Judith said
Jill_L said
Robert: “Dostoyevsky describes Rodion’s thought processes and illness so well .
Jill, is Hermann Hess comparable to Tolstoy and Trollope in developing characters we can thoroughly identify with and understand so well, we would do exactly as they did given the same situations?
Judith, what a wonderful question. I have only read the first chapter of War and Peace. . . but I can say that I found his characters very human and relatable. You make me want to try that book again. As to Trollope I have not ever heard the name. Could you make a suggestion?
Jill: Judith, what a wonderful question. I have only read the first chapter of War and Peace. . . but I can say that I found his characters very human and relatable. You make me want to try that book again. As to Trollope I have not ever heard the name. Could you make a suggestion?
Professor Ehrman’s favorite of the Trollope books is Framley Parsonage. Doctor Thorne is good, too. Then The Pallisers and The Barchester Chronicless are available now for streaming.
If trying War and Peace again, be sure to read the Epilogue, too.
BOOKS:
1. What was the first book you remember?
Charlotte’s Web comes to mind, although I doubt it was actually the first book I read.
2. What was the first book you bought for yourself?
Most likely something by Ursula K. Le Guin
3. What was a book you thought of as a discovery that nobody else seemed to know about?
The Night Watch series by ** you do not have permission to see this link **.
4. Name a book that changed you.
All of the good books I have read changed me some. The ones the most often come to mind nowadays are Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter and The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt.
5. Name a book recommended by a friend that turned out to be really good.
Can’t recall any friend recommendations offhand
6. Name the weirdest book you’ve ever read.
So many to choose from, but most recent is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – there’s a world right below your feet that you cannot see.
7. Name a classic work that everyone tells you is a work of genius that you utterly detest.
The only book I have read that I utterly detest is Atlas Shrugged, but I’m glad I read it.
8. What is the book you own that you treasure most?
The Secret Pilgrim by John Le Carre
MOVIES:
1. What was the first movie you remember?
Either Mary Poppins or With Six You Get Eggrolls. (back in the day when Mom chose the movies)
2. What was the first movie you bought for yourself?
Just don’t remember.
3. What was a movie you thought of as a discovery that nobody else seemed to know about?
A film adaptation of Equus.
4. Name a movie that changed you.
Hard to say, but I’ll go with Apocalypse Now, which takes the theme of Heart of Darkness into a war-time setting.
5. Name a movie recommended by a friend that turned out to be really good.
High Plains Drifter.
6. Name the weirdest movie you’ve ever seen.
Felini’s Satyricon is outright weird, and Bergman’s Cries and Whispers is very disturbing (at least for one scene). A more recent very weird movie is Mother!.
7. Name a classic work that everyone tells you is a work of genius that you utterly detest.
I agree that Citizen Kane is overrated, but the movie I utterly detest is Grease (from high school dating days)
8. What is the movie you own that you treasure most?
This will come off as bizarre, but it is That Thing You Do, a very lighthearted rom-com type movie produced and directed by Tom Hanks. It tells the story of a rock and roll band in the late 50s/early 60s (pre Beatles).
TTHorne56 said
BOOKS:4. Name a book that changed you.
All of the good books I have read changed me some. The ones the most often come to mind nowadays are Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter and The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt.
I’ve put Anti-Intellectualism in American Life on my reading list.
So I didn’t think about this a page or two back: Singin’ in the Rain. It has a rare 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yet I truly detest it. But I also think it contains one of the best five-minute scenes ever laid down on film:
I’m so torn.
**Sniffle, sniffle**
Look away, folks. I feel a crying jag coming on.
I’ll raise the Singing in the Rain, and go with It’s a Wonderful Life as an utterly detestable film. I love Jimmy Stewart, but this is a pile of unadulterated sap.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is an exceptional book. It is thoroughly researched with an abundance of substantive footnotes. Unfortunately it only brings us up to 1964 (in which it won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction). A more recent book which tries to contend with effects of the 1970s and thereafter is Fantasyland, which I also recommend while noting it is not as good as AiAL
TTHorne56 said
I’ll raise the Singing in the Rain, and go with It’s a Wonderful Life as an utterly detestable film. I love Jimmy Stewart, but this is a pile of unadulterated sap.Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is an exceptional book. It is thoroughly researched with an abundance of substantive footnotes. Unfortunately it only brings us up to 1964 (in which it won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction). A more recent book which tries to contend with effects of the 1970s and thereafter is Fantasyland, which I also recommend while noting it is not as good as AiAL
I saw it won the prize.
