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   6     <title>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</title>
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  13     <h1>The Printed Word Is Stronger Than Nuclear Arms</h1>
  14    <div class="contents">
  15 <dl>
  16 <dt>
  17 <a href="#sec1">Authors</a>
  18 </dt>
  19 <dd>
  20 <dl>
  21 <dt>
  22 <a href="#sec2">William Blake</a>
  23 </dt>
  24 <dt>
  25 <a href="#sec3">Kahlil Gibran</a>
  26 </dt>
  27 </dl>
  28 </dd>
  29 <dt>
  30 <a href="#sec4">Fiction</a>
  31 </dt>
  32 <dd>
  33 <dl>
  34 <dt>
  35 <a href="#sec5">General</a>
  36 </dt>
  37 <dd>
  38 <dl>
  39 <dt>
  40 <a href="#sec6">Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</a>
  41 </dt>
  42 </dl>
  43 </dd>
  44 <dt>
  45 <a href="#sec7">Philosophical</a>
  46 </dt>
  47 <dt>
  48 <a href="#sec8">Sci-Fi</a>
  49 </dt>
  50 <dd>
  51 <dl>
  52 <dt>
  53 <a href="#sec9">Neal Stephenson</a>
  54 </dt>
  55 </dl>
  56 </dd>
  57 </dl>
  58 </dd>
  59 <dt>
  60 <a href="#sec10">Non-Fiction</a>
  61 </dt>
  62 <dd>
  63 <dl>
  64 <dt>
  65 <a href="#sec11">Education</a>
  66 </dt>
  67 <dd>
  68 <dl>
  69 <dt>
  70 <a href="#sec12">John Taylor Gatto - Underground History of American Education</a>
  71 </dt>
  72 </dl>
  73 </dd>
  74 <dt>
  75 <a href="#sec13">Philosophy</a>
  76 </dt>
  77 <dd>
  78 <dl>
  79 <dt>
  80 <a href="#sec14">Chinese</a>
  81 </dt>
  82 <dt>
  83 <a href="#sec15">Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</a>
  84 </dt>
  85 <dt>
  86 <a href="#sec16">Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</a>
  87 </dt>
  88 </dl>
  89 </dd>
  90 <dt>
  91 <a href="#sec17">Politics</a>
  92 </dt>
  93 <dd>
  94 <dl>
  95 <dt>
  96 <a href="#sec18">Thomas More - Utopia</a>
  97 </dt>
  98 </dl>
  99 </dd>
 100 <dt>
 101 <a href="#sec19">Religion</a>
 102 </dt>
 103 <dd>
 104 <dl>
 105 <dt>
 106 <a href="#sec20">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a>
 107 </dt>
 108 </dl>
 109 </dd>
 110 <dt>
 111 <a href="#sec21">Technical</a>
 112 </dt>
 113 <dd>
 114 <dl>
 115 <dt>
 116 <a href="#sec22">C J Date - Database in Depth</a>
 117 </dt>
 118 <dt>
 119 <a href="#sec23">Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</a>
 120 </dt>
 121 </dl>
 122 </dd>
 123 </dl>
 124 </dd>
 125 <dt>
 126 <a href="#sec24">Reports</a>
 127 </dt>
 128 <dd>
 129 <dl>
 130 <dt>
 131 <a href="#sec25">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a>
 132 </dt>
 133 </dl>
 134 </dd>
 135 <dt>
 136 <a href="#sec26">Books That I Cannot Find</a>
 137 </dt>
 138 <dt>
 139 <a href="#sec27">Essays</a>
 140 </dt>
 141 <dd>
 142 <dl>
 143 <dt>
 144 <a href="#sec28">Computing</a>
 145 </dt>
 146 <dd>
 147 <dl>
 148 <dt>
 149 <a href="#sec29">Design</a>
 150 </dt>
 151 </dl>
 152 </dd>
 153 </dl>
 154 </dd>
 155 </dl>
 156 </div>
 157
 158
 159 <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><p>I enjoy classical literature and works of philosophy and politics with
 160 a side of cyberpunk novels for when my brain is tired. When I was in
 161 High School I read technical books for fun, but now I tend to find
 162 most of them useless (thank you Internet) excepting a few really well
 163 written ones (<em>L.i.s.p</em>, <em>TAOCP</em>, ...).</p>
 164
 165 <p>I spend most of my time reading. A full list of things I have read
 166 would be impossible to compile, but here I am collecting links and
 167 small summaries of things I have read and find interesting enough to
 168 mention, but not always recommend, to others.</p>
 169
 170 <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a>
 171 Authors</h2>
 172
 173 <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a>
 174 William Blake</h3>
 175
 176 <p class="first">His poetry is the result of spending too much time etching copper
 177 plates and breathing the fumes. Quite wonderful indeed.</p>
 178
 179
