Some baby bath-time books are made of sponge.
Funny you should ask, I was just sitting at my computer, phone in hand, deleting newsy podcast subscriptions and choosing new music to put on my phone in their place.
Some sponges are made of baby bathtime books.
Banana Kush, Grape Stomper, Blue Dream, and Durban Haze are on my bedside table. I check out a lot.
I just read The Magicians by Lev Grossman (I know there's a tv show, but I haven't seen it), and it was totally engrossing. Also, The Last Painting of Sarah de Vos, by Dominic Smith. I also recently enjoyed Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart and Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler.
I've avoided looking at or listening to the news yesterday and today. I'm thinking of canceling my New York Times subscription altogether, because I can't right no imagine a time when I'll be able to stomach the front page.
Also, am I going to have a migraine for the next four years? I woke up yesterday and this morning with my nightguard embedded in my gums, I've been grinding my teeth so hard.
I'm re-binge-watching Jane the Virgin, which is just the right level of smart and silly.
My sister has been listening to Lemonade on repeat, which she says is just the right level of angry.
5: Purchased The Magicians. Thanks!
Brazilian music usually works for me-- Joao Gilberto, Chico Buarque. Here is a mix
I am switching to listening more on Spotify-- Here is a playlist of Ted Gioia's recommended performances of many jazz standards
Oh man, I want to hear from you Magicians lovers after you read the second book, which I loathed so intensely it's hard to talk about. The third was not as bad but bad in different ways. And of course I read the third. (I actually reread a fair bit of the second, thinking it was the third and getting more and more annoyed at how redundant it seemed.) What's wrong with me?
10: I only read the first one, and while I loved it, I'm tired of serials and hadn't made any imminent plans to read the second one. I also really liked how the first one ended, and I felt like a continuation was unnecessary. Did you like the first one? I'm interested in the fact that you loathed #2 but went on tho read #3! I'm one of those people who has to finish a book after I've started it, but that's really a new level of dedication.
After I woke up from my horrible post-election night (woke up at 2 and panicked until 4, got some work done from 4-5, went back to bed), I went to the library for romance novels. I just want a lot of happy endings (both kinds). I also got some Wild America (Marty is kind of hot?) which amazingly holds up and Bill Bryson's non-fiction.
I'm doing a lot of avoiding of things I normally do. You guys are the only non-fashion/non-ecology blog I'm reading (and thanks for all your sanity). I've stopped updating any political podcasts I subscribed to and I'm only listening to the non-political (Perth ABC's gardening, Writers and Company, Ideas, re-listening to The World In 100 Objects). I haven't opened up Facebook or Twitter since Tuesday and I'm really not missing them.
For another smart/silly show, Galavant - the second season isn't as good but still funny.
Also I was writing a follow-up email about a possible post-doc in Canada and as the returns were coming in my waffling about starting dates got less and less concrete (whenever! whenever you want! just pick me!).
For me, third season of The Fall, plenty of Rosemary & Thyme, which is an amazingly cheesy cozy mystery tv series. Needlepoint helps. (Nothing helps.)
I spent 90 minutes yesterday playing tennis and for probably half that time I totally forgot about the world. It felt great.
11: I had some things I didn't like about 1 but found it basically enjoyable. I found some things I liked about 2 but may have actually thrown it across the room and certainly wanted to on several occasions. There are still some great images and powerful moments in both, but especially the sexual politics and sad-young-man stuff are done in ways that make me want to burn the world with my magical brain powers except I can't.
The Great British Bake-Off is the TV equivalent of puppy GIFs, in terms of soothingness.
Elena Ferrante's tetralogy is also engrossing, I just finished the second one about a month ago.
Agreed on the Ferrante Neapolitan novels. The second one was my favorite.
Should I be watching The Crown? Is it actually good, or just costume porn?
To clarify, I'm good with costume porn, just want to know what to expect.
Do not do anything that upsets you without giving you a clear route to empowerment. For me right now that means no news reading, because there's nothing obvious to do. Do you have a backlog of domestic tasks to get to? Landscaping? Write letters to friends? Declutter? Propose an Unfogged reading group?
15: I felt similarly (possibly not in detail). I was pissed off enough that I haven't picked up the third, although it's the sort of thing where I normally would.
Anyone who wants a backlog of domestic tasks is welcome to come see me in the heartland.
I'm so glad to see others had problems with Grossman's books. The first one I enjoyed. The second one I made it through. The third I couldn't finish. What sticks in my head is how horribly derivative it became.
I'm getting considerable valuable distraction from Tana French's latest Dublin Murder Squad novel, The Trespasser. Each of her novels since the first has had as protagonist someone who was a subsidiary character in a previous novel. So I saw Detective Antoinette Conway for one novel through the eyes of her partner, and now I get to spend a book inside of her head.
I want to mix escapism with getting more politically involved. This low level static agitation is not helping. I'd rather do something that seems like it has a meaningful chance of helping, but also check out completely from time to time. I'm terrible at hobbies and compartmentalization.
My ex likes Alexander McCall Smith, light and prolific-- Ladies no 1 detective agency are OK, I liked At The Villa of Reduced Circumstance a lot.
The last book that I found to be a completely absorbing page-turner was Iain M Banks' The Algebraist, brilliant and sometimes very funny science fiction.
You guys are the only non-fashion/non-ecology blog I'm reading (and thanks for all your sanity)
I love fashion blogs. Which ones do you read? You can email me if it's embarrassing.
My escapism is reading the actuarial tables for 70 year old obese men who primarily eat fast food and sleep 3 hours a night.
I understand heroin is totally immersing.
27 was in terrible taste; people are and know people suffering and in recovery. I apologize.
I'm sure there are also people who are recovering from being overweight badly eating 70 year olds.
Liz Bourke asked on Twitter for recommendations for "happy queer SFF novels with female protagonists". Results.
I am way more distracted today than yesterday. I set up a long series of tasks Monday that I was able to work through until Wednesday, but then I finished them.
