Grand unified books thread

[Eddie Teach]

Religion still works when they're not being watched.

[The Brain]

Religion still works when they're not being watched.

Altar boys everywhere agree.

[The Brain]

Also, what do we actually know about early religions and their views on freeloading?

[Gups]

Enjoying Fukuyama's "Origins of Political Order". A number of insights that are ne (to me at any rate) including that religion was necessary to move from band level to tribal - with a larger society group, the only way to prevent people from freeloading was that their ancestor might be watching them (that's a really simplistic way of putting it).

Why couldn't you just smack freeloaders on the head?

Don't know, Haven't been going to the footnotes.

[jimmy olsen]

Enjoying Fukuyama's "Origins of Political Order". A number of insights that are ne (to me at any rate) including that religion was necessary to move from band level to tribal - with a larger society group, the only way to prevent people from freeloading was that their ancestor might be watching them (that's a really simplistic way of putting it).

Hmm...this may have been reinforced by recent finds like Göbekli Tepe which show that religious monumental architecture predates village life.

[jimmy olsen]

Also, what do we actually know about early religions and their views on freeloading?

Try this book, it's a bit dated but a good run down on an early agricultural village in Anatolia and their religious practices.

https://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Bull-Catalhoyuk-Archaeological-Civilization/dp/1598740695

[Savonarola]

Stephen Greenblatt "Will in the World" (2004)

You know that part of Ulysses where Stephen Dedalus uses Richard III to prove that William Shakespeare's brother had an affair with Anne Hathaway?  This book is a lot like that; but without Joyce's style.  Greenblatt does an interesting picture of Elizabethan and Jacobean society.  He uses that, Shakespeare's plays and the few records we have of William Shakespeare to construct a biography.  The results seem wildly speculative.

[jimmy olsen]

Finished Musashi.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/156836427X

Written in the 30s about Japan's most famous (historical) swordsman, this novel is well worth reading - for one, it's a rollicking read; but for another, it is a glimpse into a truly different set of cultural romantic expectations (for those of us who are not Japanese).

The ostensible subject is the adventures of a wandering swordsman, but very quickly it becomes obvious that the real subject is the quest for self-improvement - is this quest a noble one, or ultimately selfish? Everywhere our hero goes, disaster follows - he leaves the woman who loves him, and others who depend on him, basically to fend for themselves; his quest seems to be in equal parts a quest to perfect his murdering prowess and to perfect his skill in all of the arts - he's part serial killer and part artist, eventually able to appreciate a blood feud and flower-arranging (there is one passage in which he realizes the skill of a samurai by the message he passes on - which contains the gift of a cut flower; the cut of the stem is perfect).

The hero gradually comes to realize that perfection has to serve a social purpose, but it is not at all obvious what, exactly, that purpose is to be.

You still see these expectations in modern manga and anime, not held by pure heroic types, but not exclusive to villains either. Anti-heroes with that kind of mindset are unremarkable.

[grumbler]

Read Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart
https://www.amazon.com/Hank-Jim-Fifty-Year-Friendship-Stewart-ebook/product-reviews/B06ZZWDCB9/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent&pageNumber=2#RTAAQW20O4H1Y

I thought that it was an interesting book even though I'd known a fair amount about each man separately.  I'm not sure I learned anything of significance that was new to me, but I certainly saw known things in a new light.  I'd known that they were into model airplane building (the wooden, flying models, not plastic kits), but was unaware of how serious they were about it, or how strict their division of labor was (only Fonda could paint, and only Stewart could actually carve pieces).  The author's basic argument is that the two only really relaxed and revealed themselves around each other.  Fonda was severe on the set, demanding that others be as serious.  No laughter, no bantering, no practical jokes... except in his movies with Stewart, when the two nearly ruined takes with their frivolity or pranks.

The book gives enough detail about each man separately that the story of their friendship makes sense, but always comes back to comparison: how they differed, and how they were alike.  It is the analysis, not the description, that makes this such a good read.  Just don't expect anything too deep, and you will really enjoy this book (if you care about the subject at all).

[garbon]

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/if-literatures-complicated-men-were-on-tinder

IF LITERATURE'S "COMPLICATED MEN" WERE ON TINDER

...

Name: Odysseus
Age: 38
Occupation: King of Ithaca who is 100% NOT having a midlife crisis
About Odysseus: I'm all about that wanderlust life: it's about the journey, not the destination, you know? Especially when the destination is full of "responsibilities" like "governance," "parenthood," and "marriage to a woman who is clearly smarter than me as she evades being sold like sexual chattel for ten years while I doof around banging random witches and blinding one-eyed giants." Join me on the journey, baby.

Name:  Edward Rochester
Age: 43
Occupation:  Wealthy widower. Yep, the old ball and chain is dead. Real dead. Not currently in my attic being restrained with an actual ball and chain.
About Edward: Looking for a younger woman who will mistake my brooding looks and condescending misanthropy for tragic torment, and ideally is into employer-employee roleplay. Bonus if she likes kids but not enough that she's put off by how mean I am to my adopted daughter.

...

Name: Rodion Raskolnikov
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, Extraordinary Man who theoretically it would be totally ok if he just killed an old lady, because I mean, he's extraordinary, but you know, just theoretically please don't call that mean policeman who keeps snooping around.
About Rodion: I'm just a better-than-regular guy looking for an almost angelically good woman with a tragic story who will for no good reason dedicate herself to my redemption and is really into listening to me reciting my half-baked Philosophy 101 "theories."

...

[Valmy]

I thought Raskolnikov wanted to go to jail in order to survive the winter, at first anyway.

[Tamas]

I am looking for a book that would give a nice overview of the ancient world, during the rise of Rome. It's ok if it does so while concentrating on Rome, but information on the general state of things in Europe and the Middle East during this period would be quite welcome. Bonus points if there's an audiobook.

Any recommendations?

[Eddie Teach]

Get Grumbler drunk and have him tell you about that stuff.

[Habbaku]

I am looking for a book that would give a nice overview of the ancient world, during the rise of Rome. It's ok if it does so while concentrating on Rome, but information on the general state of things in Europe and the Middle East during this period would be quite welcome. Bonus points if there's an audiobook.

Any recommendations?

If you find something that covers all of that, let me know--nothing springs to mind.

A good stopgap, however, is Peter Green's Alexander to Actium, which covers the entire "Hellenistic" world, including the Seleucids and Ptolemys, among others, and ends with the rise of the Empire.

[Maladict]

I am looking for a book that would give a nice overview of the ancient world, during the rise of Rome. It's ok if it does so while concentrating on Rome, but information on the general state of things in Europe and the Middle East during this period would be quite welcome. Bonus points if there's an audiobook.

Any recommendations?

If you find something that covers all of that, let me know--nothing springs to mind.

A good stopgap, however, is Peter Green's Alexander to Actium, which covers the entire "Hellenistic" world, including the Seleucids and Ptolemys, among others, and ends with the rise of the Empire.

Green's book is very good.

Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution and the Roman Republic by Michael Crawford spring to mind.


The Cambridge Companions to the Ancient World are also excellent, more of a reference work though.