Welcome to this week’s 5BF.
*a couple of days late again. Just a busy weekend.
1 – what I read
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – a novel about happy and sad
marriages, about love and betrayals, and about the late 19th century
Russian society, that is a masterpiece both in its art of writing and in its
being a ‘proper’ novel. Involving plot, strong characters, psychological
insights, sociological commentary, and more, Tolstoy’s in these 800 pages accomplishes
the peak merit for how a novel should be written. And for these reasons, for me,
like many others, this is the best written novel of all time.
2 – this week’s articles
Against admiration @psyche – talking about Kierkegaard’s
criticism of our innate, passive, and distancing tendency of admiration those
who might be called ‘heroic’, this article explains how even imitation might be
better than passive praise-making for at least it involves the admirer in acting
to change himself for the better.
Karl Jaspers understanding of uncertainty @psyche – this article
explains the side-lined philosopher, Karl Jasper’s theory of ‘limit situations’
which talks about how bound people are by the contingencies of life, and his
approach of embracing this uncertainty through ‘limit consciousness’: a knowledge
of the nonknowledge.
Getting started is more important than succeeding @jamesclear– from the author of ‘Atomic Habits’, this article concisely and with great clarity
explains the importance of starting on our goals for its own sake, rather than
with the aim of excellencing at it.
Apps to optimize your anxiety @newyorker – a funny satire
featuring intentionally anxiety-probing phone apps that helps you make your
life more miserable than it already is.
Relish being an amateur @psyche – complimenting Clear’s
article above, this one talks about how being an interest-pursuing non-expert
player of any art or skill is worth more than the black and white concept of ‘either
excel at it or don’t do it at all’.
Physics and a grand unified theory @aeon – taking Eliot’s ‘A
Passage to India’ as its metaphor, this article explains how distinct theories
in physics, when seen in relation to one another, point towards a unified
theory at its root.
A history of holes @aeon – a mesmerizing and brilliant
article about the concept, importance, and history of holes: for needle-holes in
books, to cut-out newspaper articles, and more. ‘Holes point to, through absence,
to importance’.
Ours is the Waste Age @aeon – another brilliant article
which needfully explains how producing waste isn’t only a consequence of our
materialistic age, but an inherent part of it. Thorough, scientific, and resolving,
this article points to a very important part of our ‘anthropecenic’ aspect of
our times.
3 – some movie recommendations
C’mon C’mon (2021) – Joaquin Phoenix plays the uncle of
Jessie, an uncommonly tender and inquisitive boy of his divorced sister’s,
whose husband has mental health issues. While working as sound -recorder and
interviewer, he has to take care of Jessie while his sister goes to help her ex-husband.
A movie about parenthood and its neglected importance and hard-work, about what’s
wrong with America, about the complex relation of love, and about the acceptance
of the uncommon ones of us.
Copshop (2021) – just a fun, thrilling, lots of guns and tons
of bullets movie about a cop who gets involved in the bigger-than-her world of fixers
and mobs and has to bear out the consequences. A good time watching, guaranteed.
The Mitchells vs The Machines (2021) – a really fun and hilarious
animated movie about a not-so-cool family amidst the apocalyptic rise of
robots. A movie about being true to who we are even if it’s difficult and in
believing that the best lives cannot be lived by being untrue to ourselves, and
also about how digitally habituated we’ve become. I couldn’t help but shed some
tears – and laugh while crying.
The Inventor (2019) – a thorough HBO documentary about the
new Steve Jobs ‘Elizabeth Holmes’ and her fraudulent company ‘theranos’ which
promised accessible, cheap, and revolutionizing blood testing tech for everyone.
4 – some recommendations from YouTube
Why do we have different seasons? @CaliforniaAcademyofSciences
– a concept building animated video which easily explains why seasons change, also
differently at different regions.
2021 in Review @aljazeera – a review of 2021 in politics and
other big news.
5 – this week’s quote
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you
look back everything is different.
C.S. Lewis