The Library

[BarbStAubrey]

Ohhh I am in tears reading this and just have to share - it is too good not to share here rather than in poetry - I ordered and just arrived in Jay Parini author of Why Poetry Matters - Very first sentence in the prologue is this quote from Marianne Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972 was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor)

Life is energy, and energy is creativity. And even when individuals pass on, the energy is retained in the work of art, locked in it and awaiting release if only someone will take the time and the care to unlock it.

Marianne Moore was creative with words however, reading her quote she does not say energy is creativity with words but energy is creativity - reasonable is a table set with flowers from the garden is an creative expression of art - all art is not in museums or in books or played by an orchestra - we use our energy everyday to create - create a life, create beauty to be enjoyed - we used to sing as we worked - are we loosing our creative approach to life -and working backwards - if we loose our habit of creating does that mean we are dampening our energy? The more I think on this the more I realize creating pleasure is creating art so that staying close to home allows for creativity that is so much more valuable than spending time trying to cope with change in our life because of current events...

[Frybabe]

Okay, so five days is long enough for the silence here. So, here is what I have been reading.

I finished another audio book, Midnight Son by James Dommek Jr., Josephine Holtzman, and Isaac Kestenbaum. It is narrated by James Dommek, Jr. who is an Alaska Native writer, musician and the great-grandson of the last of the Iñupiaq story-tellers.  An interesting and sad true story, it is about Teddy Kyle Smith who murdered his mom and attempted to kill two others, his supposed encounter with the mythical Iñukun tribe, his capture and trial. Midnight Son is a winner of the 2020 Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Limited Series Award. There is no book version. Information about Teddy Kyle Smith, is acting career (including movie clips) and his trial, and about James Dommek Jr. can be found if you do an online search.

Now I am listening to another of Michael J. Sullivan's Elan Universe fantasy tales, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter.

A am also reading two SciFi books, one is another of the Galaxy's Edge books. The other is Becky Chambers', A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I thought it was a stand alone, but it turns out that it is the first of a series. Anyway I am really enjoying it. I think one could put this in the social scifi category. It is about a multi-species crew and their encounters. Interesting and at times thought provoking.

Events around the world are becoming a bit much again what with the new surge and variants in COVID, Haiti's earthquake (these people just can't get a break can they), Afghanistan fiasco, the fires worldwide: Algeria, Turkey, Greece, Russia (largest in the world at the moment), the US and Canada, the floods in Europe, Ethiopia and the Middle East conflicts flaring up again, and growing tensions over the South China Sea area. We have the fires and plague, wars continuing, so now I am just waiting to see who gets the pestilance and famine. This is one nasty year for the whole world. I know I am being oh, so cheery today. I wish this stuff would stay in the books I read and not inflict themselves on the real world so much, and certainly not all at the same time.

On a cheery note, for the first time since I moved to this house, I am seeing praying mantises in my yard.
 
I've mowed the front yard, had my lunch, so now I think I will go bury my head in a book again.


 

[BarbStAubrey]

After the shock of the last couple of days maybe I can get back to reading - frankly I have no idea what to read - a chit chat novel was my first thought but I am still too wound up to even laugh - there is no history that can get my attention after these last few days seeing people falling from the sky having hung on to the outside of huge planes - I thought maybe a walking book and all I can see in my head is walking along and a body falls out of the sky on the footpath in front of me - Maybe a cookbook although, I do not even feel like eating - I've tried playing my Rachmaninoff symphonies very loud and all I do is cry - I'd take a good power walk but my leg no longer cooperates - My daughter called and it is as if she is talking to me through a thick fog - I thought I would write as a cathartic activity and my hand freezes held above the paper -

I did not have this reaction watching on TV that second plane fly into the world trade center and all the people running away covered in ash - all I see is a couple of men dressed in long tunics, arms outstretched, legs apart as if doing cartwheels falling in an arch from a plane to their certain death.

