RussellinVT’s Comments (group member since Apr 11, 2024)

RussellinVT’s comments from the Ersatz TLS group.

giveusaclue wrote: "... It has become rather warmer here today 14°C but grey and drizzly. ..."

14C sounds positively Hawaiian to me. Minus 13C is what we’re expecting tonight.

Tam wrote: "I thought I would point out that tonight (Thursday 20th) on BBC Four they are showing the 1991 film, directed by Mike Newell, of the book by Elizabeth Von Arnim, 'Enchanted April' ..."

Loved the book and have been meaning to watch the movie – on one of our streaming channels here.

Not getting much reading done here – quite a lot of snow and frigid cold and deep ice, so busy with plowing and sanding and shovelling paths, and exchanges with the oil company on whether it is safe for their truck to come up our long road into the woods. In the meantime also keeping the woodstoves supplied with logs, to keep the heat up but our oil consumption down.

scarletnoir wrote: "...It seems to be a technique of nation and empire builders to require that their own language should replace that of native populations, at least as far as official business is concerned...."

I remember reading in Figes' Natasha's Dance that during the 19th century, when the Kingdom of Warsaw was within the Tsarist Empire, Polish students of literature at Warsaw University were required to study the classics of Polish literature in Russian translation.

The Bondwoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts, A Fugitive Slave Recently Escaped from North Carolina

This remarkable book was apparently written by a slave girl in the 1850s, and first published only in 2002. It is presented as a Novel. I actually preferred the passages that appeared to stay closer to her experience in real life, horrible as that was. There the prose is stately and melodic, and the sentences have a wonderful balance which seems to come to her naturally. The more novelistic passages were variable. Fervent conversations recalled in improbable detail had the manner of a romance and struck me as less convincing despite the seriousness of the subject. Other parts of the story were truly terrible and are recounted with force. But in every respect it is definitely a remarkable work, created by a girl with no schooling who nonetheless acquired an education (so, a slave-owner’s English wife, discovering his slave mistress and children secreted in the house, “more resembled a Fury of Orestes than a Christian woman”). She is not above displaying her talent for wit, she loves to roll the words she has learned and adopted (imbue, epicurean, resplendence…), and she habitually expresses her deepest thoughts in the language of the King James Bible.

Thanks for the new thread, GP. I actually think the three-week cycle worked fine.

Pending comments from scarlet, I remember being in a café in Aberystwyth over 40 years ago (so before Welsh was taught more widely in schools?) and there were two teenage girls at another table chatting away happily in Welsh. I’d never come across it before as a living language.

Giveus – You might be interested to take a look at a forthcoming book called something like Accidental Death in Tudor England by Prof Steven Gunn, who as a sideline to his main late medieval/ early modern interests, has made a study of how people died e.g. from taking medicine. Sounds like a fund of plot ideas for historical detective authors.

AB76 wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "AB76 wrote: "its amazing how many Germans were part of the Tsarist world...

for your persusal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List of Baltic Germans"

That's quite a list, especially as you say all the Germans high in the Russian military. I was a bit surprised not to see Kant in the philosophy section. Left to myself I would have thought Königsberg counted as Baltic. Also interested to see Hermann Hesse in there.

Gpfr wrote: "I've never heard that before. Of course between the year 2000 and Brexit, I didn't need to apply for a new carte de séjour ......"

Nor I. When I went to work in Paris in 1990 I just went to the police station for my arrondissement with my passport and (I think) the lease for my apartment, and they gave it to me over the counter. I still have it – it’s no less important than keeping all your old passports.

AB76 wrote: "its amazing how many Germans were part of the Tsarist world and its civil administration..."


Thanks, AB. I’ve learned something already, that it was mainly Baltic Germans who migrated eastwards, of whom I suppose the leading example is no lesser person than Catherine herself, born in Stettin, Pomerania. I’ll look around and report back on anything interesting.

The Devils – Thirty chapters in, and Nicholas Stavrogin has yet to make his main appearance. But we are now in more familiar Dost territory – all around there are hidden meanings and deceptions, and everyone is agitated, ashamed, acting mysteriously, or agonizing silently.

scarletnoir wrote: "...reads like some bland summary prepared by a HR or recruitment department...."

