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kapmarvin · 4 years ago

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Ryan Adams, Wednesdays. an essay.

A piano chord strikes with the poignancy of a gavel, and we are in Adams’ condemned world. Words follow to break only those hearts that still flow with the milk of human kindness. Who has not known these sentiments, the persistent memory of the good lost at the broken and breaking hands of human folly? The absence of the beloved tears the world asunder. Only the departed one can put it back together. But the lost never return; the work of reconstruction is unbearable and lonely – but Adams does it, here in this, his new masterpiece.

The talent of this man’s storytelling, a talent we never cherished in those unpublished novels, promises undelivered, is here laid bare in a view of another’s window, that of his innermost reminiscences. A man alone with his memories of things lost is a suffering being, comforted only by looking back, warding off a barren, painful present, with a desperate cry in his heart.

What first brought me to heel before the art of this man was his ability to express unbearable loss and heartache.

“I’ve been thinking some of suicide, but there’s bars out here for miles.”

That line followed me for two years through my own dark reckoning with the monsters of emotional survival. At the time, it was his delicacy of execution that made Adams the priest of sorrow to me in my wilderness. It is no exaggeration to say that the art of Ryan Adams saved my life in my twenties and gave me a guiding light in my very serious darkness. Any sensitive person who has seen his intimate acoustic concerts will know the astounding silence (so rapt you could hear a pin drop) that attends every moment he puts finger to string and breath to microphone. It is the silence of reverence. There is a gospel ecstasy to this art I have never observed elsewhere. Adams has searched his soul like never before on these songs. There is nothing like real love to bring intimations of mortality so insistently to mind, for lovers never live happily ever after; even enduring love must perish with life, and if love does not tear us apart, endurance surely will. This is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, grief that accompanies any love, and the surest sign of its truth.

Frequently in Adams’ latest albums we are invited again and again into his private space, his home, his personal rituals. Over time, images of his real life begin to fill our minds eye, and we see his loneliness with stark familiarity. Torn down to our depths from the heavens he once occupied, he appears as we do; a man of the same habits and movements as other men. Not better, not worse, only with this capacity for bringing us what is already and always ours; the joy and agony of being alive.

Adams attributes magical thoughts to the power of words, names, calling them out, writing them, scratching them, into silence, onto matter, into flesh. Other times, in abject defeat, he gives up on words entirely; “Whatever… etc… besides… anyways...” He is a man haunted by “bad ideas,” demons, making his way after a fateful mistake like Melmoth through a long night of stretching darkness that never seems to break beneath the light of a new dawn. He is always striving to do better, but is tragically pulled under by those apparently, but never truly, transient moments when our lesser angels strut and fret their moment upon the stage of our lives and are the tragic figure’s eventual undoing. All who have truly lived, and not merely critiqued the lives of those who have, know this bitter twist of fate. They know it, and they take pity wherever they encounter it.

As a musician, it is my observation that most artists have a peak period that passes young, and what follows is but the song of entropy. Some traverse this path with constant reinvention, some with silence. Those who take the former road rarely add much to their oeuvre that could not have been better served with the latter road. But Adams is in a highly elite realm here for having taken the former road yet arriving where the latter leads. He is one of the great American songwriters for all time, up there with Dylan and Springsteen, and Wednesdays is his best since Heartbreaker and Love is Hell. Even then, the maturity that marks his recent works casts a certain shadow over those early gems of rough-edged beauty. For that, this album stands alone, a new standard for the king of songwriters everywhere. Just when you thought the man was to be lost in the crowd, he rises high above the followers of Orpheus. Even inquisitors would weep, if they were only capable.

Perhaps the review should end there, but for a man who would put a song called The End right at the beginning of an album, that just would not do.

Wednesdays is Adams’ De Profundis, a cry from the depths, to whatever Lord may be hearing us here in this silent, primordial scream that is our times. But as with all those who face their own souls in reckoning and not the souls of others, he overcomes himself in triumph. Great artists turn darkness to light, and Adams is the greatest among us for this sacred duty. He consistently goes further than the rest, in life, in art, in darkness and in light, departing with lead, but always to return bearing fire.

All that remains is to once more greet him onto the stage that is his and no other’s, upon our feet, and to the deafening cheers and gentle refractory flash bulbs of adulation and love.

“The most serious abuses are less damaging than a system of inquisition which degrades character.” - Ernest Renan.

#Ryan Adams #Ryan Adams Wednesdays #Ryan Adams new album

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call-me-rucy · 5 years ago

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Layton ages

Tag yourself! Which Layton character are you based on your age?

This list is an idea I had when I was wondering how a Layton character would look if they were 22. I found an answer, and a lot more for other ages. Some are not certain, those in italics are either leaps of faith or headcanons of mine. Like the 7 year gap between certain siblings is a headcanon of mine because Sherlock Holmes.

0: Katrielle (LMDA 20)

5: Theodore (AL 23)

10: Luke (SC), Katrielle (LMDA 10)

11: Luke (MM)

12: Luke (AL), Ernest (LMJ 33) Hershel (AL 23)

13: Luke (CV), Clive (UF)

14: Layton, Randall, Angela (MM credits)

15: Luke (LMDA 20)

16: Amelia Ruth (ED), Aurora (AL), Flora (CV)

17: Layton, Randall & co (MM)

18: Emmy (SC 12), Ernest (LMJ flashback), Espella Cantabella (VS). Katia (PB)

19: Ernest (LMJ)

20: Katrielle (LMJ flashback), High Inquisitor Darklaw (VS), Maya Fey (VS)

21: Katrielle (LMJ), Diane (LBMR)

22: Lucy (LBMR)

23: Clive (UF), Janice (ED)

24: Emmy (SC)

