DDR: Counter-Revolution: Liberal Europe in Retreat by Jan Zielonka

Here's a book that's been on. My must read list for a very long time.

Since I am caught on the cusp of reading Dan Brown's The 🙊  of 🙊s (copy unavailable to me at the moment), I decided to sneak this one in. It's only xxii + 164 = 186 pages, so I'm thinking I can knock this out pretty quickly.🤞 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,889), September 28, 2025

Read to page 22.

This book was published in 2018. Question: "How is it possible that a peaceful, prosperous, and integrated continent is falling apart?" (x) Substitute "country" for "continent" and you see who we're talking about.

Speaking of...this commentary on the EU sounds familiar:

"Deregulation marketization, and privatization became the order of the day even in states run by socialist parties. The private sector has subsequently expanded at the expense of the public sector. Markets and market-values moved into spheres that used to be the domain of the public sector in Europe such as health, education, public safety, environmental protection, and even national security. Social spending has been contained if not slashed altogether for certain disadvantaged groups." (4)

Here's some food for thought from an endnote on page 137: "We may define populist leaders as clowns, and their statements as 'ridiculous', or 'absurd', but they actually do appeal to things or ideas that for some reason have not been suppressed by the dominant post-1989 order and discourse."

And here is THE question: "...if the last three decades of liberal rule was such a great accomplishment, why have so many people started to hate liberals?" (17)

Day 2 (DDRD 2,890), September 29, 2025

Read to page 53.

This bears thinking about: "Liberalism is not defending minorities against majorities; it is minorities--professional politicians, journalists, bankers, and jet-set experts--telling majorities what is best for them." (25) I'm a bleeding ❤️ liberal, but I've got to say that I see some truth in this. And even if I didn't,  I'd say that this IS his conservatives see it for sure.

And another Big One: "Does any genuine liberal still believe that the American empire is indeed an agent of freedom around the world?" (32)

This is a depressing read. It seems like what Zielonka was describing as the state of the EU 7 years ago is exactly what is happening in the USA right now. As if Trump is not an aberration, but a paradigm. 😰

Day 3 (DDRD 2,891), September 30, 2025

Read to page 84.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,892), October 1, 2025

Read to page 113.

This looks like a must watch documentary: La Nave Dolce.

Keep in mind that we're talking about the EU here: "...the majority of immigrants cross borders legally and stay on after their visas expire. Curbing that sort of migration would require major restrictions of international travel and the introduction of mass police surveillance on all residents." (93-94)

Reference, the damage caused to the EU by Brexit, Zielonka says, "This time Uncle Sam won't be there to bring us all to our senses; Uncle Trump is likely to add to our complications." (110)

Yep.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,893), October 2, 2025

Read to page 164, The End.

This seems like a person I should get to know:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

"I am disappointed, if not angry, that liberal ideals have been compromised or betrayed by the post-1989 generation of politicians and intellectuals across Europe. The counter-revolution will not just stop at correcting liberals' mistakes; it will go further by destroying many institutions without which democracy cannot function and capitalism becomes predatory." 131)

And there it is.

Two more things.

"Democracy is not safe when we question the wisdom of electoral choices. Equality is not served when we accuse poor people of being stupid and prone to manipulation. Liberty is not going to prevail in an atmosphere of hate and vengeance directed against political opponents." (132)

And...

" A fundamental responsibility of intellectuals is to doubt all received wisdom, to wonder what is taken for granted, to question all authority, and to pose all those questions that otherwise no-one else dares to ask." (133--Ralf Dahrendorf)

Now THAT oughtta be a tattoo, man.

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

 

I've read all of Dan Brown's books, and while the quality of the writing varies from good to cringey, one thing has always remained true for me: he makes me keep turning those pages. So I would have gotten around to reading this book eventually, but there was a big line on the hold list at the library (I think I'm 72 on said list) and I didn't want to buy it, so it probably would have been a while before I got around to it. Also, I'm not sure I would have made it a DDR book as I'm usually looking for something more substantial for that category. But I was talking to a friend of mine who was halfway through the book, and he had become fascinated by some of the science that is referred to, and he asked me if I'd read it so we could talk about it. Well, I'm always up for a "book club"--though most of the ones I've joined have pooped out prematurely. So I'm going to do it. I'm going to start with the Amazon preview, and then I will hang out at Barnes & Noble and see how much I can read there when I'm not on dad duty. Yeah, I know. Sorry.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,888*), September 27, 2025

Read to page 67. (? End of Chapter 13.) No page numbers, so I jyst counted them. It might not correspond to the printed page count. But if it does, it means I'm about 10% of the way through the book. Unfortunately, the Google Books version doesn't get me any farther, and there's no way for me to get to Barnes & Noble tomorrow. So...gonna have to read something else for Sunday. But I know just the thing.

