Ataraxia

  On books aka De los Libros by Michel de Montaigne – this is one of The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, selected as one of The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, my note on a section of this massive magnum opus is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/11/les-essais-tome-1-by-michel-de.html where you find a few hundred more reviews   10 out of 10   It is something of a surprise, at least for the less well informed among us, to find such an erudite author and reader, right there, at the end of the sixteenth century, otherwise the period of The Middle Ages, also stigmatized as the Dark Ages, and this proves it was not as backward as we might think, at least on some counts   Yes, they had the Inquisition, but even that was not the killing, torturing machine most might think – I was reading in The Economist, in the Culture zone, where they reviewed this book about the subject, that they did not want to get a bad reputation, so they did not torture all and s...

  Fawlty Towers by John Cleese one of the greatest comedians of all time, a member of the best comedy team ever, they have made what is probably the most hilarious film Monty Python’s Life of Brian, my note on it is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/monty-pythons-life-of-brian-bymonty.html along with a few thousand other reviews   10 out of 10   I know of no better comedy series than this one, Fawlty Towers is magical an I must see it again (and again) let me plunge into it, and mention I have another note on one of the episodes, The Waldorf Salad https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/waldorf-salad-by-john-cleese.html which has Americans coming in the hotel   They arrive late at night, and the chef is gone, however, the proprietor, Mr. Basil Fawlty aka stupendous John Cleese – who has created this masterpiece with his then wife, Connie Booth, playing Polly on screen, - is a cheap bastard, and so he would do anything for some money, which is betting...

  History of The World by Mel Brooks, a magnificent film maker, writer and director of The Producers, my note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-producers-written-and-directed-by.html where you find a few thousand more reviews   10 out of 10   This is not just one of the best comedies ever made, in the top ten or maybe five best, in my book, it is also a good depiction of some of what is happening in the world right now – indeed, you have scenes that have sent from the present, into ancient Rome in the movie, we will get to that – like here, where I live   We have had elections on Sunday and as BBC and The Economist have put it, ‘the candidate of the far right has won the first round’, which means that I need to vote on the second ballot – mea culpa, did not do it this time around, unaware it could get so ugly – to avoid having to learn Russian, live in a colony of Putin But let us talk about the comedy, it will be alright here, and...

  A Haunting in Venice – A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie, probably the best writer of crime novels, albeit The Daughter of Time sits at the top of The Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time, according to The CWA aka Crime Writers Association, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-daughter-of-time-by-josephine-fey.html where you find a few thousand more reviews   8 out of 10   Agatha Christie’s books have been exalting this reader when he was an adolescent, with titles like And Then There Were None https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/and-then-there-were-none-by-agatha.html called when I was a child Ten Little Niggers – that was the atrocious title, although in translation it lost its racism   While in high school, we have been blessed with a divine Professor of Literature, Anton Chevorchian, who insisted that the great magnum opera have a mystery plot, some sort of crime within, and we could think of Crime and Punish...

  A Sentimental Journey to France and Italy by Laurence Sterne is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with the other acclaimed work of the same author, The Life of Opinions of Tristram Shandy   7 out of 10   ‘Tristram Shandy is the craziest, wisest and greatest of all books ' - Sterne turned into Diderot, who turns into Mozart...he also turns into Proust and Joyce, Beckett and Nabokov’ this is a quote from To The Hermitage https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html by Malcolm Bradbury   A Sentimental Journey to France and Italy was also well received, indeed, even in this day and age, if appears on the list I have mentioned above, although trying a sardonic take, I do not see why, but I do, it is amusing, interesting, serene, joyful, you have love in the plot, and with that, half of the components of positivity are there Barbara Fredrickson is the quintessential expert on the subject, she h...

  The Holy Bible by Anonymous – perhaps the best book to read to understand The Bible better is The Bible – A Biography by sublime Karen Armstrong, my note on this is at   https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-bible-biography-by-karen-armstrong.html where you find a few thousand more reviews     9 out of 10   Nine out of the ten for the perfect book, coming from the Almighty, Omniscient, All powerful is not just a bad, ominous start, it is also hedging the wrong way, Pascal had that smart, on the surface, bet, he said you should believe in God, for if he is up there (or maybe she, they) then you win, and if they are not, what have you lost?   Nathaniel Branden was declared the best expert on Self Esteem – you could do no better than read The Six Pillars of Self Esteem – and he has this work, The Psychological Effects of Religion, in which he states that religion is awful https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religio...

  Elena by Anais Nin is part of The Delta of Venus, together with Artists and Models, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/artists-and-models-by-anais-nin-author.html where you find a few hundred more reviews   8 out of 10   Elena is more complex than some of the other tales from The Delta of Venus https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/11/erotica-delta-of-venus-and-more-by.html , it is longer, there is more happening, various combinations, heterosexual, lesbian, homosexual, and there are stunning scenes   The trouble is that I will ‘share’, relate some of that here, and then I will get censored on…my blog (the aforementioned links send you there) because of the ‘sexual content’, or something along those lines, which is only words quoted from the book, it is a bit of an oxymoron and a nuisance for my colossal following Just joking, there are between five and ten clicks on a regular day, somebody might have looked up for me ...

  Les Essais – Tome 1 by Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Montaigne are included on the list of 100 Greatest Books of All Time, one of my notes on his writings is at   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/10/on-liars-essays-of-michel-de-montaigne.html with hundreds more reviews   10 out of 10   I was listening to the astounding essays, a little earlier, and they were about suicide, leaving things for tomorrow and this made me think of present, the chaos of the world, wars, elections that put forward the most vile, reprehensible individuals (Orange Jesus is a recurrent theme in these pages) and the metaphor of…   Doing harm to oneself   Alas, in some of these situations, it is not just masochistic, it is also having repercussions for the rest of us, America is still the greatest power in the world, though the way they are going, it is not for much longer, and on ethical, moral and some other grounds, we could not look up to them anymore...

  The Allegory of The Cave by Plato – one of the greatest luminaries of all time, author of Gorgias, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/gorgias-by-plato-gorgeous-gorgias-in.html along with a few thousand other reviews Kakistocracy is waiting for you   10 out of 10   I was thinking earlier, as I listened to the resplendent audiobook The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/05/12-steps-to-compassion-by-karen.html about the difference between Socrates, the wisest man in ancient times, and the new leader (Old too) of the free world, the ultimate narcissist   The Orange Felon has only praise for himself, he is a ‘very stable genius’, that is what he calls himself, only I see him as the epitome of malevolence and stupidity, this is why he is a recurrent theme of these notes, you have role models, and then this fool, who has climbed on top of the world, only to show us this is Maya Glasperlenspiel...

  Good Bye Lenin by Wolfgang Becker and Bernd Lichtenberg, another look at this fabulous motion picture is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/good-bye-lenin-written-and-directed-by.html where I have a few thousand other notes   9 out of 10   This is one of my favorite films, one that combines comedy with satire, and it depicts what has been a terrible tragedy, the end of one of the most heinous systems in the history, indeed, on some accounts, it was the very worst, although communism is accepted in some circles (they lead in China, Vietnam, Cuba and quite a few other places), it killed more people, a few times more, than the nazis, if we count Mao and Stalin   We are immersed in the final days of the communist dictatorship, and then we will have some action in the days after that, this is Eat Germany we are talking about, a place that was pretty much like heaven, when compared with what we had here, under Ceausescu, and I am proud to say I took par...