James Conor > Recent Status Updates

gaimans fantasy work is just so good i cant complain. i far prefer his renditions of fairytales to his works in scifi.

tension is palpable, interesting internal struggles amongst the characters. biggest issue i have is from the human perspective the prose seems to have been left in a very.. clinical state, & i am inclined to blame the translator for this. it reads like an extraordinarily direct translation, most noticeable in the sections dealing with human perspectives.

more fanfiction! this time a piece about time lords dealing with a hostile species referred to as the kin… really interesting one honestly, i know nothing about doctor who but one of the main characters reactions to another’s believed death was intriguing enough.. we march onward! gaimans dialogue is rather nice, i dont know if i take him for much of a high concept sci-fi writer but the intro of the story was ok.

wow.. this book is an acid trip and as much as its sectioned into fantasy i cant help but see this as Sci-fi, the world is incredibly ancient and unknown, built by a civilization that is not only no longer present but has remnants so scattered they dont even remember their past connection to it.

neil gaimans fanfiction about apiarists was unexpected but rather incredible. mixed perspective writing isnt done so well often!

completed “ big red son “ , very interesting dissection of human nature through the lens of a rather vulgar pornographic awards event. david foster Wallace’s usage of theatrical terminology in dialogue is rather neat ( Parentheticals, stage directions exeunt etc. ) and adds a distinct layer of emotion thats unmistakeable & intelligible.

from lincoln to salisbury to mackinder to crowe to wilson to marx, lenin, stalin, hitler, fdr & two mexican men in a car somewhere in colorado, and finally back to berlin. Gaddis’ work on grand strategy aptly analyzes conflict from the american civil war, bolshevik revolution first and second world wars and delves into the strategic minds behind them. honestly im in love with this book.

Gaddis’ introduction to the first world war through the minds of mackinder, crowe, and salisbury is incredibly interesting, with just 3 men he effectively paints an image of each & their nation. as eclectic as the speculative causes of the first world war go, american anxieties of eastern threats, german colonial desires, and England ever changing policies seeking to maintain balance across 3 continents; is apt.

from Elizabeth to washington to Adam’s to napoleon, Gaddis’ analysis of asymmetries acting as limiting factors in regard to strategy is intriguing to me; i personally would argue the opposite, in combat imbalances & asymmetries are the core to chance tactics. what is a counter attack to a retreat if not a demanding response to an imbalance?

connections from elizabeth to machiavelli to john quincy adams oh my! i very much can agree with washington being an “Augustus” like figure to american history, if only hatreds like those between the likes of john quincy & hamilton still existed in american politics today.

… amazing connections from isaiah berlins hedgehog and fox to machiavelli & Augustine to Elizabeth & phillip, sadly gaddis’ ability to weave historical narratives into one another did not meet my own religious beliefs.. if phillip who challenged god and moved so foolhardily is in heaven then elizabeth must as well. Sola fide.

from octavius augustus to st. augustine, the concept of destruction of ideas (and more so destruction of governmental structure historically) to promote the growth of new of ideas is intriguing. from the ashes..

comparisons between tolstoy, machiavelli, lincoln and uncle ben, oh my!

very thought provoking writing style, i cant help but think of experiences with various styles of leadership as he describes the relationship between leadership, scale and common sense as a tenant of what makes a leader.

stuck out to me at a bookstore, gaddis’ style of writing is almost too easily consumable for my liking. every sentence is organic as if i was reading my own transcription of a lecture while still listening. his references to ‘ the hedgehog and the fox ‘ referring to two separate styles of intellectual pursuit were already interesting enough for me to seek the original essay from which he references.

alexander masters does an adequate job of creating as he describes, a biography for a character uninteresting at best and neurotic at worst. not-mary, as the author refers to her was a diarist who over the course of a long life filled one hundred and forty eight diaries ( as per the namestake of the title) the author found these and seeks to create a biography while attempting to not reveal the diarist to himself.

jesus christ you have a way of making me cry.

as the translator puts it, “ this book will strike the reader as ‘ very french ‘ — which i know is not always a compliment “

extremely dense informationally, honestly the concept of cultural capital and the importance of cultural immersion in college is kinda making me rethink my entire view on higher education.

Gives me a headache to read, i feel like the translator was contemplating suicide throughout.

joe mellen gives an autobiographical account of his life and experiences with counter culture of the period, at this point in the book the important figure of bart hughes who supposedly is the first to attempt trepanation as a way to increase the blood available to the brain

page 45 bottom paragraph 800/10 i love i love

3.5/5 translation 5/5 book, interesting view points and beautiful writing style. his beliefs imo seem confusing to (hate to say the cliche) a western view point however through some mulling and thinking about the translation i tend to find relations in his nihilist-physicality to Japanese culture at large.
its interesting this book was published 2 full years before his suicide and yet refers to it as if it happened.

ode to hypocrisies, themes of hidden mental illness and freedom of self?