Added to the list and ordered from the library after spotting the review by @lucasrizoli@bookwyrm.social and then reading a little more about the book.
Reviews and Comments
I arrange things into artworks, including paint, wood, plastic, raspberry pi, people, words, dialogues, arduino, sensors, web tech, light and code.
I use words other people have written to help guide these projects, so I read as often as I can. Most of what I read is literature (fiction) or nonfiction on philosophy, art theory, ethics and technology.
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Fionnáin wants to read Doloriad by Missouri Williams
Fionnáin started reading What animals teach us about politics by Brian Massumi
Fionnáin reviewed Ladivine by Marie NDiaye
A difficult experiment
2 stars
NDiaye's prose is like no other author that I have read. Their previous book, Three Strong Women tangled three stories together, each with its owb uncanny mood and setting. In Ladivne there are again three stories, those of three generations of women dealing with trauma and issues of (un)belonging in France.
The writing is intricate and unique, and builds a world from the inner perspectives of the characters, who are richly developed. However, the story never really got going for me, and was mostly told in the early chapters before being trundled along for the rest of the book. The depth of character motivation, understanding each person's complex motivations for making the choices that they make, is an amazing experiment in writing, but for me the experiment that doesn't quite pay off for the whole book.
Fionnáin reviewed Care and Capitalism by Kathleen Lynch
An anthology of western care in academia
3 stars
Care and Capitalism is a particular type of academic book, filled to bursting point with references to other academic sources like an encyclopedia of other people's research. The topic is as the title suggests, encompassing many theories from social, political and philosophical theory.
The sheer volume of reference material is the result of a lifetime career reading about care, capitalism, feminism and love, and for that this is impressive. However, as someone who has read a good deal of the source material, I found the lack of argument or perspective a bit flat. It's more like an introductory text for sociologists who have no framework for where the structural problems exist in care (or white patriarchal power).
Fionnáin started reading Care and Capitalism by Kathleen Lynch
Fionnáin reviewed OK, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea by Patrick Freyne
A sock and buskin memoir
4 stars
There are few writers like Patrick Freyne that can make me laugh until tears roll from my eyes and I drop the book on the floor. Even fewer can force me to expel a whimper a few sentences later with a punch-in-the-gut moment of care or grief. And as a journalist, he does this every week with The Irish Times.
This is a book of memoir essays, not my favourite writing form but one that fits Freyne's style. He meanders between comedy and tragedy easily, including hilarious anecdotes of his childhood, his pirate radio misadventures and his band tours (I loved the NPB before he was ever a writer and really enjoyed reading those stories) interspersed with deep, thoughtful essays of his work in a care home or as a journalist. While I loved the laughs, the more touching chapters were the ones that will stay with me. I am …
There are few writers like Patrick Freyne that can make me laugh until tears roll from my eyes and I drop the book on the floor. Even fewer can force me to expel a whimper a few sentences later with a punch-in-the-gut moment of care or grief. And as a journalist, he does this every week with The Irish Times.
This is a book of memoir essays, not my favourite writing form but one that fits Freyne's style. He meanders between comedy and tragedy easily, including hilarious anecdotes of his childhood, his pirate radio misadventures and his band tours (I loved the NPB before he was ever a writer and really enjoyed reading those stories) interspersed with deep, thoughtful essays of his work in a care home or as a journalist. While I loved the laughs, the more touching chapters were the ones that will stay with me. I am left with new thoughts on care and compassion, as well as an increased respect for good journalism. A couple of the essays don't say much, but overall this is a really enjoyable and touching read by an excellent journalist and writer.
Fionnáin reviewed This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack
Falling apart around us
3 stars
I love Mike McCormack's prose and imagination. This Plague of Souls is of his more sinister canon, trailing out a mystery of a protagonist who has arrived home from prison to an empty house, void of his wife and child, and where he receives continuous phone-calls from an unnamed caller who seems obsessed with how he got out of a prison sentence. In the final section, this mystery unspools into another, broader mystery.
