2020 Book List

Ten books.  Just under one a month.  Since I have been working from home for almost this whole year, I no longer can read on the bus, which has cut into my reading time.  I’m saying I wish I’d read more books.  

The book of the year is clearly, Dreams of Amputation.

Maybe I posted a review.  Maybe I will if I haven’t.  Or just go and read it yourself.  

1. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds -- Dennett, Daniel C.
2. Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1) -- Sapkowski, Andrzej
3. The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity -- Murray, Douglas
4. Dreams of Amputation — Gary J. Shipley
5. The Time of Contempt (The Witcher, #2) — Sapkowski, Andrzej
6. Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland — Browning, Christopher R.
7. Amygdalatropolis — B. R.Yeager
8. Burial Rites — Hannah Kent
9. People Who Eat Darkness — Richard Lloyd Parry
10. Tours of The Black Clock —Steve Erickson2020 Book List

Meet Joe Black

Actually no spoilers this time.  

So I watched the end of this m movie again.  I’d seen it once when it was released years ago.  It was kinda crap and a lot of blond hair on Brad Pitt.  But I couldn’t help being impressed by Anthony Hopkins’ powerful performance.  Just the look on his face could convey so much.  And I thought his character was a good example of what a man should be.

The People Who Eat Darkness

  Spoiler warning.

I didn’t even finish this book yet and I’m going to write this review.  

The synopsis is this girl from England goes to Japan and she is accidentally killed by the guy drugging and raping her and he got caught and there was a lengthy trial.  

Straight up, should have been a wikipedia article, not a book.  The author when into excruciating detail about everything.

Book did not live up to mysterious title. 

Identity Politics

Identity Politics VS Reality

Imagine the following courtroom scene. A man accused of murder stands before the judge.  The old judge asks him gravely, “Son, how do you plead to the chargers of murder?”

The defendant looks up and says, “Not guilty.”

“On what grounds?”

“I do not identify with having done that.”

“Case closed.  You are free to go,” the judge responds.

Imagine a job interview in a typical office in a major city.  The interviewer, holding the applicant’s resume, says, “It says on your resume that you worked as the CEO of XYZ, but when I called XYZ for a reference, they said they’d never even heard of you.”

“While that may be true,’ says the applicant, “It is also true, that I identify as having worked there.”

“You’re Hired!”

With these two scenes in mind, what is the difference between identifying as being something, which you are not, and identifying as having done something or not done something?

Thus far the first is accepted or at least tolerated.  

It’s difficult to imagine anyone seriously pushing the I don’t identify with having done that idea.  One can only hope anyone attempting that would be laughed off the face of the earth and ultimately, I hope, back to sanity. 

I guess the question is, how slippery is this slope?  

Either way, the real protest is against reality, and reality can’t be beat.  

Pierre Cardin

So I was just sitting here and the thought hit me, "I wonder how Pierre Cardin is doing."  Turns out he's 98 and still going strong.  

Every year I'd get my dad this cologne for Father's Day; see photo below.  It was actually paid for by my mom or step mom.  Now, 40 or so years later, I look it up and it's this cheap ass 31 dollar shit.  I've bought him gallons of this shit over the years.  He’d go through this whole thing in a year.  Aftershave lasts me almost almost 2 years.   What the fuck was he doing with this shit, that he needed yearly replacements? 

Devil All the Time

As always, potential spoilers ahead.

Not good.  It tried to be like a James Elroy William Faulkner novel, but without sympathetic characters.

It tried to be stocking with the murder couple, but nothing new there. 

The whole thing was improbable.  That this much stuff could happen to so few interrelated characters, was not believable.

Whatever moral it seemed to convey was lost on me.

Maybe the book was better, but why risk it?

The Bird

Whelp, I got attacked by a bird.

I was on my daily walk, trying to defeat the 15 pounds I’ve gained since the lockdown. On my way back I took a little lightly wooded concrete path.  As I emerged into the open a saw a woman.  She was looking at me and her mouth was going and going, and she was pointing all over the place.  It seemed she was trying to communicate something to me.

