Alice Malone

Maybe fittingly, if unintentionally, I spent this particular morning reading about Kierkegaard.

But the piano helped, because he was back in a loop again, and needed the poison out. Worse, because too often there was so little emotion there, or the emotion flared up again raw, and then banked almost into ash, and wasn’t that awful? Wasn’t that the wrong kind of oblivion? While thinking, If you cut someone out of your life that way, hadn’t you become, for a time, a kind of monster ? Didn’t that deserve the ash? But perhaps his daughter had felt burning her life to the ground was magnificent viewed from afar, or somehow admirable in its hardened stance. How close was narcissism to empathy? And was it better confined to an individual or better when the impulse coursed through the veins of an organization like Central, where doing the right thing could become the wrong thing? Oh, he wished her well. He wished for her … nothing. And, yet, if she returned, he knew no matter how he tried to cut her from his mind now …

The relationship between Old Jim and Cass is so strange, so separate from anything that could really exist in our world. And yet I think their chemistry is strong and they portray aspects of real relationships in very interesting ways.

Makes me think of A Memory Called Empire and its imagos.

Cass slid down into the mud beside him and she held him and he cried into her arms. She said nothing, did not shudder or pull away, just allowed him to be there, in the moment, letting it all out, again, until it was gone—truly gone—and he was empty. Then she took his hand, his weathered, worn hand and she told him a story. Gave him a piece of herself. It was sad and terrible and tragic and funny and complicated, what she told him, and although it would become, in time, just the fading memory of something beautiful he had heard once, he kept it close and fiercely private and personal. He clung tighter, didn’t dare say a word, for fear of feeling ashamed, for fear of it being the wrong word or a damaging word, wondering what, if anything, he had done to deserve this gift. Nothing, he had done nothing.

I have many broader criticisms about Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach series but I thought this passage about emotional intimacy was beautiful.

I couldn't find a cover photo so here is the title page. Reading Althusser: An Essay on Structural Marxism Steven B Smith Cornell University Press Ithaca and London 1984

23. Reading Althusser by Steven B Smith

In this close read of "Reading Capital" and "For Marx", Smith contextualizes and (devastatingly) critiques Althusser's early thought

A good intro to Althusser's major concepts, like epistemological break, overdetermination, symptomatic reading, structuralism

The background is a wall on which text has been scribbled and half erased. Shreds of paper hang on it, as if posters had been glued there and then torn down. Text reads: The Message. Ta-Nehisi Coates. Bestselling author of Between the World and Me

22. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The author weaves together reflections that he hopes will convince his readers of the need to support Palestinian liberation—a position he regrets coming late to.

The book is also a meditation on education and outreach:
dialibra.org/reviews/the-...

Two people are wrapped in each other's arms in a sardine can with the lid peeled back half way (navy and white drawing). Background is in an awkward shade of greenish mustard. Text reads: Normal People. Sally Rooney. Author of Conversations with Friends. Long listed for the Man Booker Prize, 2018.

21. Normal People by Sally Rooney

The story of the relationship between a man and a woman that teeters between friendship & romance as they navigate early adulthood, learning how to be vulnerable and how to escape the confines of their own hang ups

Also about how class shapes your life trajectory.

Red background. A sketch of a missile just moments away from killing a young girl. The girl holds a bouquet of flowers in one hand, the other is stretched out towards the missile. The text is below this: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. Omar El Akkad. Author of American War.

20. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

If you've raged at society turning a blind eye to genocide and lost patience with liberal hand-wringing about "complexity," this book is a cathartic read, a snapshot of the dissonance of living in the heart of empire in 2025.

Outline of a gold throne made out of symbols. Text reads: Authority. Essays. Andrea Long Chu. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

19. Authority By Andrea Long Chu

What is the task of the art critic? "To restore the work of art to its original worldliness. The artist creates by removing something from the world; the critic’s job is to put it back."

Two new essays on criticism, plus a couple dozen republished hits.

Book 2 of the Southern Reach trilogy: Authority, a novel by Jeff Vandermeer. A boldly yellow background. The sketch of a rabbit peers out at us through the blocky letters of the title, looking frozen and maybe shocked to see it is being watched. At its paws, there is a smartphone with a broken screen.

18. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer

A time capsule of left-liberal concerns of 2014: the futility of change given the bureaucracy & conspiracy of the State, surveillance & "brainwashing."

Book 1's narrator's interior drama was rich & unusual, while Book 2's narrator's emotional arc felt well-trodden.