25: Luke (LMDA 10), Emmy (MM), Alfendi (LBMR 10), Hilda (LBMR 10)

26: Emmy (AL)

27: Layton (UF 7), Barton (CP), Phoenix Wright (VS)

28: Layton (SC 12)

29: Alfendi (LBMR), Hilda (LBMR)

32: Justin (LBMR 10)

34: Layton (SC)

35: Layton, Randall & co (MM)

36: Layton (AL), Marina (LMDA 49), Justin (LBMR)

37: Layton (CV)

39: Layton (LMDA 20)

41: Descole (SC)

42: Descole (MM)

43: Sycamore (AL)

48: Grosky (SC)

49: Layton (LMDA 10), Grosky (MM)

50: Commisioner (LBMR)

#professor layton #layton #for reference #if im missing someone please tell #also dont look to much into it if theres things you havent watched played cause you might deduce spoilers #hershel layton #Luke Triton #emmy altava #curious village #Pandora's Box #unwound future #Spectre's Call #miracle mask #azran legacy #layton brothers mystery room #lbmr #LMJ spoilers #lmda

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eriksspanishlitblog · 5 years ago

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Ten Interesting Novels

1. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. ( Source : goodreads )

2. Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas

In the final moments of the Spanish Civil War, fifty prominent Nationalist prisoners are executed by firing squad. Among them is the writer and fascist Rafael Sanchez Mazas. As the guns fire, he escapes into the forest, and can hear a search party and their dogs hunting him down. The branches move and he finds himself looking into the eyes of a militiaman, and faces death for the second time that day. But the unknown soldier simply turns and walks away. Sanchez Mazas becomes a national hero and the soldier disappears into history. As Cercas sifts the evidence to establish what happened, he realises that the true hero may not be Sanchez Mazas at all, but the soldier who chose not to shoot him. Who was he? Why did he spare him? And might he still be alive? ( Source : Amazon )

3. The Dangerous Summer by Ernest Hemingway

The Dangerous Summer is Hemingway's firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights. In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply personal self-portrait that reveals much about one of the twentieth century's preeminent writers. ( Source : Amazon )

4. Cathedral of the Sea: A Novel by Ildefonso Falcones

In the tradition of Ken Folletts The Pillars of the Earth, here is a thrilling historical novel of friendship and revenge, plague and hope, love and war, set in the golden age of 14th-century Barcelona. Arnau Estanyol arrives in Barcelona and joins the powerful guild of stone-workers building the magnificent cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar, while his adoptive brother Joan studies to become a priest. As Arnau prospers, he secretly falls in love with a forbidden woman. When he is betrayed and hauled before the Inquisitor, he finds himself face-to-face with his own brother. Will he lose his life just as his beloved cathedral is finally completed, or will his brother spare him? ( Source : Amazon )

5. The Fencing Master by Arturo Perez-Reverte

The unstoppable thrust is the arcane fencing technique known only by Don Jaime—and the deadly maneuver that a beautiful young woman wants him to teach her.What begins as a rather bold request leads Don Jaime into the shadowy politics and violence of mid-nineteenth-century Madrid. ( Source : Amazon )

6. Driving Over Lemons : An Optimist in Spain by Chris Stewart

No sooner had Chris Stewart set eyes on El Valero than he handed over a check. Now all he had to do was explain to Ana, his wife that they were the proud owners of an isolated sheep farm in the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain. That was the easy part. Lush with olive, lemon, and almond groves, the farm lacks a few essentials—running water, electricity, an access road. And then there's the problem of rapacious Pedro Romero, the previous owner who refuses to leave. A perpetual optimist, whose skill as a sheepshearer provides an ideal entrée into his new community, Stewart also possesses an unflappable spirit that, we soon learn, nothing can diminish. Wholly enchanted by the rugged terrain of the hillside and the people they meet along the way—among them farmers, including the ever-resourceful Domingo, other expatriates and artists—Chris and Ana Stewart build an enviable life, complete with a child and dogs, in a country far from home. ( Source : Amazon )

7. Winter in Madrid : A Novel by C.J. Sansom

September 1940: the Spanish Civil War is over, Madrid lies in ruin, while the Germans continue their march through Europe, and General Franco evades Hitler's request that he lead his broken country into yet another war. Into this uncertain world comes a reluctant spy for the British Secret Service, sent to gain the confidence of Sandy Forsyth, an old school friend turned shady Madrid businessman. Meanwhile, an ex-Red Cross nurse is engaged in a secret mission of her own. Through this dangerous game of intrigue, C. J. Sansom's riveting tale conjures a remarkable sense of history unfolding and the profound impact of impossible choices. ( Source : Amazon )

8. The Last Jew by Noah Gordon

In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain. Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew. ( Source : goodreads )

9.The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Ruiz Zafon

Nine-year-old Alicia lost her parents during the Spanish Civil War when the Nacionales (the fascists) savagely bombed Barcelona in 1938. Twenty years later, she still carries the emotional and physical scars of that violent and terrifying time. Weary of her work as an investigator for Spain’s secret police in Madrid, a job she has held for more than a decade, the twenty-nine-year old plans to move on. At the insistence of her boss, Leandro Montalvo, she remains to solve one last case: the mysterious disappearance of Spain’s Minister of Culture, Mauricio Valls. ( Source : Amazon )

With her partner, the intimidating policeman Juan Manuel Vargas, Alicia discovers a possible clue—a rare book by the author Victor Mataix hidden in Valls’ office in his Madrid mansion. Valls was the director of the notorious Montjuic Prison in Barcelona during World War II where several writers were imprisoned, including David Martín and Victor Mataix. Traveling to Barcelona on the trail of these writers, Alicia and Vargas meet with several booksellers, including Juan Sempere, who knew her parents. ( Source : Amazon )