I popped out an ear bud, and heard her say, “There’s a bird attacking people.”  

Instantly, I felt someone tapping on my right shoulder.  I whipped around to see who was attacking me, and indeed saw a little white bird flying away.

He had attacked me.

The woman was invested in standing and observing these attacks, and perhaps warning potential victims.

Not me.

I continued my walk home.

And there is the most interesting thing that has happened since the lockdown began.

The Assignment (Spoilers)

What would happen if a real tough guy got turned into a woman against his will?  This was a great idea.  I think they did the best they could with it, but I wasn’t in love with it.

The male version of Michelle Rodriguez's Character, didn’t seem very male; it was just the actress with a fake beard and penis.  I think they should have used a totally different actor.  Already it’s hard to believe that this could happen so not much of a leap to have a totally different appearance.  Facial reconstruction, or something like that.  

The acting was weird especially from an all star cast.  

Also at one point the main character was captured, and nobody thought to check him/ her for guns . . . .  This is inexcusable.  

It was a great attempt, with a great cast, at a great idea, that for just didn’t make it.

Black Lives Matter

My current statement on recent events is that black lives matter.  I have no doubt about that.

I may say more later or I may not.
 

A Lot to Think About

So yeah, locked down.  I am grateful that I can work from home, but without having to commute, I have had much more time to read and watch movies.

Have just finished a great book called Dreams of Amputation.

Have some movie reviews coming too.

Nothing interesting here.  Just trying not to lose my mind.

Corona Virus

Haven’t posted in a while.  Here are some thoughts on the Corona Virus situation.

Whelp, we’re already at the stage where it’s getting multiple names, Corna Virus, Covid 19, Novel Cornoa Virus . . . what will they call it next week?  And forget all the Chinese/ Whuhan versions . . . .

For my entire life I’ve ignored the news, and elections, because they have never affected me.  This is one of those very very rare times that stuff on the news actually affects me.   

I have one friend who believes this is the end of the world and has stocked up on bullets and other essentials, AKA preps.  Another friend is whining that he can’t go on a European sex tourism trip.  Let’s all try to stay safely in the middle of these two extremes.

Will be catching up on watching bad movies, so I expect to shit some reviews out soon.  

The Non Aggression Principle

Let me illustrate with the following scenario.  One guy at work calls another guy at work Poopsie, as a nickname.  The guy being called Poopsie says, “Sir, please do not call me that.  I don’t like it.”

“Okay, Poopsie,” says the name caller.

Right there, the name call has broken the Non Aggression Principle.  So if the person being called Poopsie, then strikes the name caller, he is defending himself, and has not broken the Non Aggression Principle.  

This is the hypothesis, that if people blatantly disregard a reasonable request, they are violating the NAP.

I think I want to dig into this more.  Probably post on Reddit.  But did want to get this out there now, and then follow up more when I have time.  

2019 Book Review

Fall — Neil Stephenson 

The Last Stone — Bowden, Mark

Wiseguy — Nicholas Pileggi

Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1) — Herbert, Frank

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland — Keefe, Patrick Radden

The Walking Dead, Vol. 31: The Rotten Core — Kirkman, Robert

The Walking Dead, Vol. 30: New World Order — Kirkman, Robert

The Walking Dead, Vol. 29: Lines We Cross — Kirkman, Robert

The Handmaid's Tale— Atwood, Margaret 

***

I didn’t do a very good job here.  I only read 8 books and two of them were comic books, which I am able to read in one sitting.  But I did read the classic, Dune.  And I read the Handmaid’s Tale, another supposed classic. supposedly in the feminist style, and according to the hysterical, very appropriate for the Trump Era.

For my top book of the year I’m going to go with Say Nothing.  It gave a real close up picture of the human damage of The Troubles.  It was interesting to me because I have become less and less sympathetic of the IRA.  I sympathize with the issues, but not the means.  20 years of the war on terror will do that to you.  

Planning to spend more time reading this year.