. Fine, yeah, whatever, I'll go with that as long as it's in service of some frustrated venting and not a legit historical argument. My hope is more amusement than actual intellectual stimulation.
Started this last night, reading just the intro, about the appeal of growing a beard after you have nothing left to prove as a man (i.e., having secured a spouse and reproduced). I was amused as I seem to have stumbled into another one of my periodic bouts of shaving laziness that might become something more. Which is to say, I end up looking like a hobo.
Tub reading:
So apparently I bought this within the last year or so, but have no recollection of doing so. I was just looking for something to read and found it on my bookshelf. That's one mystery. The other is why I bought this. It's a collection of entries that are obviously about punk and many that are not obvious. It's postmodern pastiche, an argument (apparently) about punk's cynical(?) nature without wanting to be all upfront and state what it is. It's not nearly as clever, wry, or persuasive as the author thinks. Still, a few entries led me to hunt down some things that are useful to me in my current research.
Biking audiobook:
Starting this tomorrow morning, as I finished that Matheson collection (note: they're mostly forgotten novels for a reason; I endured two, skipped one). Andersen, if the name is unfamiliar, was one of the founders of Spy magazine back in the 80s, so I'm hoping for some wit. The argument, I gather, is that Americans for their entire history have been a self-delusional people and that Trump is the logical culmination of it all. Fine, yeah, whatever, I'll go with that as long as it's in service of some frustrated venting and not a legit historical argument. My hope is more amusement than actual intellectual stimulation.
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: Whatcha reading?
31) Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury. Audiobook. Read this for the first time and had a good time with it. It was even bleaker than I thought it would be. I watched Truffaut's film adaptation and that was a strangely unmoving film. Static and emotionless.
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Re: Whatcha reading?
32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
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Re: Whatcha reading?
Horses are useful idiots.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:00pm32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: Whatcha reading?
Marx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:01pmHorses are useful idiots.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:00pm32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
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Re: Whatcha reading?
Yeah, I've never figured out how Animal Farm got considered an anti-communist book. Anti-Stalinist, sure, but it's pretty obviously anti-capitalist and matter of factly accepts that some iteration of communism could work (the early post-revolution). It's very anti-vanguardism, obviously.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pmMarx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead
Pex Lives!
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Re: Whatcha reading?
I don't know that you can confidently conclude that Orwell thought Marx was right or communism is correct. It's certainly populist, that elites will always betray the people, but communism seems just as likely in his telling to collapse into hierarchy. It's despairingly populist, I'd say (which comes across even stronger in 1984).Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pmMarx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:01pmHorses are useful idiots.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:00pm32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: Whatcha reading?
I think Orwell lays in hope and possibilities around the farm revolution and is fairly onside with Snowball.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:10pmI don't know that you can confidently conclude that Orwell thought Marx was right or communism is correct. It's certainly populist, that elites will always betray the people, but communism seems just as likely in his telling to collapse into hierarchy. It's despairingly populist, I'd say (which comes across even stronger in 1984).Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pmMarx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:01pmHorses are useful idiots.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:00pm32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
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Re: Whatcha reading?
There are good "people," definitely. The common animals are noble if naive, which makes their fate all the more unjust. Snowball has the advantage of being exiled by the sinister Napoleon, automatically elevated by the latter's villainy, but there is no certainty that if he had triumphed over Napoleon that things would have been better, that he wouldn't be as bad. Orwell just doesn't play that game of individuals (again, see how things play out in 1984). The initial rush overthrowing the old system, when everything is up in the air—anarchic, one might say—are the good times, but then old patterns re-settle, the state reasserts its domination. Communism proves to be as awful as capitalism for it is, in fact, an authoritarian state capitalism. If there's an ideological advocacy to be gleaned, I think it's in the direction of anarchism, not communism.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:13pmI think Orwell lays in hope and possibilities around the farm revolution and is fairly onside with Snowball.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:10pmI don't know that you can confidently conclude that Orwell thought Marx was right or communism is correct. It's certainly populist, that elites will always betray the people, but communism seems just as likely in his telling to collapse into hierarchy. It's despairingly populist, I'd say (which comes across even stronger in 1984).Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pmMarx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:01pmHorses are useful idiots.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:00pm32) Animal Farm - George Orwell. Pretty obviously pro-communism.
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft
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Re: Whatcha reading?
I can dig that. I'll amend my original statement to the book being pro-revolution.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:28pmThere are good "people," definitely. The common animals are noble if naive, which makes their fate all the more unjust. Snowball has the advantage of being exiled by the sinister Napoleon, automatically elevated by the latter's villainy, but there is no certainty that if he had triumphed over Napoleon that things would have been better, that he wouldn't be as bad. Orwell just doesn't play that game of individuals (again, see how things play out in 1984). The initial rush overthrowing the old system, when everything is up in the air—anarchic, one might say—are the good times, but then old patterns re-settle, the state reasserts its domination. Communism proves to be as awful as capitalism for it is, in fact, an authoritarian state capitalism. If there's an ideological advocacy to be gleaned, I think it's in the direction of anarchism, not communism.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:13pmI think Orwell lays in hope and possibilities around the farm revolution and is fairly onside with Snowball.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:10pmI don't know that you can confidently conclude that Orwell thought Marx was right or communism is correct. It's certainly populist, that elites will always betray the people, but communism seems just as likely in his telling to collapse into hierarchy. It's despairingly populist, I'd say (which comes across even stronger in 1984).Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pmMarx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).
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Re: Whatcha reading?
Definitely. If there's an advocacy of Trotsky in AF, it's for permanent revolution.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:46pmI can dig that. I'll amend my original statement to the book being pro-revolution.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:28pmThere are good "people," definitely. The common animals are noble if naive, which makes their fate all the more unjust. Snowball has the advantage of being exiled by the sinister Napoleon, automatically elevated by the latter's villainy, but there is no certainty that if he had triumphed over Napoleon that things would have been better, that he wouldn't be as bad. Orwell just doesn't play that game of individuals (again, see how things play out in 1984). The initial rush overthrowing the old system, when everything is up in the air—anarchic, one might say—are the good times, but then old patterns re-settle, the state reasserts its domination. Communism proves to be as awful as capitalism for it is, in fact, an authoritarian state capitalism. If there's an ideological advocacy to be gleaned, I think it's in the direction of anarchism, not communism.Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 2:13pmI think Orwell lays in hope and possibilities around the farm revolution and is fairly onside with Snowball.Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:10pmI don't know that you can confidently conclude that Orwell thought Marx was right or communism is correct. It's certainly populist, that elites will always betray the people, but communism seems just as likely in his telling to collapse into hierarchy. It's despairingly populist, I'd say (which comes across even stronger in 1984).Silent Majority wrote: ↑27 Nov 2017, 1:04pm
Marx was right, Lenin's good, Stalin's bad, and the tragedy comes when the pigs become indistinguishable from the humans (the capitalists).
"Ain't no party like an S Club party!'" - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft