plutonic's recent activity
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Comment on These travel influencers don’t want freebies. They’re AI. in ~travel
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Comment on Books: Your personal year in review for 2025 in ~books
plutonic Link ParentIt seems that Post-Modern Lit is just not for me, I've been disappointed more than I have been happy with attempts to wade into that world. I'm old-school. So I don't really think there is...It seems that Post-Modern Lit is just not for me, I've been disappointed more than I have been happy with attempts to wade into that world. I'm old-school. So I don't really think there is anything wrong with the book and I recommend you read it. The entire book felt like a mystery that I was supposed to 'figure out' and I really don't like that sort of thing, and then in the end the entire book flips on you and basically laughs in your face. Lots of people love Pynchon and love Lot 49, so it's just a personal preference thing, not everything is for everyone :)
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Comment on Books: Your personal year in review for 2025 in ~books
plutonic LinkHere is my list for 2025: Physical Books in order: Hesiod and Theognis — Theogony; Works and Days; Elegies Roberto Calasso — The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony George Eliot — The Mill on the Floss...Here is my list for 2025:
Physical Books in order:
Hesiod and Theognis — Theogony; Works and Days; Elegies
Roberto Calasso — The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
George Eliot — The Mill on the Floss
Ilya Ilf & Yevgeny Petrov — The Twelve Chairs
Thomas Hardy — Tess of the d’Urbervilles
William Faulkner — The Hamlet
Thomas Pynchon — The Crying of Lot 49
Michel Houellebecq — The Elementary Particles
William Faulkner — The Town
Italo Calvino — If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
William Faulkner — The Mansion
Maxim Gorky — The Artamonov Business
Fyodor Dostoevsky — White Nights
Honoré de Balzac — Eugénie Grandet
Cormac McCarthy — Blood Meridian
Émile Zola — Nana
Franz Kafka — The Castle
Anthony Burgess — Nothing Like the Sun
László Krasznahorkai — Satantango
Kazuo Ishiguro — The Remains of the Day
Herman Melville — Moby-Dick (third read)Audiobooks:
Anne Brontë — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
John Brunner — Stand on Zanzibar
Charles Bukowski — Post Office
Willa Cather — Shadows on the Rock
J. M. Coetzee — Life and Times of Michael K
Wilkie Collins — The Moonstone
Richard Henry Dana Jr. — Two Years Before the Mast
Joseph Conrad — The Secret Sharer
Don DeLillo — Point Omega
Daphne du Maurier — My Cousin RachelHighlights (In order):
William Faulkner — The Town
Thomas Hardy — Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Cormac McCarthy — Blood MeridianMoby Dick not highlighted since it is by default one of the greatest of all time
Disappointments:
Thomas Pynchon — The Crying of Lot 49
Roberto Calasso — The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (Cool book, too hard.)
Anthony Burgess — Nothing Like the Sun -
Comment on Grocery stores are profiling online shoppers and charging them dynamic prices based on algorithmically determined affluence in ~finance
plutonic Link ParentI always prefer an article, I actually refuse to watch youtube videos for the most part. So if it isn't in article format I almost always just skip it. Thanks for the summary!I always prefer an article, I actually refuse to watch youtube videos for the most part. So if it isn't in article format I almost always just skip it. Thanks for the summary!
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Comment on Grocery stores are profiling online shoppers and charging them dynamic prices based on algorithmically determined affluence in ~finance
plutonic Link ParentI would consider the title to be full on click-bait.I would consider the title to be full on click-bait.
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Comment on Rapid Support Forces massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show in ~society
plutonic LinkThis is what real genocide looks like. Up to 1 million dead civilians and entire cities now ghost towns.... unbelievably terrible.This is what real genocide looks like. Up to 1 million dead civilians and entire cities now ghost towns.... unbelievably terrible.
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Comment on A post on X claiming that Denmark has introduced an IQ threshold of at least 85 for sperm donors has sparked confusion, debate and memes, but ultimately is misleading in ~health
plutonic LinkIs this policy, even if it was nation wide really that bad? I know if I was in need of sperm donation I would like to know the donor was screened for genetic issues, birth defects, normal mental...Is this policy, even if it was nation wide really that bad? I know if I was in need of sperm donation I would like to know the donor was screened for genetic issues, birth defects, normal mental abilities, criminality, ect. I have no idea if you can really tie 'intelligence' and 'criminality' to genetics, but in my day to day life it certainly seems plausible, thought I'm willing to admit that it most likely has to do with upbringing. In my experience loser parents tend to have loser kids, many outliers of course, but why risk it?
