Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Fomalhaut]

I LOVE Erik Davis. I haven't actually read any of his stuff but I've listened to tons of podcasts which interview him.


Here's a link to his incredible Gnosis Now! series, about gnosticism: https://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php/topic,38598.msg1425999.html#msg1425999


Here's a presentation where he talks about Philip K Dick
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=263803811610504&ref=watch_permalink

I enjoyed the whole thing, but if you were only gonna listen to 5 minutes of it, the stuff right after 1:05 is nice and chewy


His appearances on the Aeon Byte podcast are good too

Sweet! Thanks for the links. I didn’t know about any of these.

Started  listening to the Gnosis Now! Series. Pairs well with having read the Nag Hammadi scriptures this past weekend (still have the library book too, so I can follow along with the readings like a good nerd).

Will give the other podcasts a listen at some point when my son’s nappin’. (Or otherwise, sometimes he’s oddly entertained by stuff like that. He can’t talk yet, but has watched some lectures and interviews with me and giggles at the dudes talking about stuff. He thinks Philip K Dick is especially funny. Possibly just funny looking, but still, makes momma proud).

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

I recently read High Weirdness and thought it was fantastic. I've been really into both RAW and PKD for a long time (and read about half of the published Exegesis), and I've read a couple McKenna books, so it was sort of surprising to me how much in HW was new. If HW feels too straightlaced for you, I recommend Davis's Nomad Codes, which is a collection of articles he's written for various publications over the past 30 years. He draws on some ideas developed in Nomad Codes in HW without actually really explaining them, so reading the one certainly casts light on the other.

Right now I'm almost finished with McLuhan: Hot and Cool, an anthology of reviews of/essays about McLuhan's three major works. For something targeted at McLuhan fans, it contains a whole lot of critical perspectives. Some of them are awfully petty or seem to seriously miss the point (or simply claim that they don't want to live in a world where McLuhan's points have any validity and that McLuhan is therefore a bad person), but a lot of them mirror my own perspective on him: that he's brilliant but sloppy, and that it's very useful to read him in order to challenge your own thought, so long as you don't simply take his claims as true. (I feel this way about Zizek as well.) Some folks spent a lot of time ragging on McLuhan's prose style, claiming that he is a "bad writer", which I don't understand at all -- unless it's part of this tendency McLuhan himself described where Literary Men consider wordplay to be below them (a tendency that seems to have died out at least in popular treatments by the 70s or 80s).

[LMNO]

I'm reading A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears).  It's about how a bunch of Libertarians took over a small New Hampshire town in order to create a Free Market utopia, with predicable (and hilarious) results.  It's really well written, and a lot of fun.

[LMNO]

I'm finally reading "How to Be an Anti-Racist", and it's really great.  He shifts the POV in such a way that really shows how "racism" is a verb, not a noun.  It's a shift that reminds me of the old days when I still had RAW on a pedestal.  Even if you believe you aren't racist, you should read it anyway, because it's a really wonderful new way of understanding and communicating.

[Brother Mythos]

I've just finished reading 1177 B.C. - The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric. H. Cline.

Professor Cline was, obviously, not above giving his book a catchy title. But even so, I think it's a worthwhile read for those with an interest in ancient history. The book describes the declines and downfalls of the interconnected civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Middle East during the Late Bronze Age. The many economic and cultural interconnections between the Minoan/Mycenaean Greeks, Hittites, Egyptians, Mitanni, Mesopotamians, and others are brought to light. And, the multiple causes of the breakdowns of their interconnections are covered in detail.

Overall, the book illuminates a period of greater interdependence and "globalization" in the ancient world than I realized existed.

[Brother Mythos]

I'm currently reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman.

I can understand why this science fiction novel has won so many awards, as I'm finding it hard to put the book down late in the evening. It's also clear to me that the author based many of the experiences of his protagonist, a young, educated draftee, on his own time spent in the military during the Vietnam War/Hippie Era.

If you're a science fiction fan, and have not read this book, I recommend that you consider adding it to your reading list.

[Brother Mythos]

I just started reading The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I've had the book lying around for quite some time, and finally decided to see what's inside.

In one of the book's early chapters, the author brings up C. G. Jung's "trickster" archetype. This reminded me of St. Gulik/Hermes in our Sacred Principia Discordia, as he has long been identified as a trickster god, as is Loki in the heathen Asatru faith. I then realized Our Blessed Goddess Eris is also a trickster. And, since St. Gulik/Hermes is the messenger of Our Blessed Goddess, it is actually Eris who is the apex trickster in the Greek pantheon.

I'm sure many longer practicing Discordian ecclesiastics already know this to be true. But, steps in illumination and enlightenment come to us when we are ready.     

Hail Eris!