⚀ White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
⚁The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry by Ned and Constance Sublette
⚂Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow
⚃Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives by Karin Wieland
⚄Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First by Frank Trentmann
Clarissa's Blog 
Pick for what? A gift then for who? Redeeming a gift for yourself? Something else?
I don’t know the authors as well as I should so just on the basis of the titles I would be interested in
1-5 (more or less tied)
3-4 (more or less tied)
2 – interesting but just not as much as the others
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To read and review. I’m often offered new releases to read and review.
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In that case, I’d say 1 might give you some insight to the place you’re living (might, nothing guaranteed) and 5 might tie in with your research.
2 could help fill out your knowledge of one of the worst chapters of pre-early-US history.
From what you’ve said about your problems processing images I don’t think 3 and 4 would help you much or be of much interest (although I find the work of the three women to be fascinating in various ways).
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They all sound very interesting, so it’s extremely hard to choose. I hoped people would be more active in picking given that I will start publishing endless quotes and insights here on the blog once I get the book.
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I’ve been interested in trading the first one, so I’ll pick that.
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Reading. I meant reading.
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I think the first one sounds the most interesting. I mean hey, let’s start with the title…
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I would personally select Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer. I love the visual arts.
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I love Arbus’s work. She was truly gifted.
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At first, I thought about the first.
After thinking and reading comments here, I vote for the fifth.
Clarissa, I just loaned and began reading “The shield of Achilles” by Philip Bobbitt. Thank you for the recommendation. It is very interesting so far. I wanted to ask how you use it in your research. I thought your job was to analyze literature, not the state of the State like Bobbitt does? Do you seek the descriptions of State’s development in literature? Something else?
🙂
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I use literature as a pretext to discuss things I find important. It could have just as easily been anything other than literature. This approach caused me a lot of trouble back in gradual school because professors were very scandalized by the idea that literature could be used as a pretext to talk about politics, etc. 🙂
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How many of these professors kept banging on about adverb word counts?
Also calling graduate school gradual school seems kind of on the nose?
El, a survey of other disciplines can inform your thinking in your main one. I don’t know why this is so frowned upon.
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GREAT question. :-))))))) Yes, these were precisely the ones who were heavy into adverb counting.
Why is it that I can’t talk about graduate school without some funny Freudian slip? 😄
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\I use literature as a pretext to discuss things I find important. It could have just as easily been anything other than literature.
That’s what I want to do – to talk about the state and discuss books like “The shield of Achilles”. But I have no idea how to connect it to literature. Will it be necessary to discuss immigrant lit mainly?
Can you give some example to read and understand better, please? Probably your and other academic’s article?
On a slightly another topic, have you read “The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel” (a 1935 novel by the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana)? I loved the search for self in Forster’s “The Longest Journey,” and when I saw this book in the library, it seemed similar.
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Of course, it will have to be literature written in the 21st century. But it doesn’t have to do with immigrants. Anything written these days will refer to the eroding nation-state in some form and will experiment with fluidity. Often, artists use fluid forms of expression to underscore the fluidity of existence. Look for textual evidence of decaying human bonds, an erosion of a sense of attachment to a place, etc
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\Look for textual evidence of decaying human bonds, an erosion of a sense of attachment to a place, etc
Thank you. Do you know any suitable good novels or/and research (articles / books / etc.) which was done on the issue? I am unsure even what “fluid forms of expression” mean and would love to read about the issue.
“fluid forms of expression” – like a stream of consciousness in Modernist lit? Could you give (another?) example, please?
I apologize for so many questions, but don’t have somebody else to ask.
Now thought about “The Little Failure,” in which the Jewish author who immigrated to America as a child doesn’t seem to truly feel at home anywhere. But it’s immigrant lit again. Haven’t read many books in the 21st century, so it’s hard to find something good.
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For instance, for my book I analyzed a collection of poetry whose authors used photography by a well-known artist to inspire them. So poems appear next to photos and often form a dialogue with the images.
A different example is a novel by the Spanish writer Belen Gopegui. The characters create an international resistance network that tries to prevent the privatization of state blood donation offices. The blood is moved from one country to another, the characters move as well, blood is liquid, it melds bodies together, etc.
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Out of exhaustion and a need for mental variety I’m voting for #3, followed by #5, then #4, then #2 and then #1.
My reasons are that the Diane Arbus book seems the furthest in form from what you normally cover and artists influence people and are influenced by people in ways which are hard to quantify. #5 seems like it fits within your hobby horses and it seems like it combs more than one discipline for insights. #4 at least seems like it would use the duality of film maker and actress to examine a time period. #2 seems like it would use economics and sociology for its thesis, and #1 just seems like straight sociological theory, hence I rank them at the bottom.
They are all worthy books, I’m sure.
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Probably I’d choose the Diane Arbus book first, her work is so good and as a photographer myself I can only aspire towards the power of her pictures. I’d love to read any insights on how she selected her imagery. Good photographers are always very selective, unlike many folks who seem to enjoy posting random bad shots of the ultra-mundane and expect everyone else to love them.
Shakti’s order – 3, 5, 4, 2, 1 looks fine, they all do seem worthy although I have to be honest and say I probably wouldn’t read any of the others!
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“I’d love to read any insights on how she selected her imagery. Good photographers are always very selective”
Do you like Bill Burke’s work? His work is similar in some ways to Arbus but simultaneously less and more composed.
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I never heard of him, to be honest.
Arbus was very smart to have created the story of an incestuous relationship with her brother. No amount of talent helps one become widely known as fast as salacious gossip like that.
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A couple of Bill Burke photos (from Kentucky in the mid 1970s, he also photographed people in other places in the US, in Brazil and Southeast Asia that I know of) If the post takes up too much space or is too inconvenient please feel free to delete it
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Powerful images. Very geometric.
It must be so great to have such talent.
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Wow! I hadn’t come across Bill Burke’s photos before. Very powerful and strongly American images, I’m trying to figure out why…
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\ I hoped people would be more active in picking given that I will start publishing endless quotes and insights here on the blog once I get the book.
I changed my mind and vote for the first option in the end – “The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.”
Specially since many of great novels of the past deal with class issues, but nowadays English lit criticism seemingly left class in the dust and fully transferred to identity issues. May be, this book will describe class today and offer some insights.
The word “Consumers” makes me feel tired. Probably I have overconsumed the issue. 🙂
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Same here on the book about consumerism. It’s the one I’m the least interested in right now.
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1 and 2 would be of interest to me and comparable to one another. Then 3. No interest in 4 or 5.
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