#about how the country had failed to teach us about classic literature

[erial-c]

i have a language teacher who is a millennial , plays dnd , and constantly goes on tangents mid-lecture to ramble about his love for his subject ... babes this just might be lasko in disguise ..

[weaselandfriends]

Have you thought about opening a Patreon? I would pay a lot of money if it meant getting your stories more regularly...

My prose sucks, yours is spectacular. How do I get better at it? I try reading a lot, but I'm starting to conclude there's only so much you can pick up via absorption without some kind of formal instruction.

1. I'm not especially interested in opening a Patreon, and here's why. First, I work a reliable full time job that isn't too demanding on me, so I'm already financially stable. My following right now likely isn't large enough to sustain me full time, so I wouldn't be able to use Patreon as a primary income source anyway. Even if my following was larger, though, it would be a gamble to quit my job and sustain myself solely on fan donations. Ultimately, it would probably be more stressful for me than my current situation, and I could see my writing quality suffer under the pressure of needing to constantly output material on a monthly basis. On top of that, I'm not sure if sustaining myself on Patreon would actually increase the regularity of my stories. Unlike seemingly most authors (go look at Alexander Wales' Tumblr for an example), I'm not an "ideas guy." I don't get a lot of story ideas. The ideas I do get I nurture for years, slowly adding details to them until they're ready to write. Cockatiel x Chameleon was an idea I got in 2015 (published 2022). Modern Cannibals was an idea I got in 2012 (published 2017). When I am actually writing a story, I'm usually able to consistently output content, even with my job. The limiting factor for me isn't my available time in the day, but my brain. I appreciate the sentiment, though! One of my favorite comments, which I received on Cockatiel x Chameleon, went something like "You should be on humanity's payroll."

2. My prose sucked too. When I was a teen, I would write stories and my classmates would laugh at how badly written they were. In college, I couldn't even get my friends or family to read my stories. (I once described one of my stories to my grandmother and she said, "Well that doesn't sound any good at all.") At age 18, I decided to start reading classic literature. Only classic literature, at a rate of 50 pages a day, every day. I read all kinds, from all sorts of time periods and countries. I read everything from Homer to David Foster Wallace. And while I read, I wrote. I wrote badly. In college I wrote novels that pretty shamelessly imitated the prose styles of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. By the time I started writing Fargo (which is a story where I think my prose was still improving), I had written nine complete novels and had read somewhere between 200 and 300 works of classic literature. I didn't have any formal training, at least in terms of writing fiction. I was an English/Geography dual major, and from my English classes I learned how to close read a text, and in general I learned how to write an academic essay. In my final year of college I took an MFA-styled creative writing workshop, but by then I was pretty much beyond what it could teach me and I don't feel like I learned much of anything from it.

Other than reading and writing, I started editing. One of my later pre-Bavitz novels I finished, then went back and edited assiduously. I took a 100,000 word rough draft and over 14 editing passes pared it down to 70,000 words. That was massive for improving my prose, as it forced me to engage with my story on a word-by-word level. Every single word fell under my scrutiny and thus I had to grapple with how valuable, how good that word was. What I learned from that experience was massive for improving my prose going forward.

I think it's entirely possible for someone to improve their prose just through the basics of reading, writing, and editing. Julirites, the author of Fargo fanfic London, has massively improved her prose over the course of the story. It didn't even take her nine failed novels to do it, either. Be willing to experiment. Be willing to fail. Don't be afraid of someone laughing at you for writing purple prose. Imitate authors you like, that's the first step toward developing your own unique style.

[theoreticalli]

hm. I've been rolling the Atlantic article that I'm guessing this is referring to (based on the Percy Jackson reference) over in my head for a few days as I do with every Atlantic article that I find to be mostly ridiculous but a bit insightful and I... would like to add some further thoughts about this (under a cut because it's gonna get long)

I'm going to step back from using stupidity as the framework at all because I think the primary flaw with the article was that it was only just beginning to be able to imagine stepping away from seeing the issue of literacy as individual failings of entire groups of students, rather than what such an apparently wide-reaching phenomenon would have to be, which is systemic. it simply does not make sense to believe that all or even most American children would have become "lazier", more incurious, or worse behaved within the past few generations as a result of broad "culture" or "parenting" shifts that just are not all that consistent across the country, and I am deeply critical of any commentary on education that entertains that idea.

the article also had the fatal Atlantic contributor flaw of dropping in a "phones are ruining our attention spans 😱😱😱" scare right at the top of its explanation and then... not going into nearly as much depth on that as it should have. and I think in an era where the prevailing trend on YouTube is 5+ hour video essays and weekly or daily hour-long podcast episodes, Instagram and tiktok have had to repeatedly extend their video and post lengths to accommodate the forms creators want to use, and I am reading a goddamn Atlantic article on my phone... it gets kinda hard to say without elaboration that "the internet" is a leading cause of poor literacy and short attention spans when that damn iCarly essay has like 11 million views and the hbomb plagiarism one has like 8 mil (regardless of how well people are understanding either or the nuances of the points they're trying to make, they are engaging with a long-form piece of analysis and taking it out into the broader culture).

and on the topic of Percy Jackson... I find it deeply goofy that someone who has been teaching literature for 25 years would not consider that 25 years ago, The Lightning Thief hadn't been fucking published yet. the YA renaissance had barely started. teens were only just starting to have books that were targeted to them, and many of the earlier books that take teen life seriously are actually taught in middle and high school English classes, ie Catcher in the Rye or The Outsiders. the author at least brings up the classical context of Percy Jackson, which I appreciate. reading the series early in life set me up for a lifelong fascination with mythology that DID lead me to read a lot of Greek tragedies, if not the full Iliad and Odyssey, as the professors in the article would hope. the books were written by an English teacher as an introduction for his dyslexic, ADHD child to Greek myth, after all. other YA series like the Hunger Games are excellent modern options for English classes too, offering possible connections to other texts on war that may be more difficult for high school students to get through at first but that could later be easier with that touchstone.

which brings us, generally, to the topic of public school curriculum. No Child Left Behind, Common Core, standardized testing, and their focus on excerpts and informational texts are eventually identified as likely the primary culprit of students being unprepared to suddenly be expected to read full books in unfamiliarly older language. frankly, it is wild to bury the lede at all on this point, because mentioning tiktok before the sweeping federal education reform that affected the specific generation being discussed does a disservice to these students and their educators. if students aren't being asked to read Wuthering Heights for school (I never was), it's extremely unlikely that they're going to show up to their first day of English Lit 101 calling it their favorite.

speaking of English Lit 101, if your aim is deep reading, asking students to read 14 books in a semester feels... directly counterproductive to that goal. in a full course load of elite college classes, it's just not humanly possible that the average 18 year old in ANY time period was fully reading and digesting The Iliad in a two week period. granted, that's what the course is for! you do a baseline reading, come into class, and work together to achieve a deeper understanding. but I have a hard time seeing a reduction in material to allow time to dive further into each text as a loss? isn't that the point, to increase attention span, spend longer with the text? you want your students to spend 9 hours per each class on reading and other work, plus potentially work a part or full time job if they don't happen to be privileged enough not to have to, plus have a social life because these are TEENAGERS, and you're shocked they're overwhelmed and would rather doomscroll tiktok lol

the article also partially blames having to integrate newer authors or just. authors outside of the Western Canon™ which. oh god forbid I not have to read Siddhartha. I truly think this is just reason for even intro/summary classes to be built around a coherent thesis of how you're linking the texts you've chosen, not just arguing that we're reading Great Expectations because everyone has to read Great Expectations if they want to be a real Harvard student. there are so many published texts that can be used in a literature course to illustrate all kinds of points, and if you aren't teaching a seminar with a specific focus on a specific author, movement, country, or era, there's just... no reason to bemoan the loss of Crime and Punishment if it's been replaced with, God Forbid, Native Son or another novel that touches on similar themes but won't be daunting for the sheer sake of it (no shade to the complicated Russian novel genre. but if you thought every one of your gen ed students were reading all of a Dostoevsky in their first semester of college in 2004, they were just better at fooling you <3)

okay. all that bullshit from the article aside. the "isn't that problematic?" puriteen critical of my interests crowd is big enough that it, too, cannot just be a function of individual character flaws! if this many people are engaging with thematic complications in text only on the level of "does this contain words that are on the unallowed list" then surely there is, again, a cause beyond "you're fundamentally unserious, incurious, and stupid."

as noted in the Atlantic article, there will always be students that, by virtue of familial circumstances, natural aptitude, extracurricular support, or other factors, will "read insightfully and easily and write beautifully." I was one of these students, and I do not say this to set myself apart or celebrate myself - I say it because, as I developed analytical skills at a relatively linear pace through grade school and undergrad, I was able to witness the classes I was in start over at basics again and again with the expectation that incoming students would have no baseline from which to start. how true this was I don't know, but it meant that the task of deciphering a thesis statement in any text we were writing or reading, a "main idea," was reiterated to the point of losing its second, arguably more important factor: finding the position where one stands in relation to that idea, and arguing it.

this seems to me the main issue for the argument-neutral, content-averse censorship argument. locating the presence of a topic in a text is a red flag, because there was rarely enough time or resources in education to devote to properly picking apart the position of the author relevant to any given topic. on particularly blatant, binary positions, sure, but any position of authorial vs narrative perspective, unreliable narration, outdated framing or language, or complicated, contradictory positions enter the picture and a specific subset will get caught up in the surface narrative - much like the Tyler Durden admirers among us.

and to some extent, high school can only get anyone so far in that literacy! it is the PURPOSE of a college literature or language course to take the next step into dissecting the context, themes, motifs, etc of texts with more going on in them than Percy Jackson. and some people won't go to college, or will struggle with the already underfunded and pedagogically undermined public grade school classes, or will go to Harvard on trust fund money and coast by and still not quite get it and go on to claim they're the first YA novelist to write a feminist Cinderella retelling or something like that. sure, maybe they're responsible for being a little too loud on a subject they really don't have that much area knowledge on, but we're all immersed in so much storytelling media all the time that it's hard not to see why people want to talk about it!

so... that's my very long, unsourced essay on why that particular Atlantic article belied a few broader cultural obsessions that truly make so little sense to focus on at the end of the day, as well as thoughts on how all this thematic illiteracy shit (at least within the US) is in no small part because we have always and recently even more acutely struggled to teach every student how to analyze texts for arguments and multiple meanings. thank you

idk my stance on the whole thing is i don’t think there is an inherent stupidity or lack of worth or danger in the adult who only reads, on the one end of the spectrum, middle grade fantasy novels or, on the other end, Seduced By My Enemies To Lovers Billionaire Daddy Hockey Player booktok smut fare. i think developing a diverse palate of reading tastes, challenging yourself, etc is important but at the end of the day some people just want to, or for whatever reason, are only able to read more simplistic and digestible fare. plus reading fiction is only one way of (shudders) “Consuming Media™️” or exercising your brain more generally, and many of these people are quite probably perfectly intelligent and functioning adults who have just happened to put their “intellectual engagement with the world” stats in a different column. but on the other hand while i don’t think you can make a snap judgement about someone’s intelligence based on what they do or don’t read i DO think you can start to make those judgements based on how they react when this discourse comes up 😳

[crystalstar8]

Knights of the Night (ch 9)

Chapter 9

Ch 1, ch 2, ch 3, ch 4, ch 5, ch 6, ch 7, ch 8, ch 9

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29139240/chapters/71536491

pairing: Jungkook x oc

genre: vampire au, college au, twilight, romance

word count: 2,620

warnings: blood (obviously), kidnapping, child kidnapping, needles, France

notes: vampires, vampire au, college, college au, so many twilight references, blood, needles, kidnapping, children, homelessness, dance, ballet, flashbacks, romance, slow burn, probably no smut, idk yet tho, France, French things, attempted genocide, inaccurate French history, bisexual main character, @strawberriewithchocolate-blog @mozy-j  @daechwitad-2​ @zobadak​​

summary: Catalina starts college in a small town all the way across the country. She doesn’t know anyone and isn’t exactly looking for friends. She just wants to focus on dance. But when she meets fellow dance major, Jimin, and adventurous, fellow freshman, Jungkook, Catalina ends up discovering a whole new side to the small college town; one that is dangerous but oh so enticing…

            The warm weather was fleeting; Catalina spent her days studying, working, and every chance she got, hanging out with her friends. The “baseball encounter”, as she’s been calling it, has been living in the back of her mind ever since, even though it seemed her friends had forgotten about it. She never brought it up, just focusing on her college life. Namjoon took her out to fancy bookstores and coffee shops, Jungkook tried and failed to teach her how to skateboard, and Jin tried and failed to help them in French. She was kept busy and she was having fun.

               All was peaceful, until a college student was reported missing in St. Briggs. Jimin cornered Catalina in dance class about it one chilly, early winter day.

               They were practicing their dance to “Body”, by Megan Thee Stallion.

               “One, two, three, turn, five, six, step and hit,” the teacher called out. “One, two, ba, ba, jump, Steve! What song are you dancing to, ‘cause it’s not this! Find the goddamn beat! Alright, everyone except Steve, take five.”

               Catalina’s final move in the dance was on the ground, so instead of getting up, she crawled over to her dance bag and pulled out her water bottle, collapsing against the wall. Jimin joined her and said, “Have you heard the news?”

               Catalina shook her head between sips.

               “A student went missing,” he said. “In St. Briggs. From our college.”

               “Aren’t they the second person to go missing here?” Catalina asked. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

               “Yeah, me neither,” said Jimin. “The first person was a little kid. My parents are freaking out about me walking to campus now.”

               “And the police have no idea who the guy is?” asked Catalina. “I mean, they don’t know anything?”

               “Not really,” said Jimin. “It’s like these people disappeared without a trace.”

               “Hm,” Catalina thought about the disappearances and the mysterious “baseball encounter”. She wondered if they were connected. “You wanna do some investigating?”

               “What are you-no, we’re not visiting those vampires,” said Jimin. “That’s a really bad idea. Namjoon told us to stay out of it and he definitely knows more about this stuff than we do.”

               Catalina knew she wouldn’t get anywhere with Jimin. She would just have to wait until she saw Jungkook to bring it up again. She knew he’d have no qualms about going on a potentially life-threatening mission.

Her chance came that weekend when she and Jungkook worked their shift together at the souvenir shop. Business was starting to pick up since the first snow was expected to arrive any day now.

Tourists started stopping by more and more and Catalina got to see what Jungkook meant by “hot tourists”. The men and the women were beautiful, and her and Jungkook both had fun checking them out from behind the counter. But today was slow, so Catalina figured she’d take the opportunity to tell him about her plan.  

               “Jungkook, what do you think about stealing that business card and sneaking around a potential lair?” asked Catalina.

               “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but yes. I’m in,” he said. The two of them were straightening the ceramic bear and eagle figurines, killing time between customers.

               “Remember those three vampires on baseball day?”

               “Uh-huh.”

               “The guy gave Namjoon a business card,” said Catalina.

               “Oh right! Yeah, I remember,” said Jungkook.

               “I was thinking maybe we could steal it and do our own investigating. I mean, what if those guys have something to do with the missing people?” Catalina said. Jungkook looked up at her with wide eyes.

               “Oh shit! Ya know, you’re probably right!” he said. “They just moved here, and then all of a sudden, a kid goes missing in this town. It makes sense.”

               “Exactly,” said Catalina.

               “But how will we get the business card?” asked Jungkook. “Do we sneak into his room or his office or whatever?”

               “That’s what I was thinking. One of us distracts him, while the other sneaks in and finds it,” said Catalina.

               “I feel like you should distract him. A classic honey pot mission,” said Jungkook.

               “Do you know what that means?” Catalina asked, snickering.

               “Don’t you seduce someone to complete a mission?” asked Jungkook.

               “You usually have to fuck someone in a honey pot mission,” said Catalina.

               “Oh, well, how bad can it be? I mean, he’s hot as fuck,” he said with a wave of his hand. Catalina’s face turned bright red.

               “I’m not- we’re…” she sighed. “Jungkook, casual sex isn’t really my thing and I don’t like him that way. I don’t think he likes me that way either.”

               “Are you kidding? What about all those bookstores and coffee shops? Those weren’t dates?” asked Jungkook. “What were you guys doing?”

               “Looking at books!” said Catalina. “He just really likes literature, and I really like coffee.”

               “Did he pay for your coffee every time?”

               “Yes.”

               “Then that’s a date,” said Jungkook.

               “We spot each other all the time. So, are you telling me it’s a date when you pay for my McDonalds or when I pay for your movie ticket?” asked Catalina.

               “That’s different,” said Jungkook. Catalina threw her hands up.

               “Okay, we’re getting off topic,” she said. “You distract him, I’ll get the card.”

               “Casual sex also isn’t my thing though,” said Jungkook.

               Catalina threw her head back laughing. “You don’t have to fuck him! Just keep him downstairs talking or something.”

               “I can do that. Are we doing it tonight?” asked Jungkook.

               “Sure.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

               That evening, Catalina and Jungkook went to the mansion. Jungkook brought his French homework. Luckily, Namjoon was the one to answer the door.

               “Oh, hey guys! Come on in,” he said. He led them to the lounge and Jungkook immediately got his homework out.

               “I was wondering if you could help me with this,” said Jungkook.

               “Sure, let’s see,” said Namjoon. Catalina wandered off. The upstairs was thankfully not as big as the main floor, but there were many halls and many rooms. Catalina went to Hoseok’s room, starting her search from there. The next door in the hallway was open. Catalina looked inside, flicking on the light switch. It looked like a basic, model bedroom. It didn’t look like it belonged to anyone, probably a guest room. The next room was enormous and absolutely trashed. The giant bed in the middle of the room had a mountain of blankets and clothes on it. Clothes, loose papers, and books littered the floor. Beat up, crooked antique paintings decorated the walls, along with torn calligraphy banners. The Asian style furniture looked ancient, worn and battered, but luxuriously wealthy.

               Catalina moved on to the next room. This one was a bit more modern and, curiously, vaguely nautical themed. A huge window against the back wall let light shine in on the white painted wood of the furniture, the mess of easels and canvases in the corner, and the mix of paintings on the seashell wallpapered walls: realism, abstract, cubism, a few charcoal sketches of Hoseok, Yoongi, and Namjoon, and a single painting of a lighthouse looking out at a stormy sea. Catalina went to the next room.

               This one was the most modern, with dark walls and mahogany furniture. It was sleek and rustic, with a twisted wood bed frame, alpaca rugs on the ground, smooth couches in the corner with a driftwood coffee table in the center, and along every free wall, bookshelves. The entire room was spotless. This must be Namjoon’s room. At least, Catalina hoped it was. She stepped inside and went to the desk tucked into one of the bookshelves. She rifled through the drawers until she found one filled with business cards.

               “Shit,” she whispered. There were quite a few cards, but she got to work sorting through them. Most of them looked old and yellowed with age. She automatically set those ones aside. She couldn’t remember that vampire’s name, but she knew she’d remember it if she saw it. After sorting through what felt like hundreds of cards, she finally found one with the familiar name on it.

               It was a new card, simple, with just a name, an address, and a phone number on it. The name on it was Makai La’ei. That sounded right. Catalina rearranged the rest of the cards back to how she found them and shoved this one in her pocket. She was definitely running out of time, Jungkook only had so much homework.

               When she got downstairs, she went right to the lounge, but it was empty. Jungkook’s French textbook was laying open on the coffee table. Her heart skipped a beat. Namjoon wouldn’t hurt him, would he? She thought. She backed out of the lounge and looked up and down the hallway. Her heart was pounding, but before her thoughts could fully run away on her, she heard Jungkook’s voice approaching, saying, “And that’s how I went to senior prom with Dr. Dre’s daughter, Truly.”

Namjoon and Jungkook rounded the corner, both holding McDonalds bags and hot coffees in their hands.

“You guys went out?” Catalina asked.

               “Yeah, we got hash browns,” said Namjoon, handing one of the bags to her.

               “Isn’t this yours?” asked Catalina.

               “Grease gives me a stomachache,” he said.

               “I was just craving hash browns. I figured you’d want a few too,” said Jungkook. Catalina’s heart skipped a beat, but this time not out of fear.

