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

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

Carol wrote: "In Britain, as I mentioned before, WW2 was not really mentioned when I was growing up, and the concentration camps also were not mentioned. However, this was not true in Germany. I had a friend who had grown up in Germany after the war and she told me that once a year, every year, the whole school would have to watch films of the concentration camps and the atrocities there, and that this also happened in other German schools. She said that the whole school would be sobbing...."

In many ways, I think that Germany has accepted the atrocities that it was responsible far more than the other nations who fought World War 2. If I had been the Prime Minister of the UK or the President of the United States, I might have bombed Dresden and I might have bombed Japan (including the fifty cities targeted for for bombing even before Hiroshima and Nagasaki), but there is little reflection among the populations of the UK and the United States about these actions. (I also might not have bombed those cities.) I will say that in the UK and the United States, you mainly get ignorance and a lack of interest ... in Japan, you get denial, when it gets to the Rape of Nanking and other atrocities on the Asian mainland.

If you want to understand how the concentration camps and those that were death camps, the ones like Auschwitz, functioned both internally and as integral parts of Germany, I very much recommend reading KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann. (Since 2005, Wachsmann, has been a professor at the University of London.) It reveals the history from the beginning to the end and is harrowing reading indeed. It took me about six weeks to work my way through it. It was worth it.

The following is from the GoodReads review:

" The Third Reich has been studied in more depth than virtually any other period in history, and yet until now there has been no history of the camp system that tells the full story of its broad development and the everyday experiences of its inhabitants, both perpetrators and victims, and all those living in what Primo Levi called "the gray zone."

In KL, Wachsmann fills this glaring gap in our understanding. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system. "

I sat in a staff meeting in USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service about 20 years ago and noticed that Ernie Koening, the person sitting next to me, had a tattoo with numbers on his forearm. After the meeting, I asked him if that was what I thought it was. He nodded. Ernie had become a U.S. citizenship and a Foreign Service Officer. We talked about many things, rarely about Auschwitz ... but I was honored when he shared his unpublished memoir with me ... here are just a few sentences from that: "From there I was sent to a camp that was located inside a big German factory, called "Laurahütte." This was an external camp of Auschwitz. We were slave workers. Black people recall the slavery of their ancestors, but I was a slave in the twentieth century. Unlike the slaves in America who had a commercial value because they could be bought and sold for a price, we were of no commercial value whatsoever. If we were killed, no economic loss occurred. People died from beating, from hanging and from hunger. If they became unfit to work, they were gassed. After about one year in "Laurahütte," we were transferred to Blechhammer, a camp near a big factory, the "Oberschlesiche Hydrierwerke." This camp was part of a complex of camps, called Auschwitz III.
Q: A work camp.
KOENIG: A work camp to die."

Carol wrote: "Am a TV person in the evening from 8 o'clock. I would never read or be on the computer then and have currently just seen 27 episodes of Morse (young) and am working my way through them again. Shaun Evans is a wonderful actor; it is set in the 60s, in the beautiful city of Oxford, and is true escapism. Very much an antidote for the present time. .."

Carol, we got distracted from finishing up with watching ENDEAVOR (the series about young Morse) even though we were enjoying it a lot. I think we'll go back and start it again. I really love how certain shows show us the locales that they are set in. I love the same about books. The long running crime series novels by Michael Connelly about Harry Bosch is a great look at the evolution of Los Angeles over the decades.

Yesterday we just finished watching the last episode of MISS SCARLETT AND THE DUKE. Have you watched that series yet?

Sher wrote: "I just finished SELECTED & NEW POEMS by Jim Harrison and I liked it- it spans many years of his poet career. Many of the selections are reflections or moments in nature, which attrac..."

"I find a fair number of his pieces rather alienating. Showing one's maleness or femaleness is not a requirement of good poetry."

That's true of all of his writing. Sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's terrible. It's least objectionable when he's talking about cooking, drinking, and eating.

John wrote: "This scientist rakes Loeb over the coals about Oumuamua.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswi......"

This guy is scurrilous: "Loeb was a once-respected scientist who made important contributions to astrophysics and cosmology, particularly when it came to black holes and the first stars. But his work on extraterrestrial signatures continues to be largely unappreciated by the community — a position as justifiable as ignoring the comparable idea of Russell’s teapot — and rather than address their scientific objections, he’s stopped listening to other astronomers entirely, instead choosing to try his scientific case in the most unscientific place imaginable: the court of public opinion. "

Loeb may be wrong, and I'll wait a few days until I've finished the book to say much more, but in what I've read so far, he doesn't descend to this kind of ad hominem attack.

Carol wrote: "Sometimes I feel that technology is leaving me behind. Have never heard of a Nook Glowlight Plus and although I possess a rather ancient Kindle I really dislike reading anything on it. I once had a..."

