Ersatz TLS discussion
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Weekly TLS
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What are we reading? 5 December 2022
Tam wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "Just quick note to say that Dave is out of hospital, and on the way to recovery. He had a very trying time, especially as being so deaf it was quite hard for him..."Tam, I don't know if you've ever been to Norwich, but with Dave on the 'recovery road' perhaps a trip there in say late May or early June next year might warm the cockles of a peregrine lover's heart.
At Norwich Cathedral you could sit on one of the benches - there are a number - in the Cathedral Close and watch the antics of the peregrine pair as they teach peregrine-ship to the youngsters.
It was on a trip there about 10 years ago that I first saw them.
Perishing degrees of frost in the shires, quite rare in this year of record mild tempsBack in September i read Stegners memoirs of life on the Canadian prairies(recommended by Mach), it was an excellent read and Stegner(an american writing about Canada), suprised me with his observations that in summer, the canadian prairie he was living in looked South to Montana and the USA, culturally and for its food and supplies. In winter he looked to Canada, British culture and the long hard winters.
Anyway, someone here or on GR, when i mentioned Montana, suggested the novels of Ivan Doig, modern novels set in historical frontier Montana and the heavily Irish Catholic city of Butte. (one article describes Montana as in the Pacific NW...i wouldnt call it that)
I have just started Sweet Thunder by Ivan Doig (2013) and its really enjoyable, their is humour, history and a quiet sense of purpose, i have been researching Montana between roughly 1880-1925, the novel is set in 1920 and i love novels of place, i feel at home in wintry Butte, with the Anaconda Mine Company a heavy, malign presence.
Thanks to whoever recommended Doig to me
In this cold but not deadly cold spell, i think of the poor Ukrainian citizens who are not afraid of high costs or boilers breaking down but of sustained enemy attack on their very sources of comfort in the eastern slavic chill...it makes me me feel very humble and i say Slava Ukraini!
AB76 wrote: "Perishing degrees of frost in the shires, quite rare in this year of record mild temps"Haha, I bet you are very happy now AB!! ❄️
AB76 wrote: "Perishing degrees of frost in the shires, quite rare in this year of record mild tempsBack in September i read Stegners memoirs of life on the Canadian prairies(recommended by Mach), it was an ex..."
I'll put my hand up for Doig. 😊
In a similar vein, I just finished Spokane Saga 1889-1892 which turned out to be kinda 'damsel in distressey', but I also learned there was much in the way of shenanigans over oysters and oyster beds AKA tidelands even before WA became a state. My other historical takeaway from the book is how crucial Idaho's mines were to the growth of Spokane.
I have just gotten
of the shelf for a 'sometime down the line' re-read. As I remember, it takes place in Idaho and pits mine owners against miners with the Pinkertons being on the side of the owners. I've also restarted
. If you've seen the 'Mormon' news lately, you will know how (insert your word here) they can be. What a religion!Now all I need is a bedtime mystery - preferably in paperback.
In closing, I want to say that in my travels yesterday I saw - 🚕🚕🚕🚕🚕🚕🚕🚕🚕 (count 'em - 9 yellow cars) and that is not counting the 2 🚕🚕 taxis! I think they ar multiplying in the dead of night.
Mod
Better watch out, MK!
Mod
I've just read Jussi Adler Olsen's The Shadow Murders, the latest (and said to be penultimate) in his Department Q series. It was pretty gripping.In Copenhagen, Department Q deals with cold cases. The eccentric but very successful team find themselves investigating a current case as well as a cold one due to the pandemic and the resulting shortage of police officers. The leader of the team, Carl, is faced with trouble from his past.
I've started reading these essays by Ann Patchett, These Precious Days: Essays and as always enjoying her writing very much.
giveusaclue wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Perishing degrees of frost in the shires, quite rare in this year of record mild temps"Haha, I bet you are very happy now AB!! ❄️"
its nice to see frost yes....lol
MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Perishing degrees of frost in the shires, quite rare in this year of record mild tempsBack in September i read Stegners memoirs of life on the Canadian prairies(recommended by Mach),..."
ah, twas you MK, good recommendation, thanks!
