Right now I'm reading

[Bennyonesix1]

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[Croatoa]

if lack of plot advancement were a person it would be Robert Jordan.

Yeah the reviews seem to go both ways. Thought I’d at least give the first volume a try. He really likes to describe the environment though.

How far did you make it into the series?

[Bennyonesix1]

Started Gemmell's Lord of the Silver Bow last night. It's the first in his Trojan War series. I dig.

I know a lot about the time period and nothing offended me. It's really good. He knew about the actual ethnicity of the region at the time (light eyed, light haired "northerners"). And gets the nuances of the various participant kingdoms.

Really good.

Pretty sure he has Moses show up as well. I think that is ahistorical as far as temporality goes. More likely some of the Lost Tribes (after Moses obv) went north to found Troy. But possible that pre-Mosaic Israelites migrated north. Idk.

Whole heartedly recommend.

[Wild Bill]

How far did you make it into the series?

I had read only first book.

[Schlegel]

if lack of plot advancement were a person it would be Robert Jordan.

Yeah the reviews seem to go both ways. Thought I’d at least give the first volume a try. He really likes to describe the environment though.

How far did you make it into the series?

I forget exactly, past midway.

[nafod]

if lack of plot advancement were a person it would be Robert Jordan.

Yeah the reviews seem to go both ways. Thought I’d at least give the first volume a try. He really likes to describe the environment though.

How far did you make it into the series?

I forget exactly, past midway.

Hmmm...not sure that is possible. Halfway to infinity is itself infinity.

[Croatoa]

if lack of plot advancement were a person it would be Robert Jordan.

Yeah the reviews seem to go both ways. Thought I’d at least give the first volume a try. He really likes to describe the environment though.

How far did you make it into the series?

I forget exactly, past midway.

Hmmm...not sure that is possible. Halfway to infinity is itself infinity.

Hahahahaha.

[Bennyonesix1]

Julian May's Many Colored Land is cool.

Premise is misfits dissatisfied with society in a future Earth volunteer to travel back in time to the Pleistocene.

Unbeknownst to them an alien race runs the place.

The alien race is what later came to be known as Faeries and Elves.

Well thought out and researched. The characters are all well defined and "realistic". By which I mean they can be annoying af but in the way actual ppl are annoying af. Not annoying af because the author is bad at writing.

Really enjoying it. It would make an excellent high end tv series.

It was written in 1981 and it just seems so not insane.

[Bram]

"The Fear Project" by Jaimal Yogis.

The author gets dumped, becomes depressed, and after crawling out of his drunken misery, figures that all his problems have to do with fear. So he undergoes an examination of fear - talking to neuroscientists, athletes, and sports psychologists. He's a surfer and decides to challenge himself to surf Maverick's, a massive wave in Northern California that has claimed the lives of a few of the world's best.

There are some gems in the neuroscience/sports psychology sections - notably the suggestion to minimize your reactions to negative circumstances (say someone cuts you off in traffic, let that shit go), but the advice to celebrate your victories (if you get a promotion, go out for a victory dinner!).

But the real joy in the book is when he's just talking about doing stuff - swimming in the San Francisco Bay and getting caught in a vicious current, or paddling out at a big wave spot. He's got a gift for making his experiences accessible.

[nafod]

Read a great quote, "All fear is about the future"

You never feel fear of the moment you are in. Kind of mind-blowing when I pondered on it.

[Bennyonesix1]

https://youtu.be/SKAqpo4T5qo

[motherjuggs&speed]

Read a great quote, "All fear is about the future"

You never feel fear of the moment you are in. Kind of mind-blowing when I pondered on it.

Please explain. As I read it, this statement is so stone stupid that you must mean something other than the plain text. I have felt total terror in the moment many times.

[nafod]

Read a great quote, "All fear is about the future"

You never feel fear of the moment you are in. Kind of mind-blowing when I pondered on it.

Please explain. As I read it, this statement is so stone stupid that you must mean something other than the plain text. I have felt total terror in the moment many times.

Yeah, night carrier landings were an exercise in fear, always.

Except when I was really “on”, which only happened rarely.

...fear is generated by combining the conceptual activities of a future with an imagined unwanted experience. Eliminate either of these, no fear can exist.

When you are completely focused on a present activity no fear can arise because there is no room for you to create any scenarios in the future. Of course, it only takes a split second for you to do so, therefore the focus must be seamless.

...When you commit to something—like your skiing or any other unfolding activity—this makes a difference because it eliminates the availability of future options. Real commitment means you are focused on only one possible future outcome. Other possibilities that don’t fit this commitment are jettisoned from the mind, and so no “unwanted” scenarios will crop up, thus nudging out fear. Being in the flow is great,

https://chenghsin.com/2017/11/15/how-do ... d-of-fear/

[motherjuggs&speed]

I don't buy it. I get the being dialed in part but animals, which do not have our discursive thoughts, clearly have fear in the moment. From your link:

"The only way to permanently remove fear from your experience is to completely give up self- survival, and that is highly unlikely."

^^^ That was the first sentence in his reply to the question posed on his site.

Look, woo peddlers like Peter Ralston often present their take on things as The Truth. Further on in his reply:

"Also, don’t confuse your true nature with any notion of some aspect or state that you can align with. As for your true nature, fear doesn’t have less power, it has no power—there is no fear because there is nothing here to be afraid. Making a shift in your state of mind that works to decrease fear is useful but that is manipulating your mind, not aligning with your true nature."

