The Renaissance Chiffer (or, What Would You Read?)

Poststructural Pub
1

My particular version of a mid-life crisis seems to involve zoom-focusing on women of accomplishment (authors, political commentators, physicians or researchers…) while taking deep relaxing breaths and assuring myself that high-caliber accomplishment is not a requirement–nor is it even a possibility for every life.

Indeed, I wish very much (at least sort of) that I could recapture my childhood attitude, characterized by my mother as “happy-go-lucky.”
(I think that meant, “completely out of focus, but unbothered by the fact.”)
Because, dagnabit, if great things are not in the cards, then you might as well relax and enjoy the ride anyway, right?

In the meantime though, and within the parameters dictated by relationships and responsibilities, I do mean to make the most of learning some of the things I ignored as a child. (that dang happy-go-luckyness again, while my brother read Encyclopedia Britannica cover to cover and traced atlases.)

It is hard to catch up, in middle age, but why not try?
I’m currently reading Daniel Boorstin’s The Discoverers and rereading Les Mis en français. I’ll be taking Japanese with the kid this Spring, at the Community College. I’m trying to enhance my fiddle coordination (tough one,) and keep fit.

So, to the Greater Chiff I pose the following challenge:
What would you read if you wanted to know everything? What resources could best establish and enhance a broad base of knowledge?

A favored weekly newsmagazine?
An excellent and readable brief history of Europe (or other parts of the world?)
An at-home course in the most useful additional language?
A means of comprehending music in any or all manifestations?
What if you were suddenly picked as a VP candidate and needed to know everything, all at once, about world affairs and civics?

These are merely suggested categories. Please, supply your own if they occur to you.

2

You don’t ask small questions, do ya? :wink:

I don’t feel like I’m qualified to give much of an answer, except to say that, often times, those who accomplish the most with their life are the very ones who would be the most surprised if you told them so.

You are not in a position to accurately see yourself or judge your true impact.

That said, the desire to learn and grow is always a good thing.

Shannon and I have both talked seriously about trying to learn Spanish. Because of where we live and who our friends are, the ability to speak conversational Spanish would be a valuable skill to us and would have the potential to be career-enhancing as well. We have bilingual friends, so we would also have the opportunity to practice in real life.

Besides, it’s healthy for friendships if your friends have a frequent opportunity to laugh ( with || at ) you. :laughing:

Good luck on your journey.

–James

3

This was more or less my state of mind as a teenager. I wanted to know everything. Now I’m sort of content that I know as much as my head will hold, and that a goodly load of information is simply beyond my capacity to comprehend. I was like your brother. I would have read the encyclopedia from end to end. - Well, in terms of Children’s encyclopedias, I did. And the dictionary: The Oxford International English Dictionary, to be exact: the big one that was published as a part-work. If I was doing the same thing today, I’d read Chamber’s 20th Century - less latinate words, more Irish and Scottish words.

But here’s my advice. For sheer volume of information, these ones here:

H.G.Wells : A Short History of the World.

Bear in mind that in the original it only got as far as about 1900.

Bertrand Russell: A history of Western Philosphy.

Bear in mind for this one that Russell was poor-mouthing every style of thought in order to advance his own logical positivism, which was of course, the greatest thing since sliced bread, to hear him tell it. Then read up on Goedel, whose theorem smashed the work in progress on Mathematical Systems.

Penguin do a translation of a German work called "The Penguin Atlas of World History" by Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann. It tends to concentrate on Central Europe for some reason, but it’s a great resource.

These should spawn interest to generate another sequence of books to look for. But also: Get to grips with all those Jane Austen Novels you meant to read and didn’t. I’ve recently read Wuthering Heights for the first time - I did read all the Austens - and was pleasantly surprised. (Yeah - I can never remember which Bronte it was.)

Also: get hold of the texts of some Shakespeare plays and read them through. Don’t, for goodness sake, get one of those volumes of the complete works - they’re fine for reference, but you can’t actually read them. Do “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Tempest”, and if you want more, “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”. That will probably do you.

Your library might have a copy of “The Oxford Book of Verse”. Borrow it (or buy it, for heaven’s sake). Start at page one. Read it. Get in the habit of reading one poem, then putting the book down and thinking about it.

And How about “The Pear’s Cyclopedia”? I learned most of what I know about poetic rhyme-schemes from it. I have four editions - unfortunately, two different people wrote the “Literature” section between 1974 and 1980.

That should keep you busy for a year or two.

4

Oh yeah, magazines… New Scientist and Granta.

5

…And if you haven’t already read it, read “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman …and tell me what you think of it.

6

Impossible to answer.
As I’m sure you’ve already discovered, my dear cousin, you cannot learn everything. You can only learn as much as possible about the tiny fraction of everything upon which you focus.
I have chosen to focus on learning a little about everything so I can appear the intellectual when we watch “Cash Cab”.

7

The young, college age, etc., perhaps could look to the “outside”, but perhaps you could now discover the “inside”.

In short, there simply are no outside references to guide your insight.

This comes with age, my dear.

Enjoy!

:slight_smile:

8

Hard to beat “An Incomplete Education” by Jones and Wilson. Sort of broad and shallow, but covers a lot of territory and is a lot of fun.

