Ersatz TLS discussion
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Weekly TLS
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What Are We Reading? 2 Nov 2020
Dear forest dwellers:Would it be too much to ask to give those of us who comment on the Guardian pages re TLS an uptick there?
I finished Snow by John Banville this afternoon, quite sad in a way for I enjoyed the book for the quality of the writing. The story, set in southeast Ireland in the fifties is somewhat predictable but that did not curb my enjoyment. That says much for the writing of a tale about the investigation of the murder of a Catholic priest conducted by a Protestant detective. Occasionally, the detective, Strafford, likens it all to a play, the country house, the snow, the quirky characters and some of this sense carried over to me, the reader. An air of cultured unreality between the pages the pages that belies the all too real tragedies in life.
LeatherCol wrote: "AB76 wrote: "LeatherCol wrote: "Hey, first a big shout out to justine to say cheers for setting this up.After a discussion with CCC on her discussion re place, I began to reread [book:Don We Now ..."
glad you have found a way to keep fit, even if the space is tight. have you ever read "bench press" by sven lindqvist, he apparently decided to get into bodybuilding and wrote in his unique way about. I preferred his books about other things but it may interest you, if you havent read it before
LeatherCol wrote: "AB76 wrote: "LeatherCol wrote: "Hey, first a big shout out to justine to say cheers for setting this up.After a discussion with CCC on her discussion re place, I began to reread [book:Don We Now ..."
interested in the beerbohm essays you are reading, worth a read?
Hiya, everyone. Sorry to have been AWOL for most of this week. I had intended to participate as much as possible but...well, Things Happen.After finishing Miss Mackenzie (Trollope) I started The Slaughterman's Daughter which was recommended by several TLSers, I believe. Hadn't read too far when the US political disaster began unwinding; I've temporarily set SD aside as I don't want it to be associated in my mind with the aforementioned (political) anxiety-fest. So instead of anything interesting and/or ambitious I am re-reading Cadfael mysteries and hoping my friends in the US emerge unscathed.
It's Bonfire night here in the UK ("The British Holiday Formerly Known As Guy Fawkes Day". It sounds like a war zone outside. Hoping it isn't a sign of things to come.
And on that happy note..... take care, all -- Karen aka ChronicExpat
Karen wrote: "Hiya, everyone. Sorry to have been AWOL for most of this week. I had intended to participate as much as possible but...well, Things Happen.After finishing Miss Mackenzie (Trollope) I started The ..."
I shouted for SD..really enjoyed it, so when you get round to it, keen to know what you think.
Gpfr wrote: "Georg wrote: "Expanded on my one-liner on the Grauns '10 best books about books'. Thanks to the four or five people here who do their bit against the odds."I've just posted this under 'Culture to..."
I also posted on that article:
have-you-been-using-the-pandemic-to-catch-up-on-long-classic-novels
Asking this question, still in mid-pandemic, the very week that TLS is being axed. How very unself aware of you Guardian.
I am already missing the Guardian RG so much. There was something for me in the activity of reading the same book at the same time with others across the globe. A worldwide community. Luckily I heard about the Trollope Society from somebody in this group. I could sign up for free and am now happily reading chapters 1 -10 in Barchester Towers, getting ready for the Society’s Zoom call on Nov. 9th. This will have to make do for the time being.
LeatherCol wrote: "(If anyone knows a shortcut to circumvent this....please tell me)"If either AB76's profile is public, or he is your GR friend, then you can look at the list of members on the main group page, click on AB's comments, and click on the relevant one, which will take you to the right discussion thread. https://www.goodreads.com/group/11273...
Another really helpful tip LL mentioned is that, on the box to the top right of this page, you can 'Search discussion posts' with relevant keywords.
This is rather obliquely book related but last night MrC made me some scrambled egg on toast for tea and , bless him he’s nearly 87, forgot that I have a milk allergy, added some as an experiment. Wham. One tiny mouthful and my lips felt as if they were ballooning, numbly burnt. Luckily I hardly swallowed any and didn’t go into shock but this got me thinking. A spoonful of milk and in the cupboard in the bathroom is insulin for his diabetes. How easy it would be to murder someone given these two things. Would it be detectable? Setting for a who-dun-it?
