Lex Fridman and Barry Barish discuss favorite books

[@Vandalle.]

7:11 "The best way to do evil is to frame it in a way like you're doing good" If you haven't read "Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning", you should. One moment in that book that made me have to stop and think was when one particular Nazi Policeman from a firing squad - and this is a real life recount from a real person by the way - explained during interrogation after the war that he made sure he killed only the children, and his reason for doing this was that he told himself in his head that the children would have to witness their entire family being killed brutally, and even if they were to let the children go (which were not the orders), they wouldn't have been able to survive on their own, he said that it was soothing to his conscience to know that he was saving children unable to live without their mothers. He actually saw himself as a kind of saviour, freeing the children. How can you ever begin to justify murdering innocent children? And yet in that situation, under such evil circumstances, and surrounded by the absolute horror that he was, he saw _that_ as the most humane thing to do. The human mind is fascinating and disturbing.

[@comanchedase]

Interesting

[@calebb.2515]

Wonderful insight and a powerful illustration. Thanks for sharing. This causes me to think about the broken systems I am contributing to and what it means to be choosing the highest good.

[@freethinker79]

Immoral order-followers: the cult of ultimate evil (check out Mark Passio's work)

[@uriahvoltairealt]

Funny that same part stuck with me too.

[@buxtehude123]

Sounds like the entire WOKE ideology. Also an old idea covered millions of times from Ancient Greeks to Goethe , Arndt etc.

[@davidgalstyan8239]

i am 24, just graduated and got a project engineer position and i reread Dostoyevsky’s 6-7 books and i have a problem with choosing different author to read. that being said i know im gonna find a lot in common in this podcast. thanks Lex, this is awesome!

[@davidgalstyan8239]

im rereading the idiot as of now, im not even joking lmaoo

[@poopamultimatepoopy]

Pynchon, Joyce, gaddis

[@abedjarjanazy1178]

Tolstoy, Chihov, Gorky

[@michaelwilliamson2345]

Camus?

[@amineHighTube]

Tolstoy, Gogol, Kafka...

[@TastyZoidberg]

Dostoevsky,Tolstoy,Solzhenitsy,shirt matches background,Camus.

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

My mother read Russian literature and I would pick up a book she was reading when she wasn't looking and would read the chapter she was in, the chapter she just read or the chapter she was about to read. I was reading science fiction, but then I was ten to twelve then. As a teen, I finally asked my mom what Russian book I should read first. She said, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. TOP 30 BOOKS "The Holy Bible: King James Version" copyright 1967 1) "The Insulted and Humiliated" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 2) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner 3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev 6) Myth Adventures - series by Robert Asprin 7) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis 8) "Vilette" by Charlotte Brontë 9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy 10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener 13) "Poland" by James A. Michener 14) "Roots" by Alex Haley 15) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien 16) "Childhood, Boyhood" by Leo Tolstoy 17) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov 18) "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin 19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 20) "Paris 1919: six months that changed the world" by Margaret MacMillian 21) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë 22) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 23) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen 24) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain 25) Old Mother West Wind series - wildlife series by Thornton Burgess 26) "Microbe Hunters" by Paul de Kruif 27) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 28) "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt 29) "Kon Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl 30) "The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte" by Anne Brontë FAVORITE AUTHORS 1st) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Insulted and Humiliated) 1) “The Insulted and Humiliated” by Fyodor Dostoevsky 4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 110) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 128) "The Gentle Spirit" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 139) "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 147) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 2nd) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection) 3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy 16) “Childhood, Boyhood” by Leo Tolstoy 60) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy 87) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy 3rd) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) seven more books in the top 200 not shown here 5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev 11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 22) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev 39) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 62) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev 4th) James A. Michener (Chesapeake) 12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener 13) "Poland" by James A. Michener 34) "Caribbean" by James A. Michener 35) "Hawaii" by James A. Michener 191) “Mexico” by James A. Michener 5th) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) 10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 27) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 42) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 75) "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an Experiment in Literary Investigation" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[@ephraimm.1750]

Thank you for this list

[@ipballer95]

Thank you for all of these, Lex

[@du9163]

Phenomenal content Lex, as someone who has been gifted in reading since i was young, i find a lot of value in your videos, particularly this one.

[@du9163]

@Pradip Nath I am German and Canadian, so I don’t read Russian literature. But I can recommend other books: 1. America Before- by graham Hancock 2. A brief history of everyone who ever lived - by Charles Rutherford 3. How to avoid a climate disaster - by Bill Gates 4. Silent spring - by Rachel Carson 5. Superintelligence - by nick bostrom All great books, I read all except #5, and I’ll get to that one in the winter. Hope you like the list

[@jojohairee9987]

What do you mean by gifted in reading?

[@fractale4322]

Anyone think Barish looks alot like Bukowski?

[@mapo5959]

He reminds me of van gogh lol

[@ronaldomaibam5694]

Indeed.

[@lutascosmin]

Haha yes,also can t believe he s almost 90

[@MrSeedz94]

he also sounds like when Jordan Peterson would grow old and slow and calm in speech 😅

[@omerinflow]

I think Barry is talking about Svetlana Alexievich's book

[@buxtehude123]

Alexandrovich is a light weight.