"The afterlife is a shared delusion…created to make our actual life bearable."

“If I’m not back in an hour, send one of those dogs to dig me out.” This one just shows one of the lapses in Brown's writing. (One of many.) Langdon is planning to run 3 kilometers to a pool, shower, swim laps, then walk back. I am confident that no one could do that in one hour. This is picky, I know, but it bugs me when writers don't pay attention to what they write.

"Einstein had famously declared: Coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous."

To be continued....

* Same day I finished Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin, so same DDRD number.

Day 2, September 29, 2025

Yep. So...here's a thing: "...the human brain represented only percent of a person's body eeight, and yet it consumed an incredible 20 percent of the body's energy and oxygen. The blatant mismatch...was proof that the brain was doing something so incomprehensible that traditional biology had not yet been able to grasp it." (101)

Is this true?

Read to page 139. (Real page number this time. Thanks, B&N.)

Day 3, September 30, 2025

I was about to give into temptation and order the Kindle edition of this book ($15.99),  but went to check the library holdings one more time and--

Voila! Clean living strikes again.

Read to page 250. Now let me get this straight: I'm supposed to believe that the Golem stuff and the find the manuscript stuff are not connected in any way? That is some stunning bullshit there.

On the other hand...

Day 4, October 1, 2025

Read to page 404. Yowza. The pages DO fly by.

Another thing: no editor would agree to publish a book s/he hadn't read a piece of, yet here the editor has only the vaguest idea what Katherine's book is about. I'm calling bullshit there, too.  Not to be too garsg, though, as Mr. Brown does keep me turning those pages, warts and all.

Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA): Katherine explains that this inhibits / suppresses overall activity of neurons. Not too long ago I read somewhere that drugs do the same thing. * They do not enhance the brain's neuron's firings, they inhibit it. Thus hallucinations are actually input from areas of the brain that normally do not come to the surface because of the other activity of the brain.

Langdon makes reference to a line from "one of his favorite novels": "It is said that in death, all things become clear." The line comes from Digital Fortress...by Dan Brown. Ha ha.

Note to self: look for the Netflix documentary How to Change Your Mind. 

* And just a few pages later, Dan Brown has Katherine say the same thing. Great 🧠 think alike.

Day 5, October 2, 2025

I occasionally have my differences with Dan Brown as a writer, but this from page 473 forgives many sins:

Also, Dan Brown (via Katherine Solomon) mentoned this--

--which turns out not only to be real, but available via the LFPL. And it's so far up my alley that it's scraping my uvula. Next up, maybe.

Meanwhile... 

In Chapter 112 we get the worst possible leading to the climax: a Bwaa Haha villain who proceeds to explain his Diabolical Plan to his helpless adversaries. For fuck's sake, Dan Brownmentioning  

In other news:

The Bwaa Haha villain continues to chat, and the humble yet omniscient narrator hops into another head to help, mentioning four books having to do with Psychic Warfare. Turns out all 4 books are real and available--three at Thrift Books and one at Amazon (and probably other places as well).

Well. That makes me wanna do some more reading, you betcha.

Read to page 574, which leaves a mere 100 pages to go. Pretty sure that will happen later tonight.

Day 6, October 3, 2025

Well, it didn't happen last night but it did today. Read to page 675, The End. Note a great book, but a page-turner, so....

DDR: Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run by Peter Ames Carlin

To proceed to read the Oxfordian Hamlet or not, that is the question. I've been seriously disappointed in the previous two Oxfordian versions of Shake-speareplays which I've read. Neither of them were evidence-based, relying rather on assumption and supposition, much like Stratfordians do when they seek to "prove" their case. And I have so many other books that I would like to read. Should I risk wasting a week here? Of course the play still remains, and that would be enjoyable no matter what the editor had to say. But I bought these texts in order to gain an expert's perspective on how they relate to Edward de Vere. And I haven't gotten nearly enough of that.

About, my brains.

Addendum: Nope. I'm not ready to spend another week with Whalen (Oxfordian Hamlet editor). I do happen to have this

from the library,  though, and I'm thinking, "That would be a nice break." So....

Day 1 (DDRD 2,886), September 25, 2025

Read to page 51.