MK wrote: "Tam wrote: "MK wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Tam wrote: "Just quick note to say that Dave is out of hospital, and on the way to recovery. He had a very trying time, especially as being so deaf it was quite ..."I have been to Norwich cathedral, but at least 25 years ago. There were no peregrines nesting there at that time. It was a highlight for me, as when I was visiting it, lightening struck it twice. It was like the crack of doom!... as the lightening struck the steeple and then reverberated around the cathedral. A string quartet were playing under the steeple itself. There was something both very gothic, and yet very romantic about the whole scene.
Norwich cathedral is a favourite of mine (I consider myself agnostic, but I love visiting religious and historic buildings). It seems lighter and airier than most. The peregrines have made an excellent choice, to me.
While reading a review of Diaghilev's Empire: How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World and overhearing my wife discussing current news stories in the background, my mind cooked up the phrase "Ballet Russe de Mar-a-Lago".
Nothing awfully special from me these last days, but nonetheless entertaining.. Bad Kids by Zijin Chen translated from the Chinese by Michelle Deeter.
This is the sort of thing that Pushkin Vertigo do very well; a crime thriller that is inventive and, in China at least, contemporary. I'm quite prepared to sacrifice a bit of literary quality to see what sort of crime is entertaining the Chinese.
A better example even, is an Argentinian book I reads a couple of weeks ago, Urgent Matters by Paula Rodríguez.
The protagonist here, is a troubled 13 year old, Zhu Chaoyang. Though a very able student, he is concerned that he is small for his age, he is bullied by his classmates, and ignored by his mother and step-father.
An old friend from primary school turns up to visit him, he, and a younger girl, have run away from an abusive orphanage.
While visiting a local national park, the three new friends witness, and by chance film, a murder, a man pushing an old couple off a cliff.
The plot may seem a bit dodgy, but it ticks along well enough. The real interest here is in Chinese culture, and that Chen creates adolescent characters that are convincing.
and, One Out of Two by Daniel Sada translated from the Spanish (Mexico) by Katherine Silver.
Sada's short novel follows the Gamal sisters, identical middle aged twins who are absolutely devoted to their work as seamstresses in the small town of Ocampo, Mexico. They have no place for idle chit-chat or to indulge in the gossip of the locals, so much so that they post a sign in their shop..
We are busy professionals. Restrict your conversation to the business at hand. Please do not disturb us for no reason. Sincerely: The Gamal Sisters.
A letter from their aunt, who brought them up, invites them to a wedding, hinting that they may use it as an opportunity to meet potential husbands.
Due to work committments, they decide that they both cannot go, and so one of them does, and returns having
danced all night with a slender man of interesting age.
Its an interesting plot, which is largely well told, but there isn't enough to it for it to provoke much thought or to linger in the mind for any length of time.
There is so much sadness around just now. For many reasons. So sometimes you just have to take a little joy where you find it. I spent last weekend in Edinburgh with a group of friends. I bought a little stash of books from the Oxfam bookshop, plus a few more inTopping where I was given a complimentary pot of tea. So civilised.But I really enjoyed Christmas at the Botanics. I felt like a little kid, it was so magical. Toasted marshmallows, a bright moon, beautiful colours lighting the trees everywhere, floating red poppy lights, and water lilies changing colour to the tune of Swan Lake. Everyone just enjoying the moment. You are never too old for an enchanted landscape!
I don't usually read 'political' books. However, as a lark I downloaded an audio - The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump and I listened - often shaking my head. Trump just keeps parroting all the great stuff he has accomplished, points a finger at others when it is time for him to 'fess up consistently shifting any blame, and everything he says is always couched in money. As a result, I've put a hold on Woodward's book -
Rage. I'm surprised at myself.
Great intro, GP. You’re so encouraging!
I enjoyed Storm’s evocation of the Christmas spirit. I just finished something very different.
Christmas Holiday – Somerset Maugham (1939)
This is about as unChristmassy as it gets. One young man, a cheerfully decent type, goes to Paris to spend a few days with another young man, a harshly cynical loner, who introduces him to a passionate and intelligent prostitute who is Russian by origin, a reader of Dostoyevsky, and given to self-abasement. There’s a murder and a trial, and much analysis of degrading motives.
With all that, the book was a good reminder of how smoothly professional Maugham is, and there is a fine passage on the appreciation of pictures. But it’s all from the dark side, and I need to find something less sorrowful as a Christmas read. Trollope beckons.
I enjoyed Storm’s evocation of the Christmas spirit. I just finished something very different.
