Dark Eden , by Chris Beckett, published earlier this year.

"Chris Beckett’s novel Dark Eden is not literally an adaptation, but in fact it “adapts” and rewrites a number of foundational Western texts regarding the origins of human society and civilization. Its sources range from the Book of Genesis, through Robinson Crusoe, and on to major 18th- and 19th-century works of social theory by such prominent thinkers as Rousseau, Bachofen, Nietzsche, and Engels.

The novel is set on a dark planet, one that does not circle any sun. The only energy source is geothermal, arising deep within the planet’s core. Plant and animal life forms have evolved, using this energy for fuel. “Trees” and other plants draw up heat energy from deep beneath the planet’s surface, and provide the ecosystem with warmth and light. Animals either forage on this plant life, or prey upon other animals.

A small number of human beings — five hundred or so — live on this planet; they are all descendents of a founding heterosexual couple, astronauts who were stranded on the planet, unable to return to Earth. The novel deals mostly with the social organization of this group. At first they live in a tightly-bound, matriarchal, “primitive,” and more or less egalitarian society. But in the course of the book we witness the splintering of this society: a “fall” from a putative “state of nature” into a more “historical” situation.

This “fall” is the result of a number of pressures: most importantly, environmental stress (as a result of overexploitation of limited resources), and the frequent appearance of detrimental recessive genetic traits (cleft palate and clubfoot) due to the restricted nature of the gene pool, combined with adolescent restlessness, and a certain drive against tradition and in favor of innovation.

The consequences of this “fall” include the “invention” of rape and murder, the transition from egalitarian matriarchy to hierarchical patriarchy, a growing tension and discordance between generations, as well as between men and women, and an energetic burst of exploration and technological invention.

In recounting these developments, the novel gives us an updated version of what I would like to call speculative anthropology. Following the classical thinkers I have already mentioned (Rousseau on the origins of inequality; Nietzsche on the origins of morality; Bachofen and Engels on the origins of family structures and differentiated gender roles), Chris Beckett speculates about “primitive” society and the development of the social institutions that today we take far too readily for granted.

I call Beckett’s “adaptation” of these sources an updated one, however, for several reasons. In the first place, Dark Eden is definitely “hard” science fiction; it revises the famous mythological and philosophical accounts upon which it draws in the light of our contemporary understanding of Darwinian constraints. In the second place, Dark Eden forcibly calls our attention to the way that the “origin” it recounts is not a true beginning, but remains parasitic upon previous human social developments. Marx famously observed that Robinson Crusoe does not really build civilization from scratch; he starts out with both his already-ingrained bourgeois assumptions, and the large amount of material that he is able to salvage from the shipwreck that threw him on his island. Dark Eden makes this structure of antecedence entirely explicit: the lives of all the human beings on the planet are dominated by a kind of social memory, in the form of the myths, legends, gossip, and practices that have been handed down to them from the founding couple’s reminiscences of life on Earth.

There is no true origin, therefore, but only a repetition or “adaptation” (using this word both in the literary sense and in the biological one). The realm of myth is itself the consequence of historical contingency. Dark Eden is an unsettling book, not just because it offers a pessimistic and nonutopian account of human potentialities, but also because it strips this very account of any mythic, originary authority, and places it instead in a context of chance, arbitrariness and existential fragility." ---Steve Shaviro

strange pilgrims - marquez (short story collection)

touching read, which surprised me as i did not enjoy 100 years that much.

however, i wouldn't suggest you admit to preferring marquez to borges if you find yourself chatting with a cabby in old palermo

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher (the dude from the Batman article I posted in the movie thread...see his blog here: http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/)
http://www.amazon.com/Capitalist-Realism-there-alternative-Books/dp/1846943175

Capitalist Superheroes: Caped Crusaders in the Neoliberal Age
http://www.amazon.com/Capitalist-Superheroes-Caped-Crusaders-Neoliberal/dp/1780991797/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356123056&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=captialism+super+heroes

I read a few really awesome books lately.



1. Colonialism and Homosexuality by Robert Aldrich
(This one is only for people who can stand a whole book evaluating source documents and also taking quite a few liberties with them. Nonetheless... it was a very interesting read.


2. Peace Weavers and Shield Maidens
(Very short... but interesting. Gives you a quick introduction to women's role in pre-history / early British society. Also briefly touches upon how the Christian religion crushed women into subservient second-class citizens.)


3. Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil
Self-explanatory.


Next on my reading list:

1. Voices of Morebath by Duffy
(Reformation/Rebellion in England).

2. Year of Wonders by Brooks
(Plague)

I am way more into ancient history... but I've been reading about this stuff lately.
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I 40-0'd your mother.

A MEMORY OF LIGHT

FUKKIKN A.

5 stars. read whole series now. 14 books total. wheel of time. epic conclusion.

then post your favorite character.

+1 mat.



favorite book im looking forward to is the doors of stone.

if u haven't read name of the wind yet, go get it ffs this guys a genius. i put this series up there with dune, lotr, foundation, and space Odyssey.

quote:

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Originally posted by _Ataxia_
A MEMORY OF LIGHT

FUKKIKN A.

5 stars. read whole series now. 14 books total. wheel of time. epic conclusion.

then post your favorite character.