It’s a Wonderful Life is sheer “Capricorn”. Apparently someone forgot to renew it’s copyright, so it became an annual staple that broadcasters could air without paying royalties. Better, but still corny, are The Bishop’s Wife and The Bells of St. Mary’s.
I suppose there are two kinds of people in the world: a) those who watch “Its a Wonderful Life” and cry real tears at the end b) those who watch it and just want to throw the tv out the window. I am decidedly in camp “a”. In any case, Stewart’s acting is a masters’ class. I don’t know who else could have pulled it off. It may be a bit heavy-handed, since most of us do not save a town, or save someone who saves a group of soldiers, but the key message is that while we may feel that our lives have been wasted if we did not achieve all of our dreams, it may be that we have lived another life that was even more worthwhile, without realizing it. It is a powerful message.
CEJ said
TTHorne56 said
I’ll raise the Singing in the Rain, and go with It’s a Wonderful Life as an utterly detestable film. I love Jimmy Stewart, but this is a pile of unadulterated sap.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is an exceptional book. It is thoroughly researched with an abundance of substantive footnotes. Unfortunately it only brings us up to 1964 (in which it won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction). A more recent book which tries to contend with effects of the 1970s and thereafter is Fantasyland, which I also recommend while noting it is not as good as AiAL
I saw it won the prize.
It’s a Wonderful Life is sheer “Capricorn”. Apparently someone forgot to renew it’s copyright, so it became an annual staple that broadcasters could air without paying royalties. Better, but still corny, are The Bishop’s Wife and The Bells of St. Mary’s.
CEJ said
TTHorne56 said
I’ll raise the Singing in the Rain, and go with It’s a Wonderful Life as an utterly detestable film. I love Jimmy Stewart, but this is a pile of unadulterated sap.
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is an exceptional book. It is thoroughly researched with an abundance of substantive footnotes. Unfortunately it only brings us up to 1964 (in which it won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction). A more recent book which tries to contend with effects of the 1970s and thereafter is Fantasyland, which I also recommend while noting it is not as good as AiAL
I saw it won the prize.
It’s a Wonderful Life is sheer “Capricorn”. Apparently someone forgot to renew it’s copyright, so it became an annual staple that broadcasters could air without paying royalties. Better, but still corny, are The Bishop’s Wife and The Bells of St. Mary’s.
My bad. Typo. Capracorn.
I’m pleased with the responses. It’s always interesting to hear. The purpose of the questions is to start a discussion and that’s why they are intended to be somewhat open to interpretation.
I have every intention of inviting Prof Ehrman to respond but he mentioned that he’s traveling this week and rather than risk the chance that he simply doesn’t have the time or that he might put them aside for later and then forget, I will wait. I’ve been moving and so when I’m not working I’m , well, moving so I haven’t had the time to sit down and do a proper response. I have a long weekend with the Juneteenth federal holiday on Monday so I will post my selections over the weekend.
Judith wrote
No one has mentioned any of Professor Ehrman’s books yet…
It is probably worth it’s own thread to discuss how we each came to read Ehrman’s books and the effect they’ve had. The one that affected me most was ** you do not have permission to see this link **. I won’t bore you with biography so let’s just say after I lost the Jesus of faith, Ehrman provided me with the Jesus of history. But as enormously influential as it was I can’t say it really changed me. The real change had already come.
My interpretation (and it is only my interpretation) of a “book that changed you” is a book that made you look at the world differently. I hope that everyone has had this experience.
JAS wrote
I suppose there are two kinds of people in the world: a) those who watch “Its a Wonderful Life” and cry real tears at the end b) those who watch it and just want to throw the tv out the window.
Well I am in the latter category I’m afraid but I would be an utter hypocrite not to point out that I have my own Christmas three-hankie movie. The 1951 version of ** you do not have permission to see this link ** starring Alastair Sim. There are other good adaptions (George C Scott requites himself well in a TV version from 1984) but there is no better cinematic depiction of human redemption than Sim’s performance. (I seem to always be getting something in my eye whenever I watch the movie. Funny how that works. Every time.)
Taste is such an inexplicable thing. That’s why I don’t waste my time criticizing other people’s. How often do others find transcendence through works whose riches were quickly exhausted for us?
Stephen: It is probably worth it’s own thread to discuss how we each came to read Ehrman’s books and the effect they’ve had.
Judith: Also the effect the blog has had on us might be of interest. (Will Professor Ehrman be able to resist reading that thread if he hears about it?)
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
1 Guest(s)