What is Reddit's opinion of
Project Gutenberg?
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100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
FYI, if you want to help bring these old works - specifically books - into the public digital domain, you can volunteer with Project Gutenberg which takes scans of out-of-copyright books as has hordes of volunteers type them up and check them over to turn them into freely available e-books. It's fun, easy, and covered loads of languages and genres.
Edit: I misused the phrase "type up" and it seems to be annoying lots of people. They use OCR on scanned images of the book, then volunteers check that it has not made mistakes, proofread and edit the text for eBook format.
Also if you want to volunteer go here: https://www.pgdp.net/c/
Edit: typo
"True, he had seen pictures in his books of men with great masses of hair upon lip and cheek and chin, but, nevertheless, Tarzan was afraid. Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood.
And so he learned to shave—rudely and painfully, it is true—but, nevertheless, effectively." - From the original book.
tl;dr: ~~He had picture books with pictures of Alpha Englishmen like himself and they had no beard unlike the hairy savages he grew up with.~~ He was trying to not look like an ape. Source.
EDIT: Misremembered about his picture books. Thanks /u/drazilraW & /u/Jokersmannequin
In a later book, you find out that the Tin man was originally a regular lumberjack named Nick Chopper, who fell in love with a woman who one of the Wicked Witches didn't want him to be with. So she cursed his axe so that when he tried to chop down a tree, he would eventually miss and chop off one of his body parts.
So the first time it happened, and he chopped off a foot or whatever, he went to a tinsmith and had a prosthetic replacement made, and went back to work. Only a little while later to accidentally chop off another piece and have it replaced, until he was entirely made out of tin, and no longer had a heart, and could no longer be in love.
Thing is, the tinsmith kept all of the body parts, so in this book they go visit the tinsmith's shop and the tin man is able to have a conversation with his cranky old head, which has been sitting in a cupboard the whole time.
The tinsmith also kept the body parts of a soldier, Captain Fyter, whose body he had also replaced with tin after he had also fallen in love with the same girl. For some reason he decided to make a composite frankenstein's monster out of their combined body parts named Chop-fyt, who did finally get to marry the girl.
Weird shit.
It offers all classic books, on which the copyright doesn't apply anymore, for free in all major ebook formats.
Since we're on Reddit, I'd assume that most of you know about this but if you don't, then do check it out. You'll end up either unlocking the full potential of your smartphone, or turning it into a brick that cost a few hundred dollars but it is worth it.
Great tool of you want to practise touch typing.
I've posted this before but it bears repeating:
Shutting down discussion and debate like this is so fucking dangerous.
Mill presents a pretty compelling argument about this in Chapter 2 of <em>On Liberty</em>.
Here's the "SparkNotes" version (linked to the relevant part of the summary). Basically:
>...even if the popular opinion is true, if it is not debated it will become "dead dogma." If truth is simply held as a prejudice, then people will not fully understand it, and will not understand how to refute objections to it. Dissent, even if it is false, keeps alive the truth against which it dissents.
This is why it is vitally important to have these discussions, especially in Universities. We're literally going out of our way to kneecap ourselves and blunt the only weapons we have with which to fight bad ideas and achieve real progress.
That's an old expression, apparently it traces back to 1916 in "Mother Goose".
>He went to catch a dicky bird, >And thought he could not fail, >Because he had a little salt, >To put upon its tail.
It also gave the logo of the Cerebos salt company.
Have you ever read the story The Yellow Wallpaper? The part about circling the room and wallpaper being torn kinda reminded me of it. In the story there are no actual ghosts but that part is related in a way.
Edit: here's a link, if you're interested https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1952/1952-h/1952-h.htm
> ‘Organic Life beneath the shoreless waves
> Was born and nurs’d in Ocean’s pearly caves; > > First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, > > Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; > > These, as successive generations bloom, > > New powers acquire and larger limbs assume; > > Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, > > And, breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing.’
Some parts of the trip had to be done by boat, to cross seas and oceans. About a third of the rest had to be done on foot as there weren't that many roads or the conditions were impractical. The total distance cycled was estimated by him to be around 13500 miles (21700 km).
His story is very interesting, you can get his book about his adventures (in two volumes) for free from Project Gutenberg.
For preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.
by Dr. Jonathan Swift
1729
My favorite novel, Around the World in 80 Days, taught me about suttee and that the women do it or face the scorn of the relatives. Though it can also be truly voluntary. Your reply reminded me of this!
Relevant text:
"The poor wretch!" exclaimed Passepartout, "to be burned alive!"
"Yes," returned Sir Francis, "burned alive. And, if she were not, you cannot conceive what treatment she would be obliged to submit to from her relatives. They would shave off her hair, feed her on a scanty allowance of rice, treat her with contempt; she would be looked upon as an unclean creature, and would die in some corner, like a scurvy dog. The prospect of so frightful an existence drives these poor creatures to the sacrifice much more than love or religious fanaticism. Sometimes, however, the sacrifice is really voluntary, and it requires the active interference of the Government to prevent it. Several years ago, when I was living at Bombay, a young widow asked permission of the governor to be burned along with her husband's body; but, as you may imagine, he refused. The woman left the town, took refuge with an independent rajah, and there carried out her self-devoted purpose."
The famed socialist Edward Bellamy wrote an enjoyable short read called 'Looking Backward: 2000–1887' that had some enjoyable predictions on how life would be like a century in the future.
I freaking love Project Gutenberg. There's so much bonkers stuff on there it's fascinating.
One of my favorite things is the collection of old children's picturebooks. Here's my absolute fave: "Slovenly Betsy" by Heinrich Hoffman
Fans of "The Office" may remember this guy's name. It's a bunch of cautionary tales for children, warning them against the danger of playing with matches (you die in a fire and make your cats cry) to being overly proud (your neck grows freakishly long).
