|
|
Wednesday, February 6th, 2002
|
| Time: | 9:30 am. |
| Mood: | i'm late! i'm LATE!. |
|
|
Tin-san: I /adore/ Hilary Mantel, and can only wish she'd written for Bismarck's Germany as well (might make me actually /like/ it. ahem.). She has (almost) completely /created/ my views on the FR, in which Desmoulins is /wonderful/, Danton is a sweetheart if a bit of a manwhore, Robespierre is a genius with a copy of Rousseau ever in his pocket and Saint-Just is Satan Incarnate. I feel, well, a bit thick in saying this, but: Historical Fiction makes me understand history. Not so much in terms of the goings-on, but in terms of the era and what it was like, which I /need/ to know before I can comprehend the actual events. Plus, historical fiction is written by /novelists/, who tend to have a far more readable style than most historians, and I /like/ readable. I'm not quite sure /why/ I don't like Schama: could possibly be a combination of the fact that Everyone Loved Him - and there's no quicker way to get me to dislike someone, sometimes - and of the fact that his telly programmes were Intensely Irritating, to me at least. And, well, I prefer Starkey. ^_^ It might be 'Tristram', actually. I'm not quite sure. ;)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Tin makes me blush. *blush*. I'm... /supposed/ to read more history textbooks than historical novels, but I have an extremely low tolerance for the textbook style. Byatt, interestingly, says in some essay or other that "...greater safety" has more historical worth vis-a-vis the French Revolution than "citizens" does. Although she could be biased. And there's a histnov about Lempriere's? *scribbles down name frantically* That, i /have/ to read.
As for classical historical novelling, I am all about the adoration of Mary Renault: she writes Democratic Athens /With The Gay/, which is a triumph in itself, as well as having her own take on the Theseus myth and on... oh, one of the rulers of Macedon, Alex or Philip, I haven't read it in a while. ;) And Lindsey Davis does Roman murder mystery-type books, the main character traipsing through Rome and sometimes the empire with all his prejudices against the senatorial class and love of Falerninan Red, and it's /great/.
And, Sarah, yeah, i didn't really deal with electoral college because it's outside my sphere of knowledge, pretty much, where PR and FPTP are /in/ it (and, well, it /is/ dumb of me to go too far out of what I know, like Suze said in giving me a swift kick up the arse for presumption and pretension. ^_^). And PR /is/ used as a political issue by our Lib Dem party at least in part because bringing it in would give them more seats, since they're the third party in a system that's almost two-party (we held a mock-election in primary school, '92 or so?, and had to put the green party in to make four parties: approximately no-one voted for them, IIRC, and labour /still/ won by a horrific landslide, since, well, the labour office was round the corner and we were in GlendaJacksonLand. I still hold that if they'd put in the Monster Raving Loony Party instead /they/ would have won. ;))
But on the other hand I /do/ feel a list toward it in my own feelings, mainly because i fear electoral landslides: I don't know /why/ this is, since Labour at the moment are being nicely fragmented and OldLabourish and pro!public services and have hints of the radical retained in them, but. It's strange, considering that all this talk of The Party setting up more positive discrimination in favour of women has me frothing at the mouth - I don't want bad MPs brought in just because of their gender, because they could well cause a backlash against women in parliament and foster the misconception that women are in parliament not because of talent but because of political correctness. Me and my double standards.
I'm, essentially, scared of Tone extending his power in an imitation of an imagined Presidential power. Time to talk to the Tonygotchi again, I feel.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Winamp, stop reminding me to buy the lostprophets record. I /know/ i have to. And: Argh. I have a spare ticket for ...and you will know us by the trail of dead, now. damnit. Touts never give you /anything/ for your tickets. >_<
I have an essay on the fear of catholicism to write. For that reason, I'm going to point out that John Donne - see! topical! he was a Jacobean-catholic-turned-anglican dean! - has the best poems on choosing religion /ever/ ever: Satire 3 and its lesser cousin, Holy Sonnet 18. Satire 3 /rocks my tiny little world/.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
on this I am Evil Jesus. Damn me and my ways. I'm not entirely sure /how/ that happened, but... *shrug*
In other news, I spoke to my mate Anna for the first time since... uh... my birthday? yeah. I'm /so/ crap at keeping in touch it ain't even funny. But it's okay, because she forgives me for being a useless bint and we're going to trail of dead together with some of her mates tomorrow, so yay!
and my hair is now an... interesting shade of mixed-up dirty purple. and i have eaten pizza. mmm. and raw steak. *prrr* ...you know, for someone who doesn't eat most meats, i'm a pretty devout carnivore.
and I should really be writing this here essay. argh.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
metempsychosis's journal