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@riggbeck@mastodon.social cover
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

riggbeck

@[email protected]

Ceci n'est pas un ours.

Jusqu'ici tout va bien.

Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

I also hang out at:
[email protected]
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beexcessivelydiverting , to bookstodon
@beexcessivelydiverting@mastodon.online avatar

Today's comes from :

"If you don't love another living soul, then you'll never be disappointed.”

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@beexcessivelydiverting @bookstodon

Talking of disappointing, isn't that the family portrait where Disappointing Branwell is painted out?

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

I'm reading Poor Things, by Alasdair Gray. Much as I loved the film, the book goes into much more detail about the characters, putting Bell's glorious voice front and centre. At one point she breaks into iambic pentameter which it's impossible not to read out loud. It's a visual treat as well, with etchings by William Strang and typeset in varying sizes. You can see where the film changed some of the characters, and how it jazzed up the brothel segment out of all recognition.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

I think a good book should mess with your head. There should be enough in it to keep you speculating for a long time about the characters and their ideas.

Rites of Passage, by William Golding, takes a scalpel to early 19th century English ideas of class, seen through two very different prisms, both in journal form, both unreliable narrators.

It is set during a six month voyage to Australia in1812, on an ancient, unseaworthy Royal Navy warship converted for passenger use. 1/n

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

Edmund Talbot is the ridiculously snobbish godson of a Lord whose "distinguised brother" has a high position in government. For 'godson', I think we might infer his Lordship's bastard son. Edmund is going out to Australia to serve on the Governor's staff. He also has a secret mission, not explicit in the journal, which I'm guessing is probably bad news for the Aboriginal population. Edmund is blissfully unaware that the officers & sailors see right through his naive arrogance. 2/n

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

Edmund starts out as he means to continue by pulling rank on the Captain through his aristocratic connectiona. Captain Anderson is a proud, angry, stubborn man, but he's out-gunned in the class system, so he takes out his rage on another passenger, a hapless parson. James Robert Colley is a naive, foolish young man of humble origins who believes implicitly in the class system. He also completely believes in his faith & yearns to help others, according to his lights. A good man. 3/n

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

Captain Anderson socially humiliates Colley by denying him the right to walk on the quarterdeck where other 'ladies and gentlemen' are free to go. He's not allowed to preach, except when Edmund twists the Captain's arm, and it doesn't go well. This is not altruistic. Edmund is playing shipboard politics and wants to get one over on the Captain because he he knows he hates Colley. Edmund despises Colley, a gentleman by profession, but so far beneath him with his rustic ways. 4/n

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

The other ladies and gentlemen, as well as the emigrants who have to berth wth the sailors, are portrayed in an equally unflattering light in Edmund's journal. Some deserve it. A drunken portrait painter ostensibly traveling with his wife and daughter, who may well be prostitutes, for example. By and large, they take their cue from the Captain and shun Colley. But there is much worse in store for him, and this is the heart of the developing tragedy. So far we've heard Edmund. 5/n

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

After the worse has happened, we hear from Colley, in his unsent letter to his sister in England. And the class system gathers protectively round itself to avoid a scandal. Edmund is chastened by his part in the proceedings, but still the arrogant bastard I detested at the beginning. And yet, I was half on board with his ignorant estimate of Colley, and half-cheering Anderson's dislike of the clergy. This is what I mean about a novel messing with your head. You should read it. 6/e

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar
riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

I agree with Horowitz. Censoring books and literary characters to suit modern sensibilities is very like Winston Smith's job in 1984. It gives a false sense of history. We're free to read or not read them.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/24/anthony-horowitz-writers-not-told-books-more-diverse

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Tom Gauld is having a great run... today's cartoon for the Guardian is another corker...

Yes, of course.... the robot apocalypse is fiction, sure.... nothing to see here

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

Do robots have Freudian slips?

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @ericatty @davidpnice @bookstodon

That brings to mind the Twilight Zone episode about the man who welcomes the end of the world, of which he's the only survivor. Finally he's free from all the distractions, and can read for as long and as much as he likes. Then he breaks his glasses.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon
Having lived on another planet most of my life, I just started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, about which I knew very little. It seems to be a stinging critique of capitalism. Haven't met the vile Mr Wonka yet, but I'm sure I'll hate him and his dubious employment practices.

No spoilers, please.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

This is why real print and paper books matter. Their materiality tells parallel stories about the people who owned and loved them, and how they related to the ideas in the books.

I want to go to this exhibition in June.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/05/scottish-artist-receives-hundreds-of-copies-of-orwells-nineteen-eighty-four-in-the-post

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

Excellent article by George Monbiot (he has a new book out) that really gets under the skin of a conspiracy theorist. Unsurprisingly, what he finds is a toxic mess.