April 26, 1974, and Bruce is still playing small clubs and colleges, sometimes to mostly empty seats, he's got no money, and Columbia has him on their  list to be dropped from the label after two albums which only sold about 20, 000 copies, apiece. What a difference a hit song makes, eh?

238 pages, btw.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,887), September 26, 2025

Read to page 109. So Bruce's manager, Mike Appel, drained his kids' college funds to keep the band going. And when, after torturous (and tortuous) months of working on the single "Born to Run," Columbia showed zero interest in it, Appel sent copies of it to radio stations--perhaps the first time a recording artist had bootlegged himself.

I've got to say, this book is (1) fascinating and (2) just what I needed after my two Oxfordian disappointments.

"...by early 1975 Bruce's account at Columbia was in the red to the tune of something like $300000...." (113) No wonder he was sweating it out on the streets.

And, as is so often the case, this book got me interested in another book:

I found it for less than $6 at Thrift Books, and as I had a Reward waoting thete (for buying previous books) for a book costing $6 or less, I got it for free. Nice.

ADDENDUM: Read to page 160. So...109 pages today. That seems a bit obcessive, doesn't it?

Day 3 (DDRD 2,888), September 27, 2025

Read to page 238. The End.  And quite a satisfying read it was. So much so that I'm really inclined to follow up with more Springsteen books--the one above and another I found which goes through all of his songs up to 2019's Western Stars. But I met up with a friend today who is halfway through Dan Brown's new book, The Secret of Secrets, and he really wanted me to read it and talk about it with him, so I'm thinking about DDRing that next. Problem is that I am 70-something on the hold list and don't want to buy it, but I think I can work around that with the Amazon preview and a long sit at Barnes & Noble. (Shhh.) Time will tell...and so will I tomorrow.

Stoned Thought #37.4

 

James Gunn sounds almost exactly like Howard Stern!

Battleworld #1

This comic book

hit the stands today at noon in Louisville. I bought my copy at 12:01 pm. That's odd for me for two reasons: (1) I almost never buy comic books on the New Releases Day (much less the New Releases Hour) since Friday is the day that Joe and I go to the comic book store & (2) I rarely buy Marvel comic books these days. (And on those rare occasions when I do buy Marvel comic books, they aren't these stupid crossover stories. 1982's Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions was quite enough for me.)

So...what up?

Well...there's a bit of a clue on the cover. See, on the right side? Waitaminute. Mr. DeMille?

Yeah, THAT guy. It's not a very good likeness, but the insignia on the left breast is a clue: it's Star Brand, hero of the flagship title of Marvel's New Universe imprint (1986 to 1989). I missed that initial run, but when Marvel tried to bring it back in 2006 with newuniversal, I was onboard and grooving on Warren Ellis's jive. There were a few crossovers between Marvel and the newuniverse (Google "crossovers between marvel the the new universe" if you have a need to know), but not enough for me to not be interested in Star Brand appearing here. Well, on the cover, anyway...he doesn't actually appear in issue #1. But I was going to be back for issue #2 anyway, because here's the advance art for the cover of that book:

And not only do we see our friend Star Brand again for the first time, but even more thrilling, the lady in purple on the left. That's Mystic...from the CrossGen Comics Universe. Ahh, CrossGen. They only lasted from 1998 to 2004, but they put out some really good comic books. Marvel has toyed with the titles (which Disney acquired in 2006, and in 2011 Marvel released a few of the titles under their own banner)*  So far as I can discern, this will be the first time that a CrossGen character has crossed over into the Marvel Universe. 

So even though Battleworld #1 was a let-down (your average, dopey, uninspired comic book, as The Comics Journey used to put it), I'll be back for the CrossGen Crossover in #2! Which is exciting!

Well...it is if you've been a comic book nerd for almost 60 years.

And if that don't suit ya, that's a drag.

* Since then they've released a couple of omnibuses--for Sigil and Mystic. I'm still hoping for Scion, Ruse, & Sojurn to make the omnibus journey. 

DDR: Macbeth: An Oxfordian Perspective by Edward de Vere

I finished Four Shakespearean Period Pieces today (September 20th), and these arrived in the mail a few hours later:

 

So I guess my Shake-speare Unit continues uninterrupted. I'm starting with Macbeth, because Hamlet is the mango jelly at the center of the donut. Mmm, 🥭.

iii + 235 = 238 pages.

Day 1 (DDRD 2,882), September 21, 2025

Read to page 40.