Red cover. Portrait of Marx in black and white. Marx is seated and positioned in a three quarters view. He gazes slightly to the left of the camera, his right hand in his left breast pocket. His shirt and cuffs are white and his suit is dark. The chair is made of wood, maybe a dining chair, although it has arms.

17. The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Marx

Universal suffrage poses a problem for capitalists: how do you retain power & manage class contradictions? Marx untangles these tensions in the "farce" of 1848-1852 France

Beautiful writing, good insight into Marx's thinking on politics & the state

It is ordinarily considered fair to refrain from subjecting anyone to the rigors of abstract intellectual reason. As the saying goes, “live and let live” — one way is valid, but so is any other. When we look more closely, however, the impositions on any finite thing aren’t merely external; their own nature is the cause of their negation, transforming them into their opposite. For example, we say that man is mortal, and regard dying as something resulting from external circumstances. If this understanding were correct, man would be in possession of two special properties: vitality and mortality. The true view of the matter, however, is that life as such carries within it the germ of death. The finite in general, being radically self-contradictory, entails its own negation.

Compare Engels with Hegel:

"When we look more closely, the impositions on any finite thing aren’t merely external; their own nature is the cause of their negation, transforming them into their opposite... Life as such carries within it the germ of death"

redsails.org/dialectics/

"A being is at each moment itself & yet something else. Life is therefore a contradiction which is present in things & processes themselves, & which constantly originates & resolves itself; as soon as the contradiction ceases, life, too, comes to an end & death steps in"
— Engels

A suburban street in the foreground. The street is wide and empty but for the parked cars on the sides. The houses sit severely up on hills, with no trees and little greenery. There's trash on the sidewalk and telephone wires criss-cross the sky. In the distance, there is a city, with skyscrapers peeking up through the clouds. Text: a Pelican Book. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The Failure of Town Planning. Jane Jacobs.

16. The Death & Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Why do some cities thrive while others decay? Jacobs' approach is (unwittingly?) dialectical—cities are characterized by dynamic, organized complexity

Her critique misses the big picture of capitalism (her inheritors include Hayekians!)

Glad you find it useful! 😊

Screenshot from the publisher's website. On the top, the cover of the book, which reads "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy." In the background, there are a list of countries and years (representing coups Canada was involved in). The word "Democracy" has been torn into 4 pieces. Below, a list of options for buying the book, except the title is different: "Canada's Long war against democracy." That is, "fight" has been replaced with "war".

15. Canada's Long Fight [or War?] Against Democracy by Yves Engler and Owen Schalk

Reads hastily put together. It's a rundown of Canada's foreign meddling, with little structure or drawing out of major themes. The publisher can't even keep the title straight

Read Shipley's book (see above) instead

A North Pole-centered map drawn on a polar coordinate system, in which Canada appears upsidedown. Text: Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination. Tyler Shipley.

14. Canada In The World by Tyler Shipley

Shipley traces the consistency in Canada's founding capitalist & colonialist ideology, from its genocide of First Nations to its anti-communist and imperialist geopolitics of today

Great "counter-history" of Canada, I'd recommend it as an intro for leftists

Book cover. Olive green or dark gold background in an off-putting shade. A modern painting of two figures staring out at a forest, their arms wrapped around each other. They cling to each other, maybe comforting each other. One figure is ghostlike and black, the other is in bright colors. The trees are scratched into the canvas, giving a flat, barren, hostile feel. They stand on the final strip of bright green grass before the haunting forest begins. Text: Hanne Ørstavik. Ti Amo. Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken. Archipelago books.

13. Ti Amo by Hanne Ørstavik

A devastating story about love and grief, based on the author's own experience losing her partner to cancer.

The inability of the two characters to talk about death grows a gulf between them, and they each tragically deal with their pain emotionally alone.

Reading this book, I was just constantly reminded of how much I wish I could be a scientist in a socialist society 👩‍🔬

Then I'd put my book down and go back to producing knowledge for a for-profit firm 😔😔

This collection of essays is great, strong recommend for any Marxist scientist.

A photo of a glass pipette delivering a droplet into a row of test tubes. The test tubes glimmer with the refraction of a backlit neon green. Text on top: The knowledge economy and socialism, science and society in Cuba. Agustín Lage Dávila.

12. The Knowledge Economy and Socialism by Agustín Lage Dávila

In capitalism, knowledge itself has been privatized. Knowledge shares many similarities with other commodities, but there are also meaningful differences. The author reports what Cuba has learned about knowledge production in socialism.

