Larry’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Larry’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Ron, thanks so much for pointing me toward this. My oldest granddaughter (who is only in 6th grade) wants to be a sculptor, and so I am really prejudiced toward supporting the arts in our schools. I wish I had the talent that she and others have, but I can definitely be supportive of their artistic aspirations and efforts.

John wrote: "A short poem by Emily Brontë. It does not have a title. Although most famous for Wuthering Heights, she was a very powerful poet. The wisdom of her work belies her age — she passed away at only 30 ..."

John,

I need to read more of her poetry.

Eileen wrote: "Interesting, Larry. Do you know if that poem was actually submitted as an essay and whether the application was accepted? Definitely unique. It makes me feel as though my college admission essays w..."

Eileen, I don't know the answer to that, but it is a great question.

Eileen wrote: "I went to quickly look at the painting of Cicero denouncing Cataline mentioned in Chapter 1. I posted it below in case you have not seen it and are interested. I thought her mention of everyone wea..."

I really like the painting ... since he mentions that there would have been 600 eligible senators at the time, I wonder what it really would have looked like.

Admissions Essay
Traci Brimhall

I am a good student. Voted most likely to try harder. Not voted most likely for fairy tales, though I have been both hooded and wolfed. My honors thesis on the role of motherlessness and love hunger brought the candied house down.

I could’ve been valedictorian if the metric was ardor and potential for transformation. I recognize the chemical structure of oxytocin and how to calculate my best chance for a free drink from across the room,and both have strong angles.

I know how it feels when that hormone unlatches my ribs, silks my legs. I don’t confuse that with love because in each unit of intimacy, I enter slow. Adjust my breath. Recognize the accusations that are confessions.

I excelled in the serious ethics of kissing, how it makes the body more image than idea, but I admit that sometimes I like to lick mezcal and grapefruit from a hero’s morally ambiguous mouth. I’m sorry.

That’s how I know I’m a successful candidate.The temptations. The failures. The ever afters of forgiveness I have already lived. For so long I offered others the love I wanted to receive, the cursive letters and lost slippers. The balanced equations and checkbooks. Years of service in the scales of care. Change my story. Accept me.

SOURCE: https://poems.com/poem/admissions-ess...

In the Cicero volume L030 (this is titled de Officiis), there is this interesting perspective about Romans and Cicero in the intoduction:

"n the de Officis we have, save for the latter Philippics, the great orator's last contribution to literature. ... The Romans were not philosophical. In 161 B.c. the senate passed a decree excluding all philosophers and teachers of rhetoric from the city. They had no taste for philosophical speculation, in which the Greeks were the world's masters. They were intensely, narrowly practical, And Cicero was thoroughly Roman. As a student in a Greek university he had had to study philosophy. His mind was broad enough and his soul great enough to give him a joy in following after the mighty masters, Socrates, Plato, Zeno, Cleanthes, Aristotle, Theophrastus, andtherest. But he pursued his study of it, like a Roman, from a 'practical" motive--to promote thereby his power as an orator and to augment his success and happiness in life. To him the goal of philosophy was not primarily to know but to do. Its end was to point out the course of conduct that would lead to success and happiness. The only side of philosophy, therefore, that could make much appeal to the Roman mind was ethics."

Somewhere, it may have been in a preface in of the Caesar volumes of the Loeb Classical Library, there was a great short discussion of the 12(?) manuscripts of Caesar's writings, all as that paragraph said, no earlier than than the 12th century.

I found the Gallic War volume and then found this in that preface:

"The text of the de Bello Gallico presents some difficulties, but it is in no sense, like the text of the de Bello Civili, a cruz criticorum. The Manuscripts fall into two main groups, both of which are traceable to a common ancestor. In the first group (which contains only the Bellum Gallicum) the most important are A (at Amsterdam), of the ninth or tenth century, B and M (at Paris), of the ninth century and the eleventh century respectively, and R (at the Vatican), of the tenth century: in the second group (which contains all the Corpus Caesarianum), T (at Paris), of the eleventh century, and U (at the Vatican), of the twelfth century.
Nipperdey, who may still be regarded as chief among the critical editors of Caesar, based the text of his edition (1847) on the
first group ofM S S . : but the second has found considerable support among more recent scholars, not- ably H. Meusel. The text printed with the present translation rests on the recensions of Nipperdey and INTRODUCTION
R. du P o n t e t (Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis) : but in a few passages use has been made of corrections suggested by or through Dr. Rice Holmes in his critical edition of 1914."