 180 <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a>
 181 Kahlil Gibran</h3>
 182
 183 <p class="first">Kahlil Gibran is fairly interesting; his earlier works do not agree
 184 with my æsthetic sense (blah blah), but <em>The Madman</em> onward are all
 185 rather nice. So far I've read <em>A Tear and a Smile</em> (not so good
 186 excepting the last poem), <em>The Madman</em>, <em>The Prophet</em> (both excellent),
 187 and <em>Sand and Foam</em> (an interesting little book of aphorisms). A few of
 188 his works are <a href="http://leb.net/~mira/">online</a>, but I recommend scouting used book stores for
 189 old hardcover editions. The (late 90s onward at least) <em>hardcover</em>
 190 versions from <em>Alfred A. Knopf</em> are in fact permabound paperbacks with a
 191 hardcasing, and are of seriously inferior quality to the editions from
 192 the 50s and 60s (and cost quite a bit more, naturally).</p>
 193
 194
 195
 196 <h2><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a>
 197 Fiction</h2>
 198
 199 <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a>
 200 General</h3>
 201
 202 <h4><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a>
 203 Luke Rhinehardt - The Dice Man</h4>
 204
 205 <blockquote>
 206 <p class="quoted">
 207 And it's his illusions about what
 208 constitutes the real world which are
 209 inhibiting him...
 210 His reality, his reason, his society
 211 ...these are what must be destroyed</p>
 212
 213 </blockquote>
 214
 215 <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
 216 this book; at worst it would be a waste of time. Much reward was found
 217 in this random stab in the dark. The book is framed as an
 218 autobiography of the author as a psychoanalyst, and his progression
 219 through life as a Dice Man after deciding to live his life through
 220 random chance.</p>
 221
 222 <p>The style, plot, and content are equally neurotic; part comedy, part
 223 attack on psychoanalysis, and part deep philosophy. It was often
 224 difficult to put down, and was read in under a week of spare time.</p>
 225
 226
 227
 228 <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a>
 229 Philosophical</h3>
 230
 231
 232 <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a>
 233 Sci-Fi</h3>
 234
 235 <h4><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a>
 236 Neal Stephenson</h4>
 237
 238 <h5>Cryptonomicon</h5>
 239
 240 <p>I read <em>Cryptonomicon</em> when it was new, and at the time I thought it was
 241 good. It could have lost a hundred or so pages without detracting from
 242 the plot, but it was easy reading and didn't take very long to
 243 finish. The story was enganging, and the continual switching between
 244 the 1940s and present day slowly unravelled the tale in a nice way.</p>
 245
 246 <p>I'd still have to recommend <em>Snow Crash</em> if one wished to read only one
 247 Stephenson novel.</p>
 248
 249
 250 <h5>Snow Crash</h5>
 251
 252 <p>As one must read the <em>Bible</em> to understand English literature, so one
 253 must read <em>Snow Crash</em> today to be a nerd. In the realm of modern pop
 254 fiction this is one of the better books I've read; it was devoured in
 255 a mere four nights. Neal Stepheson may not be Milton, but he does come
 256 up with enganging tales. <em>Snow Crash</em> has a nice undertone of (quite
 257 accurate) political and social commentary that makes it worth reading
 258 as more than mere cyberpunk fiction.</p>
 259
 260
 261
 262
 263
 264 <h2><a name="sec10" id="sec10"></a>
 265 Non-Fiction</h2>
 266
 267 <h3><a name="sec11" id="sec11"></a>
 268 Education</h3>
 269
 270 <h4><a name="sec12" id="sec12"></a>
 271 John Taylor Gatto - <a href="http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htm">Underground History of American Education</a></h4>
 272
 273 <p class="first">Contained within this book (available online for free, but the printed
