It says that it deals with the life writings of women in post-communist Romania, but the writings she has been referencing, for the most part, had the
It says that it deals with the life writings of women in post-communist Romania, but the writings she has been referencing, for the most part, had their events during the communist period (I am using the term “communist” because that is how that period is generally known, but the events through which Romania went through are a far cry from a political and economical utopia).
This book is the only comprehensive book that I could find to deal with the topic at hand (which is terribly sad—the market for literary theories on women`s life writing for sure is not saturated—this may be just its fragile beginning).
The author does not allow her voice to vibrate through the text (a pity, because she seems to have a strong character, which would have rendered itself in an interesting way in a more argumentative format) She fades into the background of the plethora of readings she has done. She gathers all these sources to weave a comprehensible picture of what the intention of these women might have been or how their experiences shaped their voice and style in writing about their lives.
The book is built by intertwining his considerations on a number of memoirs. I cannot say that I am a fan of the method. It wastes too much in tacklin
The book is built by intertwining his considerations on a number of memoirs. I cannot say that I am a fan of the method. It wastes too much in tackling others’ work and too little on his own. Where is the subject he wants to present?
It is true, that you can say little more about memoirs than it has been already written—that is someone`s interpretation of their lives—and what can you predict about its future when its potential as a genre is still?
I may also be a bit sour because I am not reading this out of pleasure and curiosity but out the necessity of having something on my paper.
It does not say never before heard things, it just tries to explain some of the basics (albeit, sometimes it
It is a decent book for an introduction.
It does not say never before heard things, it just tries to explain some of the basics (albeit, sometimes it goes too deep into some redundant sidetracks that spoil the overarching argument).
I read it because I needed an author and a title to write down at the refrenced works section in my paper
Cartea a fost marchetată ca o oportunitate de a avea o privire mai detașată asupra vieții românești, în particular, traiului din București. Scrisă de
Cartea a fost marchetată ca o oportunitate de a avea o privire mai detașată asupra vieții românești, în particular, traiului din București. Scrisă de o autoare de originie polonă, se subînțelegea că ceea ce va urma va fi o luare în cunoștință a unor fapte—ce fapte? Nu era clar, cum se prea obișnuiește la cărțile publicate în română, în loc de descrieri care să facă un vag sumar al cărții, avem impresii a câtorva oameni care au citit ori prea mult cărți la viața lor și au uitat să mai iasă din casă, ori vor să simuleze această stare, pentru că scriu ca pentru ei înșiși și nu de parcă ar trebui să vorbească despre cartea respectivă—but I digress.
Despre ce este cartea?
Ai zice că despre București, că tot apare în titlu. Nu chiar. Bucureștiul e mai mult orașul ancoră din carea autoarea poate vorbi pentru că l-a vizitat cel mai mult (față de alte locuri din România) și cunoaște oameni de acolo.
Cartea îmi dăduse impresia unei investigații istorice. Aveam așteptări și pretenții de parcă urma să citesc un tratat pus la punct și documentat.
Poate de aceea, realitatea cărții m-a lovit din plin. Este un vlog, adică un memoir al experienței ei în București pe parcursul a unor ani (cred că a prins anii 2009/2010 în București, sau ceva pe acolo). Pe lângă asta, își adnotează jurnalul de călătorii cu evenimente istorice care s-au întâmplat în țară pe vremea regimului ceaușist și impresii despre rezultatele care se văd în prezent (de ex., s-au construit multe blocuri atunci, dar acum stau în paragină și arată mizer).
Plus că mai mult de un sfert din carte este despre avort și cum avortul a fost interzis și traumele și dramele pe care le-a provocat această măsură. Sunt de acord cu expunerea relelor făcute de o astfel de legislație, dar felul în care a introdus subiectul a fost ca aluatul crud băgat pe gât în jos. Nu a contextualizat destul de mult cât să poată vorbi așa de libertin de suferințele atâtora.