32: Thanks, I've heard good things about A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet but for whatever reason forgot to put it on my to-read list.
24 is closer to my position too; I am also thinking that this might be a time for the quit-your-job-for-full-time-?????-world-saving work. I'm not sure this job is churning out quite enough money for charity to make a difference.
Guys did you know CRISIS means DANGER and OPPORTUNITY in CHINESE which is weird because crisis is also an English word
Ambien + Soma. IMX it worked like Thor's hammer, the only problem being the world was still there in the morning.
31: No, there's no point to that.
Have more intimate time with your partner(s)?
35. this might be a time for the quit-your-job-for-full-time-?????-world-saving work
I was kind of thinking the opposite, that I would quit my job and start doing meaningless work at some for-profit enterprise I don't care about, and also that I would disengage from current affairs altogether. Not that I do anything particularly world-saving now, either in my work or in my extracurricular time, but it just feels too horrible to care so much and work so hard just to see everything senselessly smashed up.
I assume that in a few days I'll feel better and come to my senses, but that's just how I feel right now.
We could swap jobs! Except that I think you have a law degree. Can you give me the law degree? It's not needed for my job.
I've read a few of these https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29661618-just-one-damned-thing-after-another lately; they're fun.
I've been ignoring the news on the radio and only listening to podcasts (I'm in the car a lot these days, have finally embraced them) - mostly alternating between Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcasts which often make me laugh so much it's probably not actually safe to drive, and The West Wing Weekly which offers a much more appealing White House. (Kid D is talking about ordering TWW boxset (it's not on Netflix here yet and she gave her grandma's box back to her after watching it all) because she "doesn't want to deal with nonfictional politics".)
39. Deal. BTW, my continuing legal education deadline is coming up, thx in advance!
Sometimes I wonder if the way to make a difference is to go all in on profit and hope you retain the conviction that got you into that when you later have money to spend. I can't see any flaw in that. Business oriented America can make millionaires of us all.
I'm not exactly saying I recommend giving a parent a traumatic brain injury so that caring for them can distract you from this national heartbreak but it does work.
Finished The Fall. Not thrilled. It's atmospheric and female gazey, but not much more. Big drop off from season one to three. I am, however, not a connoisseur of the genre.
In terms of books, the series by Elizabeth Bear that begins with Range of Ghosts is decent and plenty escapist. It's Central Asian fantasy.
I record Colbert, but don't watch him much. I don't think he's really hit his stride.
But last night's show was really good because he completely gave up on pretending he's trying to appeal to everybody. It was totally about Trump, but it was silly and fun and succeeded in taking my mind off of the awfulness of it all.
42: I am learning that you REALLY have to sell your services at a high rate for that plan to work. Like, take your highest lolworthy sellout salary and double it. Harder than it looks! (Exception: the Google IPO sure as shit paid off for a lot of relatively lucky people, some of whom I know. A grad school classmate who ended up leaving academia was offered a pre-IPO Google job, but opted to get her M.A. in Italian literature instead. She concluded the story: "and yeah, actually, I literally can't stand to think about that so let's change the subject now.")
I have an interview next week for an EXTREMELY relevant public interest job, so I need you all to make the money lots you will donate to this organization, earmarked as my salary.
Also watch all of Miami Vice. It's very soothing and there's a lot.
Wow "make the money lots you will donate," I'm doing grrreeeat.
I posted this over at LGM, in the post-election feelings thread:
Yesterday, I had an appointment in the morning. And then, before I could go into work, I went to a public Japanese garden near my home to sit for about half an hour taking in the beauty, as a reminder to me that there are still beautiful things and places in this world that politics need not touch. (Though even then, it is not immune to politics, as I thought about why that particular garden exists in that particular part of California in recognition of a sister city relationship. And my thoughts turned briefly to the accounts I had read a few months ago of survivors of Hiroshima and how so many of them were innocent civilians just trying to get on with their lives in spite of what governments might be doing.)
There is still hope in this world, in spite of everything. There is still beauty, and serenity. And I needed to sit and take that in for a bit, before I could get on with my day.
44.1 is basically how I feel, but it passed the time. I found Broadchurch.
... much more cathartic. But that's probably a personal thing.
Well of course not recommending, but what I read distracts and settles me from a hard day on the Interwebs.
I read at least four at once, so when I get tired and start to zone or skip I can move to another subject. Fuck italics
Cambridge History of China, Vol 13, Chinese Republic, War with Japan, Communists and Mao, Civil War
Lev Manovich, Language of the New Media
Manifestly Haraway
Anne Allison, Precarious Japan
Had the feminists against Clinton book started, but dropped it yesterday.
In America, first you make the money lots, then you get the savings, then you make the donations.
13: Also watching Rosemary and Thyme. Why is that show so comforting? Also, shouldn't R. & T. have realized by season three that murders happen whenever they're around?
Of course, I'm in despair about the election.
More aptly, I found the Margaret Atwood MaddAddam series very engaging. It's a kind of graceful trilogy about the end of civilization.
55: I think they do know and just don't care. That episode in I think season two where they're making fun of the cop who's never been around a dead body was entertaining!
I liked the first season of The Fall even though I don't usually like extended serial killer procedurals, though I do like procedurals that have new cases every episode or two. The second season I watched for the resolution, didn't know there was a third.
I watched Broadchurch season one and Hinterland and started to feel like those kinds of shows started to blend into sameness. But that's the way of a lot of tv, not just British. I cut Netflix streaming, so now I watch less of what everyone else watches.
Someone already posted this in the prediction thread, but Leonard Cohen just turned his back on the crowd.
Could be a good time to spend the day listening to his albums. That's my plan anyway. That, and I'm cooking for eight people tonight in an unfamiliar kitchen and still haven't quite decided what to make.
