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Monday, July 16, 2018

The next reading groups



The next online reading group discussion here will be Eric Wagner, leading us through a discussion of Joseph Kerman's book, The Beethoven Quartets.  Of course, we'll be listening to music, too. Eric plans to provide his first weekly piece on August 6, with the group starting work on August 13, and then running for 18 weeks through December 10.

It might be time to make sure you can get your hands on the book, and the ability to listen to all of the quartets; I have put the book on hold at my local library and I've been downloading recordings. If your local library has a music service such as Freegal or Hoopla, you should have no trouble listening to all of the quartets.

Perhaps it's also time to talk about reading groups beyond Eric's. It seems to be we ought to consider going through the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, now that all three books have been republished by Hilaritas. This year is pretty much spoken for with Eric's discussion group, but how about if we go through those novels in 2019?

6 comments:

Eric Wagner said...

That sounds great. I can’t wait for the Kerman group. With our traitorous president in Russia right now, I think we will need the Histotic Illuminati Chronicles in 2019.

Joshua Hallenbeck said...

I for one would LOVE to read through The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles with the folks on this blog. You have my vote!

Joshua Hallenbeck said...

Eric, I too am looking forward to the Kerman group. As a fan of Bob and a musician, this will be of great interest to me.

Eric Wagner said...

Joshua, I hope you enjoy the book.

Branka Tesla said...

Eric, Great suggestion!  It amazes me how accurately RAW describes the current Traitor-In-Chief in his various books. Recently I was re-reading RWYASN - chapter on Neurogeography of Conspiracy: 

"31. Every conspiracy collapses eventually, because of Washington's Law ("no permanent allies, only permanent interests"), and also because of the psychological likelihood that those who are superlatively clever at deceiving others become equally clever at deceiving themselves. Disinformation eats those who create it. This may be why each Power Elite eventually loses to a new Power Elite. The most successful conspiracy, at a date, is in process of becoming the stupidest conspiracy, because everybody is bribed, cajoled, threatened, or deluded into telling it only what it wants to hear. Eventually, its view of the world is totally skewed by its own prejudices, and it thinks and acts in a bizarre "lunatic" manner, not meshing with reality. (Nixon's Syndrome.)

32. Conspiracy is entropic behavior, since it is blocking the flow of information. Science, as an ideal, is based on negative entropy, rapid exchange of information." (Page, 97)

Me too! You have my vote! (On both books!)

chas said...

I’m definitely down with The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, although I think we might want to intersperse each volume with other RAW books as they are published. For instance Cosmic Trigger II is next on the list for publication and I think it would be a beautiful read after The Earth Will Shake.