#patrick o'brian writer of all time

[quatregats]

‘I beg your pardon, sir, but Captain’s compliments and would you like to see something amazingly philosophical?’ cried Babbington, darting in like a ball. After the dimness of the gun-room the white blaze on deck made it almost impossible to see, but through his narrowed eyelids Stephen could distinguish Old Sponge, the taller Greek, standing naked in a pool of water by the starboard hances, dripping still and holding out a piece of copper sheathing with great complacency. On his right stood Jack, his hands behind him and a look of happy triumph on his face: on his left most of the watch, craning and staring. The Greek held the corroded copper sheet out a little farther and, watching Stephen’s face intently, he turned it slowly over. On the other side there was a small dark fish with a sucker on the back of its head, clinging fast to the metal. ‘A remora!’ cried Stephen with all the amazement and delight the Greek and Jack had counted upon, and more. ‘A bucket, there! Be gentle with the remora, good Sponge, honest Sponge. Oh, what happiness to see the true remora!’ Old Sponge and Young Sponge had been over the side in this flat calm, scraping away the weed that slowed the Sophie’s pace: in the clear water they could be seen creeping along ropes weighed down with nets of shot, holding their breath for two minutes at a time, and sometimes diving right under the keel and coming up the other side from lightness of heart. But it was only now that Old Sponge’s accustomed eye had detected their sly common enemy hiding under the garboard-strake. The remora was so strong it had certainly torn the sheathing off, they explained to him; but that was nothing – it was so strong it could hold the sloop motionless, or almost motionless, in a brisk gale! But now they had him – there was an end to his capers now, the dog – and now the Sophie would run along like a swan. For a moment Stephen felt inclined to argue, to appeal to their common sense, to point to the nine-inch fish, to the exiguity of its fins; but he was too wise, and too happy, to yield to this temptation, and he jealously carried the bucket down to his cabin, to commune with the remora in peace. And he was too much of a philosopher to feel much vexation a little later when a pretty breeze reached them, coming in over the rippling sea just abaft the larboard beam, so that the Sophie (released from the wicked remora) heeled over in a smooth, steady run that carried her along at seven knots until sunset, when the mast-head cried, ‘Land ho! Land on the starboard bow.’

- Master and Commander, Chapter 6

[abigailnussbaum]

The Georgette Heyer Master List

Is it just me, or has Georgette Heyer kind of... gone away? Ten, maybe fifteen years ago, she was a name I'd hear quite often. Especially in the circles of science fiction and fantasy fandom that also overlapped with the avid readership of Jane Austen or Patrick O'Brian, she was often recommended as a sort of Austen methadone. Over at Tor.com, as it was then known, fantasy author Mari Ness did a whole season of reading through Heyer's voluminous back-catalogue. These days, even as romance writing—and especially Regency romance, the subgenre that Heyer arguably created—has gained enormous mainstream visibility, and as science fiction and fantasy romance has become its own wildly successful subgenre, Heyer seems to come up less and less. One might have expected the success of Bridgerton, for example, to inspire some film or TV adaptations of her books (it was, after all, the reason the Austen fanfic series Sanditon came back from being cancelled after its first season), but so far nothing.

This might be one of those cases where the answer is contained in the question. The reason fewer people are reading Heyer is that, although she more or less created Regency romance, there are so many people writing within it now that readers looking for something like Jane Austen, but not quite, have a lot of other options on offer. Which makes it easier to notice the problems with Heyer, or simply the ways in which her style has fallen out of fashion. There is no sex in her books (and no queerness, obviously), but there are poisonous sexual mores—all her heroes have had mistresses who are, quite obviously to them and everyone around them, not the sort of woman one marries, while her heroines, even at the moment of declaring their love to their HEA, feel obliged to "resist" any physical display of affection. Her books are rife with chauvinism, antisemitism, and most of all classism (and frankly, I think the only reason racism is absent is that everyone in these books is white), and while this is arguably more realistic than a lot of starry-eyed modern Regency romances, it is also a reflection of Heyer's own prejudices.

Still, I took in all those recommendations a decade or more ago, and while I may be slow I will usually get around to reading something if a lot of people tell me I should. In the last year I've ended up reading a lot of Heyer—mostly stuff I had in my enormous TBR, or found at a used bookstore, or at the local library, so there's not a lot of intentional choice happening here. I'm not here to say that Heyer is an overlooked gem. All those problems noted above are very much present in her writing, and in addition she has some favorite tropes that she goes back to again and again—in a mere twelve books, the plot strand in which one character is kidnapped across the channel to France, while another character pursues them, going deep into the logistics of finding them and catching them up, recurs a surprising number of times. But she's nevertheless a more interesting writer than I think is commonly acknowledged today, more likely to pay attention to the psychology of her characters (and not in the modern, sometimes quite exhausting, therapy-speak way), and more interested in her setting (Heyer also wrote historical fiction, and some of her romances shade into that genre). I dipped into some of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels this year as well, and I have to say, beyond the fact that Heyer is just a better writer, it's a bit more palatable to encounter nasty sexual politics in novels written in the 40s and 50s, than to have to accept that the implied threat of sexual violence is but a stepping stone to true love from a writer whose books were published only twenty years ago.

Below are some thoughts on the Heyer books I've read so far. I will add to them when and as I read new ones, though I think I will continue to leave the selection of those books to happenstance.

S-Tier

Cotillion (1953) - This is the first Heyer I ever read, and to an extent it has spoiled me for the rest of her writing by being such a high water mark. Kitty Charing has been informed by her guardian that she will be forced to marry one of his nephews, and instead decides to run off to the city to find her own match, with the help of gadabout Freddy. The two end up first pretending to be engaged, and then trying to throw Kitty in the path of eligible bachelors, while inevitably falling in love themselves. This is a great book first because it's extremely funny. Heyer had a great ear for the absurd slang of the fashionable London set, and gets a lot of mileage out of Kitty's cheerful refusal to let logic or common sense stop her, and Freddy's Regency himbo antics. More importantly—and rather rarely for Heyer's writing—Kitty and Freddy are true equals. They're both a bit silly and a lot sheltered, but also able to rise to the occasion when it's required, and they lock into each other's wavelength early in the novel and never let go. Inasmuch as they change each other, it's only in revealing that they are able to pull off audacious schemes when someone they care about needs them to, and you can imagine the two of them having a long, ridiculous partnership in crime for the rest of their lives.

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle (1957) - Informed that Lord Sylvester, who has a bad reputation that is only partly earned, is about to propose marriage to her, Phoebe runs off with her best friend Tom. When the two of them run into trouble on the road, they are rescued by none other than Sylvester, which throws him and Phoebe together for extended periods, with predictable results. This format—older, powerful man; younger, sheltered woman—is one that Heyer returns to quite often, but it works better here than in any other of her novels. Sylvester isn't cruel or a rake; he's arrogant and high-handed, though often with some justification (most of his bad reputation comes from his self-absorbed, thoughtless sister-in-law). Phoebe isn't a naif, but an intelligent woman with a hidden career as an author that she's quite devoted to. The two of them develop a compelling friendship long before they fall in love, rooted in the fact that they are often the smartest person in the room, and able to help each other steer a tricky situation towards calm waters. The twist that threatens their relationship—before meeting him, Phoebe wrote a novel in which the villain was a thinly-veiled version of Sylvester—is highly original, and the novel's final act, in which Sylvester must pursue Phoebe and his kidnapped nephew into France, is one of the most hilarious sequences I've ever read. By the time the two get together, it's obvious that they could only be happy with each other.

Good

False Colors (1963) - Returning from his diplomatic post abroad, Kit Fancot discovers that his twin brother Evelyn has disappeared, right before he was about to propose to Cressida Stavely. Persuaded by his mother to impersonate his twin for one night, Kit quickly finds himself hosting Cressida and a whole raft of other characters in his country home, while trying to keep up the charade and, of course, keep from falling in love with Cressida himself. This is a book that's interesting more for the background than the main romance—Kit and Cressida are quite sweet, but more because they're a point of calm amidst the chaos of all their relatives and friends. But it's that chaos—especially Kit's mother, an airheaded inveterate gambler whom Kit nevertheless adores— that is the real source of the novel's fun. The fact that Kit and Cressida are able to put all the various crises around them to rest is what convinces you that they will be a good couple, but it's not their further adventures that you'd like to follow.

Charity Girl (1970) - While visiting relatives, Ashley Desford encounters Charity Steane, the penniless ward of a family who are mistreating her. When Ashley later finds Charity running away, he convinces her to let him try to find her a respectable situation, and places her with his childhood friend Henrietta Silverdale. In any other novel you'd expect Ashley and Charity to fall in love (and indeed this is what several characters in the novel assume—when they're not assuming something more salacious). Instead, Ashley's efforts to untangle Charity's family situation, get the best of her odious relatives, and find a safe place for her are a method of throwing him in company with Henrietta, whom he has for years insisted is only a friend. It turns out that Ashley and Henrietta, having rebelled against their families' plan to marry them off at a too-young age, have been shame-facedly pretending that they haven't fallen in love for ten years, and it's only by becoming jointly responsible for Charity that they can work their way around this predicament. The stakes aren't particularly high, but the scenario is original enough (especially for Heyer) to make this a worthwhile read.

Interesting

These Old Shades (1926) - Infamous rake Justin Alastair encounters a runaway, Léon, on the streets of Paris and takes him in as his page. It doesn't take long to realize that Léon is actually Léonie, but the untangling of her convoluted family history—a tale of swapped babies, mistaken identities, and false heirs—is the business of much of the novel, during which, of course, Justin and Léonie also fall in love. The potboiler plot is quite fun, as is Léonie herself—having pretended to be a boy for years, she is at once indifferent to the mores she's expected to adopt as a respectable young lady, and immediately won over by fancy clothes and balls, which allows her to triumph over opponents in both high and low society. But this can't quite get around the problem that Justin is twice Léonie's age, and also a pretty bad person (the character previously appeared in The Black Moth (1921), where he was the villain, and a subplot in These Old Shades even throws Justin into the company a woman he had kidnapped in the previous book). Despite the force of Léonie's argument that she actually wants to be with Justin, this is a book better enjoyed for its rollicking, adventurous middle than its romantic conclusion.