               “I love these,” she whispered, opening the greasy paper bag to see three hash browns inside. Something nudged her hand. She looked up to see Jungkook handing her his coffee as well. Namjoon wandered off, sipping at his own coffee. “What are you doing?”

               “I don’t like coffee,” he said. “Take it.”

               “Thank you,” she said. “Did you already finish your homework?”

               “Yeah, turns out Namjoon is fluent in French,” said Jungkook. “And Korean, and Chinese, and Japanese, and German. And…what was that other one?”

               “Swahili,” Namjoon said from inside the lounge.

               “Why?” asked Catalina.

               “I was bored,” he said with a shrug. Jungkook looked at Catalina with questioning eyes. Catalina nodded.

               “Well, thank you for helping me with this,” said Jungkook, gathering his textbook and notes. “I hate this class, so any help is much appreciated. Anyway, we have to get going. We have some errands to run.”

               “Sure, no problem,” said Namjoon as he walked them to the door. “We’re all fluent in French here, expect for Hoseok, so feel free to ask any of us any time.”

               “Thank you,” Catalina said as she pulled her shoes on.

~~~~~~~~~~

               “That was too easy,” said Jungkook as they were getting into his car.

               “Not really!” said Catalina. “He had a whole drawer full of business cards. I had to sort through all of them.”

               “I was talking about the homework,” said Jungkook. He pulled out of the driveway and began the drive down the mountain. “He gave me all the answers. But that explains why you were gone for so long.”

               “Yeah, and I saw the other rooms,” said Catalina. “I think Tae’s room is nautical themed.”

               “Why?” Jungkook asked. Catalina shrugged. “Well, whatever. Does that card have an address on it?”

               “Yeah,” Catalina pulled the card out of her pocket and typed the address into her maps app. It gave her a route to a location in the middle of the town. She let Siri lead them as she plugged in her phone and looked up spy music on iTunes. She found a playlist and put it on shuffle, letting the groovy guitar of “Secret Agent Man” blast through the car.

               By the time they arrived, they were well into “Hawaii Five-O”. The GPS had led them to what looked like an abandoned hospital. Jungkook drove a block past it so they could walk the rest of the way. As they walked, they reviewed the plan.

               “So, we can’t get caught, obviously,” said Jungkook. “We’re just sneaking in, taking a quick look, maybe some pictures, then getting out.”

               “Right,” said Catalina. “Quick and fast.”

They snuck in and found a basement stairwell, which they took. The rest of the hospital was empty. They could hear voices coming from the basement, so as quietly as they could, they snuck down the stairs, which led them to a cement tunnel with a metal grated floor. The tunnel gave Catalina a sense of Déjà vu, but she couldn’t figure out why. Faint voices echoed from the end of the tunnel. They reached the end and peaked around the corner. What they saw made their jaws drop. A huge, cavernous cement room with some furniture in the middle. Doors lined the walls, some open, some closed. Catalina could see from where she was that there were people in the rooms with open doors. People sitting or laying on the ground, tubes attached to their arms connecting to IV stands, blood bags hanging from the hooks.

Jungkook was snapping rapid fire pictures of as much of the room as they could see.

The voices, which were coming from a part of the room they couldn’t see, stopped talking.

“Bernard, go check the tunnel and stairs. I thought I heard something.”

Before Bernard even had a chance to move, Catalina and Jungkook booked it back down the tunnel and up the stairs. Jungkook led the way, and he was fast, so Catalina struggled to keep up with him. Once they were at the top of the stairs, they looked around for an open room. A bit down the hall, there was an open doorframe with a missing door. They darted for it, Jungkook pulling her inside and crowding her against the wall, hidden in the shadows.

Catalina was scared they’d be caught, but now she freaking out about something entirely different, namely, Jungkook’s chest and arms caging her against the wall. He was so close that Catalina could feel the heat coming off him. Her blush made its way down her neck into her chest, her breath quickening.

“He’s coming,” Jungkook whispered, his wide eyes glued to the doorway. Sure enough, Catalina could hear heavy boots crunching through the debris in the hallway, getting closer to where they were. “Do you trust me?”

“What?” Catalina asked.

“Do you trust me?” Jungkook asked again. “I saw this in a TV show. It works every time.”

Before Catalina could ask for clarification, several things happened at once: the man, presumably Bernard, began entering the room, Jungkook pressed even closer, a hand on her waist, the other finding its way to her hair, and his lips crashed against hers. She let out a squeak of surprise but quickly caught on, gripping his shirt and leaning into the kiss.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” a man’s voice said from the doorway. They broke apart and looked at him. “This is private property, guys. Get lost.”

“Sorry,” Jungkook said, flashing a sheepish smile. Bernard stepped aside to let them past, waving them in the direction of the exit. Even though her heart was still pounding out of her chest and her head was still spinning, Catalina made a point to check Bernard’s eyes. They were red.

On their way out, they heard the crackle of a walkie talkie and Bernard saying, “It was just some kids making out upstairs. This happens way too often, boss. We gotta start putting signs up or something.”

On their way to the car, Jungkook said, “That was a close one.”

“Was that just an excuse to kiss me?” Catalina joked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Jungkook said with a wink. Catalina blushed and shoved him.

“Shut up,” she said.

.

.

[davidjjohnston3]

The trees are straight and true here, and the help comes without seeming harpoons.  I considered some insane things which were ‘above my pay-grade’ and as is my wont reflected on the state and implications of my former profession and what old friends and pharons meant to me.  Right now think that my core goal in life is not to blow myself up.  As a former would-have-been SecState said, ‘I love so many people.’  I am only sad that trying as I did to uproot that carrot of love just now could have resulted in the demolition of an entire root-network, of at least my own excision therefrom.

‘Some people’ want revenge against life for not going their way or not being the color or fragrance or face shape they like or feel it ought to be - ‘no that is not what I meant at all.’  They will never hold a life reliable which doesn’t resemble their ideal, imago, or ‘soul-idol’ &c.  The meaning of the name ‘Cordelia’ as in King Lear is something like ‘heart’s ideal.’  I was driving and considering a novel that I feel touched absolute supreme greatness without knowing it or in a way that could mislead some readers Mrs. Mary HK Choi’s Yolk a novel I looked forward for a very long time.  I had all these references and fractal coreferences and forgot about actual birds, like what does the chick eat in the egg.

‘Blood is the life’ - I liked etymologies for a long time and my intellectualism caused me acute trouble in Confirmation Class at Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in about 1998.  ‘Pastor’ Gretchen taught us the word root ‘consacramentum’ which comes from dipping the hand in blood in the concave of a Roman shield - those huge rectangular shields which could be used in formation as ‘testudo’ or turtle to stop projectile weapons and allowed soldiers to make pin-point stabbing attacks from a ‘matrix(?)’ of high protection.  I forget what kind of animal was killed to pool the blood in the shield but it might have been a rabbit.

I was reading ‘Revelation,’ I don’t recall what everyone else was talking about.  Some kind of community service project, interview your parents, buy a wedding-magazine and make a whole plan for how you would get married and how much it would cost (and while you’re at it describe how you would 1) restore a classic Shelby Cobra using newspaper and Krazy Glue 2) drive foresaid drop-top to the Moon).  

The Pastor was a pipe-smoker named ‘Painter’ who used the NY Lotto’s ‘Hey you never know’ slogan to describe sth like Pascal’s Wager; OTOH St. Paul teaches us that everyone is born knowing God exists (Romans).  The problem is that people fail or omit to glorify Him or subsequently ruin or betray their own best efforts through blasphemy, turning or falling away, cowardice, denial, attachment to certain sins or being ‘yoked unequally’ with non-believers.  

I reflected starting in 2008 that I was shy of my ‘first love’ (rather, the woman I fell in love with at 14); at the time I gloried or reveled in the shyness like a Wallace Stevens poem that ends, ‘And not to have written a book.’  I could’ve written a few books by now or walked away from book-writing or changed my mind / specified which kind of book I might have written and for whom.  

I remember always admiring the ‘magic’ of literature and feeling sad I had no characters or world of my own to work magic with.  Star Wars and my own life and later much else supplied ‘materia poetica’ and till the point that I began to think in fiction and became addicted to interpreting my own in ‘story-ideas’ although that is not to say that what happened around me didn’t happen.  

America is trying to become a better country in numerous valences, loving our neighbors, holding each other accountable.  ‘Justice’ with or without the marks is important.  It is a divine Judgment that Covid fell on the world even if eventually we all shall learn who devised the virus or leaked it or modulated its mutations.  I was eager to rejoin the world feeling I might overcome my mental illness but I mishandled specific questions and tests.  I ended up turning people against me and creating monsters more than ever as well as perhaps terminally sabotaging any chance I might’ve had of fulfilling a dream or making good on the past.  I have a lot of opinions on the CCP but should’ve focused on love and family and personal responsibilities as in the past or at least held to my long-standing feeling that Chinese people deserve better rather than associating myself with hard-liners and racists or those who would simplify issues in order to bring about ultimate victory without temperance or concern for the side-effects.

In Milwaukee where I lived for far too long everyone’s spirit - electric, intellectual, visory(?), informational et cetera seemed to be militating against everybody else’s.  There were fake vaccines, radioactive ice cream (or thermogenic ice-cream), gun-battles as usual, lines crossed, all kinds of scores that people tried to settle.  I also realized that the police were probably tracking for years my various attempts to obtain weapons from samurai-swords to handguns though the purpose was defensive and I can only trust at this point that some good lawyer will prevent the bad lawyers and cops from presenting the most damning circumstantial case they could.  People in Milwaukee own AK-47′s, automatic shotguns, probably all kinds of explosives, improvised chemical weapons and (’our Black brothers’ - Schopenhauer) biological weapons - the cops don’t stand a chance that I can tell and even the National Guard perhaps could get outclassed by retired military.  I had told myself for years that it was only the ghetto’s that bore witness to this paramilitary equipage and that the retired SEAL Team 4 member with the ‘Stop Socialism’ and ‘Jobs Not Mobs’ sign on his front lawn would protect me from the Maoist-Covid Night of the Long Knives but I feel I tempted God a lot in the past.  

I read all these books and took to heart that people thought I was just entertaining myself with but now as then I should’ve guarded my heart or not begged the question of what others thought about me or saw in me.  I literally felt of late ‘I am the anti-Christ’ - good-looking at times, preach world peace, ‘form of godliness,’ want to be friends with everyone, build bridges - and had to rack my brains to come up with an ‘anti-Christology’ and science / concept of the Whore of Babylon just to make sure it was more than me alone.  I also wished to simplify my past and help kids ‘get life right the right time’ doing battle with philosophies that opposed this consciously or otherwise but stepped into numerous minefields and also tried running when I should’ve flown over.  

Everyone’s trying to get rich and build back better and I profoundly admired the American President for doing, finally, apparently, what presidents had tried to decades even as I remember ‘Flowers 1881′ a poem that implies that basically teachers can do only so much before turning their kids loose in a world no one has yet fixed and which others keep breaking; from a California almanac that also instructed me that the same old debates and cross-fires and burdens plague teachers as always, not that it is an ‘impossible profession’ but honestly that God won’t let us establish Heaven on Earth or at least not me or at least not America or at least not teachers who savor the experience of being a teacher or the beauty of their students more than the outcomes or commitment or intrinsic value of the work or the confirmed identity / vocation / personhood of the instructor.  There are always new and old at any rate and different cultures all describe the teacher as needing to keep both alive; as do descriptions of higher education and scholarship.  

I questioned my qualifications / background and wondered about re-training but can’t afford tuition anywhere so I am trying to cling to the core of my capabilities / blessings.  ABC and XYZ.  The glory of the soul or souls.  

I kept theorizing Russian literature as well as weapons-systems and ultimate destiny, sailing ships, noble names, divisions, the flaming sword of Archangel Gabriel, the mission of Russia today with respect to the world order.  I am also simply trying to be healthy and stop for a while trying to parse out who was the love of my life or what it still left in terms of action or redemption or justice or surrender or mitigation or meeting new friends or propounding the kind of understand with carefulness I have believed in - ‘saving people from themselves.’  Driving up here I remember being distressed at a gas-station in California when I was about 5 or 6 since the pump was leaking, being very upset with my parents and family.  In those days I also disliked animal-cruelty though the world today seems so depraved and deprived with respect to human interests I would make no bones about neglecting most all animals outside of military or police use.  When I was about 3 I saw white kids set a frog on fire; my mother has a history of running over cats.

I dislike winging it and taking risks.  There is a song I call to myself ‘Run Away’ though its title is ‘Paradise.’  I am not a utopian communist for believing in secular justice and its instrinsic value... I wonder whether when I helped people in the past there were always strings attached or maybe I was just trying to close my case and discharge my responsibilities too rapidly without allowing others to gestate or make an abode in my heart besides and beyond what I could get out of them, glorifying myself, or tell others about.  

What is motherhood?  What is travail?  Is there a kind of problematic ‘female gaze’ as feminists talk of a ‘male gaze’ associated with sadism or fascination / fetishism?  It’s psychology which is not my first love at all since it appeared pretentious and distracting and retarding (in the literal sense of slowing down).

I also remembered reading various things about Victor Hugo whose ‘93′ is an important novel today due to its techno-utopianism, feminism or ‘new model egalitarianism,’ fusion of revolution and religion, etc.  But I had forgotten ‘Les Miserable’ with its themes of ransom or eventual recompense, genealogies, caution, and more none of which is to negate the various complains against me or death-warrant from China or my parents with their partial private readings of Proverbs (’Let’s stone David for embarrassing us / not doing precisely what we want’ - no mention of witnesses, tribunals, questions, mitigation-hearings, actual counsels of judges etc. but just American-German ‘coalitions of the willing’ ‘run and get my gun’ ‘team-building’ etc. which in my experience ends with tanks on the street and military dictatorships as when at the end of the CultRev PLA regulars were gunning down former justice-fanatics who’d been stripping women, kicking pregnant stomachs etc. as in The Vagrants).  Naturally having grown up in a family fascinated with Lee Kwanyew and Arnold Schwarzenegger and conflicted about ‘fascism’ I had reservations about the United States’ ability to suddenly dress up and ‘stand at perpetual moral attention’ but I guess my own problems are just that I am poor with a rich kid’s mind and no one really likes me except strangers and faraway friends who were easily spooked and/or just couldn’t be there.  ‘King of South shall attack and King of North shall crush them  with chariots &c.’ - in the end righteous will prevail whichever side of the line I end up on in the final assessment.  I also remembered today a novel called ‘The Old Capital’ about a bad artist father, a virgin daughter, straight and true pines.  Some other aspects of this novel are silly as well as criminally problematic and there's a lot of that going on in new-old old news America / Babylon or at least to quote my favorite lawyer / leave lawyering movie 'First let's get out of Milwaukee.'  Miss the land of June snow. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WORK ETHIC AND RELATIVITY

It's clearly an abuse of the system, and the latter is not simply a constant fraction of the size it turned out later to be useful in some worldly way. But there are limits to how well this can be done, no matter how small it is. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age would point into the case and say that they didn't have the courage of their convictions, and that probably doesn't surprise would-be founders. Try a patent search for that phrase and see how many results you get. Fundraising is just a means to an end. The important thing is to be young. But once they get started, interest takes over, and discipline is no longer necessary. The way not to be desperate. What's lame is when they use the term Collison installation for the technique they invented. It has fabulous weather, which makes it significantly better than the soul-crushing sprawl of most other American cities.

Drew Houston did work on a problem you have? People who get rich from startups fund new ones. You can't afford the time it takes to talk to all potential investors in parallel and push back on exploding offers with excessively short deadlines, that will almost never happen.1 Both make it harder for new silicon valleys are Boulder and Portland. Whereas I suspect over at General Motors the marketing people are telling the designers, Most people who buy SUVs do it to seem manly, not to stop and fight.2 The most dynamic part of the conversation I'll be forced to come up with will not merely be an inborn trait in humans. You're also surrounded by other people trying to solve: how to have a web-based email service with good spam filtering. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and this trend has decades left to run.3 Since a successful startup is going to be entering a market that looks small but which will turn out to be bad.

You can see how great a hold taste is subjective and wanted to kill it once and for all. In either case you let yourself get far downwind of good places to land, your options narrow uncomfortably. Of course, a would-be silicon valley faces an obstacle the original one didn't: it has to grow organically. If you want to do.4 Mark Zuckerberg will never get to bum around a foreign country. There are more and bolder investors in Silicon Valley don't make anything, there's nothing they can be sued for. For Einstein, relativity wasn't a book full of hard ideas, in others they're deliberately written in an obscure way to seem as if they're committing, but which doesn't actually commit them. For example, in preindustrial societies, or how to program computers, or what life was really like in preindustrial societies, or how to program computers, or what constitutes a good dessert, but about whom they feel some misgivings personally. That is certainly true; in fact it will usually be enough to set things rolling. It only spread to places where there was a strong middle class—countries where a private citizen could make a fortune without having it confiscated. Some of the most successful companies we've funded, Octopart, is currently locked in a classic battle of good versus evil. It would be a great problem to have.

Colleges are similar enough that if you can.5 Plenty of people who are really good at lying to tell members of some profession the most common mistakes young founders make is not to try to figure something out. There's no reason to suppose there's any limit to the amount of effort a startup usually puts into a version one, it would be Fred. If you don't know who needs to know something.6 But even then, not immediately. Patents, like police, are involved in many abuses. There are too many dialects of Lisp. But none of the existing solutions are good enough. For nearly all of history the success of your company. You can see this most clearly in New York, recruiting new users and helping existing ones improve their listings. That principle, like the idea that professors should do research as well as money.7 They can teach students about startups?

Hardware startups face an obstacle that software startups don't. At most colleges, it's not surprising we find it funny when a character, even one we like, slips on a banana peel? Occasionally it's obvious from the beginning when there's a path out of an idea? In other words, no one knows who the best programmers are overall. He likes to observe startups for a while at least, tends to require long stretches of uninterrupted time to work. Well, therein lies half the work of essay writing.8 I just gave up. The two-job career. Inexperienced founders read about famous startups doing what was type A fundraising, and decide they should raise money too, since that seems to be how startups work. Colleges are similar enough that if you can't explain your plans concisely, you don't, and that's actually very valuable information.

That was all it took to start successful startups. And who can reasonably expect more of a self fulfilling prophecy than the uphills. The idea of them making startup investments is comic.9 That's how bad the problem has become.10 Fortunately you can also watch real doctors, by volunteering in hospitals. One is that a real essay and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. Whether cause or effect, this spirit pervaded early universities. Under the present rules, patents are part of the economy always does, in everything from salaries to standards of dress. Whereas I suspect over at General Motors the marketing people are telling the designers, Most people who buy SUVs do it to seem manly, not to stop and fight. But she never does.

Fortran isn't good enough at simulations. Interfaces, as Geoffrey James has said, should follow the principle of least astonishment. And what happens to the company during fundraising, growth will slow. I see someone laugh as they read a draft of an essay. The random college kid you talk to investors your m. 7% is the right amount of stock to give him. In the past this has not been a 100% indicator of success if only anything were but much better than random. How do you do? But that test is not as simple as it sounds.11 Understanding all the implications of what was said to them, they had the luxury of curiosity they rediscovered what we call the classics. And open and good. As usual, by Demo Day about half the startups were doing something significantly different than they started with.

Notes

Selina Tobaccowala stopped to think about, and the cost of writing software. This is an acceptable excuse, but they seem like I overstated the case. We Getting a Divorce? The company may not be led by a central authority according to certain somewhat depressing rules many of the reasons startups are competitive like running, not the primary cause.

I know it's a significant number. They thought I was writing this.

The variation in productivity is the new top story. The Roman commander specifically ordered that he could accept it.

The real decline seems to them.

I was living in a series. There are titles between associate and partner, which can vary a lot of time on, cook up a solution, and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto, but have no idea whether this happens it will seem dumb in 100 years ago. Startups that don't scale is to get users to observe—e. We didn't know ourselves which VC firms.

And the reason this subject is so contentious is that they can get cheap plane tickets, but suburbs are so intellectually dishonest in that so many trade publications nominally have a connection with Aristotle, but Joshua Schachter tells me it was not just on the cover story of Business Week, 31 Jan 2005.

Even if the value of their core values is Don't be evil, they could not have gotten away with dropping Java in the Neolithic period. In my current filter, dick has a similar logic, one could argue that the worm might have done all they could imagine needing in their experiences came not with the earlier stage startups, who've already made the decision. There need to, so they'll understand how lucky they are within any given time I know of no counterexamples, though, so they will fund you one day is the way we pitch startup school was that they use the name of a large chunk of this essay talks about the size of the funds we raised was difficult, and that there's no lower bound to its precision. In the early adopters.