I believe insulin has been used as a murder weapon in some books but I cannot remember which ones.
LeatherCol wrote: "AB76 wrote: "LeatherCol wrote: "AB76 wrote: "LeatherCol wrote: "Hey, first a big shout out to justine to say cheers for setting this up.After a discussion with CCC on her discussion re place, I b..."
very interesting leath , i have added you as a friend. i'm just as confused by the goodreads layout as most of us, its a wildly fragmented site but thanks to our mods, we have tamed the beast somewhat and i think the profile page is best way to quickly check who has commented/replied to posts accross the whole shebang, if that makes sense
Stay safe too, corona is nipping at our heels....
I suggest that GR takes advice from Henry David Thoreau and "Simplify simplify."
Semi reading topic, my new profile pic is an 1820s sketch of Southwark Bridge included in a huge British Library online exhibition(via flickr) of the private collection of King George 3rd (engravings, maps and paintings)I have barely begun to browse this wonderful mix of historical documents, brilliantly uploaded and downloadable, so far the most fascinating was a large map of Wiltshire from 1645 and maps of Germany(Bremen/Mecklenburg ) from 1780s
Have a browse here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ge...
Greenfairy wrote: "Alan wrote: "Why is Goodreads so... outdated?Welcome first of all, I will certainly add Looking to Get Lost to 'want to read' as I love the music you mention as well as classical and Opera and var..."
Thanks for the blogs, Greenfairy. Both are top-class and I'll be following them. I was particularly delighted to find on one of them a post of Hendrix next to a post of Handel. Eclecticism indeed!
Alan wrote: "Greenfairy wrote: "Alan wrote: "Why is Goodreads so... outdated?Welcome first of all, I will certainly add Looking to Get Lost to 'want to read' as I love the music you mention as well as classica..."
Sshh. 'Twas I that posted Handel! ....Cover blown! 😁
CCCubbon wrote: "This is rather obliquely book related but last night MrC made me some scrambled egg on toast for tea and , bless him he’s nearly 87, forgot that I have a milk allergy, added some as an experiment. ..."Well, not to get too far into the details, I've participated in quite a few post-mortems many years back. Anaphylactic shock is one of the easier systemic reactions to diagnose, it induces a very profound, rapid effect on blood chemistry that can be verified by relativelt simple tests.
As for insulin I'm going to guess that that would be a bit more difficult. I'm not sure how stable insulin is in the blood stream post-mortem. If you can find the person prior to death, it would be fairly easy to diagnose insulin overdose, but I don't know how easy it would be otherwise
CCCubbon wrote: "This is rather obliquely book related but last night MrC made me some scrambled egg on toast for tea and , bless him he’s nearly 87, forgot that I have a milk allergy, added some as an experiment. ..."Both not as easy as people might think.
Your allergy sounds severe enough for you to have an Epi-pen. So your would-be-murderous husband would have to explain why he didn't use it. Might get off by faking some grade of dementia though.
Insulin: first you would have to inject it without him noticing/fighting you. Then you would have to keep your nerve watching him die. A doctor I knew tried to kill herself with insulin. When her partner came home after a 3-day business trip he found her in a coma, but still alive. She obviously miscalculated the time it would take her to die. But, again, you could pull it off. The death of a 87yo diabetic is hardly suspicious.
Hmm. I haven’t one of those pens, always managed my allergies - but am now being referred. I was simply interested in, should MrC decide to do away with me whether these two, allergies and insulin, would be methods of dispatch!He’s really sorry for the mistake yesterday and has filled the room with the chrysanthemums that he grows for me.
Georg wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "This is rather obliquely book related but last night MrC made me some scrambled egg on toast for tea and , bless him he’s nearly 87, forgot that I have a milk allergy, added some a..."Not a pretty way to go CC. Forensics are are so good these days that it's hard to get away with anything though.