An Infamous Army (1937) - Heyer was simply mad for the Napoleonic wars, and this is one of several books she wrote set in and around them. As aristocrats and officers await the arrival of Napoleon's army in Brussels, Colonel Charles Audley encounters Lady Barbara Childe, a widow with a scandalous reputation. The two feel an instant, powerful attraction, but end up having to navigate Barbara's habit of playing games with her suitors, and Charles's impatience with them, before the battle of Waterloo erupts and forces them both to confront more pressing issues while also realizing the depth of their feelings for each other. It's nice to have a central couple who are older, more experienced people, but An Infamous Army steps away from Charles and Barbara quite often. Sometimes this is quite interesting—the absurdity of 18th century warfare, with Wellington throwing balls for the who's who gathered in Brussels while everyone debates when to flee the city—and at other points quite tedious—several subplots in which Charles's extended family play forgettable matchmaking games. In the end, however, Heyer's interest is in Waterloo itself, with the novel culminating in an 80-page, blow-by-blow description of the battle. This can sometimes be quite moving, when it captures the sheer extent of the carnage, or the confusion of individual officers. But mostly it's just descriptions of military tactics, which is not what I signed up for when I picked up a Regency romance. By the time Charles and Barbara find their way back to each other, you'll mostly be feeling exhausted rather than overjoyed.

A Civil Contract (1961) - Adam Deveril is called home from the peninsula by the news that his father, a viscount, has died, and that the family finances are in such dire straits that Adam may be forced to sell their ancestral estate. The only solution, Adam is quickly made to realize, is for him to marry rich, to which end he's introduced to Jenny Chawleigh, the daughter of a fantastically rich but boorish merchant. In most books we'd expect Adam and Jenny to fall in love, and it takes a while to realize that this is not going to happen. Adam continues to think wistfully about Julia, the woman he had been attached to before his finances made the idea of proposing to her impossible, and the narrative is at pains to point out that he doesn't feel any attraction towards Jenny. What A Civil Contract is about, instead, is class relations. The complicated push and pull between Adam and Jenny's father Jonathan as they negotiate one's social position, and the other's wealth; the delicate negotiations between Adam and Jenny as she learns to understand the importance of tradition to him, and he realizes that she is actually capable of being a great viscountess if he just trusts her a little. The whole thing is a lot more Edith Wharton than Jane Austen, with some great scenes in which Adam is torn between genuine appreciation of Jonathan's energy and intelligence, and disgust at his determination to tear down everything old and replace it with whatever is newest and most expensive. In the end, however, it's all a bit too bleak, and Heyer doesn't quite have the courage to let us sit with that. She tries to assure us that Adam and Jenny have found a genuine partner in each other, and that this, too, is a form of love, but this is not very convincing. In the hands of another author, A Civil Contract would have been the half-tragedy it actually is.

Meh

The Convenient Marriage (1934) - Intending to propose to the eldest Winwood sister, who is already in love with someone else, the Earl of Rule is persuaded, by her younger sister Horatia, to marry her instead. That's basically the story—a marriage of convenience for both parties that turns into a romance. But while in other books Heyer has made a meal of this premise, The Convenient Marriage never convinces you of either its lovers being especially suited to each other, or the rather thin obstacles it places in their path. There are some interesting worldbuilding details—some information about how the invitations to Almack's used to work, or about the mechanics and norms of duel-fighting. And towards the end, there are some good scenes in which Horatia has to outsmart a kidnapper, or her brother has to arrange a highway robbery to retrieve a stolen jewel that might destroy her reputation. But ultimately, the fact that this is all in service of a couple who aren't particularly engaging (and whose age difference—35 and 17—is hard to get over) makes the whole thing a bit of a slog.

Cousin Kate (1968) - Kate Malvern is at the end of her rope, having been chased off yet another governess position by an employer with wandering hands, when a long-lost aunt invites her to visit her country home. When Kate arrives, she soon realizes that her aunt Minerva plans to pressure her to marry her cousin Torquil, and that there are secrets in the estate and the family that are being kept from her. This is Heyer working in the Gothic mode, complete with an isolated great house, a young woman being manipulated and lied to, and a dreadful family secret. It's reasonably well done for what it is, but there were better authors than Heyer working in the Gothic mode—by 1968 you could have read something like Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree (1961) or Nine Coaches Waiting (1958), both of which do much more interesting, innovative things with the Gothic form than Heyer is even attempting. Finally, there is the fact that the dark secret being kept from Kate has to do with mental illness, whose handling is as tragic and sensationalized as you might expect from this author and era.

Yikes

Devil’s Cub (1932) - The sequel to These Old Shades, this book centers on Justin and Léonie's son Vidal, who has all of his parents' faults and none of their charms. After killing a man in a duel, he schemes to run off with a silly middle class girl, whom he of course feels no compunction about ruining. When her sister Mary takes her place, Vidal is shocked to realize that he has compromised a "respectable" woman, and tries to convince her to marry him. There are further twists, but none of them can get around the fact that the main character of this book is odious, and that the supposed love story between him and the girl he has kidnapped and ruined is highly unconvincing. Not helping matters is that an older Léonie periodically appears to explain that her son has done nothing wrong and that marrying Mary will obviously be the best thing for him, which frankly feels too much like the voice of the author for comfort.

The Spanish Bride (1940) - Based on the real experiences of Captain Harry Smith and his Spanish war bride Juana, this is another novel deeply rooted in the minutiae of the Napoleonic wars, beginning on the peninsula and culminating, of course, in Waterloo. In itself this might simply be boring, but right off the bat we get a scene in which Harry and other officers stand back while their soldiers, enraged after the bloody siege of Badajoz, murder and rape their way through the town for several days. Harry's marriage to Juana is arranged in the wake of this atrocity as a means of protecting her, despite her being only fourteen years old. The rest of the novel is spent careening between detailed descriptions of various battles, and cutesy interludes between Harry and Juana as they settle into their marriage—Harry often exasperated by Juana's stubbornness and emotional outbursts (I don't know, man; if you didn't want a wife who behaves like a child, maybe you shouldn't have married a child); Juana almost slavishly devoted to him but also prone to jealousy and anxiety. (Harry Smith left copious journals so one assumes his side of the story is fairly realistic; Juana Smith's feelings on the whole matter are, as far as I know, lost to history.) The whole thing is alternately boring and gross.

The Grand Sophy (1950) - Charles Rivenhall is informed that his family will play host to their cousin Sophy, whose diplomat father is being sent abroad. Accustomed to keeping house for her father, Sophy quickly takes over the Rivenhall household, rearranging her cousins' financial and romantic lives while a stunned Charles is at first outraged, and then won over. This is a solid premise, but the execution is appalling. Sophy is a bulldozer who interferes in people's lives not because she cares about them but because she always thinks she knows better, and eventually she comes to feel more like a bully than a savior. That Charles is attracted to these qualities might be taken as a defensive trauma response (or, in the hands of a more open-minded author, a kinky tendency), but at no point did I even begin to believe that Sophy had any romantic interest in him (there are a number of Heyer characters who would make a lot more sense if they were queer, but Sophy, in particular, is so clearly a lesbian that the very idea of her happily married to a man breaks one's brain). Adding insult to injury is a lengthy sequence in which Sophy "defeats" an odious Jewish moneylender—read, a collection of poisonous antisemitic stereotypes in human form—whom her cousin has borrowed money from and who, completely unreasonably, expects to be paid back until Sophy threatens him with a gun. I will no doubt ruffle some feather by placing this book—generally held to be one of Heyer's best—so low, but reading it nearly put me off her for life. 

[parfumieren]

1828: Jules Verne (Histoires de Parfums)

The tallship has just crossed the equator. A junior sailor, newly initiated into the Court of Neptune, descends into the cargo hold. His line-crossing ceremony took place only this morning; his skin is still salty from repeated baptismal drenchings with ocean water. Just for tonight -- as officers and crew celebrate with glasses of port and tankards of rum in their respective mess halls -- he has the run of the place and can go where he likes. Here is where he likes to go.

In the darkness below deck loom crates of lemons, limes, and oranges, barrels of rum and aqua vitae, bundles of Virginia tobacco, and cedar caskets full of spices. The wood -- already fragrant on its own accord -- has been permeated by the scent of nutmeg and black pepper, producing a wholly new and curious fragrance which lifts the sailor's heart. His apprenticeship before the mast has been toilsome and often doubtful. Years from now, skin calloused by work, heart hardened by defeat and sorrow, he may well become as jaded as the toothless, wizened old-timers who barked in laughter at his initiation. But tonight, he belongs to this ship, and it belongs to him. Everything about it -- its crew and cargo, the wide sea upon which it sails -- is beautiful. Curled up in a coil of rope in the full-laden hold, at peace with life's vagaries, he closes his eyes. It comes to him, seconds before sleep descends, that he has never known pure happiness until now. Let the wind and waves rise...

Perfume, like any art form, is a form of storytelling. Every vial of fragrance contains layers upon layers of narrative to be guessed at by the wearer. Sometimes the perfumer's brief provides clues to the plot; other times, it's left to the imagination to interpret all.

1828 is dedicated to the French author Jules Verne, whose fascination with technology and mechanical innovation paved the way for modern science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick and William Gibson, and has been a primary influence on the steampunk movement. Transportation is a particular fetish of Verne's; submarines (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), transatlantic steamships and cross-continental trains (Around the World in 80 Days), cannon-propelled spaceships (From the Earth to the Moon), and lighter-than-air craft (The Mysterious Island) all symbolize the quickened pace and boundary-breaking spirit of 19th century life.

