Book Club

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0. "Great God Pan" by Arthur Machen

To the great god Nodens (the god of the Great Deep or Abyss) Flavius Senilis has erected this pillar on account of the marriage which he saw beneath the shade.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/389/pg389-images.html

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1. "Heart of Darkness" by Josef Conrad (1899)
https://gutenberg.org/files/219/219-h/219-h.htm
Themes: colonialism, third world, morality, neoplatonism

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2. "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (trans 1928)
https://sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/index.htm
Themes: chaos, world building, eternal life

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3. William S. Burroughs: "The Limits of Control" (1978)
https://aphelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/BURROUGHS_1978_The_Limits_of_Control.pdf

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4. Plato "The Republic" (360 BC)
https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html

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5. Browne, BP, "The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer"
https://archive.org/details/philosophyofherb0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up

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6. Conrad, Joseph. "Heart of Darkness"
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/526

A vicious criticism of both colonialism and diversity.

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Short story about love versus individualism
https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/webtexts/hour/

Alleged inspiration for Tolkien
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2721/pg2721.txt

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The Marching Morons by Kornbluth, C. M.

The story is set hundreds of years in the future: the date is 7-B-936. John Barlow, a man from the past put into suspended animation by a freak accident involving a dental drill and anesthesia, is revived in this future. The world seems mad to Barlow until Tinny-Peete explains the Problem of Population: due to a combination of intelligent people not having children and excessive breeding by less intelligent people, the world is full of morons, with the exception of an elite few who work slavishly to keep order. Barlow, who was a shrewd real estate con man in his day, has a solution to sell to the elite, in exchange for being made World Dictator.

https://archive.org/details/themarchingmoron51233gut

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7. "Excellent Women," by Barbara Pym
https://archive.org/details/excellentwomen1952pymb/page/n7/mode/2up