Most of those early Loeb Classical Library volumes came into the public domain a few years ago. There are newer translations of many of the volumes, but I'm not sure that they are generally better. You can find the 277 volumes (both Roman and Greek) that are in the public domain here:

https://ryanfb.xyz/loebolus/

That's great, Diane.

Ron, I second Carol's suggestion of getting back into the employment game through first looking for volunteer work. When people know that you will "just show up" on a consistent basis, they will want to help you themselves.

Cynda, I'll try to join you. My wife and I recently watched Michael Pollan's four part series on Netflix, COOKED. We really liked the pacing of each episode. He got very deep into some different aspects of cooking and eating.

In May Crystal and I would like to read and discuss The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan. I grew up with two gardeners, have tended gardens as housesitter, and have my own container garden, yet this book changed my understanding of plants we skmetimes like to think we are in control of. . . . . .If interested, join us in May fir a buddy read.

In the first chapter, Mary Beard wonders how much of the first Catiline speech, the one supposedly given in the Senate, was what Cicero actually said.

There is another issue that she doesn't mention and that has to do with manuscript transmission and the reliability of manuscripts. This paragraph, taken from a Christian website, has some interesting information:

"Manuscript support lies behind these sources. And this is where things get especially interesting. Around 12 manuscripts are essential for determining the wording of Caesar’s account. The oldest manuscript is from the ninth century—a full 900 years removed from the actual events. The list extends to manuscripts from the 12th century. Cicero’s speeches have an even older pedigree. They have about 15 manuscripts ranging from AD 400 to 800. Sallust’s account has around 20 manuscripts from the 10th and 11th centuries. Plutarch’s Lives is also mostly divided across six key manuscripts that range from the 10th and 11th centuries. Suetonius’s manuscript is dated AD 820. Classics scholars build much of our understanding of Caesar around these sources, even though their manuscript traditions contain significant gaps of time. "

SOURCE: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ar...

Ron,

I am so reliant on Notes on my iPhone for my TBR list. I have a basic list which still is about 200 books long, and a TBR LATER list that is even longer. And I know exactly what you mean about the suggestive nature of books on bookshelves.

Ron, my own TBR list is constantly changing. There are hundreds of books on it, and some move up while others move down. The release of new books, the sudden availability of books from the library, and recommendations of books from trusted friends are the biggest factors in these changes.

NONFICTION READING - ONLY THE BEST

Newsletter -- April 2023

* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE
* BOOK OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE
* BUDDY READS


APRIL BOOK OF THE MONTH - MODERATOR'S CHOICE

The first Book of the Month is Mary Beard’s SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome.

Why read Mary Beard’s SPQR?

Well, in one word … historiography.

But first to the story she tells. To give you a flavor of what she focuses on … it really is not just emperors. I’ll steal these two sentences from a review of the book in The New Republic: “Though she here claims that 50 years of training and study have led up to SPQR, Beard wears her learning lightly. As she takes us through the brothels, bars, and back alleys where the populus Romanus left their imprint, one senses, above all, that she is having fun.” So it’s about the emperors, and the armies, and the Senate, but a lot about the people of the Republic and of the Empire.

And now back to that historiography, or the study of historical writing. She actually makes historiography fun. She actually only uses that word three times in the book, and never with reference to what she’s doing. But what she is doing in this book is not just telling us the story of Rome but answering these questions. How do we know what we know about Rome? What are we sure of when it comes to that knowledge, and what do we just have a reasonable belief about?

