April's theme of "Religion and Philosophy" is certainly giving us some scope to play with, for our 2019 Reading Challenge.
This week, Tasch brought along a book by Alain de Botton, who is well known for making philosophy accessable to the average person.
Sammy and Sharon both looked close to home for their exploration of the "Religion" side of the coin, with both looking at books that use art to explore the Dreaming of Australian Aboriginal Peoples (although the target audience for each book is quite different).
Feeling
unpopular, broke, frustrated, inadequate, broken-hearted, or life is just flat
out difficult? Then this is the book for you. What’s not to love about
philosophy? Who would’ve thought that it could be used to reflect upon and help
sort the every-day concerns of every-day people.
Samantha Baxter read The Story of Crow: A Nyul Nyul Story, written and illustrated by Pat Torres, with Nyul Nyul language text by Magdalene Williams.
I was intending to read this for last months language and literature challenge-but I missed it.
So I decided to include this Dreaming story in the Religion and Philosophy challenge.
This is a book aimed at children and tells the story of how Crow got his black feathers and croaky voice.
Crow begins his life as a white bird with a beautiful call, but by flouting sacred laws he is punished and becomes the black cawing bird we know today.
The inclusion of the original language translation gives this a more authentic feel and helps you recognise that this is not just a story to entertain but a story to teach moral rules of the group as many Dreaming stories often do.
Australian author, Fiction, Author I've never read before, c398.2049915 TOR
Sharon Bryan read Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, edited by Margo Neale.
I'm using this book for April's theme of "Religion and Philosophy", but quite frankly I could have used it for January (“Geography and Travel”), February (“Fact and Fiction”) or March (“Language and Literature”). I could also have held onto it for June (“Music and Art”) or December (“History”) and possibly even September (“Family and Society”).
It's a book designed to go with an exhibition and an archive held by the National Museum of Australia, and it's a strange and mesmerising combination of art, biography, history and legend. Parts of it are written in traditional Australian languages, and most of the artwork was created recently, but following centuries old traditions.
The story of the seven sisters, who travelled through a stretch of land trying to escape a male sorcerer with what can accurately (if inadequately) be described as "a larger boner" for one of the sisters, is shared by several cultural groups in central Australia, and the landscape holds pieces of the story. This particular cave looks like "that man's" face. That particular mountain formation was caused by his magical penis trying to sneak up on the sisters (seriously). This part of the landscape is where they flew to escape him...
The book also explores the idea of songlines within the Australian Aboriginal belief system, and it's a fascinating trip. Plus, the whole thing is visually stunning. Definitely one for the art lovers.
Australian authors, fiction and non-fiction, authors I haven't read before, 305.89915 SON
This week, Tasch brought along a book by Alain de Botton, who is well known for making philosophy accessable to the average person.
Sammy and Sharon both looked close to home for their exploration of the "Religion" side of the coin, with both looking at books that use art to explore the Dreaming of Australian Aboriginal Peoples (although the target audience for each book is quite different).
Natascha
Kucurs read The
Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton
Contemporary
thinker (and arguably philosopher in his own right), Alain de Botton considers
this gambit of common human problems through the works of famous philosophers Socrates,
Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. A potentially useful
narrative, which if proven not to be useful, is still entertaining
none-the-less. The true lounge-chair sage might be left somewhat bewildered though
as they contemplate the bigger question of whether it really is the purpose of
philosophy to console!
De Botton (who
pens both fiction and non-fiction) is renowned for making philosophy accessible,
bringing it to a wider audience. I couldn’t resist listing his tantalising
titles here, you might just find yourself tempted to pick up more than one.
- The Course of Love
- The News: A User’s Manual
- Art as Therapy
- How To Think More About Sex
- Religion for Atheists
- The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
- A Week at the Airport
- The Architecture of Happiness
- Status Anxiety
- The Art of Travel
- How Proust Can Change Your Life
- Essays in Love
- The Romantic Movement : Sex, Shopping, and the Novel
Samantha Baxter read The Story of Crow: A Nyul Nyul Story, written and illustrated by Pat Torres, with Nyul Nyul language text by Magdalene Williams.
So I decided to include this Dreaming story in the Religion and Philosophy challenge.
This is a book aimed at children and tells the story of how Crow got his black feathers and croaky voice.
Crow begins his life as a white bird with a beautiful call, but by flouting sacred laws he is punished and becomes the black cawing bird we know today.
The inclusion of the original language translation gives this a more authentic feel and helps you recognise that this is not just a story to entertain but a story to teach moral rules of the group as many Dreaming stories often do.
Australian author, Fiction, Author I've never read before, c398.2049915 TOR
It's a book designed to go with an exhibition and an archive held by the National Museum of Australia, and it's a strange and mesmerising combination of art, biography, history and legend. Parts of it are written in traditional Australian languages, and most of the artwork was created recently, but following centuries old traditions.
The story of the seven sisters, who travelled through a stretch of land trying to escape a male sorcerer with what can accurately (if inadequately) be described as "a larger boner" for one of the sisters, is shared by several cultural groups in central Australia, and the landscape holds pieces of the story. This particular cave looks like "that man's" face. That particular mountain formation was caused by his magical penis trying to sneak up on the sisters (seriously). This part of the landscape is where they flew to escape him...
The book also explores the idea of songlines within the Australian Aboriginal belief system, and it's a fascinating trip. Plus, the whole thing is visually stunning. Definitely one for the art lovers.
Australian authors, fiction and non-fiction, authors I haven't read before, 305.89915 SON
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