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What are we reading? 31st August 2021
@Sandya, I meant to mention that, after you posted about Handel the other week, it motivated me to re-listen to a number of his English language works for the first time in a number of years (I never became familiar with any of his Italian operas); enjoyed Hercules, Semele, Acis and Galatea, and Samson, also the Handel-Beecham Solomon which, somewhat unfortunately, reminded me of a scene in Ravelstein ("Happy, happy Solomon").
scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Never thought i would see Trumps "The Art of the Deal" listed on the books mentioned in this topic! Though i know it was without reverence..."Indeed - that was me... but it was relev..."
He wasn't too interested in any recent memoirs, which seem to be more about the economics of the publishing industry than anything else. The best book that I've read by a politician was Ed Flynn's "You're the Boss," and that was written in Truman's day. (Interesting chapter on how Truman became FDR's last running mate.)
Bill wrote: "Sandya wrote: "I avoided them like the plague then and still do."Sorry, but due to the recent growth in the number of anti-vaccination and anti-mask protests, "avoiding something like the plague"..."
Bill gets sued by the one and only sober judge
Robert wrote: "He wasn't too interested in any recent memoirs..."I daresay - but as you didn't mention any cut-off date WRT Presidential books, I thought it germane to ask the question! ;-)
Bill wrote: "@Sandya, I meant to mention that, after you posted about Handel the other week, it motivated me to re-listen to a number of his English language works for the first time in a number of years (I nev..."I'm so glad you enjoyed them! In 2006, when I was living in Philadelphia, I attended a performance of Acis & Galatea, a favorite of mine. It was beautifully done but the true scene stealer was Polyphemus! The singer playing Polyphemus wore a brown paper bag over his head with one eye painted in the middle of his forehead-like the Eye of Sauron as drawn by orcs- and sang through it. It was extremely funny and he stole the show..... at least as far as I was concerned...... but truthfully, he made us aware of the sadness of the Big Lug forever outside the charmed circle of cute, young lovers, yet nonetheless suffering the agonies of unrequited love..... I felt for him.
Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. I have followed her journalism and interviews on BBC and C4 before, usually a little wary of her membership of the intelligentsia who formed the moderate neo-liberal vanguard from the mid 1990sHowever this book is a younger Applebaum and it explores the confusing borderlands of the old Polish "kresy" which contained large swathes of Western Belarus and Ukraine, plus South Lithuania.
Writing from 1990-93 she finds a region floundering on the cusp of a new world, as the routines of 50 years start to falter, nationalism becomes more strident and people find themselves isolated from villages and towns due to new borders. Her approach mixes historical essays with her own experiences among these people.
Western Ukraine has always interested me as a Uniate * heartland with a population that looked West until the end of WW2, but remain different to the largely more Orthodox Centre and East.
Uniates are latin rite Eastern Catholic churches with orthodox style services, orginating in the old Austro-Hungarian lands
Looking foward to the sections on Moldova too..
Mod
Just watched MSNBC interview with Applebaum re her recent article in 'The Atlantic' :
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
AB76 wrote: " Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. ..."
It's very good. The Island Cities section at the end gives it a strong finish. I seem to remember Justine liked this book too.
It's very good. The Island Cities section at the end gives it a strong finish. I seem to remember Justine liked this book too.
Bill wrote: "Sorry, but due to the recent growth in the number of anti-vaccination and anti-mask protests, "avoiding something like the plague" is no longer an operative phrase. It has been relegated to the Hall of Obsolete Clichés, along with "sober as a judge"....
Missing the 'like' feature.
Missing the 'like' feature.
Sandya wrote: "It was beautifully done but the true scene stealer was Polyphemus! The singer playing Polyphemus wore a brown paper bag over his head with one eye painted in the middle of his forehead-like the Eye of Sauron as drawn by orcs- and sang through it."That sounds great - I'm always impressed when productions overcome budget limitations and come up with innovative and memorable solutions. Polyphemus pretty much steals the show vocally for me as well - but I'm a sucker for bass vocal showpieces like that role or Osmin in Abduction from the Seraglio.
