I have been reading the first 100 pages or so of this now and at first I didn’t like it as much as expected - I thought it’s a bit superficial and too affirmatory for my taste, ignoring important topics such as inequality completely, and it took me a few tries to get through all of that… but it seems to have been some kind of narrative setup for the following lessons
I can see what you mean now, I can relate to a lot of his thoughts on the topic now, too. You are probably ahead a few more books by now judging from your reading speed
Wow. JavaScript is an awful language to do this in, although TypeScript is better.
But people want fucking cool shit in their browsers! Without resorting to using something like C++ or Rust compiled to WebAsm, it’s all you bloody got. Terrible situation, isn’t it.
In the years when I first started out at 11, I began to toy with stuff like this. When I was 13/14 I managed to derive a set of equations that were basically Newtonian physics on a 2D plane. I was making a lil 2D physics simulation with objects that could have gravity and be moved around, and bounce off of each other etc.
And you know what language I did it in? Fucking JavaScript.
That set me on the path.
Later on I began to write more personal projects in Python, Rust or C++, although for work I stuck with web tech as I can do that in my sleep now.
Yeah, I was thinking exactly the same too, then he’d start talking about what I thought he was missing. I think with something like this, there’s so many aspects to consider, that you can’t actually compact it down into a dense enough space whereby the reader won’t end up thinking of something that’s been missed before he gets to where it is discussed.
So he’s taking a careful and methodical approach, being careful not to digress too much at any given point. Once I noticed that, I trusted a bit more that he’ll begin to talk about more.
I haven’t actually finished it. I ended up getting a load of speed and binging for a few days, did a load of writing, then basically slept for two days. I’m now just going to wait until Friday when I get some money and buy a paperback. I hate reading it on a screen anyway, it makes my vision go all funny and I see lines everywhere on the walls when I look away - cos all I had was a PDF.
ANYONE wondering “How did the USA become so divided?” MUST read this most excellent, heavily researched book. It goes back decades to uncover how the GOP media machine was created and has been the driving force behind the raging right, building the cult that constantly votes against their own interests, absorbs lie after lie gleefully & ignorantly revels in its self-inflicted echo chamber.
As I post this, the parody of a president we currently suffer has sent the National Guard to L.A. That is all part of the plan: constantly demonizing the opposite side is how the GOP stays in power.
READ THIS BOOK. Spread the word. Encourage knowledge.
I just finished reading Vurt by Jeff Noon, it’s a kind of psychedlic sci-fi set in Manchester (UK), in a futuristic world where people take a drug in the form of a feather called vurt, which are like these bizzar altered reality shared experiences they go into.
It was pretty cool, it hit that late 80s machester acid rave scene vibe pretty well and it did a lot of quite experimental things with the language and concepts involved. A lot of mind-bendy dreamlike reality vs fantasy stuff which i’m always a fan of.
Vurt’s amazing. I’m so glad other people in the world enjoy that sort of weirdness. The follow up, Pollen, didn’t quite grab me the same way if I recall, but it was enjoyable in it’s own right. It’s a bit slower in places but does get pretty trippy in the latter half.
I think Pollen is the only other thing I’ve read by him. As for similar recommendations, I guess it depends on what parts of Vurt you really jived with.
PK Dick is probably the closest - bizarre, drug-fueled hijinks where it gets hard to determine which side of the line you’re on while reading. Something like A Scanner Darkly or Ubik is a pretty good analog to Vurt if you replace 90s Manchester with 60s San Francisco.
M John Harrison would be another, especially his newest novels (Kefahuchi Tract trilogy). Like Noon, these are sci-fi without any of the fiddly technology details, more of a backdrop for weird ideas and characters. His Viriconium books are some of my favorite literature but a very different kind of sci-fi; the last one in particular is really, really psychedelic but you sort of need to be invested in the setting to get the most out of it.