10. The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner

In this stunning novel, C. W. Gortner brings to life Juana of Castile, the third child of Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand of Spain, who would become the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country’s throne. Along the way, Gortner takes the reader from the somber majesty of Spain to the glittering and lethal courts of Flanders, France, and Tudor England. Born amid her parents’ ruthless struggle to unify and strengthen their kingdom, Juana, at the age of sixteen, is sent to wed Philip, heir to the Habsburg Empire. Juana finds unexpected love and passion with her dashing young husband, and at first she is content with her children and her married life. But when tragedy strikes and she becomes heir to the Spanish throne, Juana finds herself plunged into a battle for power against her husband that grows to involve the major monarchs of Europe. Besieged by foes on all sides, Juana vows to secure her crown and save Spain from ruin, even if it costs her everything. ( Source : Amazon )

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galahadtm-archive · 6 years ago

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‘’Do not imagine that you will save yourself, Winston, however completely you surrender to us. No one who has once gone astray is ever spared. And even if we chose to let you live out the natural term of your life, still you would never escape from us. What happens to you here is for ever. Understand that in advance. We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of ordinary human feeling. Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty and then we shall fill you with ourselves.’’ — GEORGE ORWELL, 1984.

Oh, how beautiful was the destruction of words. The verbs and the adjectives, Harry could remember. The actions, what the being does, and it’s fancy-worded qualities. Two of the things that make one’s life worth it. Sometimes, Harry felt like a dictionary. Of course, he was not one of those the kids brought home from the shop — perfectly clean, all in one piece, all of it’s substantives, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, they hadn’t been scratched.

He was a destroyed dictionary. When was the last time he wasn’t like this? Harry didn’t know. Perhaps he was born vandalized. No, he knew he wasn’t — but the boy, now, man, had conditioned himself to think this way. It hurted him less, it made him less prone to going insane.

Like the English language, of which poetry needed to be adapted to fit it’s lack of rhymes, inflections and multiple variation of pronunciations. In the beginning, when he was only a butterfly boy (bu...bu-butterfly b-boy) who stuttered, Harry Hart was pretty much a poem written in a Romance tongue. Rhyming perfectly, followed by a beautiful melody. No, the destruction of words wasn’t beautiful — in fact, it was the ugliest phenomenon. The verbs and adjectives were necessary so we could accentuate our differences — the uniqueness of the being.

Unfortunately, it’s not what happens in Kingsman, and Harry knows it. He knows, but he tries to pretend he is ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. Those who knew what happened in the backstage, they would never be happy. But when did Hart’s dictionary start to be vandalized? Maybe on the early days of his youth, when his interest on bu...bu-butterflies made him look like a girl, on his father’s own words. That made him hate and love butterflies at the same time — hate them, because they were the reason he was bullied, and love them because, after all, it was his essence. Or when he tried to force himself to understand everything about football — mission accomplished, yet he couldn’t focus on the game.

These could coexist, if he was able to deal with them without going insane. Dealing with his own repression, with his own hypocrisy. Doublethinking at it’s core. Choosing ignorance, on an instinct of self-preservation, even if that was all fake.

However, Harry only could understand this clearly when Gustav Armstrong, Agent Lancelot, gave him that gun. His gaze meant a lot to the recruit, even if there was no time for emotion — it meant a father’s advice, it meant an inquisitor’s threats, it meant friendship. All of these feelings got mixed with each other, he didn’t know what to trust — at the same time he believed in everything, he believed in nothing.

But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend, Pickle’s eyes stared at him. All the beauty of Man without it’s Vices, as Byron had said. Loyal, faithful, always by his side. The little one who gave him a reason to fight, to keep going. ❛ Pick a puppy. ❜ Merlin had said. No, not Hamish — the old Merlin, the one before the scottish. Harry picked the small Cairn Terrier, and named him after the one who rescued England’s Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966. The first to welcome, foremost to defend, he used to bark when the other boys mocked Hart, as if he were able to feel his anger and fear.

Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone, Mr. Pickle was the only one that could listen to Harry rambling and crying, the one who never called him retarded, the one who laid his head over his Master’s chest while he suffered from withdrawal symptoms. Unhonoured falls, unnoticed all his worth, killed by the one to whom he gave a reason to live. Who he took out from the deepest pits of a depression that seemed to never go away. Noble, noble dog.

It was a blank. A fucking blank. It didn’t kill Mr. Pickle, it killed the action of loving, of befriending. The quality of being amiable. It killed Harry himself. Verbs and adjectives, scratched. In that moment, Lancelot thought the newly-named Galahad had accomplished his mission, the erasure of his former self to the growth of the new self. Nobility, on Ernest Hemingway’s definition.

But Harry didn’t. He still loved and hated Kingsman. He believed he was doing the right thing, yet he doubted it — who could guarantee these rich men who sponsored the institution weren’t corrupt and ill-intentioned? So many questions he repressed. He didn’t kill the boy. He couldn’t kill the b...b-boy — the butterflies, Mr. Pickle’s stuffed corpse, his old ideals. Anarchy. Order in Anarchy.

He was Galahad, yet he wasn’t. And he believed in all of the possibilities.

#▼・ᴥ・▼ ❪ development ❫ … ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴇᴀʀᴄʜ ꜰᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏʟʏ ɢʀᴀɪʟ ❞#animal death //

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ellanainthetardis · 6 years ago

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Summer Books Reviews

I’ve said I’d do a book review for the Grisha verse and then I remembered I also said I’d try to do more book reviews because of reasons (like the fact I had a book blog once upon a time, you know) so I thought I’d do a pot pourri of my summer readings.

