Recovered Fragments of

Dr. Pseudocryptonym's Book Knowledge

"Outworn, misused, misapplied for so long, the aristocratic ideal is now quite dead. There is no escape from machinery and modern inventions; no escape from city vulgarity and money power, no escape from the dictatorship of the uncultured....

"An individual man or woman, carrying to a comfortless job through clanging streets the cheapest editions of some immortal book, can mount the stairs of his secret psychic watch-tower and think the whole ant heap into invisibility."

--John Cowper Powys, The Meaning of Culture, 1930.
quoted in Vanity Fair April 1993 p88

"Television is very educational. Whenever someone turns it on I go into the other room and read a book."

--approximate quote of Groucho Marx

Latest update October 5, 1998. For a text-only version of this page, click here.

Dr. Pseudocryptonym is a member of Hell's Bibliophiles, a gang whose existence was first publicly exposed in the Dec 25, 1995-Jan 1, 1996 New Yorker by investigative cartoonist Micheal Maslin.

On the other hand, if you've had too much reality lately, maybe you'd like to visit somewhere over the rainbow.

Autodidacts and teachers, please visit California School Book Depository

Life of Vernon Vernon Howell a.k.a. David Koresh.

retro-futurism and far out futures.

How come all the best websites are by individuals?

One thing this website is about is getting public domain books that were only on paper, digitizing them, and offering them freely to anyone interested.

Here is a book, out of print and out of copyright, now available in its first electronic edition in over a hundred years.

A story of, well, uh, a young girl in a bad situation, ... an older guy, ... a child abduction, ... hints of behavior exceeding the bounds of propriety.... Is this the kind of thing you want your children exposed to? On the other hand, I do not believe that reading this would or could lower Robert Dole's moral values. Now that the "Computer Decency Act" has passed for the second time, although with a different name and catch-phrase ("harmful to minors" instead of the previous "indecent"), I hope they make this a test case.

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard by Anatole France, 1890.

Another book digitized at Dr. Pseudocryptonym's. Every freshman English anthology has a story from this book. After you finish one, you wonder what it is you just read. Did anything happen? A rereading is often in order and well worth it. Hard to believe its publication was held up for nine years due to objections of the printers. (At the time the printers could be held liable for libel, not just the publishers.)

The last story, "The Dead", was made into a film by John Huston. It was his last film. According to Robert Anton Wilson in Coincidance, it was autobiographical. Joyce visited the grave of his rival; the grave next to it was inscribed "J. Joyce". (This account has not be confirmed by me. Anyone have corroborating knowledge, email joycebusters@berkeleynetcentral.com.)

Dubliners by James Joyce, 1916.

Joyce FAQ; jorn, a Joyce page with more links; caveman, another Joyce site; bibliography; Internat JJ Foundation; Ulysses for Dummies, from the same artists who created Disney's Inferno; beginning of Finnegans Wake, fair use, 300 words. Color photo of Marilyn Monroe reading the last pages of Ulysses. She had never looked more attractive.

Here is a book Jacques Vallee, French UFO writer, in his book Dimensions; Another Reality, Contemporary Books, 1988, uses to corroborate the idea that UFOnauts are actually beings from a parallel dimension and are the same real entities as are described in folkloric stories of elves, leprechuans, djinn, Little People, fairies, devas, demons, angels, etc, extending even to their sexual attraction to humans, as is currently described by "UFO abductees," and is confirmed in various authoritative references from Church history. France and Vallee give a number of references, such as Gnaccius, Compendium Maleficarum, and St. Augustine:

It is a widespread opinion, confirmed by direct or indirect testimony of trustworthy persons, that the Sylvans and Fauns, commonly called Incubi, have often tormented women, solicited and obtained intercourse with them. There are even Demons, which are called Duses [i.e. lutins] by the Gauls who are quite frequently using such impure practices; this is vouched for by so numerous and so high authorities that it would be impudent to deny it.

The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France, 1914.

For more Augustine and early church fathers, visit Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Matthew Fox and Rupert Sheldrake, The Physics of Angels: Exploring the Realm where Science and Spirit meet Harper Collins, 1996. re consciousnesses higher than human. ( 2/3 of Americans say they believe in angels (Billy Graham for instance wrote a book called Angels, God's Secret Agents.) 1/3 of Americans have felt an angelic presence in their lives. There is a market here.) Put this next to Frank Tipler, The Physics of Immortality.

Oddly, I found myself at the "Techno Cosmic Mass of the Angels" in Oakland Sep 29 1996, sort of New Age experimental religious service and dance rave event, with Fox and Sheldrake, 200 humans, raps, techno dance music, sort of a communion. Slides of angels and fractals. The higher beings of all traditions are taken seriously. VERY ecumenical.