It did not help, the higher the walls become. So what ends up happening is that the highest returns, it's easy for small children, with the buyer's picture on the relative weights?

It's a strange feeling of being absorbed by the financial controls of World War II had disappeared in a startup to an associate if you know about a related phenomenon: he found it easier to sell hardware without trying to capture the service revenue as well. Like the Aeneid, Paradise Lost is a cause.

In the thirties his support of the current edition, which are a small amount of stock the VCs should be. Give the founders of failing startups would even be symbiotic, because sometimes artists unconsciously use tricks by imitating art that does.

So much better than Jessica. So it is generally the common stock holders who take the hit.

Thanks to Ming-Hay Luk of the Berkeley CSUA, Paul Kedrosky, Peter Eng, Ed Dumbill, and Chris Dixon for smelling so good.

[madness-of-lost-memories]

Tagging Game

I was tagged by @sanhatipal , thanks for the tag! ^_^

Answers under the cut, since it ended up a bit long.

How tall are you? ♠ 157 cm! So, 5'2 inches. There was a time when I thought I'd grow more, but meh, at this point I'm pretty fond of my height (I can fit in pretty much every bath tub in existence like how cool is that).

What colour and style is your hair? ♠ I'm a brunette (shade-wise, "brown chocolate" looks the closest). Since my hair is naturally wavy (lol, apparently a "waviness" level exists; looks like mine is "Wavy 2A", aka the softest one), I pretty much only get it layered and leave it like that. As for length - right now it reaches my upper waist. During the summer, I wear it in a low ponytail. Oh, and I have side-swept bangs. Overall - very low maintenance, lol.

What color are your eyes? ♠ Light green, with a bit of yellow-ish brown around the iris. That said, as most light eyes, they can look a bit blue-ish or grey-ish at times, depending on the light.

Do you wear glasses? ♠ No, though my eyes aren't in a perfect condition (I'm slightly near-sighted + I really tire my eyes these days... years... xD).

Do you wear braces? ♠ No.

What’s your fashion sense? ♠ Erm, a simple one? Primarily skinny jeans + blouses/shirts. Main colours: black, red and white.

Full name? ♠ (H) Elena (of Troy).

When were you born? ♠ June 23rd, 1996 (technically, on the 3rd astronomical summer day here).

Where are you from and where do you live now? ♠ Bulgaria and I still live there.

What school do you go to? ♠ I barely remember anything before "high" school, so I'll talk mainly about that + university.

I went to a "Professional technical school"... Erm, kinda hard to explain to non-eastern european people, but basically a school that both teaches the normal subjects regular (high) schools have + special subjects, connected to a specific course (computer technology, optics, etc.). My course was called (lit. translation) "Cinematography, audio and video systems" and it contained pretty much everything from handling old-school movie projectors, to handling movie cameras, video editing, as well as some basics on sound capturing / editing, etc., etc. When you graduate you get 2 different diplomas and I guess you can skip on going to university, but I actually use what I learned there to earn money and pay my university fees xD

As for university - I study law, which many people here consider to be a “useless” degree, as unless you have solid connections (and relatives that work as lawyers, etc.), getting a job can be rather difficult... Still, I'm going to give it a try the "normal" way (aka via legit interviews, etc.) and we'll see how things will work out.

What kind of student are you? ♠ I was actually the student with the 2nd highest grade in my class, but I wouldn't say I had an interest in high grades in general. I was just scared of failing my teachers' expectations, so I tried my best.

As for university - it really depends on the subject, 'cause civil law is not something I'm too interested in and, naturally, my grades aren't too high xDD I try to prioritize the subjects I like / will need in the future and learn just enough to pass for everything else.

Do you like school? ♠ Yup, overall. My class was kinda split into groups, so there were conflicts, but there were a lot of fun moments too.

Favorite subject? ♠ I'd say Biology and later on - Literature. As for university - Criminal Law and Criminology.

Favorite tv shows? ♠ In no specific order - Victor Ros (Murder Mystery/Thriller), Victoria (Drama/History) and Anne with an E (Drama/Based on a book). As for anime - Psych-Pass, Durarara!! and Pandora Hearts (maybe it's the nostalgia, but I still love it, regardless of it's flaws).

Favorite movie(s)? ♠ At the top of my head - The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Red Dragon (2002), Phenomena (1985), Van Helsing (2004), Dog Soldiers (2002), Labyrinth (1986), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000), The Never Ending Story (1984), When Marnie Was There (2014; though a lot of Ghibli movies come to mind), The Lion King (1994; + many other Disney movies), The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008);

Favorite book(s)? ♠ Oh, boy... Crime and Punishment (1866), all of the novels about Sherlock Holmes (The Hound of the Baskervilles being my favorite), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), The Chrysalids (1955), The Secret Garden (1911), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), The Silence of the Lambs (1988), Red Dragon (1981), Psycho (1959), Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming (1991), Dracula (1897), The Phantom of the Opera (1909), Memoirs of a Geisha (1997), the Grimm brothers' fairy tales aaaand more.

Do you have regrets? ♠ I don't really think so. Or should I say, I do, but they don't stay for long. I mean, just because I failed today doesn't mean I'll fail tomorrow as well, you know?

Dream job? ♠ As a kid I wanted to become a vet. Right now, I'm aiming for the position of a police investigator, though working as a prosecutor or private detective (at some point later on) is still a good option in my book.

Do you like shopping? ♠ Only online one, lol. I find (clothes) shopping to be slow and tedious for most of the time.

What countries have you visited? ♠ I've been to Germany for 4 days, during a music festival. At the time I was only 13, so I barely remember anything, aside that it was very cold, the natives seemed nice and I really liked the architecture of the houses + how quiet the small town was.

Scariest nightmare you have ever had? ♠ Once I dreamed my home city was hit by nuclear bomb (I literally saw the explosion out of my window), so I guess that. It's kinda funny how stressed one is after such a dream, before they realize (well, more like their brain realizes) that it was a dream and not reality.

Any enemies? ♠ I don't think so? Though I presume a handful of people online dislike me, but that is to be expected.

Do you believe in miracles? ♠ Not really, not in the classical sense. I think some things, good or bad, happen "at the roll of a dice". Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. No more, no less.

How are you? ♠ In a good mood, probably since I'll be visiting the seaside soon ~

I’m too lazy to tag, so if you see this post and feel like sharing some info about yourself, consider yourself tagged!

[justfinishedreading]

Part 2 – Reviewing the Play

Felizmente há luar! is a play inspired by a real event in Portuguese history from 1817. That year there were rumours that the people of Portugal were planning to revolt against the monarchy. An army general named Gomes Freire de Andrade was accused of being the leader of the conspiracy, he was imprisoned and condemned to death, but his guilt was never conclusively proven.

In part 1 I talked about what Portugal was like politically in the 1960s when the play was written; it was a time when the country had been under dictatorship for the last 30 years, a time when freedom of speech and the principals of democracy were oppressed. It could be argued that the author Luís de Sttau Monteiro choose to set his play in 1817 to avoid censorship; he may have tried to camouflage his message by using history, a tactic to mask the fact that he was outright criticising the current government. But the liberal message of the play is pretty clear, and the government banned it anyway. I prefer the idea that Monteiro used events of past history to illustrate how little has changed: how corruption and injustice still thrive and shockingly how many similarities still exist between past and present.

In 1817, (and without getting too deep into history because I did that way too much in Part 1), the king of Portugal, D. João VI, was far away in Brazil looking after the empire, back in Portugal the people were impoverished and hushed whispers of revolution floated in the air.

In the play three characters, without having any concrete evidence, offer up the name of General Gomes Freire de Andrade as a possible conspirator. These three characters, two policemen and a spy, have been pressured by men of power to name a suspect, but they are also blinded by their own ambition for wealth and status. The General was an easy target because of his popularity with the people and his liberal views.

Those in power grab onto the General’s name with relish and bring about his downfall. They are; a Portuguese governor named D. Miguel Forjaz, a ruling member of the catholic church, Principal Sousa, and a British marshal commissioned to lead the Portuguese army, Beresford. The governor is in fact the General’s cousin and has a personal dislike for the man. Sousa is worried that revolution would stray the people away from God… but more importantly away from the power of the church and those who rule it. Regarding the British marshal he has absolutely no love for Portugal or its people and simply wants to keep control long enough to earn himself a good commission. These three men of power choose the General to be a sacrificial lamb. Whether he truly is organizing a revolt or not is unimportant, the important thing is to show the people that liberal ideals are not to be tolerated. These ideals go again God, King and Country.

Truth be told, I don’t actually like Felizmente há luar! Sure it is an important work historically and has, and will continue to be, taught in schools in order to teach new generations of teenagers about politics, corruption, censorship and revolution. It’s even propelled me to do research about my own country and write an essay on Salazar and Portuguese colonialism. All art should educate and entertain, however while Felizmente há luar! covers the ‘educate’ bit very well, for me personally it isn’t good enough on the ‘entertain’ front. It lacks love, I don’t mean romantic love, I mean the love of art, the desire to create art because of the author’s love for art. Felizmente há luar! was created to criticize the dictatorship of the 60s, to criticize censorship and show the audience the true face of corruption. It was in essence: propaganda. Propaganda with a good purpose, but propaganda all the same.

Perhaps the problem is with me; so far what little I’ve experienced of classic Portuguese literature hasn’t meshed well with me. It’s too… melodramatic. But I’ll get to that in a moment. Firstly the things about the play which impressed me: the fate of General is what drives the plot, and yet he is never on stage, he is never heard. The man is conspired against, imprisoned, sentenced to death and yet he never has a chance to defend himself. This was a brilliant idea from the author, it reflects how in the 60s political activists, or even ordinary folk with ideas against the government, were taken away, imprisoned, tortured, hushed up, and made to disappear. Their voices never heard.

A scene which I felt was very poignant in the play was when the General’s “woman”, Matilde, having failed to persuade anyone of power to help her then turns to the common people for help. One of them gives her a coin and explains that when they ask for help, when they are starving and without a home, without a job and begging for help, the upper class feel that giving spare change is enough to ease their own conscience. Now when someone from a higher class asks them to repel against authority, to risk their lives for one man, the only help they are willing to give in return are those same measly coins.

Matilde is the character which gave me the most difficulties to accept. She is the classic heroine: a woman of kindness, eternally devoted to her man. That’s the problem; “good women” in classic literature are those whose main job is to fret over the hero and plead for him when he gets into trouble. Matilde is a one-dimensional character. But she has two potentially positive points. Firstly she’s described as the General’s companion, to me it’s unclear whether she’s his wife or his long-term unmarried lover. From a feminist point of view it would be excellent if they were unmarried, this would challenge the catholic church’s insistence on marriage and the idea that only a wife in holy matrimony or a virgin can be representations of women of virtue. But I’m not sure if Matilde’s position is deliberately ambiguous or if my understanding of the Portuguese language has let me down and they actually are married.

The second point and the reason I warmed up to her character was because I realised that of all the General’s friends and family, she was the only one who tried everything she could think of to save him. Unfortunately all she could do was… beg everyone for help, but the point is that she was the only one who was willing to give up her pride in order to save him.  

The last thing I want to talk about is the title Felizmente há luar! which translate as “Luckily there’s moonlight!”. I bought this book during my first year studying in uni in Portugal, at the time I was homesick and would buy books to cheer myself up, but I hated reading in Portuguese so only now, a decade later, am I reading some of them. Felizmente há luar! was a book I bought solely because I liked the cover design and I had mistakenly assumed that the play was a comedy based on the title. The phrase “luckily there’s moonlight!” is uttered twice in the play, both times at very distressing moments. The first is on the night the General is to be executed, burned at the stake. Governor D. Miguel comments “Lisbon will smell all night of burnt flesh, the smell will stay in their memories for many years to come… every time they think of challenging our orders, they will remember this smell… It is true that the execution will last all night, but luckily there’s moonlight…”

Oh how a phrase I thought was associated with a comedy turned so sinister.

The second occurrence is at the very end, Matilde watches the fire consume the General’s body and says “I thought this was the end but it is only the beginning. That fire will ignite this country!” (turns to the crowd) “Look well! Wash your eyes in the light of that fire and open your souls to what it teaches us! Even the night was made for us to see it until the end… luckily ­­­– luckily there’s moonlight!”

Review by Book Hamster

[patriotsnet]

What Is An Example Of Republicanism

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-is-an-example-of-republicanism/

What Is An Example Of Republicanism

The Founding Fathers And The Republic

What is a republic?

When the Founding Fathers were brainstorming the kind of government they wanted for America, they studied the histories of other nations to determine what worked and what didnt. Of particular interest to them was the Roman Republics government, which had been around a full 2,000 years before the American revolution. The Founding Fathers decided that a republican government was the best possible government for America.

The decision to create a republic was largely influenced by the ideas that the Roman Republic incorporated into its rule. The most attractive principles to which the Founding Fathers were drawn include:

Government power is held by the people.

The people elect the leaders they want representing them and, in doing so, invest their power in their representatives.

The representatives are tasked with helping every citizen in the country they serve, not a select few.

Some of the ideals that guided the Founding Fathers choice for a republic included:

Fairness The Founders believed that the elected representatives should create fair laws and, if they did not, they could be easily replaced by other representatives who would.

Common Welfare The laws that those representatives created would benefit everyone in the country, rather than one person in particular, or even a select few.

Freedom and Prosperity The Founders liked the idea of their people being afforded the freedom to live prosperous lives.

What Is Republicanism In Simple Terms

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic with an emphasis on liberty and the civic virtue practiced by citizens. More broadly, it refers to a political system that protects liberty, especially by incorporating a rule of law that cannot be arbitrarily ignored by the government.

What Is A Republican Government

The government of Rome was called a republican government. The Founders read that republican government was one in which:

The power of government is held by the people.

The people give power to leaders they elect to represent them and serve their interests.

The representatives are responsible for helping all the people in the country, not just a few people.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Won In Tuesday’s Election

Opiniondemocrats Challenged Electoral College Votes First And Set The Precedent For This Mess

There is no way to justify continuing the false designation of radical rightists as conservatives and people willing to end the republic as Republicans. The dozen-plus elected members of the Republican Party in the Senate and the more than a hundred in the House who announced that they would vote to overturn various states electoral slates Wednesday should not, despite their nominal party membership, be referred to as conservatives or Republicans.

All who fail to condemn President Donald Trumps phone call threatening and pressuring state officials in Georgia and who do not forcefully disassociate themselves from his reported musings about declaring martial law to remain in power show themselves to be opposed to conserving our republic.

Todays Republicans plainly are not deserving of the inheritance of Lincolns party or its name.

The unconscionable effort to keep Trump in office despite the stated will of the people is tantamount to throwing democracy and the American republic into the dustbin of history. Republicans do not wish to end the republic in which they serve or else they are Republicans in Name Only. Conservatives who do not wish to conserve the very foundation of the American experiment our democratic republic is no kind of conservative their intellectual predecessors would recognize.

In What Ways Does The Declaration Of Independence Reflect Principles Of Classical Republicanism

In what ways does it reflect principles of classical republicanism? The Declaration of Independence reflects John Lockes social contract by withdrawing their obligation to obey the monarchy, by grouping colonists to change leadership because they believed the monarchy failed to protect their rights.

You May Like: What Is The Lapel Pin Republicans Are Wearing

Classical Republicanism And Natural Rights

Classical republicanism promoted the natural rights philosophy, which is echoed in the Declaration of Independence. Natural rights are those rights that are not dependent on, nor can they be changed by, manmade laws, cultural customs, or the beliefs of any culture or government. These rights include such things as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Other natural rights include the right to protect oneself from physical harm, the right to worship as one chooses, the right to express oneself, among others.

The reason why classical republicanism is so prevalent in the Declaration of Independence is because of the colonists recognition of the fact that they wanted their government to be vastly different from that of the British parliament. They believed that they were following their civic duty by separating from Britain for the purposes of preserving the common good.

What Is Civic Virtue

When you work to help others and promote the common welfare, you are showing civic virtue. The Founders thought civic virtue was important for a republican government. People with civic virtue are interested in having the government help all the people.

The Founders thought it was necessary to teach children the importance of helping others. Young people learned about civic virtue in their homes, schools, and churches. Adults also heard about civic virtue from their religious and political leaders.

The Founders thought a republican government would work in our country. They believed most of the people had civic virtue. They thought the people would select leaders who would work for the common welfare.

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Hate John Mccain

On Types Of Republicanism

The academic literature on republicanism, in my experience, largely assumes one major distinction between kinds of republicanism. As I did not do conduct a major literature review just recently on the issue, I may have missed something, but it seems safe to say that the distinction I am getting onto is well established. That is the distinction between Roman and Athenian republicanism, with the two big names in the field, Philip Pettit and Hannah Arendt lined up on either side.

There are other distinctions between Pettit and Arendt, in the ways they;approach political thouht but I will leave those aside here. In terms of general political thought, Pettit has a more individualised and reductive approach to rights, while Arendt refers to a lived experience of the political side of humanity.;Pettit’s ‘Romanism’ is indeed a claim to avoid the supposed denial of individuality and the right to be free from the political sphere, apparently inherent in ‘Athenianism’. Arendt’s ‘Athenianism’ is a claim to deal with the role that politics has in the life of humanity, which can never just be ‘social’, so lacking the competition for power in a public space. There are ways we might try to equate those with differences in political position with regard to issues other than pure political structures, but I do ;not believes that those really work out and that is again something I leave aside.

Posted by Barry Stocker on 20 October 2014 at 20:39 |Permalink

Which Republican President Inspired The Teddy Bear

What is Republicanism in the United States?, Explain Republicanism in the United States

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican U.S. president from 1901 to 1909, inspired the teddy bear when he refused to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. The story reached toy maker Morris Michtom, who decided to make stuffed bears as a dedication to Roosevelt. The name comes from Roosevelts nickname, Teddy.

Republican Party, byname Grand Old Party , in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the countrys new territories and, ultimately, for slaverys complete abolition. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-fairecapitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The party acquired the acronym GOP, widely understood as Grand Old Party, in the 1870s. The partys official logo, the elephant, is derived from a cartoon by Thomas Nast and also dates from the 1870s.

You May Like: Who Are Democrats And Republicans In Us

Definition Of Republican Government

Republicanism Government;is a system of government in which the supreme power in the state rests in the people and their elected representatives. Republicanism is a form of representative government.

The concept is derived from the word republic. Republicanism is a form of government in which the head of state is an elected president and not a hereditary ruler. It therefore refers to a system of government in which sovereign power is widely vested in the people either directly or through their elected representatives.

In short a republician government may be defined as a form of government in which the Head of State is elected for a fixed term of office.

The Lessons Of Civic Republicanism

Thomas Jefferson is known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the articulator of the separation of church and state. These high profile accomplishments tend to overshadow his other important contributions. For example, Civic Republicanism is a Jeffersonian notion that deserves our contemporary attention.;

Civic Republicanism centers on two interrelated ideas, civic responsibility and community. Civic responsibility refers to the sense of responsibility that we have toward one another, and for one anothers well being. It is the practice of placing the common good above our individual self-interest. We do this willingly because, in communities, we get to know one another and, in turn, feel connected to the people around us. Our neighbors, religious leaders, teachers, and store owners are all part of this network of common bonds we call community. In other words, we learn not to be narcissists because we have learned the benefits of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility. ;

While Civic Republicanism is a good idea, its not one that seems to inform contemporary America. As populations become more segregated based on race and more stratified by economic class, traditional notions of community have disappeared.

Well, what has happened to them? What has robbed of us this tradition?;

Today, however, as inequality has raised the stakes and undermined traditional notions of community, self-interest has come to rule day.;

Recommended Reading: What Color Ties Do Republicans Wear

Republicanism And Fundamental Rights

