What are you reading?

[DamageX]

The Forever War & Starship Troopers

I've been trying to catch up on some classic Sci-Fi other than Philip K. Dick. I'm really enjoying these books that take the character from boot camp to frontline.

[Magic1]

Reason and Revolution -- Marcuse

[gawkrodger]

Has anyone read the Thomas Piketty book, Capitalism in the Twenty First Century, yet?

BSR, bukka, what's his reputation in France?

Reading it currently and its a bit shit. Don't get me wrong, his statistical work is impressive and will no doubt but useful but his conclusions he draws? fuck me.


And he really, really needs to read some Marx

[gawkrodger]

I do like his writing style - it is engaging and fairly easy to read

[Faust]

Reading it currently and its a bit shit. Don't get me wrong, his statistical work is impressive and will no doubt but useful but his conclusions he draws? fuck me.


And he really, really needs to read some Marx

You think Piketty has not read Marx?

[gawkrodger]

You think Piketty has not read Marx?

Well, he has repeatedly claimed to have never read Capital, and this book would add further weight to that!

[gawkrodger]

C: Can you talk a little bit about the effect of Marx on your thinking and how you came to start reading him?

TP: Marx?

IC: Yeah.

TP: I never managed really to read it.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117655/thomas-piketty-interview-economist-discusses-his-distaste-marx

[Magic1]

I'm not about to read 700 pages to reach the conclusion I've already come to, so can you speak to why/how having read marx would have improved his book? Is it just repeating marx? His economics lacking? What? Just curious.

I heard that though he's well-respected in France, the book wasn't regarded as anything special; it claims and proves, in an innovative way, what everyone already knows. It's regarded as sort of an academic study. Whereas here in the US we treat it as a revelation.You mean, like, capitalism and inequality are like, linked?

[gawkrodger]

I'm not about to read 700 pages to reach the conclusion I've already come to, so can you speak to why/how having read marx would have improved his book? Is it just repeating marx? His economics lacking? What? Just curious.

I heard that though he's well-respected in France, the book wasn't regarded as anything special; it claims and proves, in an innovative way, what everyone already knows. It's regarded as sort of an academic study. Whereas here in the US we treat it as a revelation.You mean, like, capitalism and inequality are like, linked?

Your second part I completely agree with - it's one of those books which seem to catch a certain zeitgeist (eg Klein's No Logo) by stating the fairly obvious - capitalism makes rich people richer and keeps poor people poor.

What he does do is put together one of the best statistical evidence based arguments for this (hence my reference to stats).

His inability (or even unwillingness?) to explain what causes this inequality (his rate of return of 'capital'> rate of growth of income) is a major failing, his defining of capital as a thing not a process and his naive tax solutions all let the book down

[Fuuma]

Your second part I completely agree with - it's one of those books which seem to catch a certain zeitgeist (eg Klein's No Logo) by stating the fairly obvious - capitalism makes rich people richer and keeps poor people poor.

What he does do is put together one of the best statistical evidence based arguments for this (hence my reference to stats).

His inability (or even unwillingness?) to explain what causes this inequality (his rate of return of 'capital'> rate of growth of income) is a major failing, his defining of capital as a thing not a process and his naive tax solutions all let the book down

Except the interesting insight isn't that one, it is that the 30 or so years of growth and lowering social inequalities following WWII were the exception to this capitalistic rule of increasing polarization so all the theories about why this isn't working anymore are moot. The idea that capitalism furthers democracy, equality, human rights etc needs to be torn down so even some sort of middle of the road social-democrat loving his meritocracy like Piketty will do.

[550BC]

read this a long time ago, but as I interpet it as a sort of small bible/guide, I read it once a while again, ''In Praise of Shadows'' by Junichiro Tanizaki

[AHutching]

A good friend recommended a book that i just received in the mail today.Very excited to start reading it.
storm of steel by Ernst Junger

[abouta6oy]

A Dance with Dragons ...2nd time

[k3mist]

2nd In Praise of Shadows, wonderful read.

anyway I read this is lit class years ago, reading it again now and enjoying it way more.

[bukka]

anyway I read this is lit class years ago, reading it again now and enjoying it way more.

It was part of the corpus I taught a few years ago. I remember spending 1h30 detailing this sentence: Revenez, mon cher vicomte, revenez. Incredibly well thought novel.