Tagging others from the previous threads:
@PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
Today’s discussion questions are…
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What are you reading in terms of FICTIONAL works?
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What are you reading in terms of NON-FICTION works?
Bonus questions:
What do you plan to read later?
Also, shameless plug-in for Discord server made by me, InformedTankie mods, and BayArea415:
(Please join. Thanks.)
deleted by creator
Have you read Yuri Smertin’s biography of Kwame Nkrumah? I did feel it was a good primer on the person’s life and times… and what the Soviet Union thought of all of this stuff from a Marxist-Leninist perspective.
Just finished reading this a few days ago https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning highly recommend it.
Wait, what?! I’ve been looking for a good web novel, preferably from China.
Fiction: A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Grain_of_Wheat
Non-Fiction: Cloud-Money: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets by Brett Scott https://networkcultures.org/moneylab/2022/05/19/just-out-cloud-money-by-brett-scott/
I’ve seen Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s here and there. Is it fantasy or just “real-world” speculative fiction?
Real world speculative. This was written around the time his country of birth (Kenya) was transitioning from white officers to black officers. If you ever get a chance to watch his seminars, please do. He is big on language sovereignty. That the first thing an oppressor takes away from a people is their language.
YES! I’m very interested in this topic!
With the advent of the Internet, language sovereignty is more important.
And I believe that China was right on the money for prioritizing Internet sovereignty… which, I believe, is tied to language sovereignty!
🤝
You may be interested in this talk by Ngũgĩ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzqNTYicV8M
Oh! Clicking the link right now.
Fiction: Currently finishing up re-reading catch 22, i found a really great audiobook version that is just :chefs-kiss:
Non-fiction: Recently finished gerda lerner- the creation of the patriarchy. Was good but i need to talk with someone else who has read it about some non-marxist things in it.
About halfway through jonathan sperbers Marx biography, a 19th century life. After that, gonna read black reconstruction by dubois, and dunbar-ortiz - not a nation of immigrants.
On a kind-of unrelated note: LibraVox can be hit or miss with their audio recordings. Tbh? I generally prioritize “professional” recordings.
Yo wtf BayArea415, now THAT’S a name I haven’t seen in a while. He was probably my absolute very first exposure to a pro-China narrative–I wasn’t ready for it at the time and felt icky “uhhh I don’t want to entertain genocide denial” etc. so I shied away from him. Looking him up he seems gone, what happened?
As far as books: FICTION: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, duh NON-FICTION: Everything Francis Fukuyama, duh
Jk I’m just not reading at the moment
To my understanding, BayArea415’s identity was revealed, so he deleted his channel (or marked all his videos private)
He and his team got doxxed and got threats and harassment from various ultra-right groups.
Play a video game. Or do actual activism. Or, fuck, just find an event happening in your general area and go to it.
👍
In terms of fiction, I recently started on Pictures of the Socialistic Future. It isn’t horribly long, but I can already tell that it’s going to be a chore to read.
The author considered personal property synonymous with private property (‘such as furniture, old clothes, bank-notes, and the like’), but most amusingly, the citizenry in this commulist dystopia—where decommodification of goods and services is clearly on the rise—are pissed off that the State is seizing their savings bank funds, which makes about as much sense as two gangs fighting over a used toilette brush.
I have a feeling that this story is just to be the unabridged version of this post, but I’ll be nice and reserve my judgement until I finish it.
ETA: I should mention that, in terms of nonfiction, I recently started on The Gestapo, but I’ve been rather negligent with reading my nonfiction lately.
Don’t force-read.
Or, if you do, only “force-read” in small doses and maybe pick up momentum as you go along.
1 - I’m re-reading House of X/Powers of X. It’s amazing.
2 - Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of capitalism
I plan to read something about the Black Panthers or more Lenin bc I liked it and fiction I have no idea
I don’t know any reading material regarding the Black Panthers at this time. I really should spare some time for them. I mostly read American communist history (no PatSoc or anything!).