I'd barely gotten started reading this morning when a page fell out of the book. Read another page or two, and another page fell out. ("Fell out" as in had obviously not been glued to the spine.) By the time I got to page 35, seven pages had fallen out. At that point I paused in my reading and got on the computer and requested a replacement from Amazon. I'll try to keep reading this fucked up copy until the new book arrives, but it is very irritating...like trying to get dressed while your clothes keep falling off.

On the first page of the play itself (which is page 37 in this version), the Second Witch says that they will meet again "Upon the heath." The Third Witch then responds, "There to meet with Macbeth." Up until this point, many of the witches's lines have been rhyming couplets: again / rain, done / won. It made me wonder if it was possible that an accent (presumably Scottish) could make heath and Macbeth rhyme. I Googled "how would a Scottish person pronounce EA" and found a video in which a man goes into some detail on this subject.

Looks to me like the "e" column could make "heath" sound like "heth," which would certainly rhyme with "Macbeth." And it sounds pretty Scottish, too, doesn't it? I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I found it kind of interesting. A nice little canter.

In other news, I picked this up from the library:

It's the only copy of this tome the LFPL owns...but at least it hadn't been relegated to Remote Shelving. I briefly thought about taking this on as a Daily Devotional Reading, but at over 1,500 pages, I'm not sure that I'm man enough for it. We'll see. ( Hell, I've read 1,500 plus page books before.)

Day 2 (DDRD 2,883*), September 22, 2025

Read to page 100 (end of Act II).

Whalen (the editor) thinks that the thane of Cawdor was not a traitor, but was framed by Ross. It's an interesting thought, but I'm not seeing any strong evidence for it...and I don't see why it matters, anyway.  Both Cawdor and Ross are minor characters with no real bearing on the plot.

Here's a disappointment:

Malcolm: What will you do?

Let's not consort with them.

To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 

Which the false man does easy.

I'll to England.

There's a note on these lines, specifically reference "unfelt sorrow": 

131 unfelt sorrow: probably unfelt because overwhelmed by fears that he and his brother will be suspected of the assassination to gain the throne.

With all due respect to Richard F. Whalen...you've missed the boat here. Malcolm is saying, " Let's not hang out with these guys. It's easy for a bad man to pretend he's feeling sorrow." This is a direct counterpoint to his Dad, Duncan, who said, "There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face." Malcolm knows that its dangerous for him and his brother to remain in Scotland because whoever killed his dad could be after them next.

You had ONE JOB, Whalen.

😡

* I'm coming up on 8 years of DDR...and I've only missed one day (while in the emergency room with a heart attack) in all that time. Well done, sir! (If I do say so myself.)

Day 3 (DDRD 2,884), September 23, 2025

Read to page 135 (end of Act III). I am enjoying reading the play again after being away from it so long, but I have to say that these Whalen notes are pretty thin, often what I regard as misinterpretations, and seem to have very little to do with Edward de Vere. This was not a good enough bang for my bucks.

In the Selected Annotated Bibliography, mention was made of this tome--

            --which I'd really like to have a look at. No re: library and Internet Archive, but there is a copy on Amazon for $20....

I was remembering Béla Tarr's Macbeth (1983) and wondering if it was still around--because it had been a long time since I had seen it. Went looking and indeed found it pretty quickly. There was just one problem:

But hey, who needs the words anyway? It's at https://youtu.be/SBzuHgsX93M?si=iZ3S-96K4v5Yegkm if you need a little Magyar in your life. Béla is super great. I've seen all of his movies, and I'm ready to watch any or all of them again if you bring the coffee.

In other news, Amazon came through quickly with a replacement copy of Oxfordian Macbeth, and thus far no pages have come out of thus copy. 🤞

And hey, check this out:

Given the rapid and inexplicable deterioration of my previous copy of this book, I suspected that this was a print on demand item. Looks like I was right. This new little baby is only 2 days old.

His decrepit brother wasn't much older, though:

Also, I read pages 205 to 235, which included Narrative Sources, Dating the Composition of Macbeth, Select Annotated Bibliography, Acting Macbeth by Derek Jacobi,

and Acknowledgments. That just leaves about 65 pages of play left, so Im thinking tomorrow should do it.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,885), September 24, 2025

Read to page 203, The End.

Another disappointment: Whalen does not seem to know that Thomas Middleton is believed to have written the witches' bit in Scene i of Act IV. That's High school stuff, FF'sS.

And here's a Bunny Nutshell Library version of what's wrong with the Oxford Perspective versions of Shake-speare plays according to me:

91-4 The king-becoming graces. . . . fortitude: virtues that Oxford undoubtedly believed a monarch should have, based on his experience at court and reading of history, especially the virtue of stability.