Până la urmă cartea asta a fost scrisă cu intenția de a fi citită de polonezi. Probabil voiau și ei o broșură despre atmosfera generală în Bucureștiul aniilor 2000, nu ceva mai în detaliu, mai curpinzător, mai sceptic sau mai critic.
I have heard of Carl Sagan and watched a part of his Cosmos tv series (very soothing, helped me fall asleep a few times when I was going through a rou
I have heard of Carl Sagan and watched a part of his Cosmos tv series (very soothing, helped me fall asleep a few times when I was going through a rough patch), and I knew about his novel, Contact, but I did not try to find something more about him or his work.
That is until I had this book assigned to me in a course. It was quite a surprise.
It reads quite quickly. It forms a combination of speculative science and scientific myths, all starting from a scientific premise.
This is the exact read that someone who is into the fun part of science would like. It is more poetic rather than exhaustive. It is the YouTube type of fun science before there was YouTube-or the Internet for that matter because this was first published in 1977.
“And after we returned to the savannahs and abandoned the trees, did we long for those great graceful leaps and ecstatic moments of weightlessness in the shafts of sunlight of the forest roof? Is the startle reflex of human infants today to prevent falling from the treetops? Are our nighttime dreams of flying and our daytime passion for flight, as exemplified in the lives of Leonardo da Vinci or Konstantin Tsiolkovskii, nostalgic reminiscences of those days gone by in the branches of the high forest?”
It does not come with something new, or revolutionary, and mainly because at the time of me writing this (2022), it has passed almost half a century since the ideas of this book were propelled into the world (and as a consequence, instead of feeling revelatory, they felt more like the discovery of the source-place of other ideas that you have already seen be play through different SF and fantasy tv shows, movies and documentaries).
allow yourself to ask “why sex was associated with sin for such a long time”
There were things that I have never once considered.
More specifically
allow yourself to ask “why sex was associated with sin for such a long time”
There were things that I have never once considered.
More specifically, the way the idea of sexuality is perceived by the “western” societies that inherited Victorian views/traditions of the imperial prude. The 19thC was obsessive in its deals with sex-that`s way they went overboard with restraining and limiting. it Sex was on their minds, it was all they were talking about, how to limit it, how to control it.
I learned that the development of capitalism (17C) coincided with the advent of sexual repression, and as a result, that sex is “incompatible with a general and intensive work imperative”
The belief that in order for a country to be rich it needs to have a lot of citizens—rose with the need of manpower, to work in industries. The consequence is that the interest of politics moves from marriages of interest to the “each individual`s use of sex”
The caveat that I would have with this particular text is one example that is employed. I didn`t get the point he was trying to make with the little girl and the farm worker and the “curled milk” anecdote.
,,E-atât de greu de spus adevărul adânc, mai ales când simți că totul e futil și zadarnic." p. 20-21
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Viața nu pare să-i fi oferit o mână ușo
,,E-atât de greu de spus adevărul adânc, mai ales când simți că totul e futil și zadarnic." p. 20-21
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Viața nu pare să-i fi oferit o mână ușoară lui Petru Comărnescu, sau cel puțin așa reiese din primul volum din seria sa de jurnale. Din felul în care interacționează cu scrierea de jurnal pare să folosească acest prilej ca moment de refulare, de compătimire și de contemplare. Momentele pe care le însemnează nu sunt de fericire, ci mai degrabă de abatere, de remușcare de neliniște sufletească.
Ceea ce, într-un mod bizar, mă făcea să mă simt mai calmă. Intram în lumea tristă a dezamăgirilor și în loc de disperare, mă curpindea un sentiment duios de empatie. Parcă dintr-o data nu mai eram singura care suferea, ci îl aveam pe Petru alături care îmi descria nevrutele vieții prin Bucureștiul interbelic.
