Thank you to all our June discussion participants! I believe we discovered why Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay is still being read, cited, and discussed 180 years after its publication.
Below are some notes from the discussion and details for our June meeting. Next month, we turn our attention to the favelas of Rio.
Links and notes that arose for further exploration:
If you read the three financial chapters in our selected edition, check out more of the volumes. For example, you can access the full work via Project Gutenberg e-editions. (The section on alchemists in volume III was recommended by one of our members!)
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
The Big Short (film adaptation)
The Mass Ornament by Siegfried Kracauer (About the role of film.)
The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord (Described as Das Kapital of the 20th century.)
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis (PBS NewsHour Interview, May 6) This book highlights the role of skeptics; in Extraordinary Delusions, Mackay also focused on how voices that question the popular idea often are ignored.
An update on "tulipomania." Was it as big and expensive a fad as described?
The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano (We read this book last year. Extraordinary Delusions referenced the mines of Potosi; the effects of colonization and wealth extraction on the population of Bolivia are described in detail in Galeano's book.)
Our June Discussion
In June, we turn to Brazil and Geovani Martins' short story collection The Sun on My Head.
"In The Sun on My Head, Geovani Martins recounts the experiences of boys growing up in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the early years of the twenty-first century. Drawing on his childhood and adolescence, Martins uses the rhythms and slang of his neighborhood dialect to capture the texture of life in the slums, where every day is shadowed by a ubiquitous drug culture, the constant threat of the police, and the confines of poverty, violence, and racial oppression. And yet these are also stories of friendship, romance, and momentary relief." (learn more)
We will discuss this collection on June 27.
To receive information, please sign up for our mailing list using the form below.
Comments