Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 156

What Else, Week 50

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Good Stuff

The BBC has trained me: it’s not just the holiday season, it’s Doctor Who and Sherlock season. Looking forward to both in the coming weeks.

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Writing Stuff

Sitting down and writing has been tough. Between returning from my hiatus and the increased anxiety I’ve felt this year, it’s been hard giving writing priority. It’s easier to retreat into books or computer games. It would be easy to say, “Well, in the New Year I’ll…” but there are still two weeks left to *this* year. Some progress is better than no progress, right?

Shared:

#1LineWed theme was “frame” or “edge.”

During the night, she had claimed the middle of the bed as her own, leaving Kelvaro sleeping quite soundly at the edge. #1linewed

— Katherine Nabity (@Katen) December 14, 2016

Blogging Stuff

Slow week:

Magic Monday ~ Judas, Jeeves, and a slight Sleight teaser
Review ~ Judas: The Most Hated Name in History
Deal Me In, Week 50 ~ “Gode’s Story”
Shelf Maintenance 2017 ~ My “reading” challenges for 2017. (Aside from Deal Me In!)

Fitness Stuff

Played ultimate on Wednesday and Friday. Also drug myself to the mall on Thursday (a 3-ish mile walk, round trip). I’ve been having a bit of a flare-up since Wednesday, which has made everything more tiring than usual.

Other Life Stuff

Oh, hey, it was my birthday on Wednesday. Usually I put my New Year resolutions into effect on my birthday, but this year I haven’t given them a second thought. It’s been that kind of week/month/year. Anyway, to celebrate Eric and I went to dinner on Monday and plan on going to a matinee of Rogue One tomorrow. We party hard.

I finished Christmas shopping for the nieces and nephews. Everything is shipped and *that* is a load off my mind. Have I ever mentioned how much I love having a post office just down the block?

And to round out the week, Friday was the semi-annual Wednesday Lunchtime Disc (WLDisc) grill-out. The morning of, things looked bleak. It had rained during the night and was still occasionally sprinkling. But at 11:45, the clouds parted. The field hadn’t been watered recently and was “soft,” but not muddy. We played for a half-hour and then adjourned for a lunch of burgers, brats, chips, fruit, and desserts. This is the group I’ve played ultimate frisbee with the longest and the people I enjoy hanging out with the most.

Deal Me In, Week 50 ~ “Gode’s Story”

Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis

What is Deal Me In?

“Gode’s Story” by A. S. Byatt

Card picked: Five of Hearts

From: The Djinn in the Nightengale’s Eye

Thoughts: Of all the anthologies I chose for Deal Me In in 2016, I was looking forward to this one the most. It’s a small, neat volume with the subtitle, Five Fairy Stories. All the stories were lovely and complex and not easy to write about. I feel like they all need rereading and all will reveal new subtleties over time.

“Gode’s Story” is about a young sailor who is not a good match for any of the girls in his village,

…but the young girls liked to see him go by, you can believe, and they liked most particularly to see him dance…

The miller’s daughter especially has eyes for him and he notices. After one of his sea voyages, he brings her hair ribbon. The miller’s daughter isn’t an idiot; she realizes that the young sailor gained the ribbon by promising his favors to another woman in another port. She asks him what *she* is to pay for it. Which angers him into cursing her. Sadly for her, she loves him enough to succumb to the curse, but he doesn’t get away scot-free. A child is born from the love of the miller’s daughter, whether real or only ghostly, I can’t tell. After the death of the miller’s daughter, he continues to hear its tiny dancing feet.

Review ~ Judas

Judas: The Most Hated Name in History by Peter Stanford

In this fascinating historical and cultural biography, Peter Stanford deconstructs that most vilified of Bible characters: Judas Iscariot, who famously betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Beginning with the gospel accounts, Stanford explores two thousand years of cultural and theological history to investigate how the very name Judas came to be synonymous with betrayal and, ultimately, human evil. But as the author points out, there has long been a counter-current of thought that suggests that Judas might in fact have been victim of a terrible injustice: central to Jesus’ mission was his death and resurrection, and for there to have been a death, there had to be a betrayal. This thankless role fell to Judas; should we in fact be grateful to him for his role in the divine drama of salvation? “You’ll have to decide,” as Bob Dylan sang in the sixties, “Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side.” An essential but doomed character in the Passion narrative, and thus the entire story of Christianity, Judas and the betrayal he symbolizes continue to play out in much larger cultural histories, speaking as he does to our deepest fears about friendship, betrayal, and the problem of evil. (via Goodreads)

I.

