Introducing the Deindustrial Reading Ynitiative

[deketemoisont]

(The community is made: https://dryreading.dreamwidth.org/ .)

(The idea was by Jen Richardson ( https://jenrichardson.dreamwidth.org/2638.html ), who's been happily busy ( https://jenrichardson.dreamwidth.org/4393.html ) - I do recommend everything else on her blog! All errors and awful puns my fault only.)

I'm trying to take Jen's idea and run with it, making a Dreamwidth community for us to talk about the books in https://thearchdruidreport-archive.200605.xyz/2009/02/deindustrial-reading-list.html (hence "Deindustrial Reading Ynitiative", that and bad taste on my part), which resemble Jen's list, but are already planned and ordered. We'd go through this DRY reading 1 chapter/month, with a post for each on the community - though, since I don't expect to deal with anywhere as many comments as JMG does in total, the discussions of each chapter on each post needn't end with each month (if there's that much interest!). Assuming interest, I intend to make the first post on April 1st.

SInce the 2nd and 3rd books are fixed, we only need for now to fix the 1st. I intend to arbitrarily pick Eugene P. Odum's Fundamentals of Ecology because I like the author's other books better than Brewer's, which might suggest higher quality of the textbook in question. I do notice that JMG did *not* say we needed to pick 1 of those 2, and I tried to pick an ecology textbook with a digital version available (unlike either of those) - but it appears the good stuff lacks that, so I'm thinking about just going with Odum. Regarding items 7 and 10 on the list, I think the right thing to do would be for each member to pick one such book and review it, but we'll have *plenty* of time to consider that until we get there. (Meaning I think we should converge regarding item 4, but can leave that for even a lot later.)

Interest signals, suggestions, and possibly other stuff welcome in the comments.

Comments

[jprussell]

Overall, I think this is a great idea. Despite the fact (because of the fact?) I have my own ideas about what I ought to read/am going to read, I will go ahead and nail myself down to this group - every time I've taken on an arbitrary reading restriction, especially if other folks were involved, it's led to greater learning.

One thought: for a few months only, I ran a "bizarro book club" - the point was that each of the participants read a different book, and at each meeting, we all shared our different books with each other. Pluses: more variety, individuals got to shine. Minuses: Not being held to the *same* book as everyone else meant a lot more forgotten text quoted, folks reading shit "just because", and folks skipping meetings first because they didn't have a new book, and then forever because they missed a meeting.

At any rate, despite its weaknesses, one strength was that it maximized the variety that different group participants brought to a meeting. which may or may not be desirable).

[deketemoisont]

"Despite the fact (because of the fact?) I have my own ideas about what I ought to read/am going to read" - so do I (both scheduled and not); 1 chapter/month means even busier people should be able to follow this without being prevented from other reading! And yeah, I'm in this most of all for the other folks.

I intend items 7 and 10 to be "bizarro" as things are. Regarding a full-bizarro book club, never g... I mean, it was something I considered trying to put together before - but for now I'll say "let's do the simpler task first, and this list is an excellent Schelling point for the place the people were invited from"; should this be seen to actually work, we can, possibly should, consider more complex ideas! (The one you ran was in person, it seems?)

[jprussell]

Video chat, actually, which may say something about why it didn't work out. Sure, it was folks well inured to video chat before Covid lockdowns (we were consultants from around the country), but it still didn't have the 'oomph' of an in-person event.

[deketemoisont]

I hadn't even considered the video chat possibility! I was asking in contrast to text over the Internet (which I did think was less likely), in which case I'd ask to read!

[jprussell]

Sorry, after thinking about this yesterday, it hit me that even though the discussions of the book club were not in written form, I *did* write down some of my thoughts at the time. This was one of my old coaching blog posts that hadn't made the migration to my webstead yet, so thanks for spurring me to get that done:

https://jpowellrussell.com/#the_bliss_of_a_bizarro_book_club

[prayergardens]

Hello!

I would be interested. I'm in a bit of a busy spot supporting some extended family members so it is more than likely some months I would fall off the radar. I would commit to at least following along if my participation ebbs and flows.

[deketemoisont]

Welcome aboard! The chapters aren't that long, and I don't intend to stop discussion with each month's end, so you might discuss while behind the latest chapter, read 2 chapters in a less complicated month to catch up, or both.

[alifelongme]

I’m in.
Assuming interest, I intend to make the first post on April 1st.
Do we need to read anything before the 1st?

[deketemoisont]

Nope! Provided the current plan continues, the DRY reading for April will be Chapters 1 and 2 (because Chapter 1 is a 5-page introduction) of Fundamentals of Ecology; April will be plenty of time for us to read and comment a lot should we want!

[alifelongme]

What edition are we going to use? Or does it matter?

[deketemoisont]

... the question wouldn't have occurred to me, and it seems it might matter a lot - not just differing text per chapter, but a more recent edition than the one I have (a Portuguese translation) may have extra chapters!

The chapters I have are (in my translation back to English):

1 - Introduction: Ecology's Domain
2 - Principles and Concepts Regarding the Ecosystem
3 - Principles and Concepts Regarding Energy in Ecological Systems
4 - Principles and Concepts Regarding Biogeochemical Cycles
5 - Principles Regarding Limiting Factors
6 - Principles and Concepts Regarding Community-Level Organization
7 - Principles and Concepts Regarding Population-Level Organization
8 - Species and Individual in the Ecosystem
9 - Ecosystem Development and Evolution
10 - Systems Ecology: Systems Analysis Approach and Mathematical Modelling in Ecology
11 - Freshwater Ecology
12 - Sea Ecology
13 - Estuary Ecology
14 - Land Ecology
15 - Resources
16 - Pollution and Environmental Health
17 - Radiation Ecology
18 - Remote Detection as Tool for Ecosystems Study and Ordering
19 - Perspectives in Microbial Ecology
20 - Space Flight Ecology
21 - For an Applied Human Ecology

. If the edition you can easily grab has differing chapters, we need to think something up. This may matter enough I'll PM everyone else who showed interest thus far. Thanks!

[jprussell]

Huh, I also had not even considered it. The 1971 edition looks like the easiest/cheapest to get used, but there are reasonably-priced copies of the 2004 edition on alibris as well. I'm reflexively suspicious of updated reprints of anything even remotely political from roughly the 70s on, and that seems likely to be the one JMG had from "back in the day". That being said, I'm sure either edition will be fine, and the newer one might have some findings from newer research.

So, I'd likely slightly favor the 1971 edition, but I'm flexible if you or others have a stronger preference for the new one.

[deketemoisont]

I believe my translation is of the 1971 edition, think "easiest/cheapest to get used" matters, and most importantly (IMO!) share the suspicion of newer editions; therefore I'm strongly in favor of using an edition (English or in my case Portuguese) fitting my previous comment.

[alifelongme]

That is a good point. I think I agree re 1971 edition and will be getting that one.

[jenniferkobernik]

Nice! Looking forward to it!

[deketemoisont]

It's already waiting for you!

[jenniferkobernik]

So I see! I need to get to town and check my internet stuff more often! No wifi out at our house, so I kind of live under a rock. For what it’s worth at this late date, the 1971 edition seems ideal to me.

[deketemoisont]

As long as the rock is good to you!

In case you missed my edit to this post: the group is dryreading.dreamwidth.org .