I have an allergy to tomato which leaves most Italian food out of the picture, and also blackcurrants which was discovered when I was a child and my poor mum nearly killed me with a glass of Ribena!
Must admit it shook me last night, the speed of the reaction, I don’t go near it as a rule. Haven’t heard of allergy to black currants before , strawberries send me the same colour as the fruit - I was put in an isolated room when it first happened, felt like an scarlet idiot!
When I’ve read something really good, I need to tell people about it.. My tastes are a bit strange, so I’m not sure how many listen, but at least it’s off my chest.. I want to shout about Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura, first published in 1982, and translated by Mark Ealey.
It is a piece of wonderful storytelling.
Set in an isolated coastal community in medieval Japan, it’s a tale of simple lives, and how superstition and folklore can contradict each other in the most macabre of fashions. It’s a piece of historic fiction sprinkled with elements of horror and dystopia.
Poverty is rife for the inhabitants of the village whose meagre resources are the few fish they catch and the salt they distill for trade in huge cauldrons on the shore. In order to survive they trade their strong young men and teenage girls into indentured servitude to nearby towns for years at a time.
A respite from toil and hunger is provided by the tradition of O-fune-sama, a shipwreck (sent by God) on the dangerous reef that provides wreckage and cargo, and is distributed amongst the families. The villagers do more than pray for shipwrecks, they have become wreckers and pillagers themselves; the salt cauldrons are seen as shore lights of safety by struggling ships, lured onto the treacherous reef.
The protagonist is a 9 year old boy whose father is absent for 3 years in servitude, he must grow up quickly and become the ‘man’ of the family.
The prose is simple yet strong in imagery, it is a very credible rendition of the period. It works so well as the world created is such an unfamiliar one, yet through the eyes of a young boy it has tenderness, and is particularly affecting.
It also belongs in that new genre of ‘virus literature’, and raises some interesting hypothetical moral dilemmas. If a disease was so contagious at what stage might a society consider banishing the infected? Or even going to a further extreme..
The Refuge by Mckenzie has started to resemble a more normal wartime thriller,Sydney and its refugee population speckled with communist stooges "what do you and your policemen know about this city" says Irma, the refugee who befriends Fitz and asks him to hide her from unwanted attention from three gentleman. He proposes a small property he owns in the Blue Mountains...Mckenzie fills every sentence with tension and unease, its brilliantOn the non-fiction side its two female accounts of life:
A Mans Place by Annie Ernaux(recommended by the John Sandoe website) and A World Gone Mad: War Diary of Astrid Lundgren.
Two northern european women, very different, describing life through their eyes. Ernaux has been discussed on TLS (Guardian and Ersatz) a lot and its started well. Lindgren is the latest in my series of diaries i am reading...
CCCubbon wrote: "Must admit it shook me last night, the speed of the reaction, I don’t go near it as a rule. Haven’t heard of allergy to black currants before , strawberries send me the same colour as the fruit - I..."No Strawberries and Cream? The horror!
Calcium and me fell out big time and strawberries got caught in the flak. I do miss them. Reminds me of this Morgan poemThere were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you
Andy wrote: "When I’ve read something really good, I need to tell people about it.. My tastes are a bit strange, so I’m not sure how many listen, but at least it’s off my chest.. I want to shout about Shipwreck..."Excellent. I had seen that you were currently reading this and looked it up. It sounded really interesting and I've now made a mental note of it, thanks Andy!
@Karen/CE, @Miri/Cardellina (will work on the matching document between Guardian and GR's accounts, it's really needed!), @Kayaki or @Philip/TixhiiDon: how well-known is that author, Akira Yoshimura, in Japan?
Re: Discussion of 'Special Topics' (under the 'Wagner' Special Topic)
On the one hand, GR's threading failures make it difficult to follow, in the main discussion, some conversations of specific interest to a small group of people, while putting them in the way of those who may have no interest. Moreover, it's a positive aspect of the site that individuals are able to start their own conversations in this way.
On the other hand, we might end up after a few months with dozens of little Special Topics littering the space.
