Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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PinkieBrown wrote: "I’ve only got a degree in Engineering so what do I know?😜There’s a divide between people screaming abuse at each other in double digit characters or falling over themselves to absolutely agree on..."
I'm laughing with you not at you, because when I used to homeschool there was a math snob who differentiated "engineering math" from "real" math, which did not include Algebra (he said that's just arithmetic with numbers) and went way beyond calculus (I kid you not, but I'm no math major). To me, it's all just different branches of math. But where would we be without engineers? So much more important practical application than some of this more philosophical math stuff (based on my VERY limited knowledge) There isn't a field out there where there is consensus, but I have spent a LOT of time with this origins of life stuff as I studied biology and have always had an interest in it, but I think the closer one gets to being involved the larger the variations appear :)
And there is a lot of heated debate on how to teach math, there are grammar pedants who hurl abuse at teach other--it's just people and life. My point was merely to point out why a college Biology class might drop an old text because a summary in a chapter covering the history of the theory of evolution suffices for what they are doing :). Math builds on itself in a different way.
As someone who studied Biology, the history of science, women's studies (I had a double concentration in Biology and Women's Studies in my first degree) I can't imagine why any science class would study such outdated texts, but as someone who enjoys reading classics I fully support many of these books being read in other classes. But I don't say it's the same as trying to do math with Roman Numerals or Hebrew characters (which used to stand for numbers as well way back when--you can't--because that would be an inane comparison, but I fully support kids learning those.
I think the maths snob is talking about the differentiation between Pure Maths and Applied Maths; the pure form is one of the few areas of study that can be said to be an absolute truth. 1+1 (or the integer 1 plus integer 1) equals 2 in its simplest form. Science itself is more a method that is applied to all those area of studies and waits to be proven wrong when the method throws up a new answer (a new microscope or telescope sees something new). It only adds to the wonder of science that it has this forward momentum into the future and any smart Alec can test any genius’s work and break it; there’s a built in humility in the process and the more haughty and pompous a theorist is the more the rest of the community goes after them😜. Applied Maths; the basis of Mechanical Engineering is really a set of applications of Newton’s work; force applications. I ended going back towards purer maths applied to the laws of thermodynamics; worked in steam applications- still as relevant as ever in power stations and heating systems.
I say all this as a contrast to reading the classics. I contemplated going into a study course on Literature but maybe it’s my earlier training that left me wondering why I didn’t just read the books and if I wanted to add to that I could use internet tools to dig deeper but fundamentally classics study means reading the books! Probably still to practically minded.
PinkieBrown wrote: "I think the maths snob is talking about the differentiation between Pure Maths and Applied Maths; the pure form is one of the few areas of study that can be said to be an absolute truth. 1+1 (or th..."Yes, correct! But later I was thinking about this. In applied math things build on each other and the old isn't proven wrong. Arithmetic then algebra, and so on. Even though Geometry is very different in many ways than algebra or Calculus, you don't have to toss any old things out the window. Math is quite clean this way, at least at the levels of math I know. My daughter did her degree in math, but didn't concentrate in anything special in it, so she knows a great deal more than I do.
There is always either a philosophical or religious assumption behind much scientific theory, and right now, of course, it's philosophic since one of the ways we demarcate science and separate it from other areas is with positivism which, like every philosophy, has underlying assumptions that steer scientific study and conclusions.
Evolutionary theory isn't nearly as cut and dried as applied math and not nearly as close to being truly proven (hard to do given the very long time frame, what fossil evidence does and doesn't show, etc), but suffice to say that much of what Darwin says has been disproved in the scientific community, so the theory of evolution has changed, and there are a variety of different theories such as Neo-Darwinism, punctuated equilibrium, et, and this happened DECADES ago :)
Well, my entire county is almost on complete lock down, so it's time to get some reading done. Anyone else morbidly fascinated by how people's reading habits are being impacted by COVID-19 these days?
Yes! We're in the same boat here!And yes, I finished two books yesterday and another one today! Thank goodness for e-readers and books in the cloud ;)
I am glad that my library holds came in before they closed the libraries. I made it in time along with lots of other people.