15 et al: I loved all three Magicians books, but liked each less than the one before. I think the sad young man stuff is kind of the point. The arc of the series is Quentin getting over his shit and growing up, and the books aren't kind to him. The sexual politics are fucked up, but not I think maliciously. But could be just privilege talking there. Myself, I've finally started on Fall of Light by Steven Erikson. In which the literal first words are 'The Seduction of Tragedy', so possibly not a good plan. But I have high hopes for the trilogy, anyway.
We found it helpful last night to watch The Americans and stress out about things that were imaginary and went away when we clicked the remote.
I recently started reading The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China by Dieter Kuhn. It's quite interesting so far, if a bit dry.
(I just caught up on the thread so hopefully you'll see this Heebie.) I always feel like a total ditz here anyway so totally not embarrassed by naming fashion blogs. Sometimes I like to feel slightly superior to people and go to YouLookFab and AlreadyPretty. There used to be a bunch of Australian and NZ bloggers I read but most of them stopped posting. I think the only one left is iCurvy and even she hasn't posted for ages. LabMuffin for skin-care nerdery. Fashion for Giants. 14 Shades of Grey. AsianCajuns. Just people putting pictures of themselves on the internet. My daily reads are Tom & Lorenzo and GoFugYourself, which are famous-people fashion, and LaineyGossip which is famous-people gossip (like PhD level gossip with all kinds of discussion of strategy). Suggestions for other good ones?
The Girl with Ghost Eyes ad Sorcerer to the Crown might be some good escapist books. Both fantasy (historical Earth with magic) with women of colour as protagonists.
I always feel like a total ditz here anyway
I am legitimately surprised by this. I, for one, definitely have you classified as "smart, insightful scientist-type" (as well as "Canadian") rather than "ditz." (And I'm glad to see you commenting again!)
Sure in my normal life (also modest). But you guys are intimidatingly smart and well-spoken. Commenting is nerve-wracking and I only get over myself at times like now when I'm so emotionally tired. Or drunk.
I hear ya. I know this can be an intimidating place.
They just threw some guy out of the bar for being drunk and belligerent. Fortunately I'm just drunk.
I'm not drunk yet, but I'm getting there.
I'm listening to Cohen and have teared up like five time this evening between him and the election. But not drunk! Can't get drunk. My emotions will come to the surface and spill over everything.
You can't express emotions while sober.
A friend died a couple of weeks ago, good man, a good death, and I've been helping his friend get his house ready. Polishing pots today was the perfect escapist activity. Something to hyper-focus on, not my own stuff, and connected to someone I love who does not have to be worried by the world any more. I recommend anything like this, it was bliss.
Oh yeah, like a WASP I've been considering going to my therapist to do a big anger release in a safe environment but have I actually done it no I'm busy polishing this pot.
Yes indeed. And nice to see you back too, hydrobatidae.
62: If you're interested in Ming or Qing, I highly recommend Jonathan Spence. Not dry at all, but still authoritative. Good stuff.
Watched the opening credits of McCabe & Mrs. Miller tonight, before episode 3 of the Fall. No spoilers, people!
I've been on news blackout, helped by a family crisis, and spending the whole day in court today.
In 2004, I left the victory party at like 10 MST when it clearly wasn't going to be one and consumed no news at all until mid January 2005. It was great. Maybe I'll go even longer this time.
62. There is a fantastic recent book about the song/yuan painter zhao mengfu. His work is fantastic, as is his wif's, and their times and lives are also really interesting. It is possible to lead a good life in bad times.
The street style slide shows at frenchy elle, TLo (of course, the gold standard!) and the cut at nymag, also sali hughes always worth reading although she's working the beauty side of the street. I find Ruth crilly very relaxing even though virtually nothing she wears appeals to me.
I save up catching up on Charles Saumarez Smith's blog because it is so soothing. It's my panic button place. https://charlessaumarezsmith.com/blog/
The igor levitt concert from the beginning of the week on radio 3 has helped a couple times thus far.
78: Thanks, and yeah, I've heard a lot about him. I'm most interested in Song and Tang, though, since they're contemporaneous with Chaco (Song more than Tang, but definitely, and increasingly, both, and the five dynasties/ten kingdoms period in between). The project that all this reading is heading towards is a book about how the entire world, more or less, was interconnected by trade in the period AD 800 to 1200 or so, with a few exceptions like Tasmania and the Andamans, and maybe Easter Island. So any recommendations about the Song or very late Tang dynasties are welcome. Based on what I've read so far, the Liao dynasty seems like a pretty crucial link in this trade system. They were in direct contact with both Heian Japan and the Abbasids in Iraq, which is kind of a mindfuck in and of itself.
The one that really stopped me was the Tang protectorate in Kashmir. I mean, seriously?
I haven't read much about the Tang, but yeah. They seem to have had a long reach. And the Han were in indirect contact with imperial Rome. I still don't know a whole lot about China, but the more I read the clearer it is how important it is to understanding world history.
One interesting thing I'm learning about Song China from this book is that this was an era of geopolitical weakness for China, and the Song emperors generally swallowed their pride and paid tribute to stronger "barbarian" powers on their borders, particularly the Khitans of the Liao dynasty to the north. ("Khitan," by the way, is apparently the origin of the European term "Cathay." They controlled much of what is now, and was previously, northern China during the Song period.)
News blackout was certainly easier in the pre-Facebook era. It's going to be pretty leaky.
Sounds like Charley could use a few weeks reading about medieval China. We're here for you, dude.
82: I'm not great on either the north or the Song. One thing that might be worth a quick look is the Old Tea Horse Road and the Nan zhao and Dali Kingdoms. It linked up China with the subcontinent via Yunnan and Tibet and I think started around the period you're looking at.
85: There was a time (during the Tang I think) that the Chinese and Tibetans had each convinced themselves that the other was a tributary state, or so I have read.
88: Thanks! I'll look into those. Do you have any references about trade routes between China and Vietnam/Southeast Asia in general? That's a bit of a weak link in my schema, but it's crucial in getting to Torres Strait/Australia, which is important.
89: Well, I mean, if it works go for it.
