Sarah Monette's Blog, page 40
March 12, 2011
imaginary food
Talk to me about food in fantasy. (And science fiction, if you like.)
Readers, what kinds of details do you like to see? What makes a culture's eating habits come alive for you?
Writers (oh, please, writers, you're my only hope), how do you go about inventing cuisines and delicacies and what the street vendors sell? Especially when you are not relying on the old trick of, "I'll make this culture !Japan or !India or !France." How do you figure out what people eat?
Readers, what kinds of details do you like to see? What makes a culture's eating habits come alive for you?
Writers (oh, please, writers, you're my only hope), how do you go about inventing cuisines and delicacies and what the street vendors sell? Especially when you are not relying on the old trick of, "I'll make this culture !Japan or !India or !France." How do you figure out what people eat?
March 11, 2011
UBC: Italo Balbo
Segre*, Claudio G. Italo Balbo: A Fascist Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
After The Brutal Friendship, I wanted to read something that would tell me more about Italian fascism. This biography (which was required reading in one of![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380449247i/1833871.gif)
mirrorthaw
's classes, many years ago) was what we had in the house, and
mirrorthaw
said enthusiastically, "It's very good." Which it is. And it did give me a better grasp of Italian fascism. (Short version: what a horrible mess.)
Italo Balbo was a contradictory man, although probably best summed up by the word "swashbuckler." I swung back and forth between admiring and loathing him--although at that, he fared better than Mussolini, whom I despise more intensely with every new thing I learn about him. Segre is very upfront about the flaws in Balbo's character; he spends a lot of time assessing Balbo against (a.) Balbo's own valuation, (b.) his contemporaries' valuations, (c.) the opinions of historians. Mostly, Segre concludes that Balbo wasn't as grand and glorious as he believed himself to be, but he was by and large a better and more competent man than his detractors claim--although still a corrupt cog in a corrupt machine, a tyrant who saw nothing wrong in social inequality so long as he was at the top of the heap and who delighted in using violence to get his own way.
---
*On the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page, the author's name is rendered Segrè. On the back cover, it is rendered Segré. In the New York Times obituary, it is rendered Segre, with no accent at all. I apologize to the memory of Dr. Segre, but I cannot figure out the correct orthography of his name.
After The Brutal Friendship, I wanted to read something that would tell me more about Italian fascism. This biography (which was required reading in one of
mirrorthaw
's classes, many years ago) was what we had in the house, and
mirrorthaw
said enthusiastically, "It's very good." Which it is. And it did give me a better grasp of Italian fascism. (Short version: what a horrible mess.)Italo Balbo was a contradictory man, although probably best summed up by the word "swashbuckler." I swung back and forth between admiring and loathing him--although at that, he fared better than Mussolini, whom I despise more intensely with every new thing I learn about him. Segre is very upfront about the flaws in Balbo's character; he spends a lot of time assessing Balbo against (a.) Balbo's own valuation, (b.) his contemporaries' valuations, (c.) the opinions of historians. Mostly, Segre concludes that Balbo wasn't as grand and glorious as he believed himself to be, but he was by and large a better and more competent man than his detractors claim--although still a corrupt cog in a corrupt machine, a tyrant who saw nothing wrong in social inequality so long as he was at the top of the heap and who delighted in using violence to get his own way.
---
*On the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page, the author's name is rendered Segrè. On the back cover, it is rendered Segré. In the New York Times obituary, it is rendered Segre, with no accent at all. I apologize to the memory of Dr. Segre, but I cannot figure out the correct orthography of his name.
March 10, 2011
government by bullying
It is not a good sign when your state government's act of colossal asshattery makes the Breaking News bar on cnn.com.
In case you were wondering, yes, I am directly affected by this reprehensible piece of union-busting on the part of Governor Walker (the same man who sabotaged Wisconsin's chance at high-speed rail BEFORE HE EVEN TOOK OFFICE) and the state Republicans.
mirrorthaw
is a union member and a state employee. If he weren't, I wouldn't be as anxious and stressed as I am right now, but I would still be just as fucking FURIOUS at what's currently passing for democratic government in the state of Wisconsin. My state of residence has elected a man who believes that he can do whatever he wants to, that he doesn't have to compromise or negotiate, and that unethical behavior is perfectly okay as long as it's he and his allies who benefit.
What makes me LIVID is that, thus far, Governor Walker has not been proven wrong on any of that.
When I was a teaching assistant, I was a union member, and I know exactly and in detail why collective bargaining is necessary. I also know that, no matter what Walker claims, this bill is not and never was about balancing the budget. (I also think that gutting the state infrastructure is a STUPID way to balance the budget, but then, I am a socialist.) The unions offered to take the pay cuts if Walker would drop the collective bargaining clause. Instead, Walker has dropped the pay cuts and rammed the collective bargaining clause through in a piece of legislative chicanery that I certainly hope gets the snot investigated out of it.