AB76 wrote: " Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. I have followed her journalism and interviews on BBC and C4 before, usually a little wary of her membership of the i..."I listened to a fairly recent talk she gave at an on-line literary festival. I forget which one, and I got the distinct impression that she was having many qualms about her historic belief that neo-liberalist elites should be running the show, these days... I think Trump finally finished her off somehow... or at least was the final straw on the camels back!...
Lljones wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. I have followed her journalism and interviews on BBC and C4 before..."Just watched MSNBC interview wi..."
thanks LL!
Tam wrote: "AB76 wrote: " Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. I have followed her journalism and interviews on BBC and C4 before, usually a little wary of her member..."yes i think she has seen the light, thank goodness
My Italian homework is an article on changing street names. It is an echo of the discussion sparked by reading James and Wharton farther down this thread and I wonder what others think? (Can I crib some ideas, please?)Is it revisionism? Wokeism? Not before time?
It seems pretty clear when you have Piazzale Adolfo Hitler. I doubt there would be an outcry about changing that one. I can’t see many people happy to give that as their address. It is now Piazzale dei Partigiani. Many streets in the UK were renamed after Nelson Mandela. One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter as we know. And no one is perfect. There will always be something dodgy in everyone’s past. We were all young and stupid …once. Do we have to bear that cross forever?
So can we accept Edith Wharton Avenue or are her racist credentials too unacceptable? Any streets named after Rhodes or other colonialists now beyond the pale? Do the Italians change any Giulio Cesare stradas or do his victories snd cruelties over the Gauls render him unacceptable too?
My own feeling is ambivalent. No, I think anywhere named after Hitler (or a serial killer, for example) is a bridge too far but a total revision of history, I don’t think so. Edinburgh have taken “the middle way” and put up a plaque by the Melville Monument (Lord Dundas) explaining the history and background of slavery and empire and dedicated it to the victims. My own view is aligned with the Edinburgh decision since as they say it is important to know ALL about the situation, the good and the bad.
Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't simply give up the practice of honouring individuals by naming streets and places after them. Perhpas this is too much "honour" for any human being to bear, being only human.
Lljones wrote: "Applebaum re her recent article in 'The Atlantic'"I’m not sure how to take Applebaum, since finding out in a review of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism that she considered the pre-Trump Laura Ingraham a reasonable person (I honestly Googled the name at the time thinking she must be talking about some other Laura Ingraham), but I found the article interesting.
I think Ian Buruma was out of his element as NYRB editor and thought the publication suffered under his leadership, but it’s stupidity to boycott his writing on the basis of his decisions there. Also, I’ve no concerns that Amy Chua is going to land anywhere but a bed of clover and there is no way I am going to read The Scarlet Letter again.
September is one of my favourite times of year, autumn my favourite season, as it reminds me of the now long gone smells and thoughts of new school years, university terms and the end of summerMy profile pic is an artwork from the Soviet Union by Ludmila Sgibneva entitled "Tommorow is the First of September"(1979) the first day of the Soviet school year.
Bill wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Applebaum re her recent article in 'The Atlantic'""Still thinking about the Applebaum article. Rather than go to Eastern Europe and Stalinism for her analogies, it seems to me the cases she cites have closer parallels closer to home: 1950s McCarthyism and blacklisting. But very likely that shoe would pinch too much for former cold warrior Applebaum.
Bill wrote: "Bill wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Applebaum re her recent article in 'The Atlantic'""Still thinking about the Applebaum article. Rather than go to Eastern Europe and Stalinism for her analogies, it se..."
thats a good point Bill, re McCarthy
Bill wrote: "Lljones wrote: "Applebaum re her recent article in 'The Atlantic'"I’m not sure how to take Applebaum, since finding out in a review of [book:Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authorita..."
Buruma was a choice i liked at the time but pretty quickly it went downhill and became a real issue over THAT article
AB76 wrote: "thats a good point Bill, re McCarthy"Yeah, the more I thought about it, the article should have been called "The New McCarthyism" rather than "The New Puritans", which would have been more accurate and avoided the need for switching between Puritans and Stalinists as metaphors.
I'm not familiar with most of these names from the last few posts, but after looking them up, I don't thnk I'll be in any hurry to read Applebaum anytime soon. I know everything is relative and you can always find someone even more extreme but the idea of a "moderate" neo-liberal doesn't make much sense to me.