Christmas Holiday – Somerset Maugham (1939)
This is about as unChristmassy as it gets. One young man, a cheerfully decent type, goes to Paris to spend a few days with another young man, a harshly cynical loner, who introduces him to a passionate and intelligent prostitute who is Russian by origin, a reader of Dostoyevsky, and given to self-abasement. There’s a murder and a trial, and much analysis of degrading motives.
With all that, the book was a good reminder of how smoothly professional Maugham is, and there is a fine passage on the appreciation of pictures. But it’s all from the dark side, and I need to find something less sorrowful as a Christmas read. Trollope beckons.
Mod
That sounds a great weekend!
For the past few years, the Jardin des Plantes in Paris has had an illuminated exhibition in the gardens at this time of year.
Here's are some little videos of previous years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFwPL...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_B4r...
Russell wrote: "Great intro, GP. You’re so encouraging!I enjoyed Storm’s evocation of the Christmas spirit. I just finished something very different.
Christmas Holiday – Somerset Maugham (1939)
This is about a..."
I'm a Maugham fan though my focus is usually on his Far East/ South Seas tales and warmer climes.
Mod
https://themorningnews.org/article/th...
I've read one, borrowed one from the library but returned it unread. I don't recognize (or know how to pronounce) quite a few author's names, so I'll be voting on book covers this year. Here's my favorite:
If you are looking for a light(ish) , not too long, couldn’t put it down, book try Emma Haughton’s The SanctuaryI think it’s better than her first book The Dark, gallops along throes everything in and even though a tad predictable I enjoyed reading it.
Lljones wrote: "The Morning News has announced the 2023 Tournament of Books shortlist:https://themorningnews.org/article/th...
I've read one, borrowed one from the li..."
Cheers DoubleL.
I’ve read three, two of which I didn’t like either very much, McCarthy and Seven Moons, and one I did, Jennings’s An Island.
Both Nightcrawling and The Rabbit Hutch interest me.
Keen to get anyone else’s opinions on any of them..
https://www.theguardian.com/books/pic...To go with all those end-of-year best books lists. Why is it that I've never heard of most of them?
Finished the Buchan novel,Mr Standfast brilliant, a WW1 novel that probably gets left out of the lists. In his intro, historian Hew Strachan links it to Barbusse, though its a lot less grim than that novel, it manages a consistently questioning tone,a novel of the mindNext its big Ern, Mr Hemmingway and his 1930s novel To Have and Have Not set in Florida Keys and Cuba. Searching for novels set in that region, i discovered it, amazingly i hadnt read it before. I must check if the characters come up in shorter form in the First 49 Stories of his i read a few years back. I just checked and no they dont.
Mod
https://postimg.cc/gallery/9DhCQzM
Thanks for the tip, CC. I’ll see if the library can find it.
Btw, I’m not suggesting Christmas Holiday is a bad book, just that it is not in the least seasonal. The Penguin jacket design shows it in Christmas wrapping paper, and I think I was led on. You’d have to have a warped mind to choose it as a Christmas present.
Too bad, England. I think you're a good bet for the next Euros.
Btw, I’m not suggesting Christmas Holiday is a bad book, just that it is not in the least seasonal. The Penguin jacket design shows it in Christmas wrapping paper, and I think I was led on. You’d have to have a warped mind to choose it as a Christmas present.
Too bad, England. I think you're a good bet for the next Euros.
Russell wrote: ".Too bad, England. I think you're a good bet for the next Euros."Thanks Russell, I'm trying to be brave and hoping against hope for a Croatia v Morocco Final.
Well, I tried to read Marilynne Robinson’s piece in the Dec 22 NYRB, but I finally had to give up and skim over the final third or so. She seems to be eager to show that modern physics is fully compatible with, if not actually adumbrated by, the Old Testament, primarily the books of Genesis and Job. She discusses how “the hypothesis … that time and space emerge from quantum phenomena” can be used to think about omniscience, an attribute of God I suppose is central to her beliefs as it forms the basis of the Calvinist dogma of predestination.I found it quite a relief to turn to the front of the issue and read Stephen Greenblatt’s review of the Tudor exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. Greenblatt is a master of this subject, and able to give informative close readings of various exhibits which are nevertheless fully comprehensible to the lay reader. No subtle disputant on creeds, he has a decidedly worldly assessment of Tudor religion:
The religious conflicts had been going on for more than a half-century, since Henry VIII’s break with Rome, and in their murderous tangles they caught up virtually everyone in the kingdom. Officially at least, the ruler’s religion was the religion of the entire country; no other faiths were tolerated—not Judaism or Islam, of course, but also not any version of Christianity other than the ruler’s own. In making himself the supreme head of the church in England, Henry’s motivation lay principally in getting a divorce and seizing the wealth of the monasteries. The six-year reign of his son Edward VI, who came to the throne at the age of nine, inaugurated a sharper turn toward Protestantism in doctrine and church organization. Then, after Edward’s death from tuberculosis and an abortive nine-day reign by his seventeen-year-old Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey that ended in her execution, his sister Mary returned the country to the Roman Catholic Church. Five tumultuous years later Mary died, and with the accession of her younger sister, Elizabeth, England once again officially became Protestant. Each of these changes of regime was accompanied by dark waves of conspiracies, suspicions, arrests, and executions, on top of the ordinary punishments meted out in a brutally punitive society.