I’m actually happy because I read a lot this summer. I think I managed a book a week give or take, without taking into account the various comics (I’ve read all the Buffy comics I could find, sue me, I am in a PHASE). So without further ado, here are my summer reads with a short review that may or may not be spoilerish.

The Night Circus – Erin Morgensten: I think I talked about this one already actually. I gave it a 5/5 on goodreads even though it took me a while to really get into it. It’s very very slow paced and although I liked the characters, I think it’s one of those books you either love or hate. The atmosphere is everything, it’s really awesome because the circus itself is like a character of sort. I loved the two main characters – I loved all the characters actually and I loved how the ending tied back to the beginning as well as the whole meta-reflection about storytelling and stories in general. I think it’s definitely not for everyone but it’s really worth a go.

The Stolen Throne (Dragon Age #1) – David Gaider: I gave it 4/5 on Goodreads. Well it’s no secret by now that I love fantasy and video games and that Dragon Age might be my most favorite franchise. Hell, how many times did I play the whole series by now? I think I’m at three Wardens, Two Hawkes, and at least 4 or 5 inquisitors. This first novel takes place decades before Origins and it was nice to have some more context than just the codex you find on the games. I think the story works very well without further knowledge of the games and everything and it was a nice little fantasy story. I adore Loghain, you have to understand and what I loved about the love triangle (and you won’t hear me say I love a love triangle often so enjoy) is that… They all could be together. I mean, I’m not really into OT3 but for the three of them I’d do an exception.

The Mercy Thompson Series – Patricia Briggs: I re-read the whole series which took me I think more or less the whole July month since there are ten books. I can tell you I give this serie a definite 5/5. It had been so long since I read it and I hadn’t finished it so I thought why not? If you love urban fantasy (modern world with vampires, werewolves, witches and the likes) this series is for you. I just love Mercy. I love the way the author handles sexual trauma as well as trauma in general. I mean, often it’s trashy and written for shock value ( I’m looking at you Career of Evil) and here it’s just… very well handled. It doesn’t fade in the background after a book, it’s something Mercy has to deal with recurrently, it’s just a master lesson in how to write trauma. BUT those books are also full of fun, love and family. I love all the characters in there and I plan on reading the spin off series very soon.

Opal (The Raven Cycle 4.5) – Maggie Stiefvater: Ok it’s a novella but it still counts. I gave it 2/5 and nobody is more disappointed than me by this rating given how much I loved the Raven Cycle (go read if you haven’t seriously). It just… Didn’t click for me. The point of view was very limited, it was hard to relate and it left too many stuff unexplored. But I guess it’s just a way to link TRC with the next series and I’m still very much hyped for what comes next whenever it comes.

Ready Player One – Ernest Cline: ah, that one. I slaved through it. I gave it a 1/5 but really I think it would be more of a 0.5/5. To me, it’s one of those rare rare times when you can say the movie was better than the book. What was even this book? I hated it. This book is an enabler. I say this being an introvert who has problems with social situation and who love video games, considers herself a geek and proud to be and had grown up in the 90s. This book is an enabler. It gives far too much excuses and never quite set out a clear morale. And it was boring. Really, I was surprised by the movie. I liked it a lot more than I expected it too – probably because it was very little like the book.

Fairest Of Them All: A Tale of The Wicked Queen – Serena Valentino: Another one I was disappointed it. I had a strike unfortunately. I gave it 1/5. It was all very… shallow. I wished for more depth and characterization but it was all very confused and confusing. I have little more to say about this one because I honestly don’t even remember. It was that unremarkable. I know I’ve read better fanfictions.

The Infinite Sea/The Last Star (The 5th Wave #2 and #3) – Rick Yancey: I’ve read those two back to back because I knew after The Infinite Sea I would never read the last one if I waited. I gave 2/5 to The Infinite Sea and 3/5 to The Last Star. I was so pumped by the 5th Wave. I remember reading it what… Two years ago? And I loved it. It was fresh and interesting, lots of plot twists… First thing I didn’t like about both books were the shifting povs. Some pov are first person (like Cassie’s, the main character) and some are third person. And that’s just plain weird. I know I have a problem with pov, I usually don’t like first person pov much but re-reading Mercy Thompson helped me get back on that horse. But if you constantly shift from I to he/she, it gets annoying really fast. The second book is mostly full of length and doesn’t have much happening except for Ringer (but I will come back to Ringer) and the third one was… confusing. Ok maybe I’m very dumb but I didn’t get it. Were they really aliens, was it all a plot, who were the real villains… I didn’t get it. The only positive point of both books was: RINGER. She’s the best character ever and she’s the only reason I slaved through those two books. She’s an ass kicking bad ass with a tactical mind to rival all and although the love story with Ben and the spoilerish thing I won’t talk about but let me say REALLY could have been maybe introduced a little better and would have deserved some more depth, I really really loved her arc. I saw a people say the ending was cliché and I might have thought so too but I think if the writing had been consistent and a little better, it might have been emotional despite the cliché.

The Secret Wife – Gill Paul: I gave it 1/5 I’m not even going to talk about it because I skimmed through the last of the book because it was SO bad I couldn’t keep reading. The premise looked soooo good, I usually love the dual present/past story and the Romanov aspect made me very interested but it was badly written and boring and simply meh.

Shadow & Bones / Siege & Storm / Ruin & Rising (The Grisha #1, #2, #3) – Leigh Bardugo: We’re here at last. OMG. Did I love this trilogy (with it’s many linking novellas?) YOU BET. I gave them all 5/5. Let me tell you something, this is MY JAM. I loved Alina Starkov. I LOVED her. She’s so relatable. All the cast of characters is amazing. The writing is just as amazing and I think it’s safe to say I will read anything by this author because I trust her completely. If you love fantasy, young adult and a good villain, this is the story for you. I didn’t like the main ship I won’t lie. I would have loved a good redemption final twist and the love interest was a little too bland compared to the villain and the King but… It didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all. I’m so HYPED on this verse right now.