This is as bad as Stratfordians saying, "Shakespeare MUST have had an excellent education at the Stratford Grammar School...." I'm looking fir facts, not supposition and assumptions.

So far the Oxford Perspective plays are 2 for 2 in immensely disappointing me. This one was even worse than Twelfth Night, I think. Virtually every note page was based on supposition,  and there were very few actual facts contained herein. No one who was not an Oxfordian would be swayed by this slight commentary. 

Don't spend your money on this! I wish I hadn't.

😠😧😠😧😠😧😖

Ray Bradbury

I've got fond memories of Ray Bradbury. I'm pretty sure that The Illustrated Man was the first Grown Up book I read (given to me by me sainted moother), and after reading it I remember devouring The Martian Chronicles, I Sing the Body Electric, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Twice 22 (The Golden Apples of the Sun + A Medicine for Melancholy), R is for Rocket, S is for Space.... That might have been it, but you know, that was 50 years ago, so....) At any rate, Ray was a big part of my childhood and adolescence. 

I haven't read him since then, but not too long ago I picked up this lovely little boxed set

from Half-Price Books for $5, and I'm hoping to jump into it in the near future. 

Speaking of Half-Price Books and Ray Bradbury...when I went back a few days ago, I saw this beauty

I managed not to buy it...since I'd only be buying the cover (see boxed set), and since my house is already filled with books...but it wasn't easy to walk away. I love those old, pulp-style covers.

And if it's still on the spinner rack when I go back, I'm going to take it as a sign from God and buy it.

News as it happens.

DDR: Four Shakespearean Period Pieces by Margreta de Grazia

Another book I've been holding for a few years...and another that I started reading and then 🐔.

But now I'm ready for love. Oh, baby, I'm ready for lo-ove.

248 pages.

🚦

Day 1 (DDRD 2,875), September 14, 2025

Read to page 7. (But this was in addition to finishing off Twelfth Night this morning, so not a support day at all.)

Interesting stuff:

Especially 

To me, this suggests...or supports, I suppose,  as I've had this thought before, that most of Western Civilization is derived from the Catholic Church. Love or hate it, I think you have to admit that we owe it.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,876), September 15, 2025

Read to page 37.

In discussing Shakespeare's intentional use of anachronism, de Grazia notes that "Garments might indicate a character's gender, ethnicity, nationality, rank, age, occupation, and order of being (supernatural, allegorical), but not his or her historical period." (29) If she's right...and I think she is...then Shake-speare would not only not object to clothing his characters in contemporary clothing (as seems to happen quite frequently), he would insist upon it. Costumes were not meant to indicate historical verisimilitude, but to reveal the character's station, rank, disposition, etc. That's some hot shit, ennit?

Thus "anachronisms "...are not errors in the order of time but rather modernisms, updatings attuned to the present of the play's enactment." (38)

Day 3 (DDRD 2,877), September 16, 2025

Read to page 67.

A questionable assumption: "Plays are keyed to the "now" of their composition and always open to updating any subsequent staging. The dramatist's commitment is to his present audience rather than to any earlier historical context." (44)

That seems to open the door wide for all kinds of fuckery...something along the lines of a singer changing the name of a city in his lyrics to match the city he is performing in. I've always hated that kind of obsequiousness.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,878), September 17, 2025

Read to page 100.

Public Domain

Professor Edward Dowden (1843 to 1913) said of Shake-speare, "...the spirit of Protestantism — of Protestantism considered a portion of a great movement of humanity, — animates and breathes through his writing." (98) Not that I am anybody, but this strikes me as funny because when I read Shake-speare I'm always surprised at how Catholic he seems to me. There's purgatory and people crossing themselves and confession and monks...Catholic stuffs EVERYwhere.

I think I've decided that I need some more Shake-speare of the Oxfordian variety. To that end...

They're due to arrive Saturday. Coincidentally,  I should be finishing Four Shakespearean Perod Pieces on Saturday.

Day 5 (DDRD 2,879), September 18, 2025

Read to page 130.

Day 6 (DDRD 2,880), September 19, 2025

Read to page 158.

Interesting statemnt from someone who seems to be a Stratfordian: "...Shakespeare was a man of his times, even slightly behind them...." (137) Agreed! At least 14 years behind them. (Shakespeare born 1564, de Vere born 1550.)

Day 7 (DDRD 2,881), September 20, 2025

Read to page 248, The End. Interesting, but not illuminating. I was expecting something more transfigurational.