Deși provine dintr-o familie înstărită, duce perpetuu lipsă de bani. Întregul jurnal are un laitmotiv în jurul goanei după câțiva lei încoace și încolo. Deși se căsătorește cu fiica unui ministru al vremii și din exterior totul pare o potrivire scrisă în rai, neînțelegerile în mariaj nu întârzie să apară, fără a se mai pune la socoteală că Petru Comărnescu era probabil gay.
Primele notații în jurnal sunt destul de scurte și brusțe. Menționează ziua, locul și ce anume a făcut, de parcă înșiră o linie de activități la care s-a gândit și le-a realizat. Însă, treptat, inserțiile devin mai elaborate și descrierile iau amploare.
Felul în care se exprimă este cuceritor. Își îmblânzește gânduri sălbăticite de pasiunea de a trăi, de flacăra vitalității:
,,Nu m-am gândit niciodată să mă întreb dac�� viața mea nu e cumva un rău. Și nici ce e dincolo de ea. Atâtea vedeam în ea și prin ea încât nu m-am gândit ce aș fi eu fără ea.” p. 8-9
Îmi pare o personalitate care trăiește intens și pentru care clipa este ori îmbibată de emoții puternice, ori pustiită de amorțeală.
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Vocea care se trasează din spatele jurnalui pare izbitor de contemporană. Se plânge de lucruri, nu face descrieri de peisagistică, gândește cu inima și privește înspre viitor cu o oarecare resemnare specifică contemporanilor.
,,Când să mă adun, când să renunț la risipirea mea, vremea și evenimentele îmi stau mereu împotrivă.” p. 308
Tot am auzit de China-SUA și SUA-China în sus și în jos, însă nu prea știu nimic despre China dintr-o perspectivă românească. Este adevărat că România
Tot am auzit de China-SUA și SUA-China în sus și în jos, însă nu prea știu nimic despre China dintr-o perspectivă românească. Este adevărat că România se coplace să se afilieze cu orice tendință propusă de SUA și deci, e ușor de ghicit că status-quo-ul național va fi negativ pentru China. Am vrut să îmi fac o perspectivă mai complexă.
Eram la Bookfest și am văzut un întreg pavilion la editura Corint nebăgata de nimeni în seamă. M-am dus și m-am băgat eu în seamă. Erau o selecție de cărți traduse din chineză în română și printre care și câteva cărți în română despre China. (A se înțelege, nu fac apologia de ce am citit despre China, ci vreau doar să prezint unghiul din care mi-a venit această lectură).
Cartea în sine poate fi interesantă, dar este prea lungă. Mi se pare că autorul se pierde în detalii, mai ales când vine vorba de subiecte politice (care e 70% din carte). Plus că o bună parte din carte, adică cam un sfert înspre final, este compusă din postări de pe blogul autorului.
Ce conține această carte:
*Rezumate la câteva mituri/legende chinezești simpatice,
*Câteva fapte cheie din istoria Chinei (chiar frumos și simplu explicate)
*Niște repere despre măsurile luate de către China în prezent (aici cam tot discursul este format înspre a contracara tot ceea ce de obicei îi este reproșat Chinei de către Vest),
*Câteva exemple despre cum România este f-ed over pentru că refuză majoritatea parteneriatelor cu China.
Per total cartea este cam dezorganizată în structură. Dacă interesează pe cineva ceva mai punctat din ceea ce poate avea de spus autorul aș recomanda să se caute informația direct siteul autorului. Cartea este cât de cât rezonabilă dacă nu ai niciun habar de China și orice informație este binevenită pentru că nu prea ai termeni de comparație.
From my first interaction with languages, I heard these whispers about Chinese. There was a gossip that slipped through the cracks of my wall of textb
From my first interaction with languages, I heard these whispers about Chinese. There was a gossip that slipped through the cracks of my wall of textbooks: there is no Chinese language!
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How come that is?
I mean, there is no “Chinese” per se, but rather a multitude of languafges spreading over the entire territory of today`s China.