There's another book that contains the story -- referenced in "The Office" -- of a tailor who will come chop of your fingers if you suck your thumb too much. That book is called "Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures"
Its a short story, shouldn't take you more than an hour to read, it is very unsettling.
​
He's referring to "A modest proposal" by Jonathan Swift, a satirical piece proposing to solve the overpopulation of early 18th century Britain by eating the babies. Not Thanos.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16/16-h/16-h.htm
​
Here is the part about Peter Pan killing the kids as they start to age:
" The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out "
Here's the part about eating:
" I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never above ground. The cooking, I can tell you, kept her nose to the pot, and even if there was nothing in it, even if there was no pot, she had to keep watching that it came aboil just the same. You never exactly knew whether there would be a real meal or just a make-believe, it all depended upon Peter's whim: he could eat, really eat, if it was part of a game, but he could not stodge [cram down the food] just to feel stodgy [stuffed with food], which is what most children like better than anything else; the next best thing being to talk about it. Make-believe was so real to him that during a meal of it you could see him getting rounder. Of course it was trying, but you simply had to follow his lead, and if you could prove to him that you were getting loose for your tree he let you stodge. "
So basically Peter Pan would sometimes feed the children and sometimes it would be a make-believe feast. The children had to prove to Peter Pan they were losing weight before he would give them food.
Here is a link to the original story:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16/16-h/16-h.htm
The line in question:
"The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out "
It doesn't specifically say Peter Pan kills them, but how else are we supposed to read "thins them out" in this context?
For another read that could be enlightening to you --
About 200 years later, an anonymous upper-class Victorian man wrote a long book that similarly catalogues his life and shows how upper-class English men used less powerful English women as sexual objects, sometimes non-consensually. Unlike Pepys this work is specifically about his sexual life. There are many, many examples of the author regularly groping, harassing, and/or raping women he encounters, often servants of his family, lower-class women around him, and sex workers. Some of the girls he assaults are very, very young.
The book is anonymous and author has been much speculated about, but this article in the journal Victorian Literature and Culture makes a fairly convincing case that it was a civil engineer named William Haywood.
Great list!
Also you can check out the works of Sir Richard Francis Burton on Project Gutenberg.
He was a very interesting guy - an adventurer who was also an amazing linguist, translating several well known foreign texts (Kama Sutra and Arabian Nights being the most prominent).
Edit: I should also mention that he is one of the main characters (fictionally) in the Riverworld sci-fi series by Philip José Farmer and was most probably the template for the character Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser. Both series are definitely worth a look.
I think it's actually quite a shame how we've turned Lincoln into a deity-like figure (the Greek Temple style memorial is a big offender here, as is Mount Rushmore). The think that makes Lincoln so awesome when you read about him how relatable and humble he was. He loved to read dumb humor stories and to go to the theater every night--he would have loved TV. He had a down-home joke or story for every occasion--you can read a book of them collected while he was still in living memory here--grain of salt as to the details, of course, but it gives you an idea.
Unlike so many other leaders, he had experienced a lot of failure in his life, so he wasn't so tied up in ego. He didn't care if a general or cabinet member was disrespectful--he cared if he could use him. When Salmon P. Chase, his Treasury Secretary, was going behind Lincoln's back to campaign to replace him, Lincoln just pointed out that as long as Chase was motivated to work for the presidency, he was going to do his best at his job.
It looks like the killing is implied in Chapter 5 of the book. -
"The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two."
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16/16-h/16-h.htm#link2HCH0005
Actually, yes: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3528/3528-h/3528-h.htm#link2H_4_0008
In the On His Own Works section he gets pretty technical.
And he's able to discuss it at length because music is a subject that Beethoven was passionate and exceedingly knowledgeable about. Is there an example from Trump that demonstrates mastery of a subject?
That's terrifying.
My recommendation: Get a local library pass if you don't have one already and start reading. Books on everything, but especially history (world history in particular), politics, sociology, philosophy, natural sciences. Mix in some classic fiction, from old Greek plays to the most important authors of the last couple of centuries. Access to many classics is also legally possible via online libraries such as Project Gutenberg and www.archive.org.
You're really at a disadvantage here and this homeschooling program could seriously impact your academic future, it probably already has. Time to take matters into your own hands.
Edit: This was probably a stupid recommendation, since you recognized the error yourself and appear to already have an interest in history. It could also be considered to be patronizing/condescending. I apologize.
The right to self defense is so important that it is actually the first natural right Locke derives from the fundamental rights of life, liberty and property in his Second Treatise of Government (see sect 7). Basically, he states that rights are pointless if a person cannot prevent another from infringing those rights.
You don't have to read very far into Locke's Second Treatise of Government to realize that his theory of natural rights is the foundation of our system of government. Anyone arguing the 2nd amendment needs to be repealed is basically saying they want to fundamentally change our system of government. Granted, most of them probably just short sighted and think it's a "common sense" safety measure, but that just illustrates how poorly they understand what has made our system of government work as well as it has for 200+ years.
He was a writer in the 1800's, so it's probably different from what you're used to. He's actually really interesting, as his work is often Science Fiction, but before that became a genre. With famous old authors like him, you'll probably think some of his stuff is a bit cliche, but he's the originator of so many things that pop up in sci-fi.
His work is outside of copyright now, so here's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the aforementioned Around the World in 80 Days, and here's a link to project gutenberg
Confirmed in the original text. Plus the movie puts you on notice that the Oz universe distinguishes between "good witches" and "bad witches."
Dickens novels. They have long sentences with complex language (to practice pacing and articulation), many characters with dialogue (so you can try talking in different voices), and entertaining stories to boot. They're also available for free on gutenberg. I'd start with A Tale of Two Cities, followed by David Copperfield (unless you want to go straight to the most difficult, which is probably Bleak House).
