The Robin Hobb Collection discussion
Book 15 - Fool's Quest
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Fools Quest: GENERAL DISCUSSION THREAD
I'm getting tempted, too. Looked at the Howe illustration online. Is that a human being looking out the window or a human with a wolf face? The illustration reminds me of the ones in my old collection of Grimm Fairy Tales.
Ash09 wrote: "I'm getting tempted, too."Has temptation led you anywhere? At first glance online, the head is silhouetted like a wolf. On closer look, this may just be a man with unruly hair and a big bushy beard. Presumably Fitz (timeline doesn't fit for AA) or Verity (thwarting Red Ships in his high tower). Will see clearer when the book arrives...
I'm cheap. Still just tempted :) Unruly hair and bushy beard should be Chade? Though yeah, it could be Verity, unkempt and unfed, in his tower. I still hope for a wolf!
Ooh Robin continues with her teasing on Twitter. This was her most recent,"Well. That wasn't in the outline. But now that I've typed it, I really like it. But it screws up the outline. Why did I do that? #blameFitz"
Discuss ;-)
Maybe we should be thinking 2018, rather than 2017?
That is our Fitz (grins) Making trouble.
Scarletine wrote: "Ooh Robin continues with her teasing on Twitter. " A twitter from the bird! I hope Robin stays true to her original vision, whatever the change...
Wastrel wrote: "Maybe we should be thinking 2018, rather than 2017?"
Ugh. But! I am going to hold out on the tiny, tiny hope that the changed "outline" happened not in Book 3 - which will still be released 2017 - but in a... split Book 4? (Yay)
Book 4 you say Alfred! Now that would be a change that I would be happy about. Lets hope the changer has forced this !#blameFitz :-p
It's certainly not great news for an 'early 2017' complete release, I'd have thought. At this point, back-of-envelope, given when the last book came out and that 'deadline', I'm guessing you'd expect her to be 2/3rds of the way through by now, if not more (depending how much she revises). If that were the case, I'd think she'd be saying less "this changes the outline" and more "I've decided to change the ending"... her phrasing makes me think she's earlier in the book, and that's before any complications arising from changing it. Plus... well. Both RWC books ended up having to be split, and Fool's Fate and Fool's Quest both ended up gigantic and surely near the limit of what they could be without splitting them, and every trilogy so far the books have gotten longer as they've gone on. Plus... well, it seems as though we've barely started the plot of this trilogy yet...
...put together, we may see some of the story in early 2017, but I'll be surprised if we see all of it then...
*shrug*
But what do I know?
Well, I'm liking where you're going with the "Plus..." and "Plus...".She's pretty consistent with the one book/year output. So, maybe not all of it in early 2017 but I can be happy with half of it... Hey, what do I know. Just going with the flow. Or! Maybe her tweet is just a red herring. She's quite fond of those. Just to get us all aflutter. Maybe the change is as "drastic" as Fitz taking a short cut to Clerres instead of a meandering route...
* I'll be quite concerned if she decides to change the ending.
Alfred wrote: " I'll be quite concerned if she decides to change the ending. "that would be very concerning :/
otoh I'd love a novel 2017, and another 2018. Tetralogy>trilogy any day, and longer this series takes to get to its sad ending the better.
The last two books FA/FQ might be as good as it gets. In terms of emotional quotient. For e.g. I can't see the F/F dalliance dragged out in impasse beyond Book 3 (maybe 4), assuming these are same-sized tomes, without pandering to fans or diluting the quintessence of F/F. Sure there is a multitude of loose ends to follow from FQ but only Bee's story is significant enough - and interesting enough - to parlay into more trilogies, I feel. Sometimes I have mental fatigue thinking about how it will all end. And I am impatient to want to know soon. Yet, yet... I can't bear to say goodbye to some characters, and in a way, want to delay their endings by having X more intervening books between FQ and Book FQ+X.
