Library

Paneled in rich wood, decorated with classic art, and oh-so-inviting with sumptuous area rugs, tapestries, curtains, lighting, wi-fi, and comfy leather chairs, the Playa Public Library is the place to get your read on. We’ve got everything you need, for a nominal fee of course, to expand your cultural, historical, and political world through knowledge. And as that great philosopher G.I. Joe said, knowledge is half the battle. This page is actually going to be my “Currently Reading” sidebar archive along with other stuff I think is rather edifying. But since I’m slightly more profane than sacred, don’t be surprised to see some questionable material in here as well…like Earth in the Balance by Al Gore. Why? Because everyone needs a little intellectual pornography now and then.

Sometimes you have to believe that the superlatives lavished on a book have got to be from some kind of intellectual warehouse for inane insincerity where adjectives are picked at random by lazy intellectuals. Take this book for example…please. Variously described as “hugely ambitious and boldly achieved,” “mesmerizing,” “engaging,” “remarkable,” and “extraordinary;” this “sympathetic” treatment of the Red Menace is something that only Noam Chomsky could love. Or maybe not since to his credit he loathes both Stalin and Stalinism. Anyway, once you move beyond Priestland’s Lenin crush, there really is nothing to recommend in this book other than that it’s a tender love letter dedicated to the movement by an obviously smitten paramour. In fact, that’s all it is, an empathetic ode to a religion that has killed over 100,000,000 people since 1917. What it isn’t, however, is an “engaging narrative” written in “a stylish and engaging fashion.” Much like the brutality of its subject, reading this book is like spending a winter in a Siberian labor camp digging for gold with a spoon.

Virgil’s masterpiece, The Aeneid, is one of the greatest works of literature and cultural history ever. This historicity, even if it is predominately mythical, makes it even more magisterial than Homer’s Iliad because Virgil takes the Homeric intervention of gods in human affairs as a device that not only advances their selfish interests and passions, but also as a vehicle that advances history…in particular, Roman history. The Aeneid is an incredibly complex tale that combines faith, the supernatural, man, fate, destiny, history, and culture into a story that remains as imaginative and captivating to the reader or listener today as to the Roman reader or listener 2000 years ago. Since very few people speak or read Latin anymore, we are dependent on the creativity and gifts of the translator, and Robert Fagles’ masterful translation succeeds at capturing the essence of Virgil’s Latin while simultaneously remaining erudite, engaging, and lively. If I may indulge myself, let me give you an example!

The Father of Men and Gods, smiling down on her
with the glance that clears the sky and calms the tempest,
lightly kissing his daughter on the lips, replied:
“Relieve yourself of fear, my lady of Cythera,
the fate of your children stands unchanged, I swear.
You will see your promised city, see Lavinium’s walls
and bear your great-hearted Aeneas up to the stars on high…
Aeneas will wage a long, costly war in Italy, crush defiant tribes
and build high city walls for his people there
and found the rule of law…There, in turn, for a full three hundred years
the dynasty of Hector will hold sway till Ilia,
a royal priestess great with the brood of Mars,
will bear the god twin sons. Then one, Romulus,
reveling in the tawny pelt of a wolf the nursed him,
will inherit the line and build the walls of Mars
and after his own name, call his people Romans.
On them I have set no limit, space or time:
I have granted them power, empire without end.” (The Aeneid, 1.304-334)

That’s some manly stuff right there. I always choke up near the crescendo at 332-334…

Left-wing intellectuals usually use the term “Manichean” as a derisive epithet that implies their opponents are hysterical reactionaries who bay at the imaginary moon of good and evil; endeavoring to turn Manicheaism’s rigidly fanciful – and fanatical – duality into an apocalyptic self-fulfilling prophecy. Unfortunately for them, Obama and our leftist Congress proves that there really is a moon of good and evil for us to hysterically bay at.

A compelling and lucid study that predicts the future of 21st Century Europe by analyzing the enlightened triumphs and barbaric failures of its 20th Century predecessor.

As the world’s foremost cultural and political commentator, I feel obligated to remain on the cutting edge of modern criticism by reading books that are significant for not just today, but for all our tomorrows. This is why I feel justified in telling you what to think, how to act, what to wear, etc., etc., etc. It’s a thankless job, but all visionaries are destined to face haters and their critics’ sock-puppets while alive; inevitably earning the people’s gratitude only after our passing…when you will worship me in a bizarre, state-controlled, personality cult by making up stupid songs and shit. It’s all good. This fact alone qualifies me to be the world’s foremost cultural and political commentator.