>Do you think they would have ground the beans? Or just steeped them in boiling water after they were roasted?
Depends. It's possible to roast the beans and boil them for a long time and extract a good amount of the soluble material. You end up with what Ukers calls a liquor. This would have been fairly common in Colonial America. More common was grinding and then boiling. After that you would let the grounds settle and pour the water through a cloth to filter it a bit. Less common was pouring water over them just after a boil. That requires multiple utensils, whereas you can just throw a pot of water and grounds in a fire and let that boil together.
> What happens if one attempts coffee from green coffee beans?
Some of the earliest peoples to partake of coffee ate the berries raw, or toasted them lightly. Making a drink from green coffee beans wouldn't taste very good.
Source: Same as OP. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28500/28500-h/28500-h.htm#Chapter_XXXIV Uker, Chapters 34-36.
I’ve always been struck by the account in Sherman’s Memoirs, where he shows a telegram announcing the assassination to the Confederate General Johnston when negotiating the surrender of Johnston’s army in North Carolina:
“As soon as we were alone together I showed him the dispatch announcing Mr. Lincoln's assassination, and watched him closely. The perspiration came out in large drops on his forehead, and he did not attempt to conceal his distress. He denounced the act as a disgrace to the age, and hoped I did not charge it to the Confederate Government... We talked about the effect of this act on the country at large and on the armies, and he realized that it made my situation extremely delicate. I explained to him that I had not yet revealed the news to my own personal staff or to the army, and that I dreaded the effect when made known in Raleigh. Mr. Lincoln was peculiarly endeared to the soldiers, and I feared that some foolish woman or man in Raleigh might say something or do something that would madden our men, and that a fate worse than that of Columbia would befall the place.”
Columbia, had, of course, burned down two months prior after Sherman’s troops drove out the Confederates.
Source: Sherman’s Memoirs, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4361/old/orig4361-h/p4.htm
H.G. Wells' "Little Wars" was a rulebook for one of the first tabletop wargames ever made, and its preface tells of the hilarious development of it. Project Gutenberg has the whole thing online, if you want to read it.
If you plan to walk around barefoot in your dorm and it has hard floors, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD swiffer the floors before you move your stuff in. Even if maintenance staff clean it, chances are your floor is still going to be disgusting.
Also, Project Gutenberg and archive.org are goldmines for acquiring non-textbooks. I got all six supplementary books I needed for my classical law class through these two sites. Saved me about $75.
It gets better!
Any prose and poetry over a hundred years old is also free! No piracy or legal shadieness, they're all available to the public legally! It's because they don't use American copyright laws! And it's all there in project Gutenberg waiting to be explored. Fuck, you can even put them on your Kindle for free?
Wanna read Frankenstein? Pride and prejudice? Antigone? Marcus Aurelius' Meditations? Fucking go for it! Hell, I think there's even some Agatha Christie in there too!
This is known as copyfraud. He may have copyright in the particular typeset appearance, but not the texts.
These editions don't have any unique merit that would make them worth having. There are perfectly good, well-formatted editions of public-domain classics on Gutenberg and other sites. Gutenberg often has EPUB and Kindle versions with the original images.
You dropped a comma (Project Gutenberg does, too). Cary's translation is
> All hope abandon, ye who enter here.
See the plate. I gave the original Tuscan so people don't think Dante wrote like Yoda because Cary did!
(Edit: gutenberg.org doesn't like inline links from other sites, so I changed it to something that seems to work.)
Wow that is so cool!!!
Project Guttenberg also has TONS of free, REALLY OLD stuff. I've had quite a good time reading some of the old 'manuals' for how to be a good wife & mother. LOL.
I haven't had a chance to read "Endurance" yet, but "South!" - written by Shackleton is amazing.
The whole thing is such an epic adventure, it's amazing they survived. Setting sail in the James Caird into the unforgiving Southern Ocean and navigating by the stars, then having to traverse a mountain range no one had ever explored before to reach a whaling outpost.
I think one of my favorite parts of that story is they left right as WWI was starting and they first thing they asked when reaching the whaling station:
>“Tell me, when was the war over?” I asked.
>“The war is not over,” he answered. “Millions are being killed. Europe is mad. The world is mad.”
Many of the crew would then go back to fight and die in the trenches.
Here is the full text of Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York. It is a fascinating read for anyone who is into history, myths and origin stories.
The colors of the Knicks/Mets (orange, white and blue) come from the flag of New York, which has quite a bit of Dutch symbolism (a sailor, a native warrior, a windmill, barrels, beavers, etc.); those are the same colors that flew over New Amsterdam when it was settled in 1625.
If anyone is in the New York area, I highly recommend a visit to Washington Irving's estate Sunnyside and/or to nearby Sleepy Hollow. There is a ton of fantastic old history in the Hudson Valley and it's worth checking out.
> All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle—keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason.
From Roughing It, chapter XVI, by Mark Twain.
I'm a librarian and yes, ebook policies are annoying.
But the reason they're in place is because libraries do not own the ebooks like the print collection. They only have a license.
For print materials, the laws of First Sale apply. This means that the material is legally the library's property so we can circulate it, alter it, or re-sell it at a fundraiser. Whatever we want.
An ebook is held under a license from the publisher, meaning there is no First Sale and the digital material remains the publisher's property. So while you technically could make a single ebook available to everyone indefinitely - like on Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/) - but because publishers don't want that, their license agreements enforce things like limited availability that leads to long waiting lists and the file nuking itself from your device after an arbitrary lending period.
The digital licensing issue is even bigger in academic libraries, where journals are almost all online these days. It makes for easier access for research but again the library does not own the material. If a publisher changes their licensing conditions or just folds, whole back catalogs can be wiped out.
So, to sum all this up, capitalism is why we can't have nice things.
> they would not treat the Scots or Anglo-Saxons any different from how they would treat a Dane.
