Reading Wednesday, 10/04
Apr. 10th, 2019 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livRecently read: Two powerful pieces arguing that there is a systematic problem of violence in schools that needs to be addressed:
On Reforming Schools by slashmarks violence is violence; the trick is making violence stop by ![[twitter.com profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
drakkinabrarian. CW for discussion of many forms of violence against children.
I'm definitely mulling oversiderea's recent post on [Marie] Kondo and the Bibliophibians. I haven't quite worked out what I think about all of it.
Some is reminiscent of that Twitter or Tumblr thread that kept being quoted all over the place about how Millennials and younger generations buy and hoard luxury items, because living frugally doesn't allow you to save up enough to afford decent and stable housing, so why not own stuff? (But ignorant older people may assume that the reason younger people are poor is because they spent too much money on pointless luxuries, hence the much-mocked 'avocado toast causes the housing crisis' takes.)
I'm not completely sold on blaming Marie Kondo for anti-intellectualism and the erosion of the middle class, and the idea of a Japanese woman being colonialist towards Americans doesn't sit well with me. Regarding books specifically, well, lots of people have opinions about whether you should or shouldn't own more physical books than you can read, but I didn't take that as the main point of the post. The bit that's striking to me is Section 6:
Currently reading: Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman. I'm appreciating this book, but it's hard work; it's written in a strange language that is almost Anglic (it's not quite, there are occasional Latinate words in it). Reading it reminds me of being a ridiculously hyperlexic child, and reading all kinds of adult books and only forming vague impressions of what was going on. It's not just the language, it's about a fantasy world that blends with an intrudes on this one, and the narration builds atmosphere by not making very clear distinctions between dream and reality, secondary world and this world.
(I have read several articles about precocious readers being traumatized by reading stuff that they could decipher but where the emotions and events were beyond them, but I never really had that problem, I just felt confused a lot but still enjoyed what I could glean from my reading. I think the truth is I was never really gifted as a child; I was an exceptionally young reader and had a very good working memory, which led to measuring as gifted. But basically I accepted swimming in a sea of general adult weirdness and wasn't particularly bothered by it.)
Up next: Something written in standard English, I think!angelofthenorth lent me Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney, which is apparently about young poly people in contemporary Ireland.
slashmarks I'm definitely mulling over
siderea's recent post on [Marie] Kondo and the Bibliophibians. I haven't quite worked out what I think about all of it. Some is reminiscent of that Twitter or Tumblr thread that kept being quoted all over the place about how Millennials and younger generations buy and hoard luxury items, because living frugally doesn't allow you to save up enough to afford decent and stable housing, so why not own stuff? (But ignorant older people may assume that the reason younger people are poor is because they spent too much money on pointless luxuries, hence the much-mocked 'avocado toast causes the housing crisis' takes.)
I'm not completely sold on blaming Marie Kondo for anti-intellectualism and the erosion of the middle class, and the idea of a Japanese woman being colonialist towards Americans doesn't sit well with me. Regarding books specifically, well, lots of people have opinions about whether you should or shouldn't own more physical books than you can read, but I didn't take that as the main point of the post. The bit that's striking to me is Section 6:
Our TVs scrupulously taught us not to have sympathy for people of other classes, other industries, other ways of life.So I think it's not about books, it's about learning not to despise people from other cultural backgrounds.
Currently reading: Moonwise by Greer Ilene Gilman. I'm appreciating this book, but it's hard work; it's written in a strange language that is almost Anglic (it's not quite, there are occasional Latinate words in it). Reading it reminds me of being a ridiculously hyperlexic child, and reading all kinds of adult books and only forming vague impressions of what was going on. It's not just the language, it's about a fantasy world that blends with an intrudes on this one, and the narration builds atmosphere by not making very clear distinctions between dream and reality, secondary world and this world.
(I have read several articles about precocious readers being traumatized by reading stuff that they could decipher but where the emotions and events were beyond them, but I never really had that problem, I just felt confused a lot but still enjoyed what I could glean from my reading. I think the truth is I was never really gifted as a child; I was an exceptionally young reader and had a very good working memory, which led to measuring as gifted. But basically I accepted swimming in a sea of general adult weirdness and wasn't particularly bothered by it.)
Up next: Something written in standard English, I think!
angelofthenorth lent me Conversations with friends by Sally Rooney, which is apparently about young poly people in contemporary Ireland.