"Why are the publishers using all these blurryfonts lately? They're hard to read!"
]]>
by David P Barash
My experience of scientific writing about gender differences, women, etc. is that it almost always actually is just a bunch of just-so stories with no convincing evidence whatsoever. Sounds like more of the same. Why since this subject matter is so interesting do scientists not study it truly well? Maybe because it doesn't sound academic enough or something? I agree with Elizabeth that the people who came up with some of those ideas sound like they don't talk to anyone female very often. ]]>
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
I'm rereading it again now too, for about the fifth time. It just keeps getting better, for me, and I understand the book now completely differently than I did when I read it the first few times.
Re angst and self-absorption, notice the character of Razumikhin, Rodya's friend. He's got if anything worse conditions than Rodya to live with, and yet he's irrepressible, indefatigable, and super optimistic. I see him as a deliberate foil showing how Rodya could have overcome his problems if he could have let go of his angst and self-absorption and morbid anxious neurotic pride.
I never thought of the gender aspects before, other than to note that the women were so very powerless to change their fates in that time and place. Poor Sonya was forced into prostitution, Katarina Ivanovna was sunk by her husband's poor choices, even our marvelous Dunya was ready to sacrifice her life by marrying that jerk. How wonderful it is that women can be educated and earn good livings now. The whole situation would have been far better if Dunya and Rodya were at university together, where she could look after him, or if she were there and he at home. Her courage and resourcefulness and just plain sanity would not have failed. And poor Pulcheria Raskolnikov would not have been in desperate poverty relying on her only son to get through school in order for her to have access to a decent living.
But yes I see now that the fact that the horse was a mare (with the horse standing of course for Rodya's potential (at that point) future murder victim) was obviously important.
This dang dream of the horse is the hardest part of the whole book for me to get through! Who would have thought that I would be so affected by something that happens in a dream of a person who is anyhow a fictional character. But speaking of that, did you know that Nietzsche had a real life experience similar to Rodya's dream, and it precipitated his breakdown? I can never forget that. I think the dream of the horse is the thing that sticks with me more than any other scene in this book. Ah, alas, alas for the beloved innocent mare who is straining with all her heart to pull a load that's far too heavy for her while being beaten to death by the very person who is charged with loving and caring for her, and whom she's giving her whole self to try and please. ]]>
by Mark Bittman
Okay, noted! I'm actually learning how to cook traditionally from some books while I'm trying to learn how to translate that to cooking vegan from others. So this one will fit in a bare section of the spectrum. I got Julia Child's classic, too, in which every recipe has tons of butter or heavy cream or both, not to mention that 2/3 of them are how too cook meat. I've learned from Alton Brown as well, though there are only about 2 vegetarian recipes in his two books that I have. I don't use specific recipes so much as I use ideas I get from all the various recipes. I just find I learn more that way, and enjoy it more as well. It feels more creative and personal, as I'm able to generalize from the specifics of all these styles into my own style.
Right now the thing I need most is a vegan version of shortening. The vegan shortenings there are that I know about are still hydrogenated, so they're every bit as bad for you as margarine or Crisco, even if they don't have trans fats per se. For all the things that use shortening like biscuits and pie crust, I wonder how they would turn out if I used oil instead. Probably not like biscuits but might they be like something else that's also good? Like scones or something? I'll have to try it. ]]>
by George Eliot
I may just have to do that, William. Thanks for the tip. ]]>
Tatiana added 0 books to this list. Add your votes »
add a comment
]]>
by Nicole Williams
I figure if they've got to give it away to get people to read it, there must be a reason. Thanks for confirming my guess. ]]>
I just got the new Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Crime and Punishment and I'm in the middle of reading it and I definitely think it's an improvement on the other translations I've read. It seems a whole lot more Russian, if that's possible. It also seems a lot more like Fyodor Mikailovich himself wrote it, in some odd way which I'm not able to define, but I guess that means it's a really good translation.
I've read this book several times before but it feels stronger this time around. Next I've got their translations of The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov to reread. I'm looking forward to it. ]]>
bookshelves: nonfiction
This is a fun cookbook. I'm enjoying just going through and reading it as though it were a novel. Lately I've had this epiphany about cooking, about what a great healing and homebuilding and even a spiritual experience it is, lol. It's some kind of gonzo motherhood thing, I think. Anyway, since I've given up meat (again) my taste buds have exploded with deliciousity trying all these new flavors and textures. Seriously, if you're a gourmand, if you are a serious hedonist of food, you owe it to yourself to go vegan. You experience only a tiny fraction of the joy of food until you do. Now everything new I try is so good it makes me faint.
So Isa Chandra Moskowitz is teaching me to stretch my tastes further into hitherto unexplored areas. The recipes are mostly easy, quick, and extremely tasty. The narration is witty and enjoyable. I especially like the little tips from the cat.
Learning to cook as a vegan in some ways overturns a lot of what I already know. How do you make cake without eggs and butter? I'm still searching for a good alternative to shortening, by the way. Even the zero-trans-fat alternatives are just as bad for you as trans fats. I wonder what would happen if you tried to use oil instead? Maybe it wouldn't turn out to be a biscuit but it might be something very tasty still. Tune in for experimental results on the next vegan-cookbook-review. =) ]]>
]]>