George makes a good point that we're all conspiracy theorists, only most of us care about the real ones like the Post Office persecution of their subpostmasters.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/may/04/youre-going-to-call-me-a-holocaust-denier-now-are-you-george-monbiot-comes-face-to-face-with-his-local-conspiracy-theorist

firstdogonthemoon , to random
@firstdogonthemoon@aus.social avatar
riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@firstdogonthemoon
@bookstodon

It has to be a real book (print and paper). Anything else means being in the evil clutches of the techbros.

NightlyBye , to actuallyautistic
@NightlyBye@gaypirates.club avatar

@actuallyautistic folk, has anyone watched this? I'm a little skeptical because once again in the description we get "autistic or learning disabled" people, and while this isn't about providing services it maybe does perpetuate this notion that we all have the same needs (especially as this is, in the BBC's words, for Autism Acceptance week). But I adore Michael Sheen and I am definitely intrigued by the concept.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001xyj5

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@NightlyBye @actuallyautistic

I just finished watching it. Never mind the blurb, it's a joyous experience. Including a superb, heartfelt reading of Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night from one of the interviewers/audience, and a performance of Here Comes The Sun. You get a strong sense of how fake most interviews are. They need to unleash this lot onto Radio 4 one day as guest editors and interviewers.

KitOz , to actuallyautistic
@KitOz@c.im avatar

I was noticing that my cat and I seem to share some behaviors, which made me wonder if cats aren't a little bit autistic. Or maybe I'm a little bit cat?

Which gave me the idea to come up with a facetious self-assessment quiz: Are you autistic, or are you a house cat?

Take the quiz to find out!

@actuallyautistic

https://kitozbooks.com/2024/04/autistic-or-a-house-cat/

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@KitOz @actuallyautistic

We clearly have something to learn from cats. They command obedience and service from humans, seemingly just by being themselves. But the ND crowd are less sucessful at bending NTs to their will. What is it that cats aren't telling us?

DataGeekB , to sociology
@DataGeekB@mastodon.social avatar

If you see anyone parroting the talking points of a certain tech billionaire, maybe get them to watch this video
(which includes thoughtful commentary from the brilliant Jennifer Sciubba):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_mOHelAH44

PS
It might also be useful for anyone who's teaching on population topics.

@demography @sociology

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@DataGeekB @demography @sociology

Falling birth rates are good. It's bad news for global capitalism because it needs ever-increasing demand or the system collapses. As for individual countries, the answer to an ageing population is more immigration from countries with high birth rates.

A declining population would be an opportunity to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, we're still stuck in old ideas that don't work any more.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@economics @DataGeekB @demography @sociology

Where are the new markets coming from if population declines? And while some businesses like stability, the techbros love to disrupt.

As I suggested, the answer for ageing societies is more immigration from countries with high birth rates.

gutenberg_org , to random
@gutenberg_org@mastodon.social avatar

English novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer E. F. Benson died in 1940. Benson was a precocious and prolific writer. His first book was Sketches from Marlborough, published while he was a student. He started his novel-writing career with the fashionably controversial Dodo. The Mapp and Lucia series, written relatively late in his career, consists of six novels and two short stories. via @wikipedia

E. F. Benson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/812

Title page of Miss Mapp, 1922.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@gutenberg_org @wikipedia

Huge fan of the Mapp & Lucia series. I even made the pilgrimage to Rye, an almost perfect match for Tilling in the novels, where Benson lived while writing them. Specific places were repurposed for the narrative, so you can read the books and accurately follow in the footsteps of the characters.

I think of Mapp & Lucia as two dinosaurs locked in an epic struggle for dominance, while constrained by the social rules of the 1930s.
@bookstodon

https://www.friendsoftilling.com/

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Good morning booklovers,

if you, like me, have bookshelves stuffed with around your house, then Eva Wiseman has got news for you... they signify more about your life & the society we live in than you thought.

'bookshelf wealth' (a new design trend), is not the innocent amassing of things to read, we may have thought...

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/25/using-books-as-interior-design

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

Books undeniably furnish a room (and make great insulation), but I can't imagine keeping any I didn't want to read. I go for eclectic charity shop chic simply because I can't afford new books and prefer to find hidden treasures rather than follow literary trends.

That said, I read fewer and fewer books as I get older, though the growing TBR pile consists entirely of books I bought with the intention of reading.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@TerryBTwo @ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

A house or a flat with no books has no soul. If it also has 'Eat Laugh Love' on the wall then it's positively satanic.

nddev , to actuallyautistic
@nddev@c.im avatar

We had dinner with some friends this evening -- five of us in total. After discussing it with Helen earlier in the week, I came out to them as autistic.

I got an interesting set of reactions. Angela (a former headteacher, who I thought knew more about autism) said: "but you're so social." So I said a few words about masking and learning to spend time in company. Lesley replied: "you should have known him when he was young. He was really quite odd." (No, it's fine, we have that kind of relationship.)