Janet Abu-Lughod's book is too late for you, or have you already read it?
I watched a couple of episodes of the Fall, but I didn't like it because each episode didn't end with Jamie Dornan being brutally murdered. I like my serial killers dead, thank you.
I second the recommendation for Galavant. It is the most weightless of weightless trifles.
I've never read his work, but Mark Lewis has a survey book on the Tang and a book on the construction of space in China, that seems conceptually intriguing but possibly too early for you.
92: I haven't read it, and it is slightly too late for what I'm looking for, but it is conceptually similar and I should definitely read it at some point.
How does your scheme link the Americas to the rest?
94: Thanks! I'll look into his work. I'm more interested in Song than Tang, but one thing I've learned from this book so far is that the latter is crucial for understanding the former.
And the Vikings, but that's secondary.
At least the way I have it conceptualized at this point, but further research may steer me in a different direction. The gap between the Eskimos and Chukchi in (what is now) the Russian Far East and the Liao is one of the biggest gaps I've identified so far.
Also interesting conceptually is Lyman Van Slyke's book on the Yangtze, which is long duree so only occasionally overlaps with what you're doing. It's been a long time since I read it, but I think it was explicitly Braudelian, so there's some emphasis on trade. But I don't think van Slyke was a specialist in the period you're looking for.
If you haven't read it, The Emergence of Rus is good and maybe in your period and talks about the role of Vikings and trade in founding the state of Rus.
101.1: Yeah, probably not a great match for what I'm looking for.
101.2: This, on the other hand, sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. If I ever do write this book, the Vikings are going to play a huge role.
The Chinese history classes I took, even the surveys, were taught by either ancient China or modern China specialists so I basically know fuck all about the period you're researching.
If you decide to do the other book idea you've mentioned, about peripheries, then I probably have a lot of suggestions, since I read a lot about that for a while. People writing about different peripheries talking to each other even seemed to be becoming a thing while I was still in history. I remember inviting a friend writing about the 19th/20th C Mexico-US border to a seminar/workshop where someone was talking about the Russia-China border around the same period and it ended up being a pretty fascinating conversation for everyone.
4: mcmanus is, as I have always suspected, my actual dad.
25: the algebraist is FAB.
28: heroin is indeed very immersive but I cannot recommend it unreservedly. it's also a fair topic for jest. it's not as though one can't joke about alcoholics.
to the OP, I am playing nintendo's wonderful animal crossing new leaf on the DS. you do things for your dumb, adorable villagers, and fish and catch beetles and stuff. also girl x is getting a colonoscopy/endoscopy tomorrow under general anesthesia; prep is awful and she puked so hard she burst tiny blood vessels in her eyes. saintly brother-in-law has truly risked all in his quest to get us healthy, and was given 48 hours notice to cobble together something very like a book to convince his department to give him a year on the tenure clock. a book which has not, sensu stricto, been written. I'm so fucking nervous for him. I am using personal anxiety and misery to fight general anxiety and misery. this also I do not recommend entirely without reservations. fuck I have to wake up in five hours blerg. things are generally quite good so long as b-I-l doesn't turn out to have destroyed his life in saving ours.
girls x and y object strongly to the concept of the dark ages because they want to know, what about china then, hmm? was the life of the modal city-dweller, say, truly one of plagues and immiseration? perhaps instead it was one of fabulous hats and tasteful silk robes?
102.1: Sure, but it's short and interesting.
Another source for suggested readings might be David Christian's longly-titled
A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume I: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire. I don't think he wrote a second volume, as he got big into big history after that. His book is where I learned about Abu-Lughod, which as usual is something I haven't read.
I really haven't read a whole lot about Europe in this period, aside from The Inheritance of Rome, so if anyone has other recommendations I am very open to them. Again, trade is my main focus, but anything helps. (And I intend this to be a truly global account, so literature on anywhere helps. Europe and Asia are my biggest gaps at this point, though.)
90: I'm bad about collecting references. My understanding is that Nan zhao, sukhothai, and Khmer were trading city states along the Mekong and tributaries about this time. Of course, a big fat river is conducive to trade, and the Mekong is navigable from the Laos/Cambodia border to basically Tibet. The only title I can actually recall is The Art of Not Being Governed and that's more of a political analysis of hill tribes. Not helpful.
103.2: That project is on the backburner for now, but thanks. I would like to do it at some point, but the other one is a higher priority right now. The highest priority, at least in commercial terms, should probably be a book about Chaco itself, since there's definitely a small but very loyal market for that, and it would be a much easier sell for the publishers I have in mind. But I don't yet have a clear enough idea of how I interpret Chaco to write a book about it. It's a complicated place. These other ideas are way easier.
Pretty much all my reading on pre-modern Europe was in 2000-2001, FWIW. There could be a whole subfield looking at long distance trade emerging since then and I wouldn't know it.
I would second The Barbarian Conversion. A lovely book. Also, one which puts a huge dose of realism in teh face of everyone who says that Constantine was the worst thing ever to happen to Christianity. It is astonishing how low the motives were which led to the conversion of most barbarian leaders.
Peter Spufford's book on trade in mediaeval Europe is wonderful. https://www.librarything.com/work/41144/reviews
In my job it is hard to give up news entirely though I have almost managed for the last two days. Found my mother's 1943 edition of the Oxford book of English verse, printed on beautiful paper even in the middle of war time. Read her lots of Herrick and then took it home with me. Read Matthew Arnold to ume. Attempted to cheer a despairing teenage boy with chidiock tichborne's poem about being hung drawn and quartered.
Rode a bike in the dark and train for five miles through London traffic. Very good for concentration.
But there is actually nothing for me that beats reading poetry out loud. If I had my way I would organise a group of about eight people to to read out paradise lost in a ring to reach other.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
I know a very little about the Swahili coast, but not sure I can source references from here.
I did point of Grossman making The Magicians a trilogy. The first I thought was a joke, making loving fun of Narnia and Harry Potter. Great concept. By writing the second, the joke is gone.