The foregoing discussion should not be construed as implying a necessary correlation between, on the one hand, liberalism and democracy, and, on the other, communitarianism and authoritarianism. Some versions of communitarianism approach a pure, popular democracy more closely than do some versions of liberalism, which would expressly renounce pure democracy. If a society is to be governed by a principle of collective welfare, and if notions of collective welfare are to be ascertained by consensus, then majority rule provides sufficient justification for deciding which acts should be penalized. No additional justification, with reference to the specific harm that would be caused by penalized acts, would be required. If the majority wishes to penalize gambling, alcohol consumption, flag burning, contraception, or homosexuality, then it may do so with no greater notion of harm than the sentiment that individuals and society would be better off without such things.

Ordinary right Putative harm caused by exercise of right Exercise of right may be penalized without special justification Exercise of right may not be penalized without special justification

Wilfried Nippel, in, 2015

The British Empire And The Commonwealth Of Nations

In some countries of the British Empire, later the Commonwealth of Nations, republicanism has taken a variety of forms.

In Barbados, the government gave the promise of a referendum on becoming a republic in August 2008, but it was postponed due to the change of government in the 2008 election. A plan to becoming a republic was still in place in September 2020, according to the current PM, with a target date of late 2021.

In South Africa, republicanism in the 1960s was identified with the supporters of apartheid, who resented British interference in their treatment of the country’s black population.

In Australia, the debate between republicans and monarchists is still active, and republicanism draws support from across the political spectrum. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a leading proponent of an Australian republic prior to joining the centre-right Liberal Party, and led the pro-republic campaign during the failed 1999 Australian republic referendum. After becoming Prime Minister in 2015, he confirmed he still supports a republic, but stated that the issue should wait until after the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The centre-left Labor Party officially supports the abolition of the monarchy and another referendum on the issue.

Also Check: How Many Republicans Are In The United States

Republican As Party Name

In 1792â93 Jefferson and Madison created a new “Democratic-Republican party” in order to promote their version of the doctrine. They wanted to suggest that Hamilton’s version was illegitimate. According to Federalist Noah Webster, a political activist bitter at the defeat of the Federalist party in the White House and Congress, the choice of the name “Democratic-Republican” was “a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party. … The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington’s character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration.” The party, which historians later called the Democratic-Republican Party, split into separate factions in the 1820s, one of which became the Democratic Party. After 1832, the Democrats were opposed by another faction that named themselves “Whigs” after the Patriots of the 1770s who started the American Revolution. Both of these parties proclaimed their devotion to republicanism in the era of the Second Party System.

Republicanism In The United States

Edit

Republicanism in the United States is a set of ideas that guides the government and politics. These ideas have shaped the government, and the way people in the United States think about politics, since the American Revolution.

The American Revolution, the , the Constitution , and even the Gettysburg Address were based on ideas from American republicanism.

“Republicanism” comes from the word “republic.” However, they are not the same thing. A republic is a type of government . Republicanism is an ideology set of beliefs that people in a republic have about what is most important to them.

Don’t Miss: Did Any Republicans Own Slaves In 1860

What Counts As Arbitrary Power

A second major difficulty in developing the republican idea offreedom lies in giving precise meaning to the notion of arbitrariness.According to what criteria are we to consider power arbitrary? Notsimply when its exercise is random or unpredictable. This view wouldundermine the whole point of the republican conception of politicalliberty. As discussed above, with long experience a slave is betterable to predict his masters behavior, and so it appears lessrandom to him, but the slave doesnot enjoy greater freedom by that fact alone. Just because one isbetter able to cope with arbitrary power, it does not follow thatones domination is any less.

Discretionary is much closer to the relevant meaningof arbitrary, but it is not quite right either. Discretionary powermight be delegated to a public agency with a view to advancing certainpolicy goals or endsas for example Congress has delegateddiscretionary authority to the Federal Reservebut we would notwant to say that this reduces our freedom . For reasons explained inthe fourth section of this entry, contemporary civic republicans mustbe able to offer an account of non-arbitrary, yet discretionaryauthority.

Democracy’s Discontent: America In Search Of A Public Philosophy

RwandaâCAR Cooperation is an example of what Africa can achieve through unity

In this book, Sandel contrasts the tradition of civic republicanism with that of procedural liberalism in the US political history. The presentation is organized as the intertwining of philosophical and mostly historical analyses. Philosophically, based on LLJ, Sandel continuous his criticism of liberalism and argues for the idea of civic republicanism with the sense of multiply situated selves. Historically, Sandel shows, while both procedural liberalism and civic republicanism used to be present throughout American politics, American political discourse, in the recent decades, has become dominated by procedural liberalism, and has steadily crowded out the republican understandings of citizenship, which is important for self-government.

Sandel reminds us that the American Revolution was originally aspiring to generate a new community of common good. By separating from England, Americans attempt to stave off corruption and to realize republican ideals, to renew the moral spirit that suited Americans to republican government . Unfortunately, in the years following independence, leading politicians and writers started to worry the corruption of the public spirit by the rampant pursuit of luxury and self-interest. Nowadays, most of American practices and institutions have thoroughly embodied the philosophy of procedural liberalism. Despite its philosophical problem, it has offered the public philosophy by which Americans live.

T. O’Hagan, in, 2001

Recommended Reading: Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

Zombie Brains Are A Thing

There is life after death if you’re a pig���sorta. Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Recently at the Yale School of Medicine, researchers received 32 dead pig brains from a nearby slaughterhouse. No, it wasn’t some Mafia-style intimidation tactic. They’d placed the order in the hopes of giving the brains a physiological resurrection.

The researchers connected the brains to an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx. It pumped a solution through them that mimicked blood flow, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the inert tissues.

This system revitalized the brains and kept some of their cells “alive” for as long as 36 hours postmortem. The cells consumed and metabolized sugars. The brains’ immune systems even kicked back in. And some samples were even able to carry electrical signals.

Because the researchers weren’t aiming for Animal Farm with Zombies, they included chemicals in the solution that prevented neural activity representative of consciousness from taking place.

Their actual goal was to design a technology that will help us study the brain and its cellular functions longer and more thoroughly. With it, we may be able to develop new treatments for brain injuries and neurodegenerative conditions.

[statetalks]

What Is An Example Of Republicanism

The Founding Fathers And The Republic

What is a republic?

When the Founding Fathers were brainstorming the kind of government they wanted for America, they studied the histories of other nations to determine what worked and what didnt. Of particular interest to them was the Roman Republics government, which had been around a full 2,000 years before the American revolution. The Founding Fathers decided that a republican government was the best possible government for America.

The decision to create a republic was largely influenced by the ideas that the Roman Republic incorporated into its rule. The most attractive principles to which the Founding Fathers were drawn include:

Government power is held by the people.

The people elect the leaders they want representing them and, in doing so, invest their power in their representatives.

The representatives are tasked with helping every citizen in the country they serve, not a select few.

Some of the ideals that guided the Founding Fathers choice for a republic included:

Fairness The Founders believed that the elected representatives should create fair laws and, if they did not, they could be easily replaced by other representatives who would.

Common Welfare The laws that those representatives created would benefit everyone in the country, rather than one person in particular, or even a select few.

Freedom and Prosperity The Founders liked the idea of their people being afforded the freedom to live prosperous lives.

What Is Republicanism In Simple Terms

Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic with an emphasis on liberty and the civic virtue practiced by citizens. More broadly, it refers to a political system that protects liberty, especially by incorporating a rule of law that cannot be arbitrarily ignored by the government.

What Is A Republican Government

The government of Rome was called a republican government. The Founders read that republican government was one in which:

The power of government is held by the people.

The people give power to leaders they elect to represent them and serve their interests.

The representatives are responsible for helping all the people in the country, not just a few people.

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Won In Tuesday’s Election

Opiniondemocrats Challenged Electoral College Votes First And Set The Precedent For This Mess

There is no way to justify continuing the false designation of radical rightists as conservatives and people willing to end the republic as Republicans. The dozen-plus elected members of the Republican Party in the Senate and the more than a hundred in the House who announced that they would vote to overturn various states electoral slates Wednesday should not, despite their nominal party membership, be referred to as conservatives or Republicans.

All who fail to condemn President Donald Trumps phone call threatening and pressuring state officials in Georgia and who do not forcefully disassociate themselves from his reported musings about declaring martial law to remain in power show themselves to be opposed to conserving our republic.

Todays Republicans plainly are not deserving of the inheritance of Lincolns party or its name.

The unconscionable effort to keep Trump in office despite the stated will of the people is tantamount to throwing democracy and the American republic into the dustbin of history. Republicans do not wish to end the republic in which they serve or else they are Republicans in Name Only. Conservatives who do not wish to conserve the very foundation of the American experiment our democratic republic is no kind of conservative their intellectual predecessors would recognize.

In What Ways Does The Declaration Of Independence Reflect Principles Of Classical Republicanism

In what ways does it reflect principles of classical republicanism? The Declaration of Independence reflects John Lockes social contract by withdrawing their obligation to obey the monarchy, by grouping colonists to change leadership because they believed the monarchy failed to protect their rights.

You May Like: What Is The Lapel Pin Republicans Are Wearing

Classical Republicanism And Natural Rights

Classical republicanism promoted the natural rights philosophy, which is echoed in the Declaration of Independence. Natural rights are those rights that are not dependent on, nor can they be changed by, manmade laws, cultural customs, or the beliefs of any culture or government. These rights include such things as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Other natural rights include the right to protect oneself from physical harm, the right to worship as one chooses, the right to express oneself, among others.

The reason why classical republicanism is so prevalent in the Declaration of Independence is because of the colonists recognition of the fact that they wanted their government to be vastly different from that of the British parliament. They believed that they were following their civic duty by separating from Britain for the purposes of preserving the common good.

What Is Civic Virtue

When you work to help others and promote the common welfare, you are showing civic virtue. The Founders thought civic virtue was important for a republican government. People with civic virtue are interested in having the government help all the people.

The Founders thought it was necessary to teach children the importance of helping others. Young people learned about civic virtue in their homes, schools, and churches. Adults also heard about civic virtue from their religious and political leaders.

The Founders thought a republican government would work in our country. They believed most of the people had civic virtue. They thought the people would select leaders who would work for the common welfare.

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Hate John Mccain

On Types Of Republicanism

The academic literature on republicanism, in my experience, largely assumes one major distinction between kinds of republicanism. As I did not do conduct a major literature review just recently on the issue, I may have missed something, but it seems safe to say that the distinction I am getting onto is well established. That is the distinction between Roman and Athenian republicanism, with the two big names in the field, Philip Pettit and Hannah Arendt lined up on either side.

There are other distinctions between Pettit and Arendt, in the ways they;approach political thouht but I will leave those aside here. In terms of general political thought, Pettit has a more individualised and reductive approach to rights, while Arendt refers to a lived experience of the political side of humanity.;Pettit’s ‘Romanism’ is indeed a claim to avoid the supposed denial of individuality and the right to be free from the political sphere, apparently inherent in ‘Athenianism’. Arendt’s ‘Athenianism’ is a claim to deal with the role that politics has in the life of humanity, which can never just be ‘social’, so lacking the competition for power in a public space. There are ways we might try to equate those with differences in political position with regard to issues other than pure political structures, but I do ;not believes that those really work out and that is again something I leave aside.

Posted by Barry Stocker on 20 October 2014 at 20:39 |Permalink

Which Republican President Inspired The Teddy Bear

What is Republicanism in the United States?, Explain Republicanism in the United States

Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican U.S. president from 1901 to 1909, inspired the teddy bear when he refused to shoot a tied-up bear on a hunting trip. The story reached toy maker Morris Michtom, who decided to make stuffed bears as a dedication to Roosevelt. The name comes from Roosevelts nickname, Teddy.

Republican Party, byname Grand Old Party , in the United States, one of the two major political parties, the other being the Democratic Party. During the 19th century the Republican Party stood against the extension of slavery to the countrys new territories and, ultimately, for slaverys complete abolition. During the 20th and 21st centuries the party came to be associated with laissez-fairecapitalism, low taxes, and conservative social policies. The party acquired the acronym GOP, widely understood as Grand Old Party, in the 1870s. The partys official logo, the elephant, is derived from a cartoon by Thomas Nast and also dates from the 1870s.

You May Like: Who Are Democrats And Republicans In Us

Definition Of Republican Government

Republicanism Government;is a system of government in which the supreme power in the state rests in the people and their elected representatives. Republicanism is a form of representative government.

The concept is derived from the word republic. Republicanism is a form of government in which the head of state is an elected president and not a hereditary ruler. It therefore refers to a system of government in which sovereign power is widely vested in the people either directly or through their elected representatives.

In short a republician government may be defined as a form of government in which the Head of State is elected for a fixed term of office.

The Lessons Of Civic Republicanism

Thomas Jefferson is known as the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the articulator of the separation of church and state. These high profile accomplishments tend to overshadow his other important contributions. For example, Civic Republicanism is a Jeffersonian notion that deserves our contemporary attention.;

Civic Republicanism centers on two interrelated ideas, civic responsibility and community. Civic responsibility refers to the sense of responsibility that we have toward one another, and for one anothers well being. It is the practice of placing the common good above our individual self-interest. We do this willingly because, in communities, we get to know one another and, in turn, feel connected to the people around us. Our neighbors, religious leaders, teachers, and store owners are all part of this network of common bonds we call community. In other words, we learn not to be narcissists because we have learned the benefits of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility. ;

While Civic Republicanism is a good idea, its not one that seems to inform contemporary America. As populations become more segregated based on race and more stratified by economic class, traditional notions of community have disappeared.

Well, what has happened to them? What has robbed of us this tradition?;

Today, however, as inequality has raised the stakes and undermined traditional notions of community, self-interest has come to rule day.;

Recommended Reading: What Color Ties Do Republicans Wear

Republicanism And Fundamental Rights

The foregoing discussion should not be construed as implying a necessary correlation between, on the one hand, liberalism and democracy, and, on the other, communitarianism and authoritarianism. Some versions of communitarianism approach a pure, popular democracy more closely than do some versions of liberalism, which would expressly renounce pure democracy. If a society is to be governed by a principle of collective welfare, and if notions of collective welfare are to be ascertained by consensus, then majority rule provides sufficient justification for deciding which acts should be penalized. No additional justification, with reference to the specific harm that would be caused by penalized acts, would be required. If the majority wishes to penalize gambling, alcohol consumption, flag burning, contraception, or homosexuality, then it may do so with no greater notion of harm than the sentiment that individuals and society would be better off without such things.

Ordinary right Putative harm caused by exercise of right Exercise of right may be penalized without special justification Exercise of right may not be penalized without special justification

Wilfried Nippel, in, 2015

The British Empire And The Commonwealth Of Nations

In some countries of the British Empire, later the Commonwealth of Nations, republicanism has taken a variety of forms.

In Barbados, the government gave the promise of a referendum on becoming a republic in August 2008, but it was postponed due to the change of government in the 2008 election. A plan to becoming a republic was still in place in September 2020, according to the current PM, with a target date of late 2021.

In South Africa, republicanism in the 1960s was identified with the supporters of apartheid, who resented British interference in their treatment of the country’s black population.

In Australia, the debate between republicans and monarchists is still active, and republicanism draws support from across the political spectrum. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was a leading proponent of an Australian republic prior to joining the centre-right Liberal Party, and led the pro-republic campaign during the failed 1999 Australian republic referendum. After becoming Prime Minister in 2015, he confirmed he still supports a republic, but stated that the issue should wait until after the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. The centre-left Labor Party officially supports the abolition of the monarchy and another referendum on the issue.

Also Check: How Many Republicans Are In The United States

Republican As Party Name

In 1792â93 Jefferson and Madison created a new “Democratic-Republican party” in order to promote their version of the doctrine. They wanted to suggest that Hamilton’s version was illegitimate. According to Federalist Noah Webster, a political activist bitter at the defeat of the Federalist party in the White House and Congress, the choice of the name “Democratic-Republican” was “a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party. … The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the Republican Party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington’s character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration.” The party, which historians later called the Democratic-Republican Party, split into separate factions in the 1820s, one of which became the Democratic Party. After 1832, the Democrats were opposed by another faction that named themselves “Whigs” after the Patriots of the 1770s who started the American Revolution. Both of these parties proclaimed their devotion to republicanism in the era of the Second Party System.

Republicanism In The United States

Edit

Republicanism in the United States is a set of ideas that guides the government and politics. These ideas have shaped the government, and the way people in the United States think about politics, since the American Revolution.

The American Revolution, the , the Constitution , and even the Gettysburg Address were based on ideas from American republicanism.

“Republicanism” comes from the word “republic.” However, they are not the same thing. A republic is a type of government . Republicanism is an ideology set of beliefs that people in a republic have about what is most important to them.

Don’t Miss: Did Any Republicans Own Slaves In 1860

What Counts As Arbitrary Power

A second major difficulty in developing the republican idea offreedom lies in giving precise meaning to the notion of arbitrariness.According to what criteria are we to consider power arbitrary? Notsimply when its exercise is random or unpredictable. This view wouldundermine the whole point of the republican conception of politicalliberty. As discussed above, with long experience a slave is betterable to predict his masters behavior, and so it appears lessrandom to him, but the slave doesnot enjoy greater freedom by that fact alone. Just because one isbetter able to cope with arbitrary power, it does not follow thatones domination is any less.

Discretionary is much closer to the relevant meaningof arbitrary, but it is not quite right either. Discretionary powermight be delegated to a public agency with a view to advancing certainpolicy goals or endsas for example Congress has delegateddiscretionary authority to the Federal Reservebut we would notwant to say that this reduces our freedom . For reasons explained inthe fourth section of this entry, contemporary civic republicans mustbe able to offer an account of non-arbitrary, yet discretionaryauthority.

Democracy’s Discontent: America In Search Of A Public Philosophy

RwandaâCAR Cooperation is an example of what Africa can achieve through unity

In this book, Sandel contrasts the tradition of civic republicanism with that of procedural liberalism in the US political history. The presentation is organized as the intertwining of philosophical and mostly historical analyses. Philosophically, based on LLJ, Sandel continuous his criticism of liberalism and argues for the idea of civic republicanism with the sense of multiply situated selves. Historically, Sandel shows, while both procedural liberalism and civic republicanism used to be present throughout American politics, American political discourse, in the recent decades, has become dominated by procedural liberalism, and has steadily crowded out the republican understandings of citizenship, which is important for self-government.

Sandel reminds us that the American Revolution was originally aspiring to generate a new community of common good. By separating from England, Americans attempt to stave off corruption and to realize republican ideals, to renew the moral spirit that suited Americans to republican government . Unfortunately, in the years following independence, leading politicians and writers started to worry the corruption of the public spirit by the rampant pursuit of luxury and self-interest. Nowadays, most of American practices and institutions have thoroughly embodied the philosophy of procedural liberalism. Despite its philosophical problem, it has offered the public philosophy by which Americans live.

T. O’Hagan, in, 2001

Recommended Reading: Did Republicans Riot After Obama Was Elected

Zombie Brains Are A Thing

There is life after death if you’re a pig…sorta. Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Recently at the Yale School of Medicine, researchers received 32 dead pig brains from a nearby slaughterhouse. No, it wasn’t some Mafia-style intimidation tactic. They’d placed the order in the hopes of giving the brains a physiological resurrection.