I had been curious about this rumor for some time. I searched some videos on YouTube, but there was nothing too satisfactory, that until I stumbled upon this author`s video introduction into the history of what we call today “Chinese”.
It is truly a fascinating story, worth reading about (or listening. I can`t really find the video right now to attach it in here).
Quote:
“The rather imprecise term ‘Mandarin Chinese’ is now used to refer to a range of mutually intelligible varieties of Chinese that have been accepted as the standard official language throughout all the countries and regions of the Chinese diaspora.”
The criticism that I have to give this book may be that at times, it is too pedantic. It went a bit too far with the didactic tone. Indeed, it was advertised as a fun simple way of learning some quick facts about Chinese. But, truly, here are moments in which the author is losing the track, maybe out of enthusiasm, but nonetheless, at times I was drifting away with them and I did not like it that much.
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Overall, quite a nice book to make your introduction into the different aspects concerning the Chinese language!
As I am writing this review I am trying to recall how I even got to the decision of reading this book. I think that I was browsing the Amazon book catAs I am writing this review I am trying to recall how I even got to the decision of reading this book. I think that I was browsing the Amazon book catalogue about the contemporary life of the 21st century individual. I think that I was already so taken into my search that I forgot myself and two hours latter I had this book in my cart.
It all seems so hazy. Now, looking back, it fells as if that click had been decisive. There is a me before Caste and a me after it.
“The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away.”
I didn`t write this to convince you to read it. I wrote this as a small gesture of gratitude for the author that wrote it. Instagram\\my Blog\\ ...more
Recomand cartea asta pentru că are capitole scurte, dar condensate în informație. Fiecare enunțare este întărită de documentație, iar până la urmă dac Recomand cartea asta pentru că are capitole scurte, dar condensate în informație. Fiecare enunțare este întărită de documentație, iar până la urmă dacă sunt suspiciuni că acesta ar fi o încercare a cuiva să te spele pe creier și să te facă îndrăgostit de monarhia apusă a României—te rog—doar privește că aproape un secol a trecut de la îngemânarea acestor evenimente— este deprisos antrenarea unor sentimente negative la adresa acestei cărți ce își propune să redea o nouă imagine a cuplului Carol II—Elena Lupescu care a primit diverse denumiri, una mai puțin complimentatoare decât alta.
,,În realitate, Carol se putea socti și chiar era, primul și cel mai român membru al dinastiei: se născuse în România, vorbea perfect românește, fusese botezat în Biserica Ortodoxă, se simțea în largul lui deopotrivă printre militari și printre țărani, savura înjurăturile neaoșe și se desfăta mâncând mămăliga, ciorbele și brânzeturile românești.” (p.50)
Este o vorbă englezească despre aruncatul pietrelor și casele de sticlă. Instagram\\my Blog\\ ...more
This was a gorgeous read. However, the book was gloomy enough to require an explanation from my part of why I am calling its contents gorgeous (as I amThis was a gorgeous read. However, the book was gloomy enough to require an explanation from my part of why I am calling its contents gorgeous (as I am neither a sleazy uncle nor an exhausted fangirl, tired out by her own fan base).
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I am praising it because the writing was very well put together. This has been one of those rare non-fiction books that made me keep reading until the end, without letting it go, in favour of a fiction book.
The rhetoric of the text rings true with the author's profession (professor at Yale Law School---which could come as a surprise as this book entitles itself as a dispeller of the meritocratic myth that the richest of the richest have nurtured for decades in places as Yale--High profile Universities).
This book comes as a warning to a trend that does not seem to recede anytime soon. A trend that manifests its consequences in the elite education system of the United States of America, the place where a good portion of the 1% have passed by. (If you feel left out---don`t worry, the inequality is sure to catch on and add you to the mix, sooner or later).
