In the bonus discussion, we talk to Dr. Maria Loconsole about her three favorite book recommendations. We look at her picks from Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Fyodor Sologub, and Italo Calvino, and we also look at what draws her to surreal literature with a grounded edge.
In the bonus discussion, we talk to Dr. Maria Loconsole about her three favorite book recommendations. We look at her picks from Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Fyodor Sologub, and Italo Calvino, and we also look at what draws her to surreal literature with a grounded edge.
"Matching sounds to shapes: Evidence of the bouba-kiki effect in naive baby chicks"
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[Computer-generated transcript]
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Mignon Fogarty: Greetings, Grammarpaloozians. Thank you so much for being here and for your support. We are here today with Dr. Maria Loconsole, a researcher at the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padua in Italy. We just talked about her truly fascinating work with baby chicks who display the Bouba-Kiki effect, which previously was pretty much only seen in humans. If you're interested in that research, look for the show on your main feed and give it a listen. It was really fascinating. But, you know, this is one of my favorite parts of the interview, always, is getting the book recommendations. So Dr. Loconsole, thank you so much again for being here.
Dr. Maria Loconsole: Thank you for having me again.
Mignon Fogarty: Yes. So, you know, I would love to hear your three book recommendations: your favorite books of all time, something you'd recommend to a friend, something that stuck with you, something we can give to our friends.
Dr. Maria Loconsole: Okay, it was a really hard task. It was really, really hard. I love reading, and it was difficult for me to pick the three books that I would recommend. So allow me to explain the reasoning behind that. My first book would be "Romulus the Great" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It's a piece of theater, and I love the writer. I think it has the kind of humor I resonate with. And because I am a chicken person, the book also has some chicken characters, so it had to be that one.
Mignon Fogarty: Oh, that's wonderful.
Dr. Maria Loconsole: And the second one would be "The Little Demon" by Fyodor Sologub. And that's because I love Russian literature, but I didn't want to go into the big classics because Bulgakov, Gogol, I would expect it. It's more of a known kind of a known side of Russian literature, but this one I really recommend. It's really nice. It has that kind of surreal touch that I really like. And the last one would be "Marcovaldo." I think the English translation is "The Seasons in the City," and it's from Italo Calvino. He is an Italian writer, one of the most brilliant writers in my opinion. I loved it. And it's that kind of book that you can read at any age. I read it in middle school and then again in high school and as an adult, and it always, always works.
Mignon Fogarty: And what is it about?
Dr. Maria Loconsole: It's about "Marcovaldo." He is this character, and we know about the way his life, the way his work, which he does every day, but we don't get to know what it is. And possibly he doesn't know either.
Mignon Fogarty: Oh, that sounds sort of surreal.
Dr. Maria Loconsole: In a sense, I would say I do have this thing about surreal, but it's—and I don't know if that's possible—I would say it's very surreal and very grounded.
Mignon Fogarty: Wonderful. Well, that sounds really interesting. Thank you so much for sharing your recommendations and for telling us about your research in the previous episode.
Dr. Maria Loconsole: Thank you very much. This was really fun. Thank you for having me again.