That's it - maybe all of life is one big joke... that is it - I recently downloaded The Secret of Santa Vittoria - they protected what was important to them from the Nazi's during the circus of WWII - the improbables and surprise attacks and secret associations during my lifetime - taking life as a serious endeavor while all around there are jesters and jokers - even Norman Rockwell could see the fun in the wholesome - and so like the movie Hopscotch with Walter Matthau I should just realize it is all a game - We all die and some of us die by doing cartwheels in the sky fearful of their fate had they stayed safely on the ground and so I'll read The Secret of Santa Vittoria and take in how some, before they die one up their enemy by secretly protecting what they see as important.   

[PatH]

Oh dear, Barb, everything's hitting you at once.  I hope things ease for you.  You make me glad I avoided television, though; those images would give me nightmares too.

[ginny]

 Yes, Iste mundus furibundus, huh? 

I read a super article not so long ago about how, in these times,  whatever you find to bring you some peace is perfectly OK. It said, go ahead, watch that old PBS series over and over, that old mystery,  whatever you enjoy: do it.

Reading? Not so much for me. Unless it's Agatha Christie's short stories. Book after book after book of them. (I bought decades ago her entire works bound, and there are a LOT of them). I haven't read Christie in years and I don't know why I am, now, but they certainly appeal.   In the end Miss Marple solves the case. Poirot solves the case. Order is restored. Calmness reigns.  Didn't see it coming? Red herrings? Chaos? Miss Marple will solve it. Calmly. Not "deep" enough? We've got enough "deep" for me at this moment in time.

I bet I have watched a million old TV series, mysteries, Mapp and Lucia,  a million documentaries. The Duchess of Duke Street, the old Upstairs Downstairs, you name it, except for Downton Abbey, I've watched it. And that's OK. Whatever makes YOU happy. No one can arbitrate your own taste and needs at the moment. Indulge yourself.

Now I have started reading again.  I'm reading from my gigantic warehouse of TBR books, Another Country, Not My Own by Dominick Dunn, a thinly disguised memoir of his covering the trial of O.J. Simpson, and the name dropping is fascinating. Unfortunately so are the facts emerging not mentioned in the press at the time. 

What a life Dominick Dunn  led. We met him, you know, at one of our Book Club Gatherings, Pearson and I, and I told him at the time of XXX's (celebrity we knew at the time)  coming book draft on Claus Von Bulow. He was fascinated or was polite enough to pretend to be. He says people tell him things, he was right about that. It wasn't long after that the story broke.

 I found an old clipboard in cleaning out or trying to, my Junk Room, I call it. On it we had one of the first ever conversations with Jim Olson, one of the Hosts of the former online website  SeniorNet, and the date (the post is printed out showing the date) was 1996.  Katie Bates was there, too, and Jim was trying to tell me I really needed to learn how to copy and  paste, I think it was. I recall being infuriated at him...just infuriated. Doesn't bother me today, but it does make you think how fragile conversation on the Internet IS and how easy it is to misunderstand when you can't see faces or hear tones.

Idle thoughts from an idle mind.  I am sure you are reading something interesting, tell us about it, even IF it's 200  years old.

[Frybabe]

My current audio book listens include The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge, very listenable and interesting, and Blood Territory by Mark Wittaker. The latter is another of a commissioned work by Audible Originals which is a narrative/reconstruction of a true story murder investigation by an investigative reporter, this time in Australia. The victim was a part-aboriginal male. It shows up some of the discrimination/prejudice many have toward indigenous and mixed-blood people. For me, it is not quite as interesting as Midnight Son was, but still good. I believe this was originally an Amazon podcast, so I will have to go see if there are more like it. Podcasts don't generally peak my interest, but these two were brought together into one audio file.

As for reading,yesterday I finished the latest Galaxy's Edge novel in the main series. Now I can concentrate on finishing Iain M. Banks' Matter from his Culture series, another very interesting book, and oh so long. While the tablet with the Libby app on it is charging, I am reading the third in Marko Kloos Palladian Wars series, Citadel. These days, I like using the Libby app because, for some reason, it is more complicated downloading an Amazon library borrow from FLP onto my Kindle E-Reader. I may have set things up wrong, but I always have to sign into Amazon to complete the download of Kindle e-books. On Libby, I don't. It just downloads. Plus, on Libby, I can download .epub formatted books which Kindle does not support.

These will keep me busy for a little while, but I am always looking for more books to download for later reading.

It is kind of depressing not seeing more posts about what everyone is reading.