It's a complicated place. These other ideas are way easier
Do you possibly just think that because you don't yet know as much about the other things as about Chaco?
The Piketty-influenced roleplaying game scenario worked out very well when we played it through. I am now writing a follow-up which will probably involve some sort of debt or currency crisis.
Hmm, on rereading that it isn't really escapism. Even with added orcs.
girls x and y object strongly to the concept of the dark ages because they want to know, what about china then, hmm?
That would be the Tang Dynasty, wouldn't it? Rather a good time for China.
Patchy. 200-600 post-Han division, Sui-Tang 600-900 but actually went to shit about 750. Anyway al's kids are right.
Dark ages? What dark ages?
107. I don't know who the Americans are, or who is working in other languages, but the leading British people on late antiquity, apart from Wickham, are Peter Heather, Bryan Ward-Perkins and Guy Halsall. Heather is prolific and possibly a little simplistic, but knows his stuff- good for an overview; Ward-Perkins is primarily an archaeologist and led the counter-revisionist charge against those who took the Peter Brown thesis that the western empire didn't fall so much as transform. I found his central book for the public, "The Fall of Rome", disappointing in that he seemed to walk back his central thesis in the final section. Halsall writes mainly for people in universities and proposes a slightly unusual thesis of which an oversimplified version might be that the collapse of the empire led to the migrations rather than vice versa. He has also been trailing for years an idea that the key changes happened at the end of the 6th century, but I don't think he's published on it in book form yet.
I think modern paper towel-holder technology would make it easier for me than for the ancients.
The vellum possibly won't come in current paper-towel dimensions.
Also, general escapism, I listen religiously to the Treatment and Bookworm on KCRW, even though I'll only ever see or read a tiny fraction of what they cover. Like having your personal fin de siècle salon.
Escapism-wise, I suggest playing Abzu while listening to The Thrilling Adventure Hour from the very beginning of the podcast.
Like having your personal fin de siècle salon.
The real thing is an aspiration of mine! But given that my escapism today was taking Selah to preschool and then working from home in my nightgown still, though with a sweater, I am probably not on track to ever realize that goal.
I feel that nightgowns are perfectly acceptable in a salon.
I've been reading Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning and it's been good at diverting me. Interesting future world, well written. Possibly Hugo-worthy.
Like Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy it does some weirdness with pronouns, which at first seems relatively simple but gets progressively more complicated. It's set in a future where gender is still a thing but more muted, and it's considered rude to use gendered pronouns outside of intimate circumstances, kind of a super-T/V distinction. But the narrator intentionally writes in a pastiche of an early 18th century style, so outside of direct quotes he uses he and she, but when he assigns a character a gender he doesn't necessarily do the one that might be assumed from either a 21st century or even perhaps the character's self-identification in their own future culture (though this is unclear); instead he uses pronouns appropriate for their position/behavior as if they lived during the Enlightenment, and he's at pains to describe this choice.
130: Sure, but not this particular nightgown (which is actually nondescript and like any other blobby maxidress I'd wear, so not bad as these things go) and I'm not in a salon.
For an escape into the deep past, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline is excellent, totally new to me in most parts but surprisingly familiar in others, e.g. it discusses the connected political/historical circumstances behind accounts of the partly historical Fall of Troy and the non-historical Exodus from Egypt, both around that time. Also far enough back to be not too scary.
Good works of the same genre: 1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann, 1968 by Mark Kurlansky. Crappy fake history of the same genre: 1421 by Gavin Menzies. Aspiring historians, there are still many years available.
131. I wish to god Palmer's stupid British publisher would get their act together and put out a paperback or kindle edition. I can't justify £15, and I want to read it.
Halford has quit, you can just steal things now.
134: I have it for Kindle, but it's in the new complex .kfx format, not any of the common e-book formats. I'm looking for a converter, or a description of a process, but I don't see anything that wouldn't cost more than the book itself. Anyway, hit me up if you're still interested.
136 written under the assumption that chris y would then legitimately buy it when it came out as an appropriate ebook, obviously. Don't copy that floppy.
Fashion for Giants. 14 Shades of Grey. AsianCajuns. Just people putting pictures of themselves on the internet.
This is my favorite category. Some of the ones I visit: Writes like a Girl, Franish, Blue Collar Red Lipstick, The Adored Life, Looks Good from the Back, The Mom Edit...I can't remember the ones I check on my home computer at the moment.
(I don't necessarily endorse all their fashion choices but for some reason I find them each very likable.)
138: I feel the same way. In some way, I like them because I disagree with their fashion choices (sometimes generally and sometimes as clothing that would work for me). They have a look and they're proud of it. Usually there isn't any other life things going on, maybe some mention of moving across country or a job, but it's just low key. And they post often which I also love. So soothing. Like afternoon tea.
Oh I just remembered! My new landlord has a fashion blog. She has the cool, vintagey mom vibe but in, maybe Narnia? One of those cities. I@mNorbhy@ Its really weird to read the blog of someone I know irl
But you guys are intimidatingly smart and well-spoken. Commenting is nerve-wracking and I only get over myself at times like now when I'm so emotionally tired. Or drunk.
I missed this when it went up. Same here. Commenters-whose-habits-maximize-bad-commenting comity! People here are intimidatingly smart, but for me being the dumbest person in the room is useful and nice. For you, I haven't seen that many comments from you but like teo I also had you pegged as smart and insightful.
I am happy to start swearing and ranting incoherently if it would make you and hydro feel more at ease.
My daily reads are Tom & Lorenzo and GoFugYourself, which are famous-people fashion
Tom & Lorenzo is BORING people fashion!!!
Soy & Lent is BORING people food!!!
142: Well, EXCUSE MEEEE, Mr. Fashion Excitement!
Oh, no need, they're all over it already.
Yasss.
142: Can you recommend any non-boring men's fashion sites? Assume a finite budget.
