Books are Good, Actually

For June, we read Goddess of Anarchy by Jacqueline Jones, we discuss our previous knowledge of Chicago and Texas history and labor movements, some critical Amazon reviews, the Haymarket trial, Lucy's and Albert's tactics and their effectiveness, amongst other things including if Lucy would be a podcaster or a debate bro. 

Support abortion funds!

https://abortionfunds.org/

July - Settlers by J. Sakai

August - Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu

For May, we read All Systems Red by Martha Wells! We discussed our impressions, our favorite characters and moments, the gender of Murderbot, what we hope to see in the future books and we didn't talk about Elden Ring even once!  Jimmy sounds like he's in a fishbowl due to some unavoidable sound issues, I tried my best. 

Tor Article: https://www.tor.com/2018/03/21/life-lessons-from-a-murderbot-reading-all-systems-red-as-a-trans-woman/

Additional Discussion Question: https://wpl-podcast.winnipeg.ca/july-discussion-all-systems-red-by-martha-wells/

June - Goddess of Anarchy by Jacqueline Jones

July - Settlers by J. Sakai

August - Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu

We finally finish up our fourt parter of Less than Nothing! We discuss the last part and the conclusion, our feelings about it, we try to answer the question of does Zizek accomplish what he was after, do we still need Zizek, Chomsky vs Zizek, then we go on various tangents and a bird appears! 

Articles mentioned: 

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/04/noam-chomsky-on-how-to-prevent-world-war-iii 

May - Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

June - Goddess of Anarchy by Jacqueline Jones

July - Settlers by J. Sakai

August - Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu

We continue reading Less than Nothing for March and part 3 was a very difficult section to get through, we talked about Terminator and the letter, how Zizek presents Lacan and our lack of knowing Lacan, Elden Ring, being able to skip Hofstadter, and Zizek's articles on the Ukraine and Russian war. 

Next month we will wrap up Less than Nothing and will provide a book list for the next few months!

Related Articles:

https://theoryreader.org/2022/02/25/was-russias-rape-of-ukraine-inevitable-by-slavoj-zizek/

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/europe-unequal-treatment-of-refugees-exposed-by-ukraine-by-slavoj-zizek-2022-03

https://kurtayacademics.com/2022/03/04/ukraine-and-the-third-world-prof-slavoj-zizek/

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lacan/

https://www.textetc.com/theory/lacan.html

In February, we are continuing to read to the end of Part 2 of Slavoj Zizek's Less than Nothing! We attempt to connect F.D. Signifier's video on Drake and the Death of Hip Hop with dialectics, we veer into Dark Souls and Elden Ring association with dialectics, we talk about our favorite passages, Zizek's problem with marriage, and we once again answer do we need Hegel in our current time. 

F.D. Signifier - Drake and the Death of Hip Hop

Less than Nothing

March - Part 3

April - Part 4 (Summing up and re-examiniation )

For January, we started reading Less than Nothing! We stumbled and bumbled our way through to Chapter 5, relating Hegel to Pokemon, would we get something from this book, our definition of dialectics, dialectics and pop culture, do we need Hegel in the modern world? 

How to Read Zizek - https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-to-read-zizek/

Less than Nothing 4 Parter!

February - Read the rest of Part 2

March - Part 3

April - Part 4 (Summing up and re-examiniation )

For December, we read Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelly! We discussed our general thoughts and feelings about the book, the differences of the application of the New Deal, black communists vs black folks in labor movements, naacp vs ild, white leftism in the 30s and now and how it relates to race and sex, and lessons learned from these organizations.

Less than Nothing 4 Parter!

January - Read to Chapter 5

February - Read the rest of Part 2

March - Part 3

April - Part 4 (Summing up and re-examiniation )

For November, we read Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti! We discussed the author's background, thoughts and feelings about the book, siege vs pure socialism, general take aways. We had a few technical difficulties on Angela's end so apologies if some parts of the podcast are choppy!

Noam Chomsky article - https://www.greanvillepost.com/2020/06/03/the-mainstream-and-the-margins-noam-chomsky-vs-michael-parenti/

December - Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelley

January+ - Less than Nothing by Slavoj Zizek

For the spooky month of October we read The Occult Book: A Chronological Journey from Alchemy to Wicca by John Michael Greer. We discuss our history/interest of the occult, our not so great feelings on our monthly reading, why did entries of the book seemed to fall off around the 50s, the resurgence of astrology and a special tarot card reading!

And of course a list of Jimmy's favorite podcast for spooky times.

November -  Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti

December - Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelley

January+ - Less than Nothing by Slavoj Zizek

For the month of September, we read The Legacy of Ashes: History of the CIA by Tim Weiner! We discuss the author, our impressions, the one critique we found, and a hypotheticals of CIA existence and the need for CIA if the US was a socialist country. 

Critique - https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2007/10/legacy-of-ashes-the-history-of-the-cia/

October - The Occult Book by John Michael Greer

November -  Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti

December - Hammer and Hoe by Robin D. G. Kelley

January+ - Less than Nothing by Slavoj Zizek