Jeff VanderMeer is king of the New Weird for good reasons - the Annihilation books are great but I’m partial to his novel Borne, which is ridiculously weird in both setting and form.
Tom Sweterlitsch, The Gone World - a bleak, strange and sometimes confusing story about time and murder
Scott R Jones’ Stonefish is an amazing bizarre novel - it’s weird, heady, and very dreamlike in parts. It’s sort of about a man in the near-future hunting Bigfoot, but only sort of.
Kathe Koja’s The Cipher is one of the trippiest and challenging novels I’ve read. It’s about a hole in a utility closet. Probably more existential horror than sci-fi, but the line is sort of blurry.
Nick Harkaway: The Gone-Away World - a bizarre, trippy romp through a reality war and its aftermath
Maybe there’s something in there that’ll scratch that itch.
Nice one thanks a lot for the reccomendations I’ll have a proper look into those when I get in later. Funny you should mention PKD also I literally just started ‘the three stigmata of Palmer eldritch’. I love scanner darkly also, great book.
Are you into Haruki Murakami? The wind-up bird chronicles is one of my favourite books, it’s more magic realism but I love it because for me it hits that same balance of otherworldly/paranormal dreamlike stuff mixed with the everyday as Twin Peaks does. Very ‘lynchian’.
Yeah, definitely a Murakami fan, and I think your Lynchian tag is apt. I love that feeling of a “not quite right and off-kilter dream scape” that comes out in parts of magical realism and adjacent works.
I vividly remember a moment reading VanderMeer’s Annihilation where I had this sort of floaty, dissociative feeling that I think came from the actual prose, not the subject matter. It was really weird, sort of unsettling but exciting feeling. Sort of like reading myself into a waking dream. I dunno, for all I know I had a low-grade fever while I was reading it lol. I’ve had it at other times while reading but that was the time that really stands out to me. I refuse to re-read that book because I don’t want it to not happen and somehow sully the memory of the experience.
I guess that is to say I’m constantly amazed by what literature and a persons imagination can do to a brain and love chasing down things that take me out of my head in some way.
In that vein, I’ll also recommend the collection of stories by Sherwood Anderson called Winesburg, Ohio. It’s not even really magical realism, just a portrait of a small American town in the early 20th century presented in a really odd voice, again ‘Lynchian’ comes to mind. It’s contemplative, with no big crazy action or culmination but given your reading list so far I think you might enjoy it.
Thanks you given me a lot of good recs there, I love having short story collections also to read alongside bigger books so ill deffo check out Winesburg, sounds great. I’m way more into that kind moment-to-moment atmosphere stuff than I am anything super climactic, can feel a bit cheesy to me when there’s like a big plotline crescendo building towards a big ending.
I actually was going to read Annihilation, I think the only thing putting me off was the fact that i’ve seen the movie and it always bugs me a bit doing it that way round. But seems like we have similar taste so if you’re highly rating it i’ll give it a shot
The entire Alice Oseman works were fantastic
Tui T Sutherland’s Wings of Fire was great, too…
The English Dictonary is a fantastic read… So much meaning.
Becky Albertalli’s What if it’s us? book series was a good read to pass time, too.
Emily Carrel’s Speak adapted into a graphic novel was absolutely stunning. Very sad though…
I really like gay romance, if you couldn’t tell.
Ooh, I forgot about Russian Roulette by Anthony Horowitz. That book could make its own series.
Oh. That sounds right up my alley. Don’t sleep on Jack Womack if you like that kind of sci fi. Ambient is a good start imho, and still my favorite from him.
Might sound obvious, but check out Philip K. Dick if you aren’t familiar.
Definitely worth a shot, and it’s very much in the same vein as PKD. It’s kind of like PKD meets Trainspotting. I love his work too, I just started ‘The Three Stimata of Palma Eldritch’ by him.
Not heard of Womack, just having a look into him, the ambient series looks up my alley. Only been here a few days and got a lot of good reading recs i didn’t know about which is a great sign