The researchers connected the brains to an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx. It pumped a solution through them that mimicked blood flow, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the inert tissues.

This system revitalized the brains and kept some of their cells “alive” for as long as 36 hours postmortem. The cells consumed and metabolized sugars. The brains’ immune systems even kicked back in. And some samples were even able to carry electrical signals.

Because the researchers weren’t aiming for Animal Farm with Zombies, they included chemicals in the solution that prevented neural activity representative of consciousness from taking place.

Their actual goal was to design a technology that will help us study the brain and its cellular functions longer and more thoroughly. With it, we may be able to develop new treatments for brain injuries and neurodegenerative conditions.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-is-an-example-of-republicanism/

[katherineschileanlitblog]

10 Interesting Fiction Books

Curfew by Jose Donoso

“Donoso’s engrossing novel spans 24 hours in the stifling and oppressive political atmosphere of 1985 Santiago under General Augusto Pinochet’s military regime.

A leftwing singer returns after 13 years of exile in Paris. His fame now faded and his politics softened, Mañungo Vera is no longer the revolutionary he once was. His visit coincides with the death of Matilde Neruda, widow of the Nobel prize-winning poet and icon of the Chilean left, Pablo Neruda.

Vera is reacquainted with old friends and comrades as they prepare for the funeral. But, caught out by the curfew, he is forced to spend an eventful night on the streets with his former lover, during which they have a dangerous run-in with her suspected torturer.

Donoso paints a harrowing picture of life under the repressive regime, and shows how negotiating its daily horrors damages both individuals and society. He also shines a harsh light on the left, as factions squabble and jockey for advantage from the funeral.

This intense, introspective tale reflects the political and spiritual decay of the nation, after more than a decade of dictatorship.” (Khaneka, P. 2015, April 9. The best books on Chile: start your reading here. 2020, September 27.)

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

“Allende’s classic, hugely successful family saga is a masterwork of magic-realism. Fusing the personal with the political and fact with fantasy, it tells Chile’s recent history through several generations of the Trueba family, ending with a savage military coup that leads to the death of a president.

The principal protagonist, Esteban Trueba, is used to getting his own way – in his family (as an irascible patriarch), on his farm (as a wealthy landowner), and in the country (as a rightwing senator): “The day we can’t get our hands on the ballot boxes before the vote is counted, we’re done for.”

When a socialist candidate finally wins the presidential election, Trueba backs a coup. But in the ferocious denouement that follows, he finds himself sidelined as brutality and terror spiral under the newly installed military regime.

The novel celebrates the spirit and resilience of the Trueba women, which shine through the political tumult and family turbulence in this clever, witty and stunningly assured debut.

Allende’s father was a cousin of President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown and died during a military coup in 1973. In 1975, the author fled to Venezuela, and later moved to the US. She has said the book is an “attempt to recreate the country I had lost, the family I had lost”. (Khaneka, P. 2015, April 9. The best books on Chile: start your reading here. 2020, September 27.)

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 

“Orphaned at birth, Eliza Sommers is raised in the British colony of Valparaíso, Chile, by the well-intentioned Victorian spinster Miss Rose and her more rigid brother Jeremy. Just as she meets and falls in love with the wildly inappropriate Joaquín Andieta, a lowly clerk who works for Jeremy, gold is discovered in the hills of northern California. By 1849, Chileans of every stripe have fallen prey to feverish dreams of wealth. Joaquín takes off for San Francisco to seek his fortune, and Eliza, pregnant with his child, decides to follow him.

As Eliza embarks on her perilous journey north in the hold of a ship and arrives in the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco, she must navigate a society dominated by greedy men. But Eliza soon catches on with the help of her natural spirit and a good friend, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi’en. What began as a search for love ends up as the conquest of personal freedom.

A marvel of storytelling, Daughter of Fortune confirms once again Isabel Allende's extraordinary gift for fiction and her place as one of the world's leading writers” (Amazon)

The Savage Detective by Roberto Bolano

“In this dazzling novel, the book that established his international reputation, Roberto Bolaño tells the story of two modern-day Quixotes--the last survivors of an underground literary movement, perhaps of literature itself--on a tragicomic quest through a darkening, entropic universe: our own. The Savage Detectives is an exuberant, raunchy, wildly inventive, and ambitious novel from one of the greatest Latin American authors of our age.” (Amazon)

By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano 

“As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. This wild, eerily compact novel―Roberto Bolano's first work available in English―recounts the tale of a poor boy who wanted to be a poet, but ends up a half-hearted Jesuit priest and a conservative literary critic, a sort of lap dog to the rich and powerful cultural elite, in whose villas he encounters Pablo Neruda and Ernst Junger. Father Urrutia is offered a tour of Europe by agents of Opus Dei (to study "the disintegration of the churches," a journey into realms of the surreal); and ensnared by this plum, he is next assigned―after the destruction of Allende―the secret, never-to-be-disclosed job of teaching Pinochet, at night, all about Marxism, so the junta generals can know their enemy. Soon, searingly, his memories go from bad to worse. Heart-stopping and hypnotic, By Night in Chile marks the American debut of an astonishing writer.” (Amazon)

Distant Star by Roberto Bolano 

“The narrator saw that man for the first time in 1971 or 1972, when Allende was still President of Chile. He wrote distant and cautious poems, seduced women, and aroused indefinable mistrust in men. He saw him again after the coup, but at the time he was unaware that this aviator, who wrote Bible verses with the smoke of a WWII plane, and the poet were one, and the same. And so we are told the story of an impostor, of a man of many names, with no other moral than aesthetics, dandy of horror, murderer and photographer of fear, a barbarian artist who took his creations to their last and lethal consequences.” (Amazon)

Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra

“Alejandro Zambra's Ways of Going Home begins with an earthquake, seen through the eyes of an unnamed nine-year-old boy who lives in an undistinguished middle-class housing development in a suburb of Santiago, Chile. When the neighbors camp out overnight, the protagonist gets his first glimpse of Claudia, an older girl who asks him to spy on her uncle Raúl. In the second section, the protagonist is the writer of the story begun in the first section. His father is a man of few words who claims to be apolitical but who quietly sympathized―to what degree, the author isn't sure―with the Pinochet regime. His reflections on the progress of the novel and on his own life―which is strikingly similar to the life of his novel's protagonist―expose the raw suture of fiction and reality.” (Amazon)

The Shadow of What We Were by Luis Sepulveda

“Sepulveda packs more than three decades of Chilean history into this lean and darkly humorous novel. Three aging revolutionaries-Cacho Salinas, Lolo Garmendia, and Lucho Arancibia-reunite to pull off one final, spectacular heist, gathering in a hideout to await the arrival of the Shadow, a legendary Robin Hood-type anarchist. As the comrades with their graying beards, thinning hair, and chubby physiques wait, they revisit the past and ruminate on losses: after Pinochet's coup, Cacho and Lolo fled to Europe, while Lucho, whose brothers were murdered by the regime, stayed and endured torture that has left him brain damaged. Meanwhile, and unbeknownst to the trio, the Shadow lies dead on the sidewalk, struck down by a freak accident. Although the narrator frequently runs away with the story, trailing off into history lessons, Sepulveda maintains a high level of suspense as the police investigate the Shadow's death, and Cacho, Lolo, and Lucho decide whether to go through with their plan, turning their collective sorrows into a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved." (Amazon)

Tengo Miedo Torero by Pedro Lemebel

“This is a love story in Santiago de Chile in 86, the year of the Pinochet attack. A boy from the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front, who is going to participate in the action, lives a sentimental relationship with a gay man who supports him, without knowing-knowing it, in his political plans. But they fail and their relationship ends as well. I am afraid of a bullfighter is the verse of a song that Sara Montiel used to perform. His words suggest, beyond theatricality and melancholy, the recondite interiority of a country that, as defined by the author, sounds very little, it sounds like credit, it does not sound the impossible.” (Amazon) 

Frozen in Time: Murder at the Bottom of the World by Theodore Jerome Cohen 

“The trail from a major theft at the Banco Central de Chile in Talcahuano following the Great Chilean Earthquake of May 22, 1960 leads to Base Bernardo O'Higgins, a wind- and snow-swept Chilean Army outpost on the North Antarctic Peninsula. When Chilean Army 1SGT Leonardo Rodríguez fails to return from a seal hunt in the waters around the base, two Chilean Navy non-commissioned officers, CWO Raul Lucero and CPO Eduardo Osorio, become LCDR Cristian Barbudo's prime theft and murder suspects. Fearing he will die, Barbudo reveals the identity of his two suspects to visiting scientist Ted Stone, thereby placing Stone's life in jeopardy. But who can Stone trust with this information, if it comes to that, to see justice done? This story is a work of fiction based on real events that took place between 1958 and 1965. It is a tale of greed, betrayal, and murder-one in which the reader is given a window into the frozen world at the bottom of the Earth that few people ever will read about, much less experience. Among other things, it explores why, though seemingly unfair, bad things happen to good people; how the battle between good and evil can change forever even the most innocent person; and most of all, the role deception plays in Nature, Man, and Life.” (Amazon)

[misscrawfords]

11, 12, 16

Sorry for the delay in answering @cinquespotted and thank you for asking! :) Been a manic couple of days and I needed to think about non-fiction books about classics because that’s not so easy to answer when I haven’t been in academia in the subject for almost ten years. (Yikes…)

11. recommend a piece of non-fiction about the classical world

I was thinking about this on and off for a couple of days and then the answer hit me. Adam Nicholson’s The Mighty Dead. I’m not sure that “non-fiction” is quite the right way to describe this utterly brilliant book. It’s a lyrical, imaginative, semi-fictional investigation of Homer’s influence and power, as simultaneously oblique and direct, beautifully written and πολυτροπος as one of Homer’s heroes. 

I also pulled out my undergraduate dissertation bibliography which was the last time I read classical scholarship seriously and I remember being blown away by some of the things on it. (Unlike many students, I absolutely adored writing my dissertation - I was very lucky.) Here are a few of the academic books I read which I recall enjoying even at the distance of 9 years:

-  Chew, Kathryn. “The representation of violence in the Greek novels and martyr accounts”-  Frye, Northrop. The Secular Scripture: A study of the structure of romance (not classical per se but brilliant and influential - I read more Frye for my masters and I’m a big, big fan)-  Konstan, David. Sexual Symmetry-  Loraux, Nicole. Tragic ways to kill a woman-  MacAlister, Suzanne. Dreams and Suicides: The Greek novel from Antiquity to the Byzantine Empire

Yep, my dissertation was basically about sex and death. (What else is fiction about?) No, I didn’t do it on purpose…

12. who is your favourite poet? why?

(Oh how nice, this meme was created by someone writing British English. How delightfully unusual!)

Am I allowed to cheat and give two - one Greek and one Roman? Good! :P

On the Greek side, I have to go with Homer. I mean, I honestly feel he (he? As if we know!) might be my favourite author. Or at least sit up there alongside Austen. I guess at the moment I’m in more of a Homer mood than an Austen mood. Polite tea drinking and elegant sniping in a ball room really isn’t cutting it for me at the moment. (YES I KNOW THERE IS MORE TO AUSTEN THAN THAT. SHE’S MY FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND I’VE WRITTEN A DAMN MASTERS DISSERTATION ON HER. I’m just having a reaction against that kind of writing atm. I don’t know why. I don’t know what to do about it. I feel sad. But that’s another post.)

HOMER

I mean, where does one start? I’ve always loved The Odyssey from reading Book 6 for Greek GCSE and tittering over Odysseus covering his naked manhood with a fig leaf (lines inexplicably missed out from the Bristol Classical Press’ edition for fear of offending the sensibilities of school children, clearly not realising that by missing them out there is no indication that Odysseus isn’t stark naked in from of Nausicaa the entire scene lololololol). I did a final year paper involving reading the whole poem in Greek (spoiler: I failed, but I read about 2/3rds of it missing out the many books of recognition in Ithaca and it was a wonderful experience reading 100s of lines of Homer and getting a feel for the vocabulary and the rhythm of it all. I wish I had been a more dedicated student and had actually completed the whole thing.) It was my favourite paper. Professor Simon Goldhill (who looks and sounds like Zeus) opening the lecture series by booming, “The Odyssey is all about how to be a MAN”. ανδρα μοι εννεπε. First line of the poem. I get shivers thinking about it. Odysseus - his character. WHAT A GUY. (I don’t mean to say you have to like him or approve of him - that’s not what appreciating fiction is about, you clodpoles, but you have to admit he’s an amazing, amazing character and concept.) We actually had Professor Edith Hall come to my school today and she gave a talk on Odysseus as a hero and ngl I actually almost teared up at one moment. I just can’t believe such a great character exists and over 2000 years later, he still speaks to us and we can trace SO MUCH in Western culture back to these texts. Actually, while I was nursing a raging crush on Odysseus (I was 20 okay), it was Penelope who was the revelation to me in that paper. Did Penelope know her husband was back before the recognition scene? This had never occurred to me before and I was plunged into debates on the stability of the text and characterisation and feminism and narratology. I mean, it was just amazing! And whatever nitty gritty you might go into with it, I was just struck by this wonderful, admittedly overly romantic idea, that Penelope was absolutely Odysseus’ equal. That in this ancient epic, we had a woman who bested a man at his own game, that she was playing him - and he loved it. These two tricksters, separated for too long, finally getting their happy ending. And I know it’s not about that. But it also is. Emotionally, that’s what I got. And it made me so, so happy. Because, honestly, I don’t have a problem studying works written by, for and about men if they’re good, but there are SO FEW opportunities studying classics (at least traditionally; the approach is changing now which is great) to grapple with amazing female characters or figures - and here I had Homer’s hero and Homer’s heroine. I mean, there are many other things I love about the Odyssey but this is already long enough.

I always joked about the fact that I managed to get a classics degree from Cambridge without having ever studied the Iliad. (Ikr, it’s crazy!) And youthful, hubristic me was okay with that. I was an Odyssey girl through and through. I’d read the Iliad and it was all battles and death and the catalogue of ships. YOU FOOL. So the first time I really had to deal with the Iliad was when I found myself teaching it to A Level Classical Civilisation. And it was an absolute revelation. I’m teaching it for the third time at the moment and it’s not getting old. Every time I see something different, every time the students find something new, every time I cry quietly in class when we are reading. The places vary but the moments that are guaranteed to set me off are Achilles’ grief over Patroclus, him putting on his armour and his final unbending towards Priam. Why the armour? I’m not entirely sure. I think it’s something to do with this sense of inevitability of the approach of the end, of imminent climax (somehow more significant than the climax itself). It’s like how the lighting of the beacons in LotR is such a powerful scene. It’s not that the thing itself is particularly full of pathos but because of everything it signifies. I can’t altogether explain it but it always really affects me. When my uncle died the other year, I was reading the death of Patroclus with my class at that time and my mum came to visit. I didn’t know how to talk to her or talk about my uncle’s death and we had this absolutely awful walk around a country park in the rain (I am never going to be able to go back there for the memories it triggers) but somehow the only way I could articulate something of what I felt was by clinically and factually describing Achilles’ anguish and explaining to my mother how the ancient world mourned its dead and what Patroclus had meant to Achilles and what blinding grief and rage would drive him to do. And she gripped my hand and we both wept, silent tears, and we walked on in the rain talking about the Iliad. I’m actually crying again, writing this, right now. I am not sure there is ANYTHING in literature more powerful than Achilles’s rage and anguish.

If Odysseus is the hero of romance and comedy, a clever hero whose very wiliness makes my heart sing and my academic brain bounce up and down looking for mythic parallels, Achilles does something else altogether. I’ve been thinking about him a lot recently - partly because I’m teaching the poem and once again we’ve got to Book 16 and Achilles’ tragedy is becoming the focus of the remainder of the poem (if it wasn’t before) so it’s literally my job to think about his character - but also in the context of my recent obsession with SW, Reylo and Kylo Ren’s Episode 9 possibilities. I’m not trying to be trivial here but it saddens me SO MUCH that people have the nerve to police interest in that character, one of the most fascinating and complex to grace the screens of a fantasy blockbuster series in - well, honestly, I can’t think of another one. What a treat we have. Nobody has a problem loving Achilles’ character and weeping over him (and making soft pastel shipping graphics of him and Patroclus…) but he was objectively speaking an awful person in many ways. A violent, unpredictable, psychopathic overgrown adolescent who holds an awful grudge. But of course, that isn’t the full story and it’s not the purpose of this post to educate the internet on the nuances of Achilles’ character and his profound tragedy. I’ve got emotional enough, but honestly, we NEED Achilles. We need that larger-than-life expression of all our deepest fears and regrets and violence and destruction - and also wit, compassion, sense of justice and deep love and loyalty. I think someone once said that everyone should read the Iliad at least once in their life. Whether they did or not, it’s true: everyone should.

Okay, so I was also going to talk about how much I love Ovid too but that would be literally going from the sacred to the profane, the sublime to the ridiculous and I have spent way too long on this already. So, yeah, I really love Ovid as well.

16. Cicero - love him or loathe him?

I unironically love Cicero. 

Okay, so I started along this journey from the worst of reasons. The first guy I ever liked in high school was obsessed with Cicero. At the time, I’d never read anything by him, so I decided to like him because liking the same things as your crush is an A+ way of getting him to notice you and like you back. (Spoiler: it failed.) Along the way, I got really inspired by Cicero’s wife Terentia. My first internet handles were Terentia. (I WONDER IF HE KNEW I HAD A CRUSH. lol he did. it was awful. I cringe.) Anyway, Terentia was fabulously wealthy and responsible for financing Cicero’s political career, married twice more after Cicero’s death, including to the historian Suetonius, and died aged 103. What a BAMF.

So first off, I love Cicero’s Latin. He’s my favourite Latin prose author to translate. Even if his speeches are sometimes on the dull side (we had De Imperio as an AS set text a couple of years ago and it was such a snooze-fest), the actual style of writing is so lucid and balanced and satisfying I can forgive him the content. I love all the rhetorical devices and how you can still see them at work in (good) political speeches today. I just get tremendous pleasure from translating him. It annoys me no end that the prose unseen author at A Level at the moment is Livy. I have no patience for Livy’s Latin; it doesn’t thrill me at all.

But I also kind of like Cicero the man. He lived at one of the most fascinating periods of history and although you can’t altogether trust his bias, he was a really important figure in that history and documented so much of it. I wish we had more sources to sit along side as I think he definitely puffs himself up, but nevertheless he’s invaluable. I even quite like his arrogance. He’s the ultimate self-made, intellectual man in Rome and I think he has reason to be proud of what he achieved. He must have been formidable to listen to.

Thank you for letting me ramble on about classics and literature like this. I miss writing on tumblr and not just reblogging pretty things.

Ask me about classics (or anything else obviously)

[fictionadventurer]

Father Brown Reread: The Wrong Shape

Certain of the great roads going north out of London continue far into the country a sort of attenuated and interrupted spectre of a street, with great gaps in the building, but preserving the line.

 Nice description. Even though I’ve never been to London and live a century later, I can still visualize the sort of “thinning out” of a metropolis that he’s describing.

The opening paragraph is a nice "establishing shot” for the story, the same way a movie would zoom in on a setting before starting the narrative. When the story was written, cinema was too new to have been much of an influence on literature. But interestingly, this type of technique seems more common among classic writers than modern ones, who have definitely been influenced by cinema.

For this is the story—the story of the strange things that did really happen in it in the Whitsuntide of the year 18——:

!!!!!

The stories aren’t contemporary to their publishing dates!

Way to go, Chesterton. Wait until I’ve decided that all your stories are contemporary, then prove me wrong.

The latest this event could have taken place is 1899. This means that Flambeau’s criminal career was entirely in the Victorian era.

(Someone give me Sherlock Holmes tracking the great French criminal. Failing to catch him, of course, but figuring out the crime before he escapes). 

This means that everything before “The Flying Stars” takes place in the 1890s at the earliest. Were socialism and the other political issues of in these stories concerns during the 1800s? I’ve always considered them strictly 20th century problems. Is this a fault in my history knowledge? Or is Chesterton so focused on addressing modern philosophical concerns that he’s not thinking through the implications of using this slightly historical setting?

Anyone passing the house on the Thursday before WhitSunday at about half-past four p.m. would have seen the front door open, and Father Brown, of the small church of St. Mungo, come out smoking a large pipe in company with a very tall French friend of his called Flambeau, who was smoking a very small cigarette.

Whitsunday is Pentecost.

Father Brown finally has a parish! (I feel like there’s been a mention of the different parish for Father Brown, but a quick skim doesn’t show me anything). This story, more than any of the previous ones, is trying to create a concrete world for the Father Brown stories, rather than the nebulous fairy-tale setting of some of the previous stories. 

St. Mungo is the nickname of St. Kentigern, the founder of Glasgow, who died in the early 600s (Wikipedia and Catholic.org give different death dates). Mungo means “dear one” or “darling”, and is most commonly given to him in Scotland. Most parishes and schools named after him use the name Kentigern, but there’s is a St. Mungo’s Academy in Glasgow. St. Mungo is the patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland, Penicuik, those accused of infidelity, against bullying, and of salmon. There are also a lot of fairy-tale-style legends surrounding his life. This feels like an appropriate saint to connect to Father Brown.

I like the picture that Chesterton makes of Brown and Flambeau next to each other. For some reason, it made me think of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I’m not sure why, given that I’ve never read the book, and I don’t know if the physical descriptions match at all. But Chesterton has a fascination with the book, and Flambeau is a bit of a brash, romantic Quixote figure next to the more grounded Father Brown. 