The cover art is a scientific image by Santiago Ramón y Cajal, titled Drawing of Microscopic Brain Structure, 1904. On top, in black and white sans serif all-caps font appear the author name and book title: Benjamín Labatut, When We Cease Too Understand The World

11. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut

Blending fiction, history & personal essay, the author explores the interconnection of science & society

The characters are scientists, but their struggles are broader: How do you keep going when all you once knew proves to be wrong?

Plain parchment-coloured background. Text in all-caps serif font. In the middle, a bust of Marcus Aurelius. He looks maybe 30s, full beard and head of curly hair.

10. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

There are 3 ways to read this book:

– as life advice (not recommended)

– as an influential work: how did this shape Western culture?

– as psychological mystery: who was this man who wrote these repetitive private notes, phrasing his frustrations so abstractly?

The Iron Heel by Jack London. Stylized drawing of the bottom of a boot about to step on some small spikes (I think?). Red background in an intricate relief motif.

9. The Iron Heel by Jack London

Unabashedly socialist dystopian SciFi novel. Published in 1908, it is a remarkably prescient tale of a liberal capitalist country sliding into violently oppressive oligarchy. Very fun.

My long-form review here: dialibra.org/reviews/the-...

Book cover for Becoming Kim: An indigenous call to unforgetting the past and reimagining our future. By Patty Krawec, forward by Nick Estes. A photo (I think) of beading: tiny tiny beads in bright colours (green, turquoise, red, yellow, white, orange), sewn together in floral patterns. Several buds are heart shaped. The background is dark and so the flowers and vines stand out brightly and cheerfully.

8. Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec

After centuries of genocide, how can settlers and indigenous people in Canada and the US live together as Kin? Krawec urges different understandings of community & land. Each essay ends with an aambe ("let's go!"), a little piece of practical homework for the reader.

I'm glad I read this one, because I think a lot of writers try to explore similar themes but just don't do it as well.

It's easy to be too flattering about how great and important reading is. It's a message readers are eager to consume.

If you a poor and socialist they will call you jealous.

If you are rich and socialist they will call you hypocritical.

If you are in a small socialist minority they will call you radical.

If you are in a large socialist majority they will call you authoritarian.

Book cover. Sepia toned photo of three people on horses wearing modern clothes. Rolling hills in background. Full title: Our History is the future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long tradition of indigenous resistance." Blurb by Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything: "A powerful blend of personal and historical narrative. A major contribution."

7. Our History Is The Future by Nick Estes

History of indigenous resistance. Chapters 1, 5 & 6 on NoDAPL, 20th c. radical movements and internationalism stand out since these topics are particularly underreported.

Light on philosophy and on outlining a path for the future, but a useful reference.

Book cover. Oil painting with text superimposed. A young man gazes through heavy eyelids at the viewer. Dramatic shadows are cast on his face. He looks sad, pensive, maybe emotionally tortured. A pipe balances on his lower lip.

6. The Gadfly by E.L. Voynich

A novel about revolutionaries written by a revolutionary.

Voynich explores the emotional aspects of radical organizing and the way the personal and the political intertwine.

Some parts have aged poorly, but the climactic philosophical debate was excellent.

There are parallels between the rise of condos and the flight to the suburbs in the mid-20th century.

Both housing arrangements block community organizing efforts and increase social atomization. Both were led by the relatively affluent.

This cover is bright pink, which is unusual. When reading communist literature, you wind up with a lot of black, red and gold. Why pink here? The picture, falsely toned hot pink, is of a rocky outcrop on top of a hill. With the electric flamingo colouring, the rocky texture looks almost flesh-like. Is this to indicate the fatal blow Marx deals Proudhon, but with the precision and playfulness of a Barbie accessory?

5. The Poverty of Philosophy by Karl Marx

A brutal takedown of Proudhon, whose petty-bourgeois ideas continue to be re-invented on the left.

Assumes familiarity with Proudhon's work; Marx's Inferno (see above) provides helpful context.

Reads like an early draft of Capital. Some great lines.

Cover for: "Marx's Inferno: The political theory of Capital". Image shows The Demons Tormenting Ceampolo, by William Blake, from an illustrated version of Dante's The Divine Comedy. It's a woodcut print of some sort, black and white, of an unclothed man held at knife point by a gaggle of smiling figures.

4. Marx's Inferno by WC Roberts

A reading of Capital as political theory, situating Marx in opposition to other socialists of his time.

Marxism vs utopian socialism/Proudhonism continues to play out in organizing debates today, and so this work is a crucial, practical read.

(also reread for me!)