I adore how Vonnegut so effortlessly works critique of American life and values into his fiction and his creations like Kilgore Trout (and Trout's stories) and the
tralfamadorians are among my favourites of all time.
Slaughterhouse Five
This book made me fall in love with the tralfamadorian idea of time and existence and kind of sparked my interest in it. The tralfamadorians are one of the greatest
sci-fi creations of all time, they way they view the world is so neutral but chaotic at the same time, it's brilliant! The "so it goes" phrase throughout the book
is inspiring and allows for reflection on one's own life without regret or complex feelings of rage or PTSD. I mean, obviously it's not a be all and end all solution
to dealing with the past, but I found Vonnegut's communication of this perspective on life enlightening and beyond helpful when applied to my own life. This rhetoric
also works as a device to show the horrors of war however, it communicates, the attitude of a nation toward death in war, like "It's a necessary evil" so oh well,
all this loss of life and destruction of land and property is fine because it's in the best national interest. I'll be sure to write a lot more about Slaughterhouse Five
upon my second reading of it. But that'll take me a while to get around to...
"There was a still life on Billy's bedside table-two pills, an ashtray with three lipstick-stained cigarettes in it, on cigarette still burning and a glass
of water. The water was dead. So it goes. Air was trying to get out of that dead water. Bubbles were clinging to the walls of the glass, too weak to climb out."
"I, Billy Pilgrim... will die, have died, and always will die on February thirteenth, 1976."
"...There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sicj and so much of the listless
playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters."
Breakfast of Champions
I loved Vonnegut's use of humour in this book... Blah Blah Blah
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This is one of my all time favourite books. BLah Blah BLah...
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
I could go on for days babbling about androids and artificial intelligence and the ethics, morality and possibility of it all, I've got to be in the right mood though.
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
I devoured this book so quickly and easily, I loved it and found Kerouac's description of nature beautiful and transcendential (whatever that means).
I just didn't like the misogyny of it all, and how it made Buddhism look like an uber misogynistic faith, but really it's not.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Berlin by Jason Lutes
KAFKA
Movies
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a must watch for any Marxist. The Marxist undertones in this film are brilliant. And while they may be chickens, it's excellent to see the revoltion
actually be carried out by a group of people in a story. In most anti-capitalist films, the issue will be pointed out, but it is left with no solution. This peeves me to no end.
Yes, capitalism leads to poverty and whatnot, but what about it? The movie always ends with some terrible thing happening as a result of capitalism. Yeah it's fair
because y'know that's probably what would happen, but I think movies (at least some of them) have a role to inspire change. No change is going to come from
Squid Game, in fact, the opposite, everywhere you see corporations profiting off the commodification of the TV series, completely missing the point... or rather, the
people buying their products are completely missing the point. Change did not come from Chaplin's Modern Times, and it surely won't come from the bajillions of anti-capitalist
media we recieve today from the corporations these movies and TV serieses are critiquing. Don't get me wrong, I love a good capitalist critique movie, they rock, but
they always fail to provide a solution to these issues - I believe this is because the only solution is worker's revolution and the production companies know that, and
won't produce anything along those lines out of fear for their own power - Chicken Run does provide a solution to these issues, under the strategic guise of a
children's movie, and that's what's genius about it. And obviously it's not a perfect portrayal of Marxism or anything, far from it, but it at least provides a revolutionary
solution to workers' oppression.
Even stories about a revolution fail to communicate truely radical ideas, because they're set in such extreme world's that seem impossible, and will usually feature a single Katniss Everdeen type at the forefront of everything. Not Chicken Run
Chicken Run has a communal focus, everyone takes part in Chicken Run, the chickens work collectively toward a collective goal.
It's also just a genuinely entertaining movie, from back when they put effort into children's movies.
Apocalypse Now
Frankenweenie
Akira
Prince of Egypt
The Warriors
TV Shows
Arrested Development
Twin Peaks
Star Trek: TNG and DS9
Doctor Who
Daria
Deutschland 83
Degrassi
People
Rosa Luxemburg
Ho Chi Minh
Uncle Ho never did anything bad. He was a major player in a lad reform program early on in his career, targeted toward rural landlords.
Approximately 1000 people fell victim to this I think. This isn't dismissable of course, but I think the important thing is to consider the reasons (revolutionary act)
and that he later apologised and took accountability for his actions during this time.
Beyond his little dabble into land reform, Ho Chi Minh is pretty much unfaultable, this guy led Vietnam to its eventual liberation and his cult of personality
was humble and empowering to the working class of Vietnam.
He's the Vietnamese Robin Hood; during the Japanese the guy stole rice that the Vietnamese had farmed and the Japanese had stolen for their own profit to redistribute
it to the famine ridden Vietnamese population. Viva La Revolution! Down with colonialism!
Willem Dafoe
DILF
Kyle MacLachlan
Most attractive man to ever grace my eyes.
Also, now he runs a VINEYARD named after the Shakespeare quote "Exit pursued by a bear". I love him to bits.
Kurt Vonnegut
Simone de Beauvoir
Albert Camus
Ted Ka
Companies
Booktopia
I know next to nothing about the ethicalness of this company. All I know is they bring me my books and they are Australian owned, which is good enough for me at
this point :/