Found stuffed in my mailbox on a day of torrential rain (instead of where it should be found, the front doorstep)... The slipcase looks a little dinged at the corners but not wet, and everything else is as pretty as it was described. I might put pix here if sunshine comes out for a decent shot.Ash09 wrote: "Unruly hair and bushy beard should be Chade? Though yeah, it could be Verity, unkempt and unfed, in his tower. I still hope for a wolf! "
Sorry to disappoint. No wolf. Looks like a man with bushy hair and unkempt beard...
Alfred wrote: "Sorry to disappoint. No wolf. Looks like a man with bushy hair and unkempt beard... "Thank you! Who do you think it is?
Verity, I think. Or the apparition of a long-dead Farseer ancestor...
Alfred wrote: "Verity, I think. Or the apparition of a long-dead Farseer ancestor..."Thank you, again :)
btw totally ot but I just finished reading Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy. Oh wow, it's outstanding. Excellent reading while waiting for Fitz and the Fool. Now I wanna know who would win if Jorg went against Fitz (or the Fool). Fool might be a more interesting antagonist for Jorg, actually.
lol talking to self, disregard.
That's too good a book endorsement to disregard **. And talking to self is not the slightest bit weird. I've read some reviews about Broken Empire and the recurring fixation seems to be the rapes. Not that that's a deterrent to my reading it, I guess I haven't heard anything else that's compelling story-wise (but hey, refer self to **) Choices aplenty between Wastrel's Ash, Scarletine's Dragonbone Chair, your Broken Empire. Tx for the recommendations.
Alfred wrote: "That's too good a book endorsement to disregard **. And talking to self is not the slightest bit weird. I've read some reviews about Broken Empire and the recurring fixation seems to be the rapes. ..."Well...you gotta keep reading. For me, rape is a crime, no better or worse than murder, and yes, there's rape and murder and more. This is a bloody series with a complex and unpredictable protagonist you can't pigeonhole. If you pick it up, keep reading to figure out what's going on, as what you see isn't entirely what is...if that makes sense. I see Hobb gave it good reviews, too.
Anyhow, have fun reading whatever you want!!! Also, a happy summer <3
Junie wrote: "dropping in and saying hellooo! Ash09..ooo sounds like an interesting book....how many in the series....??? I may actually try it in summer.. bright and sunny to balance out the darkness!! alfred, ..."It's a trilogy :)
I don't think I can emphasize enough how bloody this series is. I'm including this warning, as you were turned off by the violence in A Song of Ice and Fire, which is Dr. Seuss when compared to the Broken Empire. otoh imo Lawrence is a less cynical writer than Martin.
The series also needs time to develop, as little is as it seems.
Hope your summer is wonderful! I need my Fitz and the Fool fix.
Junie, right now I am taking a short break from fiction to read a couple of nonfiction books. Brown is the New White and Waterloo. After I finish those, I will read Apollo by Rick Riordan. Gotta have fun after all that serious stuff.
Junie: Just a scribble. I wanted to capture the pretty silver-on-blue just for a while. The bee returns soon.
Ash09 wrote: "If you pick it up, keep reading to figure out what's going on"Duly noted! As it turns out, it's available in the local library so I'll give it a shot. If I have questions/comments, will note those directly in your review.
Scarletine: Who is this fiery-haired goddess? Hubba hubba... (Not to embarrass you, but I would placed the comment on your new profile pix if there was an option to do so).
Alfred wrote: "Scarletine: Who is this fiery-haired goddess? Hubba hubba... (Not to embarrass you, but I would placed the comment on your new profile pix if there was an option to do so)."*blushes*
*fans self coquettishly*
'Tis an image that looketh like me,
yet is not me, a mere impression to
delight the eye, and give a face to the
name without endangering my anonymity.
:-)
Alfred wrote: "...the eye has been delighted."...Oh you silver tongued devil. Lol
Scarletine wrote: "..Oh you silver tongued devil. Lol"Oh, what good is being silver-tongued unless it can convince you to vote tomorrow? Sorry to sound so cliche-ish, but every vote does count...
