91–100 of 218 posts
I suspect a subtle mistranslation here. Chekhov seems to be talking about decent people, or maybe good people, not cultured ones. In English, it is quite possible to be cultured but bad. You know all kinds of stuff about literature, music, art, history and science (and therefore you are cultured) but you cheat on your wife and your taxes (and are therefore bad).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What's the thing about russians and noses? Well. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/g/gogol/nikolai/g61n/
I'd always had an impression of classical Russian writing as being impenetrable, but this was delightful. Thank you!
This translation is great but I think it's still interesting to read into the connotations of Chekhov's original words: http://www.anton-chehov.info/754-n-p-chexovu.html >you are drawn away from it, and you vacillate between cultured people and the lodgers vis-a-vis >тебя тянет от нее, и тебе приходится балансировать между культурной публикой и жильцами vis-а-vis. Here "cultured people" are originally "культурная пуб…
In English people used to say 'well-bred' but I can't quite squeeze that into the title above.
I notice this theme again and again in every "change yourself" book, show, class, lecture. Be it weight loss, improving mental health, curing addiction, becoming a better writer/photographer/programmer, the theme all comes down to a battle against yourself. Fighting the desire to snack, fighting the desire to lay on the couch instead of going to the gym, fighting the desire to veg and watch netflix instead of watchin…
The more I think about it and learn about the functioning of the brain, the less I believe in the unitary 'self'. I once read the suggestion that what we think of as the 'self' is really just the brain's public relations department.
He lays out some interesting concepts about the way we think and one thought experiment in particular, observing all the 'thinkers' within and how they can multiply at will i.e consider the following innocuous statement:
"I observe that I am happy"
Who is happy and who is the observer?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This unfortunately does not account for different groups having different starting luck. I suppose you can in part handle that by having very large groups but since luck is luck simply the process of selection, even if random, is biased which gives you another problem.
Which is why units should be randomly selected into each groups to avoid confounding factors like the one you mention.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it's bourgeois, so what? I've been poor and I've been not poor. Not poor is better, trust me. Being not poor and cultured is way better. There are few things more annoyingly bourgeois than fetishizing poverty.
You misrepresent me by saying I fetishised poverty. I did nothing of the sort. I merely said that a state of smug complacency is risible. Or are the 'cultured' so full of pomposity that mockery is considered threatening? That seems like narcissism to me.
I haven't misrepresented you. You literally said that a 'bourgeois' activity has less value compared to "harder realities of life for the less well privileged". That's putting poverty on a pedestal. That's fetishizing it.
No. Working your ass off to barely scrape by is not in any way better than learning new things, being kind, or any of the other things enumerated in this article. That ridiculous crab mentality is what kids who are born into poverty have to deal with if they express any aspiration to make something better of themselves. It is its own kind of smug complacency, far more malicious and destructive than someone taking pride in more 'bourgeois' accomplishments.
Seriously, give me 'nauseatingly bourgeois' culture any day. If that makes you feel insecure, maybe try reading a book or something.
I notice this theme again and again in every "change yourself" book, show, class, lecture. Be it weight loss, improving mental health, curing addiction, becoming a better writer/photographer/programmer, the theme all comes down to a battle against yourself. Fighting the desire to snack, fighting the desire to lay on the couch instead of going to the gym, fighting the desire to veg and watch netflix instead of watchin…
The more I think about it and learn about the functioning of the brain, the less I believe in the unitary 'self'. I once read the suggestion that what we think of as the 'self' is really just the brain's public relations department.
> They do not ask for the cleverness which shows itself in continual lying. They want especially, if they are artists, freshness, elegance, humanity, the capacity for motherhood ugh. Cut the misogynistic crap please Chekhov
TFW you're voted down immediately for calling out sexism which, though very explicit, has so far gone uncommented upon [edit] - could someone please explain why they're voting me down?
It's worth pointing out that the statement is misogynistic, but where do you want to go from there?
Chekhov is dead, so certainly he isn't going to change his writing. But he is in numerous company of great writers who show outdated cultural values despite the quality of their work, so it doesn't sound like you're trying to outright dismiss the piece either. It's a pretty well established pattern when we run into cultural issues like misogyny and racism in older works to take the valuable parts and address the harmful parts at the point of interpretation.
I think you were voted down because 1. the mention of motherhood is pretty obviously sexist, so 2. people wanted to see you interpret the point into additional discussion, rather than just point it out.
I notice this theme again and again in every "change yourself" book, show, class, lecture. Be it weight loss, improving mental health, curing addiction, becoming a better writer/photographer/programmer, the theme all comes down to a battle against yourself. Fighting the desire to snack, fighting the desire to lay on the couch instead of going to the gym, fighting the desire to veg and watch netflix instead of watchin…
some of that is pre-programmed or instilled by the circumstance, anything above and beyond that requires additional effort that might seem like it's applied at "fighting yourself".