Angels and Aliens: UFOs and the Mythic Imagination Keith Thompson, Addison Wesley, 1991. Concludes that something weird is going on.

For the latest on religious apparitions Catholic Apparitions of Jesus and Mary .... more

"These photos sure beat the crap out of scripture "scholars" attempts to determine ("demythologically") what biblical accounts of angels might really mean."
-- The Virgin Mary at Zeitun

www.fatima.org

What they think of "literature" at the Vatican.

Thaïs by Anatole France, 1909.

excerpt: interview with a hermit. The connection with Epictetus is apparent.

One of the all time great satires, written in the form of a history book. Comparable with Gulliver's Travels or Candide. The place to start reading France; it filled me with glee. From the slipcover:

This is among the most widely read of Monsieur France's satirical productions. In its English dress it has already gone through several editions, and its popularity shows no symptoms of decline. How the aged and half-blind Saint Maël baptised a colony of penguins, how, to repair his error, the penguins were changed into human beings, how they were miraculously towed by the Saint to the Breton shore and all the things that afterwards befell them, will be found to afford some vastly entertaining reading.

Penguin Island by Anatole France, 1909.

see below, Industrial Society and its Future by F.C., the Unabomber's manifesto

take a visit to www.calm.wa.gov.au/tourism/penguin_island.html, Penguin Island.

Containing speeches that would gain accolades or imprisonment, if told by a politician or a citizen, respectively. One heck of a play of didactic purpose; only problem, it's only half right. And a couple of world wars have rolled by since... I guess I'll have to write an essay to fix up his misunderstanding. (British movie version made in war year 1941. Please do not confuse Major Barbara with Private Benjamin, as I did.)

Major Barbara, with an Essay as First Aid to Critics by George Bernard Shaw, 1907.

In Darkest England, by General William Booth of the Salvation Army, 1890 for background. (ftp 700K) Brilliant title

It will be seen that among the objects with which we are acquainted are not included physical objects (as opposed to sense-data), nor other people's minds.

p52

The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, 1912.

Differing copyright laws allow only US access. If you are in Britain or places with equivalent laws please hold off downloading this file until 2020. UPDATE: EU copyright extended to 70 years post mortem. Make that A.D. 2040.

These public domain works were cheerfully digitized and aschteemelified by volunteer munchkins at Dr. Pseudocryptonym's, and appear here for the first time ever in electronic form. They have received much of value freely from other anonymous beings from another dimension on the net, and wish to return the favor with their donated labor. These efforts are part of the worldwide construction of the Cathedral of Online Culture, a magnificent and benevolent project for the benefit of all.

coming soon.... The Legend(s) of Dr. Pseudocryptonym

and more books

and social commentary, soon as I get some time away from my comfortless job...

Looking for something to read?

What should you read? Who says so? A list of 900 "Great Books."

Another list of Great Books includes Erich Segal, Love Story.

any one for a few Eastern classics?.

Pretty great books of what they claim is Western Civilization. ....... an anthology of World Civ.

Can you stand another list of reading lists? How about now? (includes the list from the book How to Read a Book.)

Paul Philips said:

My proposal is this: I would like for each of you to decide on a single book that you would most like for the world to read for inclusion in the list. The book that, for you, was the most influential, or thought-provoking, or enjoyable, or moving, or philosophically powerful, or deep in some sense you cannot properly define, or any other criteria you wish to set.
The results: http://www.go2net.com/internet/onebook/

42 suggestions for one book, by Joe E. Dees.

Presidential contenders's book ranks; 1992

Books of the Century, according to the New York Public Library.

rec.arts.books http://www.wco.com/~rteeter/rab.html stuff working up to the FAQ.

"Computer and Internet related Online Books" hoganbooks.com/freebook/weball.html 471 books or parts thereof on the web.

~bong/books/GuiltList "...a list that attempts to help an English major find out if he/she is qualified to apply for a grad program."

disappearing links...

If you can't hack English as a Profession, there'll always be a career in Urinalysis.

