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murrderdith's reviews
493 reviews
The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
5.0
Audiobook.
Vowell's titular essay is a reminder that it's possible to be a patriotic American without being a jingoistic apologist for our sometimes criminal actions. It reminded me of a line in a recent Atlantic article about President Obama's legacy--how it's possible to recognize our "warts" and still believe that we are a force for good more often than we are not. It's the the kind of patriotism that makes for a good campaign spot but it's the kind I can ascribe to.
Vowell's titular essay is a reminder that it's possible to be a patriotic American without being a jingoistic apologist for our sometimes criminal actions. It reminded me of a line in a recent Atlantic article about President Obama's legacy--how it's possible to recognize our "warts" and still believe that we are a force for good more often than we are not. It's the the kind of patriotism that makes for a good campaign spot but it's the kind I can ascribe to.
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
5.0
Gorgeously unadorned and contemplative. I imagine I'll come back to it often.
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
4.0
Audible. Author narrates.
I've been thinking a lot about the way in which cultures (particularly the preferred representation of a culture) are constructed through the creation and compilation of proper dictionaries, anthologies, syllabi, canonical lists, etc. I keep coming back to how these tasks are always necessarily exclusionary and ultimately create a "culture" that cannot really be representative of the culture being represented. It's also funny to me that the impetus for some of the earliest lexicographical endeavours was to preserve the language--which always implies stasis in a moment and can't really be done to a thing that's alive. That narrative is somewhat secondary to the story of William Minor (and it's certainly an interesting one and well worth the read), but it's the one that interests me right now.
I've been thinking a lot about the way in which cultures (particularly the preferred representation of a culture) are constructed through the creation and compilation of proper dictionaries, anthologies, syllabi, canonical lists, etc. I keep coming back to how these tasks are always necessarily exclusionary and ultimately create a "culture" that cannot really be representative of the culture being represented. It's also funny to me that the impetus for some of the earliest lexicographical endeavours was to preserve the language--which always implies stasis in a moment and can't really be done to a thing that's alive. That narrative is somewhat secondary to the story of William Minor (and it's certainly an interesting one and well worth the read), but it's the one that interests me right now.