This morning I watched a program called Strange Inheritance this morning. It was about a ring that had belonged to Jane Austin which had passed along through descendants of her sister Cassandra. I kind of remember the news about it a few years back when the British Government disallowed it to leave the country after it was auctioned off to an avid American Jane Austin fan. 
 



 

[BarbStAubrey]

Agree --- Iste mundus furibundus - and - Hoc non habet aliquem meliorem - de malo peius

Onward - having a difficult time settling down to watch anything - the ONLY Brit programs are on Sunday night followed by their repeat on Saturday night - even Mid Summer mystery is gone -

Moving on has really become serious - my body is really tired as I pack up box after box of books and pile the boxes in the never any longer used front living room.

Been Reading Columbus by Laurence Bergreen - completely forgot he made 4 trips to the Americas and to his death he thought he had sailed to some unknown part of eastern China - and yes, he was brutal to the natives however reading how flummoxed they were about these dark skinned, most of them naked creatures and with their focus on profit and any land he found was to be his legacy and family wealth to his children his whole thought pattern was how to make everything he encountered a profit center - slavery was common in both Europe and Asia and so that was for him a natural solution. Just understanding I'm not passing judgement - with anger today's response I was anxious to find out how this man could be in today's terms so inhuman - I'm seeing lots of behavior from this time in history inhuman - when you read of the brutality of punishment that was normal in Europe - how in Britain we have prisoners pulled apart by 4 horses and other atrocities I can only come to the conclusion it was a brutal time in the history of mankind.

Evidently one of the ship's captains - was Jewish whose name was obscured since this was when Spain banished and killed Jews if they did not convert to the Catholic Religion. Evidently after the 3rd trip the King and Queen became anxious that he had declared more land then the size of Spain and if their agreement went forward he would be more powerful then they so they sidelined him and defamed him - He was only funded to go on the 4th journey so he would be out of their hair. The 4th Journey was with all his sons accompanying him.

Another tidbit I found interesting - coming from Italy evidently at the time Spain culturally was considered 'the' superior nation - all other nations in Europe paled in comparison and so his notes were written in a way to impress trying to live up to the Spanish bar of mannerism and decorum and elitism. Reading that put yet another layer on the audacity of Henry the VIII's getting rid of Catherine of Aragon. She represented the strongest and most revered nation in all of Europe.   

As a kid I remember being told the Nina and Pinta turned around mid Atlantic and yet, it was (I forget which have to find it again but anyhow) I think the Pinta was the one to shoot the cannon off having first spotted land. All three ships were at that landing and the two simply sailed back before the Santa Maria - Nothing about the childhood told story of fearful sailors was part of this adventure - I'm only a third of the way through so lots to sort out here - but I am finding it fascinating and for a change as a history it is like reading an adventure story - to many histories bored me with he said she said scenarios.

[BarbStAubrey]

Not much traveling these days but I thought this was an interesting road trip during the fall in New England...

https://www.thediscoverer.com/blog/7-must-see-new-england-sights-for-book-lovers/XzRMNNugygAGS2xi?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1344728566

[Frybabe]

I could go for a tour like that if I don't have to drive. I wonder how long it would take to make the circuit.

[BarbStAubrey]

9/11  2001-2021

Under the tears we are growing - we are strong - we fulfill hope - we live.

[Frybabe]

PatH, yesterday I finished Iain M. Banks' Matter (Culture Series). It has to be my favorite so far. There are a couple more to read though. What an abrupt ending.

I tried listening to C. S. Lewis's  The Screwtape Letters but decided it didn't hold my interest for long. While the letters were amusing, I just couldn't see me listening to a whole book full of them. So, back to the book on the Crusades, which has very long chapters.

It appears that I am rereading a SciFi I read last year. Since I want to reread the whole series again, I think I will switch to something else. Not sure what yet.

[PatH]

I read  The Screwtape Letters back in my clueless youth, probably teens.  Don't remember them, and I'm sure I didn't  really understand them at the time.

[Frybabe]

Ginny, have you been here? I don't remember if you mentioned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHLEnzyFROs I love that the narrator mentioned the different styles of wall decoration.