The Obsession – Nora Roberts: I’m a big fan of Nora, I’ve read a lot of her books and I was a bit disappointed in this one. I gave it a 2/5. The story is okay and it’s nice to read. I mean, it reads easily, it doesn’t as for a lot of reflection. It’s a good story all in all and I would have put it a 3 or a 4 if not for something that has been jumping at me for the last couple of her books I read. I’m not one to jump up and down and scream misogyny at every turn but there’s a certain idea of a woman in her books that is starting to make me a bit… meh. Let me be clear. The male lead is cliché as can be, full of testosterone, riding a bike, a mechanic, a dog lover with a sensitive side because of course he loves books and while the female promised to be extremely strong and independent career woman, it’s not long before we fall into the a happy woman = a husband, a dog and a kid cliché. And that bothered me.

Six Of Crows (Six of Crows #1) – Leigh Bardugo: Ok there was such a hype around this one I was a little disappointed when I read it. I’m not much into incredible heist stories and to be fair, I read it right after I saw Ocean’s 8 (which was awesome) and it suffered from the (unfair and unconscious) comparison. I gave it a 2/5 BUT this being said I just loved the characters. I was already one hundred percent on board the Kaz/Inej train (didn’t you hear me shout as I passed by?) and the Jesper/Wylan one. Matthias and Nina both left me a little indifferent I will admit and I had troubles with so many povs crammed in one book. It was lot of information everywhere and from every angle. I’m still happy I read it, do you know why? I will tell you. First I love the Grisha universe and it takes place in the same world a few years after and then: CROOKED KINGDOM BABY.

The Lies They Tell – French Gillian : I gave this one a 3/5. It’s a little detective story that reads very easily. It’s nothing exceptional but it will give you a good time.

Kindred Spirits – Rainbow Rowell: I have a problem with short stories/novellas. Always had. it always leaves me wanting more and that was my problem with my book. The moment I got into it, it ended so I gave it a 2/5 but it was really cool nonetheless. Would have liked to read more.

Crooked Kingdom (Six Of Crows #2) – Leigh Bardugo: OMG OMG OMG OMG. Ok, needless to say I gave this one a 5/5. I finished it yesterday so I’m still very much having FEELS. Maybe I wasn’t that much in Six of Crows but this book makes the read worth it, I promise. THIS IS JUST AMAZING. THE FEELS. FEELS EVERYWHERE. Kaz and Inej and their perfect love. Matthias… Nina and her addiction… Jesper and Wylan being cutiepies. I cried at the end. Do you know how often I cry reading books? very much not often. What I mean is: READ IT. READ THE WHOLE GRISHA VERSE. DO IT. DO IT. YOU NEED TO MEET DIRTHANDS AND HIS WRAITH. YOU NEED TO. THIS BOOKS IS PERFECT. IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELS. IT WILL GIVE YOU LIFE.

#book review #books reviews #book reviews #books #I tried #personal stuff no one cares about

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keywestlou · 4 years ago

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RELIGION HAS BEEN KNOWN TO DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD

Religion has been known to do more harm than good. From the Crucifixion of Christ to the Spanish Inquisition to the Crusades to the Salem Witch Hunt to religious conservative groups in modern day politics.

The Catholic Church a present day example.

Saving souls does not mean suppressing the vote in Georgia.

Major Catholic funders and power brokers are among those spearheading voter suppression efforts. Conservative Catholic philanthropists and pro-life leaders are key players behind efforts to limit voter access in a number of states.

Their efforts could obstruct the right to vote for economically marginal populations and racial minorities for years to come.

A number of Catholic organizations and donors pumped millions into the 2020 Presidential election and Georgia’s January Senate run offs.

The Catholic organizations and donors remind me of the inquisitors who sat in judgment of Joan of Arc. Hard headed and blind doing what they believe is God’s work.

In the wake of the 2020 Presidential election and Georgia’s January run offs for 2 Senate seats, a number of Catholic lead organizations and donors pumped millions of dollars into voter suppression efforts. Under the banner of “election integrity.”

Not all Catholic organizations and political donors are guilty. There are many who view voter suppression initiatives as a betrayal of Catholic values and a perpetuation of the false claims by Trump that the election was stolen.

The list of the anti-Christ types include organizations and persons whose names are not well known. The Susan B. Anthony List is one. A pro-life advocacy organization that together with other related entities committed to spending $52 million spearheading Trump’s pro-life activities in the 2020 election.

Individual donors sit on major public boards and those religiously based. Providing opportunities where from their own pockets or those of a board millions can legitimately be funneled into the coffers of those working to suppress voter participation laws.

Ernest Hemingway in the news big time in recent days. The PBS Ernest Hemingway 3 day 6 hour series Conversations with Hemingway one.

Notation by many that on this day in 1928, Hemingway and his wife Pauline arrived in Key West for the first time on the Peninsular & Occidental steamship from Havana. A 1 or 2 day visit turned into 10 years.

Eudie Pak wrote The Many Wives of Ernest Hemingway which was published in Biography 3/20/19. Pak did an update which was published in Biography 4/6/21. An interesting article.

As is well known, Hemingway in a career spanning almost 40 years enjoyed the company of 4 wives. Whether married or not, he was rarely without a woman by his side.

Hemingway’s 4 wives were Hadley Richardson, Pauline “Fife” Pfeiffer, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh.

Certain of the wives formed a bond. Wife #4 Mary Welsh described the “wife group” as “Hemingway University.”

Trump has finally spoken re Matt Gaetz. His comment was limited to he never discussed a pre-emptive pardon with Gaetz.