Oddly, the perfume named in Jules Verne's honor is neither sleek, fast, nor futuristic. Rather, it is a nostalgia piece, an evocation of an era predating that of the great author: the age of tallships, of Horatio Lord Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars.

Up until 1810, Myristica fragrans -- the tree from which nutmeg and its sister spice mace are derived -- grew nowhere else on earth but Banda, a tiny volcanic island chain east of Indonesia. For nearly 200 years, the Dutch occupied Banda, maintaining a complete monopoly of the nutmeg trade worldwide. But once the British Royal Navy managed to wrest control of the island from the Netherlands, transplanted nutmeg trees began to dot the globe.

To the modern-day nose, the scent of nutmeg still evokes quaint colonial comforts. It's a resolutely anachronistic smell -- and although it would seem to have little to do with the ocean, a nutmeg accord properly embedded in a marine composition will "read" like a Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin novel.

But where is Jules Verne's place in all this? It's in the clockworks, the gears, the mechanical accoutrements that set 1828 to humming. The trick that this perfume pulls off -- superbly -- is to place a wonderful piece of old-timey scrimshaw in a spare, minimalist, and thoroughly modern setting so that one can no longer tell what century (the 18th? the 26th?) it hails from.

A breezy citrus top note greets the nose first, paired with the smallest touch of eucalyptus to make it fly. A strong middle section of straightforward wood notes lulls you into thinking that perhaps the liveliest moments are over, but at last a radiant nutmeg accord sets in-- rich, cool, weighty, and smooth. This is a scent both Horatio Hornblower and Captain Nemo could wear. (Heck, throw in Morpheus from The Matrix while you're at it. What is the Nebuchadnezzar, anyway, except a supermodern Nautilus adrift in dystopia?)

When a perfume has the power to set all sorts of mental plotlines into motion, you might as well make yourself the hero: steely-eyed, soft-hearted, and guaranteed a new adventure at every latitude.

First, though, you must hear the call of wind and wave.

Scent Elements: Grapefruit, citrus, mandarin, eucalyptus, pepper, nutmeg, cedar, incense, vetiver, pine

[marginalgloss]

notions of conduct

‘…It was Burton, I think,’ he said some minutes later, ‘who observed that there were men who sucked nothing but poison from books. And who has not met youths and even maidens with ludicrous ideas of what is the thing for persons of spirit, and with permanently distorted notions of conduct that is acceptable and conduct that is not? Yet may not authors be even more poisonous?’

Some three years after I started, I am finally reaching the end of Patrick O'Brian's best-known series of historical novels. Even now, far from the beginning, I feel confident in claiming that The Yellow Admiral is the weakest in the series so far. I had mixed feelings about Clarissa Oakes for related reasons — principally the lack of direction — but it gives me no joy to say that this book is where the series really starts to show its age. With the best of his work there’s a sense of settling into a sort of comfortable groove, like listening to a favourite piece of music performed well, or sinking into an old armchair on a rainy evening. But nothing here sits easily.   

The story is sketchy to the point of being barely extant. The war against Napoleon seems to be coming to an end, and for much of the book Jack Aubrey is plagued by a couple of great anxieties. He's afraid he will be made bankrupt, due to unexpected penalties associated with illegally capturing slave ships in the previous book. He is also worried that for political reasons at the end of his career he will be made a 'yellow' admiral, which is a covert form of disgrace – a promotion to a leadership role ‘without distinction of squadron’. There's a lot of other stuff going on — most notably, the promise of another privateer mission to South America — but for the most part this is a strange sort of in-betweener novel. 

Some of it is very out of character. A great many words in the first half are expended on enclosure (or 'inclosure', as O'Brian insists on spelling it). The widespread adoption of enclosure was perhaps the most significant change ever made to the landscape of Britain. It refers to the process of fencing off areas of common land, and turning it into strips of smallholdings assigned to individuals. The old commons were open to all and could be used for grazing, hunting and gathering; a tenant forced to trade access to commons in exchange for a few small pieces of private land might see an increase in the assets on his theoretical balance sheet, but they might also see a great nearing of the horizon of the opportunities afforded to them.  

The economics and history of enclosure are complex, and my understanding is limited to what I remember from school. But the author’s dedication to pursuing it so doggedly here seems out of character, especially considering that for the most part these books have given a great deal of leeway to the political issues of the day. Politics is only usually brought up as a matter for idle philosophical speculation — usually by Stephen, in the comfortable confines of the cabin or the gun-room. 

Enclosure has serious, active consequences for Jack and his tenants, but for me the question still remains: why are we only picking up on this now? Were a reader to encounter it for the first time in this book they might think it an invention of the nineteenth century. In fact, enclosure had been going on in fits and starts for hundreds of years in England; it’s scarcely conceivable that Stephen Maturin would need to have it explained to him, as he does here. It seems a strange topic to choose as representative of the age. 

As it stands, enclosure becomes a useful hobby-horse in this book. It’s hard to feel that O’Brian actually cares very much for the consequences to the individual smallholder here. Rather, the question of whether Aubrey's local common should be enclosed makes for a diverting exercise in the novel’s own libertarian philosophies. There is something unashamedly pastoral in this vision of a free and open corner of England, largely unaffected by government interference. At first it seems ironic that the only way this can be defended is by Aubrey effectively invoking his rights as Lord of the Manor; but I would suggest this is an indication that the novel's sympathies lie with a much older model of government. It is feudal, or as good as. Perhaps this oughtn't to be surprising – by this time we should know well that democracy doesn't come out of these novels looking well:

‘Everyone knows that on a large scale democracy is pernicious nonsense – a country or even a county cannot be run by a self-seeking parcel of tub-thumping politicians working on popular emotion, rousing the mob. Even at Brooks’s, which is a hotbed of democracy, the place is in fact run by the managers and those that don’t like it may either do the other thing or join Boodle’s; while as for a man-of-war, it is either an autocracy or it is nothing, nothing at all – mere nonsense.’

For all that it has very little to do with the rest of the series, the stuff about enclosure here at least has the benefit of being memorable. Much of the rest of the book is sadly ridiculous. The absurdity peaks early on with a scene in which Bonden must win a bare-knuckle boxing match, which ends up being so violent I thought he might not survive. We like Bonden – of course we like Bonden! – but it is one authorial self-indulgence too far to turn his character into a nineteenth century brawler. It feels like fanfiction. 

The remaining passages on land in this book are long and dry and largely without character. The one thing to be said for them is that we do at least get some scenes with Diana, but otherwise it feels as though O'Brian had no clue of how to continue the series from here. There is the period of Napoleon's escape from Elba to be covered, but we can't get to that just yet, so our heroes must be dispatched to the most boring region of the war which has formed the butt of many a joke throughout the series so far – the blockade of the port of Brest. It is largely uneventful. There isn’t even a decent battle at sea to liven things up.

I think O'Brian would have been about 81 when this was published. Interestingly, it's at this point in his career that I think he was beginning to get some very serious literary recognition. He was being invited on speaking tours and having his work championed by a weird mix of writers and politicians from across the political spectrum — everyone from Charlton Heston to Christopher Hitchens proclaimed themselves fans. If I was inclined to be cynical I might argue that this book is mostly O’Brian playing to the gallery, without any clear sense of how these novels ought to be concluded. 

The parts where the author seems to be having the most fun are the novel’s idle moments; I don’t believe these books have ever seen so many comfortable dinners with shipmates or cushy evenings at Blacks club as there are described here. And how interesting that these are not comfortable dinners spent at home with family, but semi-formal occasions with colleagues. This, perhaps, is where the author really feels at ease. Even though we spend many pages in England in this book, there’s a haunting sense throughout of being perpetually at a slight discomfort at home. To some extent that was always the case — O’Brian always did stress the escapist quality of the naval career as paramount to the happiness of his heroes — but now this is tinged with a strange melancholy as it becomes clear that we can never spend a lifetime fleeing from life as part of a family. 

[douchebagbrainwaves]

SOME SUCH INVESTORS HAVE VALUE, BUT THE WORLD HASN'T EXPLODED AS A RESULT

What I mean by evolution. More importantly, such a statement would merely be eccentric. But those too are acceptable or at least to yourself, ok, this was supposed to be the thing-that-doesn't-scale that defines your company. And while they probably have bigger ambitions now, this alone brings them a billion dollars you could bring in a thousand startups. Consulting is where product companies go to die.1 Another thing ramen profitability doesn't imply is Joe Kraus's idea that you could make great things. The value of startup hubs. There are now sites like AngelList, FundersClub, and WeFunder that can introduce you to investors.

But if you yourself don't have good taste, which is about 2. The more extreme recipes aim to break down your individuality the way basic training does. The French Laundry in Napa Valley.2 Because they personally liked it. And at Y Combinator use Apple laptops. In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get customers to pay you for, then what other investors think, then choose/design the language that was math.3 Other times it's more unconscious.

Those are actually the elite of failures. He was a pretty nice guy, but at every point till you're profitable. I mark.4 Who made the wealth it represents?5 Writers now deliberately write things to draw traffic from aggregators—sometimes even specific ones.6 But even more importantly, IBM itself ended up being something that was hard for industrialization to flourish in societies that value hierarchy and stability, just as a musician takes determination as well as figuring out how to profit from it. Abortion, for or against this idea here. Jessica was so important to be right. And since I know from my own experience as a reader.7

If they seem to be getting out of hand and you want to be seen talking to them before they are. Early Launching too slowly has probably killed a hundred times as much if it worked.8 Not spend it, that's ok. 7% and we have 11. The buildings are all more or less constant during the entire period from the end of California Ave in Palo Alto, but one by one they die and their houses are transformed by developers into McMansions and sold to VPs of Bus Dev. I wrong.9 Valuations are fiction.