QIX's recomended reading

Tim's Offline Reading List "... a significant impact on my life, or have been just plain fun to read, or both." What are the chances Tim and QIX are the same person?

jkassis

Leri mailing list's list. sorry. Link nonfunctional. Why can't those leri-l people get their act together?

the top 3040 SciFi and Fantasy books.http://www.clark.net/pub/iz/Books/Top100/top100ftp.txt .... some comments

some "Goth" book suggestions

influential books of the head of the Manhattan project, Robert Oppenheimer.

extropian /transhuman reading list ; ...... and another; ........... kkbuxton book list, and more lists of lists of recomendations... ....... Arkuat's Books, interesting development ........... frogfarm's reading list........ Virion Reading List ........... "Important Literature" in the estimation of Damien R. Sullivan

Kristina Lerman's reading list plus her translation of Alexander Kuprin's story "Tale of a Trampled Flower"

In the sixties there was a tv show known as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. It has been resurrected, with a slightly modified name, as The McLaughlin GROUP. Recent books the GROUP recommends.

Reading list for "Liberalism Resurgent"

Book reviews by Gary McGath;...... by Danny Yee;...... by Stewart Brand; ...... by Howard Rheingold; ...... by Greg Burch; ...... by Cosma Shalizi; ...... by Tom Kovach; ...... by David Cary; ...... by Office of International Criminal Justice - The University of Illinois at Chicago ;...... by Washington Weekly; ...... about RAND publications . ; ...... by Srini. Bhagavad Gita to Hardcore California......; computer books; great computer books ; ..... by Philip Greenspun ; ...... by www.weyrich.com

Many scholarly books on glass insulators on the cross beams of telephone poles. Many scholarly books on silicon semi-insulators and their congolmerations

Another specialized booklist

Individual Rights in America: A citizen's Guide to Internet Resources, as of 1994. Others in other countries may see what they are missing. Look quickly; quickly becoming outdated.

Newt Gingrich, PhD in history, distributed a reading list

Church of Euthanasia suggested reading Please do not confuse Church of Euthanasia with the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Nor Heaven's Gate. Hale-BOPP, and Hail, BO PeeP.

Ted Kaczynski's, Unabomber's, and victims's reading list. More as the FBI leaks it

As far as I know Dr. Gingrich, Dr. Kaczynski, Dr. Pseudocryptonym, Dr. Dobbs, and Dr. Demento are not related.

Name that author...

Name that author...2

Name that author...3

some other noncommercial book websites on the web....

digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ THE On-Line Books Page;
includes a list of the first 10000 books in English available to you freely on the net. New ones every day. A form of universal wealth with none of the disadvantages of money.
new additions to the list

Internet Public Library list of books, plus shorter works, various languages

www.exemplary.net/omnimedia/links.html a better list of other book sites. They aim for completeness. They even list Dr. Pseudocryptonym. [ Or they used to; now not; I guess they are going for quality. ] Actually, this site is commercially oriented; ebooksellers.

The Virtual Library: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed by James J. O'Donnell nice essay

digital.library.upenn.edu/books/banned-books.html banned books online, books that some one some where some when tried to suppress. Fat chance. Good luck China and Iran and Bob Dole and Senator Exon trying to filter the internet.... Round one. Feb 1996. The "Computer Decency Act" has passed through the guts of the US Congress. If they had only been more wide-ranging readers I don't believe they would have swallowed such a silly law. Now how do we clean up the mess? This sounds like a job for those French superheros, Gargantua and Pantagruel. FLASH! June 1996, the courts say CDA is unconstitutional. Overbroad. I think this was obvious to all, even its advocates. But this is not the end of the matter. The real issue isn't porno, it's CONTROL or CONTROL. That's why, now in October 1998, it has been revivified as a rider on the Budget bill, now the key words are "harmful to minors"; "healthful to lawyers".

There is no sex on the internet; it's all just words and pictures.

Cosma Rohilla Shalizi. Classic fiction, futurism, reviews, science, statistics, poetry, commentaries, hyperweirdness links. [home page;] [works by CRS;] [poetry by others;] [prose by others.] [Why bother?]

Contrarily, "Why I think it's bad to read books." according to Bruce Ong.[busted link...]

alt.usenet.manifestoes archive, a mixed bag, includes the Anti-Unabomber Manifesto, and the SCUM manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men)

www.etext.org/error Anyone may submit texts to this vast collection, no matter how objectionable. Exception: no porno. (Update: Closed, but archived at archive.org, follow link above.)

pwessel's Book Lovers

rdaeley's metalinks to authors last time I looked, unavailable

thequail's, The Libyrinth "The Library, symbolic of a multitudinous cross-referencing of resources; and the Labyrinth, symbolic of a prose style that employs many winding paths through a shifting veil of reality."

"The Libyrinth is dedalicated to James Joyce,
Ur-father who's art uneven, how wired be thy skein."

We now return you to the nightmare from which we are trying to awaken, currently in progress...

