Today, I finally got around to factchecking /u/Quouar's jokes.

Echowhisker · 2日前

Just because a concept is very simple does not mean it is true. The distinction you're drawing is perfectly logical, and would work fine if society in general thought in that way - however, any amount of observation will make it clear that people in the real world do treat statements of intent as promises, and as there is no objective concept of promise other than how society uses the concept, it's pretty clear that statements of intent are promises.

Jurispearitus · 5日前

Something that needs to be clarified: is this thread talking about tonality (referring to any system of harmony that emphasizes consonant intervals, as most do), or is it talking about tonality (referring specifically to the system that popped up in post-1600 Western Europe, which condensed the modes into major/minor keys and emphasizes dominant-tonic relationships)? Because these are two very different conversations, but they usually get conflated when this discussion pops up.

CheesecakeBanana · 5日前

Schnittke's second string quartet is exactly what you're looking for. Especially the second movement (which starts a few minutes into the linked video).

Mirior · 13日前

I continued my Ali Smith kick with There But For The, which, coming between the wonders that are The Accidental and How to Be Both in her novel output, was a bit disappointing (but only a bit). It's clearly an in-between book - it takes the stylistic simplification of How to Be Both and the satire on mid/upper-class English conservatism from The Accidental, and is completely successful in both aspects, but those were the less interesting features of those two books, and There But For The doesn't really have a special twist that pushes it over the top (like reordering of sections, or impromptu sonnet sequences).

That said, this is still a very good book. There's a dinner party scene, about a third of the way in, that I can't imagine ever being topped in the way it captures my worst nightmares about a "nice" dinner party full of "artistic" and "political" discussions. Smith sets up this view of the English middle class that entirely deserves grimacing air-quotes as the core of the novel, then spins a very interesting set of stories (four, semi-loosely connected) around the consequences of and backlash against the dinner party's viewpoints, fervently arguing that the slice of society being satirized is not all that English society is. I don't want to say more - even though this isn't the sort of book where the plot drives things forward and foreknowledge would ruin the effect, I'm always cautious about taking away from the joy of discovery. To sum up: this is probably the worst of the (now four) Ali Smith books that I've read, but it's still a really good book and I absolutely recommend that you read it.

Mirior · 27日前

There But For The is the next Smith novel on my reading list, and I agree - I'm a lot more forgiving of missteps when an author feels like they're breaking new ground. At its best, The Narrow Road to the Deep North still felt like it was retreading well-worn themes in a comfortable style (it probably doesn't help that I've been reading a lot of war novels lately), just doing so really well, so the parts that didn't work overshadowed the successful parts in my mind.

Mirior · 27日前

I have not read Basho's book, but Japanese poetry is a fairly significant thread running through the novel (each of the 5 major sections starts with a haiku, and there are numerous quotations and references within the text), and I thought it was pretty well-handled (although I know very little about Japanese poetry). The juxtaposition of the doctor protagonist quoting Tennyson and the cruel camp commander quoting haiku with similar reverence was a nice touch.

Mirior · 27日前

I've been making my way through the novels of Ali Smith, and I jumped ahead to the book that put her on my radar - last year's How to be Both. Booker shortlisted, widely discussed, it's the one with two sections that can be read in either order, with half of the printed copies starting with one section and half starting with the other. It's really, really good, the best of Smith's books that I've read, a bit less experimental in the prose (other than the structure and the semi-poetic passages that bookend one of the sections, it's pretty tame by Smith's standards), but emotionally powerful, tonally perfect, and philosophically interesting. It's a book about art, and it's ability to outlast its creator, and a book about grief, and how it keeps the dead alive in memory, and a book about dichotomies, and how they can be transcended, all layered on top of each other and bouncing off of each other. The structural gimmick absolutely worked, making me leading me to think about the book's construction in a way I hadn't thought before - going through the second section positing how the book would read if my copy had been in the other order (I think the order I had would be the more effective one, but I've noticed across the reviews I've read that everyone thinks the order they read it in would be the more effective one). At this point, I feel comfortable calling Ali Smith one of my favorite writers, and How to be Both one of my favorite books.