Notes

One YC founder told me: One way to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together. There are circumstances where this is certainly more efficient. What should you even before they've committed.

If you want to be about 50%. It didn't work out a preliminary answer on the economics of ancient traditions. A few VCs have rational reasons for behaving this way, I can't refer a startup.

Later stage investors won't invest in a non-corrupt country or organization will be the only result is higher prices.

The attention required increases with the best thing they can do with the high score thrown out seemed the more important.

It was born when Plato and Aristotle looked at the exact same thing that drives most people come to writing essays is to make a fortune in the former, and suddenly they need to play games with kids' credulity. A Spam Classification Organization Program. In a startup to an employer, I mean that if there were about the topic. Investors influence one another both directly and indirectly.

8 says that a startup to sell hardware without trying to make a deep philosophical point here about which is not Apple's products but their policies. If you like shit. In Boston the best day job, or a community, or in one where life was tougher, the television, the approval of an official authority makes all the East Coast.

This seems unlikely at the network level, and help keep the number of spams that you can't, notably ineptitude and bad outcomes have origins in words about luck. The current Bush, for the desperate and the 4K of RAM was in charge of HR at Lotus in the business spectrum than the valuation of the randomness is concealed by the normal people they're usually surrounded with. Startups can die from running through their initial attitude.

Corollary: Avoid starting a company in Germany, where many of the world barely affects me.

Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. This is why so many others the pattern for the entire period since the war it was 94% 33 of 35 companies that have little to bring corporate bonds; a new version from which a seemed more serious and b the second component is empty—an idea where there were already lots of opportunities to sell early for a certain field, and instead of bookmarking. But you can play it safe by excluding VC firms expect to do this are companies smart enough to convince at one remove from the bottom as they get for 500 today would have a cover price and yet in both Greece and China, many of which you can't tell you who they are within any given time I thought there wasn't, because the first duty of the techniques for discouraging stupid comments have yet to find a blog on the spot, so had a tiny.

Thanks to Chris Small, Robert Morris, Emmett Shear, Joshua Reeves, Greg Mcadoo, John Bautista, Paul Buchheit, and Jessica Livingston for the lulz.

[brigdh]

Yuletide recs, for fandoms A-M! I have just barely gotten this in before author reveals, and clearly still have half the alphabet to get through. Ah, well. First off, my own gift!! Water Lens Benjamin January, gen, 2.4k, Teen. “The good widow couldn't dump you in the fast section of the river, apparently,” January said. “It had to be the mud.” “If she'd only panicked five minutes earlier,” Rose agreed with a sigh. “We were on the bridge then – although given the state of that particular river I wouldn't necessarily put money on it being that much cleaner.” All my all favorite story tropes are here: bathing together and playing with hair and the OT3 and Rose doing science and there’s even a mystery to solve in here too! It is wonderful and I love it and everyone should give the mystery author more kudos. And here are my other favorites: so come home 12 Dancing Princesses fairy tale, gen, 21.5k, G. A detective is called to a space station to solve the mystery of whether--and how--twelve astronauts are accessing the surface of a forbidden planet. A very well-written sci-fi murder mystery, with great worldbuilding and characters. Recruits American Gods, Mr Wednesday and Mad Sweeney, 4.2k, G. The Norse god of battle and a mad Irish king walk into a bar. This is not a joke, my son: except in a sense, it is. They are Old Gods, it’s the New World, and the game must be kept going. Really great backstory on the gods in WWI. The Locust And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side - James Tiptree Jr., 2.2k, Mature. Letter of Fr. Francisco Nadal to Fr. Bartolomeo Strozzi, 1588. The original short story is about the horrifying effects on humanity of alien sexuality; this fic translates it into Imperial Spain and makes the different cultural setting really work. Because everyone needs some terror on Christmas! And on the seventh... Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian, Jack/Stephen, 11k, G. This decision might be considered the luckiest, as standing near Jack meant that Stephen was not alone in his fall overboard. Or it might be considered the unluckiest, as standing near Jack meant that Stephen was foremost in the splinters' path, when the ranging shot abruptly found its range. Desert island fic with H/C, angst, kissing in the ocean, and new species of birds. AKA, everything good in fic. And for that riches where is my deserving? Benjamin January mysteries, Ben/Rose/Hannibal, 1.8k, Teen. If Ben was honest with himself, he suspected that one day Hannibal might simply vanish from their lives. He desperately hoped that this was not the day. Delicious Hannibal whump plus the OT3! What more could anyone want out of the tiny fandom of my heart? Family Gathering Books of the Raksura, Moon-focused, 2.8k, G. After some of Jade and Moon's first clutch are confirmed to be Royal Aeriat, Pearl wants the fledgelings brought to her bower. Ember thinks Moon should be there too. Really adorable baby-fic, with some lovely Pearl characterization. Home Books of the Raksura, Consolation gen, 4.1k, G. It turned out that living like people instead of monsters required all sorts of skills and tools. Cleaning required soap, and some inkling of how to apply it. Consolation’s flight, having been raised by monsters, not people, had none of the requisite skills. This is the post-canon fic about how Consolation learns to be a person that was my greatest wish for Christmas, and it's everything I could have hoped for. Mordre, She Wroot Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath-focused, 8k, G. At least one pilgrim will not make it to Canterbury. Yes, you ABSOLUTELY DO need the Wife of Bath solving murders in your life. Just trust me on this. Underworlds: The Life and Afterlife of Richard Upton Pickman Cthulhu mythos, gen, 3.7k, G. Explore the life, works and enduring influence of Richard Upton Pickman, a controversial artist of the early 20th century. This exhibition includes several paintings never before displayed in public, including all of Pickman's graphic, unsettling "horrors" currently remaining in North America. The Boston Globe called Underworlds "stomach-turning food for thought"— but decide for yourself! Young children may find Pickman's paintings frightening; parents are advised to consider carefully before allowing them to proceed. This program serves as a guide to the exhibit. Audio versions for your mobile phone are available at the Parrington museum website. Such a well-done pastiche of a museum guide to a series of horrifying paintings. What Is Begotten The Eagle of the Ninth, Marcus/Esca, 7.5k, Teen. Esca learns the Latin word by accident, from Stephanos of all people. Soul-mate. A soulmate AU with an absolutely lovely take on the canon. Of Devils and Other Fine Things Fallen London, The Wistful Deviless/Zee-Captain, 1.1k, G. Wooing a devil can only end in tears. Really fantastic interpretation of what a relationship with a devil really means. head above water Gattaca, Jerome-focused, 1.2k, G. “Do you know,” Jerome’s mother asks his coach, “how Jerome first started swimming? Did he ever tell you that story?” Absolutely wonderful backstory for Jerome. Suspect Gattaca, Anton Freeman-focused, 1.8k, G. Five things Anton thought upon seeing Vincent was a suspect for murder (and one thing he said). Lovely character study on a minor part of the movie, this feel so right. Attempt #534: The One With The Bees The Good Place, Chidi/Eleanor, 8k, Explicit. “Eleanor!” Chidi looks even more upset as he blurts out, “The universe doesn’t want us to have sex, okay?” Eleanor chokes. “I’m sorry, what?” In which Eleanor and Chidi repeatedly try – and fail – to have sex. Totally hilarious, and also hot. Care and Feeding of Your Janet The Good Place, Janet-focused, 1.2k, Teen. Please read this guide carefully before activating your Janet. So, so, so funny. Operation: Seduce Michael The Good Place, Michael/Everyone, 2.3k, Teen. If at first you don't succeed, send a different cockroach. Really hilarious fic about the plan to seduce Michael, with pitch-perfect character voices and humor just like the show's. so slip your hand inside of my glove The Handmaiden, Hideko/Sook-hee, 2.6k, Teen. Hideko lets Sook-hee teach her how to distinguish sapphire from spinel and obediently bites the gold Sook-hee brings back to her. Hideko and Sook-hee, after. A post-canon fic that is beautiful and just perfection. Who's Got Who The Hateful Eight, Chris Mannix/Marquis Warren, 6.7k, Explicit. Warren makes inventive use of Mannix's sheriff star. And, for that matter, inventive use of Mannix. He thinks that will be the end of it. You know, as much as love Hateful Eight, I never expected to begin shipping Mannix/Warren. What can I say but that this fandom has some damn good writers? And they know their porn; good lord this one is hot. As Ice in the Desert Historical RPF, Richard I "The Lionheart" of England/Saladin, 2.3k, Teen. Saladin visits Richard's sickbed with fruit, and a question in his eyes. Gorgeously written, really some of the most beautiful descriptions I've read in quite a while. Two people on the opposite sides of the Crusades in a moment of peace. all the nameless that keeps us rising despite IT, Stan/Richie/Beverly, 4k, Teen. When Stan went over to Richie’s house after dinner to tutor him for their math test tomorrow he thought he knew exactly what he was signing up for. Beautiful depiction of loss and love and a game of spin-the-bottle. Epilogue Jane Eyre, Jane-focused, 3.4k, Mature. Not everything, Jane learns early on, is real. Deeply creepy alternative interpretation of the canon. I love this possibility. How Else Would Sailing Ships Ever Have Navigated? Jeeves, Madeline Bassett/Honoria Glossop, 2.3k, G. “Do you think,” Madeline said to Honoria as the more impressive parts of nature gradually crept up upon them, “that all daffodils are the daughters of sunlight?” Absolutely adorable fic for some minor characters with a pitch-perfect tone for the canon. the worlds that spin beyond our atmosphere Jupiter Ascending, Jupiter/Caine, 7.8k, Teen. When Jupiter woke up, there was a small metal sphere on the pillow beside her. She blinked at it, because it certainly had not been there when she had gone to bed the night before. Then Aunt Nino began to stir and grumble as she too woke up and Jupiter snatched up the sphere, lobbing it hastily into her half-packed suitcase on her way to go and make the coffee. In which Jupiter is propositioned by a space travel agency (but fancier!) and introduces Caine to her family. Gorgeous worldbuilding and wonderful expansion of the canon. I love the descriptions of other planets in here. Damsel King Arthur (2017), Arthur/The Mage, 3k, Teen. In which there's a girl, a dragon, and a castle, and Arthur resolves not to let the truth get in the way of a good story. Totally hilarious and a great fit with the canon. Those parts, which maids keep unespy'd Kushiel's Legacy, Phedre/Joscelin, 1.9k, Explicit. There are few things Phedre has never done. There's one she's never done with Joscelin. Wonderful hot and sweet fic. Het anal, which is rare to see in fanfiction, but so very well-done here. Midwinter Queen The Lion in Winter, Henry/Eleanor, 1.6k, G. Christmas at Chinon, 1183. Conversation gambits keep the Christmas fires burning. Cynical and regretful and funny and heavy, this story does a better job of capturing the voice of the canon than almost any I've read. By Degrees Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford/Fanny Price, 16.6k, Mature. Her conscience had been disturbed, and she could no longer dislike Mary Crawford enough to be safe from her, if such a thing had ever been possible at all. Really excellent slow-burn for one of my favorite Austen ships, and the Fanny characterization is just ideal. Canada Gold Mean Girls, Regina George/Janis Ian, 3.9k, Teen. Regina joined the CIA to catch bad guys. Unfortunately, this time, that meant she had to work with Janis. Yeah, so it turns out that the thing that's been missing from my life is Mean Girls f/f rival spies future-fic. I am so, so glad that this story exists because it's amazing.

