What are you reading in 2024?

[John Lloyd1]

Continued reading reading through my old Stephen Donaldson books and finished Reave the Just. It's a collection of his short stories, which has the advantage over the Thomas Convent books in being much shorter and to the point. As with any short story collection, some were better than others, but on the whole a nice collection. There was even a Berserker short story although it felt formulaic.

There seemed to be a recurring theme about the need responsibility for victims to fight back and not wallow in victimhood. That could feel a bit uncomfortable at times (for obvious reasons). But, this is Stephen Donaldson and his themes are never comfortable. Apparently this was around the time of his acrimonious divorce (according to the author), so that may have been the reason.

 

[Richards]

I'm reading another Victorian mystery, The Whitechapel Conspiracy by Anne Perry. Set in the time of Jack the Ripper, it involves a London police superintendent's new assignment in the Whitechapel district to see what he can make of it.

Johnathan

 

[Alzrius]

I just finished Bill Maher's new book, What This Comedian Said Will Shock You.

I got through this one pretty fast, mostly because I already knew almost all of what was in it. That's because this book is a collection (with some slight tweaks here and there) of the "New Rule" segment (i.e. the closing editorial) from his show Real Time on HBO. Being my favorite political comedian, I've watched and rewatched Maher's "New Rule" segment quite often, mostly on my phone while I'm brushing my teeth or doing some other brief chore. So much so that I suspect I could recite most of what's in this book by heart.

But I nevertheless picked it up anyway, if for no other reason than I prefer to be able to read the things I like than watch them. And also because it has an expansive index so I can find a particular topic easily rather than having to maddeningly scroll through numerous Youtube videos trying to find that one aside he made a certain time.

 

[Clint_L]

Highschool english class is like somebody's trying to to the experiment from the frame story of MST3K, but with books. "We'll send them dry books, the worst we can find. They'll have to sit and read them all and we'll monitor their minds"

Here's our current text list for IB Language and Literature 11/12. I'll let you judge:

Summer Reading Choice (4 books from a very extensive list that covers every genre; two per summer)

Maya Angelou: poetry

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (novel)

Greta Gerwig: Lady Bird (film)

Neil Diamond (not the singer): Reel Injun (documentary)

Jessica Johns: Bad Cree (novel)

Charlie Brooker: Black Mirror: Nosedive (television)

Marjane Sartrappi: Persepolis (graphic novel)

Bill Watterson: Calvin and Hobbes (comic strips)

Molsons: "I Am a Canadian" (advertising)

DeBeers: "A Diamond Is Forever" (advertising)

Shakespeare: Hamlet (drama)

Shakespeare: Twelfth Night (drama)

Jean-Paul Sartre: No Exit (drama)

Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go (novel)

Jordan Peele: Get Out (film)

Simon Armitage: Black Roses and (poetry)

 

[Bohandas]

For example, sometimes I find the class stereotypes in Wind in the Willows extremely annoying

I don't recall noticing any class stereotypes in The Wind In The Willows other than Mr.Toad being a rich idiot who, if the book had been written today, would definitely be into rocketry.

I suppose anything else must either be either british things or victorian things, and based on your assessment I'm certainly better able to appreciate the book not knowing about them

EDIT:
Honestly it seemed like the rest of the characters didn't even use money and existed independently of the human economic system

 

[Ryujin]

I don't recall noticing any class stereotypes in The Wind In The Willows other than Mr.Toad being a rich idiot who, if the book had been written today, would definitely be into rocketry.

I suppose anything else must either be either british things or victorian things, and based on your assessment I'm certainly better able to appreciate the book not knowing about them

EDIT:
Honestly it seemed like the rest of the characters didn't even use money and existed independently of the human economic system

One simply doesn't speak of... such things. That's what servants are for.

 

[John Lloyd1]

I don't recall noticing any class stereotypes in The Wind In The Willows other than Mr.Toad being a rich idiot who, if the book had been written today, would definitely be into rocketry.

I suppose anything else must either be either british things or victorian things, and based on your assessment I'm certainly better able to appreciate the book not knowing about them

EDIT:
Honestly it seemed like the rest of the characters didn't even use money and existed independently of the human economic system

Wind in the Willows is a love letter to the middle class. Toad is obviously a rich good for nothing. The weasels are working class thugs while Badger is the salt of the earth type. The rest are largely good honest middle class.

