The Life of the Insects by The Brothers Capek.

 

pookie getting into the heavy czech sci/fi

I am so happy to teach in California, our core standard for our history programs is critical and analytical thinking. In fact, in third grade that is ALL we teach in social studies, the methodology of the study of history. Permeating all the standards in every year following are critical thinking strategies, exercises and writing assignments challenging students to create independent interpretations and inferences from of the historical data we give them, and in our in-class discussions, from middle school through their senior seminar classes to graduate high school we focus on listening to our students and helping them form their own intelligent conclusions. My job is not to brainwash kids into believing whatever the text book teaches, but rather to help mentor them to be able to more intelligently and substantively explain and understand their own personal beliefs. Everyday in the classroom, I am always blown away at the sincerity of youth. Kids think big, society just tries it damned to shut that down through adulthood by suffocating all outlets of individual thinking and expression. In high school we provide a lot of outlets, but in real life after school our society is geared towards taking these away or devaluing their significance. Simply put, it rarely pays the bills to think critically, often the opposite.

Do you know The Brothers Capek? I had never heard about them until I read that Jan Svankmajer is currently making a film version of this.

Critical thinking was certainly never taught when I was at school and with this government there is more of a move towards facts (with a bigger emphasis on BRITISH history) and even less critical thinking.

I'm in my 30s, so I recall the older teachers really pushing anti-communist nonsense on the students, even after the Soviet Union collapsed and the wall fell.

It wasn't until 11th grade--Advanced Placement US History--that we were asked to turn on our brains. (I was permitted to give a report on the history of anarchism in the US, though it obviously pissed off the teacher).

But next year, back to same shit. On the first day of AP Government, our teacher, for some reason, spent the whole class time explaining why the Viet Cong were morally inferior to US military.


Anyone notice that until the mayor of Toledo smokes fucking crack, we hear jack shit about Canada? How many Americans can name the PM of Canada? What about his predecessor? (I shamefully include myself in the ignorant herd.)

I know of them because of personal research into the history of science fiction.

Finished the awesome Randi book on Houdini. Houdini was one of my idols when I was a kid.

Now going to start in on The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin.

new on my ~private~ list:







uni list:
getting ready and gathering books and essays about feminism and television (how promiscuous women are depicted in american tv).
should start reading soon. anyone any reading suggestions?

edit:
also new:

^^ watchu think of salinger? i sort of like and hate him at the same time. like because he's highly readable, hate because the mental illness of his characters is a sort of virtuous moral stance. yes yes, the sane will be crazy in a crazy world and all that, but truly, it's like a spoiled brat.

as for reading suggestions: does nietzsche make you break out in hives? and you can read him in the original. luckeee... (i think anyway). i have his "daybreak" right in from of me right now (fuck if i know the original title, and i'm too lazy to look it up) and i'm thinking of cracking it open in the next 10 minutes. but have you ever?

also, the other day nefeli put up that james franco interview and in it he talks about as i lay dying. i've tried reading that and failed. spaced it out. don't know why. have you?

oh, one of my favorite fucking books EVER. i go back to it all the time. is that the MFK Fisher translation? i sure hope so-- she was great.

His COLLECTED SHORT STORIES or even better PORTABLE FAULKNER are good ways to get into his world.

I have a love-hate relationship with salinger (it's new. NEW!)
It doesn't have to do anything with him, really. at least the hate part. I remember having to read the catcher in the rye when i was in 4th grade and i didn't really remember anything from it. and when the time came and i wanted to re-read it i was at uni and people were talking about how it was the best book they ever read and that kind of made me hate him. dunno why. maybe cause i am ~different~ and ~rebellious~ and not like the other kids at uni.
I only got franny and zooey because a friend recommended it to me and i trust her not to recommend me shit. and i have to say, i really like(d) this one. i'm just gonna say do it for the fat lady. but then again, maybe he should be my favorite, i am a spoiled brat.

Nietzsche exhausts me. for him, I need time. Give me time. I have homo ecce and Jenseits von Gut und Böse sitting on my shelf but I never find the time (and desire) to read it. He kind of scares me. I am scared that I won't understand.

Today, i started reading Don Quixote by Kathy Acker. I've read about 50 pages so far and it makes me really ~think~ and try and connect everything. I feel like, if I would take the time and think about everything she's writing I could find enlightenment. yes, i am aware this sounds weird and pathetic... but. woah. everyone, go read kathy acker and pretend to be me (or any other girl in her early 20s or late 20s. or whatever age).

hey, you. i need a little time to reply to this (i'm doing a bunch of things) but i thought i should preface my reply to say that i think i like you now, ha ha ha ha. but no, seriously, i didn't know this side of you, but it's a good one.

will post you a reply later, promise. don't wanna spew any random bullshit but i'd rather think on it a bit.

You better believe it! 60 pages in and awesome so far. awesome.



BTW, I hate JD Salinger. suck

glad we can start the we hate Salinger consensus because the guy fucking totally sucks. There are at least a dozen Depression era writers and former muckrakers who are much, much better. Sometimes the high school curriculum has kids read subtantially good literature (To Kill A Mocking Bird, House on Mango Street, Night, Hero With A Thousand Faces, A Brave New World, Grapes of Wrath, Hundred Years of Solitude, Julius Caesar, The Jungle, The Trial), other times we force feed them crap academia has honored as "literature" which is otherwise best suited for the burning pile (The Crucible, Catcher and the Rye, The Book Thief, Frankenstein)

fuck yeah, burning inexistent books, that's what i love to do on weekends

watch:

see, i just burned a book. in my imagination.

fucking book burner...

It is the ONE book even people who "don't read books" have read. So that's something. I think I've met one person in my entire life who has never read it.

AND the rye?
Surely nobody has read that--must be new. Is that a sequel to sex IN the city?