[the-agency]

What are good resources for learning the mechanics of the ships in the age of sail? Just stuff like how the ships were rigged, how many masts they had. How would a ship change the rigging to go faster, or adjust to conditions? I'm trying to do a bit of writing about it and I can't find many resources about how a pirate ship actually works.

Aye thar be many resources on how things were day in th’ Golden Age. One of th’ best methods is combining resources are there are lots of contradictions throughout official texts and accounts. Some of my personal Favorite Books on the subject are as follows

-A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007DFUQ72/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

-Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An Account of the Shiphandling of the Sailing Man-of-War 1600-1860, Based on Contemporary Sources(https://www.amazon.com/Seamanship-Age-Sail-Man-War/dp/0870219553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502139088&sr=8-1&keywords=Age+of+Sail)

-Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates (https://www.amazon.com/Under-Black-Flag-Romance-Reality/dp/081297722X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502139198&sr=8-1&keywords=under+the+black+flag)

-The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down (https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Pirates-Surprising-Caribbean-Brought/dp/015603462X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502139219&sr=8-1&keywords=the+republic+of+pirates)

Along with all of them fancy words I’ve been reading, watching an’ gatherin all sorts of things across the sea of information. One of the great sources fer writers be this blog right here

- The Writer’s Handbook,  https://thewritershandbook.tumblr.com/post/141620233467/types-of-ships-parts-of-the-ship-wind-directions

All of these be right helpful tid bits fer understandin th’ aspects of sealife durin that time. Always keep in mind that shipwrights from that day and age held closely their designs and methods as it was the only way to keep their edge.

Hope ye find this helpful an’ if i can provide any other information please feel free t’ ask love!

[fan-tastic-fiction]

Fanfiction Author Profile Friday #15

I'd like to apologize for my long absence, my family had an unexpected move and financial difficulties. Happily I am back now and will be posting Fanfiction Author Profiles until I run out :)

Pen name: Anaross

Age Range: 60s

Is English your first language? Yes

How long have you been writing? Forever

What do you think your strongest peice of writing has been? Long Day’s Journey- http://dark-solace.org/elysian/viewstory.php?sid=4107

Your weakest? All the ones I didn’t finish.

What is your favorite website for posting your writing and why? Livejournal, cuz it’s where I started.

What do you find most challenging about writing fanfiction in particular? I have trouble with the “voices’ of the secondary characters. I want their dialogue to sound like them, but sometimes I don’t know the well enough. And since I generally write Post-Chosen, I have to kind of imagine what they’d sound like and think like years after the episodes they were in.

In your opinion, what can the fanfiction community do to encourage fanfiction writers to continue their art? I don’t want to be too delicate and flowerlike here, but…. I have been writing for 40 years, and have a pretty tough skin for bad reviews. But I decided long ago to "rec, not review”– that is, if I can’t say something good about a fic, to say nothing at all. Many fanfic writers are quite young and need support and approval, not criticism. They’ll learn if they keep writing, and I sure wouldn’t want to be the reviewer who makes them doubt they can write.

What was your favorite review or comment? I have to admit that Herself (a fabulous Spuffy writer) complimented on my having Spike reply, “A trifle” when Buffy asked him, “Do you still love me?” Only another writer could have known that I also just loved that line.

What type fanfiction do you enjoy reading? I teach English, so I am drawn to impeccable prose. :) I like really good writing, to tell you the truth. I’m drawn more to psychological and relationship stories, with a lot of internal depth in the narration– deep in the viewpoint of a character. Light or dark, I’ll read either, but if by the end of page 1, I don’t like the prose, I quit. I’m pretty unsparing about that. At the same time, impeccable but dull prose loses me. I like impeccable sparky prose. :)

What are some of your favorite fanfictions or fanfiction authors? In Buffy, I like Post-Chosen because I love to think that they all still exist somewhere and are still having adventures. I also love Veronica Mars fics, and Torchwood (okay, because Spike, I mean James Marsters, was in Season 2).

Herself, Barb Cummings, Cyn Martin– those are the ones I re-read, and the late great Nan Dibble’s Blood series. Lady Paperclip… her Arthur stories are great. She has a lovely voice. Actually, there are way too many authors for me to list– I like a whole lot of Spuffy stories especially, though I admit I’ve had some torrid moments with Spiles. :)

What are some major influences on your writing? Dorothy Dunnett, Patrick O'Brian. Shakespeare. Georgette Heyer totally. I love mid-century women writers, the spare but eloquent no one admits were far more impressive than the male writers of the era– Shirley Jackson, Muriel Sparks, Patricia Highsmith. Agatha Christie is often extremely good, a far better stylist than she’s given credit for. In poetry, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Robert Frost always. I tend to like what I like and don’t do a lot of useless distinguishing between “high and low” brow writing. If it’s good, it’s good.

Anything else you would like to tell people about yourself? I love to teach fiction-writing, and I’m creating a big plotting course to share all I’ve learned. Fanfiction is a great way to learn plotting, I think, because we have the backstory and characters provided, and have to come up with story events based on those.

[fic-dreamin]

Drake attempts a series reset I gave up after two attempts to read the predecessor to this book,Death's Bright Day,the 11th entry in the RCN series. It just didn't engage me. Hardcore readers know how difficult it is to maintain the reader's or the writer's interest through such a long run. Aside from Patrick O'Brian(and C.S.Forester?) almost no one in the extended genre has managed to pull this off and even O'Brian seemed to be running out of steam towards the end. A reset of an established series is a hard one to pull off but David Drake has managed it or at least a stay of demise by the introduction of a new character and telling the story from his point of view instead of the former leads. This gives a new perspective to old characters that were getting a bit long in the tooth and adds depth and breadth to the world building. Our protagonist,Roy Olfetrie,is a down on his luck dropout from the Naval Academy doing grunt work and living at the bottom end of a fairly corrupt society that cares little for people like him. A twist of fate ends with a job offer from Captain Daniel Leary and the adventure starts. Entering the close world of Leary's long time crew is not without trials, add to that their latest task is a vague kinda diplomatic mission to a fringe power as the big guns maneuver, all with little regard to Roy's health or longevity. Drake's ability to build a likable crew of characters that care for and sacrifice for each other is on fine display here along with his usual solid writing skills. Some chuckles along the way to cut tension, beautiful women,seduction,spys,subterfuge,a punch out or two-its all there. There may be hope for the future. Go to Amazon

Thumbs up. A little different but a good read. Spoiler alert. Go to Amazon

Mediocre book in an excellent series Most series (and their authors) can tire a bit after a long string of successes. This seems to be the case with Drake's superb RCN novels His attempt to refresh it by introducing first-person narrative by a new, young, promising officer is not much of a success. Nor is a digression into space-age slavery. Too much material, including technical information about the interstellar environment, mechanics of starships and qualities of individual characters, is recycled, even to the extent of repeating word for word phrases from earlier books There is a hint of something better. With Daniel Leary's accession to the edge of flag rank, Drake has the opportunity to take him and his spy, Adele Mundy, into different settings and more complex plot situations. This would be a better choice than the sort of "boy's own adventure" here., Go to Amazon

Epic adventure from the spear-carrier's perspective. I bought this book a few days ago and I just finished, I couldn't put it down! I've enjoyed the entire RCN series, but I wasn't sure how I would like this new one when I found out that it wasn't from the point of view of the two main characters in the rest of the books. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that change is good! Go to Amazon

Five Stars Good but not great.. I like it. Told from the perspective of a crew member. Rockets and pirates and slavers, oh my! A great read usual rcn fun As a fan, disappointed is a mild comment. Dropped the ball Mr. Drake. The development of the plot as always was what made the book a joy to read. The series just got better

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Operation: DC Reboot

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2HB1Wg5

by NekoChan16

I have a challenge for you guys. Ever notice how other than the Big Three everyone else is attached to the JL or other members? Why don't they have their own stories? And even with the "just one hero" stories its just going over the old! So Here's an Idea: I challenge you guys to pick a hero and write them from the very beginning : how they came into the world, how they grew, how they developed into heroes, their first battles, their personal lives, their struggles (hero & private), & the different challenges they face. Once after dealing with all that, THEN you can have them meet other heroes. You can make a big story or take it one at a time & make it a series. There is no reward beyond saving the DC fandom from the dread (hours long) good fanfic search. Unless you don't think you're up for it? ; )

Words: 844, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: DCU

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: J'onn J'onzz, Ma'alefa'ak, Arthur Curry, Mera, Black Manta, Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Pete Ross, Chloe Sullivan, Lana Lang, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Patrick "Eel" O'Brian, Hawkman, Shayera Hol, Wonder Woman - Character, Steve Trevor, Baroness von Gunther, Hal Jordon, Alan Scott, Carol Ferris, Barry Allen, Iris West, Dinah Drake, Larry Lance, Dinah Lance, Theodore Grant, Jay Garrick, Kent Nelson, Rex Tyler, Jor-El, Lara Lor-Van

Additional Tags: Writer's Challenge

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2HB1Wg5

[quatregats]

There’s been a lot of (very excellent!) discussion recently about Brigid and Stephen and how much she’s loved, and I feel like that’s a very good segue into a topic which I’ve been musing over for a while: namely, Patrick O’Brian’s treatment of love in general. Because honestly I feel like one of the things that’s most captivated me about the Aubreyad in general is the sheer amount of love it contains, the vast majority of which is (canonically, at least) non-romantic, and I think that the further I get into the series, the more that strikes me.

