What are you currently reading?

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Florestan

Quote from: steve ridgway on June 21, 2021, 08:57:59 AM
My boss once came back from some management training course and asked if I thought he was authoritarian. So I replied "only when people don't agree with you". >:(

;D

I would make a lousy dictator, because I would commute on the spot each and every death sentence to a 10-year prison term, and then after a week I'd proclaim a general amnesty. No, really --- I prefer chasing away, rather than kill, flies and mosquitos --- if and only if they won't fuck off I will kill them.

I would make a lousy liberal as well, because I would not defend a liberal order manu militari and I'd rather flee abroad than shooting my own people --- cf. King Louis-Philippe of France in 1848, after abdicating and fleeing to England: The Republic is fortunate, she can shoot at the people!

I guess that at the bottom of my heart I'm an Anarchist.  ;)
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Florestan

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 08:19:50 AM
de Sica

Dear Vittorio, one of my favorite Italian actors and directors --- I just love his trilogy Panne, Amore e.... And Gina Lollobrigida is fantastic.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#11102
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 07:04:08 AM
Interesting. What are these characteristics and measurements?

Characteristics of authoritarian personalities:

-1 Propensity towards obedience and admiration of domineering leaders.
-2 Predilection for order. Eagerness to protect existing norms and values, and resentment to emerging or potential changes.
-3 Illusory view of a division between ingroups- the groups they think they belong to- and outgroups- the groups they think challenge them and the existing norms.  As a result, authoritarians often view ethnic and social minorities as outgroups, and therefore maintain negative feelings toward Jews, African Americans, homosexuals, and Arabs recently.

Measurements:

Decades ago, researchers used to ask the people with questions if the respondents believe that force is more important than laws, and if they are willing to follow a domineering leader, and/or punish individuals who don't adhere to conventional values without due process.  Today only few would say/admit that they do.

Today, a majority of researchers ask people with questions about childrearing values. In this method, responents' authoritarianism is often measured based on the responses to four questions about child-rearing. With each question, respondents are asked which of two traits are more important in children. The questions are based upon 1) independence or respect for their elders, 2) curiosity or good manners, 3) self-reliance or obedience, and 4) being considerate or being well-behaved.

          (Some researchers note that authoritarian personalities had a higher propensity to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.  According to a national poll conducted in December 2015, authoritarianism was significantly related to support for Trump in Republican primaries. However, authoritarianism was not related to support for other Republican candidates. Further, other researchers find a positive connection between authoritarianism and support for Trump in the 2016 general election as well.)

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#11103
Quote from: Florestan on June 21, 2021, 09:51:00 AM
Dear Vittorio, one of my favorite Italian actors and directors --- I just love his trilogy Panne, Amore e.... And Gina Lollobrigida is fantastic.

You will like the "Garden" with Dominique Sanda!  :) :)

SimonNZ

#11104
Finished:



Aliens: The World's Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Not a book about little green/grey men. This is a collection of essays by leading science writers about the state of work in each of their fields in everything from early evolutionary biology to astronomical spectroscopy (quite a bit on that) as it loosely connects to imagining / predicting "life" and how it may exist or develop in non-earth environments. A couple of authors do have a bit of fun with the total nonsense of the film and tv depiction of aliens. Unexpectedly excellent and often quite heady.


Started:




Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Quote from: André on June 21, 2021, 08:38:42 AM
Great movies indeed, although I clearly prefer Conformist and Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Two great performances by the enigmatic Dominique Sanda.

They all are great movies, and Dominique Sanda were great. I am a big fan of Romolo Valli, and he is in The Garden and 1900.

Florestan

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 21, 2021, 10:03:00 AM
Characteristics of authoritarian personalities:

-1 Propensity towards obedience and admiration of domineering leaders.
-2 Predilection for order. Eagerness to protect existing norms and values, and resentment to emerging or potential changes.
-3 Illusory view of a division between ingroups- the groups they think they belong to- and outgroups- the groups they think challenge them and the existing norms.  As a result, authoritarians often view ethnic and social minorities as outgroups, and therefore maintain negative feelings toward Jews, African Americans, homosexuals, and Arabs recently.

Measurements:

Decades ago, researchers used to ask the people with questions if the respondents believe that force is more important than laws, and if they are willing to follow a domineering leader, and/or punish individuals who don't adhere to conventional values without due process.  Today only few would say/admit that they do.

Today, a majority of researchers ask people with questions about childrearing values. In this method, responents' authoritarianism is often measured based on the responses to four questions about child-rearing. With each question, respondents are asked which of two traits are more important in children. The questions are based upon 1) independence or respect for their elders, 2) curiosity or good manners, 3) self-reliance or obedience, and 4) being considerate or being well-behaved.

          (Some researchers note that authoritarian personalities had a higher propensity to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.  According to a national poll conducted in December 2015, authoritarianism was significantly related to support for Trump in Republican primaries. However, authoritarianism was not related to support for other Republican candidates. Further, other researchers find a positive connection between authoritarianism and support for Trump in the 2016 general election as well.)

Thanks. Food for thought.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vers la flamme

Quote from: vers la flamme on June 20, 2021, 04:06:41 PM
Started this today:



Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto. I must admit, it's way, way better than I was expecting. A very visceral illustration of grief, from the perspective of a young woman. I'm impressed with Ms. Yoshimoto's writing and would love to read more. I'm about halfway done with this one.