Bill wrote: "Well, I tried to read Marilynne Robinson’s piece in the Dec 22 NYRB, but I finally had to give up and skim over the final third or so. She seems to be eager to show that modern physics is fully com..."due to postal strikes here, i doubt i will get my NYRB before Xmas
Mod
I've just finished Chris Hammer's Opal Country. Another of these Australian thrillers in the heat and the dryness — and the flies! Searching for opals, rare earth mining, financial shenanigans, all pretty tense and exciting and the introduction of an agreeable new heroine who is apparently in his next book too.
In Land That Lost Its Heroes: How Argentina Lost the Falklands War
, the author Jimmy Burns provides a superb detailed analysis of Argentina from the collapse of the last Peronist govt in 1975 to democracy restored in 1983The war has ended, Galtieri has been shuffled off replaced by another General and Raul Alfonsin is the daring, junta opponent running for office in the first democratic elections for almost a decade. Burns is good at studying the characters who stuck their neck out during times of danger and the lawyer Alfonsin(half British ancestry) was the right man for the times.
The ghost of Juan Peron and Evita is awakened by the Peronist parties in the election but they are divided and Burns wryly observes that in the time when an unelected dictatorship was being ousted, Peron had come to power, unelected as a military Colonel in the 1940s, though he was elected in 1946
There was an article in The G this week about crime writers picking their favourite detectives. A fun Christmas type piece. Anyway, I thought that this was a three pipe problem and am really stuck. Too many to choose from. I am going to cheat and maybe narrow it down to detectives I found, or meant something to me, at a particular time in my life. So, as a teen, obviously all of Agatha Christie and Sherlock
20s, the hard boiled Americans, Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Sam Spade, et al but a particular faiblesse for the big fat curmudgeonly orchid growing Nero Wolfe and his sidekick Archie Goodwin.
30s on, many of the hard boiled female detectives like VI Warshawski
Then it becomes trickier because I have read so many others that they morph into one another but a large amount of Scottish noir.
I have read all the Jack Reacher series and watched the recent Prime series which was excellent with a real brick outhouse in the role as opposed to that totally miscast little squirt Tom Cruise.
I could go on. And on. And on. And I will post this thinking I should have included…..but I suppose the joy of reading crime mysteries is that they keep on coming and there is always a new one to discover. Some of the most enjoyable and addictive new ones are I find on Kindle. Nothing too serious. Just authors having a bit of fun with lots of jokes.
Re Bill’s comment about Marilynne Robinson, I have heard so much about her but have always been put off by that Christian belief element. Now I know that this is a bit of a prejudice on my part. I acknowledge it. However, my reluctance to pick up an avowedly Christian believing author goes back to a discussion on here some time ago about how much our knowledge of a writer/artist/musician impinges on our enjoyment or appreciation of their work. After all, I read Muslim, Jewish, atheist, whatever you like authors, why does Robinson put me off? Maybe because I see that as the tradition I grew up in and, therefore, that gives me the right to criticise. Maybe it is just the Christianity shtick that bothers me. I see the intolerance in the US of the Christian Right and don’t feel I want to disturb my equilibrium by reading any more of it when I don’t have to. Anyway, I may well read her just to see what the fuss is about but with a TBR pile the size of Ben Nevis, it is unlikely to be any time soon.
One of the places I go to in my morning routine is Facebook. I haven't a clue how their algorithm works, but I sometimes see what is going on in Malta - today it was that a documentary of a former (deceased for sometime) Labor Prime Minister would not be shown because there was no balancing effort and the Right would not be happy. 🙄(That's supposed to be an eyeroll.)Then there was a post about eels from -
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23173516...