While some of the imaginative ideas are rich, such as the backstory of the protagonist and his wife's first living together in rural Ireland, the book failed to form any sense of intrigue. It felt a little like a short story that had been stretched out like an elastic band, that lacked any more content to become whole as a novel. The prose is good throughout, and the book has merit in its involved portrayal of a …
I love Mike McCormack's prose and imagination. This Plague of Souls is of his more sinister canon, trailing out a mystery of a protagonist who has arrived home from prison to an empty house, void of his wife and child, and where he receives continuous phone-calls from an unnamed caller who seems obsessed with how he got out of a prison sentence. In the final section, this mystery unspools into another, broader mystery.
While some of the imaginative ideas are rich, such as the backstory of the protagonist and his wife's first living together in rural Ireland, the book failed to form any sense of intrigue. It felt a little like a short story that had been stretched out like an elastic band, that lacked any more content to become whole as a novel. The prose is good throughout, and the book has merit in its involved portrayal of a character who is a chameleon. Enjoyable, not unmissable.
Fionnáin reviewed All Incomplete by Fred Moten
Decolonising me
5 stars
Moten & Harney are well known for their brilliant 2013 book The Undercommons that mostly explores colonial practices in university systems. In All Incomplete they extend these ideas beyond the university, and into a broad discourse on embedded colonialism and philosophy of logistics. They also extend the collaboration to include the photographer Zun Lee, who completes this book with extraordinary street photography and a thoughtful concluding chapter.
Moten & Harney write poetic-academic, and it is not initially easy reading. The content is heavy enough, but as part of their practice of decolonising they also refuse to waste or misuse the English language, and this is a strength. Once I found a rhythm, I loved every paragraph (and reread most of them). So deep is their research, and so rich is the perspective that they present, that no word is wasted in a deceptively short book. The focus is on showing …
Moten & Harney are well known for their brilliant 2013 book The Undercommons that mostly explores colonial practices in university systems. In All Incomplete they extend these ideas beyond the university, and into a broad discourse on embedded colonialism and philosophy of logistics. They also extend the collaboration to include the photographer Zun Lee, who completes this book with extraordinary street photography and a thoughtful concluding chapter.
Moten & Harney write poetic-academic, and it is not initially easy reading. The content is heavy enough, but as part of their practice of decolonising they also refuse to waste or misuse the English language, and this is a strength. Once I found a rhythm, I loved every paragraph (and reread most of them). So deep is their research, and so rich is the perspective that they present, that no word is wasted in a deceptively short book. The focus is on showing where logistics (and post-Locke colonial philosophy) underpins the 'algorithms' in all of our lives, through an attempt to make smooth these processes.
All Incomplete is personal, poetic and beautiful, and serves as a reminder that logistics (and colonialism) underpins so much of our modern lives, even when we think we are operating counter-to.
Fionnáin started reading OK, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea by Patrick Freyne
Fionnáin reviewed To Our Friends by The Invisible Committee
PDF version from The Anarchist Library
A reflection on, and an extension of, the ideas …
Wry, far-reaching, loud
3 stars
This book is a response to the Invisible Committee's previous work, The Coming Insurrection. It revisits some of that book, which I have not read and don't fully understand the links. However, as a standalone work, this is interesting if often overly dogmatic. Laying out the entanglements between political, technological and social power with a pantagruelist humour throughout. Not really eye-opening but it draws some interesting connections, the most interesting being the presentation of crisis as a political tool, something that feels increasingly relevant.
Fionnáin started reading The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector
Fionnáin wants to read The revolt of the cockroach people. by Oscar Zeta Acosta
Fionnáin reviewed Livestreaming by El Putnam
Concise yet broad review of livestreamed performance art
4 stars
This short book covers more ground than it ought to. In six chapters, Putnam draws connections between photographic media, camgirls, streamed acts of political resistance and COVID-19 performance artworks through online media. It is a breadth of information and interesting connections, underpinned by the socio-technological philosophy of Gilbert Simondon.
Putnam is a thoughtful author, and leaves scope for different readings and space for different bodies to understand this book. The relationship between artist->camera->transfer infrastructure->screen->audience as it has unfolded over the past 30 years is taken into consideration and leaves lots of room for thought. As a research project, it is comprehensive and clear, and an enjoyable read.