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Saul Bellow's Adventures of Augie March. This guy has a true way with words. Jam-packed with nice, crunchy details. He came from the 'show me, don't tell me' school of writing.

My Search for Warren Harding by Robert Plunket. An influence on Larry David and other comedy writers. The protagonist is supposed to be unlikable, and isn't, but despite the warnings about some of its dated language (published in 1983), the fat-shaming, racist, homosexual, and ethnic slurs are jarring. The narrator is a type of person one may have known or met in 1983 (or now), but the satire was perhaps less than expected. Overall, it is a funny story and premise. A second read is required.

The King in the Golden Mask by Marcel Schwob.

On the other hand, an anecdote that an eminent scholar tells about himself affords an example of the opposite kind. He came to Prague, having meanwhile learned serciveable Polish but less Czech. Conversation at a social gathering ran to questions as to the fate or whereabouts of various other scholars or mutual acquaintances who would likewise have been fleeing the revolution. Our learned friend was happy to be able to say, in answer to each of a succession of these questions, "He is now in the West." He said it in Czech, using the Czech form of the Polish zachod, "west". The company was increasingly bewildered, for the Czech word means "lavatory".

This passage in Quine's The Web of Belief is unrelated to the main content, but I'm amusing myself imagining a plot twist where these people are actually using coded language, where "He is in the lavatory" means "He has escaped (to the West)".

Reading Karl Kautsky's commentary on the 1891 Erfurt Program of the German Social Democratic Party, published under the English title The Class Struggle, which came to serve as the offical statement of principles for the party, and for international socialism as a whole. This text can therefore be seen as a summary of a widely accepted view of socialism and Marxism at the time.

The content is so far familiar for anyone schematically acquainted with Marxian economics and historical materialism. It shows its age in certain obvious places - it describes a unidirectional and predictable path of steadily deteriorating economic conditions, a steady increase in the number of propertyless and destitute, a steady concentration of capital in ever fewer hands, and so on. It is also written just a few years before the "revisionist" controversy which emerged precisely out of the noted inconsistency of some of these claims with the observed reality.

Since I have a background in this kind of thought, which I am trying to distance myself from at the same time as I don't want to bury it or ignore it - basically I'm trying to re-educate myself about it - I sense a constant pull each time I get involved in discussions on related subjects to instinctively lean back on unexamined priors. Therefore I maintain a degree of skepticism, perhaps more than usual, for any and all claims made here. On a basic and general level however, much of the picture sketched here seem a very apt description of conditions in the present time, and as far as this description refers to patterns and cycles rather than specific events, these show no signs of going away, despite the apparent great transformations and advancements in the interim.

The big question here would be then: In what exactly do these changes consist? What, if anything, is substantially different about the system then and now, and what does that say for the value of the theory expressed in this text?

Especially interesting is the section on education. Kautsky here notes the uncontroversial fact that education in capitalism has evolved from a pastime of the wealthiest, to an industry in its own right, a crucial component of capitalist production, with its own corresponding labour force. Since industry needs education, the expansion of industry is accompanied by an expansion of education. The predictable result is that as the number of educated people increase, the value of each individual education decreases.

Consider these passages:

The small property holder knows today no other way of keeping his sons from sinking into the proletariat than sending them to college, and he does this if his means will at all allow.

The labour market of educated labour is today as overstocked as the market of manual labour.

Formerly people spoke of the "aristocracy of intellect", today we speak of the "educated" or "intellectual" proletariat.

The time is near when the bulk of these proletarians will be distinguished from the others only by their pretensions. Most of them still imagine that they are something better than proletarians. They fancy they belong to the bourgeoisie, just as the lackey identifies himself with the class of his master. They have ceased to be the leaders of the capitalist class and have become rather their defenders. Place-hunting takes more and more of their energies. Their first care is, not the development of their intellect, but the sale of it. The prostitution of their individuality has become their chief means of advancement. Like the small producers, they are dazzled by the few brilliant prizes in the lottery of life; they shut their eyes to the numberless blanks in the wheel and barter away soul and body for the merest chance of drawing such a prize. The barter and sale of one's convictions and the marriage for money are, in the eyes of most of our educated proletarians, two means, as natural as they are necessary, to "make one's fortune."

Finished Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent by Jean-Claude Ellena. Fantastic little book that kind of summarizes everything about the current state of the perfume world, with a bit of history, but the best part is how one of the most highly revered perfumers thinks about the subject, lists what chemicals he uses, how he trains himself daily with little games to stay sharp.

Started Fragrant: The Secret Life of Smell, by Mandy Aftel. She's a "natural" perfumer based in Berkeley, or someplace in the East Bay. Natural in quotes because nothing about perfume is natural, unless you're rubbing citrus zest directly on your skin. It's got lots of history of the spice trades throughout the ages and spices used as currency, &c., but I can't really get into her style. Much of what is in this one is a long-winded form of the information found above. I'll be skipping around to the relevant historical parts and pass over the rest.

Concurrently skipping around The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass by Jamie Goode, specifically the parts about which chemical aromas we smell in various wines.

Ohio by Stephen Markley. It just appeared in my house with one of his other books, and it's not doing it for me. The only bildungsroman I recall liking is The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy.

I finished Conversations with Iannis Xenakis over vacation last week.
Now reading Pedro Parama, thanks to this thread, and really digging it (apparently it is being adapted for film by Netflix!?).
Still working through Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing run at a snail's pace for fun, finishing Book Four. Love it so much.

enframed wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 12:50 pm Finished Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent by Jean-Claude Ellena. Fantastic little book that kind of summarizes everything about the current state of the perfume world, with a bit of history, but the best part is how one of the most highly revered perfumers thinks about the subject, lists what chemicals he uses, how he trains himself daily with little games to stay sharp.

Started Fragrant: The Secret Life of Smell, by Mandy Aftel. She's a "natural" perfumer based in Berkeley, or someplace in the East Bay. Natural in quotes because nothing about perfume is natural, unless you're rubbing citrus zest directly on your skin. It's got lots of history of the spice trades throughout the ages and spices used as currency, &c., but I can't really get into her style. Much of what is in this one is a long-winded form of the information found above. I'll be skipping around to the relevant historical parts and pass over the rest.

Concurrently skipping around The Science of Wine: From Vine to Glass by Jamie Goode, specifically the parts about which chemical aromas we smell in various wines.

This post makes me happy.

jimmy spako wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 2:20 pm I finished Conversations with Iannis Xenakis over vacation last week.
Now reading Pedro Parama, thanks to this thread, and really digging it (apparently it is being adapted for film by Netflix!?).
Still working through Alan Moore's Saga of the Swamp Thing run at a snail's pace for fun, finishing Book Four. Love it so much.

I've been making to read Pedro Peramó for some time. Will have to do that.