I told Angela I thought she'd known for years, and she said she'd suspected it, but only because of my unusual walk. So, if you really want to pass as NT, you need not only to avoid ticcing and stimming, and make eye contact, and say the right things at the right speed, and pull the right faces, but also to get your walk right. Who knew teachers specialised in gait analysis?

So that's it. I'm committed. I'm now. 🙂

@actuallyautistic

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@nddev @actuallyautistic

What does the autistic walk look like? I'm curious now because this is the second time I've seen it mentioned. I have a particular walk, a springy, balls of the feet sort of thing, rather than just putting one foot in front of the other. But I thought everyone did that and I haven't paid much attention before.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@Dr_Obvious @nddev @actuallyautistic

Well that's 2 data points anyway. And I've since heard of the bouncy walk idea from other sources, as well as another thing I do, which is a sharp 90 degree turn rather than ambling round a corner.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@nddev @Dr_Obvious @actuallyautistic

Absolutely.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@Vincarsi @nddev @actuallyautistic

I'm not sure I buy this, but I'll think about it again tomorrow. It doesn't seem like an unnatural or stressful gait to me, and I've actually seen it recommended as good way of walking. I'll dig out the article.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar
kimlockhartga , to bookstodon
@kimlockhartga@beige.party avatar

@bookstodon Do you own any autographed books? If so, did you personally meet the author at a signing?

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@tekiegirl @kimlockhartga @bookstodon

I discovered both seasons on the Internet Archive, which is good because I never saw season 2. I refuse to pay for a streaming service. Working through season 1 again at the moment. Even better than I remembered.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@tekiegirl @kimlockhartga @bookstodon

I watched the first season on the BBC iPlayer, but as far as I know, the second season was only on Amazon. Which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

I did read the book, though it's been lost in the visual impression of the TV series. That's one of the problems of adaptations. They might do a brilliant job, but the image is seared on your retina, wiping out your impressions of the book.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

The news that Christopher Priest has died brought to mind A Dream of Wessex (1977), the only novel of his that I remember reading. I was hugely impressed by this excursion into a version of Britain created by a VR project that becomes completely real for the participants. There's something mythological about it.

I now want to read his other novels.

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/04/christopher-priest-obituary

desafinado , to random
@desafinado@mastodon.social avatar

Your attention, please.

Today’s Word of the Day is “spork.”

This has been The Word of the Day.

That is all.

UPDATE: Ceci n’est pas une spork.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@desafinado @bookstodon

Titus Alone was an accurate take on the 20th century. Once the story moved on from the Gormeghast setting, it had to do something different, and I think it did it well. I found it more disturbing than the first two novels, perhaps because of Peake's fraying mind in its collision with that century.

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@desafinado @bookstodon

It certainly wasn't a well-made novel, too much bleeding from the wounds, but none the worse for that. It has an intensity and sharpness, and sometimes it's better not to blunt the edges of a story with artifice.

bibliolater , to bookstodon
@bibliolater@qoto.org avatar

What is the most difficult or you have ever ? What made the so difficult for you? Would you others that ?

@reading @bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. It was a surprising bestseller for the time (1988) but I doubt many people finished it. I fell off the horse at about page 30, and at the same point over a decade later. There will be no third attempt.

beexcessivelydiverting , to bookstodon
@beexcessivelydiverting@mastodon.online avatar
riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@beexcessivelydiverting @bookstodon

Don't miss this hugely enjoyable, wonderfully skewed version of the classic. You can also find the episodes on youtube if you can't wait for the PBS programme.

GinaRCollia , to bookstodon
@GinaRCollia@mastodon.online avatar

Nezu Press is bringing out a new edition of 'The Other End' by R. Ellis Roberts. In addition to the contents of the 1st edition, it includes 4 reviews that the author wrote about the work of Arthur Machen. It also includes a biographical essay by me.

https://hauntedlibraryblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-other-end-r-ellis-roberts.html

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@GinaRCollia @bookstodon

Thanks for this. I'm always on the look-out for forgotten horror writers, and this one is good. Definitely a touch of the Machen about him. I read The Hill. He does the atmosphere and tone really well, though I can't help deploring the protagonist's effortless smug entitlement, earning by his self-proclaimed virtue the adoring services of a servant and a dog. An unreliable narrator, assigning good and evil where they benefit his class position.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89003790151&seq=1

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Here's a handy guide to check yourself against; which way do you display/store/shelve your ?

