Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Cuddlefish]

Machiavelli was most noted as a satirist in his own time, with several plays of his taking direct aim at the hypocrisy of the Church, which was at the time threatening to make even the Avignon Papacy look like a cleanly run charity by comparison (Alexander VI sold cardinal roles in order to finance Cesare Borgia's wars of expansion in central Italy, for example).  Of course, like all the best satires, it works because it makes so much use of the truth.

Y'know, I had heard some things about The Prince being satire, but no one I ever mentioned it to gave the theory any credit. It's currently on my list of books to read, so I haven't actually read it yet. Is there a good critique or analysis anywhere that gives plausibility to the claim of satire? I just want some ammo for class...



Anyhow, books I am currenty reading: Voltaire-Candide (hilarious) Camu-The Stranger (existentialist lulz) Cervantes-Don Quixote (Still. Fucking book is huge. But, funnier to me now that I understand it was a critique of Spains fail-parade of the times) Kate Chopin-The Awakening (feminism fail) David Hume-The Natural History of Religion (Good, but could have been said in a third of the words) Shakespeare-Othello: The Moor of Venice (Iago FTW) and Hamlet (Chistian-existentialism and the First Emo) and various works of short fiction.

Books on the short-term "to read" list: Machiavelli-The Prince, Zhuangzi-Essential Writings, Dante Alighieri-The Inferno (read parts, but never the whole thing), and probably a handful of others I'm forgetting...

[Cain]

Diderot, Voltaire and many of the French Encyclopedists gave a lot of credence to the theory.  I would say that perhaps "satire" isn't the right word, it was a serious political study, one of the first pieces of political science ever done, however it also made a mockery of the Vatican's claims to divine rulership and put it on a level with the "lesser" Kings and temporal Princes it despised and, in theory but not in actuality, held control over.

[Cuddlefish]

Diderot, Voltaire and many of the French Encyclopedists gave a lot of credence to the theory.  I would say that perhaps "satire" isn't the right word, it was a serious political study, one of the first pieces of political science ever done, however it also made a mockery of the Vatican's claims to divine rulership and put it on a level with the "lesser" Kings and temporal Princes it despised and, in theory but not in actuality, held control over.

I see. Maybe "Critique" would be a better word than satire in this case? Anyhow, I should probably stop talking about it 'till I've finished reading it.

[Cain]

Polemic works for me.

[Cuddlefish]

Polemic works for me.

Cool beans. Cheers.

[Faust]

Read most of 20,000 leagues under the sea today on trains and the bus. Quite enjoyable, even if its very simplistic.

[LMNO]

Finished "The Man Who Was Thursday," and I have to admit I was a bit underwhelmed, especially when it became Christian allegory at the end.  I guess I have no stomach for the classics sometimes.

Now diving into the Complete Less Wrong Sequences (Praise Be Unto Cain).

[eighteen buddha strike]

Finished Pandemonium.  Wasn't bad, especially for a first novel, but I did guess the outline of the plot about a quarter of the way through.  This could just be down to obsessive reading of TV Tropes, though.

Now reading Kraken by China Mieville, who I've been meaning to read for forever but have only just got around to yesterday.  Kraken is pretty good.  The start is fairly routine, the main character a curator at the Natural History Museum specializing in molluscs, giving a tour.  But then, a fully preserved giant squid  - Architeuthis dux - is somehow stolen from the museum.  And then Scotland Yard's Fundamentalist and Sect Related Crime Unit, are put on the case....

I've been meaning to read this for a while. China Meiville comes highly recommended to me. Although I've only read Perdido Street Station, I get the impression that he basically took Neverwhere and said "This is a new fantasy genre" and ran with it. I thought it was a nice break from traditional fantasy, though it kind of felt like the book may have been someones table-top RPG for a minute.

[Jasper]

Unofficially, what I am reading is "John Dies At the End" starting tonight.  

Also BIG NEWWSSSS

I bought a Nook just because of Cain's upload of the Sequences in book form.  Been reading the shit outta that.

[Don Coyote]

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.

[Cuddlefish]

Kushner- Angels in America

I think we should claim him as "one of us." You can Lo5 the shit out of these plays...

[Nast]

Franz Kafka's The Castle.

I think the sentences are too long.

Nast,
Eminent literary critic.

[Eater of Clowns]

Walden - Thoreau

Never really even considered reading it.  Woke up two days ago, thought "I'm going to read Walden."  Taking my time with it and enjoying it early in.

[Cain]

Finished Pandemonium.  Wasn't bad, especially for a first novel, but I did guess the outline of the plot about a quarter of the way through.  This could just be down to obsessive reading of TV Tropes, though.

Now reading Kraken by China Mieville, who I've been meaning to read for forever but have only just got around to yesterday.  Kraken is pretty good.  The start is fairly routine, the main character a curator at the Natural History Museum specializing in molluscs, giving a tour.  But then, a fully preserved giant squid  - Architeuthis dux - is somehow stolen from the museum.  And then Scotland Yard's Fundamentalist and Sect Related Crime Unit, are put on the case....

I've been meaning to read this for a while. China Meiville comes highly recommended to me. Although I've only read Perdido Street Station, I get the impression that he basically took Neverwhere and said "This is a new fantasy genre" and ran with it. I thought it was a nice break from traditional fantasy, though it kind of felt like the book may have been someones table-top RPG for a minute.

This book is kinda more like Neil Gaiman and RAW meet in a London pub, and have squid for lunch.  There's more of an Urban Fantasy feel as well.

[LMNO]

Kushner- Angels in America

I think we should claim him as "one of us." You can Lo5 the shit out of these plays...

Incidentally, sorry for the stilted phone call.  I was being polite, but in truth I was in the middle of cooking dinner, after all.