MGoReading
Our household has done some cord cutting and streaming downsizing this past year, particularly after the football season ended. We've been doing a lot more reading since then. I often read Horror, Fantasy and US History books. Three that I have on my shelve to read our "Shadow of the Gods", "Dune" and "The Three Body Problem". I'm excited about all three. I think the The Three Body Problem got picked up by Netflix and I haven't read much Sci-Fi in my day. I don't know much about Dune other than I drifted in and out of the movie when I was battling COVID and a high fever.
Anyone else been reading anything interesting?
Jason Kirk of The Shutdown Fullcast wrote a book called "Hell is a World Without You" about being raised evangelical. I haven't finished it yet but it's fantastic, both laugh-out-loud funny and so brutal that it made me cry. Highly recommend.
this seems very pete holmes
I'll second this recommendation, it's a phenomenal read.
Also, Jason donated more than $56,000 in royalties from the early sales of the book to the Trevor Project. The sales have been unheard of for a first-time novelist working without a major publisher.
It's so damn good.
This is next on my to-read list… Glad to hear Jason crushed it.
I'm also reading it right now. If you ever listen to a Shutdown Fullcast episode when Jason gets a head of steam (I want to say "your college football team as Biblical characters" or the Warhammer episodes are good examples), the tone of the book matches that. It's such a rapid fire literary voice that I know I'm missing stuff as I read but I think it matches that teenage idea that everything has to happen now and you want resolution and justification that what your doing is correct.
I am currently reading “Defenders of the West” by Raymond Ibrahim. Fascinating history.
Ibrahim is a dogshit historian who can barely analyze anything at above an 8th grade level and is a bigot.
I read on around an 8th grade level so maybe thats why I like his book so much. I have checked/cross referenced a lot of the stories that he has mentioned and they are true so not sure how your labels of him are appropriate.
Interesting how you omitted the rest of the title ("Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam").
That guy is an extremist masquerading as a serious scholar. Him writing about Islam and Muslims is like David Duke writing about African American history.
I don’t know guy from Adam, but there is a real problem among left-leaning Westerners when it comes to addressing the dark side of Islamic history. All Al-Andalus and no Theft of Constantinople, mass enslavement of humans centuries before Columbus, or colonization of Spain.
A truism: In the absence of honest history the vaccuum is filled by crank histories.
No issue with an honest discussion. My family is a minority religious group from the Middle East and left to escape persecution in the 1940s, so I can speak to some of what my parents and grandparents went through. Honest discussion - great. There's plenty of history of Arab colonialism throughout history that gets glossed over these days, especially in light of current world happenings. Ibrahim is not a real historian. He's just a bigot with an agenda trying to sell books and wade into culture wars.
Coptic? Chaldean?
Armenian
Kim, is that you?
I think it's the characterization of Christians as "heroes" that gives the game away.
Chuck, Wait, Christians cant be heroes?
In much of the world it is illegal to be a Christian. In Afghanistan people are beheaded on the spot if the Taliban finds a Bible app on ther phone or any Christian material. In Syria Christians are drowned in cages. In many parts of Africa, Christians are taken as slaves and/or killed. If someone who is a Christian stands up to that type of evil, are they not a hero?
March 12th, 2024 at 11:23 AM ^
Jesus fucking Christ, we’re having holy wars on MGoBlog now?
I'm wondering how familiar you are with the current historiography on these topics to suggest that there is an absence of honest history? I have noticed a tendency of people decrying what they see as the flaws or omissions without really knowing what is out there.
In terms of what is put out for mass consumption I am comfortable with what I have stated.
You claim in another comment that “the media” distorts our understanding of the past, but here you are basing your opinions on “what is put out for mass consumption.” You could, you know, seek out some more reputable materials. They are not being hidden from you!
It’s not me who I am referring to. I do seek out reputable sources. I am referring to the casual historian buff who only sees what is presented on social media. That is what I am referring to.
You wrote: "In the absence of honest history the vacuum is filled by crank histories." I took that to mean that you believe there is an absence of honest history on the topic. I think that was a reasonable interpretation on my part, even if now you are making a different point (that most people--yourself excepted--aren't exposed to those good histories).
You CANNOT be serious with this take. It's 'left leaning westerners that are struggling to accept history'??? 😂
That’s not what I wrote.
The counterpoint to that is that certain Western scholars on Islam have a tendency to view Islamic history through the lens of Western Civilization and its experience with certain hot-button issues and touchstone phenomena (i.e., slavery, colonialism, racism, etc). In so doing, they unwittingly carry baggage into their analyses that doesn't have any direct analog in Islamic history. For example, slavery as it was practiced in the Muslim World was very different from chattel slavery as it was practiced in the West. Similarly, although it's true that Muslim empires invaded countries just like their Western counterparts, applying the label "colonialism" (and all of its connotations) to the manner in which those countries were ruled is very misleading.