[ginny]

Sorry, we just  started all the classes yesterday and mine Tuesday and Wednesday at Furman's OLLI,  and it's been quite an electric shock. hahaa But a good one. Thank God for Jane, we simply could not function without her.

Yes, I have been there and it had not been open again to the public for some time and had just opened  when I went. Had the WORST time finding it, they were using an alternate entrance for some reason but it's every bit what it shows and thank you for that wonderful film! 

I loved the Screwtape Letters, though I haven't read it in years. As you read on the monotony that seems repetition suddenly seems to make stunning new  points which you can't get over. I think of it sometimes, actually.

 Not reading anything now, just trying to stay afloat, but in October I see that the author of the Thursday Murder Club has another new one out and I can't WAIT, I loved his first one, senior sleuths in a Retirement Center having a club that probably no other one has. I really enjoyed his first one.

Anybody reading anything interesting?

[Frybabe]

I started The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr two days ago.  I was horrified to see that the book is even longer than Iain M. Banks Matter, so I am not dawdling about reading it. It has taken a few chapters to get into the story. but it is getting more interesting as I read farther. It takes place in the Brocken Mountain area which is the highest peak in the Harz Mountain range of Germany and has a rich history of legends, witches and devils. If you've read Goethe's Faust, you have run across some of the legends. The time period is some time during the dark ages after the Roman Legions left the area. This is Carr's first venture into writing a fantasy.

Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sadar is my other read. It is a romance novel about an aspiring photographer in Kurdistan. Amazon lists it as a Woman's Historical Fiction or Romance Literary Fiction. Not my usual reading venture, but it promises to have some elements of adventure and mystery in it. So far, it is okay. I am not warming up to the boyfriend character yet.

[Frybabe]

For lovers of King Arthur and Merlin tales, just found this in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/06/fragments-of-medieval-merlin-manuscript-found-in-bristol-library-reveal-chaster-story

[ginny]

Dana originally turned me on to The Guardian, and I noticed how many interesting articles they had pertaining to history and the ancients as people quoted them.

Now I don't start a day without the  Guardian, I read the APP and the BBC APP every morning.

Interesting article!

[BarbStAubrey]

Fascinating to get another slant - more interesting how we value today what was considered waste material back in its day... Great find Frybabe thanks

[PatH]

It's the literary equivalent of getting artifacts out of kitchen trash dumps.  Interesting to see how they cleaned the story up.

The Guardian looks pretty interesting.  I found more to read on that page too.  Thanks, Frybabe.

[Frybabe]

My morning meanderings have found more translations of books by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The first is a series of young adult books, Prince of the Mist, Midnight Palace, and Watcher in the Shadows, which have gotten high praises from adult readers. The other, not yet released, is a book of short stories set in the Labyrinth of the Spirits venue called City of the Mist. Release date is set for November 23. I am looking forward to adding them all to my TBR list.

[ginny]

That IS good news!

More good news for fans of The Gentleman In  Moscow is Amor Towles's new book The Lincoln Highway with reviews such as "Transporting . . . a rollicking cross-country adventure, rife with unforgettable characters, vivid scenery and suspense that will keep readers flying through the pages.”

“An absolute beauty of a book. Every character is a gem, the many locations spring to vivid life, the book is an intricate and moving exploration of journeys and the infinite unexpected turns they can take—and somehow Towles makes it all seem effortless."

Sounds like a must read.

Also I did  order for October when it comes out, the new  Truman Capote's Women, about the "Swans" of Society as he called them, whose company he delighted to amuse and be part of.  I have always been curious about them, but never saw anything but old grainy small photos, and I couldn't figure out what he was talking about,  but there's an article this morning  from the NY Times entitled Truman Capote's Black and White Ball, 50 years ago:  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/fashion/black-and-white-ball-anniversary-truman-capote.html  and if you look at the 11 photos which arise from the very first one you can finally see what he was talking about, although I don't see anything impressive about Slim Keith who supposedly influenced Katherine Hepburn's "look."   Have always been intrigued by the story of Truman Capote and his Answered Prayers leak (he told their deepest secrets which they had confided to him, in fiction form, but they were still identifiable,   which caused him to be totally ostracized, for the rest of his life from the  people who trusted him and whom he most wanted to be with.)  What could he be thinking of? He said they knew he was an author and he wrote about what he knew...

