David > Recent Status Updates

I preferred today's reading over yesterday's but I'm still not finding it to be even half as helpful as I was hoping it would be.

Aside from the mention of Henry VIII, Lutherans, Turks, and John Calvin (all of whom are referenced in "The Tudors") as well as a couple of quotes from other sources, I'm not enjoying it.

Even though I want to write fiction, I bought this to give me some writing pointers. Some parts I enjoy; others I feel like Zinsser is a bit of an intellectual snob. During the chapter on "usage", he could occasionally be witty but most of the time I just wanted to tell him to shut up.

As fascinating as it is confusing. Why did so many people back then have the same damn names? "Tudors" makes me glad I've got a book on the Roman Empire but now I'm going to have to find one on the Ottoman Empire as well.

The final chapter dealing with Edward's reign implied Mary would be as bloodthirsty as her father. While executions did happen and she likely could have stopped them, there was no evidence how she felt about them. It doesn't talk about her executing people simply because they didn't kiss her ass nor does it talk about how she desecrated the bodies of her victims like Henry had done.

Edward's efforts to prevent Mary from becoming queen have been thwarted which pleased me until I got to the line at the end of Chapter 1 stating Mary's acts "echoed the outraged committed" by her psychopath father. Uh oh, looks like I'm about to start reading about Bloody Mary!

It was strange how Meyer went from discussing the death of Henry's 3rd wife to ten years later after he's been married three times and is now dying. I was expecting something juicy to explain why he had a second wife executed but it pretty much got glossed over. I'm not at the part where his nine year old is king and Edward Seymour (Duke of Somerset) is calling a lot of the shots.

It's amusing that for several days' worth of reading all Henry wanted was to have his marriage to Catherine annulled so he could marry Anne. In today's reading Catherine and Anne have both died, Henry married Jane Seymour, and then she died too. I feel sorry for Catherine and Jane (definitely not Anne) but I have to say, the bad luck couldn't have happened to a nicer despot.

Fascinating reading about what a tyrant Henry VIII was. Weird reading how much influence the church had until Henry got mad at it for not agreeing to his bogus annulment. The Benedictine chapter was dull, though, and I'm not sure why it was even included.

Interesting though I get confused when people are referred to by their titles instead of their names. I just wish my memory were better because I know a week after I'm through (if not sooner), I'm going to forget a lot of the details.

A bit of the jumping around is weird but this is mostly a very interesting look inside the Tudor dynasty.

When I'm not lost by all the Duke of Wherevershire titles, I'm enjoying it. Interesting that Henry used Leviticus to excuse his reason for why his marriage to Catherine should be annulled; the author points out on page 47 that even back in the 1500's the church pretty much ignored Leviticus as no longer applying and yet today it's still used as justification to harass gays.

I love it but I do wish Sander and Suchong appeared more often. I always wish there was more Lamb; I don't remember Bioshock 2 nearly as much as the original so I don't have many memories of her. She does come across as much less of a threat than Atlas, though.