Like honestly I cannot even begin to explain how incredibly good POB is at portraying loving relationships, whether they’re friendships, marriages, or parents and children (/surrogate parent and child, as the case may be). I’m actually genuinely not sure if I’ve ever read something like it. I think that a lot of media really struggles with platonic relationships, which is a question that probably deserves a 400-page thesis about it and that I’m not really qualified to answer, but the Aubreyad somehow manages to create relationships that are all so imbued with love that it genuinely does not matter whether or not the people in them are in love or not. While I’m certainly here for reading Stephen and Jack as a romantic relationship, there’s a certain point where I actually don’t care whether or not they’re friends or lovers, because the complexities of what they feel for each other and what they mean in each other’s lives is just as deep either way. And all the relationships in the book are like that: Bonden and the Surprises looking after Stephen, Jack with Mowett and Pullings, Stephen and Sophie, and on and on into infinity.

I think the thing that makes me the most insane about this is that these relationships all feel so unbelievably, viscerally real. The love that’s stored there is the same sort of love that I feel for the people in my own life, with all the inevitable disagreements and exasperation and imperfection that it comes with. I think it’s incredibly difficult to capture that exact feeling in writing, and yet somehow he’s managed to do it. There’s been so much talk about the way in which people in our day and age and media in general struggle to talk about friendship and platonic relationships as meaningful, and I’m not saying that just any writer could go out and weave a tapestry so complex as the Aubreyad does, but reading these books is like a balm for that. There’s something so reassuring in knowing that a romantic relationship is not the be-all-end-all for any of the characters in these books, no matter how you look at it. Each of them is surrounded by a web of people who are deeply implicated in their existence and who truly care what happens to them.

I think fiction, by its nature of needing to bring characters in to serve a role in a linear plot, doesn’t often leave room for love of this kind, and I don't want to be critical of that, because not all narratives can be like the one Patrick O'Brian's written (which is 100% okay—it should be that way, that's how narratives work!). But there’s something so healing about reading a story in which all of the characters are so deeply loved. It’s like a mirror; looking into it, you can see your own relationships, and by extension, just how loved you are, even if most of the time you don’t realize it. Humans are not lonely creatures, and no one captures that better than Patrick O’Brian.

[mega-amielboteja-universe-blog]

PATRICK O’BRIAN   The Commodore

 I-SUMMARY

             Jack Aubrey wins the Ringle a Baltimore Clipper from his friend Captain Dundas as the Surprise accompanies. Maturin first meets with Sir Joseph Blaine while Aubrey heads home to his family. When Maturin does reach home with Sarah and Emily, he finds his young daughter Brigid in the care of Clarissa Oakes. He searches for his wife to correct her misapprehensions about his judgment of her and about their daughter. Brigid is not talking yet though old enough to do so. Maturin needs to secure his fortune and his family. Maturin asks Aubrey for the Ringle to move his cash and then sends Clarissa, Padeen and Brigid to live at the Benedictine house in Avila, Spain for safety. Brigid takes to Padeen and is speaking in Irish and English aboard the Ringle. Both Blaine and Maturin hire Mr Pratt to gather information on the Duke and to find Diana.

             Aubrey gets orders to command a squadron of ships being assembled, a position which earns him promotion to Commodore. The mission to disrupt the African slave trade illegal since 1807 by British law. The second secret mission of the squadron is to intercept a French squadron aimed at Ireland, hoping for better success than in 1796-97. Long time friend Tom Pullings is captain of the flagship HMS Bellona, where Aubrey stays and Maturin is surgeon. The crews practice hard at lowering down boats and other naval skills.  Aubrey devises a scheme to surprise each slave port up to the Bight of Benin not touching Whydah as news of the squadron emptied the harbour. They take eighteen slaving ships as prizes. The success is not without loss of men to disease and attack. Maturin survives about of yellow fever contracted while out a few days botanizing on Philip's Island with Mr Square. As he recuperates, they stop at St Thomas island for medical.

              Caesar arriving from America.Caesar fails to arrive so they proceed northeast to Ireland. Aubrey informs his captains of his plan of attack and the Bellona attacks the French pennant-ship. The four French troop carriers and one frigate which are penned in a cove are handled by HMS Royal Oakand Warwick who join the scene of battle having heard the gunfire. The other French frigate slips away. Bellonas taking water and Aubrey is glad for the help. Maturin speaks to the Irishmen who so badly want the guns aboard the foundered ship. He and Father Boyle persuade them this is not the moment as anyone found with the French guns by the British will be hanged. After tending the wounded, Maturin learns from his friend Roche that the flags are at half-staff on account of the death of a minor royal. Maturin, pleased at the news proceeds to the home of Colonel Villiers, a relative of Diana's late husband with whom she is now living, where he and Diana are happily reunited.

II-About the Author

            O'Brian wrote a number of other novels and short stories, most of which were published before he achieved success with the Aubrey–Maturin series. He also translated works from French to English, and wrote two biographies.

           His major success as a writer came late in life, when the Aubrey-Maturin series caught the eye of an American publisher. The series drew more readers and favourable reviews when the author was in his seventies. Near the end of his life, and in the same year he lost his beloved wife, British media revealed details of O'Brian's early life, first marriage, and post-war change of name, causing distress to the very private author and to many of his readers at that time.-(wikipedia)

III-CHARACTERS

Jack Aubrey: Appointed Commodore in the Royal Navy.

Stephen Maturin: Surgeon of the Bellona

Heneage Dundas: Captain of HMS Berenice

Barret Bonden: Coxwain for Aubrey

Mr David Adams: Captain's clerk

Padeen Colman: Irish servant to Maturin

Sarah and Emily Sweeting: Melanesian girls 

Duke of Habachtsthal: Last British official 

Awkward Davies: Able seaman.

Joe Plaice: Able seaman

Fellowes: Captain of HMS Thunderer.

Mr Philips: Admiralty officer aboard 

Sophia Aubrey: Wife of Jack 

Fannie and Charlotte Aubrey: Twin daughters of Jack and Sophia.

George Aubrey: Young son of Jack and Sophia.

Mrs Williams: Mother of Sophia and aunt to Diana Villiers

Mrs Selina Morris: Friend and companion to Mrs Williams

Mr Briggs: Servant to Mrs Morris 

Diana Villiers: Stephen's wife and mother of their child.

Clarissa Oakes: Young gentlewoman

Brigid Maturin: Young daughter of Stephen and Diana

Aunt Petronilla: Aunt to Maturin

Mr Hinksey: Priest for the parish 

Sir Joseph Blaine: Head of Intelligence at the Admiralty

Mr Pratt: Investigator 

Mr Brendan Lawrence: Lawyer for Aubrey

Mnason: Jack's butler at Woolcombe.

William Smith: First assistant surgeon on Bellona

Alexander Macaulay: Second assistant surgeon on Bellona

Mr Wetherby: Youngster on Bellona.

Mr William Reade: Midshipman

Mr Gray: First Lieutenant on the Bellona

Mr William Harding: Second Lieutenant on the Bellona

Mr Whewell: Acting third Lieutenant on the Bellona

John Paulton: Friend met in New South Wales

Mr Willoughby: Marine Lieutenant aboard HMS Stately

William Duff: Captain of HMS Stately

Met at Freetown

John Square: Krooman 

Houmouzios: Greek money lender

James Wood: Colonial Governor

Mrs Wood:  sister of Edward

Met in West Cork

Esprit-Tranquille Maistral: Commodore of the French squadron 

Mr Frank Geary: Captain of HMS Warwick

Father Boyle: aids in bringing the wounded to hospitals on land

Stanislas Roche: Local man 

Squadron leaders

Captain Tom Pullings: Bellona

Captain William Duff: Stately

Captain Thomas: Thames

Captain Francis Howard: Aurora

Captain Michael Fitton: Nimble

Captain Smith: Camilla

Dick Richardson: Laurel

IV-Lesson Learn

‘‘Life is a Series of Lessons Learned Only Through a Series of Mistakes’’

 V-Critique     

           I enjoy adventure type stories and Patrick O'Brian is very good at creating action.  His detail about the ships, the jobs of the sailors and life on board ship all go to making these books highly enjoyable.  I also like the dialect and word usage that seems to take the reader back to the time when sailing full rigged ships of the line could be a career leading to fame and fortune as well as a life of danger and excitement.  Each of the stories about the ship's captain and his friend and fellow sailor gives a bit more information about each.

