Nonfiction

[nytempsperdu]

This is the first time I have regretted giving up HBO after The Wire was no more, but I have read Grandin, watched her 3 hours on booktv a while back and have heard her interviewed on NPR a couple times.  From the samples, it seems Danes's characterization is absolutely dead on, certainly with the voice.  Grandin is fascinating to me because she has none of what some call "barriers"--she is absolutely candid  and she is absolutely convinced--and convincing--of what she says.  I gather that parents of autistic children turn out in droves for her speaking engagements, she continues her work with the food industry and she teaches at a college in Colo. 

[barton]

Ms. Grandin is quite intense, and Ms. Danes may just have been capturing the character that is definitely there (much as it pains me to cut Ms. Danes a break).

Meow?

[harrie]

If it's meow-worthy to not particularly care for most of someone's body of work (in this case, that of Ms. Danes), so be it.

[Donotremove]

I understand from Grandin herself that she was very pleased with Clare's depiction.  And she was extra pleased with how the film made it clear that she "sees" in pictures. She tried hard to explain that when she appeared on C-span a while back. But it became clear to me what she meant after I saw the HBO film. Grandin is very intense in person. I think that is because it has been a struggle, all her life, for her to be "out in the world" and intermingling with the people in it, making her loud and strident. She does not think in the abstract the way you and I do. Hence, "But where do they go?". She truly cannot "see" (to muse as we do about "after life") where the dead go, except animals that we eat. These are alive, and then they are "meat".

I enjoyed the movie.

[madupont]

donotremove,

Oh, I understood her perfectly, "where did he go", as it seems quite unfair that animals would not have the ungoing after-life awarded to humans; but fact of the matter is that in the script the scene is added at some length where David Strathairn as Prof.Carlock has passed away and Mrs. Grandin brings Temple to the "viewing" and, after all is said and done, Temple Grandin still asks the above question. 

I interpret her intense concern for this question as less metaphysical than a direct question which I'd paraphrase "where did the Life go".  This is a major concern, particularly to very  young children until like the rest of us they experience the loss of life over and over again.  That experience teaches us that we are finite.

But I am also familiar with a quite different bothersome theological determination of "infinite" and prefer to accept another doctrine that includes animals as losing one arrangement of atoms and becoming another configuration in an endless cycle of conditions that is not always an advancement(and which might have not pleased either Huxley or Darwin).

Buddhists continued the traditional Brahmim respect for animals and their individuated living existence.  In fact my friend Elfriede/Laksmi mentioned that, at first it is quite annoying to have Sacred cows wandering into your garden alongside the house and munching away; except, that it all grows back so fast anyway that it hardly matters!

I suspect same could be said for animal life or human life other than in the most cataclysmic conditions.

Interestingly, Judaism had similar regard, although necessarily not a cycle of reincarnation which would have disregarded the individual eternal being; which is why such a thing as kosher butchering exists as a condition of animal slaughter without which the meat would not be kosher.

[barton]

Harrie, that's my future wife you're talking about.  A goddess.  A towering figure in American cinema.  A supreme avatar of the quintessential girl-next-door.  A radiant celluloid angel whose very....

OK, I'm done with these testosterone patches.

[Gintaras]

If anyone is curious to read about the last days of the Soviet Union, I can't think of a better account than Ryszard Kapuscinski's Imperium.  He has a great wit and sense of irony in recalling events and a wonderful descriptive sense of the cities he takes the reader on his personal journey of discovery.

Here in Lithuania we celebrated 20 years of independence from Soviet rule.  The national television channel has been showing a series of engaging (and often amusing) clips by Jonas Mekas from American television news sources as the US followed events between March 1990 and September 1991 when Lithuania formally entered the United Nations.  It was a wild and bumpy ride.

[madupont]

http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780547085906-8

Proust was a Neuroscientist

by, Jonah Leher

[nytempsperdu]

Have just acquired Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a tale that has gripped me since I first heard about it on NPR and heard interviews of Skloot on NPR and BookTV.  I know there are few participants and little likelihood of an Elba discussion, but would love to discuss it here, or elsewhere.

