RBR Sunday Salon

Volume 1, Issue 3

Welcome to the third volume of Roof Beam Reader’s Sunday Salon!

This week, in addition to recapping my own posts and sharing what I’m currently reading, I’m sharing my favorite reads from my favorite bloggers, as well as a number of fascinating articles from across the web, including some on science, history, and politics.

I look forward to hearing about what you’ve read/written this week, or what you think about the links I’ve shared below. Happy Sunday!

Blog Posts I Loved

• 25 Years Later: “The Impact of A Clockwork Orange on Morality in Society.” Although it can be said that Kubrick’s ending is devoid of the truthful and raw meaning intended originally by the author, I believe both versions contain valuable insights into morality in society.
• I Would Rather Be Reading: “The Saucy Side of Jane Austen.” When the name Jane Austen comes to mind, one thinks of genteel heroines, formal balls, and happy endings [ . . . ] It all seems quite straight-laced and proper. Well forget everything you thought you knew…

Literary Miscellany

• Therapy With Books: “Books for People Who Are Looking for Different Ways of Looking at Life.” Every once in a while it’s worth to take note of our basic assumptions, thought patterns and habits that moves us through life. If you are generally a functional human being these are kind of your friends. After all you can’t sit there pondering every single action  and countless small decisions we have to make.
• Independent: “Man Booker Prize Longlist 2018: Graphic Novel Features for First Time.” Sabrina, by US author Nick Drnaso, impressed the jury for a prize which once dismissed the genre as “comic books”. His work, about a vanished young woman and the 24-hour aftermath, uses purposely simplistic illustrations to present a story of violence and “fake news” conspiracy theories.

History & Politics

• CBS News: McCain Requested Obama and George W. Bush Deliver Eulogies. John McCain requested that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deliver eulogies at his funeral. McCain, who had been suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer, died Saturday at the age of 81 at home in Arizona.
• NPR: “Millennials Now Rival Boomers As A Political Force, But Will They Actually Vote?” [M]illennials continue to have the lowest voter turnout of any age group. Only about 46 percent voted in the last presidential election; compared to 72 percent of the Silent Generation, who habitually punch above their weight.
• History.com: “American Women’s Suffrage Came Down to One Man’s Vote.” By the end of 1919, more than 70 years after the first national woman’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, Congress finally passed a federal women’s suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But the fate of the 19th Amendment all came down to Tennessee.

Culture & Society

• Variety: “Emma Watson Joins Greta Gerwig’s Adaptation of ‘Little Women.’” Sources say Watson is playing the part originally intended for Emma Stone, who was unable to join the project because of promotional obligations. With production expected to start next month, Sony moved quickly to approach Watson.
• Independent: “Why Free Art Galleries Are Important to Our Communities.” As I left the gallery, they were putting up easels for an afternoon drawing class and I felt a massive pang of envy. I’m reaching that time of life when, along with checking till receipts and polishing apples on my bosom, I really want to sit down now and again and not just smell the flowers – I want to paint them.

Science, Tech., & Nature

• Bloomberg: “No Amount of Alcohol Use Is Safe, Analysis of Studies Finds.” The combined health risks associated with alcohol outweigh any possible benefits, said the University of Washington’s Max Griswold, an author of the analysis.
• NewScientist: “Prehistoric Girl Had Parents Belonging to Different Human Species.” The find is either a stunning stroke of luck or a hint that hominins interbred more often than we thought. It may even suggest that extinct groups like Neanderthals did not die out, but were absorbed by our species.

Teaching & Writing

• The Atlantic: “The Humanities Are in Crisis.” One common explanation does line up with the data fairly well, at least in part: that students fled the humanities after the financial crisis because they became more fearful of the job market. [ . . . ] The fields that have risen in the past decade are almost entirely stem majors, including nursing, engineering, computer science, and biology.
• Cult of Pedagogy: “Noticing the Good Stuff.” So much happens in a school day, there are literally thousands of discrete interactions and decisions made [ . . . ] and our brains are wired to hold onto negative information to prevent mistakes in the future. So when good or even great things happen in our classrooms or during the school day, they may not be top of mind once class is over.

Posts from Roof Beam Reader

• Dorian Gray, In Theory (Part 1 of 5)
• Review: Sometime After Midnight by L. Philips

Currently Reading

• Good Without God by Greg M. Epstein
• So Big by Edna Ferber (for #CCSPIN)

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