Do you mean the Vikings who were not Danish here, or Danish vikings? As the 12th century Gesta Danorum definitely indicated that Danish laws discriminated against non-Danes, e.g.:
> "Further, he appointed that if an alien killed a Dane, his death should be redressed by the slaying of two foreigners." (Book 5)
This is overly cynical and misanthropic. Truth and justice happens because of free speech, not in spite of it. If we accept your bleak assessment as truth then the Gutenberg press was a net negative and we should return to the happy days of 1300 AD.
Since I remember the days before the Internet and easy access to old books, IMHO, the website Gutenberg Project alone will forever make the Internet a net positive for society:
Yes, you will lose weight on Kellogg's diet. Yes, this is CICO. Yes, you will lose weight if you walk 10-20 miles per day. Yes, eating nothing but a single bland food day in and day out may drive you into eating less because you're sick of it.
However, this is fatlogic that we still see today and it's one of the most common and dangerous ideas that prevent people from losing weight. Fad diets. Having to go to the gym. Having to eat specific foods. Not having money to eat "healthy food". All of that stems from this core type of fatlogickal belief. People try this stuff and usually fail because it's not sustainable, then conclude that weight loss is impossible.
Many of us here on /r/fatlogic are living proof that you can lose significant amount of weight eating whatever you want and sitting on the couch all day so long as you just eat less than you burn.
Kellogg was a whack job in many other ways, which you can read about in his Wikipedia entry. If you want to read more of his advice check out The Living Temple and Plain Facts for Old and Young, both out of copyright and available for free online. Prepare yourself for even more extreme recommendations to kill people's sex drives (corn flakes, burning the clitoris with acid), how masturbating affects your skeleton and causes children to be easily frightened, and how enemas can cure headaches.
Best advice I have heard is that hunger is like a wave.
By that I mean that most people believe hunger is like an avalanche, an unstoppable force that will increase until the person can no longer stand against the overwhelming magnitude that is an avalanche.
But rather hunger is more like a wave in the ocean, frequent and constant, but nothing compared to an avalanche. If you can stay strong for the 30m-1h that the hunger wave hits you, you can withstand anything.
"I can think. I can wait. I can fast."
You have two threads in your argument here, some based on books, the others based on side services that libraries provide, which don't need to be linked.
This really depends on the book in question. There are 150,000 publications available through project Gutenberg and their partners. Libraries have increasingly limited paper book collections, as people move away from using them. There are interlibrary loans, but they are a hassle and take time. Plus smaller towns have even more limitations with dead-tree editions - the internet is better for rural users.
Have you see the "People who bought this also bought..." when you shop on Amazon? In addition, the indexing you can do online is far more useful than happening upon a book on the library shelf.
Yes, access to computers and internet is a good thing. But there's no reason it has to be in a library.
Is this something that the government should pay for? Do we need a whole building for it?
Yes, many ebooks work with libraries - online from the comfort of home. Why do you need a brick and mortar building if you're downloading ebooks?
Um, you're posting on reddit to say that you need libraries to get exposed to new ideas? There are many many places on the internet (such as reddit) that are far more likely to have diverse views rather than going to a lecture at your library attended by people who live in your town.
Again, this is great, but it doesn't require libraries to accomplish.
He wrote The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, but my favorite of his is a short story called Young Goodman Brown.
The full text is here and it's a quick read. I think you'll like it.
Just Ctrl-F-ing through the text I think he does say monster quite a few times:
>I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created.
>I then reflected, and the thought made me shiver, that the creature whom I had left in my apartment might still be there, alive and walking about. I dreaded to behold this monster, but I feared still more that Henry should see him.
>I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness.
> “Abhorred monster! Fiend that thou art! The tortures of hell are too mild a vengeance for thy crimes. Wretched devil! ..."
> I must perform my engagement and let the monster depart with his mate before I allowed myself to enjoy the delight of a union from which I expected peace.
And so on. Other characters refer to Frankenstein's creation as a monster as well.
Here's Project Gutenberg's electronic copy of On Liberty by John Stuart Mill: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34901
You can download it in various formats for free from Project Gutenberg!
And, here's a Wikipedia-entry about Mill's On Liberty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Liberty
See for yourself. This is from Chapter 5:
> All wanted blood except the boys, who liked it as a rule, but to-night were out to greet their captain. The boys on the island vary, of course, in numbers, according as they get killed and so on; and when they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out; but at this time there were six of them, counting the twins as two. Let us pretend to lie here among the sugar-cane and watch them as they steal by in single file, each with his hand on his dagger.
Some shows on Netflix are available for download now! I don't know how much space you have one your phone/laptop/tablet, or how big the file size is (I assume pretty big) but maybe this is an option? Also, Project Gutenberg has free e-books for download.
Good luck, you are a warrior! You got this!
Here is the preceding line:
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
> I also like having the entire works of Shakespeare in an easily carried format, where I can read it in bed or on a plane without hurting my elbow, for about 2 bucks or so.
Dude if you're paying for Shakespeare, you shouldn't be. Any well-known book that's in the public domain is probably free on project gutenberg.
You can check out Project Gutenberg. I've only ever downloaded the e-books as pdfs but there is supposedly a way to upload them to Kindles and other e-readers.
Edit: I just realized this is the website I have used, I'm not sure if the two websites are related.
“A prince must always seem to be very moral, even if he is not.” - Niccolo Machiavelli
I’d imagine Machiavelli would be none too surprised to see men consolidating their power - that’s what massive accumulation of wealth truly is - at the expense of others. Then sharing enough to look good, but not so much that it threatens to destabilize the system that allows them to have such wealth.
He talks about people being whimsical in their allegiances based on what benefits them the most (referring to the masses), and it seems to me that if those in power believe that, it behooves them to take as much as they can as often as they can in preparation for the (inevitable?) changing of the tides, potentially against their favor.
