My TOP non-fiction books 2023 | English |  

yes, it's a pity they're not available in translations. I was actually hesitating whether I should include these two in my English video on 2023...

Il y a aussi une edition française: Le Grand Livre des livres les plus fous amzn.eu/d/2ZxAQqd

Magnifique !!@@polyglotreading

Thank you for this comment. Interesting fact about McEwan, I didn't know that. Did he explain his preference for green journals? Was there a specific book of Eco you were thinking of? You're absolutely right about the difficulties of arguing with people rooted (or trapped) in apocalyptic thinking. There's a similarity to the logical fallacies of conspiracy theories: any information or fact can be twisted and used to support the claims made, even facts that seem to contradict these 'theories', because they're interpreted as being deliberate acts of deception (by the 'father of all lies) and hence just another proof of how near the end is... Very difficult to get through this hardened shell and resuscitate rational thinking in these people). I'm afraid I haven't found any translation of this literary history into other languages. Best regards from Germany 🤗 - David

McEwan was being interviewed for "Lessons" his most recent novel (with a German connection) when the journalist asked about his green journals. McEwan couldn't explain it except all of them had to be green. No specific Eco book, just something I think he'd written. I think his mind was a library. Even though they get upset when I point it out, the extreme Right and "Left" ( I put in quotation marks because the Left here isn't at all like the European counterpart, in fact I don't think it's "Left" at all just reactionary) here have much in common: both are paranoid and conspiratorial. In the U.S. it goes back to its founding when critics of George Washington thought he was part of the Illuminati. A fine American historian, Richard Hofstadter, wrote the best book about it as it applies to politics: "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," which came out in the mid 1960's. I don't think it's been surpassed in its insights. I read it in the early 90's and often revisit it especially during Presidential elections (the one coming will be quite mad). Like I mentioned, I live in the U.S., in the state of Texas. In the 90's local access television had a program that aired around the capitol, Austin, where I lived at the time. I don't remember the name of the one hour show, which aired at night once I week. But I remember the name of the host. Alex Jones. He would talk about the Clintons, the Bush's, all Ivy Leaguers, as part of a cabal. He was particularly obsessed by the Clintons, since Clinton was President at the time. Talk radio by the likes of Rush Limbaugh had found an audience, many new right wing magazines were being published (they never used the phrase "right wing," but "conservative". I'd watch Jones ramble on in self righteous fervor about the evils of the Federal government, especially as personified by the Clinton family and that of Bush senior and his son (who was then our governor). I would discuss his program with friends (it's likely the only people who saw the show were those with in the airwaves near Austin) and we wondered besides me "who watches this nut?" I'd forgotten about the guy after I moved in the early 2000's to the city I presently live in. It must have been after 2010 that I began to read about "infowars," some online show that questioned the reality of mass shootings here in the U.S, even going as far as claiming they were staged. The program had hundreds of thousands of followers. It was then I learned what had happened to that central Texas "nut." @@polyglotreading

@LibroParadiso-ep4zt We heard of A Jones even here in Germany, when Twitter/X unblocked his account in Dec 2023.... The upcoming election makes me nervous, - it's difficult to understand that none of the parties has been able so far to present a candidate that is a well-educated, bright and charming person of integrity and well below the age where wise people confine their role to giving good but non-binding advice from backstage or a wing chair. Back to literature: I wonder whether it would be helpful to make books like Elias Canetti's "Crowds and Power" a mandatory part of the curriculum/syllabus, - or a more recent work on the pitfalls and dangers of mass psychology... Best, - David 🤗

Brilliant idea including Canetti's book in any curriculum. Did you ever see Elia Kazan's film "A face in the crowd?" That movie is as insightful about American politics and general public as any political science class. @@polyglotreading

@@LibroParadiso-ep4zt no, I never heard of that film, I'll look for it. Thanks for the recommendation. Have a great week, - David 🤗

Hi there and thanks a lot for the comment 😊. Kuhn's book does not explain why certain discoveries occur simultaneously, but it explains the conditions that are necessary to enable great discoveries that lead to a paradigm shift. However, I think it is an interesting hypothesis that once a certain number of such conditions exist, they may trigger similar discoveries in multiple places / cultures.