Nosemonkey > Recent Status Updates

"We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what - not who - we are."

Somehow I've never read this before. So far very different to what I was expecting, and much, much more enjoyable than Love In The Time Of Cholera so far. That was annoying, with stupid characters. This also has some pretty stupid characters - but it works.

Now I've got the structure (loosely chronological but sometimes jumping back and forward to ease understanding, considering one culture at a time yet continually comparative, and always focused on the context in which thematically-linked concepts first arose), it's increasingly clear that this is one of the best general global history books I've come across. Extremely good and very accessible.

I'm starting to really like this book...

Messy but intriguing so far. Reads a bit like a slightly confused pastiche of someone else. Early works, eh?

Still not entirely sure how this is a history of ideas, exactly, rather than a history of intellectual development. But I guess the chapters are grouped largely by concept, so it kinda counts.

Still - not complaining. It's rather good.

Good, this - though has been drifting more into a general history of human development. Inevitable when only just reaching the age of literacy? Possibly. But we've just passed over the rise of religion and literature with no deeper discussion of *why* people might want these things.

I guess I was expecting more psychological analysis of the ideas. Still interesting, mind.

Decent, this. Readable. Slightly out of date in the prehistory sections due to discoveries since publication, but still has some bits that were new to me.

Think I prefer Herodotus so far...

Well that's a pretty harrowing couple of hundred pages. Very well written, but... A bit shallow? All the characters' motivations feel complex because of the length, but behind all the words, every character is one-dimensional. Will carry on with the rest, but for a novel that's basically a character study based around a series of human relationships it's strange how superficial all these people are.

Well this is rather readable.

Very readable so far. Liking it.

Dipping back in, and damn is it racist - and pervy.

How better to follow the Landmark Herodotus? (And yes, I have the Landmark Xenophon sitting on the shelf for after... Let's see if I manage to maintain the enthusiasm...)

Battle of Thermapylae done. The book version's considerably less racist and homoerotic than the film.

Having read a couple of his books before, I really, really want to love this as much as I did them - but *damn* is it hard going. I'm having to stop multiple time a sentence to look up people, concepts, Hindu deities, obscure words, all sorts. Would it have hurt to provide a few footnotes for those of us not intimately familiar with everything Calasso's ever read?

Dipping in and out of Herodotus is always good. (Especially after playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, in which he's a character...)

Aaaaand... The Great Depression. This feels rather appropriate.