This week – our own local Lew leads us in reading choice slices from Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day. No preparation is required, but bring your Pynchonian hat if you have one.

Two cold ones for next time: Nechayev’s “Catechism of a Revolutionist” and excerpts from Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice. For the Cleaver, read the introduction and the first two letters—“On Becoming” and “Soul on Ice” (pp. xi-xv and 3-25)

One more week of Fathers and Sons. We didn’t finish it last time, so just go from wherever you’re at to the end.

We’ll finish Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, going from Ch. 18 (p. 66) to the end. Hope to see ya there.

Dropped the baby. A few of us have been out of town most of this past week and so, as you see, in my preoccupations I did not post. We’ll record this as a ‘week off’ in order to spare me the guilt. Convening again next Tuesday, August 13th to read Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, from the top to Ch. 18, stopping at p. 66. Apologies if you showed up tonight expecting a discussion — perhaps one happened anyway! See you soon.

There wasn’t a clear plan for a reading when we parted ways last week, but one was suggested subsequently. So here it is: We’ll remember one of our dead, Aragorn!, by reading a few of his writings on the nihilist move. I’m going to juxtapose a few pieces. From “Nihilism, Anarchy, and the 21st Century”, we’ll read Chapters 2-3 — “What is Left? Nihilism vs. Socialism” and “Nihilism as Strategy”. Then, from Attentat, let’s also look at “Nihilism as Strategy II” (pp. 141-154). Finally, because I think it goes well with A!’s stuff, “Anarchists Must Say What Only Anarchists Can Say” (pp. 154-173) from Nihilist Communism.

This week we’re reading some of the graphic novel Transmetropolitan. It’s always a bit tricky making sure everyone has a comfortable way to view GNs. The link there will give you a pop-up version of the issue. I prefer to close the pop-up and just scroll down through the pages so I can zoom in. You can also download it as a .zip if you prefer and read it out of the browser. If for whatever reason none of those work for you, email me (birdsoffire [at] riseup[dot]net) and I’ll find you another format. Let’s go through the first six issues.

Next week, we’ll read Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” and see if it takes us somewhere xeno. See ya soon.

We’ll read some more Walter Benjamin this week: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (pp. 217-252). Good stuff.

Next time, we’ll discuss two of James Baldwin’s interventions: “On Being White… and Other Lies” and his conversation with Margaret Mead, “A Rap on Race”, which exists as an audio recording on Youtube. See you soon.