Our true nature as humans is: we are primates about five and a half million years of evolution away from having a common ancestor with chimps. Lots of people, myself included, have wanted to cling to beliefs in a higher power, another plane of existence, etc., as being more real than this world, the one we actually live in. There is no evidence, either theoretical or empirical, that this is true.

We have all read lots of authors claiming lots of things. These claims have to be assessed against real evidence. Your experience (of night carrier landings) gives a data set which suggests something like, "there is less fear, even sometimes no fear, in a dangerous situation if you are skilled enough to avoid the bad outcome(s) and also able to get into a state where you can perform well. If those things align, then sometimes (always?) fear naturally disappears". That's a long way from "fear isn't real, it's just your imagination".

[nafod]

...woo peddlers like Peter Ralston often present their take on things as The Truth.

If you read him much, he's pretty pragmatic for a woo peddler, and he'd make fun of you for blinding accepting his stuff as The Truth.

I keep up with the brain science research, and this line of research on emotions (including fear) is related. Fascinating stuff.

https://fortelabs.co/blog/how-emotions-are-made/

I didn't know about any of this stuff back when I was flying, I was just change-my-underwear scared some days and in-the-groove on others. One of them was when one of my two engines failed abruptly, so it wasn't just because I knew I wouldn't get hurt. In fact, it was the opposite that day.

[nafod]

Just finished The Fifth Season By NK Jemisin, which was excellent. Fantasy sci-fI with unusual premise story. Rolling into the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, and its off and running on page one. There’s a third book too. I’m already wistful about being done with them when I’m done with them.

[DrDonkeyLove...]

Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler


This was a wonderful surprise I discovered reading an introduction to Fahrenheit 451. Orwell was also a big fan and it definitely influenced Animal Farm. Beyond that it was a huge best seller in France after WW2, and it’s believed it played a major role in preventing the Communist party from creating a political majority right after the war.

Koestler was a communist that traveled to Russia in the early 1930’s where he interacted with some of those who were on the wrong end of Stalin’s purges. He lost faith and left the party. The book’s protagonist is loosely based on Nikolai Bukharin, a master polemicist, Old Bolshevik, and who was executed in the purges.

Because my nature is the antithesis of collectivist fundamentalism, understanding Bolshevik and Communist thought and dialectic has been impossible for me to grasp. This piece of fiction has come closest to bringing me into how their beliefs and logic and actions tied together into a perfectly rational evil.

It’s very well written and engaging but there is no real action or excitement. It’s mostly dialogue and very internal.

[Bennyonesix1]

Koestler is fantastic. He committed career suicide and then actual suicide after publishing The Thirteenth Tribe though.

[Bennyonesix1]

Just finished The Fifth Season By NK Jemisin, which was excellent. Fantasy sci-fI with unusual premise story. Rolling into the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, and its off and running on page one. There’s a third book too. I’m already wistful about being done with them when I’m done with them.

Those books are disgusting, degenerate and perverse.

Edit

Jfc Samuel Delany was less disgusting than that shit.

What is wrong with you?

Edit

[nafod]

Just finished The Fifth Season By NK Jemisin, which was excellent. Fantasy sci-fI with unusual premise story. Rolling into the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, and its off and running on page one. There’s a third book too. I’m already wistful about being done with them when I’m done with them.

Those books are disgusting, degenerate and perverse.

So you read them? What’d you think?

[Bennyonesix1]

Just finished The Fifth Season By NK Jemisin, which was excellent. Fantasy sci-fI with unusual premise story. Rolling into the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, and its off and running on page one. There’s a third book too. I’m already wistful about being done with them when I’m done with them.

Those books are disgusting, degenerate and perverse.

So you read them? What’d you think?

I bought the first on strength of reviews one night. I've read Delany because he's a great writer. 50pgs of your book and I quit because it was disgusting, degenerate and perverse and overall terrible.

Not surprised you get off on it creep.

[nafod]

Just finished The Fifth Season By NK Jemisin, which was excellent. Fantasy sci-fI with unusual premise story. Rolling into the sequel, The Obelisk Gate, and its off and running on page one. There’s a third book too. I’m already wistful about being done with them when I’m done with them.

Those books are disgusting, degenerate and perverse.

So you read them? What’d you think?

I bought the first on strength of reviews one night. I've read Delany because he's a great writer. 50pgs of your book and I quit because it was disgusting, degenerate and perverse and overall terrible.

Not surprised you get off on it creep.

I have no idea what happened in the first 50 pages to trigger you.

[Bennyonesix1]

I'M TRIGGERED DUDE

TRIGGERED

[Bram]

Read Carl Hiassen's Skinny Dip last week.

A woman gets tossed overboard on an anniversary cruise, and the mystery is why did her husband do it?

Populated with an assortment of only-in-Florida weirdos, I thought it was funny and engaging.

Towards the end, the momentum slowed down...both in the plot's pacing, and in the addition of goofballs that gave the book a lot of it's flavor.

8/10

[Bennyonesix1]

Fallen out of love with The Many Colored Land series in the middle of the second book. Became tedious and the motivations and actions went haywire and unbelieveable.

Still think the first book was great and the premise ingenious.