Article on it from Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/04/truman-capote-198804

Ancient history. Except the fashions of the  90's are coming back with a vengeance.

Of course we're having our own glut of Society and Power Gone Wrong in the Murtaugh case (could it BE any more bizarre?) and the Robert Durst, is it,   who was finally  found guilty, all proving that money and power can just go so far.

[PatH]

I finally got around to reading one of the books Tony Hillerrman's daughter Anne Hillerman wrote continuing his mysteries.  Several people here said they are good, and I agree.  If you like the originals, you'll like these.  So far there are seven; the one I read is The Tale Teller.

[Frybabe]

Super find, Ginny! I've ridden the Lincoln Highway between Gettysburg and Philadelphia many times over the years, but not recently. Something to look forward to in the fall.

[Frybabe]

Pete Kelly, a filmmaker and writer whose YouTube videos I enjoy, is stuck at home during the COVID lock-down. He decided to share his bookshelf. It is interesting. The first four or five I have read. If you have 30 minutes to spare this video is fairly interesting. Not all his books are history/archeology. He includes mythology, productivity, science fiction and fantasy among others. Some of these I am going to look into. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXzsHbgwms

[BarbStAubrey]

I like the list of youtube videos as much or more than his list of books - great link thanks...

[Tomereader1]

If you noticed, most of the books he showed, the covers were brand new, most had not even been "cracked". Only a few had bookmarks, sticky notes, any indication that he had read, or was currently reading the book.
Terrible "on-camera" presence.  Scratching his nose almost continuously, speaking too fast.  This YouTube might have been excellent in the right hands, but I was totally turned off for all the above reasons.

[Frybabe]

I noticed TomeReader. Some of the book covers looked too new, but even so, some of those pages looked a bit "warped" like they had been looked into. I suspect most of them he bought to get background for his videos and may not have read the whole thing. Still, it was interesting to see what he was interested in. It is a good thing that, for the most part, he doesn't keep a visual presence in his YouTube videos. He has a Masters degree from Nottingham Trent University according to his LinkedIn page.  I take it this was his first home studio endeavor hence the weird color and, towards the end, the out of sync sound with the video.

I did order two of the books he showed, Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds (a book of short stories of his I missed reading), and Shadowland: Wales 3000-1500 BC by Stephen Burrow. Both are older books no longer available at my library. Shadowland for me is a must in print, and Zima Blue is not available except in a Nook format as far as I could find.


I am still reading The Legend of Broken by Caleb Carr.  Even though I have been reading fairly steadily, I am only less than 2/3 through. The book is huge. I have been trying to get a handle on what time period the author had in mind for the story. Now that the Venerable Bede is mentioned as someone one of the character personally knew, I can put the time period sometime in the early to mid 8th century. Bede died in 735AD. Charlemagne became ruler of the Franks in 711AD and began expanding his empire. This is a time period I don't think I know a whole lot about. Has anyone else read this book?

[Frybabe]

Oops! That's not right. Charlemagne didn't become ruler of the Franks until 768AD. So, it is his granddad, Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) that was leading the Franks in the time period I speculate that The Legend of Broken covers. He ruled from 718AD until his death. I continually get the whole lot mixed up. Never could get them straight. Sorry.

[ginny]

  I  preview so many bad documentaries, and performances on TikTok and youtube  I don't mind him, he's young,  and he's enthusiastic.

I think some of those books are library books, one has a stamp on the end papers. Notice he throws some on the floor and carefully puts some back on his shelf. I notice also some of the hardbacks have a marker about 1/10th of the way through, maybe he needed to refresh his memory on them before talking about them.

There are a lot of them.

It's nice to see the young of his generation reading anything at all.... (he could work on his presentation more but boy do glitches happen when you broadcast  to others) I have really seen some bad ones. I myself disappeared from the screen not too long ago . hhahahaha  ..It seems he's well traveled. If we live 30 years more and look in on him again,  who knows what he will have evolved into? (I think I'm sympathetic to his not being able to travel)

 I was also struck by what a tiny space he's in. I hope that's his  "room," and he  has more space out of it to  walk about,  and that's not all there is to it.