Judas Iscariot is mentioned only 22 times in the gospels, which are in essence the four retellings of the life of Jesus Christ. Judas’s involvement within Christianity, though, is pretty important. He was paid to point out Jesus to agents of the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas who turns Christ over to the Romans who execute him. Because of this Judas’s name has become a cultural touchstone synonymous with betrayal and treason. Worse though, Judas isn’t just Judas. For a very long time, Judas has been Judas the Jew.

II.

I was raised Lutheran. Not super conservative evangelical Lutheran, but as more of a tolerant, low-key, benevolent Lutheran. Honestly, until I went to public school in seventh grade, I didn’t realize that there were differences between  sects of Christians. A girl in my gym class took exception to my notion that she, a Catholic, and I were pretty much the same. Regardless, she seemed like a pretty nice person, smart, and a good volleyball player. Nearly 30 years later, I remain unconvinced that there is anything inherently virtuous,  or deplorable, about any particular religious affiliation.

III.

The first book I read by Peter Stanford, a Catholic theologian, was The Devil: a Biography. In it, Stanford provides a look at the Devil using the Bible, but also other literature, visual arts, and a survey pop culture. He does much the same thing with Judas.

The biblical references to Judas are scant, but provide an interesting first evolution in the story. John, the last of the gospels, provides a much more baroque tale than Mark, the earliest of the gospels. With only the Bible as source, Judas is, of course, the betrayer of Christ. But, he may or may not have done the deed out of greed. He may or may not have been possessed by the Devil when he did so. He may or may not have been remorseful enough to try and give his thirty pieces of silver back. He did commit suicide, but his entrails may or may not have burst forth upon his death.

It’s through later writings and art, though, that Judas the betrayer becomes not just a scapegoat (if the entirety of Christianity depends on the death and resurrection of Christ, doesn’t *somebody* have to be the betrayer?), but the template used to condemn an entire religion. If Judas the Jew is a betrayer, isn’t every Jew treasonous? Judas becomes not just a history of Judas, but a history of antisemitism.

VI.

In my initial religious education, Judas wasn’t mentioned overly much. Sure, I knew about his involvement in the events of Good Friday. I knew that calling someone “Judas” was to call them a betrayer, although I think I’ve personally heard Benedict Arnold invoked more.  “Judas the Betrayer == Evil Jews” never occurred to me before reading this book.  That this could be a kernel upon which to grow antisemitic rhetoric is by turns confusing and appalling to me. On a slightly comforting note, Stanford points out that, for most people in the post-WWII world, that connotation is less prevalent than it has been since the gospels.

Publishing info, my copy: hardback, Berkeley Counterpoint, 2015

Acquired: Tempe Public Library

Genre: nonfiction, history

Magic Monday ~ Judas, Jeeves, and a slight Sleight teaser

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I like Mondays. I also like magic. I figured I’d combine the two and make a Monday feature that is truly me: a little bit of magic and a look at the week ahead.

The J. D. Dillard  street magician movie Sleight has a release date (4/7/17) and a teaser:

(via FirstShowing.net)

I first mentioned Sleight back in February along with Houdini & Doyle and the Hulu series Shut Eye (which just premiered).

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?
  

I still have about 40 pages of Judas left. Much of it is about the history of anti-Semitism, which makes for tough reading. On the (much) lighter side, I picked up Delusion last night, a book I think I bought cheap last Christmas. I’m also reading My Man Jeeves through The Pigeonhole. I’ll be reading the last story in The Djinn in the Nightengale’s Eye by A. S. Byatt for Deal Me In.

[image error] It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, hosted by Book Date!

What Else, Week 49

Good Stuff

Nina @ Multo(Ghost) is highlighting a new group of Winter Tales—stories that often involve Christmas/December and are prefect for telling on cold, dark winter nights. Forget Halloween. Christmas is my favorite time for a good ghost story.

Westworld‘s season finale was last Sunday. For a series that I was worried would carrying on in the style of Lost, I was pretty pleased with how they wrapped up the first season. There is an attention to detail that I really appreciated about the series. As expected from an HBO the production value is high and the acting is really good. And then there’s the music. I love a good cover (check out the rest of the playlist).

Ramin Djawadi is also the compser behind Game of Thrones‘ music.

Writing Stuff

Didn’t finish as much as I wanted. No one’s fault but my own.

Blogging Stuff

Magic Monday with a delightful trick by Chris Pratt
Managed to collect my thoughts on The War of the Worlds
The penultimate story in Asimov’s Mysteries

Fitness Stuff

Played ultimate on Wednesday and Friday. Lungs felt okay on both days. I forgot my cleats on Friday and played barefoot. While I generally try t run on my forefoot, I definitely noticed more achiness in my feet and calves this weekend from being forced to do it.

