palafox posted:

i think the general purview of new sincerity people is somewhat removed from the iowa workshop members i can think of off the top of my head, and what little general esthetic I can think of from iowa doesn't have any of the hallmarks of new sincerity stuff- a cloying reach for the reader is the last thing most of those people, whose current hallmark (if one wants to grossly generalize) is a pervasive literary "correctness," could be accused of having. the reason for the cia's funding of arts programs in the first place was to divert cultural energies that could be headed in a revolutionary direction, and while that may have been the case for novelists during the cold war it's certainly not the case now. Dave Eggers' relentless parading of kind, well-meaning brown people- the good ones, not like the scary ones on tv- is no more threatening to American imperial ambition than the contextless atrocity reports in the New York Times' international pages. The CIA has plenty of money to waste but there's no need for them to turn those who have already turned.

*raises eyebrow*

c_man posted:

new sincerity would be cooler if it were coupled with the speculative realist trend. being really sincere about body parts, physical processes, and inhuman assemblages would own

hello, im bleeding from my genitals, would you like to be friends?

roseweird posted:

have been reading and rereading books of chronicles and kings for the past month or so. they begin with david planning to build the temple, then being instructed not to by the lord via one of his seers, who delivers the message 'build not unto me a temple for i have dwelt in no earthly house since i brought you out of egypt' blah blah blah, then this is never mentioned again, rather it is later decided that the reason david cannot build the temple is not that the lord commands that no temple be built to his name, but because david has shed blood in his wars with the canaanites... wars which can't have been too bad really, because he apparently spends the rest of his life making peaceful trade arrangements with tyre, and in spite of both prohibitions begins amassing materials and labor contracts necessary for the building of the first temple to the name yhwh in jerusalem. but anyway he passes on the responsibility of executing the plan to solomon, who i guess is pure enough to build the temple even though his story begins with several bloody assassinations in the consolidation of his rule. in addition to the labor hired from tyre, solomon probably compelled the labor of resident aliens in the land to assist in the building of the temple. when the temple is completed it is described gloriously. again no mention is made of the lord's command that no temple whatsoever be built to him. after that, judah and israel split when the solomon's son refuses to release some people from slavery... then comes bablyon then persia then the second temple then hellas then rome and the temple's destruction, etc. and you know the rest. then some millennium and a half later some nerd writes the key of solomon, describing the (possibly) genuine historical work of labor as the magical binding of a number of hostile demons. sweet. can't wait for the third temple to be built using immigrant labor from libya and the philippines. blessed are you oh god of our salvation

great, conec posting is spreading like a disease

littlegreenpills posted:

i read Christ In A Consumer Society which has some stuff about marx and jesus being best buddies but it falls down in that a Trot Jesuit wrote it. i think i might scan it and post pdf

when i was a wee catholic boi i understood communism as the only political apparatus consistent with christian teaching, so this checks out

EmanuelaOrlandi posted:

"today i learned about black peopel apparently sometimes their opinions align with mine" - bphn the whitest most boring most marxist person in the world

ive noticed that too. whats really swell is when they make music, but only the kind of music i like. i keep thinking more and more, that black ppl are fucking awesome...

gyrofry posted:

im reading Victory: The Reagan Administration's Secret Strategy That Hastened The Collapse Of The Soviet Union

gonna watch this when i have some time:

conec posted:

i jus had to read samantha power "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide 4 school wrote a paper on it - . -+

this morning i read this nice screed which metnions that book http://fables-of-faubus.com/post/82684000205

prohairesis posted:

yeah but it shares that realm of trendy smug ultraleft theory along w/ semiotext(e) etc. teh only thing i know about n+1 is that one of the editors cheated on his wife w/ some alt-lit girl and she wrote an embarrassing story about it

no that was the very similar but worse online-only magazine The New Inquiry's editor Rob Horning, the story is called Adrian Brody and it's unreadable