 274 copy sits wonderfully on a shelf) is a detailed and seemingly well
 275 researched history of American Education with a particular focus on
 276 the transformation that has occured before our eyes in the last
 277 century. I am unsure if Gatto is entirely correct and not exaggerating
 278 anything; I have failed to find any negative criticisms, but it is not
 279 clear to me if that is because he is entirely correct or if no one
 280 cares enough to write a counterargument. I am in the process of
 281 tracking down as many of his sources as possible (a good number of
 282 them are out of print and not in the public domain yet), and will make
 283 an attempt to verify his argument over the course of the next year
 284 (that being 2007).</p>
 285
 286 <p>If he is correct then every one of us has had the first eighteen years
 287 of our lives stolen from us, and we have collectively suffered massive
 288 intellectual damage. My intuitions tell me he is correct (which is why
 289 I am driven to verify; I cannot trust myself because I <em>want</em> to
 290 believe) for my individuality and intelligence were nearly stolen from
 291 me. The only reason I survived relatively unscathed is because I
 292 became completely socially withdrawn for the last half of elementary
 293 school until late in high school due to the abuse I received at the
 294 hands of my peers creating a deep fear of social interaction in
 295 me. The downside is that I had the confidence crushed from my soul,
 296 but now that I have begun to regain it (the good that bicycling
 297 enabling me to stand straight and gradual realization of my own worth
 298 as a human have done) I would never trade the ability to think freely
 299 for the social skills I lack.</p>
 300
 301
 302
 303 <h3><a name="sec13" id="sec13"></a>
 304 Philosophy</h3>
 305
 306 <h4><a name="sec14" id="sec14"></a>
 307 Chinese</h4>
 308
 309 <h5>Tao Te Ching</h5>
 310
 311
 312 <h5>Confucianism</h5>
 313
 314 <h5>The Analects</h5>
 315
 316
 317
 318
 319 <h4><a name="sec15" id="sec15"></a>
 320 Marcus Aurelius - Meditations</h4>
 321
 322 <p class="first">I enjoyed reading this collection of meditations on Stoic
 323 philosophy. It is a fairly quick read; I read each of the twelve books
 324 before sleeping over the course of two weeks. Toward the end of the
 325 collection things get a bit topically repetetive (e.g. acting
 326 according to the nature of man is reflected upon over and over), but
 327 each repetition looks at the topic in a slightly different light. A
 328 number of passages I found quite inspiring, and scratched them down in
 329 my notebook to ponder further.</p>
 330
 331
 332 <h4><a name="sec16" id="sec16"></a>
 333 Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death</h4>
 334
 335 <p class="first">I purchased this when I was looking through books at a store after
 336 being unable to find the book I really wanted, and I must say that it
 337 was better for me to have found this one.</p>
 338
 339 <p>Contained within is a beautiful analysis of despair in the context of
 340 Christianity (really theism in general). Even if the argument offends,
 341 the presentation cannot. The dialectical nature of despair is
 342 reflected in every aspect of the work, and the method of presentation
 343 forces reflection.</p>
 344
 345
 346
 347 <h3><a name="sec17" id="sec17"></a>
 348 Politics</h3>
 349
 350 <h4><a name="sec18" id="sec18"></a>
 351 Thomas More - Utopia</h4>
 352
 353 <p class="first">I read most of Utopia in high school with the TI-89 ebook reader, but
 354 the way the book was split up made it a bit difficult to grasp the
 355 overall structure. I found a copy at a used book store one day, and so
 356 I read it again, and found it much more comprehensible. It is a quick
 357 read, and decent piece of literature. The interesting social system
 358 espoused resembles resembles state communism (even if perhaps as a
