Useful reading

[storeynicholas]

As a result of Michael Alden's question in another thread, I am happy to kick off in relation to useful reading. There are all the usual things - ancient literature, the Bible, Shakespeare and so on but there is no point in stating the obvious. I also think that, to be useful, the book needs to be easily digestible to youngsters who have been, sadly, caught up in a downward educational spiral.

There is a prevailing, general and permanent state of fear in relation to such things as: terrorism; smoking; climate change; to some extent, fashion; many politically correct attitudes are foisted on us to serve the interests of minority groups, whose interests we are told should prevail over majority interests and we are manipulated and told that we are unjustifiably 'prejudiced' if we don't tow the line. Sometimes, these states of fear are used to control us and to erode our liberties. Some people generate lies that are dogmatically propounded as the truth and exaggerate and twist actual truths to manipulate others. Not only politicians are involved in this. Many people are; including the producers of mass-produced and over-priced 'designer-labelled' tat that has taken a big chunk of the market away from bespoke goods. This state of fear begins in childhood and children are manipulated into feeling afraid that, if they don't have X product, they will be sneered at by their friends.

This behaviour appeals to the herd instinct and these manipulators have discovered that human beings can be jumped into stampeding just like mustangs. Under hoof go: individualism of every kind; original thinking and personal style. We are increasingly dictated to about what we should accept and reject and the people behind the state of fear are winning.

Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear is about just this phenomenon.

In this book (Harper Collins) he mentions a group that a young woman founded to encourage environmentalists to ban dihydrogen monoxide. Part of the argument that she deploys is that "this substance can be found in lakes and rivers, it remains on fruit and vegetables after they are washed and it makes you sweat..." She discovered that environmentalists did sign up: to ban water.

It is time to encourage people to think for themselves again and to be prepared to question and reject the rubbish of all kinds that comes at them. Crichton's book is a good start.
NJS.

[rjman]

I'd submit that a state of fear is being used to get us to read Crichton's writing, which may erode our brains!

Read some Clive James or Michael Bywater instead. If you must, Boris Johnson or PJ O'Rourke.

[storeynicholas]

I willingly admit that the plays of Frederick Lonsdale might be more fun than Crichton but Crichton said things that I think that need to be said.
NJS

[Bishop of Briggs]

I'd submit that a state of fear is being used to get us to read Crichton's writing, which may erode our brains!

Read some Clive James or Michael Bywater instead. If you must, Boris Johnson or PJ O'Rourke.

I must admit to being disappointed with Pat's recent writing. It lacks the usual humour and has become "safe", possibly the effect of middle age and family responsibility. He's better when writing about the countries he has visited on his travels. A mutual friend took him around Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation!

[storeynicholas]

If we are looking at travel books, I'd certainly vote for A Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming and Death in Brazil by Peter Robb. Two quite different takes on this wild, beautiful, fascinating and, (sometimes) difficult country.
NJS

[lgcintra]

As a Brazilian myself I could not agree more to the fact that indeed this is a fascinating country, but as an American "Brazilianist" put it, and I quote, "Brazil is not for beginners". That kind of encompasses it all. This country has everything, from top to bottom.

A good non-fiction book that´s been recently out is The Good Soldier, by David Finkel. It tells the story of the 2007 American military surge in Iraq from the perspective of the soldiers. Not very nice subject, but important contemporary reading, imho.

Luis

[storeynicholas]

As a Brazilian myself I could not agree more to the fact that indeed this is a fascinating country, but as an American "Brazilianist" put it, and I quote, "Brazil is not for beginners". That kind of encompasses it all. This country has everything, from top to bottom.

A good non-fiction book that´s been recently out is The Good Soldier, by David Finkel. It tells the story of the 2007 American military surge in Iraq from the perspective of the soldiers. Not very nice subject, but important contemporary reading, imho.

