Reading chapter 3 of The Capital. I really think this line is the best one:

[A]lthough money is nothing but the value-form of commodities, price ceases altogether to express value. Objects that in themselves are no commodities, such as conscience, honour, &c., are capable of being offered for sale by their holders, and of thus acquiring, through their price, the form of commodities.

i finished the book about kowloon walled city and started reading the grasshopper: games, life, and utopia. it’s aesop’s tale about the grasshopper and the ant told through the perspective of the grasshopper. it’s a book about ludology and the book attempts to achieve a definition of what a game is, and how this definition is tied to the concept of work. and how play, in opposition, is very linked to utopian thinking. the grasshopper essentially chooses to die to embody the spirit of play, similarly to how socrates chose to die.

‘I admit that this is a wild fancy,’ the Grasshopper was saying, ‘and I hesitate to tell you my thoughts. Still, I am used to being thought foolish, so I shall proceed, invitingyou to make of my words what you will. Then let me tell you that I have always had a recurring dream, in which it is revealed to me - though how it is revealed I cannot say - that everyone alive is in fact engaged in playing elaborate games, while at the same time believing themselves to be going about their ordinary affairs. Carpenters, believing themselves to be merely pursuing their trade, are really playing a game, and similarly with politicians, philosophers, lovers, murderers, thieves, and saints. Whatever occupation or activity you can think of, it is in reality a game. This revelation is, of course, astonishing. The sequel is terrifying. For in the dream I then go about persuading everyone I find of the great truth which has been revealed to me. How I am able to persuade them I do not know, though persuade them I do. But precisely at the point when each is persuaded - and this is the ghastly part - each ceases to exist. It is not just that my auditor vanishes on the spot, though indeed he does. It is that I also know with absolute certainty that he no longer exists anywhere. It is as th~)Ugh he had never been. Appalled as I am by the results of my teaching, I cannot stop, but quickly move on to the next creature with my news, until I have preached the truth throughout the universe and have converted everyone to oblivion. Finally I stand alone beneath the summer stars in absolute despair. Then I awaken to the joyful knowledge that the world is still teeming with sentient beings after all, and that it was only a dream. I see the carpenter and philosopher going about their work as before … But is it, I ask myself, just as before? Is the carpenter on his roof-top simply hammering nails, or is he making some move in an ancient game whose rules he has forgotten! But now the chill creeps up my legs. I grow drowsy. Dear friends, farewell.’

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Recently finally finished reading the novelization of Attack of the Clones. Apart from two scenes towards the end that make no sense, in my opinion it was a great book, I enjoyed the story greatly. Now I’m back to reading Sword Art Online since Skywalker saga continues with The Clone Wars series.

Picked up “Decolonising the Palestinian Mind” by Haider Eid. I realised after reading this that I have a lot more basic reading to do before I am fully informed on Oslo accords, NGO, PLO, and even the literature of Edward Said which Haider builds on. He has written this after October 7, but there is a chain of historical apartheid the author draws on that puts post-2023 Gaza into perspective. I am nearing the conclusion of the book, so I’m looking for further reading.

Shoot me in the head because I’m reading Julia by Sandra Newman, which is a retelling of 1984 from the female protagonist’s perspective, after it piqued my interest. Only forty pages in, it’s somewhat lame but it’s definitely better than the original (though that’s a low bar).

I’m most of the way through elementary principles of philosophy by Georges Politzer

Mostly following along the This Soviet World reading group on Hexbear. I’ve been enormously busy compared to normal so I haven’t had much time, plus with Prolewiki down I’ve had to pause my usual scrolling of articles there.

I plan to start South Africa’s Weapons of Mass Destruction by Helen E. Purkitt and Stephen F. Burgess

Still reading two autobiograpies from CIA whistleblowers: Inside the company by Philip Agee, and the CIA and the Cult of intelligence by Vincent Marchetti.

They are both excellent and are giving a great view inside how western intelligence services function, as well as they’re historical involvement.

I’m just about to start reading Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital