Last week, Booknik was especially taken with human stupidity, families with many kids, religious feelings, Potlatch and Georgian Jews’ weddings, sweet school cornets, cartoons, comic strips, and klezmer, the fall season cinema, the Baku design office, Sergei Dovlatov’s work, and princesses. To adjust to all these, he had to take tea, eat tuna sandwiches, and walk in Vienna. At the same time, Booknik Jr. listened to a cock crowing, learned from Hillel, studied pennies with holes in them, and prepared for school.
La inteligencia fracasada. Teoría y práctica de la estupidez, by José Antonio Marina
The Spanish author, philosopher, and psychologist José Antonio Marina studies man, and his place in the world. His book is written on the failures of the mind, that is, acts and mistakes of specific people, and the society in general, decisions and deeds people are proud of while those decisions and deeds are in fact disreputable. For starters, the author defines his terminology. For him, stupidity is not only the common day-to-day kind but the mind’s inability to perceive the world at large adequately, as well as the communication errors, incorrectly set objectives, and the garbled hierarchies of priorities. Booknik reviewer Anna Andreyeva reads the treatise by José Antonio Marina, and tries to untangle all this.
Strawberry Islands
Et velsignet barn, by Linn Ullmann
Just like the Jewish tradition, Linn Ullmann’s novel puts forward the blood ties. The author is one of the film director Ingmar Bergman’s nine children, and she writes about blood relations, blood oaths, and secrets. Unlike the Jewish literature though, the Scandinavian worldview omits passionate reflection, preferring deep freeze. Booknik reviewer Masha Tuuborg reads the novel with two Borges plots out of four (God returning, and God committing suicide) entangled in a family drama.
In Old Believer’s Eyes
Old Belief, and the Russian Religious Feeling, by Vladimir Ryabushinsky
The history of the Old Belief literature is almost just as old as the history of schism. Despite his European education, Ryabushinsky stuck to that belief, and turned into one of those few old believers who were able to talk about the principles of his religion in the vein of European intellectuals who knew not only the church fathers but European philosophy, and Russian literature as well. Booknik reviewer Yevgeny Levin reads the book by Vladimir Ryabushinsky, and discusses the religious feeling.
…and many other deep thoughts in the Books & Reviews section.
If you ask a man in the street what an anthropologist does, you are likely to hear something about studying primitive cultures. However, this answer was correct only when the science was young, and primitive cultures were a terra incognita. Nowadays, anthropologists turn to their contemporaries more and more. The objects of their scrutiny are hippie communes, New Age shamans, sectarians, cosplayers, settlement Jews, dwellers in St. Pete’s communal flats, and Internet bloggers. It is a wide-spread belief that, unlike primitive culture carriers who practiced many complicated and irrational rituals, the modern Western Man is ultimately rational. But is he? Booknik anthropologist contributor Elisheva Yanovskaya tells about ancient Potlatch in Georgian Jews’ wedding ceremonies.
…and many other anthropological catastrophes wonders in the Articles & Interviews section.
Do you remember the joke about a first-grader who came back from school on September 1, and asked his parents grudgingly, “Why didn’t you warn me that this rot would last for ten years?” In order to sweeten the pill of the school reality, Schultüte, or Zuckertüte, exists. It is a colorful paper cornet filled with sweets, and presents. Booknik’s German reporter Regina Kon tells about Jewish origins of this German tradition.
Israel is the Land of Cartoons, and Comic Strips
The annual animation parade has been long taking place in Tel Aviv. It includes not only animation but comic strips, and caricature. Ten years after the festival’s inception, they thought of a resounding name for it, “Animix.” In mid-August, Booknik’s Israeli reporter Ariel Bulstein attended it.
The Klezmer Air of Safed
A-and our ubiquitous reporter Ariel Bulstein also went to the biggest klezmer festival in the world that takes place in the Israeli kabbala center. His report follows.
…and many other unexpected visits in the Events & Reports section.
Sometimes it is useful to divert your attention from details, and take in the whole picture. We have the fall on our hands, so film distributors unveil their blockbusters, and film festivals get ready to new seasons. This is what is in store for us in the nearest months: psychos, cops, exorcists, and school children. Booknik’s contributing editor Dina Suvorova trains moviegoers for the fall screenings, boosting up their morals, primarily.