We just got our first coronavirus exposure here, not the actual virus. So our libraries are open for now. Librarians are sick, so staffing is short. I hope they stay open until Friday when I will be ready to turn in books and borrow an unreasonable amount in return.
Terris wrote: "Yes! We're in the same boat here!And yes, I finished two books yesterday and another one today! Thank goodness for e-readers and books in the cloud ;)"
Yes. Also, the 400+ reserve of physical books in my room appears less and less absurd with each passing day.
Aubrey wrote: "Terris wrote: "Yes! We're in the same boat here!And yes, I finished two books yesterday and another one today! Thank goodness for e-readers and books in the cloud ;)"
Yes. Also, the 400+ reserve..."
I know!! I'll never be short of something to read!! Between my physical books and my Kindle library I'll be fine, maybe into the next century ;)
I'll be right there with you, Terris!
I have tbr books seemingly everywhereBrick and mortar library
Home bookshelf library
Kindle library
Library's e-service selections
Internet's out-of-copyright selections
What I have ordered and may order from online booksellers
. . . Maybe that's all 😉
Aubrey wrote: "... Also, the 400+ reserve of physical books in my room appears less and less absurd with each passing day."This. Exactly. I'm looking at my own personal stacks with even more love than usual.
Good luck everyone, I hope some of you get some extra reading done during shutdown. Unfortunately here in the UK it's pretty much carry on as normal, kids still at school and Uni and most people stuck at work or milling around in the shops and cafes (which they've only just advised not to, but not explicitly banned, so nobody will take any notice). The toilet roll, rice and pasta shortage continues and I spend my free time trying to locate scarce items/remind myself that the shops will restock eventually, won't they?! Although I suspect the panic shoppers buy it all before I get there each day. Very little reading has been accomplished for me this month!
Pink wrote: "Good luck everyone, I hope some of you get some extra reading done during shutdown. Unfortunately here in the UK it's pretty much carry on as normal, kids still at school and Uni and most people st..."Same i would love to get extra reading done (maybe soon the government will decide to lockdown schools and work?!) but until then i have so many exams and revision to do.
Kathleen wrote: "This was just too funny not to share:https://lithub.com/the-first-lines-of..."
Too funny!
Our current rate of confirmed Coronavirus cases in this state per population is just under 2:70,000 people.Because our library closed for three weeks, my votes were based on what I have already got here or what I have read recently enough to participate in. That said, I only read books I want to read anyway so I'll only be disappointed if a book I really wanted to read wins and I can't get it; no book budget at the moment as it's nearly the end of winter plus a few big expenses came up. I'm not going to read on my computer on Gutenberg because we aren't a multi-computer family (my younger two have no desire to buy laptops and they are in college--yes they've managed without and both are dedicated students).
Good good. Glad you shared those Kathleen 🐦
I’m not directing this at anyone in particular but please;- Stop moaning that things are moving too fast
- Equally; Stop moaning that other things are moving too slowly
- Just stop moaning in general. This will be easy advice to follow once simply being alive starts to have more value than it seems to do this month. Next month maybe. Apparently.
To make a considered decision on excessively complicated subjects takes time and can only happen for one subject at a time. In The UK that means support for businesses happened yesterday and closing schools happened in the past hour. Something else of life or death importance will happen tomorrow and on and on. All of these take time to be defined as “considered decisions” logically.
I have no confidence that what I’m saying will have any effect on anyone but I’m at a point that I will feel terrible if I don’t say it. If only one person starts taking this a little more seriously as a result of writing it; maybe takes one less visit to a social event(like school or college) and infects or is infected by one less person then that’s about all I can do.
Perhaps people need bombs to drop on their heads before the penny drops that they are at war. Maybe I’m not being rude enough to wake anyone up.
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Someone in another group shared this and it brightened my day."While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been cancelled, our Chino Hills HS Chamber Singers demonstrated resilience by recording their individual a cappella portion of Over the Rainbow in their separate homes, and through technology were able to appear together as a family again."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3_cr...
Sandra wrote: "Someone in another group shared this and it brightened my day."While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been ..."
That is fantastic. Thank you for posting this. It was uplifting and made my day.
Sandra wrote: "Someone in another group shared this and it brightened my day."While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been ..."
Aw shoot--made me cry! Just beautiful. Thank you for sharing this Sandra.
