Grand unified books thread

[Eddie Teach]

If I ever write a book

'Best Basements in Missouri'

It would be one of those big Coffee Table books.

Pshaw, he's going to write an alt history book like his idol Newt.

[The Brain]

If I ever write a book

'Best Basements in Missouri'

It would be one of those big Coffee Table books.

Pshaw, he's going to write an alt history book like his idol Newt.

They mostly come in the daytime. Mostly.

[Razgovory]

If I ever write a book

'Best Basements in Missouri'

It would be one of those big Coffee Table books.

Hey, lots of good authors were recluses.

[Razgovory]

You should use the photo that comes with the frame, Raz.  That'll throw them.

I already do that.

"Aww is that your son?"

"No, he came with the wallet.  Still I'm proud of the little tyke".

[Savonarola]

The Erra Epic

Erra, the Babylonian god of mayhem, war and pestilence is feeling lazy, but his weapons tell him to go kill people, and so he does in this wonderfully psychopathic epic. Erra tricks Marduk into leaving Babylon and then starts killing people.  Barbarians invade, and he kills them too.  He makes plans to kill everybody god and man, but when his compatriot, Ishum (god of fire) defeats Babylons enemies Erra seems to give up on this goal; (or maybe not, I'm led to believe there are still some conflicts today in Babylon...)  The poem ends with Erra explaining its in his nature to kill and he is all powerful.

The Sumerian epic Gilgamesh obsesses on death being the fate of man; and ultimately only civilization (as the city) lasts.  Gilgamesh was a Babylonian favorite as well, but they seem to have accepted that not even their empire was permanent and that too would be destroyed. 

[Savonarola]

The Song of Songs

What struck me on this reading is how the poems are set up as a performance; similar to Greek theater with two speakers and a chorus.  The poems don't seem related to one another (other than their common theme of erotic love); but they all have the same sort of set-up.  If it was intended as a single work perhaps the individual parts were intended as vignettes; or maybe it's more akin to a concert with a series of individual pieces.

[Savonarola]

The Penguin Modern Classics Library has released a new edition of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory":



More disturbingly they've changed the opening lines to:

Veruca Salt, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Ve-ru-ca: the shape of the lips ever growing until the tongue taps at three, on the throat. Ve. Ru. Ca

[CountDeMoney]

Still not as creepy as Lewis Carroll.  Close, but not quite.

[Eddie Teach]

 


That reminds me of this song I heard recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET1MhXiUDVg

[The Minsky Moment]

Gilgamesh was a Babylonian favorite as well, but they seem to have accepted that not even their empire was permanent and that too would be destroyed.

There were multiple Babylonian dynasties, power often shifted from city to city, and there were long interregnums of foreign rule, so Babylonians would have been very conscious of the impermanence of political rule.  The Babylonians were also very historically conscious - they preserved Sumerian as a literary prestige language for centuries (even though it is from an alien language family) and used ancient Akkadian for their own literary tradition into the Hellenistic period.  Nabonidus - the last of the neo-Babylonian rulers - was a dedicated antiquarian who restored temple complexes that dated back to the Old Babylonian era (more than 1000 years earlier).

[Syt]

I'm reading Crowley's City of Fortune. He's the same dude who wrote the excellent Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World.

Enjoying it quite a bit. The first part is about the clusterfuck known as "Fourth Crusade."

[Gups]

Reading Augusts by John Williams. A couple of years ago Williams was completely unknown this side of teh pond. "Stoner" was republished and became a massive hit - I thought it was excellent. Judging by the first third, Augustus is even better althought entirely different.

Augustus's life is told through letters, proclamations etc of various protagnists (Agrippa, Cicero, etc). It's really wonderfully written.

That cover for Charlie and teh Choc Factory is exceptionally weird. I don't get how it is meant to represent the book.

[The Brain]

[Tim]Guns of Augustus? [/Tim]

[crazy canuck]

I'm reading Crowley's City of Fortune. He's the same dude who wrote the excellent Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World.

Enjoying it quite a bit. The first part is about the clusterfuck known as "Fourth Crusade."

Yep, a very enjoyable read.

[crazy canuck]

After a breack I have now finished book 6 and I have launched into book 7 of the Master and Commander series. 

I am impressed with the consistently good writing.