LINK TO THE DISCUSSION: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH

May 2023 - Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

June 2023 - Elizabeth Kolbert - Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

July 2023 - David Quammen - Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

August 2023 - Judith A. Green - The Normans: Power, Conquest and Culture in 11th Century Europe

September 2023 - Carl Zimmer - A Planet of Viruses

October 2023 - Elizabeth Pisani - Indonesia, Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

November 2023 - Peter Zeihan - The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

December 2023 - Michael Ruhlman - Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America

January 2024 - Michael Herr - Dispatches

February 2024 - Michael J. Sandel - Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?

March 2024 - Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration

UPCOMING BOOKS OF THE MONTH - MEMBERS' CHOICE

Beginning in July, a second Book of the Month will be selected by votes of the interested members.

This will be different than in most (maybe all) of the other GoodReads book groups. First of all, no automated polls.

More important is that you get to vote only on the choice if you nominate a book. But to make this easy … if you can't think of a book you want to nominate, you can just nominate the same book that someone else has already nominated for that month. I’m really looking for participation and want to aid that.

An example may help. So we may get ten members making nominations and six nominated books. And then the ten members who have participated in the nominations will be those who choose the books by voting. Why this process? Well, after having participated/lurked in about 20 GoodReads book groups, I have seen too many book groups select books of the month by a small minority, with in some cases minimal activity in the reading of the book selected.

I would hope that the person who nominates a book that is chosen will actively participate in the discussion. You don’t have to lead that discussion, but if you do, that’s great.

Beginning on June 1, I will call for nominations for the Monthly Rading - Members’ Choice for July. On June 11, I will call for votes among the books nominated from any and all who participated in the nomination process. On June 21, I will announce the winner. That book will be the July Members’ Choice Book of the Month. In case of ties, I will choose the winner.

Each month will follow a similar process.

BUDDY READS - Call them Buddy Reads or Side Reads ... I don't really think it matters. But if you want to read any (or almost any ... I have some limits) books with someone else here, I'll set up folders for doing just that. I'll set up a thread for proposed buddy reads and when someone proposes a book and someone else opts in for the shared reading experience, I'll set up a folder for that book. I have already set up the first folder for a book that Ron proposed as a Buddy Read.

Good Reading!

Larry, Founder and Moderator

John wrote: "Larry wrote: "John,

I just follow games that interest me and tend to root for underdogs. I have liked the Nats. North Carolina could probably support a franchise if the A’s ever relocate. .."

You are pretty much like my son. He just watches the best available game. ... He was wearing a Durham Bulls hat this week ... when he and my daughter-in-law came back from seeing Bruce Springsteen in DC. He's had the hat for 20 years. I asked him about it and he said that fewer people recognized it these days ... and that the last two people who asked him about it asked him if it was a Denver Broncos hat. I do think you are right about North Carolina supporting a MLB team. Maybe the Tampa Bay team should move to NC. But I like the A's even better as a possibility.

John,

As a Washington Nationals fan, the new baseball season already is one that I know will be challenging. All my favorite players are gone ... with the exception of Stephen Strasburg who starts the season on the 60 day disabled list but who may never pitch again. Even the worst teams usually win about 60 games, so I can take some pleasure day-to-day.

Which team is your favorite?

Larry

I understand, John. That grief is real and can be almost overwhelming. When you give your heart to people or to animal loved ones, you gain so much and then you open yourself open to this pain. We are thinking of you.

Eileen wrote: "Larry, thanks, I was wondering from your first post if you had perhaps already read this and the fact that you have must mean you enjoyed it. This will be my first introduction to Mary Beard since ..."

Eileen, she has two interesting books on classics in general which I have but have not read. They are Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations and Classics: A Very Short Introduction.

As I said I will be re-reading this book. The main reason I wanted to return to it us that I remembered how great it was. But the second reason may seem a little strange. I recent read Camilla Townsend's Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, which she wrote using the actual Aztec sources written in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica (the people we usually call Aztecs). The story of how these sources came to exist when the Spanish priests destroyed so much of the original codices is amazing. But Townsend goes beyond that to explain what we can trust in the Nahuatl writing and what is not quite trustworthy. As I read the book, I kept on thinking back to Beard's book that explains so well what we know and how we know it.