Some of the books on archaeology look interesting.

Thank you for bringing it here, Frybabe, it's made for good conversation.

 

[Frybabe]

I think he said that is is first Book Club video set up to broadcast from his place. It looks like a little side room he turned into a studio. I was interested to see his equipment. He mentioned a new venture, a Podcast, but I haven't looked into it. I am not particularly fond of Podcasts for some strange reason, but I suspect it was because I downloaded an app for my Kindle and then got overwhelmed by the number of downloads I ended up with. It seems it not only wanted to download current podcasts, but also downloaded all the previous episodes on some of them. Some of these things were updating daily. I don't think I had subsribed to more than ten, but even after I deleted half of them it got too much to keep up with.

Regarding webcast malfunctions, I hope you didn't turn into a rabbit or cat while doing one of your classes. 

 

[ginny]

I'd have been better off if I had.

[BarbStAubrey]

"But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you." Not my favorite author but this is quite wonderful... Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot'

[Frybabe]

I just started reading Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths by Helen Morales. Has anyone read it? In the preface she starts out with Antigone standing up for her beliefs or moral sense, but goes on to mention Black Lives Matter protester Iesha Evans, Malala Yousafzai speaking out for the right of girls to go to school in Pakistan, and Greta Thurnberg for her stance on climate change. A little farther into the Preface she discusses Antigone's dilemma.

What Morales says about Sophocles's play is interesting. When we had our discussion of the play, I don't remember us picking up on the "women's issues"; we were more focused on moral issues. Morales apparently spent some time researching attitudes regarding women, their place in society, their emotional health, etc. Here she picks apart the play first by telling the reader that Antigone means against birth. What a thing to name a female child, then, I say to myself. But that is not all, she goes on to say that a medical text from that general time period stated that remained unmarried once they were of marriageable age were considered diseased, or deranged with visions of death. And there is Sophocles having Antigone practically obsesses over death. i believe we talked about her death obsession, but I don't think we tied it into prevailing attitudes towards women of the time.

I don't follow Greta Thunberg, so I just found out through the book that she has Asberger's syndrome, as well as being diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and selective mutisim (part of the anxiety disorder spectrum). I must say I think she has been able to channel her particular problems to good benefit by speaking out for environmental change.  Wow!

And this is all just in the preface.

[PatH]

Wow.  Tell us more as you read on, Frybabe.  I'm trying to remember our discussion of Antigone.  JoanK and I would have been likely to pick up on women's issues, but all I remember is that care of the dead was one of the few meaningful civil roles of women, so you can see the route that could lead Antigone to fixate on it.

So you're deranged if you don't marry as soon as possible.  Humph.  Antigone couldn't marry promptly anyway, because (in another play) after their father Oedipus blinded himself, she and Ismene helped him until he finally found a peaceful end.

It was really nifty in that discussion how one could interpret the same text in opposite ways.

[Frybabe]

I found it! https://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=3156.320 Antigone was discussed between May 12 (Pat's prediscussion post) and May 28 of 2012 in the Women in Greek Drama forum. I am rereading the posts now and, right off the bat, I loved Babi's post.

I was pleased to find, right up front, the reason for Antigone's actions...at least,
her explanation of them.   The source of Antigone’s decision? “I have to please the dead
far longer than I need to please the living; with them, I have to dwell for ever.”  She
holds this to be one of the “sacred laws that Heaven holds in honor.”

Don (Radioman) mentioned Antigone in opera. I thought I saw that someone asked what an Antigone opera by Carl Orff might sound like, but I can't find the reference now. I did, however, find the opera on YouTube with Martha Modi as Antigone. I am not a big fan of opera, so I only listened to about 15 minutes of it. It wasn't my cup of tea. Minimal music, sung in German. I didn't get far enough in to hear the chorus, though it had to be there somewhere.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YCsg4sU6_k

[Frybabe]

Uh, Oh! I just found more books to find and read, this time in the realm of global politics and economy.  In one of his books, US Power and the Multinational Corporation(1975), Robert Gilpin warned that advanced technologies spread by multinational corporations could move from leading areas to lesser, but rising, areas which in turn could shift the balance of power. We've been seeing this play out most recently between the US and China. I don't know how you feel about the recent, seemingly rapid rise of globalism. My mind is not yet made up. I intend on finding this and one or two of his other books to get some historical background on the issue. This may take a while.  I must request an ILL because it does not appear to be in print any longer and there is no E-book available.