But How to be Both came in a narrow second (according to one of the judges) in last year's Booker, so I next picked up the book that beat it out, Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North. My first thought - serious disappointment. It's a war novel, about Australian POWs forced to build a railroad in Burma, and the only thing I could think about the opening was painfully conventional. Flanagan takes his time getting to his protagonist's actual war experience, spending most of the first half of the book dwelling on an infidelity story (will he choose his safe and conventional fiancee or the exciting and thrilling new woman? like Edith Wharton, but worse) that isn't really connected to the rest of the book in any meaningful way. But then near the halfway point we get to the actual wartime experience, and things get much better - it's a war book, much like all the other war books, but expanding to a wide cast of characters does wonders (Dorrigan Evans just isn't well-written enough to sustain the novel himself), and Flanagan makes the interesting choice to include the perspective of the Japanese officers running the camp in his storytelling, both during and after the war - their characterization and motivations don't entirely ring true, but it's more effort than the other side usually gets in a war novel, especially one that dwells on man's inhumanity to man as a central theme (like Cormac McCarthy, but worse). Then the war ends (or rather Flanagan stops focusing on it, the chronology of the book is fairly fractured), we get some of the best writing when looking at these characters' immediate transition or failure to transition back to civilian life, and then it becomes painfully clear that Flanagan had no idea how to end this book (sudden surprise revelations that pop up and disappear, an aborted return to the infidelity plot to remind me that it exists even though I still don't care, a dramatic fire scene that's laughably incongruous with everything else), and most of the goodwill that the middle section built up for me dissipates. I'd still say it's worth reading, just because when the book works it's very good, but only if you're okay with pushing through vast swaths that don't work at all.

And I definitely think The Narrow Road to the Deep North should not have won last year's Booker, even having read only one other book on the shortlist to compare it to. It's the conservative choice, a much more traditional book than Ali Smith's formal rethinking of the novel, but it's not at all a book I would point to argue that conventional writing is effective writing, and even if How to be Both was too out there to win the prize (which I don't think it is), I'm confident that there's something else on the shortlist more deserving.

Draewa · 28日前

Are you from the UK? I noticed when I lived there that that quite is used to imply "a little bit" or "not really", whereas in the US quite is used to imply "very" or "totally."

SuperBreakfast · 1ヶ月前

Vierne was on the second page - definitely worth calling out in the comments, though!

Mirior · 1ヶ月前

An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke, is a strange little book. A novel in the form of a memoir about family, that takes a long unfriendly look at the industry of memoirs, but with a very wide net that also catches the biographical fervor around the big names, the Harry Potter fandom, and all sorts of literary cultural touchstones. The general tone is humorous, with a few stabs at hearttouching that don't work very well, and all of this is wrapped inside a plot selfconsciously cribbed from detective novels. I'm sure none of this description is making any sense, which feels appropriate because whenever you think you know what Clarke is trying to do with this book, he slips away from you. It's a fairly quick and smooth read, not really something I'd recommend to anything except a request for quirkiness, but not something that I had to push through either. Just sort of strange.

saobentosaobento · 1ヶ月前

Best story I have here is showing up late to boardgames night and grouping with two other latecomers - Bob, who is a regular but definitely the worst person in the group at learning and remembering rules (but great fun to game with), and his friend, who is here for the first time and has never gamed before. Bob looks at the games I've brought and picks out Bruxelles 1893, easily the heaviest game I brought, because he hasn't seen me bring before...

...which is because I just got it, and had only ever played a 2-player game with my wife the day before. But I was hoping to play it tonight, and I don't want to say "I don't think you can learn this," because there's no non-condescending way to do that, so I take a deep breath and start to teach...

