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6 <title>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</title>
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18 <h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1>
19 <div class="contents">
20 <dl>
21 <dt>
22 <a href="#sec1">Authors</a>
23 </dt>
24 <dd>
25 <dl>
26 <dt>
27 <a href="#sec2">William Blake</a>
28 </dt>
29 <dt>
30 <a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a>
31 </dt>
32 </dl>
33 </dd>
34 <dt>
35 <a href="#sec4">Fiction</a>
36 </dt>
37 <dd>
38 <dl>
39 <dt>
40 <a href="#sec5">General</a>
41 </dt>
42 <dd>
43 <dl>
44 <dt>
45 <a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a>
46 </dt>
47 </dl>
48 </dd>
49 <dt>
50 <a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a>
51 </dt>
52 <dt>
53 <a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a>
54 </dt>
55 <dd>
56 <dl>
57 <dt>
58 <a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a>
59 </dt>
60 </dl>
61 </dd>
62 </dl>
63 </dd>
64 <dt>
65 <a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a>
66 </dt>
67 <dd>
68 <dl>
69 <dt>
70 <a href="#sec11">Education</a>
71 </dt>
72 <dd>
73 <dl>
74 <dt>
75 <a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a>
76 </dt>
77 </dl>
78 </dd>
79 <dt>
80 <a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a>
81 </dt>
82 <dd>
83 <dl>
84 <dt>
85 <a href="#sec14">Chinese</a>
86 </dt>
87 <dt>
88 <a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a>
89 </dt>
90 <dt>
91 <a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a>
92 </dt>
93 </dl>
94 </dd>
95 <dt>
96 <a href="#sec17">Politics</a>
97 </dt>
98 <dd>
99 <dl>
100 <dt>
101 <a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a>
102 </dt>
103 </dl>
104 </dd>
105 <dt>
106 <a href="#sec19">Religion</a>
107 </dt>
108 <dd>
109 <dl>
110 <dt>
111 <a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
112 </dt>
113 </dl>
114 </dd>
115 <dt>
116 <a href="#sec21">Technical</a>
117 </dt>
118 <dd>
119 <dl>
120 <dt>
121 <a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a>
122 </dt>
123 <dt>
124 <a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
125 </dt>
126 </dl>
127 </dd>
128 </dl>
129 </dd>
130 <dt>
131 <a href="#sec24">Reports</a>
132 </dt>
133 <dd>
134 <dl>
135 <dt>
136 <a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a>
137 </dt>
138 </dl>
139 </dd>
140 <dt>
141 <a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a>
142 </dt>
143 <dt>
144 <a href="#sec27">Essays</a>
145 </dt>
146 <dd>
147 <dl>
148 <dt>
149 <a href="#sec28">Computing</a>
150 </dt>
151 <dd>
152 <dl>
153 <dt>
154 <a href="#sec29">Design</a>
155 </dt>
156 </dl>
157 </dd>
158 </dl>
159 </dd>
160 </dl>
161 </div>
162
163
164 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here -->
165 <p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with
166 a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in
167 High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find
168 most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well
169 written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p>
170
171 <p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read
172 would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and
173 small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to
174 mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p>
175
176 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
177 Authors</h2>
178
179 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
180 William Blake</h3>
181
182 <p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper
183 plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p>
184
185
186 <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
187 Kahlil Gibran</h3>
188
189 <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree
190 with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are all
191 rather nice. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good
192 excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent),
193 and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of
194 his works are <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book stores for
195 old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) <em>hardcover</em>
196 versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound paperbacks with a
197 hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from
198 the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally).</p>
199
200
201
202 <h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
203 Fiction</h2>
204
205 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
206 General</h3>
207
208 <h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
209 Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4>
210
211 <blockquote>
212 <p class="quoted">
213 And it's his illusions about what
214 constitutes the real world which are
215 inhibiting him...
