Miyazaki, 1929. Like Shawabata, The Go Master, in that it is preoccupied with the generation gap in Japanese society of the time, the passing of old certainties and the influx of western values. Less nuanced than Shawabata though, in that the new ways are firmly rejected.
Slavoj Zizek. Sometimes difficult to understand (when it lapses into technical/academic jargon) but presuasive and coherent analysis of the banking crisis and the response to it, which he says is an artefact of self-sustaining, subjective capitalist ideology that we can’t see beyond because we’re immersed in it.
Imre Lakatos. Enlightening and stimulating dissection of what mathematicians do when when they work with conjectures. Full of insight and entertaining too, written as a Socratic dialogue between a teacher and his students (Alpha, Beta, etc) as they attempt to prove Euler’s conjecture about the relationship between the vertices, edges and faces of polyhedra. It’s news to me, but this has been the subject of sustained effort since the 18th century, and is well used to illustrate the tools available to mathematicians who want to “fix” a conjecture for which counterexamples are found. Some of these tools are effective in the short-term but are also limited and ultimately self-defeating, while some of them are more generally effective. The first chapter (the best bit) is the meat of Lakatos’ PhD thesis! Recommended by Gem.
Wilfrid Hodges.
Richard Yates.
Richard Yates.
Cormac McCarthy. Sentimental bullshit. The cover quotes a review in
the Guardian that says this is one of the best american novels of this
or any other era. It reminds me of a combination of two types of Clint
Eastwood’s films, those he starred in during the sixties and those he
directed in the 90s and beyond.
Richard Yates. Masterpiece.
Wilfrid Hodges. I picked this up in the library, started to flick through and was captivated by the writing straight away, which is graceful, clear and gently witty. The exercises and examples are really well chosen, and Hodges seems like he must be a gifted teacher. I’ve got his Shorter Model Theory lined up to read next.
Guy Debord, 1967, trans. mid-70s.
Brilliant,very dense analysis of the mechanisms by which capitalism has organised all of human society in its image. Wachowski for grown-ups.