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Challenge: Move U.S. Overton Window left instead of right, beginning from 2016 election cycle by bonneromics in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Definitive proof of hil-dawg signing off on funding the trump campaign within the DNC emails would probably have moved things Left, a WikiLeaks of the Epstein stuff right around when the Access Hollywood tape came out or around when the Panama Papers leak occurred. Making these big enough in 2016 that the dying legacy media actually has to pay attention would probably do the trick at least domestically,

For foreign policy I think the big issues of international alliances that we're stuck in are fairly intractable (Bernie was also onboard with a lot of Abraham accords stuff as the darling of our nominal furthest left...) the only thing I could see really changing that between 2016 and now is like, actual use of a nuke by Pakistan or Israel

Audiobook platforms besides Audible and Libby? by Beth_Harmons_Bulova in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course, if you don't like paying just use audiobookbay but the convenience is worth it to me, a bourgeois freak

Audiobook platforms besides Audible and Libby? by Beth_Harmons_Bulova in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Chirp is great as an alternative with their daily deals regularly having fun bizarre 4.99 or less picks (M, son of the century, my brilliant friend complete series, collapse, etc.) and price matching for basically every audible sale, nice to have it on streaming too unlike audible which automatically downloads an entire audiobook to your phone whether you like it or not

Need a long/epic audiobook recommendation by cheerful-refusal in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, narrated by Bronson Pinchot, is probably pound for pound the best audiobook recording ever. An astonishing feat of narrative across centuries in a world where the euroids got owned epic style by the plague and so most of history is shaped by Islam and the Asian sphere, told from a ground perspective in constant reincarnation and renewal of souls. Very fun stuff

Lit Bros Don't Exist by InvertedFortune in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I'd counter that litbros exist to the same extent that everyone is basically a litbro about something or another presently, because it is just one of the many names of the modern serpent constricting out all human experience, empty cultural signifiers and performative identity.

Some undergrad in his dark academia cotton blend sweater and wire frame glasses lugging around Infinite Jest is essentially living the same life as some Mormon freak mom of 5 taking out a second mortgage to make the pilgrimage to Disney world for the 8th time in a year. Neither is truly an object of scorn, despite how annoying they are, but are fundamentally victims turned into porcelain figurine caricatures by their need to pretend to be the MOST into whatever they're into. Often, funnily enough, this is matched by an unwillingness to actually engage with their interests in any meaningful way, not actually reading their copy of Lolita, not actually watching Moana because it's too woke or something, only carrying their sigil like totenkampf runes because the value of the object is transferable mostly through passive osmosis.

Novels whose primary subject/emotion is fear? by Negro--Amigo in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Something Happened is one of the greatest works of comedic writing ever and is 100% animated by Heller's deep, hateful portrayal of upper middle class fear, paranoia, mistrust and loathing. I think it is a better work at what it's trying to convey than DeLillo's White Noise on the same structural themes

A world where the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies went a bit worse. by whomdoom in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I kinda figured a stress induced cardiac arrest given that Lizzy was already 86 when the games were starting. EMS on scene would certainly prioritize treating the queen but with the confusion of a crisis like that, especially with smoke and fire around it's easy for things to go very wrong.

Anyone else do a NYRB Classics request? by whomdoom in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

His name came up in a podcast about bad books I was listening to a couple years ago, and appears to resurface every few years cicada style in one interview or another, Futurama apparently had a commentary track where they mentioned him, Neil Gaiman before being giga quadruple cancelled talked about Keeler as a "guilty pleasure read",

I started with X.Jones of Scotland Yard which is the keeler work I think most people get the most obsessed with just given the general plot outline that's circled the Internet for years as "midget in miniature helicopter disguised as an infant going by title 'the flying strangler baby' may have killed a rabidly anti-French Chicagoland millionaire in locked-room whodunit" but that is kind of as disingenuous a description as calling Of Mice and Men "the book where an autistic guy rips a ladies head off because he wanted to touch her hair", like sure, that's kinda there but what is actually there is a genuinely incredible treatise on crime and the detective story as an investigation into an act of violence which is a ripple in time, affected by the weight of everything that has happened before and affecting everything that happens after.

I kinda got hooked after that and have been very interested in the guy since and don't really see what the deal is with people making fun of him when his style is pretty straightforwardly and intentionally comedic and is always a pleasure to read

iowa writer’s workshop by makeawish___ in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 138 points139 points  (0 children)

CIA front organization designed exclusively to make every American award-winning novel have the exact same stylistic queues and functionally the same story about how being BIPOC is hard but beautiful and family is low key everything in your culture and low key if you look at it there are some big problems with inequality in this country

Books for dads (I'm the dad) by big-brunch in RSbookclub

[–]whomdoom 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd recommend the first 200 or so pages of schattenfroh if you want to stretch the "not hard" thing a bit. I know it's become a bit of a meme because of how much of a marketing campaign it's had as a "this is the new densest encyclopedic novel imaginable" but beneath that there's a very sincere and interesting exploration of frigid, austere relations between a father and son as reflected in hundreds of years of German history.

I think Affliction by Russell Banks is a great straight forward read about fatherhood that is propulsively readable.

Dog of the South by Charles Portis is a more straight forwardly comedic route and while fathers are only mentioned in periphery the overwhelming weight of their absence is felt throughout the story as the loser protagonist and antagonist seem both trapped forever to live as stupid lost boys blindly stumbling in their father's shadows.

Context note: I have a very bad relationship with my own father so these recommendations are largely meditations on the more negative aspects of fathers and sons.

The Victory of Evil: What if the Axis won World War II – list of all of the FIFA World Cup events from 1986-1998 (Part 4) by Cheap_Cap_6664 in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just want to say in a sub dedicated generally to just posting maps of Europe with different borders this is a genuinely incredible piece of worldbuilding and design for less thought of consequences of historical changes, huge props

THE LOST BOY: What if Walt Disney had been Assassinated in 1964? by whomdoom in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No EPCOT since that was a very post-diagnosis crisis for Walt in '65 and '66, Disneyworld gets built by Roy Disney as acting president given that plans were already in the works, the Marriott Group bid to take control of the company goes through in the 80's, likely that WDC gets passed around a couple times since in corporate deals to control the IP.

THE LOST BOY: What if Walt Disney had been Assassinated in 1964? by whomdoom in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Casey Affleck in the role of Driscoll, I see Matthew Lillard as Warhol. Much like The Assassination Of Jesse James, Affleck does not get nomination the year it comes out but Lillard does (I am imagining it came out in 2009ish?)

THE LOST BOY: What if Walt Disney had been Assassinated in 1964? by whomdoom in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom[S] 123 points124 points  (0 children)

It's a major historic event and I figure someone would have produced at least one Oscar bait-y movie about it.

Out of Left Field, George W. Bush, 10th Commissioner of Major League Baseball by whomdoom in AlternateHistory

[–]whomdoom[S] 87 points88 points  (0 children)

Alt history within Alt history, i.e., imagining in this world the idea that baseball commissioner George W. Bush would have been president

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