Storm wrote: "My Italian homework is an article on changing street names. It is an echo of the discussion sparked by reading James and Wharton farther down this thread and I wonder what others think? (Can I crib..."It seems to me that renaming streets is an ongoing process, and that the idea that street names should be immutable is rather an odd concept. In France, anyway, names are changed when someone new is deemed worthy of being commemorated and the previous 'namer' of the street has become more obscure or forgotten. It does not necessarily imply criticism of the previous 'namer' or a rejection of history.
Of course, renaming can indeed often be caused as a result of political changes too - this was evident when I read Tu montreras ma tête au peuple, when (for example) what is now Paris's 'Place de la Concorde' changed from 'Place Louis XV' to 'Place de la Révolution' - so, three names in less than 150 years. Place de la Nation used to be 'Place du Trône', and then 'Place du Trône Renversé'!
Our local council renamed a town centre square as Sgwar Owain Glyndwr - and why not?
Berkley wrote: "I'm not familiar with most of these names from the last few posts, but after looking them up, I don't thnk I'll be in any hurry to read Applebaum anytime soon. I know everything is relative and you..."the book i am reading is Applebaums first, as a young woman travelling in eastern europe in early 1990s, probably a good place to start as it avoids the neo-liberal narratives and isnt very political at all, yet....
Storm wrote: "My Italian homework is an article on changing street names. It is an echo of the discussion sparked by reading James and Wharton farther down this thread and I wonder what others think? (Can I crib..."Now here is a can of worms!!!! If I was a person living on a street where they kept changing its name I might get a little irritated!
On a more serious level, I doubt anyone would want to live on a street named after an unequivocally evil person, but as you say - one man's freedom fighter is another man's (sorry should I now say person's?) terrorist. I did find it interesting that one of the main Oxford complainants about the Rhodes statue a year or two back was himself a Rhodes scholar. Not so much with street names but with statues, wouldn't it be better to attach a plaque giving the person's history, good and bad. That is surely a better way to educate than just cancelling? After all, we can't change history itself, just how it is taught or learned.
Mod
Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran N. Khan
Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan by Erika Fatland
Minarets in the Mountains: A Journey Into Muslim Europe by Tharik Hussain
Gpfr wrote: "yay! A parcel from Stanfords has just arrived:Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran N. Khan[bookcover:Sovietistan: A Jou..."
all three sound fascinating to read, i would be as excited as you GPFR!
i hadnt heard of Stanfords before, amazed that i havent, must visit it alongside Hatchards(my fave) when next in the big smoke...will check the website now
Gpfr wrote: "yay! A parcel from Stanfords has just arrived:Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran N. Khan[bookcover:Sovietistan: A Jou..."
My only contribution to this thread is that many years ago I owned a hardback edition of "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" by Rebecca West, which was about Yugoslavia before WW2. It had to be specially ordered. I found it rather depressing and overly political for my tastes and gave it away some years later along with other books I did not look at much. I regret that now-it wasn't cheap and I would get more from it today. At the time I bought it-grad school I suspect as I patronized several bookshops in St. Andrews-there wasn't much available on the history of Eastern Europe.
Here is an excellent review: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
I should reorder a copy and sit down and read it properly.
I just found the full version on The Atlantic and am reading Part 2.
Anne wrote: "I'm feeling a little irked (understatement) about the non-appearance of the end of August fine weather we were promised (it was winter here yesterday), so please indulge me while I return to those ..."Gpfr wrote: "Anne wrote: "It may be winter in August here, but if @Lass is back to her beloved book festivals then things may be going in the right direction after all. ..."
I know what you mean about the abysmal August weather, I was on the verge of SAD.
You asked about favourite Pratchett books, I think his masterpiece is Small Gods, but you can't go wrong with the Witches.:)
And not books, but I've been to the..."
I haven't been reading all that much as I have had house guests, cousins who came to attend our aunt's funeral - she was the last one of my mother's siblings, there were nine of them and now not one left, it feels odd somehow. As she was a Welsh girl we sang Cwm Rhondda for her .I finished the winds of Dune, it was written to fill in the gap between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune -I found it perfectly readable and it didn't do any damage to Frank Herbert's universe, but in the end it was just a filler really. My cousin bought me Bunny, by Mona Awad as she thought I would be interested, I am not sure what to make of it so far but I will persevere and see.