The first part tries to explain why the 2016 Presidential elections had that result that it had. The 2016 elections' result was not a trigger point for something new, but rather the consequence of a long time boiling problem found at the level of the society. It talks about the impressive wedge that has been formed between the a middle class family and a rich one, all of that on the basis of inequality distribution of income (and even between the rich there are gradients).
But, rest assured, in this game of mouse and cat, no one gets to be the cat. As even the elite has to suffer alongside the middle class (albeit, in different manners):
”Meritocracy entices an anxious and inauthentic elite ito a pitiless, lifelong contest to secure income and status through its own excessive industry.” (p.xi)
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One of the main points made by the book is that the value of the old aristocracy (land, imobiliarias, property) has been exchanged on human capital—through education, by raising the value of a skilled professional and hence making the respective person their own valuable commodity.
However, that comes with tricks in the books, because meritocracy is a beautifully wrapped myth that fosters in its insides truths that are much more sobering.
The majority of those that want to enter the meritscene have to be able to play the entrance ticket.
”Meritocrats may be made rather than born, but they are not self-made” (p.144)
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I am not the right person to even try to make a summery to this book. I have no studies in the subject. That is to say, do not let my review influence your decision into trying this book.
On the other hand, neither feel unprepared or undeserving of flipping through it because the language is accessible enough and the explanations are exhaustive.
A couple of essays that are worth while. They are concentrated on subjects concerning feminism and racism. Perhaps this description of mine niches the A couple of essays that are worth while. They are concentrated on subjects concerning feminism and racism. Perhaps this description of mine niches them too much.
I lack this author`s power at rendering subects that may seem to concern just the minority as a real problem that has to worry the majority, too. She points the cracks in the society not to wedge them into valleys, but to invite the readers into finding a solution that goes to mend them.
Her call to unity is polished by the assurance that unity does not mean uniformity, it does not mean losing one`s individual traits.
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
This was a great way to exemplify what learning while having fun would signify. [image] I have to confess that more often than not I caught myself reaThis was a great way to exemplify what learning while having fun would signify. [image] I have to confess that more often than not I caught myself reading the title as A Circular Scroll instead of A Circular Stroll. However, I had a good excuse and that was that this book was mainly about words and how they traveled from a far away past all the way to our present.
You would have fun reading this book. Really. If it helps, the book was composed by more posts made by the author on his blog. That will entail that they are from the beginning build as to attract attention and to amuze the reader. Not to say that the non-fiction books are purposefully build to bore one to sleep. I am just saying that they are not really a read to be taken to the beach (not that there are many occasions left to go to the beach, now with the dear old pandemy).
Whatever, I was talking about the book. Yes, the book, great one. Great little-big- book that you should try. Look:
“Pocahontas was a princess of the Powhatan tribe, which lived in Virginia. Of course, the Powhatan tribe didn’t know they lived in Virginia. They thought they lived in Tenakomakah, and so the English thoughtfully came with guns to explain their mistake.”
See? Isn`t this fun? Isn`t this sparking some flickers of interest?
“In nineteenth-century America, the belief that sausages were usually made out of dog meat was so widespread that they started to be called hotdogs, a word that survives to this day.”
Lovely info to know. Great material to sprout out on a first date.
"Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it, a badge not of slavery, but of liberty. It denotes that he is subject to government, indeed; but th"Every tax, however, is to the person who pays it, a badge not of slavery, but of liberty. It denotes that he is subject to government, indeed; but that, as he has some property, he cannot himself be the property of a master." p.857 Madams et Messieurs, Adam Smith, the father of capitalism.
The first thing that intrigued me about this book (besides being the test of intelligence in one of the episodes of Killing Eve-seriously, at one point, Villanelle was disguised and the man in which home she infiltrated, tested her truth about having graduated with a diploma in philosophy/economics/social studies by asking her if she recognized “that book”—on the shelf was a penguin edition of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nationsy Adam Smith) [image] So, the first thing that intrigued me, aside from that little tidbit between brackets, was that it was published a few amounts before the US gained its independence. It was published in the spring of 1776. Imagine me reading a book in which the author kept referring to the USA as “our colonies” and me being: “oh, you got a thing or two coming your way”. [image] Do not imagine that by reading this book you are on your way towards Wall Street. It is more of a contemplative work, than a 101 guide to your financial brake trough.