Trump believes he is the Almighty. Right or wrong, can do anything he wants.

He is doing it again. The repetitive credit card charges. Trump believes they are proper. He intends to begin using the same method once more to raise funds.

Not the best of mornings. I fell. Been a while since I have fallen. Stubbed my toe going up the stairs. I was almost to the top. I was carrying in one hand a large plastic glass containing a chocolate protein drink.

The drink is all over the carpet and on the wall. Ten feet high on the wall.

The wall doesn’t look bad. A Picasso.

Of course, I got hurt. My right knee bleeding. My head and neck ache. My forehead hit the wall and must have bent my head and neck back.

Tell you why this happened. A friend recently sent me a book on how to avoid falling. I began reading it. The subject matter not exciting in itself. I should have finished. I will now.

Too late to have helped me this morning, of course.

Enjoy your day!

RELIGION HAS BEEN KNOWN TO DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD was originally published on Key West Lou

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libertariantaoist · 7 years ago

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As a storm breaks over Washington, and the details of foreign “collusion” and intrigue over the 2016 presidential election break out into the open, I just happened to be re-reading Gore Vidal’s The Golden Age, a novel set in the run up to World War II in which pretty much the same plot line plays out on the same terrain.

The novel is a reminder that nothing has really changed since 1940, except in terms of scale. Washington is still teeming with agents of various foreign powers, and, as in Vidal’s novel, the British intelligence organization plays a key role, but then again the book is set before our much touted “seventeen intelligence agencies” were founded. Vidal takes us through the drawing rooms and editorial offices of Washington, listening in on conversations between characters both real and imagined. It’s as if the National Security Agency was operating at a time when computers existed only in the realm of science fiction, scooping up all our data and giving us a bird’s eye view of how the world works.

The reader meets Wendell Wilkie, the “barefoot boy” from Wall Street, his antipode, the isolationist Senator Bob Taft, mastermind British agent Ernest Cuneo, Walter Winchell, Drew Pearson, H. L. Mencken, and of course Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. The First Couple are at the center of it all, pulling strings invisible to the American people but all too obvious to the Washington insiders, who scheme, gossip, and fornicate as they march the rest of the country into the inferno of World War II.

The city is a battlefield largely occupied by the British, who are determined to get us into the war and spare no details in their elaborate campaign. The interventionist Wilkie is their man, a marionette made to order by the British Security Coordination, which deploys a series of ingeniously dirty tricks to get their man the nomination, and thus block the antiwar Taft from giving the American people a choice at the ballot box. Juicy nuggets of historical detail are thrown into the novelistic mix, e.g., the story of the powerful isolationist Senator Arthur Vandenberg, whose turnabout was due to his seduction by a British Mata Hari. The result is a panoramic view of how America was invaded and conquered by a foreign power and pushed into a world war while the isolationist hinterland slept.

“We shall have it all!” exclaims Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt’s Svengali, and when he’s asked what is “it,” he replies: “The world.” The Golden Age is the story of America on the road to empire, and how the American people were dragged, kicking and screaming, down that bloody highway. Today, having reached our destination, we’re smack in the middle of what seems very much like a work by Vidal, the posthumous capstone of his series of historical novels chronicling the progression of our old republic into a bloated imperium.

The drama now playing out in the headlines has all the same elements: foreign agents plotting to sway the nation’s destiny, the looming threat of war, and dirty tricks aplenty. Speaking of which: just how, exactly, did the three anonymous sources cited by the New York Times come to possess Donald Trump, Jr.’s emails? It is a measure of the Deep State’s desperation that, by this device, they have blown their cover and openly, brazenly, come out as the coup plotters they are. Yes, rumors abound that the sources are in the White House, and this may be superficially true: but of course, unlike Don Junior, the actual sources are smart enough to use go-betweens.

As the machinations and murky allegiances of various swamp creatures come to light, the main players are so much like the characters out of a novel that one wonders if Vidal isn’t up there – or, perhaps, down there – pounding away at some supernatural word-processor, his creation demonically translated into real events.

There is Don Junior, the fresh-faced and rather obtuse presidential progeny, who walks straight into the arms of the clownish Bob Goldstone, a former British tabloid journalist and events promoter, who set up the fateful meeting. There is Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who previously worked with Fusion GPS, the dirty tricks firm employed by the Never Trump crowd that came up with the salacious “dirty dossier,” claiming that Trump had been compromised by Russian intelligence.

As Ernest Cuneo put it in The Golden Age, he had to play “both sides of the fence” in order to pull off the hijacking his British paymasters required, and this old ploy may well have played out in this instance.

There’s the matter of how Veselnitskaya got into the country, having been initially denied a visa by the State Department and then given special dispensation allowing entry. In her affidavit stating why she should be allowed to enter, she said that she was representing a Russian company, Prevezon, in a money-laundering case brought by the US Department of Justice. In this task she was working alongside Fusion GPs, which had been hired by Prevezon to assist in the case. No doubt Veselnitskaya’s history with the folks at Fusion GPs will eventually come out, but they are resisting demands for documents by Sen. Chuck Grassley, citing their First Amendment rights as “journalists.” Given what “journalists” have become these days, one can see their point regardless of the legal technicalities.

As for the incriminating email itself, which – in a burst of novelistic drama worthy of Vidal – was posted along with a statement by Don Junior, its explicitness renders it laughably suspicious. Goldstone informs Junior that he has some juicy information on Hillary’s canoodling with the Russians and that the Russian Crown Prosecutor – their Attorney General – is prepared to release “some official documents” attesting to this. “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information,”says Goldstone, “but it’s part of Russia’s and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

Do I detect a note mockery in Goldstone’s missive? You’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind to miss it. Yes, he says, this material is “sensitive,” but I’m going to reveal the identity and motivations of the source in writing, for the record, so that it can exist in cyberspace forever, a message to posterity saying: There’s one born every minute!