The first of these two rooms was the study in which the celebrated Mr. Quinton wrote his wild Oriental poems and romances. The farther room was a glass conservatory full of tropical blossoms of quite unique and almost monstrous beauty, and on such afternoons as these glowing with gorgeous sunlight. Thus when the hall door was open, many a passer-by literally stopped to stare and gasp; for he looked down a perspective of rich apartments to something really like a transformation scene in a fairy play: purple clouds and golden suns and crimson stars that were at once scorchingly vivid and yet transparent and far away.

The grounded world of the story is falling away and we’re traveling back into fairyland again.

Mostly this is here because I love this description.

For he was a man who drank and bathed in colours, who indulged his lust for colour somewhat to the neglect of form—even of good form. This it was that had turned his genius so wholly to eastern art and imagery; to those bewildering carpets or blinding embroideries in which all the colours seem fallen into a fortunate chaos, having nothing to typify or to teach. He had attempted, not perhaps with complete artistic success, but with acknowledged imagination and invention, to compose epics and love stories reflecting the riot of violent and even cruel colour; tales of tropical heavens of burning gold or blood-red copper; of eastern heroes who rode with twelve-turbaned mitres upon elephants painted purple or peacock green; of gigantic jewels that a hundred negroes could not carry, but which burned with ancient and strange-hued fires.

An artist and writer obsessed with colors. Sounds familiar, Chesterton.

If I recall correctly, in his youth Chesterton explored some of these Eastern philosophies. Is Leonard Quinton’s fascination drawn from his own experience?

Flambeau had known Quinton in wild student days in Paris, and they had renewed the acquaintance for a week-end; but apart from Flambeau’s more responsible developments of late, he did not get on well with the poet now. Choking oneself with opium and writing little erotic verses on vellum was not his notion of how a gentleman should go to the devil.

Flambeau was educated in Paris. “Wild student days” suggests university to me, but I suppose it could refer to earlier education.

“More responsible developments of late”. Does this mean that Flambeau’s conversion is recent? 

I find it amusing that Flambeau has Opinions on the Proper Way to live a life of sin. But of course, in Flambeau’s head, if you’re going to go wrong, you should at least be an active, romantic figure, not waste away in solitude.

He was a bull-necked, good-tempered little man with a small moustache, inexpressibly ordinary, yet giving an impression of capacity.

In this somewhat enchanted background, Dr. Harris is an entirely ordinary figure. He provides a contrast to the romantic and mystical Eastern elements. 

“It’s very beautiful,” said the priest in a low, dreaming voice; “the colours are very beautiful. But it’s the wrong shape.” “What for?” asked Flambeau, staring. “For anything. It’s the wrong shape in the abstract. Don’t you ever feel that about Eastern art? The colours are intoxicatingly lovely; but the shapes are mean and bad—deliberately mean and bad. I have seen wicked things in a Turkey carpet.”

Chesterton’s addressing the notion of objective beauty in art. Modern thought places no limits on art--beauty is entirely in the eye of the beholder. Father Brown’s words show this as a cousin of moral relativism. For art or morality to mean anything, there must be limits. There must be a way to determine the “right” and “wrong” shape of art and thought.

If we take color as a metaphor for passion, and shape as a metaphor for morality, this is a thesis statement for the story. Passion for something can be beautiful and good. However, if it is in the wrong shape--if it is ungoverned, or governed by a flawed morality, it can become a twisted and wicked thing.

Flambeau spoke quietly to him in answer. “The Father sometimes gets this mystic’s cloud on him,” he said; “but I give you fair warning that I have never known him to have it except when there was some evil quite near.”

Father Brown’s never been such a supernatural creature. He has flashes of insight--like in “The Queer Feet”--but Flambeau’s practically calling him a prophet.

However, this sets him up as a foil to the Eastern mystic who’s about to step on the stage.

“Thank you,” said the face in excellent English. “I want nothing.” Then, half opening the lids, so as to show a slit of opalescent eyeball, he repeated, “I want nothing.” Then he opened his eyes wide with a startling stare, said, “I want nothing,” and went rustling away into the rapidly darkening garden.  “The Christian is more modest,” muttered Father Brown; “he wants something.”

This echoes some of Chesterton’s critiques of Eastern philosophies in Orthodoxy. 

There is a lot of uncomfortable exoticism of the Indian in this story. But it serves as a misdirection for the mystery--which is as un-exotic and domestic as it’s possible to get.

And Father Brown’s critique of the Indian is of his philosophy, not his race. He would have made similar comments to a white socialist.

“That woman’s over-driven,” said Father Brown; “that’s the kind of woman that does her duty for twenty years, and then does something dreadful.” The little doctor looked at him for the first time with an eye of interest. “Did you ever study medicine?” he asked. “You have to know something of the mind as well as the body,” answered the priest; “we have to know something of the body as well as the mind.”

Father Brown’s diagnosis sounds entirely psychological--nothing to do with the body.

Dr. Harris probably asks the question because, if he’s going to pull off a murder under their noses, he doesn’t want to risk Brown understanding the physical evidence of the corpse.

This suggests that Harris and Mrs. Quinton conspired together over the murder.

“That’s all right,” he said, with an apologetic smile. “Twenty-three sheets cut and twenty-two corners cut off them. And as I see you are impatient we will rejoin the others.”

This is one of the few physical clues that Brown has collected in any of the stories so far. Despite the mysticism, the story is a touch more grounded in reality--you can almost play along with the mystery, though it doesn’t last very long.

“When that Indian spoke to us,” went on Brown in a conversational undertone, “I had a sort of vision, a vision of him and all his universe. Yet he only said the same thing three times. When first he said ‘I want nothing,’ it meant only that he was impenetrable, that Asia does not give itself away. Then he said again, ‘I want nothing,’ and I knew that he meant that he was sufficient to himself, like a cosmos, that he needed no God, neither admitted any sins. And when he said the third time, ‘I want nothing,’ he said it with blazing eyes. And I knew that he meant literally what he said; that nothing was his desire and his home; that he was weary for nothing as for wine; that annihilation, the mere destruction of everything or anything—”

Despite some uncomfortable statements by Brown, I can’t accuse him of racism. A few lines earlier, he said there was “something in the air of this place” that was partly to do with the Indian. But this shows that Brown isn’t uncomfortable because the man’s an Indian, but because he’s an Indian with a frightening personal philosophy.

Admittedly, I have no idea what Brown means by his interpretation of the first “I want nothing”. (That one does seem a bit racist).

Here also he found a drama, though of a more grotesque sort. It showed nothing less than his big friend Flambeau in an attitude to which he had long been unaccustomed, while upon the pathway at the bottom of the steps was sprawling with his boots in the air the amiable Atkinson, his billycock hat and walking cane sent flying in opposite directions along the path. Atkinson had at length wearied of Flambeau’s almost paternal custody, and had endeavoured to knock him down, which was by no means a smooth game to play with the Roi des Apaches, even after that monarch’s abdication.

FLAMBEAU! Can’t we leave you alone for five minutes?

I tried to look up what “Roi des Apaches” referred to. I came across annotated Father Brown books that attached footnotes to the phrase, but the footnotes aren’t available in Google previews.

“Confound him,” cried the doctor, stamping furiously. “Now I know that it was that nigger that did it.”

Ouch.

At least it’s the murderer who said it.

Meanwhile Father Brown had made his way into the house, and now went to break the news to the wife of the dead man. When he came out again he looked a little pale and tragic, but what passed between them in that interview was never known, even when all was known.

I always love Father Brown’s mysterious off-screen conversations. It  keeps some mystery in the tale, even after the mystery is solved.  

“Will you do me a favour?” said the priest quietly. “The truth is, I make a collection of these curious stories, which often contain, as in the case of our Hindoo friend, elements which can hardly be put into a police report. Now, I want you to write out a report of this case for my private use. Yours is a clever trade,” he said, looking the doctor gravely and steadily in the face. “I sometimes think that you know some details of this matter which you have not thought fit to mention. Mine is a confidential trade like yours, and I will treat anything you write for me in strict confidence. But write the whole.”

Though Chesterton has put in three characters whose sole purpose was to serve as suspects for the mystery, we barely spend any time considering them before Brown finds the real criminal.

I wonder if Brown’s interview with Mrs. Quinton uncovered any further evidence...

Not that he needed it when Harris offers such feeble excuses as “oh, he cuts all his paper like that.”

I love how confident and controlled Brown is here. He makes sure Harris completely understands him without stating anything directly.

“Flambeau,” said Father Brown, “there is a long seat there under the veranda, where we can smoke out of the rain. You are my only friend in the world, and I want to talk to you. Or, perhaps, be silent with you.”

Oh, my heart! Flambeau’s his only friend?

The best friendships are the ones where you can be silent together.

But for the present my point is this: If it was pure magic, as you think, then it is marvellous; but it is not mysterious—that is, it is not complicated. The quality of a miracle is mysterious, but its manner is simple. Now, the manner of this business has been the reverse of simple.” [...] “There has been in this incident,” he said, “a twisted, ugly, complex quality that does not belong to the straight bolts either of heaven or hell. As one knows the crooked track of a snail, I know the crooked track of a man.”

This is one of Father Brown’s definitive passages. A distillation of the philosophy of his universe. That last sentence could be a voiceover in a movie trailer.

I love the Catholic Church’s scientific approach to the supernatural. We have processes to prove miracles. The worldview allows for the supernatural, but also seeks understanding through natural means. 

The priest leant forward again, settled his elbows on his knees, looked at the ground, and said, in a low, distinct voice: “He never did confess to suicide.”  Flambeau laid his cigar down. “You mean,” he said, “that the writing was forged?”

Flambeau’s not quite as dense as he’s been in some of the previous stories. Though Father Brown has to lead him there, he is coming up with rational theories. You may make it as a detective yet, Flambeau. 

DEAR FATHER BROWN,—Vicisti Galilee. Otherwise, damn your eyes, which are very penetrating ones. Can it be possible that there is something in all that stuff of yours after all?

“Vicisti Galilee” translates to something like, “You have won, Galiean.” It is attributed (wrongly, according to Wikiquotes) to Julian, the last pagan emperor of Rome.

Harris was skeptical of mysticism, but because most of the talk was about “exotic” religions, it was easy to overlook that he was against religion in general. 

I loved Quinton’s wife. What was there wrong in that? Nature told me to, and it’s love that makes the world go round. I also thought quite sincerely that she would be happier with a clean animal like me than with that tormenting little lunatic. What was there wrong in that? I was only facing facts, like a man of science. She would have been happier. According to my own creed I was quite free to kill Quinton, which was the best thing for everybody, even himself.

Here’s where the theory of art meets the reality of life. Quinton’s emotions, his care for Mrs. Quinton and a desire for them both to be happy, could be good and beautiful things--beautiful colors. But they were guided by the wrong philosophy--put in the wrong shape--and so they became evil.

This is so, so relevant to moral relativism that is wreaking havoc on our modern Western world. 

When I had done it, the extraordinary thing happened. Nature deserted me. I felt ill. I felt just as if I had done something wrong. I think my brain is breaking up; I feel some sort of desperate pleasure in thinking I have told the thing to somebody; that I shall not have to be alone with it if I marry and have children. What is the matter with me? . . . Madness . . . or can one have remorse, just as if one were in Byron’s poems! I cannot write any more.

Moral relativism won’t make you happy, kids.

Harris was the exact opposite of Quinton--scientific and practical where he was caught up in mysticism. But they were both drawn in by passion--bright colors--and now that Harris has given into his passions, is he on a path to becoming what Quinton was?

He plans on marrying and having children? He plans to just get away with it?

Father Brown carefully folded up the letter, and put it in his breast pocket just as there came a loud peal at the gate bell, and the wet waterproofs of several policemen gleamed in the road outside.

Is Father Brown going to let him get away with it? Or is this a sign that the police are going to catch him?

Flambeau never did find out the solution to the mystery. But it seems as though Brown was willing to lead him there, before he was interrupted by Harris bringing the letter of confession.

Father Brown has said he’ll keep the confession secret. But that doesn’t mean that he’s going to hide all the evidence. Does he plan to let Flambeau make the last few deductive leaps and help the police find the murderer?

I wonder if Father Brown asked for the written confession just for Harris’ own good. It seems as though the act of writing the letter helped him feel remorse and unburdened his conscience. But it also seems as though Harris plans to live life in freedom, not to confess and face justice.

I know that Father Brown’s more about mercy than justice, but he’s never let a murderer get away before. Keeping the confession secret is his act of mercy. However, don’t think he’s going to obstruct justice. If Flambeau and the police figure it out, Harris will face the consequences of his crime.

[iampureland]

My Thinking Addiction

Full disclosure: I have thought a lot about this essay on not thinking. I love to think about ideas for hours on end.  As a journalist and college professor I make my living coming up with interesting thoughts to think. But I am also a binge thinker. In fact, I may be addicted to thinking. And as I explore ways to heal from childhood trauma, I am trying to break my thinking habit. 

I grew up in a home where thinking was put on a pedestal above all other human traits. Cooking, changing the oil in a car, putting up a tent – these were things my parents did not know how to do. But, boy, could they think. My dad called it “intellectual stimulation.” And immersing oneself in interesting thought was always the goal, whether by talking to strangers about their lives or discussing ideas at the dinner table or mulling things over on a walk or reading a literary classic. Even when Dad was at the end stage of Alzheimer’s and in an assisted living facility, he was still thinking about stimulating his intellect. He complained that the other residents had nothing interesting to say (not surprising, given their condition) and he preferred discussions with the facility’s caregivers.

I remember that throughout my childhood Dad was always filling legal pads with his ideas. He was constantly thinking about books he wanted to write and inventions he had dreamed up that he might one day patent. He was always plotting, scheming, dreaming. Dad made lists of things he needed to do to turn these ideas into a reality and searched out books he might read to give him more ideas.

When I was little, I wanted to follow in Dad’s cerebral footsteps. I remember that I used to announce, “I’m going to go think to myself.” And then I would sit in my rocking chair in my bedroom and drift deep into thought. It was comforting to imagine new worlds and ideas, dreaming up my own stories. When my parents were yelling at each other, or I was having trouble in school, becoming lost in thought was a good place to be.

Going to college and double majoring in journalism and comparative literature was thinking heaven. I remember sometimes walking out of an Honors lit class almost dizzy from thinking so hard and enjoying it so much. In college, I found a brainy community who, like Dad, was devoted to seemingly non-stop intellectual stimulation. After graduating, things got even better when I was paid as a writer for my journalistic investigations and cerebral musings. My entire identity revolved around my ability to use my mind. I was my mind. And if there was something bothering me, all I had to do was slip inside my head to escape it.

But life as a middle-aged adult was a lot harder than during my blissful college years. I had a child to raise and a job to keep. A mortgage. Deadlines. A dad with Alzheimer’s. Two failed marriages. Over the years, my non-stop thinking went from an activity that was akin to skipping through a field of wildflowers to being more like a hamster in a wheel. I still thought a lot about the stories I was writing and the classes I was teaching. But, mostly, it was a steady drip, drip, drip of anxious thoughts about things I needed to do or conversations that I might have. Yet, I remained as wedded as ever to the belief that my world revolved around my mind. If I had problems, the only solution was to think harder. Drip. Drip. Drip.

And then my mind turned on me. Maybe it was seeing Dad with his stack of legal pads in the Alzheimer’s unit and knowing that throughout his adult life he never actually carried out a single idea he had written down. I became aware there was a certain futility to my non-stop thinking and that always musing on this and that was not necessarily productive or even healthy. What to do? I thought harder, all day and all night. I didn’t know any other way to be. Despite utter exhaustion, the hamster kept at it, even speeding up. Memories from childhood—thoughts I had long been able to keep locked away—began to terrorize me. I couldn’t’ sleep. I had panic attacks. I was trapped inside my head and it was hell.

Desperate to get my thoughts back under control, I went to see a psychiatrist. She told me the solution was to think less—actually, sometimes not at all.  She said I was basically making myself crazy with intellectual stimulation. This was earth-shattering advice. For me, the idea of not thinking was the equivalent of not living. It was like telling me to stop breathing.

Nevertheless, I heeded her advice because I was desperate for peace of mind. I started studying the writings of Buddhist teachers like Tich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron. I also attended mindfulness classes and attempted to practice guided meditation. I started to realize that when I was thinking, I was almost always mulling over something in the future or in the past. If I could sometimes manage to be solidly rooted in the present moment, I could theoretically get the hamster to take breaks.

French philosopher Rene Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” But Tich Nhat Hanh writes that such a mindset actually means, “I think, therefore I am not here in the present moment.” The Pure Land school of Buddhism revolves around the idea of attaining enlightenment and eternal happiness in a kind of heaven called the Pure Land. Tich Nhat Hanh promotes the idea that heaven is here and now if you can stop dwelling in the past and the future. “Let us enjoy the Pure Land right now in the spirit of living happily in the present moment,” he writes.

Eckhart Tolle, author of the bestselling book, The Power of Now, is the high priest of living in the present moment. He has a term for people like my dad and me: “a compulsive thinker.” And Tolle asserts that intellectual brilliance does not result from compulsive thinking. “The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive…the instrument has taken you over,” writes Tolle. “The compulsive thinker lives in a state of separateness, in an insanely complex world of continuous problems and conflict, a world that reflects ever-increasing fragmentation of the mind.”

Both Tolle and Tich Nhat Hanh maintain that devoting a part of each day to living in the present moment rather than constantly lost in thought brings both mental clarity as well as a deep, steadfast peace of mind. Tolle simply calls this state “being” or “presence.”

But old habits are hard to break. The mindfulness classes and group meditations did not work so well for me. I could not get my mind to stop. If nothing else, I was thinking about how I was still thinking. Or I was thinking about how the person next to me was breathing loud. Drip. Drip. Drip. 

Fortunately, I have been a hiker my entire life and I realized that the only place where I could get my thoughts to stop was in the wild. As a child, I had always wandered alone in the woods and found deep comfort from the trees and birds and sky. Nature was far more soothing than my rocking chair. But as an adult I started using my daily hikes and trail runs as just one more place to be lost in thought and figure things out. If I could not solve a problem at my desk, I would search for the answer when I was in the forest. But, as Tich Nhat Hanh would rightly point out, I was actually not in the forest. I was in my head.

Once I became committed to breaking my thinking addiction, I approached my daily hikes in the forest near my home in a completely different way. Going solo whenever possible (except for my dog Sunny), I began roaming cross country rather than on trails so I could be as close to wild nature as possible. I turned my phone off. I focused on my surroundings and using my senses: the smell of the ponderosa pine; the sound of the woodpecker; the delicate purple color of the lupine. I would imagine myself a sponge that was soaking in all the beauty around me. When my mind attempted to drift into my “to do” list, I would just take a deep breath of fresh air and fix on a specific tree, bringing myself back into the present.

I found that when I was already in a state of presence in nature, I could sometimes have moments that were utterly transcendent. Moments of wild beauty, like the view from a hilltop at sunset, connected me not only to the place but to my true self, the person beyond the intellect. The translucent pink sky framed by a rainbow was not a thought but an experience that went straight to my core.  In those moments, I was not my mind. I was everything around me. I was the sunset.

It has been seven years since I gave up chronic thinking as a lifestyle, although I am constantly challenged by slipping back into hamster-in-wheel mode. In addition to bringing me more peace of mind, my daily hikes have also gifted me my best ideas. When I am climbing up a steep hill and saying hello to the trees, the perfect idea will explode into my mind out of nowhere. Dad would have never believed it, but not thinking during my wanderings in the woods has made me a happier person as well as a more creative and productive thinker.

In her book, The Nature Fix, author Florence Williams calls this phenomenon “brain rest.” And it only happens when humans are in nature, most often in “restorative landscapes” that induce “soft fascination.”

While the modern emphasis on mindfulness may seem fairly new, it is actually an idea that was at the heart of why the United States established the world’s first national parks. These wild landscapes offered an increasingly stressed out nation a place for brain rest.

Williams points out in her book that national parks founding father Frederick Law Olmstead saw America’s awe-inspiring great outdoors as an unmatched sanctuary for brain rest. “Viewing nature,” he wrote in 1865, “employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it.”

Annette McGivney is the author of Pure Land: A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures, and the Search for Heaven on Earth. For more about her book and learning how nature heals visit: www.purelandbook.com. She is also founder of the non-profit Healing Lands Project, which funds wilderness trips for child victims of domestic violence. For more go to: www.iampureland.com.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: My granddaughter is 16 and in the us navy sea cadet program here in the USA. She hopes to become a naval aviator. She love reading military books. Any recommendations for her. Her mom says she reads anything military from equipment to history. I could use advice on a reading list to buy books for her. William Law

Thank you William for sending me this. It’s certainly one of the most interesting asks I’ve ever had the pleasure to reply to because it involves my love of Classics and also being a former military aviator.

So I put some thought into it because I can sense a kindred spirit in your grand daughter. She must be a remarkable young girl if she is as focused and committed as you say she is in terms of her life goals. If I may say so she is also blessed to have a grandfather like you who recognises the value of reading books to aid her and inspire her.

I have tried to confine myself to the narrow parameters of recommending books that can appeal to a precocious teenager that have a connection to naval and maritime themes (rather than the landed military) and have a general connection to women in the navy or as aviators. So the list is broken into personal memoirs, naval and maritime history, fictional works, and finally a select Classics list.