 359 negative ideal), but with an strange blend of 14th century European
 360 social customs.</p>
 361
 362
 363
 364 <h3><a name="sec19" id="sec19"></a>
 365 Religion</h3>
 366
 367 <h4><a name="sec20" id="sec20"></a>
 368 <a href="William%20James%20-%20The%20Varieties%20of%20Religious%20Experience.html">William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</a></h4>
 369
 370
 371
 372
 373 <h3><a name="sec21" id="sec21"></a>
 374 Technical</h3>
 375
 376 <h4><a name="sec22" id="sec22"></a>
 377 C J Date - Database in Depth</h4>
 378
 379 <p class="first">This was a complete waste of time. The author rants on for 180 pages
 380 and presents the information in a disorderly and shallow manner. It
 381 could be rewritten in about fifty pages and contain the same amount of
 382 information if it were organized properly and the off topic commentary
 383 were minimized.</p>
 384
 385
 386 <h4><a name="sec23" id="sec23"></a>
 387 Gregor Kiczales - The Art of the Metaobject Protocol</h4>
 388
 389 <p class="first">AMOP is useful as a reference to the CLOS MOP (although less so with
 390 the online MOP spec), but the true value of the book lies in the first
 391 half of the book. It presents the design of the CLOS MOP through a
 392 series of revisions that fix limitations of earlier implementations
 393 and gradually work toward a generic and well designed MOP for
 394 CLOS. Through that process one is made more aware of a few general
 395 object protocol design skills, and gains insight into how to cleanly
 396 make mapping decisions customizable.</p>
 397
 398
 399
 400
 401
 402 <h2><a name="sec24" id="sec24"></a>
 403 Reports</h2>
 404
 405 <h3><a name="sec25" id="sec25"></a>
 406 <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006483.pdf">2003 National Assesement of Adult Literacy</a></h3>
 407
 408 <p class="first">A depressing view of American literacy rates. Literacy skills
 409 decreased across almost every population segment in the US between
 410 1993 and 2003; a mere 31% of college graduates are considered
 411 proficient in quantitative literacy (defined as being able to do
 412 things as terribly complicated as comparing two editorials).</p>
 413
 414
 415
 416
 417 <h2><a name="sec26" id="sec26"></a>
 418 Books That I Cannot Find</h2>
 419
 420 <p class="first">If you know anyone who has copies I'd appreciate an email. I'm willing
 421 to buy books for a reasonable cost, and for ones that are more than 25
 422 years old and out of print I am not opposed to <em>piracy</em> (no one is
 423 making money from them, and I feel that long copyrights are unethical
 424 and therefore feel no pangs of moral guilt).</p>
 425
 426 <ul>
 427 <li><em>Crystallizing Public Opinion</em> by Edward Bernays
 428
 429 <ul>
 430 <li>A supposed classic in the field of public relations. Curiosity
 431 demands that I read the writings of the father of the field to
 432 better understand the way the international media works.</li>
 433 <li>Another example of out of print books clearly having a market,
 434 but no publisher due to copyright (used copies go for nearly a
 435 thousand dollars in poor condition and hit five thousand or so
 436 for ones in good shape).</li>
 437 </ul></li>
 438 </ul>
 439
 440
 441 <h2><a name="sec27" id="sec27"></a>
 442 Essays</h2>
 443
 444 <h3><a name="sec28" id="sec28"></a>
 445 Computing</h3>
 446
 447 <h4><a name="sec29" id="sec29"></a>
 448 Design</h4>
 449
 450 <h5><a href="http://deadhobosociety.com/index.php/Essays/ESSAY12">Confucianism and Technical Standards</a></h5>
 451
 452
 453
 454
 455
 456   <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse ends here -->
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 481
 482 <p class="cke-footer">Mike: I WAS NOT MICROWAVED.
 483 </p>
 484 <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified:
 485     July 29, 2008</p>
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