Month in Review: March

I have made several key changes in direction and revisions for how I want to tell my story. And, perhaps most importantly, I've hit upon a title (which will remain secret for now). Looking around, I don't feel like I've accomplished much. I've been picking away at a few paintings and drawings, but nothing is finished. I've been sketching a bit as well.

I finished Richard White's history, one of the best books I've read all year. This one was quite a surprise. My initial reaction was very lukewarm, but once I reached the Gilded Age I was riveted. I knew very little of the period and so the book was very useful in filling in many gaps as well as showing me paths forward. Stepping away from the book I was curious about what came after. I realized I knew about as little about the Progressive Age as I did about the Gilded Age. I may get to Daniel Rodgers' Atlantic Crossings later this year.

A book very different than White, but compelling was David Graeber's "Debt: The First 5000 Years." I had been looking for an answer to a question libertarians kept posing, or rather, not a question, but rather a questionable assertion: would life be better without government? Graeber's book is full of surprising and interesting observations, many of them culled from archaeology research that has been known about for years, but never integrated into current understandings of economics.

Lastly, per the suggestion of Philip Nikolayev, I read Plato's Republic. Actually I read it twice and will most definitely read it a few more times. I don't feel like this was at all a diversion from my reading plan, since my topic is Economics and Utopia. There was a lot I found useful in reading the Republic. The cycles of government was particularly important for me. Perhaps, the second most valuable aspect of the book was its beauty. The rhythm of the language expresses a way of thinking and being in the world that I have been adapting to my day to day life.

Books Read:

Richard White, The Republic for Which it Stands
Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes
Plato, Apology, Crito, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Menexenus, Ion, Gorgias, Protagoras, Meno, Euthydemus, Lesser Hippias, Greater Hippias, The Republic
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years
Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life

April Reading:

Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour
Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota v.3
Finish Graeber's Debt
Flannery and Marcus, The Creation of Inequality
Gilbert Ryle, Plato's Progress
William Flesch, Comeuppance

Month in Review: February

I was very busy in January and my exertion took its toll. I scaled things back for February. I didn’t pull any all nighters, nor was I working late into the night or waking up at the crack of dawn to finish daily goals. It was a needed break, but I plan to get back on track for March. 

Books read: 

Rick Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge

Tony Judt, Thinking the Twentieth Century

Tony Judt, Postwar

Richard White, The Republic for Which It Stands: the United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age 1865 to 1896

Mark Blyth, Austerity

Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life (started)

Goodstein, Georg Simmel (started)

Buchanan, Frozen Desire (started)

As for drawing and writing: I did begin to redraw my illustration of Orpheus. I mostly wanted to practice lettering. I found a Bauhaus font I liked and used that. I'd like to finish the rest of the drawing in a complementary style. Other than that piece, I mostly did sketching. I did a lot of story boarding and have most of the current book as well some of a possible second book. Of course, getting from storyboards to the finished book is another matter. I've still been following amimetobios course on Money and Literature, including doing the readings for each week (although I'm only up to week 2 for the readings).  Lastly, I sent out 4 of 5 copies of Ron Drummond's The Frequency of Liberation as part of a FB game. The fifth copy I will hand deliver. This project took a bit longer than I expected, but I was happy to do it. Hopefully those I sent the book out to receive and enjoy them.

I'm putting together a long reading list in preparation for my essay on Utopia and Economics. In no way do I plan on getting to all of these in March. In fact, my March reading will probably be mostly composed of selections from amimetobios Imagining Money course. I may begin drafting my essay as well.   

Utopia and Economics Reading List

Economics

Marx, Capital (v.1)

Freedman, The Incomplete Projects

Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money

Goodstein, Georg Simmel and the Disciplinary Imaginary

Blyth, Austerity

David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years

James Buchanan, Frozen Desire

History

Tim Blanning, Pursuit of Glory

Lichtheim, Europe in the 20C

Michael Howard, The Oxford History of the 20C

Gregory Claeys, The Philosophy of Money

Klosko, The Transformation of American Liberalism

Winkler, The Age of Catastrophe

Politics

Hobbes, Leviathan

Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (v. 1-2)

Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics (v. 1-3)

Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests 

Klopenberg, Toward Democracy

Kitcher, Science, Truth, and Democracy

Robert Wiebe, Self-Rule

Paul Cartledge, Democracy: A Life

For drawing, I hope to finish at least a few pages the book. I want to bring the storyboarding closer to completion as well as have all the pages sketched out fully in draft form. I'm especially interested in finishing what is a kind of book within the book. I'd like to have more of a schedule for how I work. This is a plan I've considered:

Mornings: Read and Write (about 1-2 hours a day)

Evenings: Draw (at least 15 minutes if with Lily, at least 1 hour if not)

Final note: I just started reading Scott McCloud's graphic novel Understanding Comics. Quite good. Worth a mention.