Perhaps if someone has an idea for a topic, they could begin with a notice here of what they would like to discus, and asking whether people think it should be separated out or kept under the Weekly Topic. That's still awkward, I admit, so does anyone have a better idea?
I am watching stuff... rather than reading at the moment.. I have Elif Shafaks '10 Minutes 38 seconds In this strange world' to read, and Simon Mawers 'Prague Spring'. They are staring me in the face but I think they are both to dark for my mind at the moment. so when I came across this (https://aeon.co/videos/a-cyclical-for...) it was a real pleasure. and such a lovely library as well. I love watching and listening to Roger Penrose. I tried to book to see him at Hay festival in the spring, but Covid put paid to that. I looked for him in the on-line version of the festival talks, but he wasn't there. Note how expressive his hands are, when talking about big mathematical ideas. It's like watching a ballet... (it reminds me of going to see Marcel Marceau as a teenager, in of all places N Devon in The Lobster Pot, in Instow).
Can I suggest as Justine was asking for ideas as to future topic suggestions , and I am riffing here, people suggesting their ideal literary dinner party guests. Roger and Carlo Rovelli would be on my invite list. Galileo “E pur si muove”. Hildegard von Bingen, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Georgia O'Keeffe and Leonora Carrington, as guests, would be an excellent dinner party for me.
Another suggestion would be to to continue the photos of places with a theme each week. I loved the 'cathedral' suggestion from CCCubbon. I think that the idea of 'places' that are significant to people could be a rich seem to explore in these rather dark days.
They could be from multiple perspectives such as the landscape that is most meaningful. The house that is most like the idea of home. The architectural, historical style that means the most, the cultural icon that has had the most impact on you, or the fashion that means the most... or dare I say 'favourite medieval illuminations'... opened up to whatever people are interested in... It could go on and on... Anyway I don't feel I can contribute much in the way of reviews at the moment, but I can still have ideas...
I am forever intrigued by Penrose’s assertion that there is a black hole at the centre of our universe. This implies that a star in some other universe collapsed to form the black hole. My imagination leads me through the hole into another universe and is there another black hole at the center of that one.....Regarding the topics, we could think about Water or a favourite of mine Doors or Faces in the photos and I have to mention the poetry in topics or playwrights...
It's been a funny old reading week. Finished reading Human Natures by Paul R. Ehrlich, a book of 2 halves to use a football cliche. The first half was fascinating, Homo Sapiens descent from Australopithecines through a number of Homo species to how we are now. Always find such stuff interesting and Ehrlich writes with great detail and some humour. Especially fascinating were comparisons of Sapiens society and hierarchies with those of our living cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos. The section on "Chimp Politics" left me wondering if Sapiens politicians could learn a thing or two from them.But, the second half of the book left me floundering. Ehrlich tackling the "evolution" of cultures from the Agricultural Revolution onwards came across as convoluted and confused. Firstly, he was applying Darwinian Evolutionary mechanisms to the development of human cultures, which sounds like a fair idea but I don't believe it is quite right, it's not that simple. He seemed to be presenting arguments in a circumlocutory fashion, often repeating himself and sometimes hurling passive aggressive criticisms at historians and anthropologists. At one point he argued that the prime causes of WW2 were territorial and "resource grab" related, but failed to examine the ideological motives of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
There were some sound conclusions in there, humankind is facing existential problems, environmental degradation, destruction of biodiversity, overpopulation, climate change, and we need to get together and deal with these problems. But getting to these conclusions was a stretch.
Go and open the door.Maybe outside there’s
a tree, or a wood,
a garden,
or a magic city.
Go and open the door.
Maybe a dog’s rummaging.
Maybe you’ll see a face,
or an eye,
or the picture
of a picture.
Go and open the door.
If there’s a fog
it will clear.
Go and open the door.
Even if there’s only
the darkness ticking,
even if there’s only
the hollow wind,
even if
nothing
is there,
go and open the door.
At least
there’ll be
a draught.
Miroslav Holub
Georgia O'Keeffe painted the same door, over and over again, as if was an obsession where she was trying to get to the very essence of 'doorness'. All of those suggestions I would love...