He wrote in a time when many philosophers had idealized versions of leaders (think philosopher-king archetype of Plato), so the idea that those in power may not have the interests of the masses as their primary motivation was radical thinking at the time. I wonder why the Catholic Church banned The Prince?
Man, I need to re-read that ASAP.
I've posted this before but it bears repeating:
Shutting down discussion and debate like this is so fucking dangerous.
Mill presents a pretty compelling argument about this in Chapter 2 of <em>On Liberty</em>.
Here's the "SparkNotes" version (linked to the relevant part of the summary). Basically:
>...even if the popular opinion is true, if it is not debated it will become "dead dogma." If truth is simply held as a prejudice, then people will not fully understand it, and will not understand how to refute objections to it. Dissent, even if it is false, keeps alive the truth against which it dissents.
This is why it is vitally important to have these discussions, especially in Universities.
I have information about the closest thing to it, which is people being thrown into the arena by a guard, ordered by the Emperor. This is a quote I found in a paper and I chased down each reference and it's the same thing basically, the Emperor is wronged in some way by someone. They or their loved ones are tossed into the arena as a punishment/execution. Here's the quote.
"The blood lust of the spectators, populus and emperors alike, the brutality of the combat, and the callous deaths of men and animals still disturb modern sensibilities. Certainly, Rome was cruel. Defeated enemies and criminals forfeited any right to a place within society, although they still might be saved (servare) from the death they deserved and be made slaves (servi). Because the life of the slave was forfeit, there was no question but that it could be claimed at any time. The paterfamilias of the family had absolute control over the lives of his slaves (and little less over those of his wife and children). In the army, decimation was the consequence of cowardice. The plague was ever present, as was the capricious whim of the emperor, who might seize a spectator from the crowd and have him thrown into the arena (Suetonius, Claudius, XXIV; Caligula, XXXV; Domitian, X; Dio, LIX.10)."
Perhaps someone with more indepth knowledge knows of specific incidents, but all I found were always intentional and by a guard throwing or the emperor pushing someone into the arena.
The Suetonius sections can be read in detail here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6400/6400-h/6400-h.htm
Dio section here: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/59*.html
Original thing I found that lead me to those (not really a source): http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html
If anyone wants to read it, it's on Gutenburg.
It's actually a hilarious satire about works like The Odyssey and The Illiad. The title pretty much translates to "True Story Bro" and Lucian's whole point was "you realize we can all make up mythology, right? No one's stopping you!"
> Anything the author/content creator isn't being compensated for.
This is incorrect. Rather, it is anything the author/content creator (or their estate) has not (or may not, due to contractual obligations) authorized within the scope of their rights under copyright law.
Otherwise, this link to Project Gutenberg would be against the rules. Or this link to a Cory Doctorow novel.
As written, the rule does not consider public domain, creative commons, fair use, or author goodwill, among a myriad of other reasonable example of an author or publisher giving away something for free. Not to mention that authors aren't compensated, beyond the initial sale, for library loans and second-hand book sales. All these things would be considered "piracy" by the above definition.
Pour ceux qui veulent un peu de tout, il y a le projet Gutenberg qui essaie de référencer les eBooks libres de droits aussi : https://www.gutenberg.org/
Pour ceux qui aiment Tipiak, vous devriez trouver votre bonheur avec ces deux sites : http://libgen.io/ et http://b-ok.org
I only wear gloves outdoors for warmth. Seconding the "turn large rings around" when wearing leather gloves; my wedding set isn't particularly big, and the settings are low-profile, but I do wear big right-hand rings and they have never damaged my groves. I take my gloves off and stuff them into my coat pockets when I go inside.
Indoor glove etiquette was very complicated and varied a bit from era to era and locality to locality. Here's a guide from 1961 New York. Some tips for glove wearing (I would say from 1930s US) are summarized here.
Men were expected to take gloves off to shake hands, women never (in 1900-1960 US and earlier in the US). Women were expected to leave gloves on while eating (and serving tea and the like) in 19th century US until around 1940; thereafter, women were expected to remove gloves while eating, except for long opera gloves.
If you want to read a whole etiquette book from 1922 (Emily Post, a famous US etiquette maven), dig in.
I'm not an expert, but I recommend The Man Who Was Thursday if you like fiction, and Heretics if you like non-fiction.
Also, a lot of great works are in the public domain and you could use an e-reader or tablet. Here's a great resource for that:
And a good suggestion from me, here's the entire work of HG Wells:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/30
If you're into anything sci-fi, you'll love this stuff.
Dear,
First make really sure that they hate you as you think they do. The age you're in usually makes us think that way.
If above is affirmative, then your case should be something like this:
/ It'll take some time.
/ Get anything kind of job, Good or bad, hard or boring, doesn't matter. Make sure you're feeding yourself. Read this book, please - Click Here to read the book
/ Never hesitate to raise your voice against abuse. You're not disrespecting anyone or anything. It's basic defense mechanism. What a culture it it can't protect ya. Not every elder is worth the kindness.
/ Build a strong body. It makes shit ton of difference. My own father and uncle used to get into physical fight when I was skinny and a kid but then as I became little strong the control was mine.
/ Study hard. As I can see you have internet access and can read and write English, study something online like basic app development.
/ NEVER. ABUSE. THE ALCOHOLIC. It only makes things worse.
/ Put a fake smile on your face when inside the house.
/ Find a library and read books. They will be your friends 'till you find a real one.
IT'LL HELP.
Best of luck.