Luis

If people want to get to grips with Brazil and live here, they have to become beginners and, as you say, it isn't very easy but it certainly rewards the effort in many different respects. We decided to live in a house with Brazilian neighbours and not in a condominium. The result is that Brazilians who regularly pass our house and see us sitting out, merrily wave at us and a walk to the nearest shop is always punctuated by passing the time of day with our neighbours and even local people whose names we do not know. This is a long way from the initial frosty reception that the local bar owner gave me when I falteringly asked for cigarettes and now he waves at us from inside his counter as we go by. Bridging gaps is very satisfying. But we are not the only ones who make the effort. Once my wife ran out of petrol and, in a minute or so, a host of people had arrived to assess the situation and resolve it. One of them then just biked off and returned with a bottle of petrol; took the money for the petrol, protesting "not at all" for the gratitude and then biked off, as though this helpfulness were the most natural thing in the world.

For another example, we recently had a problem that we could not easily resolve without help and Marcelo, a member here (whom I have met twice), rendered us as much help as friends that I have had for 30 years could have rendered, in similar circumstances, elsewhere. Brazil suffers, to some extent, from selective reporting and little is actually broadcast to the world about the vast parts of Brazil that exist outside the big cities. The Sleepy Hollow has been, (thank God) safe for us and we have never felt the slightest threat to safety. This is more than can be said for some other places in Europe. Moreover, it is a land where freedom of the individual is still greatly valued and respected.

On your recommended reading, I agree that we should all strive to understand and tackle difficult issues. Too many people tend to live in cocoons.
NJS

[couch]

Michael and Costi among others have quoted much from Balzac's 1830 treatise, which has been called the first essay at a philosophical dandyism. I just noticed that it is due out in February in English translation, of possible interest to those like myself whose French lacks the subtlety necessary to do it justice. The description claims that this will be the first full English translation; this may or may not be true, but I have not found one in Penn's library or elsewhere. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Elegant- ... 665&sr=8-1

[storeynicholas]

This is indeed interesting and will enable those of us whose French is not fully going to pick up the ironic aspects in the original to appreciate this work.
Here are some more random thoughts:

Cicero in defence of Archias, his former teacher (for allegedly pretending to Roman citizenship) 61 BC;

William Wilberforce's condemnation of the slave trade 1789;

Danton's speech on Daring 1792;

Thomas Erskine's speech on Free Speech, in defence of a bookseller for selling Thomas Paine's Age of Reason 1797 and his speech in defence of Queen Caroline 1821;

Lord Brougham's speech in support of abolition of the slave trade 1838;

P G Wodehouse's Money in The Bank; Joy in The Morning and the short-story The Man With The Two Left Feet;

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's Three Open Letters to the Bishop of Exeter, condemning intended legislation (later dropped) to incarcerate and emasculate the so-called 'feeble-minded' 1911 - nearly a lone voice at this time against 'eugenics'.

Some of these are, obviously, heavier than the others but we need both.

NJS

[couch]

Thanks, NJS, for these. I note a good proportion of works of advocacy in the list, and it makes me feel my lack of a classical education in rhetoric; I have been what Robertson Davies calls a rake at reading. Balzac apparently said "one must have studied at least as far as rhetoric to lead an elegant life" and today in the States, at least, there is little systematic preparation in rhetoric outside specialist courses in law schools, graduate literature subspecialties, and seminary homiletics training. Perhaps, you will say, this explains the scarcity of elegant lives, QED. Nevertheless should you care to adduce more of your "greatest hits" in this area, I'd be keen to see them. Tom Paine himself and Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France come to mind, and of course many of Churchill's addresses; Lincoln at Gettysburg and the second inaugural; Washington's farewell address. Hmm.

[Manself]

Can I second the Peter Robb recommendation? His book about Brazil is very good, but his Midnight In Sicily is superb. It's a cultural, religious, military and criminal history of the island, mixed with an evocative travelogue. It has a haunted feel that actually puts you off visiting, but it's an incredible read.

Speaking more generally 1984 is surely required reading, not least because it becomes more rather than less relevant every year. And we'd all be poorer if Fitzgerald hadn't written The Great Gatsby.

