one of those posts

man, i'm in a grumpy mood and i left my Paul Valery book in next to my dissertation materials(sort of on purpose), over the next few weeks I'll post some nice Valery quotes such as “man is only human in small numbers” and the like for your consideration, primarily because it has nothing to do with my dissertation, but is still well within my understanding of what is 'good stuff'. I'm looking at Valery's work on politics, mainly because, well, no one is stopping me. It has nothing to do with anything other than he is one of the most intriguing authors of the last century. It won't be in my dissertation, it won't be anything prolly other than another one of those things that i do and remember doing, and remember things from, sort of the pursuit of being 'well read' and enjoying it.

I just finished China Mieville's Scar, which follows on his world from Perdido Street Junction. It is fiction, but well done fiction. It is sort of the cyber/steam punk genre, but really it is his own world. It is about 600 pages, and you should read Perdido first. But between the two, you have some very interesting insights into many things embodied in a well written, exciting fantasy world. I suggest it to those who read fantasy, if nothing else then for the experience.

I see that Spider Robinson has a new Callahan's novel coming out. You can't beat that. I'll wait for softbound though. I'm not so big into the whole Calahan's thing, but I think he tells interesting characters and thus interesting stories follow. Its a franchise.

Speaking of franchises, if you are interested in revolutionary politics and haven't read Steve Perry's 'The Man Who Never Missed”, you are really missing out. His “97th step” is also good, though I'm not as fond as the rest of the Matadora stories.

Someone's been ditching their collection of Theodore Roczak books in the used bookstore and I've been picking them up as they show up. He has things to say today that are as appropriate as the day he wrote them, usually, though sometimes the fog of time has scarred his ideas a bit. That happens with contemporary history, i suppose.

I've also been picking up old philosophy texts from the bookstore, i'm looking for good quality ones from 1899 to 1940 and I accept gifts:) Used is preferred, under original copyright…. If i have time I'll copy some of them out to the web. There are alot of interesting opinions and ideas in these texts. I was hunting for opinions on Bergson and Nietzsche primarily, but you know anything is good if it gives context. SO SO much of what has been written before is rewritten today, it always amazes me.