If you will indulge me I have included the Classics because I firmly believe a grounding in the Classics (from as early age as possible) is so culturally enriching and personally rewarding. In my experience the wisest military leaders and veterans I have ever had the privilege of knowing were grounded in the Classics.

To my mind Classic history, literature and poetry belongs in any library relating to maritime affairs. It provides a flavour of sea life, helping strategists understand this alien element. Just as important, it enlivens the topic. As you will know, ships and fleets do not make history; people do.

It is by no means a comprehensive list but something to start with. I’ve decided not to give you a bullet point laundry list but add some notes of my own because I found it fun to do - and in doing so I found myself looking back on my teenage years with equal icky amounts of embarrassment, regret, foolishness, fun, and joy. 

1. Personal memoirs

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

‘Poetry in flight’ best describes this 1942 memoir from aviatrix Beryl Markham of bush flying in Africa and long-distance flight, which includes her solo flight across the Atlantic. Lyrical and expressive her descriptions of the adventure of flying continue to inspire generations of women pilots, including myself when I learned to fly.

Markham was a colonial child and was raised by her father on a remote farm in Njoro, British East Africa (present-day Kenya). After a tomboyish childhood spent roaming the Kenyan wilds, she moved upcountry to Molo, becoming a racehorse trainer. There she saw her first plane and met British pilot Tom Black, who became her flight instructor and lover. Soon Markham earned her commercial pilot’s license, the first woman in Kenya to do so, and began to freelance as a bush pilot. Much of West With the Night concerns itself with this period in Markham’s life, detailing her flights in an Avro Avian biplane running supplies to remote outposts or scouting game for safaris.

Since airfields were essentially nonexistent in Africa at the time, Markham’s flights were particularly dangerous, punctuated with white-knuckle landings in forest clearings and open fields. In fact the dangers of African flying claimed the lives of a number of aviators. Markham eloquently describes her own search for a downed pilot: “Time and distance together slip smoothly past the tips of my wings without sound, without return, as I peer downward over the night-shadowed hollows of the Rift Valley and wonder if Woody, the lost pilot, could be there, a small pinpoint of hope and of hopelessness listening to the low, unconcerned song of the Avian - flying elsewhere.”

Markham’s memoir shies away from personal details - she is rumoured to have had an affair with an English prince - and straightforward chronology, instead focusing on vivid scenes gathered from a well-lived life. Rarely does one encounter such an evocative sense of a time and place as she creates. The heat and dust of Africa emanate from her prose. Anyone interested in aviation, in Africa, or in simply reading an absorbing book will find much to like in its pages. Ernest Hemingway, a friend and fellow safari enthusiast, wrote of Markham’s memoir, “I wish you would get it and read it because it really is a bloody wonderful book.”

It is a bloody brilliant book and it’s one of the books closest to my heart as it personally resonated with my nomadic life growing up in foreign countries where once the British empire made its mark.

I first read it on my great aunt’s Kenyan tea farm during the school holidays in England. I got into huge trouble for taking a treasured first edition - personally signed by Markham herself - from the library of my great aunt without permission. My great aunt - not an easy woman to get on with given her questionable eccentricities - wrote a stern letter to the head teacher of my girls’ boardng school in England that the schools standards and moral Christian teachings must be in terminal decline if girls were encouraged to pilfer books willy nilly from other people’s bookshelves and thus she would not - as an alum herself - be donating any more money to the school. It was one more sorry blot in my next school report.

Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O’Brien

For pioneering pilots of the 1920s and 1930s, the challenges were enormous. For women it was even more daunting. In this marvellous history, Keith O’Brien recounts the early years of aviation through a generation of American female pilots who carved out a place for themselves and their sisterhood. Despite the sensation they created, each “went missing in her own way.” This is the inspiring untold story of five women from very different walks of life - including a New York socialite, an Oakland saleswoman, a Florida dentist’s secretary and a Boston social worker - who fought and competed against men in the  high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s — and won.

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly and deadly pursuit. The derisive press dubbed the first women’s national air race “The Powder Puff Derby.”

It’s a brisk, spirited history of early aviation focused on 5 irrepressible women. Florence Klingensmith, a high-school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota, and who trained as a mechanic so she could learn planes inside and out but whose first aviation job was as a stunt girl, standing on a wing in her bathing suit. Louise McPhetridge Thaden a girl who grew up as a tomboy and later became the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee was determined to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Amelia Earhart was of course the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled. Ruth Nichols who chafed at the constraints of her blue-blood family's expectations of marrying into wealth and into high society.

In 1928, when women managed to get jobs in other male dominated fields, fewer than 12 had a pilot’s license, and those ambitious for prizes and recognition faced entrenched sexism from the men who ran air races, backed fliers, and financed the purchase of planes. They decided to organise: “For our own protection,” one of them said, “we must learn to think for ourselves, and do as much work as possible on our planes.” Although sometimes rivals in the air, they forged strong friendships and offered one another unabated encouragement. O’Brien vividly recounts the dangers of early flight: In shockingly rickety planes, pilots sat in open cockpits, often blinded by ice pellets or engine smoke; instruments were unreliable, if they worked at all; sudden changes in weather could be life threatening. Fliers regularly emerged from their planes covered in dust and grease. Crashes were common, with planes bursting into flames; but risking injury and even death failed to dampen the women’s passion to fly. And yet their bravery was only scoffed at by male prejudice. Iconic  oilman Erle Halliburton believed, “Women are lacking in certain qualities that men possess.” Florence Klingensmith’s crash incited a debate about allowing menstruating women to fly.

And yet these women still took off in wooden crates loaded with gasoline. They flew over mountains, deserts and seas without radar or even radios. When they came down, they knew that their landings might be their last. But together, they fought for the chance to race against the men - and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all. And When Louise Thaden became the first woman to win a national race, even the great Charles Lindbergh fell curiously silent.

O'Brien nicely weaves together the stories of these five remarkable women in the spirit of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff who broke the glass ceiling to achieve greatness.

Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot by James Stockdale

Thoughts on issues of character, leadership, integrity, personal and public virtue, and ethics, the selections in this volume converge around the central theme of how man can rise with dignity to prevail in the face of adversity- lessons just as valid for the challenges of present-day life as they were for the author’s Vietnam experience.Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1979, beginning as a test pilot and instructor at Patuxent River, Maryland, and spending two years as a graduate student at Stanford University. He became a fighter pilot and was shot down on his second combat tour over North Vietnam, becoming a prisoner of war for eight years, four in solitary confinement. The highest-ranking naval officer held during the Vietnam War, he was tortured fifteen times and put in leg irons for two years. It’s a book that makes you think how much character is important in good at anything, especially being a thoughtful and wise leader in the heat of battle.

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life And Maybe The World by Admiral William H. McRaven   On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their Commencement day. Taking inspiration from the university's slogan, "What starts here changes the world," he shared the ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Naval career, but also throughout his life; and he explained how anyone can use these basic lessons to change themselves-and the world-for the better.

Admiral McRaven's original speech went viral with over 10 million views.

Building on the core tenets laid out in his speech, McRaven now recounts tales from his own life and from those of people he encountered during his military service who dealt with hardship and made tough decisions with determination, compassion, honour, and courage.

The book is told with great humility and optimism. It provides simple wisdom, practical advice, and words of encouragement that will inspire readers to achieve more, even in life's darkest moments.

Service: A Navy SEAL at War by Marcus Luttrell with James D. Hornfischer 

Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell is more known for his other famous best seller Lone Survivor but this one I think is also a thrilling war story, Service is above all a profoundly moving tribute to the warrior brotherhood, to the belief that nobody goes it alone, and no one will be left behind. Luttrell returned from his star-crossed mission in Afghanistan with his bones shattered and his heart broken. So many had given their lives to save him-and he would have readily done the same for them. As he recuperated, he wondered why he and others, from America's founding to today, had been willing to sacrifice everything - including themselves-for the sake of family, nation, and freedom.

In Service, we follow Marcus Luttrell to Iraq, where he returns to the battlefield as a member of SEAL Team 5 to help take on the most dangerous city in the world: Ramadi, the capital of war-torn Al Anbar Province. There, in six months of high-intensity urban combat, he would be part of what has been called the greatest victory in the history of US Special Operations forces. We also return to Afghanistan and Operation Redwing, where Luttrell offers powerful new details about his miraculous rescue.

Throughout, he reflects on what it really means to take on a higher calling, about the men he's seen lose their lives for their country, and the legacy of those who came and bled before. I did rub shoulders with the US special forces community out on my time in Afghanistan and whilst their public image deifies them I found them to be funny, pranksters, humble, brave, and down to earth beer guzzling hogs who cheerfully cheat at cards.

The Spirit of St. Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh

Being one of the classics in aviation history, this well written book is an epic aviator’s adventure tale of all time. Charles Lindbergh is best known for its famous nonstop flight from New York to Paris in 1927 as it changed the history of aviation. “The Spirit of St. Louis” takes the reader on an extraordinary trans-Atlantic journey in a single-engine plane. As well as provides insight into the early history of American aviation and includes some great fuel conservation tips!

20 Hrs. 40 mins by Amelia Earhart

How can any woman pilot not be inspired by Amelia Earhart?  Earhart's first transatlantic flight of June 1928 during which she flew as a passenger accompanying pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot Louis Gordon. The team departed from Trepassey Harbor, Newfoundland, in a Fokker F.VIIb/3m on 17 June 1928, landing at Pwll near Burry Port, South Wales, exactly 20 hours and 40 minutes later. The book is an interesting read but I much prefer her other book written in 1932 The Fun Of It. The book is Earhart's account of her growing obsession with flying, the final chapter of which is a last minute addition chronicling her historic solo transatlantic flight of 1932. The work contains the mini-record of Earhart's international broadcast from London on 22 May 1932. Earhart set out from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland on 20 May 1932. After a flight lasting 14 hours and 56 minutes Earhart landed in a pasture at Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland. The work also includes a list of other works on aviation written by women, emblematic of Earhart's desire to promote women aviators.

2. Naval and military history

The U.S. Navy: A Concise History by Craig L Symonds

Symonds’s The U.S. Navy: A Concise History is a fantastic book from one of the doyennes of US naval history. I cannot think of any other work on the US Navy that provides such a thorough overview of American naval policy, navy combat operations, leadership, technology, and culture in such a succinct manner. This book is perfect for any reader - young or old -  just wading into the waters of naval history and not knowing where to start, or for someone who wishes to learn a little bit about each era of the navy, from its founding to its modern-day mission and challenges.

His other distinguished works are more in depth - mostly about the Second World War such as the Battle of Midway and the Normandy landings - but this is a good introduction to his magisterial books. His latest book came out in 2019 called World War II at Sea: A Global History. I have not read this yet but from others who have they say it is a masterful overview of the war at sea.

Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian W. Toll

Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military became the most divisive issue facing the new government. The founders - particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams - debated fiercely. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect from pirates or drain the treasury and provoke hostility? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships.

From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliff-hanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and the narrative flair of Patrick O’Brian.

The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson by Roger Knight

The starting point of Roger Knight’s magnificent new biography is to explain how Nelson achieved such extraordinary success. Knight places him firmly in the context of the Royal Navy at the time. He analyses Nelson’s more obvious qualities, his leadership strengths and his coolness and certainty in battle, and also explores his strategic grasp, the condition of his ships, the skill of his seamen and his relationships with the officers around him – including those who could hardly be called friendly.

This biography takes a shrewd and sober look at Nelson’s status as a hero and demolishes many of the myths that were so carefully established by the early authors, and repeated by their modern successors.

While always giving Nelson his due, Knight never glosses over the character flaws of his heroic subject. Nelson is seen essentially as a "driven" personality, craving distinction in an age increasingly coloured by notions of patriotic heroism, traceable back to the romantic (and entirely unrealistic) depiction of the youthful General James Wolfe dying picturesquely at the moment of victory in 1759. Nor does Knight take Nelson's side in dealing with that discreditable phase in 1798-99, when he is influenced, much for the worse, by his burgeoning involvement with Lady Hamilton at Naples and Palermo. Knight accepts that this interlude has left an indelible stain on Nelson's naval and personal record. But he traces the largely destructive course of Nelson's passion for Emma with appropriate sensitivity.

Nelson was a shrewd political operator who charmed and impressed political leaders and whose advancement was helped by the relatively weak generation of admirals above him. He was a difficult subordinate, only happy when completely in command, and capable of great ruthlessness. Yes he was flawed, but Nelson's flaws, including his earlier petulance in dealing with higher naval authority - only brought fully under control towards the end of his career - pale before his remarkable strengths. His outstanding physical and moral courage and his inspired handling of officers and men are repeatedly and effectively illustrated.

1812: The Navy’s War by George C. Daughan

When war broke out between Britain and the United States in 1812, America’s prospects looked dismal. British naval aggression made it clear that the ocean would be the war’s primary battlefield - but America’s navy, only twenty ships strong, faced a practiced British fleet of more than a thousand men-of-war.

Still, through a combination of nautical deftness and sheer bravado, a handful of heroic captains and their stalwart crews managed to turn the tide of the war, besting the haughty skippers of the mighty Royal Navy and cementing America’s newly won independence.

In 1812: The Navy’s War, award-winning naval historian George C. Daughan draws on a wealth of archival research to tell the amazing story of this tiny, battle tested team of Americans and their improbable yet pivotal victories. Daughan thrillingly details the pitched naval battles that shaped the war, and shows how these clashes proved the navy’s vital role in preserving the nation’s interests and independence. This well written history is the first complete account in more than a century of how the U.S. Navy rescued the fledgling nation and secured America’s future. Daughan’s prose is first-rate, and his rousing accounts of battles at sea will certainly appeal to a popular audience. 

I was given this book as a tongue in cheek gift from an American friend who was an ex-US Marine officer with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was obviously trying to rib me as good friends do. But I really did enjoy this book.

Among the most interesting insights is Daughan’s judgment on the effect of the American invasion attempts in Canada; all ultimately defeated. Demanded by enthusiastic War Hawks unencumbered by knowledge or experience who predicted that the Canadians would flock to U.S. banners, these incursions became the groundwork for a unified Iraq Canada - Ha!

What I liked was the fact that Daughan places the war in its crucial European context, explaining in detail how the course of the Napoleonic Wars shaped British and American decision making and emphasising the North American theatre’s secondary status to the European conflict. While they often verbally castigated Napoleon’s imperial ambitions, American leaders were in the uncomfortable position of needing Napoleon to keep winning while they fought Britain, and his defeat and (first) exile to Elba prompted an immediate scramble to negotiate a settlement. Despite its significance, few historians have bothered to systematically place the War of 1812 in the context of the Napoleonic Wars, and Daughan’s book does exactly that.

Empires of the Seas: The Siege of Malta, The Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Centre of the World by Roger Crowley

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, the great Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic clash between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world.

In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiralling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar.

Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality.

Empires of the Sea is a story of extraordinary colour and incident, and provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilisations.

One hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander by Admiral Sandy Woodward RN

Written by the man who masterminded the British victory in the Falklands, this engrossing memoir chronicles events in the spring of 1982 following Argentina’s takeover of the South Atlantic islands. Admiral Sandy Woodward, a brilliant military tactician, presents a complete picture of the British side of the battle. From the defeat of the Argentine air forces to the sinking of the Belgrano and the daring amphibious landing at Carlos Water, his inside story offers a revealing account of the Royal Navy’s successes and failures.

At times reflective and personal, Woodward imparts his perceptions, fears, and reactions to seemingly disastrous events. He also reveals the steely logic he was famous for as he explains naval strategy and planning. His eyewitness accounts of the sinking of HMS Sheffield and the Battle of Bomb Alley are memorable.

Many in Whitehall and the armed forces considered Woodward the cleverest man in the navy. French newspapers called him “Nelson.” Margaret Thatcher said he was precisely the right man to fight the world’s first computer war. Without question, the admiral’s memoir makes a significant addition to the official record.

At the same time it provides readers with a vivid portrayal of the world of modern naval warfare, where equipment is of astonishing sophistication but the margins for human courage and error are as wide as in the days of Nelson.

3. Fiction

The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

The majestic novel that inspired the classic Hollywood film The Caine Mutiny with Humphrey Bogart. Herman Wouk's boldly dramatic, brilliantly entertaining novel of life-and mutiny-on a US Navy warship in the Pacific theatre was immediately embraced, upon its original publication in 1951, as one of the first serious works of American fiction to grapple with the moral complexities and the human consequences of World War II.

The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna

It’s a fantastic novel that inspired a Steve McQueen film of the same name. Watch the movie if you haven’t, but read the book. It’s impossible to do a story of this sweep justice in two hours, even with the great McQueen starring.

Naval friends tell me The Sand Pebbles has been a fixture on the US Chief of Naval Operations’ Professional development reading list, and thus all mariners should be encouraged to read. And it’s easy to tell why. Most American seafarers will interact with the Far East in this age of the pivot, as indeed they have for decades.

Told through the eyes of a junior enlisted man, The Sand Pebbles recounts the deeds of the crew of the fictional U.S. Navy gunboat San Pablo during the turbulent 1920s, when various parties were vying for supremacy following the overthrow of China’s Qing Dynasty.

It’s a book about the mutual fascination, and sometimes repulsion, between Americans and Chinese; the tension between American missionaries and the sailors entrusted with protecting them; and China’s descent into chaos following the collapse of dynastic rule.

How do you separate fact from fiction or myth when writing a historical novel. Wisely, McKenna lets the reader to conclude there’s an element of myth to all accounts of history. Causality - what factors brought about historical events - is in the eye of the beholder. The best an author of historical fiction can do, then, is devote ample space to all contending myths and leave it up to readers to judge. Sailors, missionaries, and ordinary Chinese get their say in his pages, to illuminating effect. Authors report, the readers decide.

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War by P.W. Singer and August Cole 

The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a twenty-first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic–drone strikes to old warships from the navy’s “ghost fleet.” Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor-style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley billionaires mobilise for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries out her own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending the lessons of the past with the weapons of the future.

The book’s title, Ghost Fleet, comes from an expression used in the U.S. Navy that refers to partially or fully decommissioned ships kept in reserve for potential use in future conflict. These ships, as one might imagine, are older and naturally less technologically sophisticated than their modern counterparts. Singer and Cole cleverly use this concept, retiring older ships and weaponry in favour of newer versions with higher technological integration, to illustrate a key motif in the book: while America’s newest generation of warfighting machinery and gear is capable of inflicting greater levels of punishment, it is also vulnerable to foreign threats in ways that its predecessors were not. The multi-billion dollar, next generation F-35 aircraft, for instance, is rendered powerless after it is revealed that Chinese microprocessor manufacturers had implanted malicious code into products intended for the jet.

I’m a huge sucker for intelligently written thrillers and I found Ghost Fleet to be a page-turning speculative thriller in the spirit of Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October. The debut novel by two leading experts on the cutting edge of national security, it is unique in that every trend and technology featured in the novel - no matter how sci-fi it may seem - is real, or could be soon.

Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian (Aubery-Maturin series)

This, the first of twenty in the splendid series of the famous Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship’s Irish-Catalan surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson’s navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.

