Just a thread to share what your reading and pics of the book<33
#post about what your reading (with pics)
velvet zinc
zenith night
velvet zinc
Omg its so pretty
rotund knoll
Found at a thrift store
It's a book to keep anyone nervous
craggy prairie
starting a new audiobook
normal lance
starting a new audiobook
Mary roach is so good
small cipher
yes, I also like to read coffee
torn hazel
Was reading a bit of this the other day
Author has a good sense of humor, it is funny so far !
spiral violet
Reading some of the classics from the Latin American boom
Anybody got any short story compilations they want to recommend?
normal lance
Reading God: an Anatomy but from an epub on my phone, so I can only post screenshots
spiral violet
Send it (:
normal lance
Okay so a lot of it is the kind of stuff you just post and say based
spiral violet
Affirmative, that is indeed based
normal lance
This (from the introduction—the rest of the book is historical research on what the deeply embodied ancient Judaism looked like, as well as how that manifested in early Christianity and older Mesopotamian religions) is the part that I’m really grappling with
There's sort of a universal(?) ancient religion world model of divinity leaking through into the world in tangible, physical ways, and gods as being embodied and motivated by human-like drives. This book definitely has a slant in that regard (author is atheist-humanist but very clearly longing for that type of experience)
The Torah is weird because it was written over a span of centuries, with a lot of selective editing, so every point on the continuum between that and the completely abstract/incorporeal god is in there somewhere (actually not that much of the latter, but later commentators decided everything is a metaphor tm)
As a kid this bothered me a lot
As an adult, it still bothers me (Greek philosophers ruin everything smh) but I'm more inclined to look for features of a universal(?) human mystical experience
rotund knoll
This reminds me of a passage from Graeme Gibson's Bedside Book of Beasts
It was what first got me thinking about the implications of worship, and how closely it's tied to the social values of the time.
I grew up without much/any religious influence, but I really admire theology in general.
What really helped put (some form of?) religion in context for me was reading the Odyssey, and general exposure to Arabic culture.
Like in the Odyssey, most good ideas (sic.) are succeeded by something along the lines of "oh wow thank you Athena for whispering in my ear"
Meanwhile, historical Arabic research is full of exultation for the wonder of Allah's creation
Meme related
All this wrapping back into the Universal Mystic Experience™, I think it's really ascribing the little grains of life to the actions of a greater power (however that may be represented)
velvet zinc
Mornings r nice
I feel like I'm grasping the book pretty well like its just challenging enough so I can move though it quickly but still feel challenged
velvet zinc
Yeah omg
torn hazel
Fun book
Combines science fiction and magical realism really well imo
Science fiction story with magical realism vibes
torn hazel
https://youtu.be/_4sI4EXj9i4 talk by the author
apparently they used output from a neural network in the audiobook for what some of the music from a culture he made up for the book would sound like
cyan tinsel
Been speedrunning trying to learn C# by working through this book
lone arch