But I like boring people fashion! That's the point. T&Lo is expensive but yeah, not avant garde. Which isn't their fault really, it's that all the movie people have stylists now. And also that they're actors, not designers, art museum employees, Yoko Ono, or the super rich.
Also if you like fashion or documentaries about people working, I cannot recommend highly enough three documentaries on Netflix: The September Issue, The First Monday in May, and Dior and I. The first two focus on Anna Wintour who is a fascinating character (although the September Issue is definitely stolen by Grace Coddington, the fashion editor). Dior and I shows what goes into making a collection and spends not nearly enough time with the seamstresses. Also the decorations for the final show took my breath away.
Omg perfect escapism. I also enjoyed Iris, although after awhile the Grey Gardens guy's style irritates me. I want to see more of her outfits over the decades, hear more about her career and spend less time on A Day in the Life.
136. Never heard of that format. What can you read it with?
It's the new proprietary Kindle format, designed to allow loading multiple versions of a book so that you can quickly get a low fidelity version but allowing the higher fidelity assets to be substituted in later. It does some typesetting stuff better, too.
ebook-converter.com claims it can strip away the DRM.
I still vividly remember being apologetic about commenting until LB yelled at me to stop it and just comment. So I did, and now no one can shut me up. That's my recommendation!
I was actually considering stepping in here with some artfully crafted berating -- look, I depend on this website to amuse me when things are going badly, which, given the nature of 2016, is all the time now. And people being insecure about whether they're awesome enough to comment are not pulling their weight.
Take a lesson from great commenters of the past and drink more before commenting: you'll find the words just flow.
Tell me stories about Canada, hydrobatidae. Any stories. They can be fiction.
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I'll try to up my contributions.
So Canada...
I lived there once and it was a magical land. It would snow in October and you'd have to wear a snowsuit over your Hallowe'en costume. Hallowe'en was my birthday and I was always so mad that my beautiful costume was ruined because my mum thought I'd be cold. I wore sandals yesterday.
My sister went to the emergency room one day because of a hatchet accident at my brothers' bachelor party (the most Canadian of accidents?). There was no line when we got there. Everyone laughed at her because she was a nurse and should have known better. She showed her health card and then we left.
There were no jobs but it was okay because there was culture to preserve, EI payments, and free health care. All the children knew they would leave their town at 18 to make it in the big city (with student loans provided by the gov't) and only return for Christmas (there really weren't any non-Christians).
Leonard Cohen is a patron saint of the country and he can be heard reading In Fladers' Fields in case you feel not quite sad enough today.
When you glance over your shoulder to see if there is any traffic, both lanes of traffic will stop for you and then you'll be force to cross even if you weren't really sure you wanted to anyway.
People will say 'the river is really beautiful' and that will mean the town is flat and boring but the river really is beautiful.
People will say 'it's so easy to get out of town' and that will mean the town is too town-like and that you're wrong for liking the town more than the country.
People will say 'I don't speak French' and that will mean they took it for 8 years in school and can read food labels and watch hockey and not say a word in Quebec.
See, now we're in good standing with the CRTC. Idp does what he can, but there's never enough Cancon around here.
152: Speaking for just myself, my point was that despite my insecurity I often have no trouble vomiting words, but my ease with crafting comments correlates with my situational inability to do so well. Drinking just being one example. A lot of what I consider my best commenting has been through the null comment, when I've STFUed and learned from listening to more informed or wiser voices here. The blog is unbounded but our capacity to take from it is not, and so there's definitely a maximum ratio of how much stupid shit to have on it (Moby puns excluded).
But yes, stories of Canada! Especially if you can fill in details on the non-Ottawa bit, which I understand to be rather large. *previews* 154 is lovely.
Is "Hallowe'en" the standard Canadian spelling? Ryan North uses it too and I've always wondered.
I also appreciated 154. Please tell me it's not finely crafted fiction!
there's definitely a maximum ratio of how much stupid shit to have on it
This is almost certainly true but except in a few cases, we can't actually agree on what's the stupid shit that should go. The more interesting tangents there are, the more interesting the interesting ones are and the easier to skip the sports less personally appealing ones are.
157: I've always assumed that was because he's whimsical. (Pronounced with a strong [ʍ]. Because.) Using google.ca, I got the following results for these searches:
site:ca "Halloween" 3.15 million
site:ca "Hallowe'en" 120k
So the latter seems to be the standard now, even if that wasn't always true. This page on linguistics from the Canadian government languages portal--because of course they'd have one--says that either is accepted but the non-apostrophic form is more common now, although it isn't traditional.
The apostrophe is archaic in Brenglish. It was always used when I was a kid, haven't seen it for decades now,
It's my birthday so I keep the archaic/pretentious spelling. It was common when I was younger but isn't at all now (and, in fact, is marked wrong with spell checks).
Also 'mum' isn't how we spell mom but it's how we say it so I took a little liberty there.
154 is lovely and rings true.
I've always spelled it Hallowe'en.
Last week Justin Trudeau winked at my sweetheart.
The apostrophe was normal in my Canadian childhood, and was one of thousands of tiny differences in Can/US practice that I remember discovering.
But I've been more-and-more reluctant to write as if my experiences could be generalized. These days I think "I was raised by Nova Scotians in Ontario, in a tiny subculture of educated elite people, and moved to Columbus OH. 'Canada' and 'USA' are abstractions that can't possibly apply."
There's also the passage of time and the overhauling of cultural norms in both countries during that time. I say too often the country I left, pre-Trudeau, doesn't exist anymore; I might just as easily remark, with profound recent effects, that the heavily-industrial Ohio I moved to doesn't either.
I often have Margaret Atwood's lines 'like a hook into an eye/a fish hook/an open eye' rattling around in my head and that juxtaposition of domestic and violence is very Canadian. I mean a polite kind of violence. Like apologizing after/while you check someone when playing street hockey.
165: I felt that during the Mike Harris years in Ontario, and Harper, and Rob Ford; "this doesn't feel like where I live." But where I'm from is Robertson Davies land, a generation or two removed.