The full quote is quite a lot different and is in relation to arming the people who you need to control the State and populace: > There never was a new prince who has disarmed his subjects; rather when he has found them disarmed he has always armed them, because, by arming them, those arms become yours, those men who were distrusted become faithful, and those who were faithful are kept so, and your subjects become your adherents. And whereas all subjects cannot be armed, yet when those whom you do arm are benefited, the others can be handled more freely, and this difference in their treatment, which they quite understand, makes the former your dependents, and the latter, considering it to be necessary that those who have the most danger and service should have the most reward, excuse you. But when you disarm them, you at once offend them by showing that you distrust them, either for cowardice or for want of loyalty, and either of these opinions breeds hatred against you. And because you cannot remain unarmed, it follows that you turn to mercenaries, which are of the character already shown; even if they should be good they would not be sufficient to defend you against powerful enemies and distrusted subjects. Therefore, as I have said, a new prince in a new principality has always distributed arms. Histories are full of examples. But when a prince acquires a new state, which he adds as a province to his old one, then it is necessary to disarm the men of that state, except those who have been his adherents in acquiring it; and these again, with time and opportunity, should be rendered soft and effeminate; and matters should be managed in such a way that all the armed men in the state shall be your own soldiers who in your old state were living near you.
>What is huger or more formidable in appearance than the elephant? Yet it is man's plaything, and a spectacle at public shows, and learns to dance and kneel.
Plutrarch's <em>Morals</em> ~100 AD
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26129/26129-h/26129-h.htm
Chapter XI, "Hus Arrives at Constance."
"With this holy father there came to the Council twenty-nine cardinals, seven patriarchs, over three hundred bishops and archbishops, four thousand priests, two hundred and fifty university professors, besides Greeks and Turks, Armenians and Russians, Africans and Ethiopians, in all from sixty to a hundred thousand strangers, and thirty thousand horses."
-John Hus A brief story of the life of a martyr by Rev. Dr. William Dallmann
https://media.ctsfw.edu/Person/Details/694
(This book isn't listed on the link of works by the author, but the book was published by Concordia Publishing House so I believe it reasonable to assume that the author and the person linked are one and the same, especially noting that his specialty seemed to have been the roots of Protestantism.)
So, we know that Africans and Ethiopians (somewhat different in the eyes of the church, as Ethiopia was a Big Deal in the medieval period, being believed to be the nation of the descendants of Solomon) were present in Konstanz in 1414 for Jan Hus's trial. I'll keep digging to see what else is out there.
Anyone intrigued by this thread might want to read Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It describes a man transported to medieval England who gradually rebuilds important parts of modern technology. It deals with 19th-century technology and medieval times, but the general concept is similar.
EDIT: The book is available for free on Project Gutenberg.
>I assert that man loves and desires nothing but his own happiness. He therefore loves his life only inasmuch as he esteems it the instrument or subject of his happiness. Hence it is happiness that he always loves, and not life; although he very often attributes to the one the affection he has for the other.
— Giacomo Leopardi, Essays and Dialogues
Reminds me of Mark Twain in "Christian Science", where the narrator had been seriously injured and a Christian Science woman came to "treat him". Edit: link https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3187/3187-h/3187-h.htm
Just at that point the Stuben-madchen trod on the cat’s tail, and the cat let fly a frenzy of cat-profanity. I asked, with caution:
“Is a cat’s opinion about pain valuable?”
“A cat has no opinion; opinions proceed from mind only; the lower animals, being eternally perishable, have not been granted mind; without mind, opinion is impossible.”
“She merely imagined she felt a pain—the cat?”
“She cannot imagine a pain, for imagining is an effect of mind; without mind, there is no imagination. A cat has no imagination.”
“Then she had a real pain?”
“I have already told you there is no such thing as real pain.”
“It is strange and interesting. I do wonder what was the matter with the cat. Because, there being no such thing as a real pain, and she not being able to imagine an imaginary one, it would seem that God in His pity has compensated the cat with some kind of a mysterious emotion usable when her tail is trodden on which, for the moment, joins cat and Christian in one common brotherhood of—”
She broke in with an irritated—
“Peace! The cat feels nothing, the Christian feels nothing. Your empty and foolish imaginings are profanation and blasphemy, and can do you an injury. It is wiser and better and holier to recognize and confess that there is no such thing as disease or pain or death.”
> And either way, democracy is about doing what the majority want regardless. That's how you build a stable society.
If you haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and go read the “Enchiridion” by Epictetus. It’s only 40 pages or so, and available for free. It’s a fairly challenging read, but absolutely worth it. The freshest water comes from drinking directly from the source.
Yes. It's pretty short, you'll probably be able to clear it in an hour if you don't constantly stop to think about the paragraph you've just read - I'd recommend reading it through all at once, and then re-reading one portion at a time and taking the time to meditate on each concept.
By the way, you don't have to buy it. The book is in the free domain (copyright has expired) so if you prefer an electronic format, you can access it for free at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14209
Or if you prefer PDF format, here's a pretty well-formatted PDF:
http://www.yogebooks.com/english/atkinson/1908kybalion.pdf
The book itself is pretty short, but there's a whole ton of books on the Hermetic philosophy out there. This is just considered the central one.
Also, check out /r/Hermetics/ while you're exploring the Hermetic philosophy ;)
Shutting down discussion and debate like this is so fucking dangerous.
Mill presents a pretty compelling argument about this in Chapter 2 of <em>On Liberty</em>.
Here's the "SparkNotes" version (linked to the relevant part of the summary). Basically:
>...even if the popular opinion is true, if it is not debated it will become "dead dogma." If truth is simply held as a prejudice, then people will not fully understand it, and will not understand how to refute objections to it. Dissent, even if it is false, keeps alive the truth against which it dissents.
This is why it is vitally important to have these discussions, especially in Universities.
Thankfully eBooks are tiny. Like really tiny. For the amount of data consumed by one hour on Netflix you could download 9,000 eBooks, and while that's back of the napkin math it's not much of an exaggeration at all. Hell, just browsing through Netflix titles consumes more data than several eBooks combined.
eBooks (excluding comics) are the single most data-efficient form of digital entertainment, whether measured in efficiency of compression or measured in hours of entertainment per byte. The entirety of <em>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</em> likely consumes less data than just pulling up this comment thread.
