Originally posted by rwingettI think my need to retain is connected to my mother's moving us to a different place every year.: house, apartment, house, house, apartment, house, duplex, etc. You get the picture. It's a wonder I've any books left, or anything, from my youth.
I wondered how you would react to that 😉
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Let's see your list.
You promise not to share this list with Homeland Security?! They've been after it for 10 years:
1) Moby Dick - Melville
2) Catch-22 - Heller
3) David Copperfield - Dickens
4) Far From the Madding Crowd - Hardy
5) The Time Machine - Wells
6) The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Doyle
7) The Silmarillion - Tolkien
8) Witness - Chambers
9) Terrible Swift Sword - Catton
10) Fortitude - Walpole
There's no way to do it! This list is just from the collection in my study. Going thru the library would take all day, and I'm sure I don't even have some I've read that should be on the top 10 like Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.
Originally posted by rwingettIt depends, though. It takes Big Capital to manufacture a printed tome on a large scale, whereas e-readers open up the possibility for more viable self-publishing that circumvents the self-appointed ministers of culture who occupy the office buildings of the big publishers. Thus, e-readers could be the kind of thing that will bring an anarcho-socialist form of self-governance that much closer to fruition. But yes, consciousness raising is a necessary prerequisite, otherwise people will just use gadgets as toys and continue to take their marching orders from the advertisers and carnival barkers of mindless consumerism.
E-readers should be shunned, not because they will enable fascism per se, but because they represent one more capitulation before the rampant technological determinism that is undermining all human culture and subjugating humanity to the processes and demands of technology itself.
Every increase in technology represents a proportional decrease in person ...[text shortened]... of our tools, and e-readers are just one more link in that chain of our technological slavery.
Originally posted by SoothfastNo it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
It depends, though. It takes Big Capital to manufacture a printed tome on a large scale, whereas e-readers open up the possibility for more viable self-publishing that circumvents the self-appointed ministers of culture who occupy the office buildings of the big publishers. Thus, e-readers could be the kind of thing that will bring an anarcho-socialist f ...[text shortened]... to take their marching orders from the advertisers and carnival barkers of mindless consumerism.
But even so, this isn't a left/right or capitalist/anarchist thing. That's what everyone wants to reduce it to, but that doesn't really capture the nature of it. It's about whether a society will dictate the course of its technological development, or whether technology will dictate the developmental course of society. It is my contention that we are no longer controlling our technology, but that it is controlling us (albeit unconsciously). With every traditional value system having been undermined, the void that was left has been filled by a rampant technological determinism.
The sole exceptions to this that I can see (apart from primitive societies) are the Amish and Hutterite communities. They, alone, have kept technology subservient to human interests. But unlike the Amish, the Hutterites use technology as is appropriate to their situation. That social arrangement has the potential to use technology as a boon to human endeavor, rather than seeing technology subvert humanity to its own purposes.
So, once again, it's not a capitalist/anarchist thing, it's a technological determinist/neo-luddite thing.
Originally posted by rwingettBut AK Press (I have several books from them) doesn't have the resources to advertise on a wide scale and get everybody reading Murray Bookchin. Imagine if they did, though.
No it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
But even so, this isn't a left/right or capitalist/anarchist thing. That's what everyone wants to reduce it to, but that doesn't really capture the nature of it. It's about whether a society will dictate the course of its ...[text shortened]... s not a capitalist/anarchist thing, it's a technological determinist/neo-luddite thing.
Originally posted by SoothfastThey no longer need that thanks to the net! Niche markets throughout the planet are now accessible with recommendations like yours as part of the network bringing them into contact.
But AK Press (I have several books from them) doesn't have the resources to advertise on a wide scale and get everybody reading Murray Bookchin. Imagine if they did, though.
One version of Big Brother not mentioned yet is the ability to edit books - and even delete them - after they have been sold and distributed. I understand that books subject to copyright issues have already been deleted remotely from peoples' Kindles without discussion. If you consider the way Stalin liked to re-write history continuously, removing people from group photographs for example, then you have a picture of what might be done if books were held primarily on such devices and their content stored in the Cloud.
