Not an exhaustive list of things I read (I mostly read slop) but works that are more related to my writing. If an author's name is too long it has a scrollbar.
| No. |
Author |
Title |
Rating |
Review |
| 1 |
Eric Hoffer |
The True Believer |
4/5 |
Made in the Mid 20th century, really good and I think it holds up relatively well with some real truth that dissects mass movements on a sociological level instead of purely political, religious, or ideological. I would recommend it if you like trying to dissect groups of people and why people are attracted to mass movements. Sometimes gets into tangents about groups that have not aged well. |
| 2 |
W Hudson |
Ethical Intuitionism |
2/5 |
Misread the title and took it as “Ethical Institutionism” and was intrigued by the idea of organized institutions dealing in the realm of ethics or asserting their own ethics to influence the culture. Instead I got 19th century philosophical British debates on whether or not people are born with specific ethics and sprinkled in between was mid century linguistic theory. I was uninterested in both and it was a pretty painful 60 or so pages of my life. If you like seeing British philosophers have the same debates as fandom twitter except more tame then I could see myself recommending it to you. Does have some insight to the foundations of government and the debates that were occurring at the time, but only for a brief moment. |
| 3 |
Noahie.xyz |
Living in the Nowmina |
3.5/5 |
Incredibly adept to the academic papers I have read about mass information and living in a world so overstimulating because of capitalism, with a fresh spin of personal anecdotes and conclusions. Genuinely would recommend it if you want to understand the surveillance capitalist issue of over-stimulation and the abstraction of time without any of the unnecessary academic jargon with more straightforward prose. |
| 4 |
godisaliveandwellintexas.neocities.org |
'The Process of Unraveling' and 'Digital Oroborous'. |
4.5/5 |
The mix of well researched references and knowledge paired with casual conversational writing is so fucking cool to see, genuinely. "The Process of Unraveling" consists of the US response during the Kennedy Asassination during the cold war with a pessimistic conclusion, similar to the pessimism of "Digital Oroborous" which focuses on AI. Incredibly fun to read and very educational. Like letting your class-conscious but tired friend from college just rant to you. |
| 5 |
Roland Barthes and Lionel Duisit |
An Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative |
1.5/5 |
Discusses and analyzes the nitty gritty of narrative and what comprises a narrative on a meta level. And it is incredibly helpful to understand how each and every aspect of narrative influences our understanding of thinking and it's larger cultural impact but it is so boring and has taught me that I am not a fan of linguistics at all. I just cannot do it. I feel so sad too because my geography professor reccomended me Roland Barthes but I think I prefer the beliefs found in his later work, weirdly enough. |
| 6 |
Michael Fried |
Barthes's Punctum |
4/5 |
Incredibly poetic, heartbreaking, and very easy to read. Discusses how Barthes's latter work has in a way betrayed his earlier work when it comes to not succumbing to narrative or theatrical devices. Talks about how Barthes ended up trying to explain how emotions have impacted why he has become enamoured with certain media in the first place, with one of his examples being a photograph of his mother when she was younger. Just made me emotional. Maybe this is a sign to read Camera Lucinda? Or am I going to be horrifically disappointed? Ironic in a sense that I prefer this than words from Barthes himself. |