So if you're worried about data caps the solution is actually to read more eBooks in deference to streaming video.
The download data only listed the author's birth and death, not publication date. Gutenberg doesn't seem to have publication date for all eg https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17221
However yes, going from date of death of authors I'd say most are from 19th to early 20th century. The oldest was Dante, newest Samuel Vaknin, born in 1961.
$150 gets you a tablet, which you presumably can't share with your mates or borrow.
To actually read you gotta pay for the books. And a good chunk of them are public domain, which means there are 100% free versions of them on the internet, which those tablets presumably don't have access to. If you're a free man you can go read Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass here, if you're in a PA prison that'll be $150 for the tablet and $12 for the file.
Absolutely, and they are free on Project Gutenberg, them and the rest of the Edgar Rice Burroughs stuff on there are great reading. There's tons of other sci-fi on there too:
https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29
Project Gutenberg is not a Google product. They're a registered charity, and a bunch of volunteers working hard on a tiny budget and are very worthy of our support.
Pat is not completely wrong here.
>The count breathed with difficulty; the cold drops ran down his forehead, and his heart was full of anguish.
“No,” he muttered, “the doubt I felt was but the commencement of forgetfulness; but here the wound reopens, and the heart again thirsts for vengeance.”
>Then, as he departed, he fixed his eyes upon the gloomy prison.
“Woe,” he cried, “to those who confined me in that wretched prison; and woe to those who forgot that I was there!”
Yes. I'm not military but I read "The Art of War" in my early twenties, and was surprised to find there was not a lot that I hadn't already learned and put into practice from pursuing high-level competitive sports, tactical games, wargames, etc.
My takeaway is that it isn't so much a guide for masters, it's a guide from a master, and the genius is in being an attempt to create a foundation of institutional knowledge. It ensured upcoming officers could have fundamentals and be on the same page, without the need to relearn from experience things that have already been learned by their predecessors. We take that codified learning process for granted today, so we completely overlook that it was really something special about Art of War. Because we hear that Art of War was great but we intuitively overlook part of why it was great, we assume it must be great in the sense of having lessons for even modern masters, but that's missing its real intention, which was to be usefully practical.
The book is fairly short, quite accessible in translation, it doesn't take long to read.
Cannot stress this enough, read fantasy!
Reading Conan, Drizzt, and Disc World have grossly expanded my vocabulary as well as my narrative ability.
Reading Conan will show you how a dungeon should be narrated.
Reading Drizzt will show you how combat should be narrated.
Reading Disc world shows how a whimsical fantasy world should work in unexpected ways.
All of these series will force you to read with a dictionary which is awesome for vocabulary expansion.
An added bonus is that they're all fast paced and exciting which is exactly what GMing narration should feel like.
If you're looking for spoopy inspiration, HP Love craft all the way. He is also good at showing vs telling if you want ways of detailing a scene without just telling the players what's in front of them.
If you're looking for a place to start I know that Conan is in the public domain. Some of HP Love craft is in the public domain (under some debate). So you can find both of these on sites such as https://www.gutenberg.org/
God I hate this sub sometimes, and PC culture, and the opposite of whatever PC culture is, down home simple folk American culture is.
what is a "lady"
Can someone define what "acting like a lady" is.
Is it riding a horse side-saddle?
Is it wearing a dress and being all coy and saying "I declare"?
Is it fainting when you see man without a shirt on?
Here's an instruction manual on how to act like a lady
> In the ladies' room, have one, or if your party is large, two women to wait upon your guests; to remove their cloaks, overshoes, and hoods, and assist them in smoothing their dresses or hair. After each guest removes her shawl and hood, let one of the maids roll all the things she lays aside into a bundle, and put it where she can easily find it. It is an admirable plan, and prevents much confusion, to pin to each bundle, a card, or strip of paper, (previously prepared,) with the name of the person to whom it belongs written clearly and distinctly upon it.
To all the people "reeeing" about the "reeeing" about this sign,
Consider this: it means absolutely nothing other than "kind of act vaguely like I imagine women are supposed to"
It's completely retarded.
It's also completely retarded because "acting like a lady" has no promise that he will "act like a gentleman"
Idk about 'pro terror,' but Victor Hugo's defense of the French revolution in the beginning of Les Mis (when the bishop is talking to the old deputy) is pretty great. For all the mistakes of the terror, the violence the ancien régime imposed on the people of France in its 1200 year reign were far worse.
It's like some bastardized version of Pantheism and a flawed understanding of the ontological argument. Pantheism has a sound basis (my religion of choice) while the ontological argument's basis as a logical construct is... hotly debated, let's just put it at that.
Two good ideas mixed with bad understanding, bad reasoning, and bad attitude don't make a great recipe, as it turns out.
> In my opinion the main evil of the present democratic institutions of the United States does not arise, as is often asserted in Europe, from their weakness, but from their overpowering strength; and I am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny. > >When an individual or a party is wronged in the United States, to whom can he apply for redress? If to public opinion, public opinion constitutes the majority; if to the legislature, it represents the majority, and implicitly obeys its injunctions; if to the executive power, it is appointed by the majority, and remains a passive tool in its hands; the public troops consist of the majority under arms; the jury is the majority invested with the right of hearing judicial cases; and in certain States even the judges are elected by the majority. However iniquitous or absurd the evil of which you complain may be, you must submit to it as well as you can.
...
> If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the unlimited authority of the majority, which may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation, and oblige them to have recourse to physical force. Anarchy will then be the result, but it will have been brought about by despotism.