Because Walker believes that negotiation and compromise are for weaklings. Which, of course, is why he has to get rid of collective bargaining--collective bargaining levels the playing field between the "weaklings" and bullies like Governor Walker. Without it, state employees have no way to make the state government listen to them. And, no, it won't listen if it doesn't have to.
Governor Walker wants your lunch money.
So hand it over.
In case you were wondering, yes, I am directly affected by this reprehensible piece of union-busting on the part of Governor Walker (the same man who sabotaged Wisconsin's chance at high-speed rail BEFORE HE EVEN TOOK OFFICE) and the state Republicans.
mirrorthaw
is a union member and a state employee. If he weren't, I wouldn't be as anxious and stressed as I am right now, but I would still be just as fucking FURIOUS at what's currently passing for democratic government in the state of Wisconsin. My state of residence has elected a man who believes that he can do whatever he wants to, that he doesn't have to compromise or negotiate, and that unethical behavior is perfectly okay as long as it's he and his allies who benefit.What makes me LIVID is that, thus far, Governor Walker has not been proven wrong on any of that.
When I was a teaching assistant, I was a union member, and I know exactly and in detail why collective bargaining is necessary. I also know that, no matter what Walker claims, this bill is not and never was about balancing the budget. (I also think that gutting the state infrastructure is a STUPID way to balance the budget, but then, I am a socialist.) The unions offered to take the pay cuts if Walker would drop the collective bargaining clause. Instead, Walker has dropped the pay cuts and rammed the collective bargaining clause through in a piece of legislative chicanery that I certainly hope gets the snot investigated out of it.
Because Walker believes that negotiation and compromise are for weaklings. Which, of course, is why he has to get rid of collective bargaining--collective bargaining levels the playing field between the "weaklings" and bullies like Governor Walker. Without it, state employees have no way to make the state government listen to them. And, no, it won't listen if it doesn't have to.
Governor Walker wants your lunch money.
So hand it over.
March 9, 2011
UBC: 5 books about the Nazis (Brustein, Deakin, Koch, Overy, Roseman)
Brustein, William. The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
For better transparency, that subtitle should read "The Sociological Origins of the Nazi Party," because that's what Brustein is doing. He's analyzing the data provided by NSDAP member cards, and doing so in a very narrowly sociological framework. His thesis is that the support of ordinary Germans for the Nazi Party can be explained entirely by rational economic self-interest. No need to talk about Hitler the demagogue or the German tradition of anti-Semitism--it all comes down to the Nazis' proposed economic programs.
Don't get me wrong: Brustein's data are fascinating, and I think his work does help explain why the Nazis did better among certain social groups. But I don't buy his thesis that the rise of the NSDAP can be satisfactorily explained by people making well-informed, rational, economically-motivated decisions.
Deakin, F. W. The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism. 1962. London: Phoenix Press, 2000.
Short version: No matter what he says, Hitler is not your friend.
Slightly longer version: This is a very top-down history of the Italian involvement in World War II. It deals only with Mussolini (and Hitler) and the ministers and generals and Party bigshots. One of the blurbs describes it as "impersonal," and I would agree. Deakin's interested in untangling the incredibly snarled political knot of the end of Italian fascism. He's not interested in any of the players as people, and he's certainly not interested in the Italian workers or soldiers (or, god forbid, women) whose lives were being destroyed by the machinations of these petty tin gods.
At the same time, as long as you're willing to go on the ride he wants to take you on, this is an excellent book. Deakin is painstaking and exhaustive; he makes no excuses for anyone; and although he does not discuss ideology or the reprehensible things that the Nazis were doing in other parts of Europe, he's not trying to make them look like anything but the toxic assholes that they were. And he does an excellent job of showing how Italy was doomed by the irrational, self-deluding decisions made by Mussolini, and by the really terrifying inability of anyone to say no to Hitler. (It's pathetic watching the German generals make puppy dog eyes at Mussolini in the hopes he can talk sense to Hitler about Russia.) It's frightening and appalling how much of World War II can be reduced to these two men, and the fact that they were both destroyed by it is very cold comfort.
Koch, H. W. Hitler Youth: The Duped Generation. Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.
I bought this book mostly for the pictures, which is not a decision I'm feeling bad about. Koch's other book about the Hitler Youth provides all the history and detail, and the pictures are fascinating, revealing, and OMG creepy. Koch also offers a few more tidbits about his own experiences in the HJ, such as this comment on induction into the Jungvolk:
Not great on its own, but fantastic as supplementary material.
Overy, Richard. Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945. New York: Viking-Penguin Books, 2001.