[storeynicholas]

I'd readily include your suggestions, Couch. As you say (and it isn't just in the USA) that rhetoric is confined to places where some degree of it is essential for practical reasons (principally in a church, a parliament, or a court) but I am sure that the ability, at any level, to take either side in any reasonable debate and, regardless of personal opinion, manage to persuade others to one's arguments is one of life's greatest joys. But more than that, deep and skillful argument is necessary for the endurance of civilization itself and there might be, these days, too little of it; even in the places where one might expect to find it still. I have not been following the British Parliament recently but, throughout most of my life (Churchill died when I was five), there is only one British politician that I can recall with a honed, natural oratorical ability and that is Michael Foot; a great orator but a hopeless party leader. Of course failed attempts at oratory can be ridiculous. I recall one example given in a book by David Pannick about an action for defamation by a cheesemonger whose reputation was said to be "like the bloom on a peach and once touched, it is gone forever!"

As to a few more things to read, showing that I too am a random and promiscuous rake in my reading: John Donne's Easter Sermons and his poems; The Life of Dr John Donne by Izaak Walton; Robbie Burns' poems Auld Lang Syne and A Red Red Rose; Ben Jonson's poem To Celia; Keats' Odes; Pope's Essay on Man and To A Certain Lady At Court; The Rime of The Ancient Mariner by Coleridge; Lamb's The Old Familiar Faces; In Memoriam, The Lotus Eaters, and The Revenge by Tennyson; FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam; The Bridge of Sighs by Hood; A Prayer For My Daughter by Yeats; Brahma by Emerson; Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by Eliot; A Subaltern's Love Song by Betjeman.

These are some of the things that are, with wine and tobacco, my greatest solace. NJS.

[storeynicholas]

Can I second the Peter Robb recommendation? His book about Brazil is very good, but his Midnight In Sicily is superb. It's a cultural, religious, military and criminal history of the island, mixed with an evocative travelogue. It has a haunted feel that actually puts you off visiting, but it's an incredible read.

Speaking more generally 1984 is surely required reading, not least because it becomes more rather than less relevant every year. And we'd all be poorer if Fitzgerald hadn't written The Great Gatsby.

Thanks for the Midnight in Sicily recommendation. It seems that Peter Robb has a nose for trouble! 1984 is a warning that parts of the world failed to heed! I recently renewed my passport through the British Consulate. It has a chip in the back that contains information about me (I have no idea what) that is readable by any immigration authority that has the equipment to read it. There is little that I can do about this but it is a total outrage that we tend, more and more, to take in our stride.
NJS

[Jordan Marc]

With the world spinning out of control and the endless carping from this blabbermouth or that one bought and paid for by corporations or greedy bastards, I take solace in the classics.

Two Recommendations for deepdish reading that will bring you back to your senses and make you think about the possibilities for humankind. The first is to get hold of everything that Thomas Mann ever wrote. His books should have a permanent place in your study. They needn't necessarily be bound in leather with hubbed spines, trade paperbacks will suffice, but they deserve to be on your shelves and read again and again. A must!

The second recommendation is the Mahabharata. I like the James L. Fitzgerald multi-volume set published by the University of Chicago Press. It's roughly ten times the length of the Illiad and the Odyssey combined. Although not the kind of epic you can devour while stretched out on a cruise ship deckchair before making port, it is a gr-reat read. And this too belongs in your study. Another must!

For those of you with a short(er) attention span, you might prefer watching the marvelous DVD of the Mahabharata that was staged years ago by Peter Brook and his international company of actors and musicians that made Paris its home. It's not as exciting as actually sitting eigth row center during the longform stage production given at the Brooklyn Academy of Music before moving on to other venues round the world, but it will give you a fairly good idea of a truly phenominal theatrical experience that has yet to be topped (unless you consider other Peter Brook productions) and it may well inspire you to read one of the great Indian epics in its entirety.

JMB

[marcelo]

I would submit Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethic. The title is rather misleading for modern ears, for it is not about norms, duties, or rights, but, actually, about the good life - what it means, how it is to be achieved.