The ghost of Gore Vidal isn’t the only one who’s laughing.

The outcome of all this is so predictable that it reads like the kind of script war propagandists have been churning out since the days chronicled in The Golden Age, where Hollywood’s role as the War Party’s instrument is deftly dramatized. The narrative goes like this: evil Trump populists plot with our “adversary,” Russia, to steal the election from the rightful winner, as a White House inhabited by traitors hands the country over to Putin the All-Powerful. Whatever comes out later – the Fusion-Veselnitskaya connection, the real motives of the deliberately stupid Goldstone, the original source of the Goldstone-Junior correspondence – will get lost in the general impression that Trump is some kind of Manchurian candidate, or at least a “useful idiot,” as the old cold warriors used to say.

Indeed, Michael Hayden, the former chief of both the CIA and the National Security Agency – which is the probable source of the Goldstone-Junior emails – called Trump exactly that. The script was written months ago, when it became apparent that Trump would be the nominee – and that he had a real chance of becoming President. Now it is being played out, in all its melodramatic vulgarity.

And while this may be strictly a grade-B production, the producers and financiers behind the show are likely to get some good box office, with multitudinous investigations, commissions of inquiry, and a full-court press. Thus they’ll accomplish their primary objective – blocking any rapprochement with Russia, and heightening tensions to the breaking point – while laying the groundwork for Trump’s political demise. The question we’ll be hearing continuously from the media, which will be doing the oppo research for Rep. Adam Schiff and his fellow grand inquisitors, is: What did Trump know, and when did he know it?

Republicans will fall back on the probable truth that there’s nothing illegal about “collusion” with a foreign power: our lawmakers regularly collude with foreign lobbyists, some of whom are undoubtedly foreign agents (registered and not-so-registered), with Rep. Schiff being a prominent example. His relationship with a Ukrainian arms dealer is less well-known than it ought to be.

The “it’s not illegal” argument, however, won’t pass scrutiny where it counts: in the court of public opinion, and among the chattering classes. The latter are already our most vocal Never Trumpers, but their increased vehemence, broadcast far and wide, will echo throughout the country, with consequences that bode ill for the cause of peace, détente, and a rational foreign policy.

“What should American policy be toward Putin’s Russia?,” asks Cathy Young in her Reason magazine polemic arguing for a new cold war with Russia. In what is the only true statement in her 7,000-word screed, she writes: “The answer to that question depends, above all, on your view of America’s role in the world and of how broadly America’s national interest should be defined.”

Well, at least it’s a half-truth. For the answer to that question as it relates to Russia is to be found at the end of an inquiry into the real nature and intentions of the Russian leadership We must ask: What does Russia want?

According to the embittered Russian immigrants who play an inordinate role in the policy debate, Putin’s Russia is an authoritarian nightmare, where the regime slaughters journalists with clocklike regularity and Putin the All-Powerful exercises even more control over the brain-deadened Russian populace than he does over the Trump administration. The Russian media is totally controlled, elections are rigged, and the secret police take care of anyone who raises his or her head with ruthless dispatch.

The fact that more Russian journalists died under mysterious circumstances under Boris Yeltsin, Putin’s “pro-Western” predecessor, than during the sixteen years of the All-powerful One’s reign, is ignored, as are the contradictions in the neoconservative narrative. On the one hand, we are told that there are no fair elections in Russia, and in any case the Russian media has so indoctrinated the people that dissent is hopelessly marginalized, and on the other hand they say Putin is mortally afraid of being ousted by Western-backed “dissidents,” whose numbers are growing daily.

Yet this is just the build-up, the demonization process that is the prelude to Putin’s full Hitler-ization. Taking off from the nonsensical premise that all dictators are expansionist aggressors, ready to launch a war of conquest at the first opportunity, while liberal democracy is inherently pacific, the Russian leader’s character development morphs into a Genghis Khan-like figure. Putin’s Golden Hordes are portrayed as massing at Russia’s borders, ready to pounce in any direction – Ukraine, the Baltics, Georgia, or perhaps even Poland. And just to make sure the Russians stay in character, a few provocations should rouse the Russian bear.

Perhaps it will happen in Ukraine, where President Poroshenko is busily bombing the citizens of the eastern provinces into submission. Unlike the Syrian scenario, this movie is only playing in small art theaters: the official fiction is that the sole resistance to Poroshenko’s dictates are Russian soldiers out of uniform. The people of the Donbass have been erased, a green light for their execution by the thousands. Or maybe one of those close calls will get much closer, and the collision of a Russian fighter with one of our jets – over Syria? The Baltics? Kalingrad? – will be the spark that sets the world aflame.

As the winds of Cold War II sweep the political landscape, support for peaceful relations with Russia – never mind the de facto alliance envisioned by President Trump – will freeze over. And the witch-hunt now focused on Trump and his immediate circle will broaden, targeting anyone who challenges the central myth at the heart of the Russophobic narrative: that Russia, a declining power that spends one-tenth of our military budget, is aggressive by its very nature, and specifically aims to topple the US from its pedestal. Of course, this view of Russia is highly colored by the assumption that the US is and must continue to be the global hegemonic power, a premise disputed by us anti-interventionists.

This premise is both unwise and untrue: not only is the United States effectively bankrupt, but it has failed to control world events, a capability to be expected of any proper global hegemon. The “world order” we are constantly being told must be maintained simply does not exist, as the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria demonstrated to anyone with eyes to see. The primacy of American military power is a fiction: we haven’t won a war since the Japanese surrendered in World War II.