About half this massive book is transcripts of interrogations; the other half describes and explores the circumstances under which the interrogations were conducted in the run up to the Nuremberg trials. Fascinating particularly for the ways in and degrees to which the Nazi criminals avoided admitting their culpability (ranging from Ley's suicide to Hess' half-faked, half-genuine hysterical amnesia to Speer's calculated self-reinvention); fascinating (also infuriating and appalling) for the hypocrisy of the Allies, who were not only retroactively creating crimes to try the Nazis for, but were very carefully tailoring those crimes so as to avoid tarring themselves with the same brush. It's not that I think the Nazis shouldn't have been held accountable--because obviously I don't think that; it's the way in which the Allies deliberately rigged the game so as to hide their own questionable actions.
Both Hitler and Mussolini were convinced, near the end of World War II, that they could make a deal with England and America so as to turn and go after Stalin. And the problem is that there's a lot of ways in which that's what should have happened. Not the deal-making part, which was a bedtime story for frightened dictators, but the unconscionable double standard whereby England and America condemn the Nazis but ignore the exact same crimes being committed by the Soviets (not to mention turning over Russian POWs who are begging to be protected from their own government, Winston Churchill, I am looking at you) . . . I don't know what the right answer would have been, or if there even was one, but that wasn't it.
Roseman, Mark. The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
This is my very favorite kind of history, the kind that says, "here's a mysterious thing that happened, let's look at all the evidence we have and see if we can figure it out." Roseman's mysterious thing is the conference at Wannsee (notorious for being the one place where you can actually pin down Nazi leaders talking about exterminating the Jews), and he does a wonderful job of contextualizing it and analyzing the evidence we have, and ultimately situating it persuasively in the progress of the Final Solution and the dance in the upper echelons of the Nazi government between amassing as much power for yourself as you could and sharing out the culpability to as many patsies as possible. This book is concise and elegant and I'd love to be able to write history like this.
For better transparency, that subtitle should read "The Sociological Origins of the Nazi Party," because that's what Brustein is doing. He's analyzing the data provided by NSDAP member cards, and doing so in a very narrowly sociological framework. His thesis is that the support of ordinary Germans for the Nazi Party can be explained entirely by rational economic self-interest. No need to talk about Hitler the demagogue or the German tradition of anti-Semitism--it all comes down to the Nazis' proposed economic programs.
Don't get me wrong: Brustein's data are fascinating, and I think his work does help explain why the Nazis did better among certain social groups. But I don't buy his thesis that the rise of the NSDAP can be satisfactorily explained by people making well-informed, rational, economically-motivated decisions.
Deakin, F. W. The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism. 1962. London: Phoenix Press, 2000.
Short version: No matter what he says, Hitler is not your friend.
Slightly longer version: This is a very top-down history of the Italian involvement in World War II. It deals only with Mussolini (and Hitler) and the ministers and generals and Party bigshots. One of the blurbs describes it as "impersonal," and I would agree. Deakin's interested in untangling the incredibly snarled political knot of the end of Italian fascism. He's not interested in any of the players as people, and he's certainly not interested in the Italian workers or soldiers (or, god forbid, women) whose lives were being destroyed by the machinations of these petty tin gods.
At the same time, as long as you're willing to go on the ride he wants to take you on, this is an excellent book. Deakin is painstaking and exhaustive; he makes no excuses for anyone; and although he does not discuss ideology or the reprehensible things that the Nazis were doing in other parts of Europe, he's not trying to make them look like anything but the toxic assholes that they were. And he does an excellent job of showing how Italy was doomed by the irrational, self-deluding decisions made by Mussolini, and by the really terrifying inability of anyone to say no to Hitler. (It's pathetic watching the German generals make puppy dog eyes at Mussolini in the hopes he can talk sense to Hitler about Russia.) It's frightening and appalling how much of World War II can be reduced to these two men, and the fact that they were both destroyed by it is very cold comfort.
Koch, H. W. Hitler Youth: The Duped Generation. Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.
I bought this book mostly for the pictures, which is not a decision I'm feeling bad about. Koch's other book about the Hitler Youth provides all the history and detail, and the pictures are fascinating, revealing, and OMG creepy. Koch also offers a few more tidbits about his own experiences in the HJ, such as this comment on induction into the Jungvolk:
This [probationary] period was concluded with a special test, combining sport, close combat, and questions of an "ideological" nature (mainly a knowledge of the history of the NSDAP) and culminating in a "test of bravery" which (as in the author's case) could take the form of having to jump in full dress and boots from the window of a first floor [American second floor] block of flats.
(Koch 78)
Not great on its own, but fantastic as supplementary material.
Overy, Richard. Interrogations: The Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945. New York: Viking-Penguin Books, 2001.
