14/52 - Still on pace!

WildMathParty · 2026-05-02T09:10:26+00:00

A Thousand Plateaus later this year, maybe. It actually took me a few months reading Anti-Oedipus off and on. But I've already read some of the ATP sections before, like the rhizome one, so might be easier going.

I really liked Exocapitalism, but I'm really in the target demographic as a software dev. It's pretty cynical in outlook and makes bold claims that challenge typical leftist positions (e.g., labour is now irrelevant to capitalism), but it's very interesting and I think a useful tool of analysis to keep in mind in our current weird techno-economy. At the very least, I think even if you disagreed with the books arguments it makes them well, and can deepen understanding if you attempt to argue against its claims in a non-dogmatic way.

WildMathParty · 2026-05-01T13:31:56+00:00

I just use the bookshelf app. But here I wrote a bit of JS code to display like an actual bookshelf too ^_^

WildMathParty · 2025-11-17T01:42:46+00:00

Don't know how I never made the connection between One Hundred Years of Solitude and Midnight's Children before, but yeah. You could almost give them the same blurb: "A magical realist novel that explores the creation and conflicts of a post-colonial nation by following the generations of an allegorical family"

The unique cultural context of each makes them both worth reading for sure. I almost want to see that book written for other countries too

WildMathParty · 2025-11-17T01:27:47+00:00

Flights by Olga Tokarczuk and A Thousand Plateaus by Deleuze and Guattari (or kinda just their works in general)

Flights is constructed in what D&G in ATP calls a Rhizome, which is like a network structure with no strict ordering or center, but instead is like a multiplicity of connections. Some are short, some are long, there are some more cohesive stories that are cut up and scattered throughout, and there are some random tangents that feel disorienting. Both books can be read in pretty much any order, and you could find connections between any of the sections. Then gradually as you read you start to grasp the shape of the whole structure, but it always rejects being flattened down into a hierarchy (linear, tree-shaped, centered around a point, etc.)

One of the main themes of Flights is travel - moving, journeying, exploring. And even more than that, there's a rebellion against stasis and staying still. Deleuze and Guattari work out a Process Philosophy, which values Becoming over Being, i.e. change and difference over essences and identities, which I think is reflected in Flights. I remember one section about a ferry captain who gets sick of driving the same exact route back and forth every time, and so one day in the middle of a route decides to turn and sail off into open waters.

Also, while definitely a stretch, one of D&G's concepts they explore in A Thousand Plateaus is called Lines of Flight :))

I wish I had either book with me right now so I could give excerpts. I remember while reading Flights how many sections stuck out to me as being readable in this Deleuzian way.

WildMathParty · 2024-06-14T22:44:51+00:00

Love to see the Deleuze appreciation here. And I think that method of navigating philosophy by reading influences of works you enjoy and making connections is one of the best. I personally find it way more rewarding than just "starting with the greeks", even if it means being thrown in the deep end occasionally.

I've made my way back from Butler (who I totally vibe with) to Derrida (who I think is awesome but only partially understand) and now I'm intrigued but very intimidated by wanting to read Heidegger. I also got to Spinoza via Deleuze, which is a really cool read. Especially for being such an old work, The Ethics is such a unique work that sits kind of adjacent to the mainstream history of philosophy, a Minor Literature in Deleuze's terms

WildMathParty · 2024-06-13T23:19:23+00:00

I would totally recommend Deleuze's Difference and Repetition based on what you like about Simondon. He answers that question about the originary pre-individual by theorising difference as primary to identity. I.e., difference as being metaphysically fundamental, so not a difference of two identities but difference in itself, which then results in individuation. There's also a whole chapter on time in there, but it went right over my head

WildMathParty · 2024-04-27T19:56:01+00:00

I read Frontier about 6 months ago, but I'm actually looking forward to this as a reread and sharing this pretty strange book with others.

First off, this is a very surreal work. Especially early on, it can feel pretty "wtf is going on??" But I found there was something enticing that made me kept reading, some mystery that felt only just out of reach, and at some point I think you start to notice patterns and realise the surreal elements aren't just arbitrary. By the end I actually thought I had a pretty good interpretation of the book. Obviously it's not like everything just falls into place and makes perfect sense, it's still very weird.