Some Western scholars who do this don't know any better. Others do know better but use these loaded terms as a rhetorical sleight of hand to evoke certain images in order to advance an agenda.
What "theft" of Constantinople do you think people aren't aware enough of?
My favorite was the 1204 sack by the Crusaders.
We only killed some folks and took their stuff.
Frank, How is it “interesting”? You knew what book I was talking about with what I typed. History is history man. Sometimes the Truth hurts.
Jack Kerouac-On the Road
On the Road is one of those books that I always seem to have on my reading list but never get around to reading.
After about 40 years I just reread Catch 22. That is a masterpiece.
Crying in H Mart. Halfway through and absolutely love it
Haven't read that but I assume you're familiar with the author's band, Japanese Breakfast? I heard of them after they opened for one of my favorite bands and it's just the kind of baroque indie that I'm into these days.
No, but I did hear a lady screaming hysterically in Japanese at the Buford Farmers market the other day.
Dune is an all time favorite. I'm waiting to see Part 2 on Imax this weekend, but none of the on-screen adaptations can really do the book proper justice.
I have also read Three Body Problem. The backdrop of it taking place during the Chinese Cultural Revoluton adds a lot of depth to what is otherwise a sort of very science-y alien sci-fi that poses some interesting existential questions.
3-Body was an intriguing slow burn for Book 1, super, super good for Book 2 and the first half of Book 3… and then completely fell on its face trying to stick the landing.
Haven’t been that disappointed with an the ending in some time.
I have never read "Dune" and have a genuine question about how that world works. How do the sandworms eat enough to sustain their massive bodies? Doesn't seem like there enough people or little mice and birds for their massive caloric needs. Is there a whole ecosystem of huge prey animals down in the sand with them? From watching the first "Dune" movie, I couldn't figure it out.
Interwebs say they eat sand plankton.
I read 3-Body and found it substandard in terms of epic Sci-Fi. It felt like there was tiptoeing around censorship issues and, as noted above, the resolution was ameteurist. If you're interested in well crafted and imaginative Sci-Fi from a modern author, by far the best I've read in the last decade is by N. K. Jemisin. Her Broken Earth Series won the Hugo Award 3 years running along with a Nebula award.
Three with U.S. History aspects that I enjoyed:
https://wwnorton.com/books/Natures-Metropolis/
https://www.danielyergin.com/books/theprize
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/crabgrass-frontier-9780195049831?cc=us&lang=en&
those all seem really interesting. I do love city-history books. "Dawn of Detroit" was great, and so was "the island at the center of the world."
You should take a look at the Burning of the World
its about the great Chicago fire and the political and sociological effects
At the same time the Peshtigo Fire was occuring. That fire killed many more people and destroy larger swaths of land than the Chicago Fire. Yet Peshtigo is ignored today.
It talks about that too and Ogden’s involvement in both.
i mean I get that it killed more people and destroyed more land but if you can’t see why the Chicago fire would be more well known you are being intentionally obtuse
I never said that I didn’t. I am saying that it is an example how media distorts our understanding of the past.
I suppose the "media" distorts our understanding of the past, but that's sort of a distortion as well, isn't it? Our understanding of the past is definitely distorted--or maybe "subjective" is a better word. And there are countless reasons for this subjectivity. I'm not sure "the media" has much interest in making sure people know about Chicago and not about Peshtigo. The past is constantly being studied and reinterpreted. Why some topics are ignored or downplayed is important, but I think it's often much more complex than some monolithic "media" deciding what we know.
Except that we know that people like William Randolph Hearst have impacted profoundly how we view certain events and people.
Hearst created a false narrative around Titanic owner J. Bruce Ismay that persists to this day. That’s how powerful media can be. Distortions can last centuries.
It’s not even the media. Chicago was one of the fastest growing cities ever at that time. It was becoming known around the world. The aftermath of the fire affected so many many more people and the political and economic outcome of a major city. A city that had multiple major periodicals.
a lot of people died and a ton of timber was burnt up in the peshtigo fire but it wasn’t much more than a company town.
The media in Chicago at the time definitely had an impact in what happened to the recovery. In fact a decent amount of this book is about that especially with medill getting elected mayor in the immediate aftermath
You are just ignoring the context of both fires to knock the media in a disingenuous attempt to appear more independent minded.