What are you reading right now?

[Taomeow]

WARNING:  OFF COLOR ALERT.

 

For Taomeow's eyes only:

 

 

(RE the above picture:  On second thought, I'm a little more concerned about what the kneeling fellow is doing under his robe...)

 

Probably nothing or he wouldn't be hiding it from his friend? -- if they're in it together?..  And he isn't even looking at the women.  Definitely not exposing himself.  And if he was indeed doing something under the robe, to follow this up with an actual assault on the women would be unlikely or he wouldn't be discreetly discharging his gun?..

 

Anyway, I don't know what a sex crime investigator might see -- potentially any encounter between unprotected women and a certain kind of "men" (calling them that with much reluctance) might be a dangerous situation, but to me, those men in the picture are innocent until proven guilty. 

[Karl]

It's difficult to match that up. Primarily because the Rothschilds were sponsoring the London School of economics which is a Fabian/left creation. Unless of course you think Ayn Rands work was actually a cover for collectivism. That's a big stretch, not impossible, but definitely a stretch. I often wonder about her relationship Alan Greenspan who seemed to turn from poacher to gamekeeper once part of the FED.

 

 

[Taomeow]

It's difficult to match that up. Primarily because the Rothschilds were sponsoring the London School of economics which is a Fabian/left creation. Unless of course you think Ayn Rands work was actually a cover for collectivism. That's a big stretch, not impossible, but definitely a stretch. I often wonder about her relationship Alan Greenspan who seemed to turn from poacher to gamekeeper once part of the FED.

 

Also you may have fun digging deeper into what the Fabians really were, behind the left facade.  Incidentally, there's no source difference between "collectivism" and "individualism," "communism" and "capitalism," same folks played both hands. 

 

There was a rather brilliant Russian female writer whose works only became available to the public after the fall of the Soviet Union (or else via Samisdat, at the risk of getting a prison term for reading them), Evgenia Ginzburg, who spent 18 years of her life imprisoned in the Gulag.  She wrote a memoir about those years, Journey Into the Whirlwind.  One episode from that mind-blowing narrative:  at some point two new women were added to the overpolulated cell where Evgenia was imprisoned at the time -- German Communists who escaped from Germany after having spent a couple of years in Hitler's prison.  Upon their arrival in the Soviet Union, they were promptly accused of being German spies and arrested.  So, one of them undressed and showed Evgenia the right side of her body, disfigured with horrendous scars.  "This is the Gestapo," she said.  Then she turned and showed her the left side, covered with almost identical scars.  "And this is the KGB."  Then she described the interrogations, the methods, the moves...  and said, "they must have the same boss, they were following exactly the same procedure, as though they had the same training based on the same manual.  Absolutely identical."  

[manitou]

Probably nothing or he wouldn't be hiding it from his friend? -- if they're in it together?..  And he isn't even looking at the women.  Definitely not exposing himself.  And if he was indeed doing something under the robe, to follow this up with an actual assault on the women would be unlikely or he wouldn't be discreetly discharging his gun?..

 

Anyway, I don't know what a sex crime investigator might see -- potentially any encounter between unprotected women and a certain kind of "men" (calling them that with much reluctance) might be a dangerous situation, but to me, those men in the picture are innocent until proven guilty. 

 

Of course they're innocent until proven guilty.  I've filed a crime report with the Chinese authorities and they said they'll get right on it.

[Spotless]

Right now I am reading TheDaoBums...

[Taomeow]

Of course they're innocent until proven guilty.  I've filed a crime report with the Chinese authorities and they said they'll get right on it.

 

Ack, they are Japanese!  Now they ought to shake in their boots -- guilty or not. 

[Karl]

Also you may have fun digging deeper into what the Fabians really were, behind the left facade.  Incidentally, there's no source difference between "collectivism" and "individualism," "communism" and "capitalism," same folks played both hands. 

 

There was a rather brilliant Russian female writer whose works only became available to the public after the fall of the Soviet Union (or else via Samisdat, at the risk of getting a prison term for reading them), Evgenia Ginzburg, who spent 18 years of her life imprisoned in the Gulag.  She wrote a memoir about those years, Journey Into the Whirlwind.  One episode from that mind-blowing narrative:  at some point two new women were added to the overpolulated cell where Evgenia was imprisoned at the time -- German Communists who escaped from Germany after having spent a couple of years in Hitler's prison.  Upon their arrival in the Soviet Union, they were promptly accused of being German spies and arrested.  So, one of them undressed and showed Evgenia the right side of her body, disfigured with horrendous scars.  "This is the Gestapo," she said.  Then she turned and showed her the left side, covered with almost identical scars.  "And this is the KGB."  Then she described the interrogations, the methods, the moves...  and said, "they must have the same boss, they were following exactly the same procedure, as though they had the same training based on the same manual.  Absolutely identical."  

