riggbeck

beexcessivelydiverting , 2 days ago to bookstodon

Today's #QOTD comes from #JaneAusten's #Persausion:

“One man's way may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.”

#AmReading #AmWriting @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon
#WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Regency #Georgian

riggbeck , 2 days ago

@beexcessivelydiverting @bookstodon

"One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other."

beexcessivelydiverting , 6 days ago to bookstodon

Today's #QOTD comes from #CharlotteBronte:

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

#AmReading #AmWriting @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Victorian

riggbeck , 6 days ago

@beexcessivelydiverting @bookstodon

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

riggbeck , 21 days ago to bookstodon French

@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 , 21 days ago

@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 , 21 days ago

@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 , 21 days ago

@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 , 21 days ago

@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 , 21 days ago

@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

ChrisMayLA6 , 1 month ago to bookstodon

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

#artificialintelligence #AI #robots #Technology

@bookstodon

riggbeck , 1 month ago

@ChrisMayLA6 @bookstodon

Do robots have Freudian slips?

ChrisMayLA6 , 1 month ago to bookstodon

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.

#reading #immortality

@bookstodon

riggbeck , 1 month ago

@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.

firstdogonthemoon , 1 month ago to random

Reading! Everyone loves reading even Guardian readers. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/may/03/how-to-get-back-into-reading-actual-books-according-to-guardian-readers

riggbeck , 1 month ago

@firstdogonthemoon
@bookstodon

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

NightlyBye , 2 months ago to actuallyautistic

@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.

#Autism #Autistic #ActuallyAutistic

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

riggbeck , 2 months ago

@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 , 2 months ago to actuallyautistic

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 @actuallyautistic

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

riggbeck , 2 months ago

@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 , 4 months ago to sociology

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 #Population #PopulationTrends #Migration #Fertility #Mortality @demography @sociology

riggbeck , 3 months ago

@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 , 3 months ago

@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.

nddev , 4 months ago to actuallyautistic

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 #ActuallyAutistic now. 🙂

@actuallyautistic

riggbeck , 4 months ago

@Vincarsi @nddev @actuallyautistic

Here's article. Not sure it's the same thing but it sounds vaguely similar.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jun/19/im-not-just-faster-but-taller-how-i-learned-to-walk-properly-and-changed-my-pace-posture-and-perspective