 

[Alzrius]

I just finished reading Colin Manlove's 1993 book, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World.

This was another one I picked up for cheap at the permanent book sale at my local library. I read the Chronicles of Narnia a long time ago (somewhere on the order of thirty years), and remember very little of it now, so I thought this would be a fun little gem to pick up.

For the most part, it was. However, having polished it off, I'm of the impression that this is less for casual fans of C. S. Lewis' work than it is for educators who want to teach his work to students. (That this is part of the "Reader's Companion" series of "Twayne's Masterwork Studies" might have been a clue to that.) The book opens with a series of overviews about Lewis's life, his beliefs, and the history of literary scholarship of his work (or lack thereof, according to the author). Likewise, the book ends with an "approaches to teaching" section that lists things such as questions to ask students about the books and indication as to which parts of the books should be read out loud (presumably during class). Even the bibliography includes a single sentence for each listed work stating the author's opinion of them.

The meat of what's here, however, is analysis of the seven books of the Chronicles unto themselves. I should note that there's no summary of events for any of the books in the chapters where they're covered. Rather, the author presumes familiarity on the reader's part with each title as it's discussed. While plotlines and characters are mentioned with regularity, it's only in the course of themes and critiques. Cliff's Notes this is not.

I'll admit that always hold a bit of skepticism for any instance of artistic analysis, because I've seen too many occasions where critics treat "analysis" as a chance to say "here's why my opinion is actually a fact." To Manlove's credit, he doesn't go that route, and instead offers some keen insights as to what's present in each of the books (with a conclusion that looks at them as a whole) without any hint of injecting his own biases that I saw. Rather, this is him showcasing aspects of Lewis's works that it's easy to otherwise overlook, and so appreciate them more, which is what this kind of analysis should be.

 

[Alzrius]

Purely by accident, I stumbled onto a 1991 article/paper by Otto Steinmayer, titled "The Loincloth of Borneo", and found it interesting enough to read to completion.

It takes a fairly comprehensive look at loincloths, primarily as worn by various Malay peoples but with some broader focus, in terms of cultural context. In doing so, it touches on wider themes of how the universality of how covering the body (in some regard) "humanizes" people, before focusing on the social contexts of what loincloths typically connoted, as well as noting their usual methods of construction, decoration, and even how to properly tie them (with a rather insightful comparison between those and neckties).

The article has a notable number of endnotes, but those are mostly for corroborating references. Various terms and names of ethnic groups are thrown out with little-to-no explanation, so be prepared to use Google repeatedly. Still, it's a fascinating look at a cultural practice which, as the author pointedly notes, is all too often looked down upon as a mark of being "primitive."

 

[Blue Orange]

Purely by accident, I stumbled onto a 1991 article/paper by Otto Steinmayer, titled "The Loincloth of Borneo", and found it interesting enough to read to completion.

It takes a fairly comprehensive look at loincloths, primarily as worn by various Malay peoples but with some broader focus, in terms of cultural context. In doing so, it touches on wider themes of how the universality of how covering the body (in some regard) "humanizes" people, before focusing on the social contexts of what loincloths typically connoted, as well as noting their usual methods of construction, decoration, and even how to properly tie them (with a rather insightful comparison between those and neckties).

The article has a notable number of endnotes, but those are mostly for corroborating references. Various terms and names of ethnic groups are thrown out with little-to-no explanation, so be prepared to use Google repeatedly. Still, it's a fascinating look at a cultural practice which, as the author pointedly notes, is all too often looked down upon as a mark of being "primitive."

Thanks for the link! It was a fascinating article...and I'm not surprised as much goes into tying a loincloth as a tie! When that's your main article, all your status displays and so on are going into that.

Makes a lot of sense people in warmer climates would wear less.

The bit about sexuality reads differently now, but I'll leave it at that.

You like old anthropology articles, here's another classic, "Shakespeare in the Bush":

Shakespeare in the Bush | Natural History Magazine

www.naturalhistorymag.com