What would you be able to accomplish if your lifespan was three or five times longer than it is now? Would longer lifespans affect men and women diffeWhat would you be able to accomplish if your lifespan was three or five times longer than it is now? Would longer lifespans affect men and women differently? How would social institutions adapt to the new average lifespan, especially if the medicinal advances were not available for all? An interesting set of questions; unfortunately in this book they are really only addressed in conversations between fairly flat characters. Instead, the book seems more interested in how two different scientists, one a man well established in the field, and one a young woman determined to thwart the social conventions pushed upon her, handle such a ground-breaking discovery. The novel also contains some satirical elements, but they are pretty broadly handled, and perhaps more amusing for people with a good working knowledge of the politics of British newspapers.
I've never read any other Wyndham, and though I thought this book was a dud, I came away from it wanting to read some of his more acclaimed novels. The plot sagged, the writing did not. ...more
Meh. This books takes what could be a great premise- what a native speaker teacher learns about their language through teaching non-native students- aMeh. This books takes what could be a great premise- what a native speaker teacher learns about their language through teaching non-native students- and executes in a banal and stereotypical way. There were occasional flashes of promise in the beginning, that explored the vagaries of Japanese and the different ways they can impact a non-native speakers life. A wealthy French woman who came to love Japanese through her obsessive viewing of 1960s yakuza movies and thus speaks the language like a mob moll displaced in time. A part-time worker at a ramen shop needs to know the names of many random dishes and types of cookware and finds most native speakers have no idea either. Students study honorific Japanese very carefully only to find it totally misused by native speakers. There were also a few interesting factoids sprinkled throughout about the development of the Japanese language, but it's hard to know whether these are folk etymologies or actual fact. The latter part of the book just rehashes a bunch of "oh geez these foreigners don't innately understand all the intricacies of social protocol of our beautiful country, how barbaric" type of anecdotes.
There is a television show made from this book, with the same title, available for viewing on youtube, that is 1000 times better than the source material, with much more information about the quirks of the Japanese language and a much deeper sense of generosity to non-Japanese living in Japan and doing their best to learn the language. ...more
I recently learned that Germany has an obsession with indigenous cultures, and Native American cultures in particular, something that may help explainI recently learned that Germany has an obsession with indigenous cultures, and Native American cultures in particular, something that may help explain why out of eight of these stories from "all over the world," five of them are about the magical connection native peoples have with nature. Then there was a story "from Japan" which features a character named Master Ping. Ping is a Chinese name. These stories were all pretty bad.
Here is a fascinating article about Germany's fascination with Native Americans. They have non-Native run pow-wows, and sleepaway Indian camps for adults! http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork......more
I have many negative things to say about this book, all of which I'm sure say more about me than they do about Anne Lamott. I wasn't the right audiencI have many negative things to say about this book, all of which I'm sure say more about me than they do about Anne Lamott. I wasn't the right audience for this book. But, she did write "perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor," and that resonated, and I'm glad I read it. ...more
You can't write sociology like this any more. What's the topic? The state. The state where? States all over the world. From what period? From the timeYou can't write sociology like this any more. What's the topic? The state. The state where? States all over the world. From what period? From the time of "huntsmen and grubbers" to the "modern constitutional state." This book is broad as hell and slippery as can be. There are useful insights within but they are hard to grab.
It is no wonder most people who now claim to be influenced by Franz Oppenheimer seem to have a vague idea what he actually said or what he was actually proposing. They see that he defines the state as "one class dominating over another class," and that his ideal society will have no state, and so Oppenheimer has become a name dropped by free market libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, and 'American communitarians' among others, all of whom seem to claim them as one of their own. Oppenheimer, a Jewish man who wrote the plan for one the first agricultural communes in Palestine in 1911, is mentioned on libertarian forefather and anti-Semite's Albert Nock's wikipedia page as an "anti-collectivest thinker" who deeply inspired Nock. According to others, Oppenheimer is either a left-anarchist who hated the state and loved communitarianism, or he was a "minarchist" who believes that the state should exist, but only to protect private property. Franz Oppenheimer, a sociologist for anyone who has a contentious relationship with the idea of a state, no matter what form that contentiousness might take!
I don't have any clarity to add to the matter, unfortunately. The ideas in this book look completely different depending on what angle the light hits them. I'm reading it because the agrarian communitarian turned fascist I study was influenced by him, so perhaps we can add 'agricultural fascism' to the list of ideologies that claim Oppenheimer as an inspiration. I'll keep trying to sort this out. ...more
This series continues to be one of the best resources available for beginning German learners. Just the rightDino, will you ever learn to keep a job?
This series continues to be one of the best resources available for beginning German learners. Just the right amount of slang terms, idioms, and regional words to challenge the reader without totally overwhelming them. ...more
An out-of-print German children's book I found for 100 yen at a used book fair in Tokyo. It helped someone in Japan learn German decades ago and now iAn out-of-print German children's book I found for 100 yen at a used book fair in Tokyo. It helped someone in Japan learn German decades ago and now it's helping me. Piko-Piki is from Pikolotanien, where people are very small. He gets snatched up by an eagle and carried far away from home, where his adventures begin. ...more
Umberto Eco wrote this book in 1977, after he noticed that increased access to higher education in Italy had created a mass of students who needed to Umberto Eco wrote this book in 1977, after he noticed that increased access to higher education in Italy had created a mass of students who needed to write a thesis to graduate, yet had not received adequate instructions in how to undertake and complete such a project. Perhaps many of these students, from working class backgrounds, felt that to ask about these particulars would reveal the discrepancies between them and their more elite classmates. Eco himself barely mentions the sociological specifics of 1970s Italian higher education, this context is sketched out by Francesco Espamer's foreward, though he is careful to consider and provide advice for working around the limitations students might face when preparing a thesis. Eco also gives exceedingly detailed instructions on how to compile and write a bibliography, how to cite, how to determine if a quotation should be inline or indented, the difference between paraphrasing and plagarism, and other specifics of paper-writing that can strike the well-educated as obvious, and not what they want to learn from the Great Eco. The translators of the English volume have worked hard (it seems- I've never seen the Italian or any other version) to make the bibliographic style examples relevant to contemporary English-language thesis writers. The information is exceedingly useful, though I'm unsure of how well this book would work as a writing guide for most 21st century American university students, since I can easily envision many students getting put off by all the Italian examples and the long chapters on formatting index cards.
But if you can get over how charmingly out-of-date and analog Eco's index card system is, what you are left with is some very helpful advice about how to organize information, a task that has not gotten any easier since the advent of the internet and the even more recent deluge of apps for productivity, brain storming, mind mapping, etc. Eco's focus throughout this book is on how to acquire the information you need, determine it's relevancy to your project, extract what you need from the books you have, and create a project outline that will allow to you start with writing with a framework in mind and the key sources, quotes, and ideas ready to be deployed. Thus prepared, the student can begin to work on his or her thesis methodically, and let inspiration and brilliant flashes of insight emerge from this diligent work.
Eco also touches on the entwined ideas of academic humility and academic pride. Academic humility means never ignoring a potential source because of a preconceived notion of its quality or ideological position, remembering that "anyone can teach us something." Academic pride means taking ownership of your research and your writing, and not burdening it with a thousand small clauses and qualifiers meant to get you off the hook. "On your specific topic, you are humanity's functionary who speaks in the collective voice. Be humble and be prudent before opening your mouth, but once you open it, be dignified and proud." Excellent advice. I read this as part of a curative program for my own 'thesis neurosis' (Eco's term) and I found it quite helpful.