I love Montreal still.
In high school a boy gave me two Leonard Cohen mix tapes. Still have them.
And ha, I was raised in NS by Ontarians, in a weird subculture where I know a lot of PhDs now but our parents were all teachers. Then moved all over the states. I think moving back is actually going to be really hard. Nothing makes me more homesick than going home and having it all changed.
I just found out that Americans don't use the words 'keener' or 'gong show'.
166: Oh yeah. That's true, I use to be scared reading Canadian fiction, someone or something's gonna get hurt. James Reaney's The Box Social.
I know I've said here within the last year or so that Canada was a much "fightier" place then than the US.
I was set upon, punched and kicked by random strangers, older boys in both countries, but more in Canada. And I remember it being more malicious, somehow.
It's because Canadian beer bottles have only 11.5 ounces, making people feel cheated.
It's national novel-writing month. Maybe we can all write a collaborative work of fiction encompassing the Sinocentric trade history subthread, the contemporary Canada subthread, and the fashion subthread. Time-traveling Tang traders start fashion craze in Toronto while encountering intrigue and violence in the guise of hospitality? What nefarious plot could have dragged them forward in time like this?
I can contribute my knowledge of time traveling erotic Chinese cellphone novels.
AIHMB, my dad's grandfather was the son of Canadian immigrants, and I've spent quite a bit of time over the last year locating descendants of those immigrants' siblings. Nearly all live in Quebec; none seem particularly violent, but the percentage of car and pickup enthusiasts seems higher than comparable folks in the States.
172: ok, I promise I'll have it finished by the end of the year!
173 is a great one for the adjectival-order discussion!
175: no, I really do mean collaborative. Maybe an exquisite corpse or something. We should write up the rules of play first.
We'll have to decide whose butt to put on the cover.
175: Not to complain about failures to update the other thing you're writing, but...
Did I miss something happening to Tigre?
He is tired of arguing and left to join the real-world struggle, apparently. Last comment in the results thread.
179: I know, life has been getting in the way. But by the end of the year the climactic confrontation in the Cave of White Water will have happened...
I can't get up enough steam this week to comment much about anything. Maybe by next week I'll feel better. In the meantime DaveLHI seems to be carrying on for the Daves. Good! I've been "escaping" via work, WoW and whisky.
181: Thanks for the information. I simply couldn't bear to come here or anywhere else while the news was sinking in so I have every sympathy for him. Trying to do something does make more sense than talking.
started the "Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition"
very interesting and readable (probably because it is so heavily abridged but whatever) https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Ambition-Arts-Erudition-Compendium/dp/0143107488
I was losing my mind until I remembered Jeeves and Wooster (if you haven't read it, start at "The Inimitable Jeeves").
The book I mentioned back in 34, A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, is only $2 on Kindle right now. And The Handmaid's Tale is only $3.
I was going to reread Handmaid's Tale but I don't think I could deal with it right now.
188. If you want some real downers (which probably: not) read anything by Paolo Bacigalupi.
...balm not distraction, but Leaves of Grass.
The Great British Bake-Off is the TV equivalent of puppy GIFs, in terms of soothingness.
I love the Great British Bake-Off! I want one of those baking stations (in a tent; with bunting, and a pastel-coloured stand mixer, and matching mixing bowls).
I watch a lot of British tv series. So much so that for any given show, I will probably recognize at least a couple of the actors from another Brit. tv show, even when I can't remember the name of the actor: "Oh, there's the squire from Lark Rise to Candleford [more puppy GIFs])"; "Wait, wasn't she the young mother in Broadchurch?"
I've also just started the latest Tana French novel.
I'm also planning to do a fair bit of holiday baking, though I'll probably have to give some of it away (otherwise it won't get eaten). I find it soothing, and escapist.
I plan on taking my mind of the election by teaching myself the complete repertoire of Houdini.
Another small escape: Yesterday (and today too, actually), the NJ public schools were closed for an annual teachers' convention. So yesterday afternoon I took my son to a wolf preserve, where we saw and heard four packs of wolves, along with two bobcats and a few foxes. It was at least temporarily cathartic to hear the wolves howl, and believe you me, I wanted to howl along. It was also a great example of the sheer quirkiness of New Jersey. I know many people think of NJ in terms of "what exit?", but hey, about 1.5 hours from NYC (near Columbia, NJ), there is an actual wolf preserve!
Also: bobcats are badass and scary. The average adult bobcat apparently weighs about 15 to 20 pounds, but can take down a full-sized deer, and then eat it for breakfast.
People will say 'I don't speak French' and that will mean they took it for 8 years in school and can read food labels and watch hockey and not say a word in Quebec.
My dad used to say, 'I don't speak French, or not much,' but he grew up in Mechanicsville (a working-class French and Irish neighbourhood) in Ottawa, and yeah, he spoke French quite fluently, and could even joke around en français, and stuff.
It would snow in October and you'd have to wear a snowsuit over your Hallowe'en costume.
Oh yeah, this. But even in early September, it would start to get cold, but you didn't want to wear those itchy and scratchy woollen tights, you wanted to still wear your cute knee socks. And then your mother would threaten you with the prospect of arthritis in your knees when you were only six years old, fer God's sake, O Canada!
¦¦
Apologies for the following: this is so, so bad.
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191. Have to say, Tana French is brilliant, but I find her anything but soothing.
I'm bingeing on Anglican choir music on Youtube. It helps.
142: this is true if you are looking for fashion you might wear. but tlo is doing something else, at least that is how i take tlo - they are taking a relatively broad view of the human comedy. that's why they are amusing.
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Serious bleg
My son has just announced he will be bringing a vegetarian (though piscivorous) girlfriend for Christmas. I had planned goose, but I don't think even barnacle goose will pass muster here. I still want goose for the grownups, but is there anything I can make for the girlfriend and (assuming she's still alive by then) my mother which is not wholly disgusting.