That is exactly what I thought as I was reading it – all persuasion, empathy and leading by example. But for me the term ”strong leader” doesn’t necessarily carry a connotation one way or the other. It depends entirely on the context. If it’s employment I’ll think positive. If it’s a news broadcast I’ll think negative – as it goes along with overriding or ignoring an elected assembly.

AB76 wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "AB76 wrote: "The Wounded Age..."

look for the NYRB edition..."

Will do.

Apropos Germanised groups looking west, is there a good readable book you would recommend on the Germans who looked east? Not in a military sense, I’m thinking more about all the teachers, engineers and administrators you read about working in the Russian hierarchies in the 18th and 19th centuries, and other countries too.

scarletnoir wrote: "Further to that last post - I did read and enjoy several apocalyptic type novels by John Wyndham in my teens - [book:The Day of the Triffids|..."

Yes, forgot about The Day of the Triffids which I thought was great when I read it in my early teens. I tried it again not long ago. The opening images are still outstanding but then my interest fell off - the writing felt flat. I didn’t read the others.

I think you’re probably ahead of the rest of us in knowing how to use an AI tool.

AB76 wrote: "The Wounded Age by Ferit Edgu(2007), is a slim and unusual work of prose..."

The Edgu sounds particularly appealing. I'll see about getting it.

AB76 wrote: "just said the fact that trump and vance had both written best selling books, was this the only president and vice president since ww2 to achieve this? harmless..."

That's about the same level of harmless as a Christmas quiz.

To answer the question, I think Clinton/Gore might run them close. I haven't looked up any figures.

If the question were about presidents and their wives since ww2, the Obamas would have sales far beyond any of them.

Gpfr wrote: "I loved Station Eleven and would agree with you about it.
I also liked The Glass Hotel. I've got Sea of Tranquility but haven't read it yet."

Haven’t tried Sea of Tranquillity yet. The one I’ve got on the shelf is Last Night in Montreal. I really enjoyed The Glass Hotel. As a story in a lower key, I thought it showed how her skills will shine even in a more ordinary situation. On the other hand, I think I’ve read The Singer’s Gun but remember absolutely nothing about it!

Further on dystopian novels, the brilliant and rewarding Station Eleven seems to be included in that category, but wrongly, I think. What lifts it out is the quiet sense that, in spite of everything, hope is still possible.

AB76 wrote: "Just ordered Ballards Atrocity Exhibition as i am keen to re-explore the cult novels of my uni days..."

Sorry to say I’m not a Ballard fan. I read Empire of the Sun when it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was not impressed. It seemed to me he was taking the facts of his boyhood experience - which just by themselves could have made for a very good novel - and then trying to project them out into something hugely more significant. The effort, I thought, was all too obvious, and I’ve not been tempted to try him again. Also, modern dystopian novels are just not my cup of tea, e.g., I loved Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy but haven’t wanted to read any of his later (and more renowned?) books.

AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "RussellinVT wrote: "To show it’s not all great classics, the book I’ve re-read more than any other, maybe five times, is The Camomile Lawn - the intensity of lives in war-time, ..."

The TV adaptation was indeed outstanding and I would love to see it again. It was available for viewing on a channel here for a time but completely disappeared a few years ago. However, I’ve now discovered that individual episodes can be watched on Youtube. Wonderful!

giveusaclue wrote: "Agreed, but haven't you found that sometimes your tastes have changed?..."

You would think, and yet I can’t at the moment think of a book that really disappointed on a re-read – probably because I don’t return to the (many) books where I feel once is enough.

Hard to say which is my favourite Dost - Brothers K is for me the greatest, Idiot the most dramatic and truthful, C&P the most mind-blowing, being my first. The Devils was behind the pack, too strange and difficult to understand is what I remember, but I’m really enjoying it now – even before we get into the main story the writing is mesmerising.

To show it’s not all great classics, the book I’ve re-read more than any other, maybe five times, is The Camomile Lawn - the intensity of lives in war-time, the love stories, and the Cornish coast as a distant Eden.