Wow— glorious! 🧡🧡🧡
Simplicity is not without depth or perseverance— love this expression!
“For Kundera, national identity is invested in the vibrancy of expression, i.e., the arts.
About the West, he says, ‘I think I know only that culture has bowed out.’ Without culture comes the Soviet model: ‘the smallest variety within the greatest space.’
Kundera's novels are famous for their musical forms, for the way they play with contrapuntal themes without quite resolving them. "In the realm of totalitarian kitsch," he wrote in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, "all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions. It follows, then, that the true opponent of totalitarian kitsch is the person who asks questions."
~Steven G. Kellman #reading #bookreview A KIDNAPPED WEST
The Tragedy of Central Europe by Milan Kundera (Translated by Linda Asher and Edmund White)
I miss nostr:npub13pdlcgrk7xpfwwcy2qjyt92jxvhkw3mh9k27zvs0jvfxa0ch88zs6sx3yr who for a time was our official herder of dogs and cats. It’s been three months since she made an appearance here. 😢 nostr:note1x29h2xr7r2qqlmyq78e0cj0f4sv7nltxgfnn38cqaxy7kpnt0e8snxumz7
I hope your beautiful Nostr friend is doing well— it can be unnerving & mysterious when people stop posting— especially if they brought a purpose and/or joy to your daily interactions online.
Actually— ever since I joined Nostr—this is the best piece of information I received directly. And I’m reading stuff about Mutiny. I am taking a screenshot so I remember. Thank you!
Thanks! I tried to Zap you some sats meaning send some bitcoin to you through this post.
Its really easy to set up just download Wallet of Satoshi from the app store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wallet-of-satoshi/id1438599608
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livingroomofsatoshi.wallet
Open the app click Receive
Then click the lightning address looks like an email address
It should now be copied. Go to your Nostr profile and paste it where it asks for a lightning address. Now people can send you some bitcoin ⚡️
Thank you— when I feel a sense of safety & better understanding of what wallet is the best for me — I will start the zap thing again. I appreciate you!
My Sunday chores are “almost”
done— so it’s time for Whiskey & Hannah Arendt. #sunday #reading 
Very true. I appreciate how you think deeply— analyzing the research itself is important. I wonder if the people involved with the Z-Library even think critically about who reads—does it matter to them when profit is involved? If authors/publishers are losing a small percentage of profits— isn’t there a solution.
Thank you. You’re right— I should have prefaced my response with the study focuses on the US — but my brain found & centered itself around the small parts of the study where other countries were mentioned. For example, I am curious why certain countries read more (unrelated to work) books— and that part grabbed my attention. I appreciate your data analysis! Anyway— I’m really interested in the Z-Library & what will happen. Keep sharing if you see any updates. And thanks again!
“The idea for a story emerged, about accepting the arrival of the inevitable. A linguist, Chiang thought, might learn such acceptance by deciphering the language of an alien race with a different conception of time. For five years, when he wasn’t working as a technical writer in the software industry, Chiang read books about linguistics. In 1998, he published “Story of Your Life,” in a science-fiction anthology series called Starlight. It was around sixty pages long and won three major science-fiction prizes: the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon, and the Seiun, which is bestowed by the Federation of Science Fiction Fan Groups of Japan. Last year, “Arrival” was released, an adaptation of “Story of Your Life,” in which Amy Adams plays a linguist who learns, decades in advance, that her daughter will die, as a young woman, of a terminal illness, but goes ahead with the pregnancy anyway.” #bookstr Ted Chiang’s Soulful Science Fiction https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/ted-chiangs-soulful-science-fiction
Sigh. “His first published story, “Tower of Babylon,” which appeared in 1990 and won a Nebula Award, follows Hillalum, a Babylonian stonecutter tasked with climbing to the top of the world and carving a doorway into its granite ceiling. It has the structure of a parable and an uncanny and uncompromising material concreteness. At the top of the tower, Hillalum finds that the roof of the world is cold and smooth to the touch. The stonecutters are eager to find out what lies on the other side of the sky, but they are also afraid, and, in a prayer service, Chiang writes, “they gave thanks that they were permitted to see so much, and begged forgiveness for their desire to see more.” Chiang goes to great lengths to show how ancient stonecutting techniques might actually be used to breach the floor of Heaven. He writes the science fiction that would have existed in an earlier era, had science existed then.”
“The idea for a story emerged, about accepting the arrival of the inevitable. A linguist, Chiang thought, might learn such acceptance by deciphering the language of an alien race with a different conception of time. For five years, when he wasn’t working as a technical writer in the software industry, Chiang read books about linguistics. In 1998, he published “Story of Your Life,” in a science-fiction anthology series called Starlight. It was around sixty pages long and won three major science-fiction prizes: the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon, and the Seiun, which is bestowed by the Federation of Science Fiction Fan Groups of Japan. Last year, “Arrival” was released, an adaptation of “Story of Your Life,” in which Amy Adams plays a linguist who learns, decades in advance, that her daughter will die, as a young woman, of a terminal illness, but goes ahead with the pregnancy anyway.” #bookstr Ted Chiang’s Soulful Science Fiction https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/ted-chiangs-soulful-science-fiction
Thank you for this detailed response. Facts are important as well as people like you who are willing to encourage others to think deeply about this issue & hopefully something will change. Here are some
more facts I discovered last March about global reading habits. They need to add the info. you shared.
https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/public-life/book-reading-behavior
Kangaroo https://youtu.be/Ffzv6pC5P3I
Doing the dishes & then rewatching *Arrival* — love this movie. However, *Stories of Your Life and Others* by Ted Chiang (the movie is based on one of the short stories) — excellent. Cheers 📖🎬