I'm also completely ignorant of the process of donating and receiving sperm donation, what attributes do they collect and allow people to select already? Can people pick the race of the donor? I wouldn't want to see a situation were wealthy people can pick 'premium' sperm from the best donors leaving everyone else with a roll of the dice.
An IQ of 85 is pretty low, that person would likely be disabled, what benefit to society is there to have that person donate sperm? Is this too close to eugenics?
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Comment on Mr Oizo - Flat beat (1999) in ~music
plutonic LinkI was never a big fan of this track but really liked Analog Wormz SeguelI was never a big fan of this track but really liked Analog Wormz Seguel
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Comment on r/art subreddit under new management after an artist was banned for mentioning their art prints in ~arts
plutonic Link ParentA lot of mods moderate multiple subreddits, I would suspect that the new mods are experienced, trusted mods from other subs.A lot of mods moderate multiple subreddits, I would suspect that the new mods are experienced, trusted mods from other subs.
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Comment on Carmageddon: Rogue Shift | Announcement trailer in ~games
plutonic LinkI grew up playing Carmegeddon on my DOS machine, one of my all times favourite games.I grew up playing Carmegeddon on my DOS machine, one of my all times favourite games.
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Comment on 2025 Spotify Wrapped is now out in ~music
plutonic Link ParentI follow a LOT of artists on Spotify from decades of being a music lover, literally thousands, each week my 'Release Radar' (the actual full releases, not the single tracks provided by the...I follow a LOT of artists on Spotify from decades of being a music lover, literally thousands, each week my 'Release Radar' (the actual full releases, not the single tracks provided by the playlist) is anywhere from 6-10 hours of music, I try and listen to all of these releases every single week. I've also been using a questionable Russian Music Pirate Site which is mostly only useful for Electronic Music just to track new releases in genres I am interested in. Every week I quickly preview each release in the genres I want and if they sound interesting I find them on Spotify and drop them into a 'New Music' playlist, this way I am getting a feed of new artists I've never heard before and all new releases from all the artists I follow every week.
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Comment on Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled? in ~life
plutonic Link ParentDo you believe people with these conditions should be given special allowances? It seems to be this is just kind of normal every life stuff in today's world. They won't really be given allowances...Do you believe people with these conditions should be given special allowances? It seems to be this is just kind of normal every life stuff in today's world. They won't really be given allowances at their future jobs.
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Comment on 2025 Spotify Wrapped is now out in ~music
plutonic LinkFor the most part I don't listen to very many tracks more than once (my #1 song was only played 8 times over the year, which I can barely even remember listening to at all) but: 48,753 Minutes...For the most part I don't listen to very many tracks more than once (my #1 song was only played 8 times over the year, which I can barely even remember listening to at all) but:
48,753 Minutes
8,314 songsI think that is down a little bit from last year, but pretty similar.
It was also able to guess my age to within 3 years, that's pretty impressive since I'm mostly listening to new music released each week.
Top artist list is pointless, at least I recognized the names this year, last year there were artists in the list whom I had no idea who they even were lol.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
plutonic LinkJust a bit over 100 pages into Moby Dick, I wrote an ode to Moby Dick in the last thread. What a masterpiece this books is. The language is just unbeatable, almost every line to be sipped like...Just a bit over 100 pages into Moby Dick, I wrote an ode to Moby Dick in the last thread.
What a masterpiece this books is. The language is just unbeatable, almost every line to be sipped like fine wine. So many great moments, so many great lines. For some reason this time the scene where Ahab finally rejects the last vestige of a normal existence and devotes himself solely to madness and obsession stood out to me.
Here is the entire chapter:
Chapter 30. The Pipe
When Stubb had departed, Ahab stood for a while leaning over the bulwarks; and then, as had been usual with him of late, calling a sailor of the watch, he sent him below for his ivory stool, and also his pipe. Lighting the pipe at the binnacle lamp and planting the stool on the weather side of the deck, he sat and smoked.
In old Norse times, the thrones of the sea-loving Danish kings were fabricated, saith tradition, of the tusks of the narwhale. How could one look at Ahab then, seated on that tripod of bones, without bethinking him of the royalty it symbolized? For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.