- Alexis de Tocqueville, <em>Democracy in America</em>, Chapter XV Part II
"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I read it in one of my English lit classes in college and it always stuck with me. Absolutely haunting and disturbing piece about how depression and mental illness were tucked away and ignored, as well as the damage that doing so causes.
“There's a pirate asleep in the pampas just beneath us,” Peter told him. “If you like, we'll go down and kill him.”
“I don't see him,” John said after a long pause.
“I do.”
“Suppose,” John said, a little huskily, “he were to wake up.”
Peter spoke indignantly. “You don't think I would kill him while he was sleeping! I would wake him first, and then kill him. That's the way I always do.”
“I say! Do you kill many?”
“Tons.”
John said “How ripping,” but decided to have tea first.
--
What? It's a fact, I'm not making this up. I'll be happy to link you to 19th century publications that clearly state that the Natives couldn't have build the mounds and that some other (white) civilization must have done it.
It was pretty common in this time to doubt that native civilizations in America or Africa were able to create and maintain advanced societies so they regularly made up "lost (white) civilizations" for that purpose.
It's also a common theme in early 20th century pulp fiction.
Edit: here's an example
>I have led you to examine the few fragments of a civilization which it would be absurd to declare to have been of the very highest type, but yet of a character much above that of the wandering tribes, which, with their well-known thirst for blood, destroyed the very arts and useful habits which might have bettered their condition. The whirlwind of barbarian fury is ever one which fills peaceful nations with terror. We may remember how near in the[Pg 20] "Agony of Canada," the French power was to being swept out of existence by the fierce fury of the Iroquois—up to that time always victorious. We may remember how civilization in Minnesota was thrown back by the Sioux massacre of 1861. It is only now by persistent and unwearied efforts that we can hope to conquer the Indians by the arts of peace, and by inducing him to take the hoe in place of the tomahawk, to meet nature's obstacles. Who can fail to heave a sigh for our northern mound builders, and to lament the destruction of so vast and civilized a race as the peaceful Toltecans of Mexico, of the Mississippi, and of the Ohio, to which our Takawgamis belonged? After all, their life must in the main, ever remain a mystery.
Also https://www.gutenberg.org for free books.
And one of the mainstream publishers out there does something cool (along with their authors) : Baen Free Library No DRM, available in five or six formats. That is also the format of their paid ebook store which doesn't charge outrageous prices either. And they do a monthly bundle thing for... $18 bucks I think it is. If you like the look of an upcoming bundle, buy it. The already published books are available right way, and the upcoming books become partially available about three months before. Usually 6-7 books per bundle.
Hey, it happens when you are in a rush. You may be interested in this website for the future though. Ebooks of public domain works.
They're public domain. You might be interested in https://www.gutenberg.org for more public domain works.
edit: also you may have wanted /r/FreeEBOOKS/ though I think they prefer links to the books themselves rather than self postss declaring that something is free with no link. Also, there's free ebooks there, so enjoy that too. Don't expect every free offering to be mindblowing though. Temper your expectations.
It's actually a pretty good book. Maybe not as profound as the pizza genius seems to think it is, but still enjoyable.
It's up on Gutenberg if you're interested https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm
May I recommend Project Gutenberg to you, fellow Redditor? It is an archive of out-of-copyright (in the United States, at least) - thus free - ebooks in various formats, available for download.
Hope this helps you catch up on the classical literature, at least. :)
Project Gutenberg is a great resource for free philosophy texts! It’s not a perfect substitute for buying books/ebooks since there is often minimal formatting (lots of walls of text), but if you’re trying to save money, it’s worth it.
Even when I had bought the books, I sometimes used it as a way to easily search for passages.
In general philosophy is pretty great for not spending money on textbooks. Most of my classes required a couple of small books that ranged between $8-12 used or $15-20 new. And like you mention it’s all out of copyright so you can always find multiple versions and second hand sellers online.
Also, it’s not a substitute for texts but the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an excellent free resource for additional explanation and discussion of common topics in philosophy. Many times, I wouldn’t quite grasp some concept as explained in class but I’d consult the SEP later and feel like I understood it much better.
prosperity gospel, "if god exist then he made me rich." combined with "If you're poor just travel to Africa and take some diamonds they're literally everywhere" https://www.gutenberg.org/files/368/368-h/368-h.htm
Uh I just checked out this book and it’s hilarious. She does her own drawings and has a great sense of humor. It almost reads like a friend writing you a letter. Some of it’s a little outdated but a few chapters in and I like it!
You can grab it on project guttenberg
If any of you want to read a sailor from the 1800s bitch and moan I highly recommend White Jacket by Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick. Since it's old enough it's available for free on Project Gutenberg here!
Oh boy, the xkcd #1357 argument. As always, I'll respond with this comic. Or, if you prefer the original:
>Like other tyrannies, the tyranny of the majority was at first, and is still vulgarly, held in dread, chiefly as operating through the acts of the public authorities. But reflecting persons perceived that when society is itself the tyrant—society collectively, over the separate individuals who compose it—its means of tyrannising are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates: and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practises a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself. Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough: there needs protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling; against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them; to fetter the development, and, if possible, prevent the formation, of any individuality not in harmony with its ways, and compel all characters to fashion themselves upon the model of its own. There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs, as protection against political despotism. -- John Stuart Mill, <em>On Liberty</em>
>"Why letting the bigots spread their hate is the best option for our universities"
Mill presents a pretty compelling argument about this in Chapter 2 of <em>On Liberty</em>.
Here's the "SparkNotes" version (linked to the relevant part of the summary).. Basically:
>...even if the popular opinion is true, if it is not debated it will become "dead dogma." If truth is simply held as a prejudice, then people will not fully understand it, and will not understand how to refute objections to it. Dissent, even if it is false, keeps alive the truth against which it dissents.
This is why yes, it is important to let the bigots say whatever they want (with limits on calls to violence, of course). Especially in universities.