I'm pretty desperate about this since the two worst family meals of my life came when my sister took up with vegetarian men and the most disgusting of all was when she served us a vegetarian Christmas in honour of the then bf.
Oh mineshaft, rescue me: what's festive, meatless, and not entirely disgusting?
Butternut squash lasagna. It's delicious, seasonal, and it feels fancy.
Jansson's Temptation. Great winter food, rich as all hell.
Smitten Kitchen has a vegetarian mushroom Bourgignoun that is amazing and festive. Lots of mushrooms and pearl onions in a red wine sauce that's great over noodles or mashed potatoes. I'm going to make it for our vegetarian Thanksgiving option. (Also requires butter).
A fish preparation that easy and impressive is some filets, thin-sliced vegetables (summer squash, onions) and lemons, herbs (parsley, dill), and some sort of fat (butter or oil) all encased in foil or parchment paper. Baked and opened at the table. There are also a lot of festive Italian fish dishes for the Seven Fishes meal which is traditional on Christmas Eve.
Oh yes; Janssons Frestelse is wonderful, but also incredibly rich. I'll make some. I can get the proper "anchovies" from ikea, or the very expensive scandi deli in London.
I have also found a recipe for whole roasted cauliflower, something to do with aubergines and maybe something with mushrooms and macadamia nuts.
There was a fantastic Ottolenghi eggplant thingie in the Guardian last year that I made as the "what to feed the vegetarians" dish at Christmas. Lemony and delicious -- I'll search for it.
It was with a whole bunch of festive vegetarian recipes, but I only made the eggplant upside-down cake: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/dec/04/yotam-ottolenghi-recipe-vegetarian-christmas
It was really good; that was the leftover I kept coming back to, before eating any of the conventional Christmas stuff.
Roasted veggies. Even non-vegetarians like them. Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, roman broccoli. All delicious especially if you add some balsamic vinaigrette.
I second butternut squash anything. It makes a great curry, among other things.
Feast of the Seven Fishes. Except on Christmas Eve.
the very expensive scandi deli in London.
Is that ScandiKitchen? Wow, that place is super near my work and I didn't even know about it. I have to go, even if i can only afford to press my nose against the glass.
what's festive, meatless, and not entirely disgusting?
Beetlejuice?
halved acorn squash baked with butter and salt and pepper and then filled with creamed spinach (that you cook yourself with nutmeg etc.) are nice. or you can just put a tiny bit of maple syrup in each. honestly everyone can eat the same stuff bar the turkey and gravy--halved roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil; biscuits; mashed mixed root veggies; haricot verts with a tiny bit of bechamel sauce and thai-style fried shallots on top, etc. I would make two batches of stuffing, one with veggie broth and lots of sage and the other "dressing" with turkey broth, spicy sausage, giblets and a line of hard-boiled eggs across the top. mmm, dressing. now is my chance to make the crucial announcement that roasted mashed/pureed butternut squash makes a way better pumpkin pie than even the best sugar pumpkin. it's dense and silky. I use the back-of-the-canned-pumpkins recipe with heavy cream instead of evaporated milk and way more better fresher spices. if you don't like the white line of only slightly cooked bottom crust that is a part of pumpkin pie (my daughter prefers it, so...) my solution is to bake the filling in individual ramekins and roll the crust out and sprinkle it with cinnamon and brown sugar, and then cut it into long ribbons and twist them up, and put them on the side. so fancy.
The best thing about thanksgiving is cooking Brussel sprouts in sufficient* cream until it forms a squidgy caramelized carapace.
* a LOT.
alameda, if you can swing it get your nephew to listen to levit playing the appassionata on radio 3 this last week. He should get some enjoyment out of the piano, dammit.
I'm still spending too much time on the internet.
Somebody should have told me who Leonard Cohen is before he died. He's really good. I don't think I ever realized he wasn't Leonard Bernstein.
They had basically the same name and only one of them was mentioned in "We Didn't Start the Fire."
I am now imagining a world in which either Billy Joel had a second career as an 80s alternative rock pioneer or Leonard "Roy" Cohn gave up McCarthyism after reading a lot of Lorca, then wrote Famous Blue Raincoat. Couldn't be weirder than this one since last week.
220: you mean "It's the end of the world as we know it"
Maybe this belongs on standpipe's blog.
185 He was here in Arrakis a couple of weeks ago to give a talk about it. Great stuff.
By he I mean Elias Muhanna of course. Nice guy and reall informative talk.
I'm only now catching up on all the threads after being away last week. Alas I shan't get all the escapism I desire or need as when I was away I was given the worst (weekend and evening) times to represent at the upcoming book fair which conflicts with the film festival they have here.
This has put a terrible chromosomal crossover in my head.
Begin, Reagan, Palestine
Leonard Bernstein
Ayatollah's in Iran
Birds and snakes, ekranoplan
227: Laughed out loud. You've made the ultimate unkaraokeable song.
212: Yes-- Scandi kitchen. Actually their sandwich prices are not by London standards outrageous, and they are very good. You pay just as much in the fancy coffee place across the street. But the ingredients! The world's most expensive crispbread, Västerbotten cheese, herring ... I have to stay well clear for the same of my wallet.
[Just remembered I had a dream in which someone stiffed me for £80 for a cream tea in an open air restaurant]
218. Damn you Moby I now have a scene stuck in my head of the elderly Cohen singing "America" from West Side Story on stage, and the worst part of it is that it's almost plausible and quite good.
We didn't end the world!
It was the millennials or the Hispanics!
Take 2 on the Ode to the Eternal Innocence of White Baby Boomers.
231: I don't even know any of the songs from West Side Story except the "When you're a Jet, you're a jet from...."
233. Here. The number starts about 3:10.
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Sicario is phenomenal. I'm really annoyed I missed it in theater.
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57: "I think they do know and just don't care." This made my day. Thank you, Thorn. I just finished watching the last episode of season three. It is worth it to keep with it until the end. For the donkeys.
Anyone read the Yashim detective novels?