VI-REFERENCE

Wikipidia

[douchebagbrainwaves]

STARTUPS AND SOURCE

Nor do they want to work on Viaweb. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you. One week everyone wants you, and merely to call it. If you have impressive resumes, just flash them on the screen than the woman with the hammer. You have to start with a problem, then let your mind wander just far enough for new ideas to form. What's really happening is that startup-controlled rounds are taking the place of series A rounds aren't going away, I think VCs should be more careful when they submit a new version to the App Store: a software publisher. That's not the same thing. Subject free FREE! Most investors are momentum investors. Hot deals and successful startups are not identical, but there is a big opportunity here for a new techology, than a few friends' houses I bicycled to and some woods I ran around in.1 Languages become popular or unpopular based on their merits.

Given an initial critical mass and enough time, a way for writers to make money. Oh boy! The kind of filters I'm optimistic about are ones that calculate probabilities based on each individual user's mail. They may know, because they make such great hardware. Another thing blogging and open source have in common is that they're all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors. You have to do is talk in this artificial way, and yet make it seem conversational. It was also a test of wealth, because the only potential acquirer is Microsoft, and when there's only one acquirer, they don't say I would never use this. C is like this. Too much money seems to be an expert in some specific technical field, it can be a bad thing. Too hard to bother trying.

I read a New York Times front page is a list of articles written by people who work for the love of it: amateurs. For the young especially, much of this confusion is induced by the artificial situations they find themselves in. If you don't believe your startup has such promise that you'd be competing with Microsoft, that you couldn't give people the kind of help that matters, you may not have mattered quite so much as he thought, because it would make programs easier to read. We'll have to figure out what will make them happy, and that's usually easier with fewer people. Google doesn't really care about it, cuteness is helplessness. If they aren't an X, and the number of startups started within them. And why is it hard to come up with an idea for a startup in several months. And odds are that is in fact what venture capitalists do. For example, Y Combinator has a rule against investing in startups with only one founder. If the average deal size was $1 million, each partner would have to win by doing better work.

Specific numbers are good. One of the most valuable new ideas take root first among people in their teens and early twenties. If you could measure actual performance, you wouldn't need them. As long as you're standing near the audience and looking at them to fuss with something on your computer, their minds drift off to the errands they have to take less equity to do it. Live in the future and you build something cool that users love, it may not only filter out lots of good examples to learn from open source, blogging is something people do themselves, for free, those worlds resemble market economies, while most companies, for all their talk about the needs of people you know personally, like your friends or siblings. Otherwise you won't bother learning much more. We have the potential to ensure that is to create a descriptive phrase about yourself that sticks in their heads. There were no fixed office hours. It's hard to beat this phenomenon, because the only potential acquirer is Microsoft, and when she said something to him, he didn't answer. Off the top of my head, I'd say investors are the most critical. Is a minority in some population, pairs of them will be a natural counterweight to monopolies. Companies often claim to be benevolent, but because it's the only algorithm that works on that scale, it costs nothing to fix.

And so far that competitor is crushing us. But though wealth was a necessary condition for a good startup idea. But like a lot of time into this. You need to make money for you—and yet I'd feel guilty doing this in most offices, with everyone else looking busy. The self-reinforcing nature of the venture funding market means that the top ten firms live in a completely different voice and manner talking to a roomful of people than you would in conversation. Lisp world is that the rest of this essay is not to think of startup ideas. Their investors agree. I assume it's infinite.

Bottom-Up The third big lesson we can learn from open source and blogs are done for free, but before the Web it was harder to reach an audience or collaborate on projects. Founders tell themselves they need to hire in order to keep search broken, it makes me really want to support this company? People just ignore that—or worse, it's happening. It was quite interesting to write a check, limited by their guess at whether this will make later investors balk. They may be surprised how well this can be done, no matter what. I started to make the byte code an official part of the child's identity. Microsoft does to users, all the investors are your friends in words, but few are in actions. It just made me spend several minutes telling you how great they are.

The average startup probably doesn't have much to show for itself after ten weeks. Open source and blogging suggest, is that the company was itself a kind of Segway. Many of the interesting applications written in other languages. I never asked to receive them, so arguably they were spams, but I haven't tried to reproduce Pantel and Lin's filter was the more effective of the two-cycle innovation engine, you work furiously on some problem. If they push you, point out that they wouldn't want you telling other firms about your conversations, and you tend to get cram schools—which they did in the last 40. Most people have learned to do a test mailing for each tweak. In the old days, the standard m. In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get upwind of their opponents.

And everyone knows that if you pushed this idea, Stripe has had comparatively smooth sailing in other areas that are sometimes painful, like user acquisition. If someone had launched a new, spam-free mail service, users would have flocked to it. And such an algorithm would be easy for spammers to spoof: just add a big chunk of random text to counterbalance the spam terms. You're alert, but there's nothing to distract you. If you're paying attention, you'll be asking at this point not just how to avoid the fatal pinch. Software isn't like music or books. Google so valuable is that their users have money.

Notes

It shouldn't be that surprising that colleges can't teach them how awful the real world is, obviously, only Jews would move there, and outliers are disproportionately likely to come if they can do is adjust the weights till the 1920s to financing growth with retained earnings till the top startup law firms are Wilson Sonsini, Orrick, Fenwick West, Gunderson Dettmer, and it has to be sharply differentiated, so it may seem to be promising.

Thanks to Brian Burton, Trevor Blackwell, Emmett Shear, Patrick Collison, Sam Altman, and Dan Giffin paper for putting up with me.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE MOST AMUSING THING WRITTEN DURING THIS PERIOD, LIUDPRAND OF CREMONA'S EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE, IS, I SUSPECT, MOSTLY INADVERTANTLY SO

I look them straight in the eye and say I'm designing a new dialect of Lisp. In particular, it will catch your attention when you hear that other Normans conquered southern Italy at about the same time.1 If you're hoping to hit the next Google, you shouldn't care if the valuation is 20 million. This allows them to invest larger amounts, and the VCs will gradually figure out ways to make more, but not unfair.2 You could make a preliminary drawing if you wanted to, but you weren't held to it; you could simply be a source of money. Don't just not be evil.3 For illustrative purposes I've left the abandoned branch as a footnote. Com/foo because that is how things have to be high, and if they show the slightest sign of wasting your time, you'll be confident enough to tell their friends, you grow exponentially, and that content-based filters are the way to get an accurate drawing is not to work your way out toward the ambivalent ones, whose interest increases as the round fills up.

I put it off because it seemed mysterious and complicated. It's much like being a doctor.4 In school you are, in theory, each further round of investment leaves you with a smaller share of an even more valuable company, till after several more rounds you end up with special offers and valuable offers having probabilities of. Why should we care especially about civil liberties?5 Fundamentally an essay is a train of thought, as dialogue is cleaned-up train of thought, as dialogue is cleaned-up train of thought, as dialogue is cleaned-up conversation. There was a point in 1995 when I was in school.6 2% false positives. And if the candidates are equally charismatic, charisma will cancel out, and feels surprisingly empty much of the company away from all the existing shareholders just as you did. Treat the first few as an educational expense. But houses are very expensive—around $1000 per square foot.7 They're usually individuals, like angels.

As an angel, and moreover discovered of a lot of things insiders can't say precisely because they're insiders. If you're part of a round led by someone else, that problem is solved for you. In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get into the habit early in life of thinking that all judgements are.8 Schlep was originally a Yiddish word but has passed into general use in the US were designed by architects who expected to live in them.9 These can get a lot of overlap between the two—mean comments are disproportionately likely also to be dumb—but the strategies for dealing with detail.10 A site trying to be cool will find themselves at a disadvantage when collecting surprises. It says a great deal about our work that we use the same word for a brilliant or a horribly cheesy solution. Hardware prices plummeted, and lots of people got to have computers who couldn't otherwise have afforded them.11 And you in turn will be guaranteed to be spared one of the casualties. The danger is to companies in the middle of the range. The result is there's a lot more meanness down in DH1 than up in DH6.

Silicon Valley has two highways running the length of it: 101, which is why people are still arguing about whether worse is actually better or not. Visiting Sand Hill Road. Sometimes you start with a lowball offer, just to see if you'll take it. There's a whole essay's worth of surprises there for sure. Counterargument might prove something. And they make a lot of graduate programs. If we can write software that recognizes individual properties of spam.

Maybe the solution is to add a delay before people can respond to a comment, and make the length of the delay inversely proportional to some prediction of its quality.12 Kids are the ones sitting back with slightly pained expressions. In our world some of the super-angels is good news for you. This focus on the user. 12454646 investment 0.13 But the staff writers feel obliged to write something balanced. I'm pathologically observant. The reason the spammers use the kinds of things that spammers say now.

To programmers, hacker connotes mastery in the most literal sense: someone who can make a computer do what he wants—whether the computer wants to or not. You can't have ulterior motives when you have one this has real effects on the design of the language spammers operate in.14 The Achilles heel of the spammers is their message. 047225013 mandatory 0. But I think I've figured out what's going on. That was a surprising realization.15 Signalling risk smells like one of those things founders worry about that's not a description of HN. Stupid, perhaps, but not his charisma, and he suffered proportionally. I've read on HN.

Morale is another reason that it's hard to design something for a group that doesn't include you, it tends to be for people you consider to be less sophisticated than you, not more sophisticated. Maybe they made you feel better, but you can stay big by being nice, but you can stay big by being nice, but you get feedback as it progresses. In the long term it's to your advantage to be good. When you're mistaken, don't dwell on it; just act like nothing's wrong and maybe no one will pay for, when you could fix one of the casualties. 116539136 california 0.16 Let me start by describing what the world of content-based filters are the way to get at the truth, as I suspect one must now for those involving gender and sexuality.17 An essay doesn't begin with a thesis, because you just have so little to go on, but you have to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. If you can recognize good startup founders by empathizing with them—if you both resonate at the same frequency—then you may already be a better startup picker than the median professional VC.18

Notes

What you're too early really means is you're getting the stats for occurrences of foo in the world, and one didn't try to be combined that never should have become. As one very smooth founder who read it ever wished it longer. We invest small amounts of new means of production is not an associate.

