Assholes: A Theory
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- Taking a break from front-list literary fiction and easing into a bit of modern day philosophy to explore the pervasive and powerful influence of the asshole in today's world. Aaron James examination of the asshole feels scarily prescient even a decade ago. Assholes abound!
MENTIONED:
Assholes: A Theory - amzn.to/3P2eaiE
Surfing with Sartre - amzn.to/3EpYctH
Asshole Admits To Being Asshole In Supreme Asshole Move - bit.ly/3d8LkLT
Assholes: A Theory of Donald Trump - amzn.to/3Po3eNA
The Scent of Time - amzn.to/45ZkluT
The Culture Industry - amzn.to/3Podm95
Assholes: A Documentary - bit.ly/3La3Vrg
Children of Ruin - amzn.to/3R2kwkN
Children of Time - amzn.to/3qR7bRL
Death's End - amzn.to/3qScH6G
ELSEWHERE:
Goodreads: goo.gl/vlGtSd
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Discord: / discord
Loved your reviews --. Defining the problem helps cool the visceral reaction! Regarding a departmental asshole, one scientist reminded the group that every organism needs one-🙈😂.
I love it - thanks for that one!
One of my favorite philosophy-lite books is The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli. It's quite lyrical, and Benedict Cumberbatch reads the audiobook. Rovelli is a theoretical physicist, and he writes about how scientists try to understand the meaning and measurement of time. It's a scientific book, but Rovelli explores time quite similarly to ancient Greek philosophers like Zeno, Parmenides, and Aristotle
Thanks for the recommendation! Will look out for that one - impressive they got Cumberbatch to do the audiobook too!
I just finished that one last week! It's astoundingly beautiful.
I would recommend How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell as a very readable recent philosophy text 😊
Fantastic! I'd forgotten about that one - thank you
If you want to explore philosophies of utopia and dystopia, I would also recommend Ethics for a Broken World by Tim Mulgan or Gore Capitalism by Sayak Valencia
And the hits keep on coming! Thanks for the additional recommendations
I also loved Children of Time! It was fascinating to me. Haven’t yet picked up the second book but plan to shortly. Look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Just chewing through these books! The first was a revelation as I didn't know what to expect, going simply on the recommendation of a co-worker and was blown away!
Philosophy is extremely difficult, that's why I love it. Grappling with philosophical issues is a worthwhile challenge for us disaffected Gen Xers. 😆
I don’t like philosophy, but an asshole book sounds like fun.
It was definitely in the "approachable" category of philosophical reads so it might be worth checking out
For sci-fi, I don't know how "hard science" you need it to be, but I love Becky Chambers, Ann Leckie, Lois McMaster Bujold, Martha Wells (Murderbot is iconic at this point), Nnedi Okorafor, and John Scalzi. Aliette de Bodard's novellas have the most sumptuous worldbuilding. Her stories don't always work for me (sometimes I feel like an element is missing, but I'm always glad I read it) but you might enjoy her Xuya Universe books -- Vietnamese-influenced space opera that I would love to see adapted for film!
Done Chambers, Leckie and Wells - which reveals a pretty substantial gap with no Scalzi or Okorafor (will have to look into Bujold as well!) Thanks for the tips - though to be honest if I manage to finish both the Children of Time and Three Body Problem trilogies I'll be pretty darn good!
What a fun Review! At first I thought ThePoptimist was about to throw some shade at rude people but no, just a Review about a book I haven't heard about!
And thank you for talking about the difficulty of Reading philosophy, it feels like everybody is so much smarter than me and I just learned how to read😪 will not give up though! 💪 And I'm very excited for a children of time Review from you ❤
Thanks, only mention of a few rude people here. Just got to keep working that philosophy muscle, but the trick is finding some of the easier ones to lean into first. Good luck to us both!
Thanks really, I love your insight.
Great move to pick up Adorno, that is something I just know I will never get LOL. Scent of Time sounds interesting though, haven't heard of it.
I'm not sure I have the energy to really dive into the Asshole books, as personally I feel they have increased and they always win because they don't care and just suck all your energy out of you. Adressing them in their assholeness only makes you a target of ridicule and being called names like "Spießer" and such rdiculous notions when you just want to go through your day undisturbed by them ruining everything. It's like getting smokers to understand they are invading your space instead of the other way around.
assholes are impervious to suggestion and entirely sure of their overall "rightness" so it's kind of a losing battle arguing with them. It just that they seem to be gaining in power and influence which is a bit of an issue.
i don't have any recommendations but i hope you find some as i thoroughly enjoyed your take on the 'a's
Cheers! We'll see how long the philosophy reading kicks sticks around for
08:10 This brings back memories. I remember a line by Adorno that went something like "the apparent and hypocritical reification of the reification" (translated from spanish by me just now, so it may have errors) and after reading that I felt this urge to find his tomb, dig him up and shoot his skeleton on the knee. So yeah, for me it was kinda hard to grasp, but also I believe we have to accept their use of language, where everything has to be very precise and there's no "I'm going to say this in my own words". Anyways, I haven't read much philosophy recently (I got the scent of time for my bday back in March, still pending, it throws me off that this dude writes like a book per month), but I do remember enjoying Jostein Gaarder's The world of Sophie and Plato not prozac by Lou Marinoff. Both are divulgation (is that what you call them?) books so they're more accessible.
I'm loving hearing your thoughts on books and stuff! I think you have a very unique flavor compared to other booktubers.
I'll take accessible any day - certainly more accessible than Adorno - that sentence on reification alone give me the hives.
This isn't relevant to the topic but in some episodes you talk about books you read that make you want to grab people by the shoulders and yell them, "Read the damn book." Well, I wanted to share two books that fall into this category for me: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Relevant to your topic:
I just read the Children of Time books and they blew me away. Another sci-fi book you might check out is All Systems Red by Martha Wells. And it's a small investment because it is relatively short. But if you enjoy it, there are more books in the series.
More books to add - I'd forgotten about the Murderbot Diaries! I loved All Systems Red but forgot there are now more books in the series so thanks for the reminder
This was hilarious. After hearing it so casually so many times in this review, I think the key word lost all its meaning to me.
It was the same in the book too, though when he throws the occasional dickwad or douchebag in it really strikes you.
I read Byung Chul-Han in German (Müdigkeitsgesellschaft) and man, is he wordy. It reads a bit like 19th century German - long setences, a lot of commas, five sub-clauses in one sentence. Not that his ideas aren't worth wading through all that!
The English translation is tight. Sounds like it takes those sub-clauses and turns them into short sentences. Much easier!
Why are we not hearing from James as the threat of Trump raises its head again?
If GenX makes philosophy our version of Boomer war books, that would make me very happy. I think most of my reading in this vein has been feminist theory and I'd love to branch out. Surely someone's written a theory of bitches 😅
LOL - I'm sure it's out there somewhere - in the meantime I still haven't burned out of the sci-fi and philosophy jag which has honestly surprised me. Got some great recommendations that I've since added to the list to read.