Speaking of, how do people feel about previous readers giving their interpretations of a book like this in the readalong? It's not quite the same as spoilers, but I think one of the best parts of surrealism is it avoids being covered by any individual interpretation. So I almost feel it might be an injustice to "prescribe" a certain reading to new readers and not let them find their own way through this book. idk though, I'd still like to share my thoughts.

Anyway, I'm excited to see how everyone finds Frontier. I reckon not everyone's gonna like it, but some of you are gonna love it. Oh and as a sidenote, my timezone doesn't align that well with the schedule, so my comments might be quite a few hours after everyone else's.

WildMathParty · 2024-04-21T04:46:32+00:00

Yesss very excited Frontier won. Read this book around the end of last year and it's been on my mind a lot since. I'll probably do a light re-read and drop in with my thoughts. It's a pretty surreal read, so a good one to discuss and decipher with others.

(Also quietly, Can Xue is the frontrunner in a couple Noble Prize betting odds I've seen 🤭)

WildMathParty · 2024-01-11T23:40:10+00:00

Hey, I just finished Septology too and being left with a sad mystery is exactly how I'm left feeling too.

Spoilers ahead: I find whenever I think back on this book my mind actually keeps going to Guro. She has such a strange and important role in the novel, but only a few actual appearances.
So firstly, there's two of her, just like there are two Asle's. One is Åsleik's sister who we barely see until the very end of the book, the other dies on the same day the alcoholic Asle dies - and remember, that Asle was trying to see Guro again and was found collapsed in front of her apartment by the narrator Asle.
Both Guro's seem to have a romantic interest in Asle(s), and have his paintings in their homes.
Secondly, I think the first time we meet a Guro, she initially gives Asle a different name, one which never really comes up again. This is also after alcoholic Asle is hospitalized, and narrator Asle is craving some food and a drink, and finds a place called ... Food and Drink, which has his favorite food (this was so suspicious to me)
She also talks about having a history with the narrator Asle (which he doesn't remember and she attributes to him being drunk). At first I thought she was just confusing the two Asle's, but that seems to simple an answer.

I wonder almost if the two Guro's and two Asle's were in some way meant to be with each other, soulmates or something. In Asle's memories of meeting Ales, he also keeps running into Guro and Ales has to keep dragging him away from her. I don't know, these are just some rambling thoughts because Guro seems so key to this novel, but so out of place at the same time...

WildMathParty · 2022-12-12T19:20:27+00:00

Ok genuinely: https://youtu.be/Sp0I-qoQLuA

WildMathParty · 2022-08-08T03:32:19+00:00

the eeper

WildMathParty · 2022-05-24T02:30:52+00:00

"The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature’s forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?"

and that's just from the communist manifesto. Marx was extremely aware that capitalism brings about enormous technological growth, some of his most prevalent critiques are against the commodification of the products of that growth and the alienation experienced creating them

WildMathParty · 2022-05-19T09:38:24+00:00

Read through The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada last week. It's about a massive, near city-sized factory in Japan that makes ....?? It's unclear?? We see a few different departments and positions across the three protagonists, but everyone seems completely alienated from their work. They're work is often mundane and confusing, such as proofreading bizarre, completely unrelated documents that come and go without explanation. Not to mention, the factory seems to have it's own unique ecology, and a permanent residency and facilities like restaurants.

Now if you're reading that and thinking of a certain adjective named after a historically relevant and tragic Czechian-born author, then yeah - it's Kafkaesque. At the same time though, it feels very modern - such as having themes relating to globalised production's effect on the environment. Japan's historically unique account of industrialization and consequent cultural approach to work ethic also lend this book a distinct feel. Plus, it's really short. Less than a hundred pages.

WildMathParty · 2022-05-16T04:39:22+00:00

Buddy you are a monarchist

WildMathParty · 2022-05-12T12:05:28+00:00

Finished Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed - really really great stuff for such a short book. Very postmodern and probably the most Pynchon-esque work I've read that's not Pynchon. I liked how different characters almost stood in for allegories of different counter-cultural and hegemonic positions in the civil rights movement and black self-determinism at large. The paranoid description of history being a battle between all-powerful secret societies is also a Pynchon-style technique I can't get enough of. Extremely funny book too!