The author does relay of his age`s statistics when making arguments, but “in that rude state” in which they found themselves (in comparison to us) things could only be of a basic nature. There was no bitcoin to throw around and make the trade even more complex than it already was. At that time, the rave was about CORN. Yes. Corn. I wouldn`t have guessed that corn meant so much for the eighteenth century. It was the material against which gold and silver was valued. If I were to sart a historical fiction, I know in what my character would invest. However, it is surprisingly actual in some regards. Like the passages about taxes or rent. He explains the basics of it, and you can see how they would be applied in our age, too. Or why the soft power (diplomatic agreements) matters so much for the well being-the economical fairing of a country. You would thing that you already knew a lot of the things presented, but often times I found myself ending a chapter and be like “huh. I guess, now I know why the world seems so f**** up”.
” The pretence that corporations are necessary for the better government of the trade, is whitout any foundation. p.135”
The voice of the narrator is down to Earth. He is poised and in the most parts he is not ready to razzle dazzle you with how much he knows over you and how you must be ever so grateful for having read him. Not like others (I am looking at you, Rousseau Jean-Jacques 1712-1778).
”The hog, that finds his food among ordure, and greedily devours many things rejected by every other useful animal, is, like poultry, originally kept as a save-all.” [image]
Each one of us has a truth, but not everyone has the means to tell it. Often times the words fall short, letting us to grasp at some semblance of threEach one of us has a truth, but not everyone has the means to tell it. Often times the words fall short, letting us to grasp at some semblance of thread that would tether us in the real world. It's an emotional read, one that requires you to be in there, in the narrative, to face IT....more
" All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting strug" All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither re- sist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality."...more
Cum mai nou cunosc părți din București și viața prin capitală multe dintre reperele cheie (instituții inclusiv) îmi deveniseră cunoscute, așa că mențiCum mai nou cunosc părți din București și viața prin capitală multe dintre reperele cheie (instituții inclusiv) îmi deveniseră cunoscute, așa că menționarea lor venea ca un fel de bobârnac peste nas, că uite ce era înaintea ochiilor tăi în tot acest timp și nu ai avut habar. Mă și gândesc cum a fost lectura cărții pentru cei care cunoșteau mult mai bine fundalul politic al perioadei de după 2000 și auziseră de personajele menționate și erau familiari cu activitatea lor. Cât de trădați se simțiseră? Cred că numărul, pe o gradație, depășește jumătate plus unu, coincidență, procentul de plagiarism găsit (cel puțin) în fiecare lucrare adusă la lumină. [image] Emilia Șercan se alătură holului meu personal de marmuă închinat femeilor pe care mi le iau model în viață. Ce Superwoman? Ce Catwoman? Toți pălesc înaintea ei.
Doamne ce a durut și pot pune pariu că eu am resimțit doar ecouri, fiind încă relativ prea tânără ca viața să mă ia peste picioare în halul ăla încât să văd cum incapabili reușesc să mi-o ia înainte prin simpla lor voință și nesimțire de a sări garduri și a tăia curbe. Pentru că de ce nu?
Puțin am fost ofticată că o bună parte din carte o compun reportajele autoarei adunate laolaltă de prin publicațiile din anul 2015 și nu chiar procesul efectiv, adică mi-a plăcut atât de mult prima parte a cărții încât aș fi vrut să se contiune (felul în care era scrisă, nu corupția care era în floare). Însă și acele articole sunt munca ei și asamblate aici, una după alta dau o altă lumină, presupun.
În fine, cartea ustură și cam cam doare, dar bărbia sus și picioarele la bătaie. Și tu poți face o schimbare. ...more
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