216 His reality, his reason, his society
217 ...these are what must be destroyed</p>
218
219 </blockquote>
220
221 <p>A quotation from one of my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slaughter_of_the_Soul">favorite metal songs</a> inspired me to grab
222 this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
223 in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
224 autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
225 through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
226 random chance.</p>
227
228 <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
229 attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
230 difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
231
232
233
234 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
235 Philosophical</h3>
236
237
238 <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
239 Sci-Fi</h3>
240
241 <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
242 Neal Stephenson</h4>
243
244 <h5>Cryptonomicon</h5>
245
246 <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
247 good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
248 the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
249 finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
250 the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
251
252 <p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
253 Stephenson novel.</p>
254
255
256 <h5>Snow Crash</h5>
257
258 <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
259 must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
260 fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
261 a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
262 up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
263 accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
264 as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
265
266
267
268
269
270 <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
271 Non-Fiction</h2>
272
273 <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
274 Education</h3>
275
276 <h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
277 John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4>
278
279 <p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed
280 copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well
281 researched history of American Education with a particular focus on
282 the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last
283 century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating
284 anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not
285 clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one
286 cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of
287 tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of
288 them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make
289 an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year
290 (that being 2007).</p>
291
292 <p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years
293 of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive
294 intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why
295 I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to
296 believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from
297 me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I
298 became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary
299 school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the
300 hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in
301 me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul,
302 but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling
303 enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth
304 as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely
305 for the social skills I lack.</p>
306
307
308
309 <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
310 Philosophy</h3>
311
312 <h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
313 Chinese</h4>
314
315 <h5>Tao Te Ching</h5>
316
317
318 <h5>Confucianism</h5>
319
320 <h5>The Analects</h5>
321
322
323
324
325 <h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
326 Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4>
327
328 <p class="first">I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
329 philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
330 before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
331 collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
332 according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
333 each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
334 number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
335 my notebook to ponder further.</p>
336
337
338 <h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
339 Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4>
340
341 <p class="first">I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
342 being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
343 was better for me to have found this one.</p>
344
345 <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
346 Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
347 the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
348 reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
349 forces reflection.</p>
350
351
352
353 <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
354 Politics</h3>
355
356 <h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
357 Thomas More - Utopia</h4>
358
359 <p class="first">I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
360 the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
361 overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
362 I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
363 read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
364 espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
365 negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
366 social customs.</p>
367
368
369
370 <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
371 Religion</h3>
372
373 <h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
374 <a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4>
375
376
377
378
379 <h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
380 Technical</h3>
381
382 <h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
383 C J Date - Database in Depth</h4>
384
385 <p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages
386 and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It
387 could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of
388 information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary
389 were minimized.</p>
390
391
392 <h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
393 Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4>
394
395 <p class="first">AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
396 the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
397 half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
398 series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
399 and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
400 CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
401 object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
402 make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
403
404
405
406
407
408 <h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
409 Reports</h2>
410
411 <h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
412 <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3>
413
414 <p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills
415 decreased across almost every population segment in the US between
416 1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered
417 proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do
418 things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p>
419
420
421
422
423 <h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
424 Books That I Cannot Find</h2>
425
426 <p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing
427 to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25
428 years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is
429 making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical
430 and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p>
431
432 <ul>
433 <li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays
434
435 <ul>
436 <li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity
437 demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to
438 better understand the way the international media works.</li>
439 <li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market,
440 but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a
441 thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so
442 for ones in good shape).</li>
443 </ul></li>
444 </ul>
445
446
447 <h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
448 Essays</h2>
449
450 <h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
451 Computing</h3>
452
453 <h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
454 Design</h4>
455
456 <h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5>
457
458
459
460
461
462 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here -->
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488 <p class="cke-footer"> To Wise Man's Son and Wednesday's Child all is white that is not black
489 They dance in symbiotic deadlock; one step forward two steps back
490 Playing karmic snakes and ladders (All your sins will find you out)
491 When all your gains are lost in vain on cosmic wings and roundabouts
492 </p>
493 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
494 January 21, 2013</p>
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