On this 50th anniversary (August 1995) of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs, I enter this list of ALL nuclear explosions in history. up to June 1998. Both tests and non-tests. I read that the French have now (early 1996) finally given up their tests, having learned what they needed to know.

"I don't like this word 'bomb'. It is not a bomb. It is a device which is exploding."
-- Jacques LeBlanc, French ambassador to New Zealand, chastising the National Press Club in Wellington for reporting on French nuclear tests, as quoted in Dec 95-Jan 96 Rolling Stone.

China's tests continue. According to Scientific American, July? 1996, China is considering using nuclear explosions to dig a channel to change the course of the Bhramaputra river northward, to China's desert regions. This sounds a lot like a proposal, now abandoned, to do something similar in Alaska (dig a harbor), and Siberia (reverse a river); except in the Siberia case the mess would remain in one country (except the fallout). Interesting times. NEWS:

Here're the most recent: (as of June 2, 1998)


The non-Kingdom of France:
951121 212959.9 FRMUR UNDG  4.6           21.900S 138.960W                  G
951227 212959.8 FRMUR UNDG  5.0           21.800S 139.090W                  G
960127 212959.5 FRFAN UNDG  5.1           22.270S 138.780W                  G
People's Republic of China:
960608 025559.4 PCLNR UNDG  5.7 4.0       41.65N  88.76E                    G
960729 014859.1 PCLNR UNDG  4.7           41.69N  88.35E                    G
India:
980511 101344.2 INRAJ UNDG  5.1 3.6   43  27.072N 71.761E           SHAKTI1 Gi
980511 101344.2 INRAJ UNDG            12  27.072N 71.761E           SHAKTI2 Gi
980511 101344.2 INRAJ UNDG            0.2 27.072N 71.761E           SHATKI3 Gi
980513 0651     INRAJ UNDG  3?        0.5 27.1N   71.7E             SHAKTI4 i
980513 0651     INRAJ UNDG  3?        0.3 27.1N   71.7E             SHATLI5 i
Pakistan:
980528 101617.6 PKCHA UNDG  4.9 3.6    ?  28.903N 64.893E                   G
980528 101617.6 PKCHA UNDG  4.9 3.6    ?  28.903N 64.893E                   G
980530 065506.3 PKCHA UNDG  4.3        ?  28.513N 63.865E                   G

Also of interest,

Amateur Radiation Detection and Experimentation Page. educational.

Oct 23, 1996 the papers report the Pentagon is now contacting 21,000 Gulf War vets, to see if they were exposed to chemical weapons incineration, up from 0, to 500, to 15000. March 1 97: even more missing records.

"Urgent Call to Action! Respond to the Unjust Execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Compatriots in Nigeria! The government of General Sani Abacha has crossed a final and irrevocable line..."

www.calyx.com/~refuse/mumia/ and http://www.wnia.org/WNIA/hap/mumia.html about irregularly charged and convicted journalist now on death row. FLASH! now disclosed, he has health problems; retrial rebuffed so far.

An interesting personal jail saga, a true nightmare that could happen to anyone.

The only way you're going to know what it really says is to read it yourself. Thanks to the technology of electronic networks, and Time Warner--Turner Broadcasting, here's the Unabomber's manifesto and confession of murder, Industrial Society and its Future by F.C. If you have read Penguin Island you can see the connection. If he or she had only read France, I don't think s/he would have murdered.
Also, at Time Warner--Turner online, Sept 19, 1995: we read:

UNABOMBER GETS HIS INK: "I'm really surprised they did it," TIME's Richard Zoglin says of the decision by The New York Times and the Washington Post to publish the unaltered, 35,000-word Unabomber manifesto in today's Post. "These are two papers who closely guard their journalistic integrity, so this makes their giving in to a terrorist's demands even more unusual." ©1995 Time Warner-Turner BS

So what does that say about Time's journalistic integrity, given they don't have any terrorist demands to publish it on their website? ("...two papers who..."; grammar, please)

Also I suspect the correct spelling is "Unabombre".

FLASH! They have a suspect. April 3, 1996. Ted Kaczynski's student and faculty evaluations at UCB.

The book that coined the term "Industrial Revolution", Lectures on The Industrial Revolution in England, by Arnold Toynbee, 1884, here online. (This Arnold Toynbee is the uncle of the other Arnold Toynbee, author of A Study of History.) Also mentions Jethro Tull.

If you're looking for more techno-criticism, try Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (first edition was 1954, in French), who expands use of the word "technique/technology" to include bureaucracy in general. (By the way, Unabombre, (the real one) get in touch. I could use the reward and you could use the time to develop your essays and organize your fellow prisoners for political action.)

