Amelia Halgren > Recent Status Updates

“Where they have all failed morally is to extend to their passengers the consideration that places their lives as of more interest to them than any other conceivable thing. They are not alone in this... thoughtlessness for the well-being of our fellow-men... It is folly for the public to rise up now and condemn the steamship companies: their failing is the common failing of the immorality of indifference.”

“the more information that comes to hand of the conduct of the people on board, the more wonderful seems the complete self-control of all, even when the last boats had gone and nothing but the rising waters met their eyes”

...our author seems at great pains to make this point

“Fighting another human being is not as hard as you think when they’re trying to kill you.”

“In the Korengal the soldiers never talked about the wider war —or cared... And the big bases had the opposite problem; since there was almost no combat everyone had kind of a reflexive optimism that never got tested by the reality outside the wire. The public affairs guys on those bases offered the press a certain vision of the war, and that vision wasn’t wrong, it just seemed amazingly incomplete.”

I found this relatable:

“The primary factor determining breakdown in combat does not appear to be the objective level of danger so much as the feeling, even the illusion, of control. Highly trained men in extraordinarily dangerous circumstances are less likely to break down than untrained men in little danger.”

“There are different kinds of strength and containing fear may be the most profound; the one without which armies couldn’t function and wars couldn’t be fought— god forbid.”

“As a civilian among soldiers, I was aware that a failure of nerve by me could put other men at risk. And that idea was almost as mortifying as the very real dangers up there. The problem with fear though, is that it isn’t any one thing. Fear has a whole taxonomy —anxiety, dread, panic, foreboding— and you can be braced for one form and completely fall apart facing another.”

“Journalistic convention holds that you can’t write objectively about people you’re close to. But you can’t write objectively about people who are shooting at you either. Pure objectivity, difficult enough when covering a city council meeting, isn’t remotely possible in a war. ...Objectivity and honesty are not the same thing though...”

“The moral basis of the war doesn’t seem to interest soldiers much and it’s long term success of failure has a relevance of almost zero. Soldiers worry about those things about as much as farmhands worry about the global economy— which is to say they recognize stupidity when it’s right in front of them, but they generally leave the big picture to others.”

I listened to the audiobook until chapter eight. But I’m giving up now. This has been on my to-read list for *years* and it was finally available to borrow when I was in the mood for it. Unfortunately I just didn’t find it humorous in the way I’d hoped. It definitely has a farcical bent, which I enjoy, but it’s interspersed with fairly dry, only occasionally chuckle-worthy, character backgrounds.

I have a theory on the conclusion... curious to see if I’ve figured out the solution!

My library copy expired but I wasn’t totally absorbed by this anyway

Ack!!! My loan expired halfway through part 24/25

Do I buy it to read the ending or get back in line at the library???

Spoilers.... Follett missed an opportunity explaining why Edgar’s mother wouldn’t remarry. She’s pragmatic, yet all the reasons she gave were sentimental. This character would also consider practical reasons for marrying or not. She might choose not to marry because her husband would have rights over her or she might choose to marry to elevate her position or that of her children.

Not sure I’m involved enough to want to finish this...