Carol, the Nook Glowlight Plus and the Kindle Paperwhite are marvelous. They're are other Kindles, including the basic one and then the Oasis, but the PaperWhite is really the one to go with for readability, etc. (I bet on do about 70 percent of my reading on my PaperWhite.) Then there is the Kindle Fire family, for the color experience. Incredibly cheap when compared to iPads, but with really bad battery life when compared to iPads. New iPads are magical devices. I have a larger one that I use for reading newpapers and periodicals and art books. The Kindle for iPad app works better than the Kindle Books on a Kindle fire.

John wrote: "Thanks Larry. use my iPad for reading. When I bought a nice leather case for my iPad, it felt like I was holding a leather bound book in my hands. It was like an “aha” moment where I could read an e book but felt like I was holding an old hardbound. ..."

John, I've found that if I stop using my iPad for a few hours before I go to bed, I get better sleep. See this:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40527030/...

Sher wrote: "Does GoodReads have any competitors that are privately owned? The only service even close-- that I am aware of is Library Thing, but I think the purpose of Library Thing is different... maybe...?"

There are some, but the ones that I have looked at aren't even worth mentioning.

Eileen wrote: "Larry, in case it helps, I have not had any issues with Goodreads on mobile devices while using the full-site version (i.e. not the app. or mobile version)."

That's good to know, Eileen. I access a number of websites on an iPad with Safari. I'll try that!

Sher wrote: "John wrote: "I cannot seem to recall any specific dialogue in the poets I have read. Carver sounds like one who would put dialogue in a poem."

I know, and I wish I could share his poem "Plus" with you, but I would have to type it all out... ..."

Sher, one possibility is to open up a microphone on a device. (I sometimes dictate my notes into OneNote.) And then copy the result.

Sher wrote: "Larry-- how will this effect our Goodreads experience?"

I think it won't change things. I just wish that Amazon would realize that GoodReads is a population of very intelligent people who might be persuaded to buy even more books if Amazon treated the population on GoodReads with a little more consideration. Amazon could do a lot without spending much money to make GoodReads work better ... start with fixing things like the unsatisfactory performance of GoodReads on mobile devices.

I have that book, Sher. If only I get through the energy book and three other nonfiction books I'm reading now!

Well, it was truly great that you and Bruce talked about that. In truth, we can go away from all this when we read and escape in our minds ... but the World is waiting for us to return. I feel so sorry for those who don't read and also for those who don't have someone close to talk with about things wonderful and broken. In addition to reading, I escape into music and viewing everyday. And for some, video games are a good escape, also.

John, I noticed this morning that Scribd has added Loeb's book to the thousand of books that you can read if you subscribe to Scribd. Although I do subscribe to Scribd, I read very few books on the platform. (For me, it's mainly periodicals. But it's also due to the fact that I don't like to do hours of reading on a tablet ... as opposed to the cool view of e-ink on a KIndle, Nook, or dedicated e-reader.) It's still worth taking a look at Scribd if you haven't done so.

On Amazon killing API on GoodReads. In eight years, what positive things has Amazon done for GoodReads? I guess there are some, but I can't think of any.

"Well, the fact is the market’s changing – and Goodreads isn’t. Alternative options are starting to emerge, and since Goodreads has forgotten how to innovate, it wants to use its market position to stifle innovation instead.

The sad thing is it really only hurts the hobbyist projects and Goodreads users themselves. Anybody seriously attempting to compete with Goodreads is well aware of the Amazon-shaped elephant in the room and is likely prepared. It’s the users and the hackers that this move will harm, and if anything it further reinforces the need for viable alternatives."

SOURCE: https://joealcorn.co.uk/blog/2020/goo...

Phrases in that poem found there way into some better SF works. The following is from Wikipedia:

""Mimsy Were the Borogoves" is a science fiction short story by Lewis Padgett (a pseudonym of American writers Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), originally published in the February 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.[1] It was judged by the Science Fiction Writers of America to be among the best science fiction stories written prior to 1965 and included in the anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964. In 2007, it was loosely adapted into a feature-length film titled The Last Mimzy."

and ...

"The Bandersnatch (plural bandersnatchi) is a fictional alien species in Larry Niven's Known Space universe.[6] The species is named for Lewis Carroll's Bandersnatch.

Niven's first story to discuss the Bandersnatchi was World of Ptavvs, published in 1966.[7] That story relates the way that they were named as follows:

Winston Doheny, our biologist, took one look at these monsters and dubbed them frumious bandersnatch. This species name is now in the goddam log.
— World of Ptavvs, Larry Niven"

When John, Carol, or Sher post a poem for the day, I tend not to follow with my own. But I'll make an exception with this one. A different tone for sure than Pope's ode.

POETRY FOR THE DAY (27 January 2021)

Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

SOURCE: https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio...

John wrote: "Spent about an hour reading Loeb’s new book. He has a highly readable prose style and writes with intelligence. He is slowly laying the groundwork for his scientific belief that Oumuamua is a probe..."

I'm about 20 pages in. I love how he tells his own personal story about how he came to become an astrophysicist, starting with growing up in a non-kibbutz agricultural village in Israel.

It is excellent, indeed, John.