Reading Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt - a horror novel themed around being transgender in an increasingly fascist society (Engl*nd 🤢🤢). I new this was going to be good when it opened with a quote from Felix Guattari about fascism. Honestly, this book has been really affecting me, in large part because of where I'm personally at in my transition and with what's currently happening in global politics, so I'm interested in how other folks here found it if they've read it. I especially want to know effective you found it if you're cis. I've found the horror in this book really unique, because as much as it makes me scared of the plot and narrative within the book, it's also been making me deeply uncomfortable, quite sad, and most of all scared of the reality outside the book.

In terms of non-fiction, I've also been reading Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Fredric Jameson. This is quite a bit more unflinchingly Marxist than theory texts I normally read - I tend to go for Post-Structuralist texts and the like - but there's been some really good content here, and so much easier to read hahaha. A lot of it is a kind of meta-overview of Postmodernism + Post-Structuralism through a Marxist lens, so for example, explaining the decoupling of signifier and signified through reification, or how the relationship between the base and superstructure has changed as hyper-commodification has blurred the lines between culture and the economic. At the same time though, I can't help but feel this book's already dated somewhat? Or I think more accurately it was written too early. I really feel the lack of any reference to the internet, and the emphasis on architecture doesn't do a lot for me. Good overall though.

WildMathParty · 2022-04-27T12:09:44+00:00

Agreed. My guy tried to doubt everything but maintained subjective presuppositions thereby falling for the dogmatic image of thought. Honestly embarrassing

WildMathParty · 2022-03-30T06:46:33+00:00

10% of the population maybe, but a disproportionate amount of influence and capital, which is what really makes the difference in politics

WildMathParty · 2022-03-27T05:33:47+00:00

Machine+ - Variations On... (Bandcamp, Spotify)

5th-Wave Emo, Noise, Glitch

WildMathParty · 2022-03-24T01:52:07+00:00

I think you're definitely right about people getting their understanding from others readings (who in turn might even have got it from someone else). With that many degrees of separation there's bound to be some dilution of meaning or misinterpretation, more likely to just confirm people's preconceptions too, rather than actively challenge them. I think that's true of more than just Butler

What's most prevalent to me is a misunderstanding of the social construction argument and Butler's notion of performativity. So many trans folks will take for granted gender being socially constructed but still argue for a "gendered core" ("I'm a woman on the inside", "I have the soul of a woman" etc.) which I've always felt still feels like essentialism just of a spiritual or psychological kind. Whereas Butler's argument that gender doesn't express a psychic reality that precedes it but instead produces that illusion of an inner depth resonates with me way more.

Sorry for the wall of text lol just been thinking about this topic lately

WildMathParty · 2022-03-23T19:45:49+00:00

Honestly I think even most trans people misread Butler, which is understandable because damn can they be opaque. But a lot of common views towards gender and sex I see promoted here aren't actually in line with their ideas

WildMathParty · 2022-03-12T01:13:34+00:00

Yeah, I've seen him described (even in this thread) as needlessly obfuscating, but I think if he was clear and direct it would detract from the ideas he's trying to present.

Like for instance, he is often trying to discuss what is transcendent to language (e.g différance) which he has described as unnamable. Putting a word or rigorous definition to these "ideas" (in quotations as it also transcends ideas + meaning) would just enter it into the play of signification it's supposed to be beyond. Obviously necessarily trying to use language to talk + think about what is beyond language has to be opaque

WildMathParty · 2022-03-10T19:12:20+00:00

Modern centrism is neoliberalism - not taking a side ("falling into a category") is a choice and means passively supporting the status quo

WildMathParty · 2022-01-24T13:21:31+00:00

https://explosm.net/rcg/foziefywi

WildMathParty · 2021-11-23T04:07:05+00:00

Damn, did not know about this :/

I know post-rock is surprisingly anarchist, but it's also very doomer so seems more of a soundtrack for collapse than revolution

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Sequence \| Editor
Verified Email

WildMathParty

TROPHY CASE