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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 17, 2012 8:46:08 GMT -5
I'm reading "Escaping Salem - The Other Witch Hunt of 1692" by Richard Godbeer
It's about a girl who fell ill with strange symptoms in Stamford, Connecticut in 1692. Apparently this maid girl, Kate, had gone out to gather herbs one day. But when she returned home she was hallucinating and even started having seizures and all sorts o crazyness that lasted for some time.
She personally accused some women as witches who were tormenting her and the townspeople started an investigation into the matter..
"A few hours later, Daniel Wescot returned home and Kate was still lying on the floor, her eyes red from crying and her hands clamped together as if held in place by some invisible force. He stopped short at the door, taken aback, and then shot a questioning glance at his wife. Abigail knew exactly what the flicker of panic in his eyes meant. He was recalling the torments that had assailed their daughter Joanna some years back. Daniel had never quite gotten over the horror of that ordeal. Their little girl had been plagued by spasms of pain and insisted that something or someone entered her room at night to torment her; she saw creatures running from one hiding place to another when no one else could see them."
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billthebutcher
Regular Contributor
Hook-nosed camel f*cker. Esquire.
Posts: 488
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Post by billthebutcher on Mar 19, 2012 8:27:01 GMT -5
I generally read more than one book at a time. Right now, I'm reading:
1. The Mammoth Book Of Best New SF23 (edited by Gardner Dozois)
2. Auschwitz A New History (Lawrence Rees)
3. Pirates (Ross Kemp)
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 21, 2012 14:55:40 GMT -5
I just finished Dance with Dragons. So I'm sorting through a stack and trying to decide what to read next. Generally I read for escapism. I'm trying to chose between:
1. The Meq-which I started and didn't finish 2. A Discovery of Witches 3. Vinegar Hill
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 23, 2012 10:01:31 GMT -5
I'm stuck in the city for another two weeks waiting for a package.. gonna be reading a criminal history of mankind by colin wilson, for the second time.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 28, 2012 20:05:31 GMT -5
Settled on A discovery of witches...nothing amazingly cerebral, basically mind candy.
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Post by The Late Mitchell Warren on Mar 28, 2012 20:08:09 GMT -5
Lately, I've been reading history and religious books.
I'm trying really hard to read The Great Gatsby. It's putting me to sleep. Please tell me it gets better...
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billthebutcher
Regular Contributor
Hook-nosed camel f*cker. Esquire.
Posts: 488
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Post by billthebutcher on Mar 29, 2012 8:11:17 GMT -5
Insomnia cure.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 29, 2012 9:40:33 GMT -5
Yeah, it doesn't get better. Like a lot of the "American Classics" it takes will power to read. Mostly the problem is it's not a timeless story. It's very Jazz Age specific. I like Fitzgerald's short stories a lot better.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Dec 19, 2012 8:44:49 GMT -5
The Silmarillion (takes me back to when I was in junior high)
Hermann Hesse - Magister Ludi - The Glass Bead Game
Fritjof Capra - The Tao of Physics
Patrick Lavelle & Alister V. Spain - Soil Ecology
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Jan 20, 2013 13:52:48 GMT -5
I haven't been able to finish a single book lately.
I started "the singularity is near" and "the age of spiritual machines" by Ray Kurzweil today.
Quoting the front flap of the singularity is near:
At the onset of the twenty-first century, humanity stands on the verge of the most transforming and thrilling period in its history. It will be an era in which the very nature of what it means to be human will be both enriched and challenged, as our species breaks the shackles of it genetic legacy and achieves inconceivable heights of intelligence, material progress, and longevity. For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his class The Age of Spiritual Machine, he presented the daring argument that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, computers would rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now, in The Singularity Is Near, he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our own creations. The merging is the essence of the Singularity, an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend out biological limitations and amplify our creativity. In this new world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality. We will be able to assume different bodies and take on a range of personae at will. In practical terms, human aging and illness will be reversed; pollution will be stopped; world hunger and poverty will be solved. Nanotechnology will make it possible to create virtually any physical product using inexpensive information processes and will ultimately turn even death into a soluble problem. While the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes will be profound, and the threats they pose considerable, The Singularity Is Near maintains a radically optimistic view of the future course of human development. As such, it offers a view of the coming age that is both a dramatic culmination of the centuries of technological ingenuity and a genuinely inspiring vision of our ultimate destiny.