Here's to some more fine September weather!
Georg wrote: "Most interesting. I wonder what "end" the judge hopes to achieve with these "means"?
The defendant is either
a) a sociopath or
b) somebody who, in spite of the evidence, has feelings, whose comp..."
Julian wrote: "The Red Pony / John Steinbeck.
I read John Steinbeck's sequence of three stories comprising The Red Pony. This pastoral shot through with sombre realism is set on a farm in the Salinas valley in C..."
I agree with you, extremists will find something in practically any text to reinforce their prejudice.
Sandya wrote: "Bill wrote: "@Sandya, I meant to mention that, after you posted about Handel the other week, it motivated me to re-listen to a number of his English language works for the first time in a number of..."https://youtu.be/WTjksYe2KvI I saw this performance, someone commented "Putin has let himself go"
Gpfr wrote: "yay! A parcel from Stanfords has just arrived"My order came for me yesterday also. A marvellous feeling, especially as I'm not leaving my house at all.
giveusaclue wrote: "Storm wrote: "My Italian homework is an article on changing street names. It is an echo of the discussion sparked by reading James and Wharton farther down this thread and I wonder what others thin..."The Victorians were frank. They put up a statue of Rhodes; that's where the money came from. The critics might be better employed in discovering where the money comes from now....
Greenfairy wrote: "Anne wrote: "I'm feeling a little irked (understatement) about the non-appearance of the end of August fine weather we were promised (it was winter here yesterday), so please indulge me while I ret..."Here in the Great Northwest, we alternate between clear blue skies and slate gray clouds. The sun was a ruddy oversized circle at sunset last night, and there was an odd taste in the air. No forest fires near here, but it affects the whole region. Waiting for the next lockdown....
AB76 wrote: " Between East and West by Anne Applebaum is superb, much better than i expected. I have followed her journalism and interviews on BBC and C4 before, usually a little wary of her membership of the i..."My wife and I attended a service in a tiny Uniate church. A cantor with a beautiful voice was chanting passages from Revelations, and it was nearly hypnotic. There was so little space that people wanting to genuflect simply touched the floor. The priest drew a shawl over people making their confession at the front. All of the wall was covered with icons.
After a time, I felt like the Evelyn Waugh character who couldn't tell if the mass had begun, or where we were in it....
Greenfairy wrote: "I finished the winds of Dune, it was written to fill in the gap between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune -I found it perfectly readable and it didn't do any damage to Frank Herbert's universe, but in the end it was just a filler really. "I kind of wish someone had just published whatever Dune material Frank Herbert had left behind at his death just as it was, no matter how fragmentary. Then they could still have gone on and made their money with prequels and sequels and, er, interquels? - but at least we'd have the man's own last words on the Dune concept as well, however unfinished.
Interquels! Well done :)
Machenbach wrote: "Robert wrote: "There was so little space that people wanting to genuflect simply touched the floor...""Thanks. The Uniate church was divided into male and female sides. A quiet little blond girl kept looking up at my wife-- she was the only woman with uncovered hair, and the only one seated with her husband. (We had been invited by a friend of hers, who was a member of the congregation.) A tall slender woman who appeared to be Mediterranean-- or Egyptian-- came in and touched the floor before seating herself. I wondered if she was Coptic...
Robert wrote: "Machenbach wrote: "Robert wrote: "There was so little space that people wanting to genuflect simply touched the floor...""Thanks. The Uniate church was divided into male and female sides. A quiet..."
Loved that description Robert, i think Uniates are pretty well represented in the USA and Canada.
my interest in Transylvania(demographics not vampires) and the Uniate world has been ongoing for many years. It started when i tried to untangle the different Ukraninan religious divides about a decade ago, where the old Hapsburg regions are Uniate and Orthodox but still more Western looking than the regions which were Tsarist and Orthodox.
Mod
The Artificial Silk Girl - Irmgard Keun translated by Kathie von Ankum
Das kunstseidene Mädchen
When I mentioned this before, I said I'd bought it because I loved the cover - now that I've read it I'm glad to have bought it 😊. It's a short book, but I've been reading it in short bursts. It made me think of Jean Rhys - I suppose because of the period and because of the precarious situation of the heroine? Although the tone isn't really the same.