I have so many that I fit a number of different categories depending on which part of he house you're in.... I doubt I'm alone in my pluralist shelving habits

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/17/shelf-absorbed-nine-ways-to-arrange-your-bookshelves-and-what-they-say-about-you

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

There's that word 'curated' in the article. Unless you work professionally in a museum or art gallery, it's a pretentious attempt to lend intellectual rigour to tidying things up.

scotlit , to bookstodon
@scotlit@mastodon.scot avatar

“The film is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by the Glaswegian Alasdair Gray. […] Like watching Lanthimos’s gorgeous spectacle, reading Gray is a wild & unsettling ride. His work is full of progressive imagination, wry impropriety & intricate literary form.”

Discover Alasdair Gray – the radical Scottish polymath & author of POOR THINGS

@bookstodon

https://theconversation.com/poor-things-meet-the-radical-scottish-visionary-behind-the-new-hit-film-220080

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@scotlit @bookstodon

I've only just started reading his work. Every Short Story 1951-2012. I like the sly surrealism of his ordinary characters as they negotiate the bizarre circumstances he places them in.

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

As you wake up this morning to sort out your presents (fro yesterday) spare a thought for that book that someone gave you thinking you'd like it....

@bookstodon
h/t Tom Gauld (as always, a treat)

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

The spurned book that you pounce on in a charity shop gets all the love denied to it as a gift.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@bookstodon

While you're reading your Kindle, it's reading you back. And:

"For those who prefer to purchase books from brick-and-mortar stores, tracking reading on book social site Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon, will put you back into the tech giant’s purview."

The article is from 2020, so I imagine the enshittification will be even worse by now, as AI use increases.

This is just one of the reasons I only read print books and don't use sites like Goodreads.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/amazon-kindle-data-reading-tracking-privacy

riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@Jennifer @bookstodon

Do you know if the Nook or the Onyx Boox is doing the same as Amazon? I'd be surprised if they weren't.

CultureDesk , to bookstodon
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

Staff make the call when it comes to deciding what's age-appropriate at their libraries. In Idaho, an organization called Parents Against Bad Books claims parents should have a say, while in Washington State, a proposal would require libraries to use a system like the one used by the movie industry, and in Florida, there's a formal challenge process under the "Don't Say Gay" law. NPR breaks down the situation.

https://flip.it/z-60GL

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@CultureDesk @bookstodon

Parents shouldn't be allowed to weigh in on whether a book is age-appropriate. Their views are subjective, and those most concerned usually come from the RW Christian side of politics. But wherever they're coming from, no parents should be allowed to decide what other people can read. That's just giving in to creeping censorship.

dailymedievalcats , to medievodons German
@dailymedievalcats@troet.cafe avatar

Nuncat.

Ms: State Library Victoria, 096 R66HF, f. 99r (15th c.). @medievodons @histodons

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@dailymedievalcats @medievodons @histodons

So that's where they got the idea from in Doctor Who.

dailymedievalcats , to medievodons German
@dailymedievalcats@troet.cafe avatar

“Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this during a certain night. Cursed be the pesty cat […].And beware well not to leave open books at night where cats can come.”.

Ms: Cologne, Historisches Archiv, G.B. quarto, 249, f. 68r (15th c.). @medievodons

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@dailymedievalcats @medievodons

I love how cats have left their mark on history.

ChrisMayLA6 , to bookstodon
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Meanwhile in ..... having been subjected to a infestation & a problem in the , now the organisers are picking a fight with Paris' riverside stalls that they want to absent themselves from the banks while the opening ceremony as their stock boxes are apparently a security risk...

How this will play out for the Paris mayor & Olympics management remains to be seen

@bookstodon

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

The Olympics are like a vampire sucking the life out of any city foolish enough to let them in. Or perhaps that flying city in Gulliver's Travels that raids the countryside beneath it for supplies.

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

You wouldn't get Michael Mcintyre writing an evocative introduction to such a tasty-sounding book as this. I also remember being fascinated by Mysterious Britain, one of the books Stewart Lee mentions. "Calves of iron" might be a useful goal.

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/oct/28/in-search-of-strange-and-sacred-sites-the-uks-weirdest-walks

riggbeck , to bookstodon French
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar
riggbeck OP ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@templetongate @bookstodon

I enjoy my provocations. It's been a while since anyone took this bait.

joshsusser , to actuallyautistic
@joshsusser@neurodifferent.me avatar

Random Public Service Announcement: The hashtag means the author of the post containing that hashtag is an actually autistic person, as opposed to a relative, caregiver, or practitioner who is not autistic. It came about because autism-adjacent folks kept speaking over us, and we needed a way to identify when an autistic person was speaking for themself. The hashtag says nothing about whether someone has an official diagnosis, only about whether they identify as autistic. It is not correct for an allistic (non-autistic) person to use the hashtag to describe an autistic person - is a perfectly cromulent hashtag for that.
@actuallyautistic

riggbeck ,
@riggbeck@mastodon.social avatar

@joshsusser @actuallyautistic

Thank you for embiggening the use of the word 'cromulent'.

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