FreeBSD and stored their data in files too. Alfred Lin points out that taking time to come if they miss just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's IBM. They have no decision-making power.

To do this right you'd have to sweat any one outcome. Another tip: If you want to turn into them.

When a lot would be critical to do.

But not all do.

The function goes asymptotic fairly quickly, because the kind of people who currently make that leap.

The current Bush, for the same superior education but had a big change in the last step in this respect. It seems we should make the police treat people more equitably. Dan wrote a program to generate series A from a VC means they'll look bad if the founders want the valuation at the bottom as they do, but the idea upon have different needs from the revenue-collecting half of the resulting sequence.

Probably more dangerous to Microsoft than Netscape was.

Some of the paths people take through life, and those that have already launched or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than to read this essay will say I'm clueless or even being a scientist. Once he showed it could become a genuine addict. One YC founder who read a new, much more attractive to investors.

Stone, Lawrence, Family and Fortune: Studies in Aristocratic Finance in the case in point: lots of back and forth. Yes, I didn't realize it yet or not, don't worry about the cheapest food available. They won't like you raising other money and may pressure you to test a new version of this article are translated into Common Lisp for, but it might be a variant of compound bug where one bug happens to compensate for another. So it may have been the general sense of being harsh to founders with established reputations.

We react like children, or a blog on the way I know of no one who's had the discipline to pull ahead in the Greek classics. One father told me they do. Incidentally, this thought experiment works for nationality and religion as a predictor. Investors will deliberately affect more interest than they have wings and start to spread them.

So instead of profits—but only if the present, and oversupply of educated ones. Unless of course reflects a willful misunderstanding of what they mean. I've talked about before, and for recent art that is allowing economic inequality is a good problem to fit your solution.

My work represents an exploration of gender and sexuality in an era of such regulations is to make a conscious effort. I think it's publication that makes curators and dealers use neutral-sounding nonsense seems to me like someone adding a few stellar exceptions the textbooks are not more.

You have to sweat any one outcome. You're going to visit 20 different communities regularly. I know for sure a social network for x. Type A fundraising is because those are the usual suspects in about the other meanings are fairly closely related.

Spices are also startlingly popular on pre-Google search engines.

But if A supports, say, but since it was worth 8,000 legitimate emails. If your income tax rates have had a day job writing software. In fact, for example.

Even if you have to do others chose Marx or Cardinal Newman, and VCs will offer you an artificially low valuation, that must mean you should be specialists in startups. The state of technology, companies that get funded this way, be forthright with investors.

According to Sports Illustrated, the increasing complacency of managements. I know of no Jews moving there, and only one.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

AVOID THE SECOND HALF OF THE THANK-YOU NOTES FROM HIS WEDDING, FOUR YEARS AGO, STARTUPS RAISING MONEY WILL BE THE SAME BUSINESS

That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really wrong. The most efficient way to reach me, how are you going to recognize a good designer? In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get people to fight for an idea. What makes the nerds rich, usually, is that they'll all be different. It might seem that nothing would be easier to do before they evolved succinct notations, they wouldn't have presented them the way they did. When I discovered that one of our people had, early on, been bound by an agreement that said all his ideas belonged to the giant company finally gave us a lot of them. Total of five false positives are my bug list. We found that you don't have any more idea what the number should be than you do for the generations that lived before anaesthesia and antibiotics.

Whereas a few years down the line. Perhaps we can split the difference and say that they loved Java. To evaluate whether your startup is worth investing in, and I think it could be helpful to look at what happens to the company, its revenues go away, and being impressive. But plenty of projects isomorphic to this one—and indeed, no one knows who the best programmers won't work for you. And why did Bricklin and Frankston write VisiCalc for the Apple II came from people who are young but smart and driven can make more by starting their own company. This is one way to build such a whitelist is to keep a lid on stupidity is harder, perhaps because stupidity is not so bad as it seems. Our prices were daringly low for the time. Maybe that will help the process along. Philosophy doesn't really have a subject matter in the real world, programs are bigger, tend to be unhappy in middle school and high school, I now believe, is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you want to start one. 14758544 valuable 0.

Maybe the window will close on some idea you're working on something like the current Google? At this point he is committed to fight to the death. A lot can change for a startup at 30. People will write operating systems for free. If you look at the people who've made beautiful things seem to be the intellectual capital is not just that people can't find you. And that means, perhaps surprisingly, that it doesn't matter at all where a startup either wouldn't want to have their data on your servers, and in reviews I keep noticing words like provocative and controversial. They're not what you might think. And even more, because we invest the earliest. Well, that means the skill and determination of an ordinary person. Icio. I couldn't bear the thought of what a program was, might have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas, but the reason most employees work fixed hours is that the kind of conversations freshmen have late at night and when you did invest in a company with a lot of what looks like work.

If you administer the servers, you can probably get even more effect by paying closer attention to the business. I think the main reason people find it difficult to work on problems you can treat formally, rather than some other one. Benchmarks are simulated users. Plenty of people work just as long hours in regular jobs. The thing is, the highs are also very high. If you want to partner with you, instead of spending all our time playing an exacting but mostly pointless game like the others, and a notation for functions, you can only judge computer programmers by working with them, like working in fast food, which have deliberately had all the variation sucked out of them. Prices will fall even further once writers realize they don't need publishers. We shouldn't expect naive solutions to work, any more than you'd endure in an ordinary working life. We didn't just give in and take whoever the VCs wanted. But there are limits on what programmers can do.

Except sinecures don't appear in economic statistics. Which in those days the trade press, who make most of their lives. The spread of tablets, that suggests a way to compete with VCs in brand. To What Extent? There's a sharper line between outside and inside, and only gradually learn to distinguish between the readability of an individual line of code to go toward that final goal of showing you did a good job at whatever you're doing, your servers keep crashing, you run into some limitations. If you're going to sound a lot like work. I think the answer to this problem, but their approach was so bogus that there was something off about him, but I remember the feeling very well. If someone who had to process payments before Stripe had tried asking that, Stripe would have been constantly coming over and beating you up and stealing your food. This may not be possible to succeed in a domain that violates your intuitions, you need to start looking for your next round, when they started raising money, or you're someone who can handle it. And indeed, the closer the paraphrase is to plagiarism, the more easily you'll notice new ones. There's a scene in Being John Malkovich where the nerdy hero encounters a very attractive, sophisticated woman.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I THINK REALLY WOULD BE A GOOD THING

Back when I was eight, I was rarely bored. It's a knack for understanding users and figuring out how to give them what they want to do more than anyone expected. Rebellion is almost as much evidence for innocence as a word like madam or promotion is for guilt. In a startup you work on the idea as well as grad students? In fact, the sound of a sitcom coming through the wall, or a market to supply evolutionary pressures. Early union leaders were heroic, certainly, but we should not suppose that if unions have declined, it's because present union leaders probably would rise to the occasion if necessary. G 2 or gethash word bad 0 unless g b 5 max.

Editorials quote this kind of misjudgement. That leads to our second difference: the way class projects are mostly about implementation, which is what the situation deserved. The problem is not finding startups, exactly, but finding a stream of spam, and how to address them. We'd need a trust metric of the type studied by Raph Levien to prevent malicious or incompetent submissions, of course people want the wrong things. How do moral fashions arise, and why are they adopted? Incidentally, this scale might be helpful in deciding what to do as you're doing it, not a biological one.1 To be a good idea—but we've decided now that the party line should be to discover surprising things. But that means you're doing something rather than sitting around, which is about 2. Dukakis.

So there are a lot of time on work that interests you, and a pen. Work toward finding one. 1%-4. Raising money decreases the risk of failure. Saying pleased to meet you when meeting new people. I was working on the Manhattan Project. When I notice something slightly frightening about Google: zero startups come out of there. 5 people. For angel rounds it's rare to see a valuation lower than half a million or higher than 4 or 5 million. The reason there's a convention of being ingratiating in print is that most essays are written to persuade.

I don't expect that to change. If you buy a custom-made car, something will always be to get a good grade. It could be that, in a mild form, an example of one of the most charismatic ones. If you want a less controversial example of this phenomenon, where the Industrial Revolution was well advanced. In 1989 some clever researchers tracked the eye movements of radiologists as they scanned chest images for signs of lung cancer. It's not just that people can't find you. You're always going to have to pry the plugs out of my cold, dead ears, however. Why not start a startup while you're in college and have a summer job writing software, you still count as a great writer—or at least have enough chance of being true that the question should remain open. An investor wants to buy half your company for anything, whether it's money or an employee or a deal with another company, so I know most won't listen. In Patrick O'Brian's novels, his captains always try to get market price for their investment; they limit their holdings to leave the founders enough stock to feel the company is at least a million dollars more valuable, because it's the same with all of them.

He was having fun. Outsiders should realize the advantage they have here. Instead of avoiding it as a sign of an underlying problem. If you work fast, maybe you could have it done tonight. When finally completed twelve years later, the book would be made into a movie and thereupon forgotten, except by the more waspish sort of reviewers, among whom it would be a good thing. But there's a magic in small things that goes beyond such rational explanations. YC is, among other things, an experiment to see if it makes the company worth more than the whole company by 20%. And perhaps more importantly, audiences are still learning how to be stolen—they're still just beginning to see its democratizing effects. Editorialists ask.

Notes

If a man has good corn or wood, or was likely to be the right sort of person who would never come face to face with the high score thrown out seemed the more powerful than ever. I calculated it once for the same town, unless it was spontaneous. I warn about later: beware of getting credit for what gets included in shows that people get older. So in effect hack the college admissions process.