Published in 1932, it was a success, but the Nazis came to power in 1933 and blacklisted Keun's books.
Doris, the protagonist and narrator, is a very young woman living in a mid-size town. She works in an office, typing letters which she doesn't understand, with a lot of mistakes. "... there were no commas in sight, which is one of my strategies: because I figure, it's better to have no commas at all than commas in the wrong places, since it's easier to pencil them in than have to erase them." She has bought herself "a thick black notebook". "And I think it will be a good thing if I write everything down, because I'm an unusual person. I don't mean a diary - that's ridiculous for a trendy girl like me. But I want to write like a movie, because my life is like that and it's going to become even more so."
She writes frankly about sex. There's a lot of humour in the book as well as desperation. In one case, "he was so good-looking and had style ... someone with style is ultimately impressed by respectability. And I really needed a wristwatch, and so it was better not to give in for the first three nights ... So I attached seven rusty safety pins to my bra and my undershirt."
She loses her job and gets taken on as an extra in a play: "I am now an artist." However, she steals a fur coat and has to get out of town. She goes to Berlin ...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/amylynnehil...
On the odd chance that someone here might be interested in looking at a private castle in Yakima (of all places!) WA - here's a link.https://preservewa.org/events/westhome/
I was lucky enough to visit with a group some years ago, and it was a delight. This time I'll go via Zoom.
LeatherCol wrote: "AB76 wrote: "September is one of my favourite times of year, autumn my favourite season, as it reminds me of the now long gone smells and thoughts of new school years, university terms and the end ..."good to hear from you Leath, its a balmy september where i am, so autumn hasnt quite kicked in yet, though a nearby Rowan tree is wilting
have you heard of this novel (see link)
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Deserter-V...
Apparently its a rare queer classic or being reclaimed as such, i bought it without knowing any of this as i was interested in canadian novels but its set in a nameless city, probably London and might be something you would enjoy, i havent read it yet, its on the pile
Regarding the comments on Anne Applebaum, i must say that her and Timothy Snyder have done a lot for the history of the borderlands between the Hapsburg Lands and the Tsarist borders with their works on the subject.A whole way of life was erased from the regions of eastern Poland and west ukraine between 1939-45. Alongside the holocaust were the soviet mass deportations and murders of border Poles and Ukrainians, with the occupying Germans and then Soviets delivering equally vicious changes to other minorities.
What was a world of significant minorities, a galaxy of languages and a huge, bustling Jewish urban diaspora, became an artificially homogenised expanse in the USSR, with elements in the new eastern bloc. If only i could travel back and see these places....
AB76 wrote: "Regarding the comments on Anne Applebaum, i must say that her and Timothy Snyder have done a lot for the history of the borderlands between the Hapsburg Lands and the Tsarist borders with their wor..."Here's an author I like -Kapka Kassabova. I especially liked -
.
Machenbach wrote: "Robert wrote: "The Uniate church was divided into male and female sides"Yeah, that's often the case in Orthodox churches too, 'though it's generally not policed, and largely a matter for the indi..."
They look all right to me :-)
MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Regarding the comments on Anne Applebaum, i must say that her and Timothy Snyder have done a lot for the history of the borderlands between the Hapsburg Lands and the Tsarist borders w..."this sounds very interesting, thanks MK. I love to read a female perspective on travel, people and the whole experience of exploring new cultures or ones where they grew up and then returned later.
Applebaum speaking Russian and Polish with her original family roots in these borderlands is a case in point. Her GGF left the borderlands to escape Tsarist conscription into the army in the late 1890s
Machenbach wrote: "Robert wrote: "The Uniate church was divided into male and female sides"Yeah, that's often the case in Orthodox churches too, 'though it's generally not policed, and largely a matter for the indi..."
would love to explore these Uniate churches in Romania and West Ukraine. I found some fascinating photos of the Protestant churches in Transylvania(fortress churches) and i would like to physically visit the area and take my own photos-Uniate and Protestant ones
One of my grandsons has discovered The Midnight Folk, so I have ordered him a copy along with The Box of Delights- I don't think I will be able to resist a re- read myself...
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Sorry, but due to the recent growth in the number of anti-vaccination and anti-mask protests, "avoiding something like the plague"..."
Lol