Wait, is somebody not voting!?Future of the country at stake!
Alfred wrote: "Scarletine wrote: "..Oh you silver tongued devil. Lol"Oh, what good is being silver-tongued unless it can convince you to vote tomorrow? Sorry to sound so cliche-ish, but every vote does count..."
Beat you to it!! I did a postal vote long before the hateful shenanigans of both sides in the British media began...
And while were getting political... have you joined the push to get your elected officials to do something about background checks for firearms. My heart is broken...
Junie wrote: "i live a few hours south of orlando and it was soooo sad... the mood past week here has been just soooo... serious if you know what i mean... in my neighborhod we had small groups get together beca..."We were voting on the EU referendum in the UK. It's been a really scrappy mess- lots of lies and bigotry on both sides of the argument. All the politicians really care about is lining their own pockets.
I have only been to the US once, and the gun thing scared the hell out of me. I just don't understand why those who have the power to make a positive change and save lives, choose to sit on their hands.
Scarletine wrote: "Junie wrote: "i live a few hours south of orlando and it was soooo sad... the mood past week here has been just soooo... serious if you know what i mean... in my neighborhod we had small groups get..."In a way, it's because a liberal democracy is working. An apathetic majority isn't managing to impose its will on a passionate minority by baning things. That's exactly how the system's meant to work.
The real question, of course, is why the majority is so apathetic. If people really cared about gun control, it would be easy to implement - the number of people opposed to it (at least, to moderate forms of it) is very small and not that wealthy. But nobody actually cares. It's something people say "oh, yeah, they should do something about that" about it, but not something that they really campaign for en masse. Much less time, effort and money has been spent on that than on other recent left-wing issues like cannabis legalisation or gay marriage.
On the EU: to be fair, I think the Remain politicians mostly are Remain because they recognise the seriousness of the issue. And even Leave... Johnson is metaphorically filling his pockets (with power), but I think Farage and Gove are sincere and ideological. I don't think politicians are really interested in their own pockets, in general - we have very little corruption here, and of course most of them could make much more money much more easily just by not being politicians.
Scarletine: Attagirl! *** Which part of the US were you in? Rampant gun-carrying, legally and illegally, vary vastly depending on where you are. It's one reason why I live in suburbia DC not city; here it is predominantly Democratic with state, local and congressional members already advocating for strong gun control. What have I personally done? Little. I've signed some petitions, registered to vote, contributed $ to couple gun reform groups (via AmazonSmile). Friends, family know where I stand. I don't tweet, FB, write to papers. No rallies, protests, public virgil. Am averse to crowds because, well, lots of crazies out there. The Orlando shooting was a tragedy, as with any time people are killed. But Newtown with the little kids, hit me the hardest emotionally.Gun control isn't... that simple. Not from this deep shit hole we've dug. It's not easy to implement either. The number of people opposed to gun control is not small. Gun lobbyists are very influential and are backed by a very wealthy and powerful gun industry/NRA. In the last 5 years, over 100 gun control proposals have been unsuccessful. Also, it's not just gun control, it's gun safety, mental health treatment, better background checks, gun violence research etc.
Anyway, this isn't the forum to discuss this. Please ignore my testiness, sorry.
*** EDIT: Result is in... and I'm shutting down.
Alfred wrote: "Scarletine: Attagirl! *** Which part of the US were you in? Rampant gun-carrying, legally and illegally, vary vastly depending on where you are. It's one reason why I live in suburbia DC not city; ..."Crossed wires my dear. I'm in the UK, you know, that place that used to be part of the EU, which is now full of people running round like headless chicken's.
Oh, I think I'll just go sit in a corner, rock a little and hide in a book.
Repeat after me.... "There's no place like the six duchies..."
Scarletine wrote: "Alfred wrote: "Scarletine: Attagirl! *** Which part of the US were you in? Rampant gun-carrying, legally and illegally, vary vastly depending on where you are. It's one reason why I live in suburbi..."Wait, does that make Boris Regal, and England Farrow?