About half this massive book is transcripts of interrogations; the other half describes and explores the circumstances under which the interrogations were conducted in the run up to the Nuremberg trials. Fascinating particularly for the ways in and degrees to which the Nazi criminals avoided admitting their culpability (ranging from Ley's suicide to Hess' half-faked, half-genuine hysterical amnesia to Speer's calculated self-reinvention); fascinating (also infuriating and appalling) for the hypocrisy of the Allies, who were not only retroactively creating crimes to try the Nazis for, but were very carefully tailoring those crimes so as to avoid tarring themselves with the same brush. It's not that I think the Nazis shouldn't have been held accountable--because obviously I don't think that; it's the way in which the Allies deliberately rigged the game so as to hide their own questionable actions.
Both Hitler and Mussolini were convinced, near the end of World War II, that they could make a deal with England and America so as to turn and go after Stalin. And the problem is that there's a lot of ways in which that's what should have happened. Not the deal-making part, which was a bedtime story for frightened dictators, but the unconscionable double standard whereby England and America condemn the Nazis but ignore the exact same crimes being committed by the Soviets (not to mention turning over Russian POWs who are begging to be protected from their own government, Winston Churchill, I am looking at you) . . . I don't know what the right answer would have been, or if there even was one, but that wasn't it.
Roseman, Mark. The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution. London: Penguin Books, 2003.
This is my very favorite kind of history, the kind that says, "here's a mysterious thing that happened, let's look at all the evidence we have and see if we can figure it out." Roseman's mysterious thing is the conference at Wannsee (notorious for being the one place where you can actually pin down Nazi leaders talking about exterminating the Jews), and he does a wonderful job of contextualizing it and analyzing the evidence we have, and ultimately situating it persuasively in the progress of the Final Solution and the dance in the upper echelons of the Nazi government between amassing as much power for yourself as you could and sharing out the culpability to as many patsies as possible. This book is concise and elegant and I'd love to be able to write history like this.
Red Panda saves the day
I am sick, stressed, and full of snot (also, alliterative), but this video of red pandas in the snow makes me feel better about pretty much everything ever.
March 6, 2011
Plague Ward
Friday,
mirrorthaw
came down with the flu. Today, I have that nasty scratchy feeling in the back of my throat, and I've started coughing. I suppose it's just barely possible this isn't flu, but really, I'm pretty sure I'm doomed.
I ran to Walgreens while I'm still feeling relatively okay and stocked up on (more) Gatorade, ramen, ibuprofen, and cough drops. Now we batten down the hatches and ride the fucker out.
See you all on the other side.
mirrorthaw
came down with the flu. Today, I have that nasty scratchy feeling in the back of my throat, and I've started coughing. I suppose it's just barely possible this isn't flu, but really, I'm pretty sure I'm doomed.I ran to Walgreens while I'm still feeling relatively okay and stocked up on (more) Gatorade, ramen, ibuprofen, and cough drops. Now we batten down the hatches and ride the fucker out.
See you all on the other side.
March 4, 2011
Project Valkyrie: waterlog
55 minutes, 1 mile. And apparently I forgot to log Wednesday, which was also 1 mile.
So 307 miles, 26 laps.
So 307 miles, 26 laps.
March 3, 2011
Repeat after me, Pony Boy
I will not clothesline my human with the cross-ties.
love is the seventh wave
The Second Ninja and I went to the vet today, as her right hind leg is still bothering her. She was a very good girl; although she complained all the way there, all the way through the exam, and all the way home, she put up with all the poking and prodding. The X-rays didn't find anything, so at least we know she's not running around on something broken or dislocated. We have pain medication for the weekend and are going to keep her in the TV/guest room, which has fewer objects she will be tempted to try to jump up on.
While I was waiting, I flipped through a CatFancy which (for a change) actually had something of interest:
Pet Crossing Animal Hospital, in Minnesota, has a partnership with Cornerstone, a Minnesota domestic abuse prevention agency, to provide no-cost boarding and medical care for the pets of domestic abuse victim. Something like 45% of people in abusive situations will not leave if it means they have to abandon their animals, so Pet Crossing's initiative is a wonderful, wonderful thing, both for the animals and for their people, and I'm glad to know about it.
While I was waiting, I flipped through a CatFancy which (for a change) actually had something of interest:
Pet Crossing Animal Hospital, in Minnesota, has a partnership with Cornerstone, a Minnesota domestic abuse prevention agency, to provide no-cost boarding and medical care for the pets of domestic abuse victim. Something like 45% of people in abusive situations will not leave if it means they have to abandon their animals, so Pet Crossing's initiative is a wonderful, wonderful thing, both for the animals and for their people, and I'm glad to know about it.
March 2, 2011
the ship had no name of her own
Portrait of the Lavinia Whateley by Caroline Parkinson (for Drabblecast's upcoming release of "Boojum"). I love the idea that she's part angler fish.
