TAN: Best sellers

[Mark P. Line]

Yes, but I don't think anti-intellectualism is thoroughly mainstreamed the way it is here. Here you can have a senatorial candidate who has to defend herself against charges of witchcraft not because it is considered superstitious or unscientific, but because it's not Christian.

-- Mark

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On Dec 11, 2011, at 16:23, john at research.haifa.ac.il wrote:

> This is getting even more off topic (if that's possible), but if you think that
> intellectual pursuits aren't stigmatized in England, you haven't met too many
> working-class Englishmen. They think any intellectual male must be gay.
> John
> 
> 
> 
> Quoting Daniel Riaסo <danielrr2 at gmail.com>:
> 
>> Yes, the remark was done tongue-in-cheek, but the fact that a book with the
>> word "grammar" (correctly spelled) in the cover (and even with the air of a
>> Routledge actual grammar) hits the best-selling list is noteworthy per se.
>> A very encomiastic review
>> 
> here<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/26/finnish-grammar-diego-marani-review>
>> .
>> 
>> 2011/12/11 Darin Len Arrick <darrick at email.arizona.edu>
>> 
>>> The book is fiction, but has what is normally considered a non-fiction
>>> title. It's not actually a grammar of Finnish.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Darin Arrick
>>> The University of Arizona
>>> Undergraduate Class of 2012
>>> Major: Linguistics, Minor: Philosophy
>>> Member, UofA Honors College
>>> darrick at email.arizona.edu
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Mark Line <mark at polymathix.com> wrote:
>>>> Probably.
>>>> 
>>>> But that's England, after all, where intellectual pursuits, even
>>> avocational ones, are not stigmatized. The 10th best-selling book is
>>> _Quantum Universe_ according to that same list.
>>>> 
>>>> By comparison, this week's bestsellers in USA Today (a.k.a. The Purveyor
>>> of American Culture) are mostly youth pulp, as nearly as I can tell. I'm
>>> sure they're popular among most adult Americans since they're likely
>>> Flesch-tested to 6th grade or so.
>>>> 
>>>> Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs is #5 -- something you can leave lying
>>> around on your coffee table while you're showing off your new iPhone 4S
>>> (and its dead battery).
>>>> 
>>>> Still, I guess I might want to hire Diego Marani's publicist.........
>>>> 
>>>> -- Mark
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Dec 11, 2011, at 14:56 , Daniel Riaסo wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> According to The Guardian's This Week
>>>>> Bestsellers<http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/home.do>,
>>>>> Diego Marani's "New Finnish Grammar" is this week 3rd best selling book
>>> in
>>>>> England. This is something of a record, isn't it?
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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