Alfred wrote: "Duly noted! As it turns out, it's available in the local library so I'll give it a shot. If I have questions/comments, ..."Alfred!!! Sorry I've been off having a summer vacation! Hope you're enjoying it, and did I write a review for these books? lol idiot here, sorry.
Alfred wrote: "Gun control isn't... that simple. Not from this deep shit hole we've dug. It's not easy to implement either. The number of people opposed to gun control is not small. Gun lobbyists are very influential and are backed by a very wealthy and powerful gun industry/NRA. "...no, not simple at all. I agree that the number of people opposed to gun control is not small. There's also the fact that many gun owners are fearful people. They tend to see their weapons as "macho" security blankets behind which they can hide their fear, which is by definition not "macho." When threatened with losing their comfort object, these sad, terrified folk kick back.
Gun ownership is falling, however, and the vast majority of the country, something like 70% of Americans, wants further gun control. I think eventually we'll get it.
Alfred wrote: "Scarletine: Attagirl! *** Which part of the US were you in? Rampant gun-carrying, legally and illegally, vary vastly depending on where you are. It's one reason why I live in suburbia DC not city; ..."The thing is, the obstacles are much smaller than people think.
Most gun control measures that have been seriously proposed have more than 50% support. Some have nearly 90% support. Almost all congressmen, maybe even ALL congressmen, represent seats were at least some significant gun control is supported by the majority. The NRA is a surprisingly small organisation (all its donations come from only about 30k people), and it doesn't have many wealthy backers. As a result, it's not actually particularly wealthy. It has a yearly budget of $250 million, which is a lot, but not THAT much (the NRA's entire annual budge is approximately equivalent to what a guy like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett makes in every fortnight). And only a small fraction of that is actually spent on lobbying - about $3 million. In an election where both parties will be spending billions of dollars.
The NRA doesn't have much money and it doesn't have many votes. What it does have is the ability to reliably produce the money and the votes on demand, and focus it strategically where it will do the most damage. The problem of defeating the NRA isn't a problem of changing minds or anything - it's just a strategic problem of how to make use of the vastly superior resources the anti-gun side has. Which is difficult, because a) people may be for gun control in theory, but it's hard to get them to pay up or politically agitate, and b) in the absence of any one national co-ordinating body, it would be hard to focus any capital you make in a coherent and productive way.
Ash09, already on summer vacation?! We just started summer 2 days ago. When I grow up, I want to be you. Scarletine, I know you’re in the UK now. Just curious where in the US you were in case you’re that flame-haired English chick I hooked up with at lonesome town… (Just kidding!). As for 6D, for once I don’t want to escape into fantasy.
However, if we must, then Wastrel, I’m thinking more Boris-Rapskal and England-Kelsingra. You know, isolated island cut off from rest of civilization with trade treaties to be negotiated with neighboring states, and the ruling party is about to be overthrown by crazed but charismatic general. Where immigrants-human workers may leave said island because they don’t want to turn dragon-y and hear whisper-y propaganda-ish voices given uncertainty of future health care benefits...
On (a) you’re right. There is overwhelming support for gun control across the board. Especially for specific control e.g. ban assault weapons and restrict gun access to people with mental issues. However, when it comes to favoring broader gun laws, there is clear partisan bias. Interpretation of “control” varies widely between gun control advocates and gun rights activists, big city and small towns, across state lines, party affiliations, whether one is a gun owner or not etc. Then throw in 2nd Amendment rights, people’s concern about their safety, politicking, powerful gun lobby and all that jazz to further complicate a complicated matter. So, that brings me to…(b) Oh, that’s never going to happen. At least not in my lifetime, pessimist that I am. We have a House deeply divided, and no one will risk crossing party lines especially in an election year and be targeted. Even gun manufacturers are not exempt. (Remember the NRA-lead boycott on Smith & Wesson? The “if you can’t play with us boys, you’re not with us and we boycott you” mentality. Which goes to your point about NRA resource used in very targeted ways.) So Congress is at an impasse, yet again. But the dialogue continues as it must. In this case, after July 4th…
Appreciate everyone's keen awareness of this serious issue and any moral support is greatly welcomed. A recent and informative article. Personally, I don't know anyone who has been hurt or killed by guns, and hope never to.
