Grand unified books thread

[Threviel]

Though I expect Threviel to tell me why I'm wrong shortly.

Hey, I normally talk out of my ass and you very often correct me (in a good way) on things Tolkien.

[grumbler]

Though I expect Threviel to tell me why I'm wrong shortly.

Hey, I normally talk out of my ass and you very often correct me (in a good way) on things Tolkien.

I think that you will find, upon reflection, that your initial comment was pretty passive-aggressive.  There was no reason to mention me at all.

[Jacob]

I find it's usually safest not to mention grumbler at all.

[HVC]

For what it's worth I read it as self deprecating  based on the last Tolkien/LOTR discussion

[grumbler]

For what it's worth I read it as self deprecating  based on the last Tolkien/LOTR discussion

Could very well be, but something along the line of "maybe x person knows more" is less passive-aggressive than "I expect X person to correct me."

[grumbler]

I find it's usually safest not to mention grumbler at all.

Safest not to mention me like that, for sure.  Or, for that matter, to mention me like you do here.

I understand the whole "beware Berkut/grumbler" thing is a bit of a tradition, but I'm not sure why making people feel unwelcome on a dying forum is seen as wise or even fair dinkum.

It's especially ironic coming from you, given that the whole reason I left Paradox and encouraged everyone to come here was because I protested your tempban there.

[Threviel]

Though I expect Threviel to tell me why I'm wrong shortly.

Hey, I normally talk out of my ass and you very often correct me (in a good way) on things Tolkien.

I think that you will find, upon reflection, that your initial comment was pretty passive-aggressive.  There was no reason to mention me at all.

My bad, sorry about that, it was not meant to be negative in any way. Mea culpa.

[grumbler]

My bad, sorry about that, it was not meant to be negative in any way. Mea culpa.

I appreciate that.

[Savonarola]

Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution

I'm not really sure what to think about this; it is a breathtaking work filled with fascinating character studies (most notable Lafayette, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and Robespierre.)  On the other hand it's certainly not a typical history (for one thing it's written in the present tense, for another it abandons any pretense of a neutral tone^1.)) and it's often difficult to follow the events in the narrative.  It's not dull; it's sort of like watching the guillotine sitting between Madame Defarge and some guy who won't stop making allusions to Shakespeare and the Bible.

The phrase "Whiff of grapeshot" comes from the work (or is, at very least, a translation by Carlyle.)  Dickens used the description of the crowds as inspiration in "Tale of Two Cities.)

1.)  Arguably Carlyle hates royalists and every faction or republicanism more or less equally; so, from that standpoint, it is balanced, if not neutral.

[Sheilbh]

I think from a British perspectve it's tough to think of a history (amplified by Dickens) that's had a longer, harder hold on the popular imagination of history - though maybe Lions led by Donkeys + Blackadder Goes Forth will dislodge it.

The guys on the Rest is History have mentioned a couple of times that as part of the bicentenary celebration of the revolution Mitterrand asked world leaders for their thoughts/contribution. Most dutifully replied with some pablum about universal human rights and this epochal moment of the Enlightenment - but not Thatcher. She actually got on very well with Mitterrand but her reply was basically straight out of Carlyle/Dickens - what a disaster, all those beheadings, guillotines and the Terror everywhere

[Savonarola]

I finished Henry Miller's "Tropic of Run on Sentences Capricorn."  I had found that in a used book store several years ago and hadn't gotten around to reading it until now.  I've never read "Tropic of Cancer," but this is supposed to be a prequel covering Miller's (semi-autobiographical) life before he went to Paris.  More of a character sketch than a story, but cleverly done.  Miller begins with finding a job at Western Union (called the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company in the book) and tells a rambling, stream of consciousness story filled with reminisces ends up at the point where he's looking for the job which he will eventually find at Western Union.

The novel was a succès de scandale; and the many descriptions of sex were probably genuinely shocking in 1939.  Today Miller tends to come across as a 12 year old boy who has just completed the sex ed unit in physical education; especially when he starts to going on about midget lesbians or the land of fuck.  I still think it's worth reading for Miller's voice.

[mongers]

A book I used to buy for 15-20 quid when I was an undergraduate has gotten a litle more expensive:

IISS Miltary Balance 2023

And not a distorted amazon marketplace price as it's only 50 less from the publishers if they've got it in stock.

[grumbler]

A book I used to buy for 15-20 quid when I was an undergraduate has gotten a litle more expensive:

IISS Miltary Balance 2023

And not a distorted amazon marketplace price as it's only 50 less from the publishers if they've got it in stock.

You can get away with that when your customers are only institutions.

[Gups]

I finished Henry Miller's "Tropic of Run on Sentences Capricorn."  I had found that in a used book store several years ago and hadn't gotten around to reading it until now.  I've never read "Tropic of Cancer," but this is supposed to be a prequel covering Miller's (semi-autobiographical) life before he went to Paris.  More of a character sketch than a story, but cleverly done.  Miller begins with finding a job at Western Union (called the Cosmodemonic Telegraph Company in the book) and tells a rambling, stream of consciousness story filled with reminisces ends up at the point where he's looking for the job which he will eventually find at Western Union.

The novel was a succès de scandale; and the many descriptions of sex were probably genuinely shocking in 1939.  Today Miller tends to come across as a 12 year old boy who has just completed the sex ed unit in physical education; especially when he starts to going on about midget lesbians or the land of fuck.  I still think it's worth reading for Miller's voice.

If you've not already read it, you might be interested in George Orwell's views on Miller's style (based around Tropic of Cancer)

https://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/english/e_itw

[Savonarola]

Thanks Gups, that was interesting

I reread James Joyce's "Dubliners."  I remember when I was in 7th grade (12 years old) we had "Araby" in our reader, and I didn't understand why the narrator feels shame and humiliation at the end.  I think that the editors of the book wanted to expose us to Joyce and hoped that we'd connect to the child narrator.  The other two stories with child narrators (The Sisters and An Encounter) deal with a priest who dies of complications due to a venereal disease and an old man who masturbates in front of two young boys - so Araby was probably about the best hope at that age; but I simply didn't have enough life experience to understand it at the time.

When I was a Junior in high school (16 years old) our reader had "Counterparts" which I could tell was by the same author even though I didn't know anything about Joyce.

I didn't catch it the first time I read it, but "A Little Cloud" is an ideal story for the age of social media.  The protagonist dreams of a better life rather than his banal middle class Dublin existence and feels much worse after a meeting with a friend who is a successful newspaperman in London; except it's obvious to the reader that his friend is full of shit.

"The Dead" is the best story in the book, and, in my opinion, one of the greatest short stories ever written.  It struck me this time that it's also the least Joycean story; it barely touches on his usual theme of Irish identity and instead focuses on death, memory and acceptance.