Critiques et Commentaires

Re-read for a bookclub, yay!

At the dawn of the Information Age, a prescient rant against conflating information with knowledge, of things that promise everything and so mean nothing, of the political and empirical projects of pushing computers and rational procedural models of thinking into all aspects of education and consumption. Leads to an epistemic argument about the primacy of creative & moral ideas and the role of forgetting in human thinking, but stays grounded as a book of political philosophy opposed to industrial exploitation and social control. Hardly feels dated: though the outlined consumerist and surveillance logic has ground on to deliver us into our late-computer-filled society, so much of what was heralded just around the corner 40 years ago - flourishing of democracy, artificial intelligence, educational wonders - and called out here for the emperor's finery is still relevantly promised to us in exchange for treating trivia as if it were wisdom.

Ultimately I didn't love this, nearly gave it another star for Lake Superior and the slow-apocalypse vibe. Turns darker again and again and I couldn't recover the sense of stubborn hope I think was intended in this mostly endearing tale of getting along with what's right in a world of wrong.

Grotesque and hilarious, on family and demise and care and the absurdity of humanity, in a decayed future or ever present. Not a favorite, but memorable lines and sets of course.

Tracing language's past through archaeology, genetics, and linguistics, reconstructing the unlikely-seeming breadth of similarities and ecological-driven differences and additions over millennia. A well-crafted and word-loving history.

Nature, accident, emptiness, vastness collide in shattered moments, finding a letter in the stars or watching war correspondence or dancing with a sunflower bending to the light. Real growth over this collection, unsteady in the '70s and engrossed by the '90s.

The thesis - that the modern state and capitalism has brought us to crisis by manufacturing and maintaining insecurity across classes - is articulately threaded with considerations of roots - in language, history, myth, and rights - of care, securitization, commons, insurance, obligation, and possibility.

As usual for Chambers, beautiful consideration of persons and belonging in chosen family, uplifting over darker themes of outcasts and refuge.

A superb musician's biography, beautifully researched threads of musicology, Detroit, influences and connections. I wasn't aware of J Dilla prior to reading, appreciated the tour of 90s and 00s performers I do recognize and the technical transitions in electronic music capability and performance expressed through JD's explorations and legacy. Wonderfully extensive supporting youtube playlist.

Well presented translation, with significant marginal notes on story differences, Icelandic allusions, and historical context for both the translation and Stoker's original.

An unfolding lighthearted mystery but with heavy themes of despair and unlikable ensemble, the intentional misdirection of each preceding chapter makes for a shaky start that settles into a reliable pacing for uplifting comic humanity.

Positive and realist, that we can maintain our progress in sustaining human-wellbeing while making the shift to ecological balance, presented in data and in evaluating what societal consumption and construction changes matter for each topic. Plenty to quibble over, some foundational, but refreshingly and necessarily post-doom.

Unfortunately, we have to wait to see if the series will finish. A return to the first book's themes, revealing more past steadily.

Develops into a new dark sidequest, the series sense of anthropological curiosity and methodological study in the face of conflicting trauma and horror really shines.

Engaging historical drama, vicious and saucy and wry, and I still just don't care about Tudor England.