This book is just phenomenal, probably one of the best I've read all year. It consists, at least in my edition, of two novellas, one called "Kitchen" and the other called "Moonlight Shadow". I've only just started the second one (which is much shorter) but the first one really hit me hard. I can't believe what a beautiful story it was, and how much I got into the lives of its characters. Very, very well done. Sadly it seems most seem to rate Ms. Yoshimoto's other works well behind this one, but I will seek out more anyway.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

#11108
Quote from: Florestan on June 22, 2021, 12:39:17 AM
Thanks. Food for thought.

My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)


Quote from: vers la flamme on June 22, 2021, 03:10:09 AM
This book is just phenomenal, probably one of the best I've read all year. It consists, at least in my edition, of two novellas, one called "Kitchen" and the other called "Moonlight Shadow". I've only just started the second one (which is much shorter) but the first one really hit me hard. I can't believe what a beautiful story it was, and how much I got into the lives of its characters. Very, very well done. Sadly it seems most seem to rate Ms. Yoshimoto's other works well behind this one, but I will seek out more anyway.

Good to hear that!

vers la flamme

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2021, 05:03:29 AM
My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)


Good to hear that!

Good to know you enjoyed it too back when it was first published. Worth a reread, I'd say, if you can find a copy.

Florestan

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 22, 2021, 05:03:29 AM
My pleasure. (I see you deleted the other response though I enjoyed reading it.)  :)

Yeah, I thought I might have come up as a mere contrarian and some things could have been interpreted the wrong way, not necessarily by you, so I deleted it but I will post a more carefully worded version if you don't mind.
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

vers la flamme

I just finished Stefan Zweig's Journey into the Past.



I enjoyed this one a lot, if perhaps not as much as the only other Zweig I've read, the famous Chess Story (aka The Royal Game). A short book, but full of interesting reflections on love, war, memory, and the passage of time. I'm very impressed with Zweig's writing and want to read more and more of it.

aligreto

Somerset Maugham: The Mixture As Before





This is another excellent set of short stories. Maugham, as always, portrays wonderful characters very well. They are always true to life. It feels like he is sitting in your head and he is narrating the stories to you.
I also really like reading his occasional philosophy, particularly here as he was getting older.

ritter

Embarking on Simone de Beauvoir's Les Mandarins.



Let's see...

SonicMan46

Music in the Eighteenth Century (Western Music in Context: A Norton History) (2012) by John A. Rice and Walter Frisch

Music in the Nineteenth Century (Western Music in Context: A Norton History) (2012) by Walter Frisch

About every 3-4 years, I like to read or re-read a 'general' history of classical music - own a number of these Norton and Oxford books and usually just buy the next edition, but both of these companies have become outrageously expensive (since these are 'college texts' typically) - SO, trying a different approach this time, i.e. RENTING on my Kindle app on the iPad - the 2 volumes above (part of a series) were just $19 each on Amazon and will be on my device through October (already half done w/ the 18th century) - when I finished the 19th century, maybe a Baroque rental?  The purchase price for the Kindle editions were $35 each (and of course more for a hard copy!).  Dave :)


SimonNZ

Quote from: ritter on June 25, 2021, 07:30:01 AM
Embarking on Simone de Beauvoir's Les Mandarins.



Let's see...

One of my absolute favorite novels, read many times. I'll be very interested to hear what you think of it.


TD, started:


T. D.

In the (weird  ;) ) music sector, just finished this

and started on this

vers la flamme

Just dipping my toes in the water here...:



Richard Taruskin's Music in the Nineteenth Century. It's a massive tome and I do not expect to finish it anytime soon. But it is an interesting read. The first chapter is all about debunking the myth of Beethoven's primacy in the early decades of the century, and the argument that Rossini was equally as influential a force.

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

Finished Hesse's Knulp.  The wonderful novella, apparently a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund, is a story about an exceptionally talented drifter. Just like his other pre-Demian novels, the mood is mostly melancholic and nostalgic. The book evinces Hesse's superb writing skills: especially I like the descriptions of Knulp's home town. Fine book.

I also read Demian which I used to like. Now I have a mixed feeling. Although the plot and the themes of mysticism and Jungian collective psychology are good ideas, the book talks about various theories and ideology too much. Now, reading Death in Venice.

vers la flamme

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on June 26, 2021, 05:32:50 AM
Finished Hesse's Knulp.  The wonderful novella, apparently a prototype of Narcissus and Goldmund, is a story about an exceptionally talented drifter. Just like his other pre-Demian novels, the mood is mostly melancholic and nostalgic. The book evinces Hesse's superb writing skills: especially I like the descriptions of Knulp's home town. Fine book.

I also read Demian which I used to like. Now I have a mixed feeling. Although the plot and the themes of mysticism and Jungian collective psychology are good ideas, the book talks about various theories and ideology too much. Now, reading Death in Venice.

Death in Venice absolutely blew me away last year, as did Buddenbrooks which I read immediately after. Not sure whether you've read it before or not, but I expect you're bound to enjoy it.

I'm awaiting two more Stefan Zweig novellas in the mail: Confusion and 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman. Can't wait to get into these. I am very much infatuated with Zweig's world and his writing style from the two very short books of his I have recently read, Chess Story and Journey into the Past.