Luke > Recent Status Updates

Not surprised that protest via refusing to keep prison areas "presentable" exacerbated the authorities more than did hunger strikes. Without a solid line of communication between the strike and the public view, starving oneself to death just makes you easier to clean up.

Every so often, my adblock takes a fraction of a second longer to load than does the Goodreads webpage, and for that brief moment, I get a glimpse of the void.

Surprisingly, this is coming off as awfully queer, but considering the style and times, it's probably just more of the text's customary hibbeldy squibbeldiness that occasionally applies itself to gender amongst its less risky subjects. Ah well. One can still dream.

Am I really witnessing Malthusian fearmongering in the year of our lord 2022 that completely ignores the obscene diverge in resource consumption rates of certain (first world) countries versus everyone else? Fashionably ignorant as such may be, your kyriarchy is showing.

Mandela's mention of working with a former member of Palmach, the ancestral backbone of IDF, makes me wonder what his views were on Palestine at the time (1961).

I've been doing an awful lot of trash talking with my reading this year, so it's for the best that I invest some of 2022 in putting my money where my mouth is.

So the main woman character doesn't take pleasure in kissing dudes, the narrative spends loads of time describing the beauty of women, and I'm supposed to take this all in as straight? Please.

[N]o one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.

With the starting of this, every single work I'm currently reading has been waiting on my shelves since 2013, if not earlier. Feels good to finally be ending so much procrastination on so many fronts.

Been a while since my last Calvino. Let's see what's changed since 2013.

Very interesting to see how the historically judicial treatment of Nazism impacted anti-apartheid legal structures.

Laws stripping people of their rights were inevitably described as laws restoring those rights.

Ah, yes, the good ol' days when writers could get away with having their characters (especially the manic pixie dream girl types) vent post at each other as dialogue because assorted stimulants/barbiturates were ubiquitous and LiveJournal hadn't been invented yet.

I spend so much time engaging with the literary margins that turning to this feels like switching to easy mode.

Well, as per usual with a work such as this, the most believable romance involves not a single woman.

...[M]iners were normally housed according to tribe. The mining companies preferred such segregation because it prevented different ethnic groups from uniting around a common grievance and it reinforced the power of the chiefs. The separation often resulted in factional fights between different ethnic groups and clans, which the companies did not effectively discourage.

Wonder whether the plot would be capable of functioning without a man stalking a woman every ten seconds.

Don't like starting a minorly massive reading project without having completely wrapped up the prior one, but considering the timing, it can't be helped.

Funny how "to flatter" is equated to "not be a sanctimonious twat" here, but not every writer holds to the idea that actions speak louder than words.

Uhhh, Lynch? True Detective? Call the Midwife? Your poorly applied, much abused, WASP fearmongering tropes are calling.

Wonder how many of the negative reviews skipped the introduction, aka decided they knew better and went 80 mph on a residential street.

Boldwood's rather theatrically conniving, isn't he. His present day incarnations threaten to kill themselves when their soon to be former girlfriends refuse to wait on them hand and foot.

Finally in the four figured realm. That's gotta count for something.

The plot is shaping itself awfully conveniently for the benefit of some characters and the detriment of others. We'll see if Hardy's writing can keep pace with his proselytizing.

Man do I miss the Goodreads' days when users would just...not be on for a while, and then come back one day. All this 'on hiatus' whatnot is just more folks feeding into the idea that they have to be a brand on social media in order for there to be a 'point' to their participation, rather than just be a person in a community formed around a shared interest. Like, is anyone even getting paid? Certainly not me.

I've seen reviews say that the first marriage proposal should've just gone through and saved everyone a lot of trouble, and after having read it myself, I just have go say...is that a joke?

Is it possible these days for anyone to attempt any sort of critical analysis without going "Cause that's what that generation does," cause let me tell you something. If you're of a certain age that's exempt from being bigoted, self-absorbed, or both, you can probably count the number of months it's been since your birth on two hands.

A return to the titular character, at least.

When not being outrageously hateful (or "politically incorrect" for the LinkedIn crowd), this is rather enjoyable in a complex thinking way (especially when I know the Gordian's knot already), but man, the number of times the plot relies on some random loser showing up and spilling their guts due to the magical siren powers inherent to British people is one too many. And by that I mean a number greater than zero.

Thinking about famous white men driving drunk and what their Wikipedia articles would look like if that were actually taken as seriously as the more hysterical portions of the self proclaimed moral bastions of white US society believe themselves to do.