Tea, Tea, Strong Tea: 15 Facts about Tea
In the early 20th century, the Russian government tried to use tea politically. The Russian People’s Union established reading tearooms everywhere for the common folks where workers could be distracted from drinking vodka, and brewing up revolutions. Like it helped. Booknik contributors Yevgeny Levin and Marina Karpova share these, and other facts about tea.
…and many other peculiar peccadilloes in the Columns & Columns section.
Some Days in the Life of a Young Female Specialist
“After graduating from the Baku Institute of Crude Oil and Chemistry, I was placed with the plant of heavy electric welding machinery, and went to work for its design bureau. My life was over. From that time on, I’d only pine away surrounded by drawing tables, with not a decent young man in sight.” Booknik contributor Keren Pevzner tells a heart-rending story about Jews who have it lucky because they are born smart.
…and many other sad, sad memories in the Stories & Essays section.
I Like Meat Dumplings More Than Other Vegetables
Twenty years ago, on August 24, 1980, Sergei Dovlatov died. His books had reached Soviet readers not a long time before that, and they became immensely popular. Booknik loves the man as well. Our new quiz is about him.
…and many other warm memories in the Contests & Quizzes section.
The History of Israel in Hebrew 26: Pollocks Bollocks
In days of doubt, in days of dreary musings on the territories’ fate, you alone are my comfort and support, oh great, turgid, dry bureaucratic language! Otherwise, how could one describe the territories agenda as expressively as the colorful expression “pollocks bollocks” does? Booknik’s wise talking head Arkan Kariv explains.
King’s Daughter, Give Me Your Body!
In fact, the old French song The Drummer and the King’s Daughter does not have this line, we put that in order to attract attention. They did not have kind of attitude at the time when the demobbed drummer boy had to withstand attentions of rather ugly princesses on his way home. A matter of taste, really. Now we know that the song translator Kira Sapgir, and performers Psoy Korolenko, Olga Chikina, and the G’Night band have excellent tastes. Vive le tambour!
Don’t Grudge the Brew 56: 10 Kinds of Tuna Sandwiches
On the average, one tuna fish is 100-200 kilos, so you could make more than ten sandwiches. However, we take this fish not from the sea but from the tin. Add pickles, capers, red peppers, lemon, slice it thinly until your hand goes numb on you, and make into a paste-like salad. You could eat it with a spoon, or spread on bagels or toasts, depending on your mood. Booknik’s brilliant chef Roman Gershuni demonstrates the procedure.
…and many other tuna tunings in the Video Blog section.
Booknik Jr. has already read some poetry for children translated from Yiddish. He liked those poems very much. Now, he remembers them again. How weird they are! Like the one about the golden duck that roams with no direction home. How could it be helped? It cannot pray for the night has already fallen. What could be done here?
Hillel
Hillel was born in Babylonia, where a large Jewish community had existed since the Nebuchadrezzar time. Hillel wanted to study Torah from his early years but there were neither teachers nor schools in Babylonia. So when he turned forty, he decided to move to Jerusalem. Yevgeny Levin and Marina Karpova tell about the man who summed Judaism up in only one phrase.
Are You Ready for School?
You shouldn’t even be warned about this quiz, everything’s clear. No matter what but very soon you’re going to wake up by the alarm clock, go to bed early, and live by the schedule in general. Yes, you’re going to school, and you’ll have to bear with it until the next vacation. Ha. Brace yourselves. Booknik Jr. suggests his smallish readers to test their preparedness for the school routine.
Museums of ethnography are very interesting, really. They show different things your grandmother tells you about, or you can read about those things in books and watch in a movie. Here, those things are for real. Your guide tells pretty unbelievable stories, too. Yelizaveta Guller goes to the Jerusalem ethnography museum called “The Yard of the Old Yishuv.”
Museums and Playgrounds of Vienna
If you come to Vienna with children, you will not have trouble entertaining them. In warm season, it is good to go to the Schloß Schönbrunn zoo, to the aqua park on an artificial Donauinsel island, and to Prater. In winter, you could go to museums, and the best one is Zoom Museum. The House of Butterflies would be interesting to kids all year round. Yanina Zheltok instructs our big and small readers in detail.
…and much other goodness at Booknik Jr., also known as Family Booknik, our own web site for kids and their parents.
Once more, with feeling. Booknik and Family Booknik are supported by the AVI CHAI Foundation.
