Metal Reviews

Finished One-Dimensional Man, finally. Now reading After Theory by Terry Eagleton. Easily readable book on the decline of Marxism and Critical Theory plus tirade against post-modernism.

just finished F.I.A.S.C.O by Frank Partnoy, a former salesman at Morgan Stanley. it's about the kind of work they did, hawking dubious financial products, ripping off clients, dodging taxes and the like.

how much of it is BS i don't know, but some facts remain:
- there are tons of books on how banks rip people off, like the excellent Liar's Poker
- the book is from 1998, and he's already commenting on the dangers of lack of regulation and the disguising of bad securities under AAA ratings (like the CDOs that we've all heard about with the financial crisis), how they would bite investors in the ass some day.

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five

Philip K. Dick - Ubik

I've been meaning to read Ubik for a while now. I just can't find Dick in the bookstore.

SH5 is a good one.

What is it, a lesbian bookstore?

It's great so far, halfway through it.

Gene Wolfe- Soldier of Sidon

Finished After Theory by Eagleton. Surprisingly more pro-Marx and anti-W. than I expected.

Now reading: And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave. I'm surprisingly impressed. It's a tough read so far.

I'm reading Lost Names for my modern east Asian history class. The Japanese were dicks in World War II, but we knew that already. I'm also kinda sorta reading From Hell by Alan Moore. And more textbooks.

The Teachings of Don Juan
by Carlos Castaneda

70's book about the use of Magic Mushrooms, Datura and Peyote, in the search of enlightenment. Eating magic mushrooms is awesome, is one of the best experiences I've ever had.

Philip K. Dick -

The Simulacra

A Scanner Darkly

Time Out Of Joint - Started out well, little jarring towards the end when the twist was revealed, pretty good for early in his career.

So I started The Road yesterday and am on page 80. I'm enjoying it does that make me uncool?

the great brain debate
the ego and its own;max stirner

How do you mean, man... I would expect Eagleton to be as pro-Marx and anti-W. as it could get, right?

Anyway, still going slowly through books... hopefully shouldn't be too long before I can start my Zizek book.

Oh, and no, I don't think this makes you uncool... The road is pretty grim, and grimness is always cool.

I expected Eagleton to be a little more composed and unbiased when writing on literary criticism. Instead, he turned the whole book into a pro-Marx/anti-bush rant which was awesome. He really let post-modernism have it as well.

I bought some Zizek after you had mentioned it and it's was rough starting out before I put it down.

Finished the Road. It was pretty awesome I guess. Now reading Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, some good ol' post-colonialism classic by an African writer.

The Road was awesome

Hm, a shame about the Zizek; I tend to find him pretty difficult sometimes but always interesting enough to keep going on it.

Not to be a pedant, but Fanon was caribbean, from Martinique, rather than African. Although he did go to Algeria to fight against the French occupation.

Actually, THAT is a book I found pretty difficult to read. Didn't get that far with it. It's a bit of an apocalyptic rant, which there is nothing wrong with, but at the time I think I was into something more academical.

I heard the Road was being made into a film with Viggo Mortensen as "the man"?

It's pretty well-suited to film adaptation, IMO, although actually that kind of thing has already been done a lot by the cinema.

Depends.....could end up really shit...

I hope it'll be good. I'm afraid it'll lack something or they'll add something ridiculous to make it a blockbuster.

Oops my bad on the Fanon origin. Its sorta for school so hopefully that'll push me to finish it.