Respectfully, I have no energy to further discuss gun issues on this thread. Mostly because it’s hypothetical with no impact in reality. But carry on, if any of you are so inclined.
And partly because physically, I really have no energy left! Zonking out now having slept a handful hours last night following the Brexit live until they finally called it. It was nail-biting to watch each area announce the official count and the reactions. The suspense was palpable. (Side note: I’ve never before heard so many different regional British accents in succession!). It was a long night, and even longer next several years as the UK (sans Scotland? I think so) figures out its economy, immigration, identity etc. *Sorry*
It may not make any difference to the Brits how Americans feel about Brexit - and unfortunately many Americans don’t - but I cared, and I still do. History was made - albeit a catastrophic one and it’s only been 12 hours! I do not wish this on our worst enemy (well, maybe a couple) but certainly not on an ally.
In parallel, I’ve become doubly concerned about the US polls. They show Trump on a slippery slope of declining popularity but if I learnt anything at all from the Brexit polls… Not a reliable barometer of actual voter turnout especially among those fucking, fickle young people who polled Remain but actually remained at home, thus totally fucking their country over.
So, back of envelope calculation, if 72.2% or 33.6 million registered voters actually voted, then 27.8% or 12.9 million registered voters were no-show. Of these, assumed 50% Remain: 50% Leave. So, if just 20% of these no-show Remain registered voters actually exercised their votes, then we’ll have 0.2 X 0.5 X 12.9 mill = 1,290,000 additional votes to swing victory to Remain. (Since the difference between actual votes from Leave and Remain votes were 1,269,500). This is probably already analyzed in great detail in the news anyway. Makes me kind of sad, and angry too.
(And now very, very sleepy)
Alfred, tbh I don't know what the consequences of Brexit will be, don't know if it'll have a domino effect, just don't know. Boris Johnson as the pm of any country with nukes is terrifying, so hopefully they won't go that far. I've heard rumbles about Scotland voting for independence, but the Balkanization of the British Isles is too insane to contemplate. I understand what you mean about Trump, polls, and young voters. Surveys by live people are apparently unreliable in his case, as people are embarrassed to tell a real human being that they support him, and young people, who are progressive, will not vote. And I have Muslim Turkish relatives!!! I'm the children of immigrants. This man's going to put me and my kids in a camp or monitor the hell out of us. Ugh.
OK he probably won't, but it's worrisome.
Alfred wrote: "Scarletine, I know you’re in the UK now. Just curious where in the US you were in case you’re that flame-haired English chick I hooked up with at lonesome town… (Just kidding!)."Alfred, You should be so lucky! I was in New York, and the Hampton's. This flame-haired English chick doesn't have one nighter's ...its just not enough time for my whole repertoire :-p
(I love to read in bed!)
I think both sides led horrible divisive Brexit campaigns and the voters really didn't know what they were voting for or against. The British tabloid media manipulated the voters too. Personally, i think the leave vote is more of a reflection of how duped voters feel about the government and the way the conservatives have played the British public and the EU for years, like a hot and cold boyfriend. The only good thing Cameron did was push through Gay Marriage. Apart from that he was always a short term thinker, who rarely lived up to his pledges and promises to the electorate. But no matter what, he'll be alright with his MAHOOSIVE pension that we'll be paying for, and when the dust settles he'll do what Blair did and make a mint from public speaking. As for the rest of us peasants, nothing will happen for a couple of years,until terms have been negotiated, so I suggest a dose of good old British stiff upper lip, a dose of salts and a rousing chorus of the National Anthem...and cake, lots of cake.