So, from non-fiction to fiction. I started reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I am not a Murakami fan, this book sitting unread at the end of a shelf for over a decade attests to that. Amongst other things I find his writing of female characters unconvincing, one-dimensional and his depiction of sexual relations sometimes leaves me with an uneasy feeling (not in a good way). The book is engaging enough, infused with enough mystery and surrealism to keep me going. But, I don't believe that in years to come I will find this book memorable and worth a reread (as I do with all of Ishiguro's novels).Totsuko is reading Nameless Poison by Miyuki Miyabe.
On monday we will be heading into the city for the first time in months (have been avoiding it due to Covid). I am running out of unread books so will be hitting the only 2 bookshops with some English language titles - their range is very limited but hoping to pick up something worthwhile. Maybe Apeirogon ? Have seen this book well recommended here by people whose opinions I trust. Otherwise will pick up some Japanese classics that I haven't read yet to help me through winter.
Gladarvor wrote: "Ok, so yesterday after I saw Reen's message, I was wondering if brassiere meant the same thing in English as in French (it doesn't), so google imaged it. What I had in mind (the French version) was something like this: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...What I had instead, in the top 5 (top 5!!!), was this (kosher link for woman's bras), and I have to ask: why??!"
Yes, these (false) friends can be quite misleading. I didn't know this either.
The site you link to really leaves me to reason why, too. Quoi sais-je? When I searched for the male corsets, there were some er... interesting search results, too. You can always learn, I suppose.
Kayaki wrote: "So, from non-fiction to fiction. I started reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I am not a Murakami fan, this book sitting unread at the end of a shelf for over a decade attests t..."I can recommend 'Apeirogon' even though I have just listened to the book being 'read' on Radio 4, quite recently. I have lived in Israel for over a year, many years ago, and the country is a rather different place from what is was then, but as a book it still rings true, and is a heartfelt tribute to the actual reality of many peoples lives as they are lived today.. in a very divided country
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Gladarvor wrote: "Ok, so yesterday after I saw Reen's message, I was wondering if brassiere meant the same thing in English as in French (it doesn't), so google imaged it. What I had in mind (the F..."I think that the page has moved on... as they do... as I have in the link 'page not found.'. Anyway 'hail fellow, well met'!... how is medieval illuminations research going?
Gladarvor wrote: "Andy wrote: "When I’ve read something really good, I need to tell people about it.. My tastes are a bit strange, so I’m not sure how many listen, but at least it’s off my chest.. I want to shout ab..."It would be interesting to know. Thanks in advance.
Gpfr wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "I bit the bullet and made a comment on another Guardian book page today - 10 Best Books about Books. I did make a plea to bring back TLS of course.I followed your example ..."
Me also.
Very glad to read reviews and even poems here!I have nothing new to report as regards reading so far, but hope after this weekend at the latest.
Today I would like to tell you a bit about a passionate, literature-loving bunch from pretty diverse backgrounds, including many mostly likeable and some loveable oddballs.
Sounds familiar? Not writing about TL&S (@Swelter: Ha, I always take care to use the ampersand now!), for once.
I am referring to the ancient German Shakespeare Society, founded in 1864 (https://shakespeare-gesellschaft.de/a...), some of whose conferences I attended. Some of these were legendary, with nights in theatres and outside on still-warm steps. Actors, musicians, (self-)performers, translators, teachers, scholars, students,... all sorts of Shakespeare lovers. The debates profited from so many different perspectives.
(Do allow me a little sigh for TL&S after all, at this apposite time.)
Their next conference will take place online and is coming up in a couple of weeks. It will be devoted to Romeo & Juliet. Not my favourite play, but I was happy to discover more of its depths which I had overlooked on reading an excellent essay by Oliver Lubrich, https://www.germanistik.unibe.ch/abou....
He deconstructed the tragic lovers' tale by pointing out that Romeo is looking for love (...) from the start. He also delivered a thoughtful reading of the play's language of love, taking into account, for example, Roland Barthes'(s) "Fragments of a Lover's Discourse" and Niklas Luhmann's (a German sociologist) "Love as Passion" on the encoded character of discourses of love.