+1 mat.



favorite book im looking forward to is the doors of stone.

if u haven't read name of the wind yet, go get it ffs this guys a genius. i put this series up there with dune, lotr, foundation, and space Odyssey.

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when you think of lotr what do you think of, the movies or the books? just curious.

quote:

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Originally posted by _Ataxia_
when you think of lotr what do you think of, the movies or the books? just curious.

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i've read the series 3 times. it's awesome.

the hobbit to return of the king is one of the best series ever; its genius.

On January 26, 1976, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau embarked on his historic three-day visit to Havana, becoming the first leader of a NATO country to visit Cuba since the crippling 1960 American economic embargo. The trip was widely denounced, especially for its timing, as Castro had recently sent Cuban soldiers to fight a civil war in Angola. As the Americans watched warily, Trudeau, accompanied by his wife, Margaret, and baby Michel, was greeted in Havana by 250,000 cheering Cubans and a 30- foot poster of himself. “Long live Prime Minister Fidel Castro!” Trudeau would famously shout at the love-in. Margaret would declare Castro “the sexiest man alive.”

In this fascinating first-ever portrait of an unusual relationship between two enigmatic world leaders, author and historian Robert Wright brings to life three critical days when Canadian politics played on the international stage. Wright describes how, long before he was prime minister, Trudeau had attempted to canoe to Cuba, and how Castro visited Montreal as a young revolutionary, later welcoming FLQ terrorists to his tiny island. In a revealing look at their personalities and political ideologies, Wright shows how the two leaders, despite their official positions as allies of rival empires, had determinedly refused to exist merely as handmaidens to the United States. This fact, he asserts, is what brought them to power, and what drew them to each other.

Wright draws on extensive insight from political commentators and historians as many interviewees talk candidly for the first time. A book that will tap into our continuing fascination with Pierre Trudeau and our interest in the future political course of Cuba, Three Nights in Havana is an intimate and insightful portrait of two controversial and often misunderstood figures and their place in history.

Pierre Trudeau and Fidel Castro became friends despite their differences. They agreed to disagree; the same is true of Canada and Cuba. And it all began on a tiny coral key off Cuba’s southern shore in 1976, with the cheer heard round the world: “ Viva el primer ministro Fidel Castro!”—fromThree Nights in Havana
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"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

canadian nationalism lol
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quote:

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jon;
“Long live Prime Minister Fidel Castro!” Trudeau would famously shout at the love-in. Margaret would declare Castro “the sexiest man alive.”

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jon;

Wright shows how the two leaders, despite their official positions as allies of rival empires, had determinedly refused to exist merely as handmaidens to the United States.

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it's true, trudeau hated yanks
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"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

he hated yanks in the same stupid way you hate yanks

The King Must Die by Mary Renault. I forgot I read this a while back... it's pretty awesome. I probably enjoy it more than the average because I love Greek mythology and classic literature/plays.


Jennifer Government by Max Berry (I think)
Pretty good and kind of funny. It is a critique on capitalism.




I may have already recommended a few of these...but they were really good too for non-fiction fans.

The Case of the Ugly Suitor: And other histories of love, gender, and nation in Buenos Aires. VERY good.

Shoot I ran out of time... more later
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I 40-0'd your mother.

_________________
"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

Last edited by Jon; on Sat Aug 16, 2014 8:48 am; edited 1 time in total

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quote:

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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star wars forget which legacy book i left on on...accention? (sp)

"...Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it never has and never can be fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Within beauty both shores meet and all contradictions meet side by side. I'm not a cultivated man, brother, but I've thought a lot about this. Truly there are mysteries without end! Too many riddles weigh man down on earth. We guess them as we can, and come out of the water dry. Beauty! I cannot bear the thought that a man of noble heart and lofty mind sets out with the ideal of the Madonna and ends with the ideal of Sodom. What's still more awful is that the man with the ideal of Sodom in his soul does not renounce the ideal of the Madonna, and in the bottom of his heart he may still be on fire, sincerely on fire, with longing for the beautiful ideal, just as in the days of his youthful innocence. Yes, man's heart is wide, too wide indeed. I'd have it narrower. The devil only knows what to make of it! But what the intellect regards as shameful often appears splendidly beautiful to the heart. Is there beauty in Sodom? Believe me, most men find their beauty in Sodom. Did you know this secret? The dreadful thing is that beauty is not only terrifying but also mysterious. God and the Devil are fighting there, and their battlefield is the heart of man. But a man's heart wants to speak only of its own ache. Listen, now I'll tell you what it says..."
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quote:

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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I'm guessing lots of fantasy fans here. I was looking for a series that's FINISHED (not GoT) cause I just like getting absorbed into a single series for at least a few months. Violating the "the only good fantasy authors are ugly old men" rule, I tried Robin Hobb. I'm finishing the third book now and am really impressed. Anyone looking for a food fantasy series won't be disappoint.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Assassin_s_Apprentice_The_Farseer_Trilog.html?id=95X0eL8VZvgC

I'm waiting on The Blinding Knife. Book three in the Light Bringer series by Brent Weeks. It is a fun series.
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I have hacks in my brain and I use them.