...and it goes beautifully. I'm able to hold both of their attention through all the little rule details that don't summarize well, I'm able to answer questions during the game without the flow of play slowing down, and we get from start of the explanation to the end of the game in 90 minutes, which previously I would have thought to be a good time for the game alone with experienced players. For extra bonus, Bob wins, loves the game, and remembers the rules solidly when he requests it in future weeks. Bob's friend also enjoys the game. Everything is golden.

toristr · 1ヶ月前

My wife and I play something most days. Innovation and Twilight Struggle are probably our two most played games as a couple. We just got Mage Knight, which is looking like it'll also join our regular rotation. Some other games we play that work well two-player include Village, 7 Wonders, and Forbidden Island.

Mirior · 1ヶ月前

My only book this post is The Lay of the Land, the third book in Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe series. It took me a long time to get through this book, partly because of being busy with other things, partly because it's a long book, mostly because it was largely disappointing. The book preserves the lethargic pace and bloat of details that were the only things detracting from its predecessor, Independence Day, but doesn't recapture the same thematic unity or compelling plot structure (despite several overly overt attempts to do so); Ford seemingly couldn't decide whether he wanted to write another close look at family, or an assessment of the American political and social landscape, or (what I wish he had focused more on) a direct meditation on impending death, as the opening promised. All of these are interesting ideas, and indeed they are ideas that could be woven together in interesting ways, but they felt persistently separated, with too much uninteresting and unconnected minutia surrounding them. Possibly I'm just getting fatigued of Ford's style, but even to a staunch fan of the first two books, I couldn't recommend this one.

che899 · 1ヶ月前

Further clarification on 2: The headline round is in addition to the 6 or 7 action rounds in a turn, which is where the extra card goes. Also, you draw up to 9 cards in the beginning of the turn in turns 4 to 10, so that you always theoretically have enough for headline, action rounds, and holding one. The 8th action round space is for rare circumstances that let someone take 8 actions in a round (getting to the end of the space race track and a single late-war card, if I remember correctly), but most games it doesn't come up.

Quouar · 2ヶ月前

Hey now - later in the same episode, the show establishes that freak ahistorical snowstorms are a thing in the Buffyverse, especially around Christmas and Angel. I see no reason to assume that it was a onetime event.

Mirior · 2ヶ月前

Because much more could have been done (and had been done in past famines, and would be done in future famines); the actions of the USSR come across to me more as PR gestures than honest attempts to help, considering how much effort was put into preventing any other actors from providing assistance. But I do acknowledge that I haven't seen enough evidence to conclusively know Stalin's motivations.

Mirior · 2ヶ月前

I'm not an AH expert, but I do know of several facts which are being left out of the above narrative, and which I think are important to mention.

We have Stalin's signature on hundreds of execution lists ordering the death of over 40,000 people, and records of him berating Yezhov for being too slow to utilize torture. Whatever Yezhov's ultimate goal (the secret anti-Stalinist plan to discredit Stalin by rounding up and shooting the anti-Stalinists doesn't sound very plausible to me, but there weren't any sources provided, so I can't say for certain that it's wrong), Stalin was well aware and supportive of what was going on.
I don't know enough about the 1933 famine to talk about what role collectivization played relative to the drought and other factors, but I do know that the characterization of the Holodomor is misleading. It's true that the Soviet leadership did reduce the export of grain from the Ukraine; it's also true that they continued to confiscate and export enough grain to feed 5 million people for a year out of the area where people were eating each other because there was nothing else left. It's true that there was aid sent to Ukraine; it's also true that the Holodomor was the only Soviet famine where, rather than actively seeking international aid for the afflicted, the Soviet leadership tried to conceal the famine from anyone outside of Ukraine, and rejected what offers of international aid they did receive. I don't have the knowledge to cast judgment on collectivization in general, but the Holodomor was either an intentional act of genocide, or an incredible spree of mismanagement. Either way, more people died in Ukraine alone during the 1933 famine than in the entire Soviet Union during any other famine, which cannot and should not be wholly attributed to collectivization but does make me doubtful of the claim that collectivization was a tremendous accomplishment.

carnodingo · 2ヶ月前

The base game won't, as far as I know; some of the expansions will, especially the later ones.

ajvenigalla · 2ヶ月前

But yet strangely optimistic, because the one thing that we know for certain about the Judge is that he lies.

