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March 06
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Moxie
gave
 
to:
Akiba: A Gnostic Novel (Paperback)
by p.m.
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in February, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap
Moxie said:
"This is a strange book. Actually, I desperately want to meet someone else who's read it so that I can compare notes with them. I appreciated bolo'bolo, and definitely read this while trying to see it as "the next book." But while bolo'bo...more
This is a strange book. Actually, I desperately want to meet someone else who's read it so that I can compare notes with them. I appreciated bolo'bolo, and definitely read this while trying to see it as "the next book." But while bolo'bolo was a little wing-nutty with all its proscribed symbology and slightly absurd specifics of how the bolo'bolo utopia would function, this book arguably goes way off the deep end of wing-nuttery.
The book's premise rests on the ideas of transhumanism and simulism, which basically contend that everything we know is actually a computer simulated reality. These are waters where I'm not normally interested in going, and whenever I ever meet a transhumanist, I usually do my best to make a quick exit.
But PM manages to use these ideas to explore concepts of utopia within this simulated universe in ways that are as or more compelling than bolo'bolo. Along the way we are introduced to the likes of Karl Marx, Aldus Huxley, and Jesus -- who, it turns out, are not who we thought they were. And in the end, we're left with a vision for earth, which looks surprisingly like bolo'bolo -- minus the mystical....less
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Moxie
gave
to:
Spook Country (Hardcover)
by William Gibson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in March, 2008
Moxie said:
"I haven't read William Gibson since those weirdo books that followed the "bridge series." So I missed "Pattern Recognition." My reactions to his final few sci-fi books were "please... just stop."
But I decided to gi...more
I haven't read William Gibson since those weirdo books that followed the "bridge series." So I missed "Pattern Recognition." My reactions to his final few sci-fi books were "please... just stop."
But I decided to give Spook Country a try, and I was actually pleasantly surprised. It turns out that we live in a postmodern enough world for Gibson to write a novel that touches on all his favorite sci-fi themes, but is set in the present. It's an entertaining enough story, and he's able to comment on the present state of the world by (for once) writing about the present state of the world....less
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February 04
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Moxie
marked as to-read:
Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture (Paperback)
by Ron Sakolsky
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Moxie
gave
to:
Orgasms of History: 3000 Years of Spontaneous Insurrection (Paperback)
by Yves Fremion
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in January, 2005
Moxie said:
"The premise of the book sounds great, but it's actually terrible. Almost unreadable, actually. This is yet another book that AK mysteriously went through all the trouble to publish, but without editing it.
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Moxie
marked as to-read:
Burmese Days (Hardcover)
by George Orwell
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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February 01
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Moxie
gave
to:
Out of the Night: The Memoir of Richard Julius Herman Krebs alias Jan Valtin (NABAT)
by Jan Valtin
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2006
Moxie said:
"As the newest addition to AK Press's Nabat series, I suspected that this would be an interesting book. In fact, it is an absolutely amazing account of the world political scene in the 1920s and 1930s, in the form of a memoir of an organizer in the G...more
As the newest addition to AK Press's Nabat series, I suspected that this would be an interesting book. In fact, it is an absolutely amazing account of the world political scene in the 1920s and 1930s, in the form of a memoir of an organizer in the German Communist Party. At heart, though, the book is an act of revenge; an attempt to expose the Communist Party for its betrayal of the author and all of those who sacrificed themselves for the benefit of The Cause. It is also one of the most incredible adventure stories that I have ever read, detailing one man's quixotic attempt to do anything possible for the advancement of the Comunist Party while living with the mantra "there's nothing a Bolshevik can't do."
This book is an excellent example of how powerful narrative history can be. It is much more compelling than abstract overviews of how many people Stalin murdered or how the Communist Party operated. Reading about how these things intersect with Jan Valtin in the context of his life, love, hopes, and dreams is priceless. Far from a historical account of the Communist Party from a wide-angle lens, this is a description of how the first world, Stalin's rise to power, and the emergence of the Nazi party affected the life of a German worker.
In the end, it is overwhelming to realize that this book is written by someone who rowed a dingy across the straights of Juan Del Fuca, did time in San Quentin, sacrificed the lives of his family, and endured four years of near-continuous Nazi torture for the benefit of the Communist Part -- only to end up wanted dead by the party itself. His life story vividly demonstrates how painful sacrifice to an organization or ideology can be, and how even victories in that context are empty victories. his life and death strongly warn us against organizations and ideas that make demands extending beyond the needs of the individuals involved....less
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Moxie
gave
to:
You Can't Win (Paperback)
by Jack Black
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in March, 2005
Moxie said:
"An incredible history and tribute to "the Johnson family." A really engaging story about the exploits of tramps a century ago that should inspire all contemporary hobos and vagabonds.