I think eels are just great - but I would never even think of having a slice of eel pie.
So of course I had to go to edp24 to see what else is going on in Norfolk. Looks like it is 'bundle-up' time there.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23183709...
Gpfr wrote: " I've just finished Chris Hammer's Opal Country. Another of these Australian thrillers in the heat and the dryness — and the flies! Searching for o..."
have you tried Fear is the rider by kenneth cook, its one of his last novels and its a rollercoaster of tension and dread, in the hot, open outback...its less a mystery and more full on horror but not fantasy
Gpfr wrote: " I've just finished Chris Hammer's Opal Country. Another of these Australian thrillers in the heat and the dryness — and the flies! Searching for o..."
Looks like it will be a while before it's available in the States, so I've put it on my wishlist at bookdepository. Wish they would accommodate me by having a sale, but then I would no doubt overdo it.
Storm wrote: "Re Bill’s comment about Marilynne Robinson, I have heard so much about her but have always been put off by that Christian belief element. Now I know that this is a bit of a prejudice on my part. I ..."What puts me off about some Christians is - they are so sure theirs is the only path. I used to work with a born again who was that way. It is quite off-putting especially when she would talk about going to other countries to proselytize. And here we also come across a Mormon pair doing the same.
I am a big believer in letting people choose their own path, whatever faith/no-faith road they choose.
And when someone is hateful as Susan Hill was to the https://www.thebookhive.co.uk/ I just put her on my DNR (do not read) list. (I'm not sure why she came to mind. The only connection is being damned sure about something.)
Storm wrote: "Re Bill’s comment about Marilynne Robinson, I have heard so much about her but have always been put off by that Christian belief element. Now I know that this is a bit of a prejudice on my part. I ..."Housekeeping has been highly praised by a number of critics, Michael Dirda, for me, foremost among them. I finally got around to reading it a few years ago, and had a very mixed reaction. It is told in very well written prose, but as far as telling a story about more-or-less true-to-life characters and the society in which they live, I felt that it was deeply flawed in its outlook, even pernicious, given the time at which it was published. The characters are unattached to any standard sort of religious tradition, but Robinson hits at least one false note (dropping the mask, as it were) when she has her narrator express a basically Calvinist understanding of the performance of “good works”. The passage is quoted at the end of my review of the novel.
That review also praises Housekeeping as an outstanding vampire novel, an evaluation I’ve come to feel more confident about as time passes; it’s certainly superior in that regard to novels from the same period by King and Rice. The problem is, of course, that authorial intention is such that Housekeeping is not a vampire novel, and ultimately cannot sustain my preferred reading.
Since then, I’ve only read Robinson on occasion as her pieces appeared in the NYRB (though I skipped the two part Obama interview). These almost always introduce her religious beliefs, either explicitly in the chosen subject or as an aside in her discussion of some contemporary American issue. Such references usually strike me as having a tone of smugness, an attitude perhaps difficult to suppress when one is a self-aware member of the predestined Elect.
I occasionally listen to the Ezra Klein podcast from the NY Times. He always concludes his podcast by asking his guest to recommend three books. Two recent guests both included Robinson’s The Gilead Novels in their recommendations.
The first was the editor-in-chief of Christianity Today. His other recommendations were author C.S. Lewis and The Resurrection of the Son of God, which pretty much reinforced my idea that Robinson’s later novels are a kind of literary fiction Narnia for adult readers, stealthily proselytizing beneath their critically-acclaimed (and Oprah-approved) surfaces.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/op...?
The other recommendation came from Maryanne Wolf, who has some personal connection with Robinson (from the transcript):
Maryanne WolfI note that one of Wolf’s other suggestions (she fudges and gets in more than three) includes a book by a theologian (John S. Dunne), but I otherwise know nothing of her religious inclinations.
First is my favorite novelist — American, female novelist — and that’s Marilynne Robinson. Her “Gilead,” “Home,” “Lila,” “Jack.” The trilogy “Gilead” is one of the most beautiful novels I think of the 20th century, 21st century.
Ezra Klein
Yeah, I think “Gilead” is in my top five books.
Maryanne Wolf
I don’t know how many times I’ve read it. In fact, I was with Marilynne Robinson once in a car and we were reciting Emily Dickinson’s poems together. And she’s just an astonishing, astonishing person.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/op...