[@buxtehude123]

Best 4 Russian novels in MHO: Brothers Karamazov; War and Peace; Master and Margarita; And Quiet Flows the Don.

[@Luke-kj1rj]

Hero of our time has to be in the conversation

[@buxtehude123]

Never liked it. Maybe add Brothers Strugatsky " Difficult to be God" or Pelevin ( who's virtually untranslatable )

[@JamesBooond]

No Crime and Punishment?

[@sovereigngrace9723]

Anna Karenina?

[@mysticmouse7261]

BTW I dislike Dickens for similar reasons fatuous and overblown , characters that are caricatures, an improbable maze of plot and subplots. It cures me of caring for any of it . i'd rather go to the dentist.

[@mysticmouse7261]

@@donkeychan491 I know I'm amazed at anybody thinking either of them are profound or admirable.

[@gabrielethier2046]

​@@mysticmouse7261who do you like then?

[@mysticmouse7261]

​@@gabrielethier2046 English authors Jane Austen, Doris Lessing, Oscar Wilde. American F Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain. French Balzac Chateaubriand.

[@yewcookies]

Agreed, I read through Bleakhouse as a teenager and that was one hell of a slog. I was so ready for that book to be over. 😄 David Copperfield was a bit better but I dropped off halfway through. Yeah, I don't get the Dickens obsession some people have.

[@markberman6708]

Have read all of these.

[@MrMolzzon]

Easier way (than learning Russian) > Stephen King > The Running Man

[@MrMolzzon]

@@Istanislav1 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F

[@grigorirasputin425]

Stephen King is a woke 🤡

[@lc2571]

You mean Richard Bachman haha

[@fonsvandenhove]

I have not read The Gulag Archipelago. Why should I?

[@buxtehude123]

If you like fairy tales, you should read Gulag.

[@Luke-kj1rj]

Just read house of the dead instead

[@buxtehude123]

Just remember that it is a fictional novel, along the lines of Voltaire"s Candide. But written as a pseudo documentary fake stye.

[@jwollheim]

It’s a really good look into the mind of someone who lived through the time and place he wrote about. It’s fiction but no westerner could write fiction about those years anything like as convincingly. Really great book

[@simonkotchou9644]

Try "one day in the life of Ivan denisovich" first since it's very short

[@vesy19791979]

Solzhenitsyn was a talented man, but weak in spirit, from which he committed moral offenses. He wrote denunciations to the colony administration by decree of the NKVD. He returned to his homeland only because Russian people really cannot live fully without Russia. Longing eats them up. And he became popular simply because he got to the right time. Solzhenitsyn is essentially a product of a HYPE produced by the Anglo-Saxon elite, another intellectual instrument for the collapse of Russia. At the end of his life, Solzhenitsyn realized this, realized that the White House used him as a tool in the fight against his homeland and stopped writing dirt about the Soviet Union. And he has never spoken critically about Putin's government. And Madame Alekseevich, this is generally a third-rate product. Solzhenitsyn's copy, only a Chinese low-quality copy. And awarding her the Nobel Prize is worth no more than awarding such a peace prize to Obama. Please do not insult Dostoevsky by comparing him to these scribblers.

[@hilariousname6826]

Guy sounds like Clint Eastwood: "I'm not surprised you picked up on the Russian literature, punk."

[@mkballer4502]

It seems like fridman hasn’t even read any of the books

[@yanashe409]

Svetlana Alexievich is Belarusian

[@hammothw4814]

she was born in Ukraine and her mother was Ukrainian. what book of hers would you recommend most?

[@buxtehude123]

Alexievich writes in Russian, her culture is multicultural Soviet. And she was born in the Soviet Union.

[@soekekkeke990]

Idgaf who you are, you can’t fully process Dostoevsky as a 12 year old

[@roymillsjnr5172]

I think I was the "idiot"😂👍

[@Askra76]

Dostoevskiy. Solzhenitsyn. Alekseevich... tell me about degradation!

[@chrishaughey648]

The Malazan book of the Fallen

[@callum7081]

Too much commitment and the payoff isn’t as good as some shorter books

[@thedodubb]

nice!

[@henniannariina5877]

😍

[@adelinaquijano1083]

Svetlana

[@adelinaquijano1083]

Dostoyevskys

[@Not-Impressed..1821]

It's a bit rude to have a guest and do most of the talking

[@darvinist87]

Guys, you cannot grasp a bit of Stalin's persona. Suffice to say that in modern Russia Stalin is revered and Gorbachev is hated. Don't think Russians are stupid. It's just we know something you don't.

[@peteseerie5120]

Which is what? I would be very interested to hear this!

[@mysticmouse7261]

I can't get through Dostoevsky unwieldy and pretentious.

[@johnbonamigo5696]

Crime and Punishment is literally the opposite of these words

[@tobiasyoder]

What Dostoyevsky are you referring to?

[@evanmiller4502]

his novels are neither of these things

[@mysticmouse7261]

@@johnbonamigo5696 I haven't subjected myself. But be my guest. I think tortuous meandering is both.

[@mysticmouse7261]

@@tobiasyoder How many Dostoevskys are there?