[Decky]

Maybe I'll give it a try Dr Lee.

[Drlee]

I am your father, Lex.

[Heisenberg]

I always knew you had something of the Sith about you, @Drlee ...

[The Sabbaticus]

Reading 'American Gods'. @Frollein

Some of the historical fiction is well-written, but thus far the story appears to go nowhere. The parts with Shadow are particularly odious. What was your view? (I'm about halfway through.)

[Frollein]

It read like a collection of short stories; I wasn't that impressed by the climax/reveal. There are better books by Gaiman (Anansi Boys, or Neverwhere).

[mikema63]

American Gods was alright. Lots better than some of the other trash I come across anyway.

[Potemkin]

It read like a collection of short stories; I wasn't that impressed by the climax/reveal. There are better books by Gaiman (Anansi Boys, or Neverwhere).

Neil Gaiman hasn't written anything good since he finished his run on The Sandman.

/edgy

[mikema63]

Sandman makes up for everything though so it's fine.

[Potemkin]

Sandman makes up for everything though so it's fine.

Agreed. Once he hit his stride in issue 8, it just got better and better. But everything he's done since then has been a disappointment. Neverwhere was embarrassingly bad - one critic dismissed it at the time by writing: "The BBC must have got its am's and pm's mixed up in this Children's Hour tosh," which pretty much summed it up.

[The Sabbaticus]

Neil Gaiman hasn't written anything good since he finished his run on The Sandman.

/edgy

He's a writer who writes for a living. He needs to write and thus he went with the fodder route. Basically he watched Six Feet Under, threw in the 'belief is power' trope, added tons of stuff from websites and got himself a coin trick book. Although some of the historical fiction was well-written and I suspect well-researched.

American Gods was alright. Lots better than some of the other trash I come across anyway.

Such as?

It read like a collection of short stories; I wasn't that impressed by the climax/reveal. There are better books by Gaiman (Anansi Boys, or Neverwhere).

The mortician thing was pretty random. I bet the ending will go something like: "we're better off without the old gods anyway, because they would bring back blood sacrifices", forcing a moral dilemma for the main hero, as he needs to choose between the old and the new gods. The mead oath might give his decision some edge.

Wotan most likely caused the car crash of his wife to begin with, and he might also have slain the leprecaun for whatever reason. Basically Wotan is the bad guy.

[Frollein]

Neil Gaiman hasn't written anything good since he finished his run on The Sandman.

/edgy

I actually never read The Sandman, so does that take off the edge?

[Potemkin]

I actually never read The Sandman, so does that take off the edge?

You're missing out, Frollein; it's his best work. In fact, he's been coasting on its reputation ever since.

[MB.]

Quigley's fascinating history of the 19th and 20th centuries with an eye to the development of the Anglo-American establishment that Quigley explored in his posthomously published book of the same title.

Really classic Quigley stuff here, he uses this method of "evolution of civilization" derived from his lecture series of that title, which was later utilized by Samuel Huntington in the Clash of Civilizations to explore the development of western civilization towards global hegemony.

Today Quigley's legacy is unfortunately associated largely with NWO conspiracies, with the academic element having split off into "global governance" studies.

Anyone familiar with Quigley knows what to expect here: to survive in the 20th century the British Empire recast itself as the long term "commonwealth" under the leadership of the Milner/Rhodes race imperialists who sought to ultimately get American back into the Empire. Like Niall Ferguson, Quigley is really useful for providing a broad-brush overview of major developments that might otherwise get swallowed by narrative specifics.

Basically though, if you've read the Evolution of Civilization and the Anglo-American establishment, you're getting the same stuff here.

[mikema63]

Sandman is the only piece of work that I have paid good money to buy the compendiums of.

[Potemkin]

Sandman is the only piece of work that I have paid good money to buy the compendiums of.

I can also recommend Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing. In fact, it was reading one of the issues of Swamp Thing which Alan Moore had written which inspired Neil Gaiman to write comic books himself. True story.

[mikema63]

Interesting, I'll give it a look.

[MB.]

Swamp thing and watchmen are routinely voted the best comics ever.

https://www.wired.com/2009/02/review-alan-moo/

www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/01/the ... e-you-die/

[MB.]

Hunter Thompson's The Hashbury is the Capitol of the Hippies (May 1967), San Francisco Chronicle.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-fra ... 6286392275
http://www.oxfordfirstsource.com/view/1 ... 4188-e-165

This concise analysis of the seething invention of the 1967 San Francisco acid wave is a fantastic ethnographic document that is recorded in Thompson's Gonzo Papers volume 1. Thompson, with his usual forensic nuance provides the prelude to his invention of Gonzo journalism in this record of the strange/brilliant drug culture of the 1967 Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco.

Notable is Thompson's observance that the culture was already in the process of being coopted and commercialized even as the Acid Test buses were rolling in the street. Thompson of course takes time out to criticize his competitors, such as Norman Mailer, during the long tangential screeds on drugs, municipal politics, and the contemporary American novel, including in particular Thompson's verdict that Fitzgerald was superior to Ernest Hemingway.

[The Sabbaticus]

Shadow literally did nothing but shrug his shoulders and say "Okay" throughout the entire book. The chief plot device of this book appeared to be his honor as a boy-scout. And I see that I was correct about Wotan, although the particulars were different. The Michigan thing was the only interesting part about Shadow's story. The historical fiction did the rest. Also strange that Jesus did not make an appearance, but apparently he scrapped that part, which was later added as an 'apochral' addition. I've yet to read it.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

Re-reading The Master and Margarita.