Here's a nice Anthony Fauci farewell piece - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/op...I don't know if NYT allows 'free looks' so if it doesn't and your library subscribes, you may be able to 'piggyback' on their subscription.
Just done with my first foray into the novels of
Barry Gifford
, with
Night People
and I certainly enjoyed it. I've come to them from The Roy Stories, and though completely different, some of their appeal is evident here also.
These are four interwoven novellas, all set in Florida, and told with a Crews-esque southern gothic style, and full of colourful characters with improbable names.
In the first tale, Big Betty Stalcup and Miss Cutie Early, two lesbian ex-convicts, with a mission. They hit the road, canoodling and smooching until they find a corrupt black lawyer recovering from a heart bypass, and add to his tattoos with a razor. But are they the serial killers responsible for all the recent decapitations, or is that Wapiti Touche, the Irish-Seminole-French Canadian-Dutch prostitute from Egypt City...
Beatifica Brown, a devout abortionist, is visited by the ghost of abolitionist John Brown, who implores her to adopt his methods in fighting the anti-abortion activists of Louisiana.
Dallas and Dilys Salt, brother and sister rival preachers and the parents of a child with Down's syndrome, preach their respectively pro-life and pro-choice messages from the Church on the One Hand and the Church on the Other Hand respectively.
But the best is last - Fourteen year old Marble Lesson, is the sole survivor of a lightning strike on a crowded bus, and subsequently to an attempted rape. She spells out her philosophy in letters to a Jesus she has been brought up to see as an icon of the Klan, in a white robe.
This is Gifford at his stongest; with passion, clarity and piercing brevity, diffusing these bizarre and sleazy episodes with engaging emotion.
Bill wrote: "Storm wrote: "Re Bill’s comment about Marilynne Robinson, I have heard so much about her but have always been put off by that Christian belief element. Now I know that this is a bit of a prejudice ..."Religion has become quite a rare topic in secular western europe, i have no issues with religious belief elements and i find that american religious faith fascinating, even if slowly, especially on the two coasts, the situation is becoming more like Europe.
The danger with religion and politics nowadays seems to be where it fails to respect the separation of church and state. The USA and Poland are two nations starting to hover close to a merger on this issue(never thought i would compare reactionary Catholic Poland with the land of the free(ish).
A Catholic dominated SC in the USA seems to be trying to change a constitution that in certain ways was written to be tolerant of all faiths and beliefs, by inserting religion back into the consitution. In Poland the seperation seems to have totally failed and we have a Catholic Nationalist Party.
I was too young-getting drunk to take much notice of the many reasons why Clarence Thomas should never have become a supreme court justice in the early 90s but i now see a malevolent force at the heart of a cynical SC
MK wrote: "One of the places I go to in my morning routine is Facebook. Looks like it is 'bundle-up' time there (Norfolk).https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23183709...
..."
I'm in North Norfolk as we speak and am SO cold. Reading in front of the fire is just about OK but looking at GR upstairs on the pc not so. Coincidentally I'm reading about North Norfolk too. I'm on book 14 of 15 of Henry Williamson's Chronicle of Ancient sunlight series.
I've had four books on WW1 which were the 'best' WW1 reading I've ever done, and after a decade or two I'm now on WW2 when Williamson and his fictional protagonist (I won't say hero) are farming at Stiffkey.
I'm trawling through descriptions of what they sowed where, how they ploughed, harrowed, riddled the different fields, how the locals were an unhelpful bunch and only wanted to do it their own way, but it's strangely relaxing and interesting. I was warned off these last books because Williamson (and his 'hero') were very keen on Oswald Mosley. That's as may be, but that too is interesting.
I intended to write up the whole series once I'd finished it but I think it'll be too much for me. Suffice to say it's a picture of one man's life (very close to HW's I suppose, though I won't know till I read his biography) - a pretty flawed man but so real and convincing, and I've learnt a lot I didn't know about Britain in the first half of the 20th century.
AB76 wrote: "Gpfr wrote: " I've just finished Chris Hammer's Opal Country. Another of these Australian thrillers in the heat and the dryness — and the flies! Se..."
Sorry no horror for me. I may even dig into my Arthur Upfields for some Australian solace in the meantime.