You are welcome Laurie and Kathleen. It is really beautiful. :)
Sandra wrote: "Someone in another group shared this and it brightened my day."While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been ..."
I'm listening while writing to you, Sandra, it's beautiful, not only the color of the song, but the colors of the singers all together!
Sandra, that was beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
You are welcome. I'm sure after so many months of practice and so much effort they are very disappointed, but they transformed that in something beautiful, and shared with the world.
My inbox is being bombarded with likes of three reviews. Is this happening with anyone else? What do I do about it?
I think it stopped. Crossing my fingers!
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Hopefully, that would be annoying.
Terry, you can set your notification settings to not get notifications for "likes". Just go to "settings" and under "notifications".I have mine set to "notifications", which gives me a marker at the bell icon (top right) on Goodreads when someone likes a review, but no messages in my inbox.
Thanks, it has settled into a trickle.
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You must have written a really amazing review!!
I'm pretty sure you can change your email settings to eliminate emails every time somebody "likes" one of your reviews. Hopefully you'll get a lot more likes, and a lot fewer emails. ;-)
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” - Day of the Triffids
I have to keep checking the calendar to see what day of the week it is.
I am just checking in. No book talk except my library & favorite bookstores are closed. So am re-reading old faves I own. You all good?
Sandra wrote: "Someone in another group shared this and it brightened my day."While the annual Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) Choral Festival—originally scheduled for Wednesday, March 18—has been ..."
Thank you!!! I loved this--it helps that I really enjoy a capella singing as well, but this is fabulous.
Rosemarie wrote: "I have to keep checking the calendar to see what day of the week it is."Yes, I told my husband it was garbage day today, but it's only Thursday. It's harder to keep them straight being at home day after day.
Ann messaged me about this article, it looks like a good library resource for books during this time.https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...
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I am rereading Anne of Green Gables. There are so many on my shelf I want to read and I ordered 3 new books this month. Last summer I made so much progress when I was off from teaching, but not so much this month. We are technically "distance teaching" which is proving to be surprisingly time consuming for me and it feels completely fruitless. I am supposed to provide online lessons, which I did, and the lessons are voluntary, so no one is responding. I teach teenagers, sigh.
Pink wrote: "Ann messaged me about this article, it looks like a good library resource for books during this time.https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-......"
OMG, there is great stuff available! Here's the direct link:
https://archive.org/details/nationale...
2.25 PM... thats what time i got out of bed today. In my defense i was up at about 6.30AM feeding the darn cat but still.
Lynn wrote: "Lynnette wrote: "I am just checking in. No book talk except my library & favorite bookstores are closed. So am re-reading old faves I own. You all good?"I am rereading Anne of Green Gables. There..."
I am going to reread a couple of these because I have them already on my now defunct kindle in an omnibus and they will work for my main 2020 reading game (but only the ones shelved correctly will work). I reread the first 8 Little House books for that reason after raiding my kids' shelves. I'm trying to make my library books last as long as possible or until the library re-opens, whichever comes first.
I've heard great things about The Traveling Cat Chronicles, Lynn.
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Ray Bradbury (other topics)
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There’s a divide between people screaming abuse at each other in double digit characters or falling over themselves to absolutely agree on every point (nobody absolutely agrees with anyone and negating even small differences in opinion is .... the word fails me ... it’s ... unlikely; least experts on difference like Baldwin and Isherwood would agree). Respectful differences of opinion even massive chasms which can lead to a useful dialectic (Communist writers commenting in capitalist movies should have been a source of debate not ostracisation- or can’t people’s minds handle a change of mind?). Never argue against change on the basis that stasis is better. It’s a conservative argumentation in the political sense rather than bearing any relationship to healthy intellectual discourse.
Unfortunately that’s not the internet. Small tweets are a balm to a fear of thinking big thoughts and only indicate a desire to exit any discussion as quickly as possible. The utter terror at trying to sort out ones thoughts on hard subjects is a social evil and leads to horrible political choices where all the huckster has to do is offer easy answers (3 word slogan inserted here) to intractable problems for the masses to gather. Orwell wrote a brilliant essay on the use of cliches in political rhetoric. Cliches which had lost their original meaning.