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Showing posts with the label philosophy

(Well . . .)Do Androids (Actually) Dream of Electric Sheep?: Book Review and Discussion

I just finished reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by—I want to censor myself for the audience's sake—Phillip K. Penis. This is a science fiction novel written in the 1960s about 2021, a world where the Soviet Union still exists, where video calls have replaced phone calls, where cell phones don't exist, where hover cars are commonplace, and the world has largely been left in desolation due to some undisclosed nuclear conflict. At this point, mankind is now moving on, colonizing the wider solar system, namely Mars. Part of the incentive structure are androids, which are given out to people who leave earth. That is the carrot. The stick is the state of earth, itself. That said, many people remain, and Earth is where the novel is set. This is the book that inspired the movie Blade Runner. I have not seen it. I have seen the occasional out-of-context clip. And I've heard much about it. The biggest thing is that the movie is nothing like the book. I will probably watc...

House of Leaves: Book Review

I just finished reading House of Leaves, by Zampanò and Johnny Truant. This is a literary horror novel, and a postmodern novel that I bought probably over a decade ago, after watching a video about it. But I was quickly intimidated by it, and it remained on my shelf for that length of time. But finally, finally after deciding to put my foot down this year and read all the heavy books that need to be read, I finished this beast of a book after a month or two of reading. I didn't count the time, but it was a chore and I know that this is a good ballpark estimate. Borrowing the basic concept from a comment by Vince Gilligan, I did not enjoy reading this book, but I enjoy having read it. Let's explore what that means. No Spoilers Summary The inside cover description of the book starts with the following: "Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Inte...

Book Banning as a Marketing Strategy in Capitalism

I There was a book that was essentially purged from all the markets in society around 2017 in America. If you are familiar with recent history, this is around the time of the rise of the Alt-Right and the Charlottesville protests and riots. The book is known as The Turner Diaries. It was easily available leading up to those moments. You could actually find a copy of the official audiobook for free on youtube. It disappeared shortly afterward. The content makes clear why. The book opens with a far-left government taking control of America. They claim that because laws against murder and rape have a disparate impact against black people, they are racist—and so they abolish them. As a result, crime runs rampant; the book operates on the added assumption that black people are inherently violent in everything they do. This triggers a white nationalist revolution, where the white population seeks liberation, not just from black people, but also from the government, and of course, from the Je...

The Spectre of Determinism: A Story of a Life

Just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with epilepsy, something that has the potential to progress to grand mal seizures, meaning I could lose consciousness and convulse on the ground. That is a story of its own, I suppose. But this is a different story. After being diagnosed, I was put on medication, and I had to be switched to a new one after the doctors decided that the previous medication was not sufficient to address the problem. A few days ago, I experienced a mild seizure, or what you could call an aura, and the doctor increased the dosage of this new one. A couple days later, seemingly unrelated, I had to print, sign, and scan a document—and then send it to my doctor. I fulfilled this obligation. Or so I thought. That leads to yesterday. Yesterday was a completely normal day. I had the morning shift at work. I was not able to work on one of my projects that day, but I planned on working on the other that night, and there were several books that I was reading as well. Basically, ...

How to Read Books: A Controversial Perspective

For this post, I want to talk about some of the habits and tricks that I use to read books quicker and more effectively. I am a terribly slow reader. I have always had trouble reading books and especially staying committed to them when they are non-fiction. I haven't actually fixed the problem of reading slowly, as speed reading just damages your ability to comprehend what you are reading. What I have done is tweaked my own habits such that I actually get things done. These are not universal tips, but rather habits that I have adopted because they work for me. Will they work for you? Well, I don't care. You're a faceless nobody. I was motivated to write this after watching Better Than Food's video about the topic. I have additional commentary, namely because he focuses on fiction, and I often read non-fiction, too. I will link his video in the description; I suggest checking him out. Finally, I want to quickly explain some terms that I will be using throughout. When I w...

Lee Hunts DESTROYS Carroll Wainwright! WRECKED!!!

Lee Hunts DESTROYS Carroll Wainwright! WRECKED!!! The Unbearable Heaviness of Being: or, Life Reviled is a self-published book that was released in the last few months. While it is a narrative, the story is moreso a frame for talking about anti-natalism, which is the philosophical position supposed by the author. I have a smaller review of the book itself posted on Goodreads; I will link to the review in the description. In this post, I plan on actually addressing the philosophy itself, as I found the discussion to be rather fascinating. While I am arguing against a very pessimistic philosophy, this should not imply that I am an optimist in my own philosophy. I am an optimist in my personal life, which is what matters, haha—but I am pessimistic about reality and human nature and morality in my own ways. Carrol Wainwright seems to recognize a contradiction between life itself and morality. He has chosen morality and thus rejected life. I technically took the precise opposite approach. I...