What are you currently reading?

Tolkien loved the Finnish language according to his son Christopher. I'm sure he was influenced as you say by a wide range of north European mythologies, but mainly, he was a genius of enormous creative imagination, and he took it really to another level IMO.

My regret is that this counntry no longer seems able to produce people of Tolkien's calibre.

 

He should replace Shakespeare as Britain's 'national bard'

 

You're right I think abut the origin of some of the Arthurian stuff. There's also the welsh Arthur though, who seems to have a different origin.

I love all this stuff - something like food for the soul.

 

I also have a book on polish mythology and there's an identical story to the ending of King Arthur that when the Polish king died they buried him in a cave somewhere in the Carpathian Forest and that the next time Poland was in need of assistance, he would rise again. Anyway from my memory, it's been over 10 years since I read it, the story resembled King Arthur in many, many ways that suggested to the author who was translating the mythology that it most likely would have been used in the stories of King Arthur.

Beowulf too, may not have been entirely fiction either. The monsters etc. Most certainly fictionised but could have been metaphors for the oppressing government at the time. Giant mead halls depicting the same likeness to the one written about in Beowulf have in fact been unearthed in Denmark.

 

I'm enjoying "Gendered Worlds" by Aulette. It's dope.

 

Whatever that is I don’t think I’m mature enough to read it.

 

aim/far 2019.. boring af..

 

Wizard of the Pigeons

I love magical fantasy stuff set in the real world, in this case Seattle.

 

Hugo Blanco - A revolutionary for life by Derek Wall

 

There is one of those near me But I don't like to take Books !

 

I love Michael Wood !

 

Was talking to Babs the other day about a book I read years ago by Professor Keith Simpson ! Anyone read this ?
I might Buy it again and re read it !
Christie, Hanratty, The Krays ... murderers haunt the mind. We read about them in the press with horrified curiosity and, if we're lucky, this is as close as we get. But Home Office Pathologise Keith Simpson spent forty years in the very midst of murder. This is his autobiography. The late Professor Keith Simpson became the first Professor of Forensic Medicine at London University and lectured on the subject to other doctors, lawyers, police officers and magistrates at home and all over the world. He pioneered forensic dentistry, and for the first time identified a suspected murderer by teeth marks left on the victim's body. He was responsible for the first successful `battered baby' prosecution in England, and perhaps one of his greatest contributions has been to save the lives of countless babies by disseminating information on the syndrome and getting it recognized and controlled. This is the bestselling autobiography of the man who was always at the scene of the crime. In describing his celebrated investigations he spares his readers none of the chilling details: the whip-marks, the maggots, the skeletal remains, which proved the innocence of so many men and women...and sent so many more to the gallows.

 

Ummm I reread The Little Prince the other day



Grown-ups do ask the most stupid irrelevant questions.
Why shouldn't we ask people about cakes.

 

Grown-ups like numbers. When you tell them about a new friend, they never ask questions about what really matters. They never ask: ‘What does his voice sound like?’ ‘What games does he like best?’ ‘Does he collect butterflies?’ They ask: ‘How old is he?’ ‘How many brothers does he have?’ ‘How much does he weigh?’ ‘How much money does he have?’ Only then do they think they know him. If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves at the roof…,’ they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!

 

Feels like a Kafka kinda day

 

@BlackBillBlake

This is one of the books I have on Poland, it is really good because it has food recipes in it too. A Polish Schnitzel is fun because it combines 3 types mince.
I find the Pantheon very similar to Saxon, probably because they right next door to one another lol. Just very different names indeed.

 

Chapter 3 is a little dry. I'll admit some of it is going over my head.

E.g. I don't understand their explanation (or think it's an inadequate one) of how symbolic interactionism (face to face relations) relates to structuralism (I just looked it up on google because I hate the gendered worlds version!). It's like they're using the terms without really explaining which leaves you to take a lot at face value as it pertains to specific stories (which I basically skimmed through in little text boxes throughout) and the gender construct as a whole. It's really losing me. But I like the concept that we act out our gender in our face to face encounters, and that it perpetuates gender norms that we actually have the capacity to redefine. It's interesting.

 

the “New Posts”

 

Yeah i have no idea what any of that means.