Sorry for waffling on. Hope this is of interest to anyone.
I kind of miss the upticks and kind of don't. Sometimes it would be nice just to leave an uptick as a sign of apppreciation, for example for some reviews posted here recently.
I greatly enjoyed Judith Butler's and Marina Hyde's Guardian commentaries on the orange twit (at the moment still) in the White House this week.
My very very best wishes for anyone who keeps checking the news anxiously, too.
Tam wrote: "Go and open the door."That's a beautiful post. Like the reference to the painter as well (I always like your references to paintings.)
I can see we think along the same lines, Tam. What’s behind the door? What will I see if I open the door? Why is this door so small? So big? How long since it opened?... oh don’t get me started!
Tam wrote: "Anyway 'hail fellow, well met'!... how is medieval illuminations research going?"Well met indeed! It was not going at all this week, but that's due to working with too few people for too much work at the moment.
But I might unearth the not-quite-medieval "Illuminating the Renaissance Catalogue" from the shelf this weekend (https://www.amazon.com/Illuminating-R...).
Would be happy to keep you up to date.
Also, there is a Cranach painting I have thought about quite often since a discussion with GeorgElser, MachenBach, nosuchzone and some others. One or two things still unclear. Another kanban list follow-up thing...
How are you holding up, Tam? Keeping your interests (and doors) wide open?
Tam wrote: "Go and open the door."Quite some time ago, I participated in an autogenic training session and surprised everyone, and myself, by choosing as my happy place not the meadow or the forest of my childhood or a loved place at the seaside, but an octagonal hall (a little bit like the entrance to the Gemäldegalerie Berlin) with many closed doors. I felt great just staying there, not opening any doors, and especially knowing I did not have to open any!
All the more strange because, like CCCubbon, I am usually a very interested person more than happy to explore.
Nowadays I think this experience was due to having to make many changes and many decisions at that time... Pretty sure my happy places have changed back again.
I posted the following sonnet on TLS in March, in what we now call the first wave. Now, in the "second wave", I have been thinking of it often, finding it comforting. "To share with you this rough, divisive weather
And not to grieve because we have to share it,
Desire to wear the dark of night together
And feel no colder that we do not wear it,
Because sometimes my sight of you is clearer,
The memory not clouded by the sense,
To know that nothing now can make you dearer
Than does the close touch of intelligence,
To be the prisoner of your kindnesses
And tell myself I want you to be free,
To wish you here with me despite all this,
To wish you here, knowing you cannot be—
This is a way of love in our rough season,
This side of madness, the other side of reason."
(James Reeves, "Rough Weather", from the Faber Book of Sonnets, ed. Robert Nye, 1976)
Tam wrote: "Can I suggest as Justine was asking for ideas as to future topic suggestions ..."New ideas are always a Good Thing, but my main concern here was about where to put them. The dinner party discussion, for example. might best be kept here under 'What are we reading' as being the kind of subject about which there could have been some back-and-forth at the old TLS. The pictures of places would seem more appropriately developed in the 'Place' topic thread already started by CCC. The balance I think we're looking for is between allowing special topics that can stand alone and that encourage a range of discussion over time, and avoiding the accumulation of bits-and-bobs that soon fade out and would have been better kept in the main thread.
Shelflife_wasBooklooker wrote: "Very glad to read reviews and even poems here!I have nothing new to report as regards reading so far, but hope after this weekend at the latest.
Today I would like to tell you a bit about a passi..."
R.e. Romeo and Juliet
I have a favourite mis-translation story from the early days of EU expansion, where the conditions of entry of either Lithuania or Estonia were being discussed. The negotiations went on late into the night and were quite exhausting for all sides. One tired and fraught negotiator had a late-night attack of whimsical reverie and quoted “the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing”, in order to indicate that they were willing to press on to the end, only to find out that the Russian translator had quoted them as having said “the meat is bad, but the vodka is OK”.