Other Life Stuff

Trying to get my ducks in a row for Christmas. Did some shopping. Wrote a few cards.

I upgraded links on Entangled Continua to Amazon Associate links. Now I’m working on cleaning up the Weordan pages. I miss programming classes. Maybe in January I’ll get back to that.

Deal Me In, Week 49 ~ “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda”

Hosted by Jay @ Bibliophilopolis

What is Deal Me In?

“I’m in Marsport Without Hilda” by Isaac Asimov

Card picked: Eight of Clubs

From: Asimov’s Mysteries

Thoughts: In the introduction to “I’m in Marsport…”, Asimov relates being called out by an editor for never including love scenes (or “naughty motifs”) in his stories because the editor believed that Asimov couldn’t write them. Asimov took this as a challenge and wrote this “science-fiction love story.” Asimov was pleased with it and considered it a success. I can’t tell if he’s serious…

Max, a James Bond type (Asimov’s words in the intro), finds himself on a layover in Marsport…for once without his wife Hilda. He wastes no time setting up a date with Flora.

Flora and a body that had been made up out out of heaping handfuls of all that as soft and fragrant and firm; Flora and a low-gravity room and a way about her that made it seem like free fall through a warm, breathable ocean of champagne-flavored meringue—

Uh, yeah. Other than these qualities Flora seems to be an air-headed money-grubber.

Max’s “date” is interrupted before it begins by a matter of galactic significance. Three planetary bigwigs are landing at Marsport. One of them is smuggling a shipment of altered Spaceoline. Spaceoline is a drug that makes space travel possible by countering the space sickness that affects many travelers. While non-addictive, it does leave its users in a relaxed, brain-addled state. The altered form is highly addictive. Of course, one cannot go around accusing planetary bigwigs of wrong-doing. Max needs proof before he can search any of them. He deduces that the smuggler would not risk being impaired by regular Spaceoline. This isn’t as helpful as Max hopes because the smuggler is instead going to pretend to be impaired.

How can Max suss the true smuggler? The solution revolves around a bawdy story about Flora, which thankfully is not related. But can he do it before Flora makes another “date” for the evening? And will his wife find out about Flora (because making up for the delay will be pricey)?

If I could go back in time, I’d advise Asimov to not worry about…ahem…romance. “Stick to robots, Isaac,” I’d say. “They’re your forte.”

Review ~ The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

One of the most famous science-fiction stories ever written, The War of the Worlds helped launch the entire genre by exploiting the concept of interplanetary travel.

First published in 1898, the novel terrified readers of the Victorian era with its account of an invasion of hostile creatures from Mars who moved across the English landscape in bizarre metal transports, using deadly heat rays to destroy buildings and annihilate all life in their path. Its power to stir the imagination was made abundantly clear when Orson Welles adapted the story for a radio drama on Halloween night in 1938 and created a national panic. (via Goodreads)

I started reading The War of the Worlds over Thanksgiving through a service that sends out bite-sized chunks of classic novels…and then I downloaded the full novel because I wanted second helpings. As is usual for novels in 1898, the story moves along quite slowly. A goodly amount of it involves our narrator describing the landscape, which doesn’t seem like it should be that interesting. But the writing is really good and often pretty funny. Wells pulled me along.

When reading classic science fiction, you never know what you’re going to get. If the story has had any popularity at all, expectations are often shaped by adaptations. I saw the 1953 movie as a kid. I don’t remember much other than the glowing green and black ships with their heat ray atop a long crooked neck. I was also rather fond of the 1988 TV series which is a sort of sequel to that movie with a dash of The Thing thrown in.

What I found most interesting were the bits that I don’t normally associate with The War of the Worlds:

Wells refers to the “older worlds of space” and the Martians have a tentacled form that will, after Lovecraft, come to be strongly associated with cosmic horror.
Chemical warfare was in its infancy in 1898. The Martian’s use of black gas is more devastating than the fanciful heat ray. The Hague Declaration of 1899 would prohibit the use of poison or poisoned weapons.
The red weeds that take over the areas around the Martian crash sites were a totally unexpected and a really vivid detail.

All in all, I found The War of the Worlds to be a good read. H. G. Wells is going on my “need to read more” list.

Publishing info, my copy: Kindle ebook, public domain, originally published 1898.

Acquired: 11/24/2016, Amazon

Genre: science fiction

Magic Monday ~ Star-Lord Level Misdirection

I like Mondays. I also like magic. I figured I’d combine the two and make a Monday feature that is truly me: a little bit of magic and a look at the week ahead.