[Lhoffman]

The book sounds quite good.   I'd be up for reading, but right now I'm looking at Icelandic Mythology (including a new read of the Volsunga Saga(!)...which will of course lead me to another delightful viewing of Wagner's Ring...thank God it's Summer!), Tolkien and maybe some of Andrew Lang's work.   Then it's on to this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Nicholas-Wilhelm-Three-Cousins/dp/1400043638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275884818&sr=1-1

[desdemona222b]

The book sounds quite good.   I'd be up for reading, but right now I'm looking at Icelandic Mythology (including a new read of the Volsunga Saga(!)...which will of course lead me to another delightful viewing of Wagner's Ring...thank God it's Summer!), Tolkien and maybe some of Andrew Lang's work.   Then it's on to this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Nicholas-Wilhelm-Three-Cousins/dp/1400043638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275884818&sr=1-1

I am finishing up right now - it is WONDERFUL.  It is the finest new work of history to come out in a very long time.  The portrayal of the three cousins, and the way royals across Europe brought about war after war until finally a minor incident turned into WWI is superlative and the story is told with great wit and style.  These guys were the biggest buffoons imaginable, particularly Kaiser Wilhelm.  MO-RON.

[pugetopolis]

The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One

http://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Nicholas-Wilhelm-Three-Cousins/dp/1400043638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275884818&sr=1-1

It was arduous, trying to read this very negative view of the royal dynasties in Europe at the start of the last century. The author appears to be uncomfortable with the entire scene. She sees things as a comedy of errors -but without the comedy! There is an unsympathetic, cynical edge to the narrative, which is very hard on the characters involved -and more and more dreary for the reader. These people were human beings, after all. But no allowances are made here: in Ms Carter's book they are all more or less hopeless and that's about it. (Personally, I'd much rather have this bunch, than the Hitlers and Stalins who came after!)

About half way through, the author arrives at the accession of King Edward VII in 1901, -and at this point she finally lost me. The new King was (by most contemporary accounts) a man of considerable goodwill, popular, and a generally positive influence. But Ms Carter prefers to see him as hopeless like all the rest: "a flop", we are decisively told. That's a step too far.

By then it was clear that a negative view was on the cards for all the characters, and the whole story. I couldn't face reading more of this slant, and I'm sorry to say, had to put the book down. The book is wanting in balance. So I regret this remains a review of the first half, (though I looked further on). The book contains some interesting photographs, and 'Hello' magazine gets a mention.

[pugetopolis]

I am finishing up right now - it is WONDERFUL.  It is the finest new work of history to come out in a very long time.  The portrayal of the three cousins, and the way royals across Europe brought about war after war until finally a minor incident turned into WWI is superlative and the story is told with great wit and style.  These guys were the biggest buffoons imaginable, particularly Kaiser Wilhelm.  MO-RON.

Sounds kinda familiar.      

[Lhoffman]

The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One

http://www.amazon.co.uk/George-Nicholas-Wilhelm-Three-Cousins/dp/1400043638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275884818&sr=1-1

It was arduous, trying to read this very negative view of the royal dynasties in Europe at the start of the last century. The author appears to be uncomfortable with the entire scene. She sees things as a comedy of errors -but without the comedy! There is an unsympathetic, cynical edge to the narrative, which is very hard on the characters involved -and more and more dreary for the reader. These people were human beings, after all. But no allowances are made here: in Ms Carter's book they are all more or less hopeless and that's about it. (Personally, I'd much rather have this bunch, than the Hitlers and Stalins who came after!)

About half way through, the author arrives at the accession of King Edward VII in 1901, -and at this point she finally lost me. The new King was (by most contemporary accounts) a man of considerable goodwill, popular, and a generally positive influence. But Ms Carter prefers to see him as hopeless like all the rest: "a flop", we are decisively told. That's a step too far.

By then it was clear that a negative view was on the cards for all the characters, and the whole story. I couldn't face reading more of this slant, and I'm sorry to say, had to put the book down. The book is wanting in balance. So I regret this remains a review of the first half, (though I looked further on). The book contains some interesting photographs, and 'Hello' magazine gets a mention.

I guess nothing would bring out cynicism like WWI....but I hope it's not an accurate assessment of the book since it's sitting on my shelf waiting for me to join the party.   

[Lhoffman]

Up to around page 100 of George, Nicholas and Wilhelm.

Sort of irritating the MC supposition that George was dyslexic...no proof, just what it seems like to her.   But the lack of education given the three was appalling.

Interesting (at least to me) that the three were not very tall men...think that had an effect on their approach to the world when they gained power?