Mirior · 2ヶ月前

After reading The Sportswriter before the last thread, I went through the sequel, Richard Ford's Independence Day, and it was exactly what I was hoping the second book would be. It fixes a lot of the problems I ran into in the first book; Frank is more aware of his own culpability in the failed relationships of his life, less confident that he knows what he is doing, but still trying to explain where he is as best he can. The undercurrents of racism is pulled a bit closer to the light, making it clear that they are something Ford is consciously commenting on rather than unconsciously forwarding, and there's a clearer thematic focus (on violence in the American way of life) that also serves to make the plot feel tighter, as it gives events a sense of building up to something. On the other hand, the book is substantially longer than its predecessor, and it feels it; the pacing always feels like it's going somewhere, but going so so slowly. Stylistically, not much has changed; if you hated The Sportswriter, you won't like this. If you loved it, or like me were on the fence, the second book won't be disappointing. I started the third book today, and will hopefully be able to talk about it in two weeks.

My other reading from these two weeks has involved lots of new to me and really good authors. George Saunder's debut collection, Civilwarland in Bad Decline, lived up to the really high expectations his recent spate of prizes set. It's not a perfect book, or even a great one, but it's a very enjoyable read that sets a high bar and promises even better things to come. Five stories and a novella, all linked by the same hypercapitalistic dystopian setting; the setting was well-drawn, but turned out to be not as interesting as it first promised, Saunders went for easy cynicism about projecting of America's trends whenever he could, rather than really thinking through a plausible future. However, each story shows off an utter mastery of voice, each narrator a fascinating person to listen to as they go through very interesting and well-paced individual plots. The world and supporting characters seem a bit grey when set against the narrators and their thoughts, but there's a lot here worth reading.

Claudia Rankine has been satisfying my poetry whims, as I read two of her books, The End of the Alphabet, and Plot. Both books have a similar feel, a poet musing on pregnancy (and relating it to writing) while engaging on a complicated representation of her emotional state through a fractured collage of words. Plot is the better work, with a clear structure mirroring the nine months of pregnancy connecting its variety of ideas and voices; in many ways, it feels like a reworking/improvement on the earlier book.

Another fantastic writer I've discovered is Ali Smith; over the last week, I've read Hotel World and The Accidental. Hotel World is more of a set of closely linked stories than a novel, all revolving around the inhabitants of a hotel in an ambiguous English town and the aftermath of a tragic death set there. The opening story, told by the ghost of the dead woman, is a tour de force of voice, style, and memento mori meditation; the other stories, in different ways, capture the process of grieving. Each story showcases a very different style, and each is very well-done, knitting together into a very effective (if slightly sentimental) whole.

The Accidental has a more unified setup, although it preserves the variety of styles (and in some ways goes further afield). A vacationing family welcomes a stranger into their summer home, each member misunderstanding why she's there; the stranger, with preternatural speed, picks up on the undiscussed issues that are breaking each member of the family down, and offers a whirlwind mixture of assistance and further fracturing that leaves the family dazed when she disappears. Saying more than that would spoil the many surprises; I'll just say that this is a delightfully experimental book that completely works, and which I highly recommend. Ali Smith is one of the best prose stylists I've read recently.

Lastly, I had a disappointing read in David Baldacci's Wish You Well, which I don't want to spend much time on. Third-rate To Kill a Mockingbird retreaded in the Virginia mountains, with economic tensions substituted for racial ones. Plodding plot, annoyingly tidy resolution, hugely overt but still ineffective tugs at the heartstrings - go reread Harper Lee and leave this book on the shelf.

Mirior

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