A contemporary technological optimist ("American standards of living with a [world] population of even 15 billion") John McCarthy. And, thanks to Cosma, here are two more treats: Daedalus, or Science and the Future, a 1923 speech by J.B.S.Haldane, and a rejoiner, Icarus, or The Future of Science by Bertrand Russell, 1924. Haldane says:

Has mankind released from the womb of matter a Demogorgon which is already beginning to turn against him, and may at any moment hurl him into the bottomless void? Or is Samuel Butler's even more horrible vision correct, in which man becomes a mere parasite of machinery, an appendage of the reproductive system of huge and complicated engines which will successively usurp his activities, and end by ousting him from the mastery of this planet? Is the machine-minder engaged on repetition-work the goal and ideal to which humanity is tending?

But first we may consider for a moment, the question of whether there is any hope of stopping the progress of scientific research. It is after all a very recent form of human activity, and a sufficiently universal protest of mankind would be able to arrest it even now....

Russell:

I am compelled to fear that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups, rather than to make men happy....
The changes that have been brought about have been partly good, partly bad; whether, in the end, science will prove to have been a blessing or a curse to mankind, is to my mind, still a doubtful question....
Therefore at present all that gives men power to indulge their collective passions is bad. That is why science threatens to cause the destruction of our civilization. The only solid hope seems to lie in the possibility of ....
... the collapse of our civilization would in the end be preferable to this alternative.

Here be further excerpts from this exchange. Also: Daedalus, full text, Icarus, full text at Bactra.org.

The World, the Flesh & the Devil; An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul J. D. Bernal, 1929. full text at Bactra.org,

Unabombre, is it convincing to show your concern for human beings by killing them? Cf "We had to destroy the village in order to save it." ( Immortal words from a US general during the Vietnam-USA war.)

www.ludditereader.com/ "The last place to look... for Luddite reading...", non-operative....

First the song, now the site: Holiday in Cambodia

U.S. SENATE PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS HEARINGS ON GLOBAL PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY ON THE AUM SHINRIKYO, OCTOBER 31,1995 including their beliefs in the imagined weapons of Nikolas Tesla, antisemitism, hatred of "internationalists", etc.

A little article, just the right mix for that fine sense of fear and paranoia. Connoisseurs, enjoy. Infowar and Disinformation: From the Pentagon to the Net. And CIA Vince Foster PROMIS Mossad .... . And a companion piece: INFO BLACKOUT (domain name registration in spy hands). The Rand Corporation has been kind enough to inform me that CYBERWAR BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS ARE COMING!! CYBERWAR BUDGET APPROPRIATIONS ARE COMING!! And for a nice government-paid junket, you might like to go to a foreign country to the InfoWar Conference in the city hosting the computer handling worldwide bank clearings for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications. (SWIFT) Is an open and free society the best defense against info war, or not?

Babalone Alliance

Here's one version of 21th century war....and another essay on future war

The methods now being used to merchandise the political candidate, as though he were a deodorant, positively guarantee the electorate against ever hearing the truth about anything.


---Aldous Huxley, 1958
emphasis added

"And everyday the paperboy brings more..."

and for a change of pace... Science Without Bounds: A Synthesis of Science, Religion and Mysticism "is an on-line book ... which describes a world view based on mysticism that's harmonious with science and religion. Science Without Bounds is copyrighted by Arthur J. D'Adamo and may be freely redistributed."

QUITO, ECUADOR-- A controversy is raging because a foot powder named Puluapies was elected mayor of a town of 4100.

A foot-deodorant firm decided during recent municipal election campaigns to use the slogan: "Vote for any candidate, but if your want well-being and hygiene, vote for Puluapies."

On election eve, it followed up its advertising with nationwide distribution of a leaflet the same size and color as the official ballot reading, "For Mayor: Honorable Puluapies."

When the votes were counted, the coastal town of Picoaza elected Puluapies by a clear majority, and dozens of other voters in outlying municipalites had marked their ballots for it.

--Front page, San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1967.

The above story is quoted by Ira Einhorn. Did he make it up?

"We are beginning to perceive how free world populations move with a ghostly sixth sense to nurture group survival. Consider a presidential election where the choice is between two second-rate candidates. The [U.S.] election of 1988 is a good example. An objective observer is struck by the fact that the people give the Presidency to one party and deliver the Congress to the opposition, thereby rendering to a minimum the damage potential of an incompetent."
--from p124 of Let Us Prey by Bill Branon

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Warning: I suspect Dr. Pseudocryptonym is not a real doctor.

Self-referential url: http://pseudopodium.com/DrPseudocryptonym/

Shanti, shanti, shanti.