Max Stottrop > Recent Status Updates

After making it through the wonderful and evocative preface & introduction in my last session and thoroughly enjoying carnival in Cologne afterwards, I was now ready to delve into the first chapter: "Weight of Numbers". What a way to start this book, but made easier by having frequent sub-chapter breaks to give it breathing room. (con’d)

"Through little details, travellers' notes, a society stands revealed. The ways people eat, dress, or lodge, at the different levels of that society, are never a matter of indifference. And these snapshots can also point out contrasts and disparities between one society and another which are not all superficial. It is fascinating, and I do not think pointless to try and reassemble these imageries." agreeed.

So gooood!

Hab es endlich geschafft dieses Buch weiterzulesen. Das ktuelle Kapitel beschreibt das „lange Jahr“ 1937 und den Großen Terror, den die Partei unter Stalin an sich selbst und all denjenigen angerichtet hat, die als Gegner des Regimes angesehen wurden. Das schiere Ausmaß ist unvorstellbar und wird sehr dicht erzählt. Schwere Kost, aber sehr rewarding.

I so love the bleak old house on the cursèd lake and the rest of this tale, the beginning of the Mignolaverse

Lovely mix of regency romance-novel and eldritch-horror tale

Gorgeous art

Enthralling!

So freaking beautiful, with a story that takes its time (which is fine with me). Excited to see where it‘ll go

Very entertaining, an easier read than Dark Harvest. In Michael Dodd‘s blog Track of Words, David Annendale said that The Deacon of Wounds was, in a way, a retelling of one of the earliest gothic novels: The Monk, by Matthew Lewis, as seen through the lens of the Warhammer 40k universe. The literature-student still alive in me rejoices!

Absolutely amazing. Even though the novel is set in the Warhammer universe, it’s more of a grimdark horror novel. Wonderful, atmospheric prose.

Not sure I get what is going on here. More of a “just vibes” novel. Which is fine for me, I think

Finished the chapter on “Feuerbach” or more accurately, the intro to materialism. Now onto the chapter on Max Stirner (intro to class consciousness and egoism)

"We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence."

Important reminder that not the dusty handwritings of long-dead philosophers but contemporary conditions should inform our strive towards liberation.

„The first historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the production of material life itself. And indeed this is an historical act, a fundamental condition of all history, which today, as thousands of years ago, must daily and hourly be fulfilled merely in order to sustain human life.“

Finished Whyman‘s introduction and now feel somewhat confident in actually delving into the Feuerbach chapter

Best book in I don’t know how long. Angels and demons walk the earth. A constant sense of medieval dread set in plague-ridden France, interspersed with beautiful moments of great humanity. Give it a read/listen if you can (it‘s on YouTube, yes, all of it and read by the author - so what are you waiting for!)

"Thus the constant in my equation is that technological advancement tends towards perfect automation. If automation is the constant, ecological crises and class power are the variables."

Wonderful read so far that once again proves that Miéville is not just a thrilling author of weird fiction but also an important Marxist scholar and thinker.