Though just a light piece of entertainment, the outcome wasn’t threatened, but in most cases of political, and personal negotiations, the outcomes do matter a great deal. Therefore, establishing a common understanding of the meaning of words is vital. Once ‘the ‘genie’ is out of the bottle’, it’s hard to go back. This is just the start, of a long power-play. It always begins with a transgression of some kind, and values are often called into question. The fight-back begins. In fact, you don’t even need words to be ‘ill-used’ in order to create a state of enmity.
For example, in this quote by Shakespeare’s Sampson, from the House of Capulets’, in Romeo and Juliet, it makes clear his threat to provoke his own household’s enemies, “Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it”. A provoking thumb is sufficient to kick off the whole sad story of love and revenge. So, this is really about the nature of ‘transgressions’.
All very pertinent in our own day and age, when ‘taking offense’ appears to be, by some, to be taking on an almost ‘professional’ edge of endeavor. Indeed, increasingly the ‘victim’ card is often played, as a means of shutting down unwanted opinions. Words are not just tools of understanding, for us humans, they can also be sharpened into weapons of war as well.
It’s hard to take back what has been said, so it’s worthwhile to remember that the meaning attached to the words often changes with time, and sometimes indeed it changes in no time at all! As Omar Khayyam said, and it is well worth us remembering his lucid wit, and his joy in living.
“The Moving Finger writes: and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Justine wrote: "Tam wrote: "Can I suggest as Justine was asking for ideas as to future topic suggestions ..."New ideas are always a Good Thing, but my main concern here was about where to put them. The dinner pa..."
It would work well if it was threaded I think, but without it I don't see how subject interest could be gathered together into a cohesive whole. It is just too hard to pick up comments that were made hours or often days ago, on the same subject, as they are in very different places.
The strength of GR, from what I can gather so far, about the architectural structure, is that it does allow for separate topics to be discussed under different headings. I don't think, if a subject doesn't take off in any substantial way, that it matters that much. As Beckett said "fail agin, fail better", some will succeed by being enjoyed and some wont...
Mod
Totally agree, co-mod.
Mod
I asked this on a different discussion, shall ask again - does everyone know how to find 'new' posts - that is, new since you last checked in?
Here's the easiest way - from the main menu, go to Community-->Groups, click on Ersatz TL&S, and you'll find a page that shows all of our discussions, and which ones have new posts since you last visited. Click on the red '# new' link and you'll go directly to your unread posts.
(Alternatively, if you like to enter sites via bookmarks, bookmark this link to get directly to the page I described above:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...)
Hope this helps a little.
Mod
In honor of Swelter (and Shelflife), I've added the ampersand to our group name!
Justine wrote: "The balance I think we're looking for is between allowing special topics that can stand alone and that encourage a range of discussion over time, and avoiding the accumulation of bits-and-bobs that soon fade out and would have been better kept in the main thread."I'd also agree with this 100%. Maybe it's my FOMO, but I still feel like checking the 'New' posts on every thread. But because there are progressively more and more of these separate threads (despite the great housekeeping of locking 'away' three of them already), I'm slowly losing the will to live. They also drift naturally, and one cannot always remember where the conversation they want to go back to was taking place.
Putting everything in the main TL(&)S, and testing the waters for a separate topic there as well sounds very sensible to me.
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Ersatz TLS
Books mentioned in this topic
Waiting for the End (other topics)The Quiet American (other topics)
Brighton Rock (other topics)
This Gun for Hire (other topics)
The Quiet American (other topics)
More...
Hope I'm posting this in the right place.
Reddit thread on GR. They don't say much. Consensus seems to be if it ain't broke, don't fix it, which is good enough fo..."
A criticism I have Alan, goes for LitHub also, is that its too American-orientated.
There's good reads from all over the World, and yet books from outside the US don't get the space or coverage that they should.
I am always searching for good review websites that do reflect this..if anyone's interested,
heavenali (blog)
1stReading (blog)
Book Around The Corner
English PEN
Words Without Borders
Books and Bao
to the end of the word
and a few of the other groups here on GR, such as International Booker Eligible 2021 here