At first glance, seems like this guy is totally clueless about what's going on, living in some fantasy world. But, I guess we'll know for sure in a few days.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Apr 16, 2013 6:11:48 GMT -5
"Mothman prophecies" by John A. Keel. Much better than the movie. Definitely an enlightened perspective on the whole UFO phenomena IMO.
"The brotherhood of eternal love" by Stewart Tendler & David May. Another social history of LSD.
"Mr Nice" by Howard Marks. I'm on page 107 and I can't decide whether I trust this guy or not.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Apr 23, 2013 15:23:15 GMT -5
I just finished reading "Are You Loathsome Tonight." by Poppy Z. Brite. It's a collection of shorts and if you are not familiar with Poppy Z. Brite and/or grossed out by violence with sex and other human weirdness then it's likely not for you. Not all of the stories read well for me, I didn't like a couple, but I truly loved some of the others. My most favorite story of hers thus far is a full novel called. "Drawing Blood" followed closely by "Lost Souls." She has a way of touching on outsiders and strangely enough gay males that make their gayness seem not the focal point of the story but important nonetheless. It is a special skill. I have a stack of books I'm trying to decide on next while I take a breather and read mind candy in between all the music lessons and picnics and softball games I am run about to at this time of year. Usually during this time I just pick up things I can easily put down like a good graphic novel. In my go-bag is both Sandman and Death by Neil Gaiman.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on May 13, 2013 8:29:10 GMT -5
Arthur Koestler's "The Sleepwalkers: a history of man's changing vision of the universe" -- Really good book. It's the second work I've read by this author, and I am really impressed by his style, finesse and the enormous scope of his knowledge.
I'm gonna give this author a thumbs up. The first author to receive such an honor from the subversify book thread.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on May 27, 2013 7:54:11 GMT -5
Paul Joseph Watson's "order out of chaos: elite sponsored terrorism and the new world order" Here's a few words from the beginning:
What's it all about? The New World Order is not a 'conspiracy' in the strictest sense of the term - it is an agenda. The agenda is orchestrated by a power elite that thinks it has the divine right to commandeer total control of your life. But who are 'they'? Who are the 'power elite'? The UN, the EU, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Club of Rome. The list goes on and there have been many books written that cover the history of these groups and how they connect to each other. The intention of this book is to highlight how their unified agenda manifests itself in modern day developments with particular attention paid to the Hegelian Dialectic. To research these groups and their unified agenda is to understand who really controls your destiny and where this planet is heading, unless we speak out against the agenda itself. The agenda is a worldwide consolidation and centralization of power into the hands of an all-encompassing World Government. This system will evolve from the European Union, (already in place) the American Union, (derived from NAFTA) and the Asian Union. When these three models are in existence, they will be merged together to create the One World Government. The society and control mechanisms they are manufacturing to 'compliment' this World Government combine the most extreme aspects of communism and fascism, mixed with a nightmare Orwellian technocracy. Specifically (and in no particular order): a microchipped population; a world army; a world centralized banking system; the utter destruction of all national identity and pride; the destruction of all religion except their own 'world religion'; the ability to control each and every person through means of mind control (interlocked with the microchip); to bring an end to all industrialization; to seize control of the environmental movement at the top of the power structure and use it for the purposes of continental land-grabs; to initiate a program of population control (via warfare, vaccination, starvation and diseases) whereby 80% are 'terminated'; to encourage and eventually legalize the use of drugs and to make pornography and other expressions of hedonism an 'art form'; to suppress all scientific development except that which aids their agenda (an example being cold fusion and other technologies that would end our dependency on fossil fuels); to demoralize humanity and breed culture to become more and more decadent (meaning when the sick and absurd becomes acceptable) - this is achieved via drugs, pornography, mindless television, degenerate rock, pop, rap, hip-hop music, among a host of others; to encourage multiculturalism, immigration, and to brand anyone who opposes these issues as 'racist'; to make pedophilia, rape and sexual conquests acceptable and respectable; to cause total collapse of the world's economies and engender political chaos; to penetrate and subvert all governments and coerce them into destroying their country's national sovereignty; to take control of education in the developed world with the intention of suppressing non-consensus information and pushing left-wing, liberal, socialistic viewpoints (Socialism masquerades as a movement of the downtrodden masses but is in fact clearly an attempt at consolidating wealth and power by the elite); to use terrorism or 'scareorrism' as a means of gaining the consent of the public, who which actually support this agenda and give up their basic rights if it is presented as the solution to terrorism.
And also more Mikhail Bakunin for me this week.
Edit: I think this new world order is obviously a unicultural affair. If you're not of western culture then you have no place in this new world.
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