Some moments passed, during which the thick vapor came from his mouth in quick and constant puffs, which blew back again into his face. “How now,” he soliloquized at last, withdrawing the tube, “this smoking no longer soothes. Oh, my pipe! hard must it go with me if thy charm be gone! Here have I been unconsciously toiling, not pleasuring—aye, and ignorantly smoking to windward all the while; to windward, and with such nervous whiffs, as if, like the dying whale, my final jets were the strongest and fullest of trouble. What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I’ll smoke no more—”
He tossed the still lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hissed in the waves; the same instant the ship shot by the bubble the sinking pipe made. With slouched hat, Ahab lurchingly paced the planks.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
plutonic Link ParentI love how slow and calm Cather's books are, to me they feel like the chicken noodle soup of literature.I love how slow and calm Cather's books are, to me they feel like the chicken noodle soup of literature.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
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Comment on How to customise status icons in Android 16? in ~tech
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
plutonic Link ParentRebecca is the book of hers you want to read without any doubt.Rebecca is the book of hers you want to read without any doubt.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
plutonic LinkNew Nightmares on Wax album Echo 45 Soundsystem out this week, definitely worth a listen. Still producing good material after 30 years.New Nightmares on Wax album Echo 45 Soundsystem out this week, definitely worth a listen. Still producing good material after 30 years.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
plutonic LinkWhy I love Moby Dick, and why you should too. Moby Dick. It is huge. It is dense. It is dripping with allegory, symbolism, and philosophy. It often slips into an archaic biblical cadence....- Exemplary
Why I love Moby Dick, and why you should too.
Moby Dick. It is huge. It is dense. It is dripping with allegory, symbolism, and philosophy. It often slips into an archaic biblical cadence. Encyclopedic. Boring. Hilarious. Homoerotic. What more can a reader ask for?
The first time I read Moby Dick I struggled but made it through. I was expecting worse out of the encyclopedic chapters. I had prepared myself for worse. I knew something weird was going on. 'The Whiteness of the Whale' chapter really stood out as strange. It felt like the most important chapter. Was it just because the book was old that he got some of that stuff about whales wrong? It does not take much searching to find out that Melville should have known better.
Someone told me I should check out the lectures by Hubert Dreyfus on Moby Dick. These are nothing short of amazing and really opened the whole book up for me. I knew the pop culture understanding of the whale as allegory for the unknowability of existence and Ahab on a quest for meaning that does not exist. I was not aware of how deeply Melville wove that into the book. Dreyfus knows a lot about Moby Dick. It is impressive.
Call me Ishmael. Right from the first line, this person is a mystery. Ishmael? From the Bible? So we are not going to learn this person’s real name. He largely does not exist as a character in the action. He acts instead as a sort of lens through which we see the ship and its characters, especially Ahab. I do not think there is any other way to experience Ahab than through the lens of someone else. Nothing would make sense if told from Ahab’s perspective. Ishmael seems to embody the mystery of life. He revels in it, seeming to follow many mantras at the same time. He watches, listens, and records. He can be seen as a sort of anti-Ahab. Ahab tries to control the world. Ishmael tries to understand it.
Ahab. Insane. Monomaniacally driven to disaster. A whale bit off his fucking leg. This is not cool and he does not take it well. A whale does not just bite off someone’s leg and that is that. There must be an explanation, some reason for this act.
“The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies. But of all this, the Whale itself knew nothing.”
Melville makes a point to say the whale is indifferent. This drives Ahab completely insane. His war is against the indifference of the universe. What a character Melville has written here. He is a living myth. He does not even appear until Chapter 28. It is Shakespearean the way Melville delays his entry. Melville gives him just enough self-awareness to make him tragic instead of cartoonish.
The whale. White. The representation of all possible meanings, all wavelengths blended together in a polyphony of concurrent meaning. Also nothingness. No meaning. A blank. Ahab obsessively tries to force meaning onto this beast right up to his final moment, trying to force himself in front of the whale and failing. He is killed not by the whale’s intention, but by his own attachment. Then the whale just swims off and
“The great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago."
In the end the color of the whale is more important than the whale itself.
A Squeeze of the Hand.
"Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say,—Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness."
Published in 1851. You read this chapter and tell me what you think. I am not sure what is going on here. It is very mysterious, but so is the whole book. Homoerotic without any doubt.
Encyclopedia Dick. Some of these chapters are really tough. I hope you really like whales and whaling because you are about to learn a lot. But pay attention because there are gross errors ahead. You realize he has spent chapter upon chapter detailing whales and yet in regard to Moby Dick you have learned nothing at all. Do you think Melville did this on purpose to show us that no matter how many facts about whales or the world you learn, no actual meaning can be derived from those facts?
Just an example of the unparalleled quality of the prose. This is the scene where Pip drowns.
“Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps; and among the joyous, heartless, ever-juvenile eternities, Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs. He saw God's foot upon the treadle of the loom, and spoke it; and therefore his shipmates called him mad. So man's insanity is heaven's sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which, to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weal or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God.”
Great moments in the book off the top of my head: Ishmael in bed with Queequeg. The sermon. Pip drowning. The bird at the end. The Whiteness of the Whale. Jonah.
Favourite line: "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."
Something I will never understand is a public figure who already has so much wealth they could never spend it cheapening their image by hawking scams/garbage for even more money. Why would anyone do this?