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am55

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I recently heard of a book which I've got on order: Wagner: The Terrible Man and His Truthful Art. The title should be self-explanatory.
I used to defend Wagner, but I think focusing on the man is the wrong thing to do. The music itself is the problem. You cannot hear Gotterdammerung or die Walkure without having a certain philosophy arousing. Even Parsifal, in its choice of depicting the blindness of mankind to evidence and beauty before their eyes, is bleak and crushingly aggressive. Of course it is important to be confronted with such things and absorb and judge them from first hand experience, but the music speaks for the man.

I make an exception for the opening chorus of Meistersinger. Now that is pure, unabashed optimism the kind of which gives you hope for a lifetime, but even that opera becomes about competition.
 

am55

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Part of me would think that, with libraries, people read more books than they buy.

People like to show off, but you're not buying 12.6 coffee table books a year, are you? If the average American bought 252 books over the course of 20 years, we'd have quite a few private libraries around the country.

Hmmm... Maybe people are buying books as gifts? And I guess this probably includes textbooks, recipe books, and dictionaries...

... And there are definitely some people at the extremes buying 100+ books per year and reading most of them...

Hmmm...
Can't speak for the market, but what has changed since Jeff Bezos is that I buy more (most) books online (which may not be counted in the study?), I "buy" most things out of copyright "free" on Project Gutenberg, and I have a much more random physical book acquisition pattern which consists of walking past old book shops and buying 20-30 in one go in an hour of browsing. Old book shops that have become more prevalent, I guess, from the rising real estate prices combined with aforementioned Bezos...
 

am55

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I mean, I think Lyngstad's is the only decent translation available, right? I've never heard anyone rhapsodize about it, which doesn't necessarily mean that it's not worth rhapsodizing about. But I do know that it's supposed to be much better than the one it replaced, and this isn't a novel where there's a wealth of choice (as far as I know, which isn't terribly far). I've read it and liked it quite a bit, although haven't read the others so can't personally compare.
Done :)

1642580005636.png
 

smittycl

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Part of me would think that, with libraries, people read more books than they buy.

People like to show off, but you're not buying 12.6 coffee table books a year, are you? If the average American bought 252 books over the course of 20 years, we'd have quite a few private libraries around the country.

Hmmm... Maybe people are buying books as gifts? And I guess this probably includes textbooks, recipe books, and dictionaries...

... And there are definitely some people at the extremes buying 100+ books per year and reading most of them...

Hmmm...
We downsized from a large house to an apartment several years ago after my kids left for college. We had hundreds and hundreds of books and sent the bulk them out into the ether for others to discover. Even the books I had as a kid went for the most part. I figured there was a 12 year old version of me out there somewhere who would love stumbling on these at a used bookstore much like I did.

We downsized rather viciously across the board and never looked back. I discovered a truism in that the only person that really cared about Great-Grandma's prize doily collection was Great-Grandma and she is long gone.

We still have plenty of books and but try to stick to a one-in-one-out policy as much as possible.
 

Adsky Luck

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peter coyote's character in Polanski's Bitter Moon dresses pretty bookcore, and gets more so as the movie progresses, and he is a failed novelist, living in Paris, channeling the spirit of Hemingway
"I am pushing 40 I haven't even sold a single book yet" and other stuff

 

lemmywinks

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gotta say you're either bookcore or you're not. you can wear all the things in that article and you're just cosplaying. some people are just bookcore without wearing a single thing mentioned in that article. people that actually read just give off a certain energy and vibe.
 

smittycl

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gotta say you're either bookcore or you're not. you can wear all the things in that article and you're just cosplaying. some people are just bookcore without wearing a single thing mentioned in that article. people that actually read just give off a certain energy and vibe.
I was thinking the same thing. Kind of a chicken-and-egg argument.
 

FlyingMonkey

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gotta say you're either bookcore or you're not. you can wear all the things in that article and you're just cosplaying. some people are just bookcore without wearing a single thing mentioned in that article. people that actually read just give off a certain energy and vibe.

I think this is a myth, and I say this as someone who reads almost constantly. And that's why I don't treat cosplay as an insult. No-one just accidentally buys the clothes they buy. People make aesthetic choices in second-hand shops as much as they do in big stores. And no-one accidentally does the things that they do. What people perceive as energy and vibes might not be able to be bought, but they still take quite a bit of effort to develop...
 

smittycl

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I think this is a myth, and I say this as someone who reads almost constantly. And that's why I don't treat cosplay as an insult. No-one just accidentally buys the clothes they buy. People make aesthetic choices in second-hand shops as much as they do in big stores. And no-one accidentally does the things that they do. What people perceive as energy and vibes might not be able to be bought, but they still take quite a bit of effort to develop...
People will buy things possibly without appreciating the underlying influences of why they actually like something.
 

Fuuma

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I used to defend Wagner, but I think focusing on the man is the wrong thing to do. The music itself is the problem. You cannot hear Gotterdammerung or die Walkure without having a certain philosophy arousing. Even Parsifal, in its choice of depicting the blindness of mankind to evidence and beauty before their eyes, is bleak and crushingly aggressive. Of course it is important to be confronted with such things and absorb and judge them from first hand experience, but the music speaks for the man.

I make an exception for the opening chorus of Meistersinger. Now that is pure, unabashed optimism the kind of which gives you hope for a lifetime, but even that opera becomes about competition.

 

smittycl

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Alright, well I look forward to hearing about your next shopping trip. Will be a new -core (mediocore)
Well, I'll admit to being slightly smug and sometimes overconfident but at least I'm not Gorsuch-smug.

1642608083203.png
 

mak1277

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I think this is a myth, and I say this as someone who reads almost constantly. And that's why I don't treat cosplay as an insult. No-one just accidentally buys the clothes they buy. People make aesthetic choices in second-hand shops as much as they do in big stores. And no-one accidentally does the things that they do. What people perceive as energy and vibes might not be able to be bought, but they still take quite a bit of effort to develop...

Maybe nobody accidentally buys the clothes they do, but I think there are a LOT of people who don't give any real thought to the clothes they buy. For years I was one of those people. My casual wardrobe consisted of two pairs of gap jeans, convertible hiking pants and a bunch of fishing shirts and cheap fleeces/sweatshirts. If I wasn't at work, I couldn't have cared less how I looked when I was dressed casually.

I read just as many books then as I do now, even though my casual wardrobe is much more considered now (if not actually any better looking).
 

krudsma

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gotta say you're either bookcore or you're not. you can wear all the things in that article and you're just cosplaying. some people are just bookcore without wearing a single thing mentioned in that article. people that actually read just give off a certain energy and vibe.

I think this is kind of missing the point of the article. It's the same as saying:

gotta say you're either a cowboy or you're not. you can wear all the things in that article and you're just cosplaying. some people are just cowboys without wearing a single thing mentioned in that article. people that actually rustle cattle just give off a certain energy and vibe.

Bookcore is just another loose definition for a way that certain stylish people are dressing, same as Westernwear which is similarly having a moment.
 

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