[PatH]

Frybabe, you brought back a lot of good memories with that bit of the Greek discussion.  It was a lot of fun leading that discussion, but also very hard work.  Worth it, though.  I got a very good feel for the different style of the writers, and the conventions of Greek drama.  I'm pretty rusty now, though I still read Greek plays occasionally.

[PatH]

I'm not familiar with the opera Antigone, but the bit I had the patience to listen to was very Orffian.  Those parallel sounding phrases would be parallel ideas, and probably effective, and usually his operas have plenty of good tunes too.  But with the combination of her enunciation and my very rusty German, I couldn't catch any words.

If you ever want to try Orff beyond Carmina Burana, my favorite is Die Kluge (The Wise Woman).  It's fairy tale like, good theater, with plenty of good tunes.  It's also so clearly making fun of Hitler that I'm surprised he got away with it.

[ginny]

Lovely long interview with Mary Beard (see the Classics Forum, she's appearing in the US at the Isabel Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston  and it's online Friday the 15th, but here she is  on books.  What she's reading and why.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/books/review/mary-beard-by-the-book-interview.html?smid=em-share

Here are a couple of quotes:

For readers new to the classics, what books make the best entree to the great works of antiquity?
Always start with Homer’s “Odyssey.” It is such a foundational text for so much of the rest of the Western cultural tradition, while at the same time questioning that tradition before it was born. It raises big issues about what we think “civilization” is, the long history of turning our enemies into “barbarians” and why it might be “us” who are the barbarians, not “them.” No wonder it has been so important for writers and artists such as Derek Walcott and Romare Bearden.

Do you count any books as guilty pleasures?
I have no guilt whatsoever about any of my book pleasures. So I am happy to say how much I love popular novels about ancient Rome, Lindsey Davis’s Falco mysteries and Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy. (He has done more for Cicero in the modern world than most academics put together.)   

[BarbStAubrey]

Interesting and for me apropos - I was only reading about early Germanic history and wondered why they were called Barbarians - what, at the time was considered barbaric and came to learn the Romans were every bit as barbaric in their cruel behavior, if not more so, than the tribesmen that were called Barbarians and then I read how at the time anyone that was not a Roman was called a Barbarian which at the time had nothing to do with behavior. And now you share how Mary Beard sees Barbarians from yet a different angle - interesting...

Well I came across a winner that I just have to share - this site is wonderful - I came across it because reading The Matrix: A Novel by Lauren Groff, the story is full of words we seldom use - many that the attached Kindle dictionaries have no information and have to turn every other page to Google -

The story is during the time of Eleanore of Aquitaine and the part of everyday life we seldom read about - the young woman is born out of rape and at the time you were considered stupid and unworthy for not running fast enough to avoid being raped and so her mother had no standing and after her mother dies she, Maria is so smart she fools the Lords ready to take over the land into thinking she was her mother for 2 years but finally they descend - she is the bastard child of the king and is sent to live with Eleanore who forwards her on to a nunnery - the nunnery is of starving broken women and Maria soon takes over from the blind prioress getting back land and money owed by the surrounding landholding lords - on and on including she writes a Lay and sends it to Eleanore in hopes it will sway Eleanore to bring her out but to no avail - the story continues how Marie made the nunnery a success however, I have only read a third of the book so lots to come and like most stories when things have reached a plateau of success it is usually a prologue to the next horror and loss that will be the next challenge. 

Anyhow I come across the word 'villeinesses'  and Google takes me to a clear and easy to understand page explaining the Manor system which includes 3 levels of serfs or which most are villeins, who rent small houses and owe their time working the land or other service to the Lord, in some cases money, and they could not move away without the Lord's permission making it difficult for those whose Manor Lord was brutal.

Well I clicked on the heading and voila this wonderful site pops up - a treasure house full of all sorts of information from just about every historical time in Western civilization - in fact the name is Western Civilization.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-westerncivilization/