What are you reading Chapter 4

[DownRound]

I visited Kyoto about 20 years ago. I sent an email to the woman I was starting to date "If I don't come back, I've taken up the Shakuhachi and become a temple musician here." There is indeed something magical about their architecture and garden design.

I've since taken up the Shak (I play badly) but did come back and married that woman.

This just showed up in my email.
I thought maybe you should see it.

Essential 10 Shakuhachi Albums | Songlines

Chris Wheatley asks musician, composer and writer Clive Bell to select ten key albums showcasing the range and depth of the traditional Japanese flute

www.songlines.co.uk

 

[DownRound]

"Bad design flaws" in Hobsbawm's method, or in nations?

Funny, and not like it will stoke controversy or anything, so for the record - no political discussion. But I just finished Roger Griffin's Fascism: A Quick Immersion. Griffin is an advocate for a "generic" concept of fascism, meaning that it's a genus that encompasses a variety of species of political movements, as opposed to "specific" concepts of it that limit the term to only a particular historical entity. But he takes an interesting approach to it; most ideologies, we tend to define intellectually, by the ideas of a political theorist like John Locke for liberalism or Karl Marx for communism. Fascism doesn't really have such a theorist, which is why there's so much wrangling over how to define it.

Griffin doesn't treat fascism as a ideological theory so much as an ideological narrative. The mouthful phrase he uses is "revolutionary palingenetic ultranationalism." What that means is that the "ultranation" is the protagonist in the story; it's the nation conceived of as a kind of organism that can be born, grow strong, sicken or die. The "revolutionary palingenetic myth" is that the once-heroic ultranation has gotten weak, sick, and decayed, and needs to be reborn through a radical purge of corrupting impurities in its institutions, culture, and population, so that it can enter a renewed heroic future. By that measure, there are lots of parties and movements that may be variously populist, authoritarian, or right-wing, but they aren't necessarily "fascist" unless they are driven by such a narrative. Meanwhile the narrative itself is very flexible and can incorporate or discard all kinds of contradictory ideas and agendas.

After posting, it occurred to me that my specific meaning of "bad design flaw" is pretty idiosyncratic, and probably no one would get the joke.
And I had actually thought about the "no political discussion" policy.
But you can't change a post after an hour has gone by.

The bad design flaw in my view, is in us, as a species, hence the bad joke about being filed under natural sciences versus social sciences.
It actually kind of runs along the lines of what it seems Griffin might be getting at, a generic description of natural behavior, endemic to our species (although Griffin calls it narrative, similar in being an a posteriori designation).

And in a general sense, ideologies (including the political) are something that is just used by the human critter to justify what really just comes from a totally species-level impulse. We're animals differentiated from others principally (and very marginally) by a greater capacity for abstract ideation and language. Which leads to trouble than benefits, because we don't realize that these follow from the basic animal impulses, and we think that all the elaborate institutions that we make up are "rational".
Big design flaw.

And I think that no political discussion is a very good policy.
An endless quagmire. Guaranteed to start trouble.
That Griffin book looks really interesting.
I'm gonna have to look into it.
Thanks.

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[DownRound]

I always loved the etiology of that name.
Still means "room" in a lot of languages, including some in India.
You used to sit inside of them to get the image, and then they came up with the travel cameras.



Brought a song to mind I hadn't thought of for a while.

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[Frosteeman]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain

Latest selection for the book club. Initially it was chosen as lighter fare after Don Quixote, but it's accidentally an interesting contrast to it. I last read this one over 20 years ago and I'm beginning to wonder if I read an abridged version, because there are a lot of things I don't remember. Either that, or 20 years is too long ago for my memory.

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[kleinenenten]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain

Latest selection for the book club. Initially it was chosen as lighter fare after Don Quixote, but it's accidentally an interesting contrast to it. I last read this one over 20 years ago and I'm beginning to wonder if I read an abridged version, because there are a lot of things I don't remember. Either that, or 20 years is too long ago for my memory.

That one's on my "short" (rather, long) list. Any specific thoughts on its quality? I've just started reading The Golem. Only the introduction giving background information about the author's life thus far, but I'm excited to read it. I saw the old 1920s movie it inspired a few months ago and was captivated - given my history and preference for text, I'm assuming the novel will do the same and more.

 

[Frosteeman]

That one's on my "short" (rather, long) list. Any specific thoughts on its quality? I've just started reading The Golem. Only the introduction giving background information about the author's life thus far, but I'm excited to read it. I saw the old 1920s movie it inspired a few months ago and was captivated - given my history and preference for text, I'm assuming the novel will do the same and more.

I'm not quite a third of the way through it and I think it's great, personally. It's written in the vernacular of the late 1800s, so a few phrases go over my head, but it is very humorous and sarcastic. To call the satire biting would almost be an understatement. Some of the best quotes about politics and religion might approach the limits of what's allowable on this site. Beyond all that, it's at least interesting as one of the earliest works of time travel fiction, and that Twain decided to send his protagonist back in time rather than into the future like his contemporaries.

 

[DownRound]

That one's on my "short" (rather, long) list. Any specific thoughts on its quality? I've just started reading The Golem. Only the introduction giving background information about the author's life thus far, but I'm excited to read it. I saw the old 1920s movie it inspired a few months ago and was captivated - given my history and preference for text, I'm assuming the novel will do the same and more.

Wondering if it's the Meyrink version or the Singer re-telling.
.......
I just started another book by Mailer, wanted something more recreational after Hobsbawm and social theory.
I finally read Armies of the Night and The Naked and the Dead last year.

Given his persona, Mailer's writing always surprises - it's insights and lyricism.
My wife was hesitant, but finished Armies, and is now reading The Naked and the Dead.
As with notable others, his work says as much about American society as it's nominal subjects, the story is just the framework.
Again, not what she expected.
This one was described by one reviewer as "the fastest 1000 pages you will ever read."

 

[Jazzdogg]

"Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)" By by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.

An excellent discussion of cognitive dissonance. Highly recommended!

If there were a high school course using this book, I surmise it would be very helpful in helping students understand human nature.

 

[kleinenenten]

Wondering if it's the Meyrink version or the Singer re-telling.

The Meyrink - I always go for the original whenever possible/feasible. Of course, there are exceptions as one of my favorite authors (Jose Saramago) wrote in Portuguese, and I'm certainly not fluent or even conversant. And let's not forget the various translations and updates of my beloved Beowulf - and that doesn't even take into account that there's still debate about what some of the words in that original text even mean!

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[roccobass]

The John Carter of Mars series.

 

[Jeff Scott]

 

[MonetBass]

A really interesting diary by Eric Idle detailing the work around getting the musical "Spamalot" made. I've seen it once (albeit with a traveling cast) and it's hilarious. It's coming back to Tulsa and I want to see it again.

 

[kleinenenten]

I finished Gustav Meyrink's "The Golem" yesterday. Odd ghost story of sorts. Or maybe gothic horror? Whatever it was, I quite liked it, as it reminded me of Kafka and Poe, who are two of my absolute favorites. It also was the inspiration for the old silent movie, though that is incredibly different. Regardless, I may need to track down some of Meyrink's other works.

 

[Eli_Kyiv]

Still churning Martin Beck "The Story of a Crime" series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, now on book 7 of 10.
After this I'm going to read some Irwin Shaw. Does anybody remember this writer?

 

[WG Plum]

Got a few things going, Rip it Up and Start Again, The Obsolescence of the Human, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Mongrels.

Definitely a mixed bag.

 

[Funky Ghost]