Tag: ideas

Words in Ideas Book 1: “Articles 2024-2025”

Words in Ideas website was launched on March 3rd, 2024 with a single purpose: to understand the world through the meaning of words. Human societies are based on language and language is based on the cultural background and the geographical region where it was born and/or evolved. The same word can have different meaning due to the different evolutionary path it has taken in a different geographical region. For example, English was born in England, but it has taken different evolutionary paths in Australia, in the USA, and in all other countries which were under the United Kingdom administration at some point in history. Likewise, Latin evolved differently in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and Romania, but it also influenced other languages, like English.

Words can clarify and they can deceit. Going back to the source and analysing its evolution was the challenge Ana Catarina Palma Neves, the author of this website, proposed herself. The articles were based on three main components: a book chosen according to a keyword, the analysis of a specific word, and the cultural background of a concept, every month. The first two years (2024 and 2025) had different approaches and 2026 has currently taken another avenue.

To celebrate the third year of existence, a compilation of articles related to the word meaning and the cultural background components was made and published in the book “Words in Ideas: Articles 2024-2025”. Online, some articles are available to the general public and some are only available to subscribers. In the e-book, you can read them in a sequence (or randomly) without restrictions.

 
Where is the e-book available?

 
Read the book, check the website.
 

Key place: SIBERIA | “The Lost Pianos of Siberia”, by Sophy Roberts

Russians conquered Siberia between 1580 and 1778. In the meantime, in 1762, Catherine the Great became empress of Russia. This means that, when Catherine took the throne, almost all (and later all) Siberia was part of the Russian Empire. Under her ruling, Siberia acquired its status of “prison” and “exile”, but it was also invaded by a “piano fever”.

Sophy Roberts is a British journalist specialized in travel writing. When she heard there was lost pianos worth looking for in Siberia, she thought this was the perfect excuse to finally get to know this part of the world. What started as a piano quest, ended as a collection of stories about Siberia and the importance of music (and pianos) in the region. In truth, since Catherine the Great, music and pianos are entangled with Russian history and culture and it is impossible to talk about one without talking about the other.

This non-fiction book is a journey through time from 1762 to present days. Throughout its narrative, stories of pure horror go hand in hand with sublime stories of human endeavour. Catherine the Great was a huge fan of European culture and, in a time when pianos were the latest music technology, she adopted them and was the driving force to spread them to the entire Empire, even to the most remote and (almost) inaccessible places. At the same time, she was complicit with the slavery of her people and the use of Siberia for getting rid of dissidents.

Time passed by and dissidents kept rebelling and kept being sent to Siberia. However, these dissidents were educated people, with a love for music and the pianos. Therefore, when they went to exile, they made a point to take the pianos with them and educate people there. Then, during the soviet period, the state funded music schools to make the piano available to (literally) everyone. The “piano fever” gave rise to a whole piano industry for constructing pianos, fine-tuning them, learning how to play them, and enjoying them in every possible way.

Finding these old pianos was a journey to the most remote and isolated locations. There were amazing discoveries, great disappointments and also the possibility to connect people that loved the same pianos. Hearing their stories, the stories of the people connected to them, or simply the historical context in which each piano “lived” (and sometimes “died”) was the foundation of this book. Sophy Roberts was joined at times by the photographer Michael Turek. They also have a website dedicated to this book, where you can see some photos and videos, and hear some music played on a piano.

 

Key place: IRELAND | Guinness beer

Nothing speaks Irish internationally more than Guinness beer. This is no coincidence. Arthur Guinness was a visionary and he wanted to brew such a beer that would be internationally recognized as an Irish product for many years to come. Hence, the choice of a harp as the symbol of the brewery. Yet, this is not just any harp, it is the “Brian Boru” harp, which you can see in the Long Room at the Trinity College Library in Dublin. It’s a medieval harp that stood the test of time and became the true symbol of Ireland. You can find it as the symbol of the Irish Government (adopted after the independence from England in 1922) and on Irish coins.

Founded in 1759 at St. James’s Gate in Dublin, where it is still being brewed today, Guinness is the most well-known stout beer in the world. Originally, when Arthur Guinness took hold of it, St. James’s Gate was an ale brewery, but he decided to change that and started producing a type of black beer. The final formula obtained in those early days was so unique that it gave rise to the “Irish Stout” style. To this day, “stout” is the only type of beer produced by Guinness. Their diversity is restricted to this condition, and they do not have that much diversity. When it is perfect, you do not need to change anything, right?

Back in 1945, Sir Hugh Beaver was hired as manager by the Guinness family and he underwent several changes that took the brewery to the next level. One day, while he was hanging out with friends at the pub, he engaged in a fierce argument about which was the fastest bird in the world. A conclusion was not reached, but an idea was born: to compile facts in a book to solve these kinds of questions. As the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature, Toni Morrison, said, “if there is a book you want to read, and it is not yet written, then you must write it yourself”. That was exactly what Sir Hugh Beaver did. Well, he did not write it himself, but commissioned who did. That book was “The Guinness Book of Records”. The idea grew and grew and now is a yearly publication that confirms all kinds of records all over the world.