The reality is that we live in a multipolar world, not the unipolar fantasy concocted by Francis Fukuyama and his fellow neooconservative grandees. We have gone from a world divided between two superpowers to a multipolar order, and Putin, the unsentimental realist, is acting accordingly, while US policymakers have yet to make the necessary transition.

Defeated by the United States and its allies – although one could argue, as I have, that the Soviet Union was undone primarily by the impossibility of socialism and its own inner contradictions – the post-Soviet Russian leadership is faced with an Islamic insurgency that threatens to subvert the foundations of the state. Not only the Chechen problem, but the wider conundrum bedeviling Putin is how to deal with a Muslim population in the multi-millions in the age of Islamist terrorism. Probably the majority of the core fighting terrorist force in Syria has come from the Muslim areas of the Russian Federation – which is why the Russians are now in Syria, seeking to eradicate them lest they come home.

And so they turn to the alleged Keeper of the World Order, the target of the 9/11 hijackers’ wrath: we too, they say, are in the terrorists’ crosshairs, as Beslan and the apartment bombings throughout Russia make the San Bernardino and Orlando incidents in the US look like pinpricks. They turn to their old enemies, those who brought down the Soviet empire and have now encircled it despite solemn promises from the Americans that this would not happen.

I don’t know what Putin, whom I’ve characterized as a realist, expected: surely not the warm embrace of our deluded political class, and a national security bureaucracy that has a vested interest in maintaining the illusion of American hegemony. The Russians were rebuffed, for all sorts of reasons that had nothing to do with real American interests, the main one being the overweening arrogance of US policymakers, who chose not to be generous in victory.

The appearance of Donald Trump on the scene upset the plans of the policymakers, who thought they were going to have a smooth road on their way to fatally overextending and bankrupting their invincible empire. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get along with Russia?” This sentiment, repeatedly expressed by the GOP presidential candidate, sent shivers down the spines of the bipartisan foreign policy establishment.

Upon hearing this, the Deep State pricked up its ears – and went into high gear. Not just here in the US, but internationally: so far we know that the intelligence services of Ukraine, Estonia, and Britain were involved in a coordinated effort to destroy Trump. No doubt there’s some contemporary version of Ernest Cuneo somewhere, or a gaggle of Cuneos, managing the leaks, the false flags, the dirty tricks according to a script that undergoes daily revisions.

We’re at the beginning of Act II, and it’s going to be a lengthy movie. In any case, it’s a long way from the Goldstone-Junior emails to the DNC/Podesta document dump, but given the guidance of Louise Mensch and Adam Schiff, I’m sure the coup plotters will find their way.

In the face of all this, the real test for the President’s defenders will be over the question of whether or not Russia is an “adversary,” or a potential ally with interests congruent with our own. If the former, “collusion” – such as it is – equals treason: if the latter, then it’s business-as-usual cooperation.

The GOP is divided over this, with the grassroots increasingly amenable to the idea of détente, but the leadership – particularly in Congress – is kneejerk hostile to all things Russian. Just as Trump’s presidential campaign, which was actively opposed and sabotaged by the Republican mandarins on Capitol Hill, owes its success to the Trumpian base, so success in fighting off this assault on his legitimacy will depend on the administration standing up for the ideas that got Trump elected. To fight effectively, Trump and his allies must make the case that Russia is not necessarily an adversary, and that the War Party is simply cashing in on a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is unlikely to happen. An entire wing of the administration, in addition to Obama era holdovers, is bitterly opposed to a Russian rapprochement, at the center of which is H. R. McMaster, whose office over at the National Security Council is a veritable fifth column. His ally, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, runs her own foreign policy, seemingly entirely detached from what comes out of the White House and the State Department. McMaster represents the Army faction, which sees the “Russian threat” as a way to funnel more tax dollars into an already bloated-beyond-all-measure budget. Haley is a stand-in for the old internationalist eastern seaboard “moderate” Republicans, who are anything but moderate when it comes to foreign policy: think Wendell Wilkie in a dress.

With the McCain-Graham chorus yapping in the background, the GOP majority in Congress will be hard-pressed not to override Trump’s veto of the incoming Russian sanctions bill, an issue that will be to this era what the vote on Lend Lease, or the repeal of the Neutrality Act was during the great debate of the 1940s. Whether Trump has the courage to veto, and withstand an energetic – nay, hysterical – campaign to override remains to be seen. In any case, his decision will be the measure of the man and his true character, and an indication of whether his presidency will survive beyond a single term.

While the details of the “collusion” story will shift day-by-day, it’s best not to get caught up in minutiae: surely the public will soon tire of this plot line. The real battle is over policy, and the question of America’s role in the world. Do we want to run an empire that brooks no rivals and take up the burden of enforcing the “world order”? Vidal imagined Harry Hopkins exclaiming “We shall have it all!” Do we want or need it all? Is that even possible?

Trump and his supporters cannot avoid asking – and answering – these questions if they want to avoid defeat and political extinction. It’s as simple as that. This administration has been at war from the beginning, and there is no avoiding it. One may not be interested in war, as Leon Trotsky is reputed to have said, but war is most definitely interested in you. They can’t win the war without making the case for détente.

The Deep State and its attendant swamp creatures play for keeps. The only way to defeat them is on the battlefield of ideas, not by hemming and hawing about matters of law. It must be made clear that the War Party wants to criminalize policy differences: they want to shut down debate, because they know that’s a battle they can’t win. Despite years of strenuous propaganda aimed at painting Putin’s Russia as a modern Mordor, the American people aren’t interested in launching a new cold war. They’ve had enough of war, which is the key reason why Trump won in the first place. If Trump & Co. can keep on this message, they will win. Otherwise they are headed for the dustbin of history.

#justin raimondo #antiwar.com

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