Misdirection is so much more than “Hey, look over here!” This trick by Chris Pratt is an excellent example of patter itself being misdirection. And despite the title of this video, this isn’t a card trick fail.

Plus, I really love his enthusiasm. It’s great seeing someone take joy in what they’re doing.

It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?

Hey. Hey! I finished a book yesterday! I’ll have a review of review of War of the Worlds on Thursday.

  

This week I need to finish Judas. It’s due back at the library next Tuesday. I do have a renewal left, but I really should return it and the rest of the stack. Also, going to get started on Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans.

I have another of Asimov’s Mysteries for Deal Me In and I’m trying to get caught up on the issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. I bought a subscription back in September and, thankfully, they only publish bi-monthly.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading, hosted by Book Date!

What Else, Week 48

Good Stuff

Decided I wanted to add to this feature a few things from the week that I enjoyed.

I  managed my way through a cold this week by engaging in some extended periods of playing Minecraft and listening to podcasts. In the land of serious, but informative, Just a Story’s ep. 54 is about the intersection of urban legends and history in relation to the AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s. This is the type of thing that Just a Story does really, really well. Less seriously, I started listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz, a podcast about sound design. They’re only three episodes in but have covered 8-bit sound, the voice of Siri, and the NBC chimes. Cool stuff.

I rather like Christmas music, but I need to find new (or new to me) songs (or versions of songs) to keep from going nuts. I’m still looking for a good alt-country/bluegrass album (if only Crooked Still would make a Christmas album…), but The Last Bison’s Sleigh Ride EP comes close.

Also getting some play, CeeLo Green and The Muppets’ “All I Need Is Love.” Described on Twitter by Leah Mosher on Twitter as a mashup of “Mambo No. 5” and “Mahna Mahna,” I dig it.

Writing Stuff

Wrote about 2K words.

I’m going to make a poor analogy: writing for me is like archaeology. If I outline too much of the story, I get bored of it. Instead, I start writing with some end in mind and uncover the details of the plot as I go alone. This isn’t efficient, but then, I had always thought I was a planner, not a pants-er, and haven’t thought about how to *make* this efficient.

One thing I’m going to try is doing rewrites/edits over smaller chunks. So, rewriting tomorrow.

Blogging Stuff

It was a week of lists on the blog:

#NonFicNov ~ New to My TBR
November Reading Wrap-Up

December TBR Stack & #COYER Sign-Up

Fitness Stuff

As I mentioned above, I’ve had a cold all week. Nothing serious, but I seemed to sleep a lot. Played ultimate Friday at noon and probably over did it a little.

Other Life Stuff

It’s finally been “wintry” here in Tempe. It rained last Sunday! I’ve worn long sleeves! I put up the Christmas tree and started in on present and card prep. But I’m still not quite used to the idea of December.

#COYER TBR List

#COYER Blackout

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#COYER Blackout – Winter Storm edition, hosted by Berls, Michelle, and Stormi

COYER Blackout will run from December 17, 2016 – March 3, 2017. This time COYER is going to be a 12 week Blackout, where you have to dedicate yourself to reading the ebooks YOU ALREADY have acquired for less than $1.00. We understand that we’re all constantly acquiring new books, so we’ve provided you a little relief in the form of a generator. Every book powers the generator up a little more. After reading 10 books over 100 pages your generator is fully powered. Books under 100 pages only provide half the energy… So it would take 20 books under 100 pages to power your generator. Once your generator is powered up, you may read ANY one book you want.

Don’t know how well I’ll do since I’m fickle about form as well as title, but I’m willing to give it a go.  In addition to the above, I have two ARCs and I’d like to finish a few of the books/stories I acquired during the past year:

Spiritualism in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans by Melissa Daggett (ARC)
In Calabria by Peter S. Beagle (ARC)
The Whole Art of Detection by Lyndsay Faye (ARC)
Nov/Dec issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher
The Long Way Down by Craig Schaefer
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
The Guns of Retribution by Icy Sedgwick
To Kill a Dead Man by Icy Sedgwick
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Fantastic Creatures (Fellowship of Fantasy Book 1)
The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher
The Hermit by Monica Friedman

December Pre-COYER Stack
  

Finish War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells – REVIEW
Finish Judas by Peter Stanford (library, due Dec. 11th) – REVIEW
The Faerie Key by Denise D. Young
Finish Sept/Oct issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine
Finish Exclusive Magical Secrets by Will Goldston