📚 Recent Read: The Jungle — Upton Sinclair (1906)

Dr. Schliemann paused a moment. “And then, . . . it has been proven that meat is unnecessary as a food; and meat is obviously more difficult to produce than vegetable food, less pleasant to prepare and handle, and more likely to be unclean. But what of that, so long as it tickles the palate more strongly?” “How would Socialism change that?” asked the girl-student, quickly. It was the first time she had spoken. “So long as we have wage slavery,” answered Schliemann, “it matters not in the least how debasing and repulsive a task may be, it is easy to find people to perform it. But just as soon as labor is set free, then the price of such work will begin to rise.

Rating:
We follow Jurgis, a poor, optimistic immigrant whose spirit is gradually ground down by relentless oppression and exploitation in Chicago's Meat Industry of the early 20th century. Sinclair is at his best showing how suffering forces bad decisions that spiral into deeper suffering. The lengthy socialist speeches of the later chapters feel unnecessary; the story has already made the case.
Mar 11, 2026

My website is live!

I have finally managed to move away from websites I’ve slapped together from examples I found online and am now using hugo to build my personal website. I adapted the theme by Pascal Michaillat based on PaperMod. To keep living in my emacs world, I am using ox-hugo so that I can write posts and updates in org-mode. I hope the ease of posting updates keeps me motivated to start filling this page with exciting things I care about.