Junie wrote: "i also heard of young people millennials from Mr Sanders' camp going to vote for trump... what????"I voted for Sanders, and death is literally the only thing that can prevent me from voting for Clinton now that the dust has settled. Trump can't be anyone's president.
Six duchies are now seven, with the addition of the Mountain Kingdom, right? I'm not even sure what they should call themselves. United Aristocracies of Upside Down Alaska?
Scarletine wrote: "Cake, lots of cake"Is that a Boris Johnson reference?... if not, it is now...
Ash: oh, don't worry about Boris and nukes. The good thing about Boris is that he might SEEM like a boorish simpleton, but in reality 'Boris' is a comedy act that the real Boris Johnson (real name Alex Johnson, he calls himself 'Boris', and puts on that accent, to sound upper-class, even though really he's middle-class) puts on. The real Johnson is actually very clever (though not fast on his feet). His first claim to fame was hacking his way to the job of President of the Oxford Union, and you don't get there unless you're a conniving two-faced wanker. Johnson may do bad things, and he'll certainly do self-serving things, but he probably won't do anything apocalyptically stupid. He pretends to be Trump, but really he's more like Nixon or the like.
On the other hand, his stated ambition in life is "World King", so it's possible the UK is just a stepping stone... (although I believe he may have given up his American citizenship? He can always claim it back though, I think, if he 'retires' to live there. So don't laugh at him too much now, you may be getting your own dose of him later... (he's American by birth, from Manhattan, though he spent more time growing up in Washington, and then in Brussels (he's a fluent French speaker from early childhood, though he puts on bad broken French when he's in character))).
Oh, fun fact: Johnson won the presidency of the oxford union with an unprecedently professional campaign, with the help of his friend, Frank Luntz. This campaign formed the basis of Luntz' career as a political operative - returning to the US, he advised first Pat Buchanan and then Newt Gingrich, shaping Republican rhetoric ever since, and particularly encouraging them to demonise opponants as "corrupt", "liberal", and "traitors". He then went on to advise Bush on environmental PR, coining the term "climate change" (because it sounded less scary than 'global warming') and creating the strategy of avoiding having to take action by claiming that the science was still inconclusive. Since then, he's advised Israel on PR relating to the intentional killing of civilians, and Republicans on how to discredit with Occupy Wall Street.
So at least when Boris comes to power, he'll have an old friend with a strong track record in public relations to turn to...
Wastrel wrote: "Scarletine wrote: "...Frank Luntz. This campaign formed the basis of Luntz' career as a political operative - returning to the US, he advised first Pat Buchanan and then Newt Gingrich, shaping Republican rhetoric ever since..."WOW. Since Thatcher, the UK and the US conservative wings have seemed to mirror one another. I guess this is another example. Thank you so much for that extremely enlightening post.
Wastrel wrote: "Oh, fun fact: Johnson won the presidency of the oxford union with an unprecedently professional campaign, with the help of his friend, Frank Luntz"Ooh, those are super-fun facts. The Leaves complain about immigrants and foreigners, and so vote Brexit. In turn, they will elect ta...daaa! An immigrant à la Boris Johnson aka BJ aka US-born Alex Johnson to lead the charge on immigration reform. Oh, the irony of it.
Perhaps all immigrants should take a page from middle-class Al by changing to posh-y names like Boris. Although Boris sounds too much like Boorish to me in broken French. And on BJ regaining that US citizenship, no matter. I’m sure fellow Manhattanite President Trump (*spits on NY sidewalk*) will offer that in his first US-UK diplomatic gesture, as long as he can get a photo-op with Trump Turnberry as backdrop.
Oh, jumping the gun here. Presidential nominee Trump is already praising the spirit of Brexit to be emulated by Americans. Oh, I didn’t know about Luntz! Though it doesn’t surprise me the connections, BJ-Trump-Luntz-Bush-Buchanan-Gingrich-and-don’t-forget-Dick (Cheney), it’s practically an orgy.