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January 26
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Moxie
gave
to:
Into the Wild (Paperback)
by Jon Krakauer
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in June, 2007
Moxie said:
"Reading the stories that were pieced together after Alexander Supertramp's death, I discovered an image so familiar that I almost feel like I've met him a thousand times: that kid in LA who was obsessed with sacrifice and had recently driven almost 6...more
Reading the stories that were pieced together after Alexander Supertramp's death, I discovered an image so familiar that I almost feel like I've met him a thousand times: that kid in LA who was obsessed with sacrifice and had recently driven almost 6000 miles non-stop in a fit of resignation, because he had mentally committed himself to stop searching for anything good or beautiful in the world and live out the rest of his life sweeping floors in some small east-coast town, only to mentally stumble across THE SECRET, MAN! at some distant mile marker on highway 80, immediately turn around, and drive straight back. Or that guy in South Carolina who's introspection had gotten down to the granularity of seconds passed during his day, such that he'd obsess over past details which lasted for a mere instant. He was always looking for that one inflection, that one pause, which would snowball into something that could unlock the secrets of the world.
I think that most of the tramps I've met in my travels fall into one of two categories. The first are the mystics who quote Jack London, Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. They think hard about morality and defining a strict collection of ideals. They've rejected society as a bunch of self-destructive hypocrites who don't know or care about right and wrong.
The second are the itinerant individualists who find classical literature boring and stifling. They think about and search for experiences which are exciting and in contrast to the rest of the dull world. They've rejected society for being too morally confined.
Alexander Supertramp clearly falls into the first category, but what's interesting is that both groups of people are out there, doing the exact same things in the exact same places, for the exact opposite reasons.
Reading about his time on the road, it's hard to believe that he was out there for two years, almost all alone the whole time. His only friends were the people who'd taken him in along the way, and I know those people. I've slept on the floor of the motel room where that older alcoholic guy who has inexplicably taken up residence in the middle of Missouri, and the reason he invites you over is because he's so desperately lonely that he wants to drink all night, confess the all horrible things he's done in his life, and then break into heart-wrenching tears because he's not allowed to see his daughters anymore -- and he doesn't even know where they live now anyway. He wants to have you over because "Here, now, I can give you this trinket ring that I bought for her so long ago but don't know where to send anymore. You take it!" I think that'd be a hard two years, no matter how adventurous, if that's the only human contact you've got.
I think the most important message in this book, though, is the uncertainty that comes with rejecting all constraints from within. After he died on his Great Alaskan Odyssey, people came out of the woodwork screaming "I told him so!" "That fucking idiot," they'd complain, "wouldn't listen to those of us who know what it takes out here." But how was he supposed to know that this time was the time that the advice was real? They'd told him that that he couldn't live without money, that he couldn't hitchhike anymore, that he couldn't ride freight trains, that he couldn't canoe all the way down the Colorado river. When someone tells you that something is impossible, it's hard to listen when you know that they'd claim many other things that you've done are impossible as well. Only this time, they could be right....less
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January 20
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Moxie
gave
to:
Expect Resistance: A Crimethink Field Manual (Paperback)
by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in December, 2007, has a copy to sell/swap
Moxie said:
"This is the kind of book that I got a lot out of, but would also want to recommend to unsuspecting strangers -- which is very rare for me with anarchist writing.
This book goes heavy on the crimethinc-style irony, which I never fail to enjoy. One o...more
This is the kind of book that I got a lot out of, but would also want to recommend to unsuspecting strangers -- which is very rare for me with anarchist writing.
This book goes heavy on the crimethinc-style irony, which I never fail to enjoy. One of the themes that I appreciated was the exploration of the "half revolution" while talking about sectarianism, tourism, and especially adultery. I thought the concept was delivered and framed very successfully. What's more, the adultury chapter was the best example of how I felt the book was able to explore complex ideas, avoid the use of specialized language, and *still* provide more depth than what could have been accomplished with that jargon.
I'm super into fiction and "the story" as a medium, but I was also impressed with what the writing that broke up this story added. I still haven't read Evasion, but it always seemed like people were unwilling to take the ideas outside of a cultural context (hence the necessity for something like "All traveler kids purged from crimethinc membership."). The format of Expect Resistance seemed like a great way to write a narrative that's compelling, but that simultaneously spells out the ideas in a more neutral context.
I will say that I wish I'd gotten to know the characters a little more, but in general I felt the writing was simultaneously deeper (as in the nuanced subtleties of characters' difficulties, lives, relationships) as well as more spectacular (as in "blacksmiths will once again swing their heavy hammers through the air, forging crowns great enough to fit on all heads at once"!).
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Pittsburgh Goodreaders
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