I have the first editions of some of the series and I have treasured them ever since I read them as a teenager. I felt like stowing away on the first ship I could find in Plymouth. The Hollywood film version by Peter Weir with Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey is a masterful swashbuckling film and perhaps a delightful way into the deeper riches of the other novels in the epic series.

Beat to Quarters by C.S. Forester (Horatio Hornblower series)

Horatio Hornblower remains for many the best known and most loved of these British naval heroes of Napoleonic Age. In ten books Forester recounts Hornblower's rise from midshipman to admiral, during the British navy's confrontation with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France. For readers, the books work as a window into history because of the outstanding details that appear in these books. Through this singular series, according to critics, C.S. Forrester - like Patrick O’Brian - has contributed his own uniqueness to the confluence of fact and fiction.

They are above all ‘ripping good yarns’, with fast-moving plots, stirring battle scenes, lively dialogue, and vivid characters, but they also offer a picture of the British navy during the period; and Hornblower himself is an original and memorable literary creation as fictionally charismatic as James Bond.

Young Hornblower is introspective, morose, self-doubting. He is crippled by the fear that he does not have the qualities to  command other men. He is harder on himself than anyone else would dare to be – and is, simply, one of the most complete creations of character in fiction. This is why many teenagers love Hornblower because they can see something of themselves in his adventures from from chronic self-doubt to soaring swashbuckling self-confidence. Hornblower is much more relatable than the brooding seasoned Jack Aubrey for instance.

I recommend reading the books in the order they were written rather than chronologically. In the first written novel, Beat to Quarters (also published as The Happy Return), we find Hornblower in command of a frigate in lonely Pacific waters off Spanish Central America. He has to deal with a mad revolutionary, fight single-ship duels with a larger vessel, and cope with Lady Barbara Wellesley (who provides a romantic interest to the series).

In A Ship of the Line Hornblower is sent into the Mediterranean, where he wreaks havoc on French coastal communications before plunging into a battle against the odds. Flying Colours is mostly set in France: in it Hornblower escapes captivity and returns to England a hero. In The Commodore he is sent with a squadron into the Baltic, where he has to cope with the complex politics of the region as well as helping with the siege of Riga. And in Lord Hornblower a mutiny leads to involvement with the fall of Napoleon — and brings him to prison and a death sentence during the Hundred Days. Forester then went back and described Hornblower's earlier career. Lieutenant Hornblower is perhaps my favourite of the Hornblower books.

Piece of cake by Derek Robinson

It’s an epic tome covering the opening twelve months of World War Two, from the phony war in France to the hasty retreat back across the Channel and then the valiant stand against the might of the Luftwaffe in what became known as the Battle of Britain.

The book follows the exploits of the fictional Hornet squadron and its members, a group of men who work hard and play harder. Though fiction, this immaculately researched novel based on an RAF Hurricane fighter squadron in 1940 highlights the ill-preparedness of Britain in the early stages of Word War Two.

Its British black humour is on full throttle with its nuanced observations of class politics and institutional ineptness. The manic misfits, heroes and bullies of Hornet Squadron discover that aerial combat is nothing like what they have been trained for. The writing sears the reader’s brain and produces some of the finest writing on the air war ever put to paper.

Be warned, though, this story isn’t about one specific character or ‘hero’. Indeed, just as you get to know a pilot, they are either chopped or killed; such is the nature of war in the air. Even though this is initially frustrating, you soon come to realise just how authentic Robinson’s storytelling is, and that this is exactly what it must have been like to be part of an RAF squadron on active service, never knowing who of your comrades would be alive from day to day. And, although the war proper for Hornet squadron doesn’t start until late in the book, when it does come the rendition of the dogfights in the air are so gripping that you’ll feel like you are actually there, sat next to the pilot in his cramped Hurricane cockpit, as Messerschmitt 109s scream by spitting death from all points of the compass.

All in all, this is a thoroughly entertaining (and educational) novel, and a must read for anyone interested in the RAF and how so few stood against so many. It has the dark humour of Heller’s Catch 22 but with a very distinctive British humour that can be lost on other foreigners. I recommend it as a honest and healthy antidote to anyone thinking of all pilots and the brave deeds they do in some deified light when in fact they are human and flawed as anyone else. Anyone who’s ever been a pilot will recognise some archetype in their own real life in this darkly comic British novel.

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim has it all. It's not just a novel of the sea but a work of moral philosophy.

Night Flight by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In my humble opinion the greatest aviation fiction book ever written. It made the celebrated French aviator famous and Antoine de Saint-Exupery would go on to write the timeless classic The Little Prince.

Saint-Exupéry, though born into French nobility was always the odd one out as a child. Portly but jovial, he had bags of courage and curiosity to match his thirst for adventure and travel. He doggedly pursued his dream of becoming a pioneering pilot. In the 1930s he was an airline pilot who flew the north African and south Atlantic mail routes. During the long lonely hours in the cockpit he had enough time to accumulate experience and reflections which could be fit into Night Flight.

The novel itself narrates the terrifying story of Fabien, a pilot who conducted night mail planes, from Patagonia, Chile, and Paraguay to Argentina in the early days of commercial aviation when it was dangerous and pilots died often in horrendous accidents. The book romantically captures the danger and loneliness of these early commercial pilots, blazing routes in the days before radar, GPS and jet engines.

Night Flight is a good gateway into his other aviation themed books. Each of them are magical in capturing the austere feelings of seeing the world and its landscapes from above. Southern Mail, The Aviator, and Wind, Sand and Stars are fantastic reads.

Night Flight is inspiring for every pilot by sharing a unique magic of piloting an airplane.

These books changed my life as it inspired me to fly as a late teen. I still re-read Saint-Exupery’s writings sometimes as a way to tap into that youthful joy of discovering the wonders of flying a plane and when the impossible was only limited by your will and imagination. I cannot recommend his novels highly enough.

4. Classical

The Odyssey by Homer translated by Emily Wilson

Homer should the read at any age and for all seasons. I’ve chosen Emily Wilson’s recent translation because it’s good and not just because her publication was billed as the first woman to ever translate Homer. Wilson is an Oxford educated Classicist now a professor of Classics at Pennsylvania. Every discussion of Emily Wilson’s Odyssey is prefaced with the fact that hers is the first English translation of the poem by a woman, but it’s worth noting that Caroline Alexander’s Iliad (Ecco 2015) was also published as the first English translation by a woman to much less hoopla (to say nothing of Sarah Ruden’s Aeneid, Yale University Press 2009).

While a woman translating Homer’s epic is certainly a huge milestone, Wilson’s interpretation is a radical, fascinating achievement regardless of her gender. Disregard the marketing hype and the Wilson’s translation of Odysseus’ epic sea voyage home still stands tall for its fast paced narrative.

Compared with her predecessors’, Wilson’s Odyssey feels more readable, more alive: the diction, with some exceptions discussed below, is straightforward, and the lines are short. The effect is to turn the Odyssey into a quick-paced page turner, an experience I’d never had reading this epic poem in translation.

The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians by Thucydides translated by Jeremy Mynott

This is the classic treatise about what is essentially rowboats and spears of one of the most important and defining wars of Western civilisation. A long story of people killing one another, cynically justifying their cruelties in pursuit of power, making gross, stupid and fatal miscalculations, in a world devoid of justice. It's a long, drawn out tragedy without any redeeming or uplifting catharsis. If you are not already an extreme pessimist, you will lose all illusions about the inherent goodness of human beings and the possibility of influencing the course of events for the better after you read this book. You will be sadder but you will be wiser. Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between Athens and Sparta “a possession for all time,” and indeed it is the first and still most famous work in the Western historical tradition.

People look at me in a shocked way when I tell them that you can learn 90 percent of what you need to know about politics and war from Thucydides. Maritime strategy falls among the remaining 10 percent. If you want to read about the making of strategy, Clausewitz & Co. are your go-to works. If you want big thoughts about armed strife pitting a land against a sea power, Thucydides is your man. Considered essential reading for generals, admirals, statesmen, and liberally educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, The Peloponnesian War is a mine of military, naval, moral, political, and philosophical wisdom.

Finding the best and most accessible translation (and commentary) is key otherwise you risk putting off the novice reader (especially the young) from ever taking an interest in the Classical world e.g. I would never give the Thomas Hobbes translation to anyone who is easily bored or is impatient with old English. There are many good modern translations to choose from and here you have Strassler, Blanco, and Lattimore that are more used in America. Richard Crawley’s is the most popular but also the least accurate.

My own personal recommendation would be to go for Jeremy Mynott’s 2013 work which he titled The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. Mynott was a former publishing head at Cambridge University Press and emeritus fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, as well as a leading expert on birds and natural history. Mynott’s aim is to re-introduce Thucydides to the reader in his “proper cultural and historical context”, and to strip back the “anachronistic concepts derived from later developments and theories”. Hence the name of the book: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, not, as it is usually called today, The Peloponnesian War.

But what is in a name? In this case, a great deal, since it contains Mynott’s mission statement in miniature. He has dropped the conventional name for the work, for which he correctly says there is no evidence from antiquity, in favour of a less one-sided title derived from Thucydides’s opening sentence. This is just one example of the accretions which Mynott’s edition aims to remove, so that the reader can come closer to being able to appreciate Thucydides’s work as it might have been received in classical Greece. In my humble opinion it is a minor miracle that Mynott has achieved in conveying in modern English the literary qualities of this most political of ancient historians.

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

I’m deliberating ignoring Victor David Hanson’s book on the Peloponnesian War (A War Like No Other) not because it’s not good (because it is in parts) but because I prefer Prof. Donald Kagan’s book.  Professor Kagan at Yale is one of the foremost scholars of Ancient Greek history. He has written a concise but thorough history of the Peloponnesian War for a general audience It's not the least bit dry for those with an interest in ancient history. The book’s an easy read. Kagan’s writing style is clear and straightforward.

Like any scholar worth his salt, Kagan is conversant with the scholarly consensus, with which he is for the most part in step, though he occasionally offers alternative scenarios. Much of the book is simply riveting. Like when the Spartan general Brasidas retakes Amphipolis, or the naval battle fought late in the war for control of the Hellespont. Woven throughout is the longer story of the Athenian turncoat, Alcibiades. Kagan’s analysis of the tactics and strategy of the conflict always seems on target. Interestingly, despite their reputations, the aristocratic Spartans usually come across as vacillating and indecisive while the democratic Athenians are aggressive and usually seize opportunity with successful results. Kagan refrains from drawing analogies to modern politics, although there’s certainly plenty of opportunity for it.

Professor Kagan preceded this one-volume history with a four-volume history of the war that took him around 20 years to write. That four volume series is a much more detailed and academic consideration of political motives and military strategy. But with this single volume, Kagan was able to produce a fast-moving tale, full of incident and colourful description easily readable for the general reader.  

Lords of the Sea by John R. Hale

This book spans the history of the Athenian navy, starting with its founder, Themistocles, and carrying the story through to the fall of Athens - its real fall at the hands of Alexander the Great, not the brief unpleasantness at Spartan hands - in 4th century B.C. Along the way Hale furnishes a wealth of details about naval warfare in classical antiquity. Lords of the Sea profiles Athens' seafaring culture fascinatingly, probing subjects on which Thucydides remains silent. An invaluable companion to Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, and a rollicking read to boot.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is possible that large portions of the work were written at Sirmium, where he spent much time planning military campaigns from 170 to 180. Some of it was written while he was positioned at Aquincum on campaign in Pannonia, because internal notes tell us that the second book was written when he was campaigning against the Quadi on the river Granova (modern-day Hron) and the third book was written at Carnuntum.

It is not clear that he ever intended the writings to be published, so the title Meditations is but one of several commonly assigned to the collection. These writings take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs.

When US Vice-Admiral. James Stockdale was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he attributed his survival to studying stoic philosophies, particularly Marcus Aurelius’ “Meditations.” Aurelius, the Roman emperor, wrote his simple rules for living by candlelight and they have been a source of strength for the thoughtful man of arms or the cultured citizen ever since. I also think teenagers would gain a lot from reading Meditations than endure reading angst-ridden nihilism of many tacky teenage books out there.

SPQR by Mary Beard

Anything by Cambridge Classics professor Mary Beard is worth reading. Everyone loves Mary Beard, fast becoming one of Britain’s national treasure. I’m not just saying all this because she was one of my teachers at Cambridge. I think SPQR is a wonderful book. Ancient Roman history is so very dense and intricate that it can be difficult to teach and learn about. Mary Beard makes it accessible- and she goes through it all, from the early days right up until the present day.

Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war" that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy? Mary Beard provides a sweeping revisionist history to get to grips with this thematic question.

‘SPQR’ is just four letters, but interwoven in those four letters are thousands of years and pages of Roman history. Cicero used to talk about the ’concordia ordinum.’ He said there was a harmony between all the orders in Rome. It’s like a pyramid hierarchy structure. At the top you have the ′senatus′ or the Senate—the aristocrats, the rich men who make decisions. Underneath that you have the ’equites’ who we don’t talk about as much , but they have their own spheres of power. They’ve got a bit of money and are a lower level. And underneath that you’ve got the ’populus’ or the people. SPQR is the harmony between the senatus and the populus and how they work together. That’s where Rome comes from: it’s not just about the Senate. The Senate can’t work without the people and vice versa. So ‘SPQR’ is basically a four-letter summation of the Roman constitution. It’s what it should be, though often isn’t. One of the reasons why - and she writes about this very well - Rome falls apart is because that relationship of harmony and hierarchy does fall apart under Caesar and Pompey in the 1st century BC.

Imperium by Robert Harris

This is one of my favourite novels, even if it weren’t classical, because like all Harris’ books it’s written like a smart thriller. I’m a huge Robert Harris fan. A lot of Robert Harris’ books are quite similar: they have a protagonist and you see the story - all the machinations - through his eyes. In Imperium we see the life of Cicero through the eyes of his slave, Tiro. We know Tiro was a real person, who recorded everything Cicero wrote.

The late Republic is one of my favourite periods of any period of history ever. You get all the figures: Cicero, Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, Octavian, Antony and Cato. Robert Harris paints compelling portraits of these people so nicely that even with Crassus, say, who comes up every so often, you get a sense of who he is. There are actually two more books in the trilogy: Lustrum and Dictator. Once you get to Dictator, you know who Julius Caesar really is, you know why he’s doing it.

[renka-aardvarknews-blog]

PC-induced insanity in the US

By Robert Bridge, American writer and journalist. Former Editor-in-Chief of The Moscow News, he is author of the book, 'Midnight in the American Empire,' released in 2013. America is faced with the grim prospect of the First Amendment being abolished in the places where it should be most vibrant – the schools and universities. Nothing less than the nation’s survival is at stake. Judging by the current PC madness now afflicting America, it looks as though Uncle Sam rolled out of bed one morning, stared at his reflection in the mirror and said to himself, “I no longer identify as a normal nation with long-standing values, conservative ideals and a strong moral foundation. Today I identify as an intolerant and self-indulgent narcissist, ready to lash out and silence anyone who disagrees with my worldview.” And then many of the nation’s inhabitants quickly followed suit. Indeed, America seems to have reached the point in its ‘progressive’ development where those who seem to have literally lost their minds – much like the authority figures in Ken Kesey’s masterful 1962 novel, ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ – wish to institutionalize the remainder of the sane population. That preamble leads us to the greatest insane asylums of them all, the American university. Once the proud home of intellectualism and academic freedom, centres of higher learning now resemble fanatic hotbeds of intolerance and bigotry where an invasive type of poison ivy has overrun the structures, leaving the ivory towers to whither in perpetual darkness. Most people are only too familiar with horror stories of campus censorship where activist-minded students work to prevent guest speakers – sometimes by resorting to outright violence - from airing their ‘controversial’ ideas. Imagine that. The very cognitive exercise that allows ideas to ripen to perfection through open and free discussion is now deemed too radical for the university! These coddled young imbeciles seem to think that by paying exorbitant tuition fees entitles them to an inoffensive college experience in debate-free comfort zones where they may float for four effortless years in a bubble of self-delusional certainty. Perhaps the next step will be to make failing a class unacceptable because that would hurt too many feelings as well. What is most alarming about this situation is that it is the young and inexperienced – the apprentices who have paid admission to learn – who have laid down the ground rules to their masters. The word pathetic comes to mind. It is trying times like these when the world of academia could use a heavy dose of George Carlin, the late comedian who once described political correctness as nothing more than “fascism pretending to be manners.” But since Carlin is no longer with us, we will have to settle for some reserved remarks by a couple of staid and brave professors instead. In March 2017, two prominent academics, Robert P. George and Cornel West, co-wrote a statement in which they decried what they called ‘campus illiberalism,’ reminding students that the purpose of a university education is “truth-seeking, democracy and freedom of thought and expression.” That such a reminder was even necessary speaks volumes about how deplorable the situation has become. George and West harked back to the teachings of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the British philosopher who lectured that since our beliefs may be in error “is a good reason to listen to and honestly consider … points of view that we do not share, and even perspectives that we find shocking or scandalous.” That is essentially what Evelyn Beatrice Hall had in mind when she remarked, in words that would shock many students today, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Today, the PC thought thugs are attempting to superimpose their bold designs on humanity without any input from the rest of society. As just two samples, consider the endless questions involving the extremely controversial issue of transgenderism, the debate on which is now considered too radical and disrespectful to the subjects. The largely unchallenged belief that men can be women, and vice-versa – a view that is rigorously defended in many university Gender Studies programs – has had serious implications in many places, not least of in the world of sport where born males are now competing in events alongside females. This debate also leads to the question over the use of gender-neutral pronouns when addressing people. Despite the fact that such unprecedented issues require the highest level of frank discussion, the trend in the educational system is moving towards greater censorship and control. This month, for example, lawmakers from New Jersey introduced a motion to remove The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from its public school curricula so as to avoid “an uncomfortable atmosphere in the classroom.” Again, the message is to shield the student from any disagreeable topics. As any American knows, this classic piece of literature by Mark Twain presents an unfiltered depiction of the antebellum South, even including liberal usage of the inflammatory n-word. Apart from the question of outright censorship, which is hard to stop once put into motion, it is highly doubtful that sanitizing American classrooms will do anyone any good. In fact, it practically guarantees that Americans will be doomed to repeat history because they are essentially burning the controversial books that allowed such unfortunate moments to be remembered. Toni Morrison, the prominent African-American novelist, initially had misgivings over Twain's classic work, but later reconciled herself to the belief that the book had valuable lessons to teach. Attempts to ban it, she said, represented a “purist yet elementary kind of censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children.” Sadly, not everyone views censorship in such an open-minded way. The aggressive move to purge everything disagreeable from US history is beginning to rear its head in other ways as well, most notably with the systematic removal of Civil War monuments to Confederate leaders who fought against the Union forces. It cannot be emphasized enough that removing statues does not remove the stain of history; it only allows the public to discard history lessons that should never be forgotten (the argument that says history books can substitute for bronze statues in the public square doesn’t hold up to scrutiny when the move towards banning books is already in its latent stages). So what can be done to stop the slide towards blatant censorship in the public domain, not least of all the university? Well, Donald Trump has an idea, which is an intriguing albeit unfortunate one. The US leader said he would “sign an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research funds.” That makes sense. After all, why should the US government be expected to fund colleges and universities that are refusing to honor the US Constitution? Although such a move makes for a temporary band-aid, the mortal wound of political correctness that has gravely inflicted the United States, and the rest of the Western world as well, will not heal even for lack of dollars. Thus, the conservatives and the liberals will continue chasing each other, year after year, in a game of fox and rabbit that will eventually lead both to their demise, and with it that of the country too. Unless the Democrats and Republicans can finally agree that no amount of political correctness or social-justice nonsense should interfere with the 1st Amendment right to free speech, the future health and success of the United States will remain severely in doubt. And what do people in Japan think about Political Correctness? Read the full article