AB76 wrote: "A Catholic dominated SC in the USA seems to be trying to change a constitution that in certain ways was written to be tolerant of all faiths and beliefs, by inserting religion back into the consitution."The situation in the US is probably a good part of the reason I see Greenblatt's take on Tudor religion - a kind of cynical shell game on the part of the powerful to maintain and increase their position, while the innocent and credulous are crushed by its irrational authority - as much more relevant to my understanding of religious belief than Robinson's meditations.
Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "A Catholic dominated SC in the USA seems to be trying to change a constitution that in certain ways was written to be tolerant of all faiths and beliefs, by inserting religion back int..."a very wise analogy...
Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "A Catholic dominated SC in the USA seems to be trying to change a constitution that in certain ways was written to be tolerant of all faiths and beliefs, by inserting religion back int..."I guess I'll say thanks for the Greenblatt reference. I've put a reminder in my calendar for 24 June as it is coming to San Francisco. Then again, there is quite a bit of the exhibition available here with smallish pictures but nice audio - https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions...
A recent survey suggests that less than 50% of people see themselves as having a Christian identity, a third of churchgoers are over 70, and over a third who ticked the Christian box do it simply because they were baptised as children. Politics in the U.K. has been thankfully free of interference from religion, and the separation of Church and State have been upheld.The view from here of the US shows a markedly different picture. In fact it is hard to imagine a US politician getting elected without some mention of God. Why has religion, and a pretty fervent style of it, remained strong in the US? Genuine question. Why is some mention of God in politics seemingly obligatory?
The other thing that bugs me is why it is the hardline Old Testament Bible thumpers that seem to have won over the more compassionate understanding New Testament vibe?
I agree that it is the people who are convinced they are right, that theirs is the only path that are the worst (Christians or anything else). Anyone who leaves no room for doubt is a fanatic. And fanatics are dangerous.
On a cheery note for those who can watch TV in the U.K., Vienna Blood, Season 3, starts on Wednesday on BBC2 at 9pm.I will need to look out my long dress with the high lace neckline, bustle, and jet necklace and pour a glass. What drink do you think goes with 1908 Vienna? Not Kaffee at 9pm. No, what would be a period accompaniment?
Storm wrote: "On a cheery note for those who can watch TV in the U.K., Vienna Blood, Season 3, starts on Wednesday on BBC2 at 9pm.I will need to look out my long dress with the high lace neckline, bustle, and j..."
kirsch for the more hardboiled should do it... cherry brandy for the more sweet-toothed perhaps. Though I think you could have some fun with kirsch based cocktails
Storm wrote: "A recent survey suggests that less than 50% of people see themselves as having a Christian identity, a third of churchgoers are over 70, and over a third who ticked the Christian box do it simply b..."From my studies of faith-church attendance in the last 150 years, i would say most of the Anglo_Saxon world has been in gentle or steep decline. Industrialised Anglo-Saxon nations saw poor church attendance everywhere but the USA, the famous 1851 British religious census recorded barely 10% of the population of large cities like Leeds attending church. Figures in the 1880s for Berlin were also similar and low.
I suspect in the USA that the wave of "awakenings" re-vitalised religion in the same long 19th century where europe was waning, though clearly not as much as in the 20thc.
Radical Protestants in the USA also are more numerous, the Baptists being a significant percentage of believers and in the South and Texas they have huge influence. In Canada, S Africa, Aus and NZ, the Protestant majority is more mainstream and less inclined towards pushing for identity and conformity
Lastly, the British Empire, which influenced the Anglo_Saxon dominions like Aus, Can, NZ and SAF was lax and fairly negligent about organised religion outside the Anglican sphere (which was much less significant in Canada and the USA). In the USA, i would say that Protestant fire of diversity, independence and individualism never died out, the fundamentals of the faith stayed strong.
What is so strange is that this fierce individualism has morphed into a collective imposition of beliefs on a ostensibly secular state via, of all things, catholic justices with personal agendas
The New World does also supply indigenous beliefs and the charismatic churches which are small in the Anglo_Saxon sphere but huge in the Latin American(Brazil and its Evangelical Protestants etc)
The Commonwealth is the real beating heart of "british" faith, with many ex British Empire African colonies observantly Anglican or Protestant, with a vibrant and growing faithful. The next AB of Canterbury should be from Africa in my opinion.
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"Sorry no horror for me."
Thanks, AB, but I'm not into horror either.
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... which may yet cause a few raised eyebrows if any boys with South or Central American ancestry turn up with the name 'Jesus'!