 

I know a fair bit, but I don't have an entire 'put it all together'. It seems to me the world is influenced and manipulated by egotistical maniacs that want to mould everybody into their idea of a perfect model. It's like gardeners fighting over what should be created in a patch of land. Like a very dangerous version of a children's squabble in a sand pit. Sometimes the co-operate to damage a weaker opponent, then they are secretly plotting to damage those that are their allies. The rest of us are just the sand.

[manitou]

Ack, they are Japanese!  Now they ought to shake in their boots -- guilty or not. 

 

 

Japanese.  No wonder I felt a bit shined on by the Chinese authorities.

[manitou]

I know a fair bit, but I don't have an entire 'put it all together'. It seems to me the world is influenced and manipulated by egotistical maniacs that want to mould everybody into their idea of a perfect model. It's like gardeners fighting over what should be created in a patch of land. Like a very dangerous version of a children's squabble in a sand pit. Sometimes the co-operate to damage a weaker opponent, then they are secretly plotting to damage those that are their allies. The rest of us are just the sand.

 

Awfully dualistic, Karl.  We are all tentacles on the giant squid, egotistical maniacs or not.

[Karl]

Awfully dualistic, Karl.  We are all tentacles on the giant squid, egotistical maniacs or not.

 

Not really, we can be braver and dispel our own ignorance. We don't need to play the part of the sand, we can simply stop supporting those who want to make us their property.

[giovanni]

The Martian

the book do not have nothing in common with this site, but it's really amazing book

[Yulaw]

What is Tao? by Alan Watts

 

and

 

Being Taoist: Wisdom for Living a Balanced Life

[KuroShiro]

Just finished the Neijing Suwen translation by Maoshing Ni.

 

Now reading The Book of Chuang Tzu translation by Martin Palmer.

[RiverSnake]

Martial Arts Madness by Glenn Morris 

 

:) 

[silent thunder]

The Time Keeper

 

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to stop time. He is banished to a cave and for centuries endures the voices of all who end up seeking more days, more years, because of our sense of time. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with an hourglass and a mission: a chance to release himself by teaching two humans the nature of time.

He returns to modern 'time' - now counting by atomic measure, the hours he so innocently counted with water drops - and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.

[doc benway]

Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs - 3rd in the series of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

[manitou]

 

 

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to stop time. 

 

 

Great premise.  But he should have been punished for trying to make it linear.

[Taomeow]

Look Into The Monsters' Eyes, by Lazarchuck and Uspensky, in Russian. 

 

This is in the genre of fantastika (close to my heart since time immemorial) which does not enforce a genre boundary between "science fiction" and "fantasy" and "magical realism" and occult and "alternative" (i.e. more real than official) history and what not.  The main protagonist is a fantastika version of a very famous and very talented Russian poet of the Silver Age, the founder of the fruitful Akmeism poetry school, who in "real" history was executed in 1921.  In the alternative history of this novel, he has been saved instead by members of a secret and powerful group of shadow rulers, and granted immortality.  

 

Like with all (so rare, and getting rarer and farther between) books that excite me and promise much, I read with fear that it might flop -- for there's nothing harder than to tie all the loose ends in a complex, multifocal narrative, and few of the more ambitious ones avoid fizzling out long before they reach "The End."  I remember starting and abandoning many (and of late, most) that set an inviting creative landscape at first and then got garbled, forced, tedious, and ultimately outstayed my attention's welcome by the middle or sooner. 

 

On the other hand, the ones that don't lose it and keep going strong and stronger and reach the end "with a bang not a whimper" are exceedingly rare.  So, I'm hoping this one won't entangle itself in its quirky and fun complexities into a straightjacket of creative chaos.  So far so good...  haven't read anything this profoundly entertaining (without sacrificing the beauty and power of a true and idiosyncratic literary style which it fortunately possesses) in quite a while.  Reminded me of a definition of happiness (one of thousands offered by various experts on happiness) that I used to subscribe to, only partially in jest:  "Happiness is a big comfortable chair, a big juicy apple, and The Three Musketeers that never end."  

[silent thunder]

The Mists of Avalon:  Marion Zimmer-Bradley

 

Rereading this amazing telling of the Arthurian legend from the perspective of the women.

One of my all time favorites.

[sagebrush]

page 376 perennial psychology of the bagavad gita x111:27

 

not so easy

[KuroShiro]

Tao Te Ching translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.

[Marblehead]

Mair's "Wandering On The Way" of course.

[Taomeow]

H.P. Lovecraft, finally.  Finished The Call of Cthulhu and The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.  Don't know if I have it in me for more.  Curious stuff, but stylistically on the cheaper side.  Someone once said that the best design is always slightly funny.   I guess that's part of what's missing. 

 

 

[RiverSnake]

Faery Teachings by Orion Foxwood. The Fey are quite terribly lovely. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Faery-Teachings-Orion-Foxwood/dp/0979140226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476804354&sr=8-1&keywords=faery+teachings

[KuroShiro]

Huangdi Neijing Lingshu, translated by Nguyen Van Nghi, Tran Viet Dzung & Christine R. Nguyen.