Beyond that, there is always this philosophy, which I find rather comforting:

Good luck. There’s a lot to be said for being happy-go-lucky…
Tom

9

My thoughts exactly! :wink:

Wow…emm…quite a thought provoking question. I really don’t know. I have often had similar feelings to yours..I suppose I don’t know where to start. I think starting fiddle has been one of those things, though…it was something I had wanted to do all of my life. For the first time in a very long time I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment musically. I love my whistles, don’t get me wrong, but fiddle is different for me. I’m feeling more complete musically, if that makes any sense at all. Maybe if I finally go back to school to major in English Lit. like I’ve wanted to do, that will help the “completeness” even more? I don’t know…

Anyway, more later. Dinner is almost done, and I’d have to do more thinking on this to actually respond more. Great topic!

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When the big wide world gets on top of me..which is an everyday occurence, I like to sit down and flick through the Sonnets - the Shakespeare ones.

I open them at any page and read what I find. For some strange reason I find an overwhelming solace there.

There is such an indescibable serenity there and it only takes a few minutes to go from hassled to calm.

Slan,
D. :slight_smile:

11

I can’t imagine even thinking to ask your question, much less answer the thing em…

I too was the kid who read the encyclopaedia for fun and wanted to soak up everything. So I tried. Then I found that it was more fun to focus on the things that really appealed to me. None of these things ever made me any money. But they did and do make me happy.

You know, you seem to have smarts, a solid family, and have raised and continue to be raising some really great young people.
That is the best accomplishment anyone could have.

I wouldn’t sweat the knowledge thing if I were you-you already know what’s important.

12

Very well said Betsy.

Perfect.

Slan,
D.

13

Yes, true, true…
but we could all benefit from the suggestions.

I do recommend the Spanish study Peeps–I did that at the Community College a couple years ago (but still am really hard-pressed to follow the rapid-fire patter of the produce people at Whole Foods.)

New Scientist sounds promising. Going to have to look up Granta.

14

Sounds like a bit of a mid-life crisis, where one starts to become more actively cognitive of one’s own impending mortality and starts asking the big questions like: What have I done with my life? What sort of mark have I made? Where am I going and why aren’t I there yet, fer cripes sake? I am getting that from your reference to people who have made famous achievements or discoveries. Maybe I’m way off base. What I do when I get those thoughts is to sit down in front of the TV and fall asleep.

djm

15

I’d given up reading as a form of attaining knowledge sometime during my post-grad-pre-career era.
Mrs ChasR, however, is rarely without a novel (often of, imo, questionable edifying value).

AS FOR midlife crisies, I’m planning mine around cars, arc-welding, alcohol, music for consorts of viols, and..well..other things… :wink:

16

AGREED.

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Okay, I do have a suggestion. I think anthropology, as a field, accommodates the kind of “happy-go-lucky” anti-specialization you’re talking about. To a degree, anyway. The idea is to gain a holistic picture of how humans work, on a large scale.

Probably the most important thing going in anthropology is the study of sociocultural change. I’d suggest Europe and the People Without History, Eric Wolf. Kind of a thick tome, but completely worth the time investment. A wonderfully insightful look at “Westernization” as a phenomenon, and the consequences/implications thereof. One of the most important works in one of the most important fields of anthropology. It’s theory, but it’s approachable and grounded. The canned descriptions on Amazon kind of miss the point; I’d suggest you browse the user-comments for a better idea of what the book tries to accomplish.

For a thinner book, aimed at giving a quick history of sociocultural change theory, try Sociocultural Theory in Anthropology, Merwyn Garbarino. Then read the Wolf.

18

Not in the least.

What I do when I get those thoughts is to sit down in front of the TV and fall asleep.

That can work.
Or,
Play In the Hall of the Mountain King very loudly on the piano.
Sing along to a Heart cd.
Do a book called “Brain Flexing IQ Tests.” (not when tired.)
Tell husband it’s time to read some Bill Bryson aloud.
Take dog for a walk. Always a good alternative. Probably the best.

19

-I lack most of what was once known as a classical education and recommend Will & Ariel Durant’s “The Story Of Civilization” volumes as remedy, history of the world until the late 1930s available in public libraries. Like all histories it illuminates some things & glosses over others but is a wonderful, readable start and gives views of both eastern & western cultures since antiquity.

-The best volume to start with IMHO is “Our Oriental Heritage”, so if you’ve just time for one thick book- read this to tie together loose threads of ancient history (including some of Europe’s) you might have wondered about. I like this volume in particular as it details the vital exchange of eastern & western ideas in ancient times.

  • Forebears might have learned this stuff in a good high school education, but times have changed and lots of us get to college and beyond lacking the rich background these books provide.

-These aren’t the last word in history but are a great place to start, are written engagingly and go deep enough the reader will want to learn more from other sources.

20

Emm, I went through this too! I felt totally ignorant, as though I had learnt nothing since Uni (many years ago!)

I decided, rather than trying to learn huge amounts about subjects I had never understood in the first place, I would try to improve my knowledge of what I am interested in and good at! Much easier! So I read many of the classic English texts that I had either never read or had forgotten, found new poets to read and learn, swotted up my bird, flower, tree identification, improved ID on butterflies and dragonflies, etc.

To try to improve my knowledge of history, which is so abysmal as to be embarrassing, I read and still read a lot of fairly accurate historical novels and biographies, so at least I learn something while enjoying what I am reading. I also worked hard to improve my playing of various instruments, which has definitely paid off, in that I’m better than I was before and it is an improvement I can actually see!

For me, there would be no point in studying subjects I don’t like, as I know I wouldn’t stick at them!

Good luck! And have fun.

Lesley