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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2822 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 9, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Condon's The Manchurian Candidate. The trope of suspecting some hidden, embarrassing failings in everything that looks outwardly competent and yet fails to adjust has always seemed strange to me. The writing didn't live up to my expectations, but the setup so far seems like it may pay off powerfully if he does it right. I wonder how seriously anyone took this kind of fictional brainwashing at the time this came out.

Will Durant's The Lessons of History.

Started The Power Broker by Robert Caro. RIP new books for the next three months.

How is it? I really enjoyed the path to power but got very bored during the means of ascent (maybe I should just skip to a later chapter? The early material spends a lot of time regurgitating things from path to power)

I'm reading Neven Sesardić's Making Sense Of Heritability (in conjunction with many other papers and blog posts). It's a book that addresses the arguments of anti-hereditarians who claim that heritability is not a good estimate of genetic contribution to variance in a trait because of interactions, gene-environment correlations and so on. Sesardić is incredibly critical of anti-hereditarians, and very good at pointing out the flaws in their reasoning. I'm currently at the part where he explains how the equal environments assumption is tested.

His writing is quite accessible for a newcomer to behaviour genetics, and the book is quite thorough in its scope. I actually think this is a book people who are in any way interested in the topic should read, if they haven't already.

I’m reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Coleman(?). It’s a light fantasy romp about a secret library that collects books throughout the multiverse. It’s interesting, definitely a bit heavy on the female librarian fantasy, but not terrible.

Quick read, good for light junk fantasy.

I’ve also got Sacred Yoga about a Benedictine nun’s journey discovering yoga. Just started it but it’s interesting so far.

Btw you might like this novelette: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_for_Beginners_(novella)

(it's available online: http://web.archive.org/web/20060111060529/http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/fiction/kl01.htm)

Ty! I’ll check it out.

"Female librarian fantasy" is one of those things that always felt like it should appeal to me but doesn't. Like nurses, or feet.

But lately I have had a hankering for the genre of 'dark academia' and don't know where to begin. Any recommendations?

Max Gladstone's Three Parts Dead is dark law, strictly speaking, but necromantic law school is very important to the story.

That’s an amazing series as well! I loved The Craft Sequence as a whole, highly recommend. @Unsaying

I'm almost finished with the first one, so it was on my mind.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a classic in that genre although I haven’t read it. The Atlas Paradox is good but the series is unfinished which turns me off.

Otherwise I haven’t read too much in that vein. Invisible Library would probably fit though, there’s lots of mystery and politics and intrigue.

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