Alfred wrote: "Wastrel wrote: "Oh, fun fact: Johnson won the presidency of the oxford union with an unprecedently professional campaign, with the help of his friend, Frank Luntz"Ooh, those are super-fun facts. ..."
I really don't believe it was all about 'foreigners" . The public feel let down and confused. This article nails it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
And...ugh...I don't even want the words Trump and orgy in the same sentence. Thanks for that vision Alfred.
To be fair, while Boris plays down his American birth, and has erased from history his time in Brussels (his father worked for the predecessor of the EU, iirc), he's never been shy about his immigrant background. Two grandparents and his stepfather were American - one of the grandparents was of Russian Jewish ancestry. A great-grandfather was a half-Circassian muslim Turk (a minister in the Ottoman Empire), married to an English-Swiss woman, and there's some French in there as well. And at one stage a Prince of Wuerttemberg and the English royal family (but only through an illegitimate daughter).Back when he was Mayor of London, he was very cosmopolitan and pro-immigrant. Then he joined up to the radically anti-immigrant Leave campaign to become prime minister. Now that they've won, Leave are backtracking on everything they said. They're in no hurry to leave the EU, they say, and when they do they may keep the free movement of people. And even if they don't, immigration is unlikely to go down, they now admit, because they'll just admit more immigrant from elsewhere. Oh, and that £350m a week they promised for the NHS a) doesn't exist and b) wouldn't be going to the NHS if it did. Which, of course, we all knew, but it's a bit shameless how quickly they've admitted it now that they've won...
Scarletine wrote: "I don't even want the words Trump and orgy in the same sentence. Thanks for that vision Alfred."Fortunately, I restrained myself from posting a wild orgy pix earlier, and just left things to your much tamer imagination. (In all seriousness, underlying the facetious remarks is just my nervousness about the outlook.)
Thanks for link! Generally agree that it’s not about foreigners per se, otherwise we should just ban all loud, obnoxious American tourists. But immigration was, in my mind, one of two decisive factors in Brexit. More specifically, the high influx of immigrants with the perceived disadvantage and cultural taint that these “foreigners” have inflicted on the locals. In that article, “Above all else, it was about immigration, which has become the prism through which millions of people see everyday problems: the lack of affordable housing; the lack of secure jobs; stagnating living standards; strained public services”. All that has essentially manifested as being “let down” and “confusion” that you’ve mentioned.
The irony is, there are the immigrants and then there are immigrants like BoJo, for e.g. (whose immigrant background is summarized by Wastrel one comment up). “Immigrants” who have adopted the culture and values of the locals, coupled with sufficient time, pedigree and societal contributions, are successfully integrated with the natural born. Immigrants with economic values are tolerated, but those perceived as economic deadweights are not. Which is doubly ironic because the older generation who voted Leave, is to some extent, deadweights or soon to become deadweights (or dead) themselves. Morbid, sorry, but that is reality.
Only two days into this travesty, and the tune has changed. As Wastrel said, there is now much backpedaling on immigration and the funds supposedly designated for NHS. I agree this is the swiftest and most shameless about-face! A record Trump will surely break if elected.
And, of course, I’ve exceeded my writing quota by 100,000 useless words. Should have stopped at “orgy”.
Do you have an electronic scale handy nearby that you whip out occasionally to weigh books, even down to an impressive accuracy of 2 decimal places (for the UK hardcover)? My inner geek insists on verifying at least one of the books - my AA paperback weighs... drum roll... 0.58 lbs = 263.08g! With a +/- 5g variation to yours. Not bad. Everyone else reading this might think it bizarre but having perspective of one book relative to another is actually very fascinating to me...
Edit (few hours later): Checking out Book Depository; first time. Realized where the weights come from. Funniest dumbest feeling I've had in recent times. Haha it actually cracked me up. Because I actually weighed my paperback. With a scale. (I'm used to Amazon's shipping weight which includes packaging and actual book weight not provided).