Norm reads the final chapter of his book:
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
Gulag Reflections
As I mentioned about a week ago, I took it upon myself to read the book The Gulag Archipelago by Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The actual Archipelago series is three volumes, and about 1200 pages. I read the approximately 500 page trimmed-down version of it, making copious highlights along the way.
The book certainly had an impact on me, and I wanted to offer you a smattering of snippets, with remarks along with each one, and perhaps by the time I get to the end, I’ll have some personal insights to offer
I originally was going to break this into multiple parts, due to its length, as well as to satisfy my neurotic need for a large quantity of posts every day. But this post is very long for a reason, and some people will want to consume it all in one sitting. So this will be the only post for twenty-four hours. It took a tremendous amount of work, and it deserves the time.
These snippets are not meant in any way to substitute for the reading of a 500 page book (which itself is less than half the content of the original work), but to instead serve as small jumping-off point for various thoughts and impressions I had. We begin with a description of the ubiquitous and omnipresent risk of being arrested anytime and anywhere during the era of the gulag
(more…)The Task Before Me
It’s done. I’ve finished the book. It’s been highlighted and tagged. Now I want to write about it, and that’s going to take some time, and it’ll probably be in multiple parts. But that is, in part, how I plan to spend my Christmas weekend.
Daring to Look Evil in the Face
As some of you may recall, I learned about Jordan Peterson and his work less than a month ago, and I dived into it feet-first. One book that he mentioned repeatedly, which likewise I had never heard about, was The Gulag Archipelago by Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I figured, well, Peterson thinks it’s an incredibly important read, the author won a Nobel prize, and some scholars consider is the best non-fiction book of the 20th century, so, yeah, maybe I should buy it. So I did.
I am only 10% of the way through the book, so it’s somewhat presumptuous of me to write a post having anything to do with a book whose surface I’ve barely scratched, but even with this modest exposure, I have some thoughts I’d like to share based on what I’ve read so far and what thoughts it is conjuring.
(more…)The Changing World Order
Before the plane ride home on Sunday, I needed something good to do, so I (paid full retail) bought a new book from Ray Dalio called Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order. It’s over 500 pages, but it was just the right length for the flight from Columbus back to San Francisco.
I think Mr. Dalio has basically amassed a bunch of cool research and charts and is, like a good chef, using the basic ingredients to make a variety of different dishes. I’ve already bought a few recent Dalio books, and they all have the same DNA.
Still, I found this one to be the most accessible and easy-to-read. I think almost any adult could get something good out of it, since it spells out quite plain how basically the United States is utterly hosed and China is going to shove us off the world stage. Dalio isn’t precise (nor could he be) about when this is going to happen, but he makes clear it has the potential to be very, very, VERY ugly and horrific. So, yeah, right up the alley of the kinds of things that interest me. I paid $35 for it (shame on me, but I was desperate) but the link above is for Amazon where it’s like $21 or so. Give it a read!