Originally posted by rwingetthttp://www.akpress.org/
No it doesn't. AK Press is an anarchist book publisher and distributor that does a bang up job. I'm sure they don't have big capital.
So, once again, it's not a capitalist/anarchist thing, it's a technological determinist/neo-luddite thing.
Thought I'd follow up your reference! This quote from a book on their site does rather sum up the conundrum for me.
We say to all workers, to all revolutionaries, to all anarchists: At the front or in the rearguard, wherever you may be, fight against the enemies of your liberty and demolish fascism. But also make sure that your exertions do not bring about the installation of a dictatorial regime that would represent the continuation, with all of its vices and defects, of the whole state of affairs that we are trying to obliterate.
If Spain in the 20s and 30s is the model of what Anarchism has achieved in practice - and many admirable features were achieved - sadly, their couragous but suicidal performance in the Spanish Civil War suggested to me that they were ultimately related to Don Quixote. George Orwell was pretty well right in his damning assessment of the Left in that era and his "Coming Up For Air" is one of my own top books (with Animal Farm and 1984 and well I'm not sure I could live with ten books).
Whatever else I want to live in a world with books.
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Originally posted by finneganHow can you mention Orwell and not bring up his earth shattering masterpiece Homage to Catalonia? That is his first hand account of the Spanish Civil War and his participation in it.
http://www.akpress.org/
Thought I'd follow up your reference! This quote from a book on their site does rather sum up the conundrum for me.
We say to all workers, to all revolutionaries, to all anarchists: At the front or in the rearguard, wherever you may be, fight against the enemies of your liberty and demolish fascism. But also make sure that ot sure I could live with ten books).
Whatever else I want to live in a world with books.
The Republican defeat during the civil war can be attributed to the Fascists getting tons of support from Germany and Italy and the Republicans getting only some dubious aid from the Soviet Union, aid which ultimately did more to undermine their cause than help it.
There have been none in Meadville for the last decade, but that is because most people in Crawford County don't read. (The comic book store lasted a bit longer though.) But the Borders in Erie is gone now, and I'm sure the B&N will follow. Ten more years, and you'll have to drive to Greenwich Village to find one.
Originally posted by finneganWhat's to prevent users from doing as I do, backing up their ereaders at home to hard, unconnected media?
They no longer need that thanks to the net! Niche markets throughout the planet are now accessible with recommendations like yours as part of the network bringing them into contact.
One version of Big Brother not mentioned yet is the ability to edit books - and even delete them - after they have been sold and distributed. I understand that books subjec ...[text shortened]... ght be done if books were held primarily on such devices and their content stored in the Cloud.
Anyone using "cloud services" or any off site backup and thinking it is secure is delusional.
Originally posted by rwingettOh I want all his books and I have a collection of his essays too - does that use up my allowance entirely? I am suddenly unable to bring Homage clearly to mind - decades since reading it alas - but I know Orwell was absolutely disillusioned with the ideological claptrap which prevented the Republic putting up an effective resistence to Franco and he was horrified by the behaviour of the communists.
How can you mention Orwell and not bring up his earth shattering masterpiece Homage to Catalonia? That is his first hand account of the Spanish Civil War and his participation in it.
The Republican defeat during the civil war can be attributed to the Fascists getting tons of support from Germany and Italy and the Republicans getting only some dub ...[text shortened]... aid from the Soviet Union, aid which ultimately did more to undermine their cause than help it.
[Strategically if you like the republic was doomed. The Republicans were divided among themselves, the Stalinist directed communists were worse than an enemy, shifty and treacherous, hating both democrats (this was a republic for heavens sake) and Anarchists and hence cheerfully engineered countless deaths and defeats on their own side, while the democracies (isolationist USA and appeasing Britain) studiously refused to support the legitimately elected government against a military led revolt. The Anarchists were often highly effective but their flat rejection of military leadership, discipline and strategy made their role sadly suicidal in the face of a professional military enemy and politically they got into the role of being used as cannon fodder in situations were they were quite probably intended (by the communists) to fail. It is their political failings that make their example hard to respect - they simply did not have the sophistication to deal with the type of forces they were confronting. Hitler's support for Franco (and Mussolini when he was not making a mess of it) was by contrast serious and deadly.]