Crash rated Queercore : How to Punk a Revolution: 4 stars
Too bad the book cover isn't prettier
Reviews and Comments
Phd student, video editor, dog parent, lover of punk music, DIY or die.
Part of this account is documenting what I'm reading for school/my dissertation.
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Crash reviewed Queercore by Curran Nault
Enjoyed
5 stars
Overall good I think
4 stars
This book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was more of a 'self help' style book but instead its more cultural commentary with a lot of connections to psychological studies. It felt a bit half and half as to if a certain chapter landed with me or not. I started to get a bit bored with her writing style and chapter structure of "share personal experience, connect it to pop culture, reference term and psychological study, end on a witty note back to her personal experience" I don't know if I needed each chapter to have a psychological study to back it up as it just all felt very monotonous and expected.
Nonetheless, the fact that this was a book that I was drawn to finishing and reading for long periods of time (which, as a person with ADHD, is a rarity), I think, says something generally positive …
This book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was more of a 'self help' style book but instead its more cultural commentary with a lot of connections to psychological studies. It felt a bit half and half as to if a certain chapter landed with me or not. I started to get a bit bored with her writing style and chapter structure of "share personal experience, connect it to pop culture, reference term and psychological study, end on a witty note back to her personal experience" I don't know if I needed each chapter to have a psychological study to back it up as it just all felt very monotonous and expected.
Nonetheless, the fact that this was a book that I was drawn to finishing and reading for long periods of time (which, as a person with ADHD, is a rarity), I think, says something generally positive about the book.
My favorite chapter is probably the last one.
Crash reviewed Networking Peripheries by Anita Say Chan
FOSS movement in the global south
5 stars
I appreciated reading about Free Open Source Software Movement that's not centered around the US. Very well written as well.
Crash reviewed We Go Where They Go by Gord Hill
Great Read on contemporary history of Antifascism
5 stars
I've read a fair amount of books about the rise of more contemporary antifascist movement organizing (as opposed to pre 1960s) and this has by far been my favorite. Definitely suggest reading if that topic interests you.
Crash finished reading We Go Where They Go by Gord Hill
Loved this book
Crash reviewed Direct Action by David Graeber
Direct Action: An Ethnography offers a lengthy, traditional anthropological account of anarchist organizing efforts, with …
Mess of a lovely book
I admittedly only skimmed over the first section of this book (the ethnography portion). However, I really enjoyed reading the second part. It's not that Graeber goes into anything I didn't already know about punk, anarchist, DIY movements. Instead I think he connects his insights really beautifully to larger concepts and moments in history in a way that is accessible and coherent.
I appreciated how he interrogated moral panics around anarchists and certain ill conceived stereotypes as well as certain contradictions and paradox's within the movement.
Crash rated Direct Action: 5 stars
Direct Action by David Graeber
Direct Action: An Ethnography offers a lengthy, traditional anthropological account of anarchist organizing efforts, with a focus on New York …
Very good read
5 stars
Crash rated Dark Matters: 4 stars
Crash rated For Fun and Profit: 4 stars
Crash rated Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: 5 stars
Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy by E. Gabriella Coleman
Here is the ultimate book on the worldwide movement of hackers, pranksters, and activists that operates under the non-name Anonymous, …
Review of 'Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Very enjoyable read. My one qualm is that I wish there was some kind of conclusion chapter that gave a deeper analysis of the stories he shares in the book. The book almost functions as an ethnography, where each chapter is about a different person. I would have been interested in reading something where the author reflects on the experiences and maybe puts some theoretical historical analysis on it.
The chapter I enjoyed reading the most was "the emptiness." The glossary at the end is really helpful too.
Crash reviewed From counterculture to cyberculture by Fred Turner
In the early 1960s, computers haunted the American popular imagination. Bleak tools of the cold …
Review of 'From counterculture to cyberculture' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I echo the review below that posits this is a relatively sad story. It made me curious to think what the author thinks now over 15 years later and how much computers and the internet have strayed from the countercultural ideologies he accounts for.
Overall I liked the book. It helped me understand cybernetics, a concept I struggled to grasp prior to reading this book. It started to get a bit tedious and ponderous like he was explaining the same things over and over again, I felt like, at times, he could have made the chapters quite a bit shorter. Nonetheless, I do appreciate this book and think it's an important read for people studying the history of computers and the Internet.
Crash rated Black noise: 4 stars
