Wednesday Reading Meme

[shipperx]

Currently: History of the Ancient World: A Global Perspective; Gregory S. Aldrete

So...um... yeah. That's rather nerdy, isn't it?

I've been nerdy about Roman, Minoan, and Greek history for a long time, but I was intrigued by this one also delving into Chinese, Indian, Meso-American, and Polynesian history (subjects I know far, far less {like almost nothing} about.)

Next: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth; Reza Aslan (the funny thing here is that I ordered it before the big (racist) FOX brouhaha that has sent it to the top of the Amazon best sellers list. I actually ordered it after seeing the author on Stephen Colbert. Sounded interesting).

Possibly next: METAtropolis; It's an anthology. It was one of 8 different books Audible was offering for free download yesterday.

Comments

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth; Reza Aslan

He was on Bill Maher last Friday and was funny and very bright so I'm thinking it should be a good read.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, hearing him on Colbert intrigued me with the book. He sounded really interesting.

[shapinglight]

What was this Fox racist brouhaha?

Didn't they like the idea of a Muslim doing a program on Jesus?

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much "A MOOOOOOOOZLIM is BLASPHEMING AGAINST CHRIST to CONVERT GOOD CHRISTIANS to EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL MOOOOOOOOOOOOOZLIMITY!"

[shapinglight]

Hmm, obviously they have no clue that Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet, or don't care even if they do know.

I assume they'd be perfectly fine with some white American bloke doing a program on Mohammed.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

If what they're doing weren't so horrifying, it would be a self-parody.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Quickie drive-by answer (because unfortunately, I'm swamped at the moment):

http://now.msn.com/reza-aslan-bible-scholar-asked-on-fox-why-he-wrote-a-book-about-jesus?ocid=ansnowex

AND

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-reza-aslan-feels-compassion-for-his-fox-news-inquisitor-20130730,0,7724385.story

What was Reza Aslan thinking, as his patient explanations to a Fox News reporter about his book on Jesus seemingly fell on deaf ears?


“I was embarrassed, more than anything,” Aslan told The Times in a telephone interview Tuesday from Oregon. He’d gone on the cable network to talk about his book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.” Instead, he found himself making that most unpredictable and volatile of modern media creations: a viral video.

In a 10-minute segment on Fox News last Friday, reporter Lauren Green kept on questioning why a U.S. scholar with Muslim roots would want to write a book about Jesus. And she also suggested that Aslan had neglected to inform his readers and the media of his faith, when in fact Aslan mentions it quite early in his book.

Aslan said he was embarrassed that he had to “trot out my credentials” as a student of religions. (He is a scholar of religion as well as an associate professor of creative writing at UC Riverside.) “It’s something most academics don’t like to do,” he said. “It’s uncomfortable to have to constantly tell someone why you’re qualified to do the work you’re doing. Unfortunately, she put me in that kind of position.”

As Green kept on trying to pin Aslan on his faith and motives, she made herself look increasingly narrow-minded—while making Aslan seem to be the epitome of rational argument. The video of their exchange has helped propel “Zealot” to the top of the Amazon bestseller list.

“I really felt compassion toward her, to be honest,” Aslan told The Times.

Aslan’s family fled the religious extremists of the Iranian Revolution, and later he converted to an especially devout belief in Christianity, before returning to Islam. “I understand what it’s like to believe something so completely that anyone who questions you in the slightest way, or who seemingly overturns some basic facts of your belief system, can seem to be attacking your very identity,” he said.

As to the subsequent repetition of the video again and again on websites and social media pages, Aslan said: “In a sense I’m just kind of an interested bystander right now. It’s taken on a life of its own. It’s become a cultural dialogue about these very important issues about media, journalism and scholarship. People like me, who deal with these kinds of issues, love to talk about them.”

It’s also helped him sell a few books.

What does it say about FOX do you think that a comedian pretending to be a reporter (Stephen Colbert) does a far better, more researched, more rational, and more fact-based interview with an author than Fox "News"?

[shapinglight]

Thanks for the links. It looks pretty much what I expected.

[mlgm.livejournal.com]

That doesn't sound geeky at all to a woman who has been on a "Biography of Women Rulers" kick.

Just finished The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici and The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily. Next up She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth.

Besides women who kicked ass, I'm fascinated by Egyptian and Chinese history.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Those sound interesting!

And the nice thing about LJ is that nothing sounds nerdy in its context. :D