Wednesday, wednesday
Srill reading "Pargue in Black and Gold." Almost finished! But I had to renew it, because I'm just reading the aftermath of the rebellions of 1848 and the book goes up to Masaryk. It's hard to maintain sympathy for anybody for very long. Poor exploited and maltrated Czechs --but everytime they get excited about anything, they go and burn down the Jewish Town and kill a bunch of Jews. Poor persecuted Jews -- but they bought the old factories, brought in the new machines, and lowered everybody's wages even though they didn't have to. Smart, internationalist Germans -- but they wail on the Czechs as often as they embrace them (I am talking about the German people in Prague). Even whenever there's a sympathetic individual they will eventually do something to piss me off (generally they do something racist, occasionally they just do something criminal, and frequently they do something to screw workers).
I don't believe this is supposed to be a primary message of the book. I believe the primary message of the book is "Prague was never a Czech town in history: it was always a polyglot, multinational town, and the Slavs weren't even the first ones here." Something Czechs have had a hard time understanding. Alfons Mucha has a lot to answer for, himself, though he suffered suffieciently on behalf of his people.
Marx had some choice words for the nationalist actions in Prague. YOu can imagine: he thought they were being stupid. And they were.
Next up: I took out a book by Ian MacLeod called The light ages. I don't know anything about it except that it has magic and industry and perhaps some class consciousness? Also somewhere I have Emma's copy of The Natural History of Dragons.
On other fronts: I finally got my bike tuned up and the brakes don't scream any more. I also got a good lock and a rack and rear baskets. Decided to hold off on the kickstand and the front basket for now. So today I went to the farmer's market and the library and used my new baskets. This will take some getting used to.
I don't believe this is supposed to be a primary message of the book. I believe the primary message of the book is "Prague was never a Czech town in history: it was always a polyglot, multinational town, and the Slavs weren't even the first ones here." Something Czechs have had a hard time understanding. Alfons Mucha has a lot to answer for, himself, though he suffered suffieciently on behalf of his people.
Marx had some choice words for the nationalist actions in Prague. YOu can imagine: he thought they were being stupid. And they were.
Next up: I took out a book by Ian MacLeod called The light ages. I don't know anything about it except that it has magic and industry and perhaps some class consciousness? Also somewhere I have Emma's copy of The Natural History of Dragons.
On other fronts: I finally got my bike tuned up and the brakes don't scream any more. I also got a good lock and a rack and rear baskets. Decided to hold off on the kickstand and the front basket for now. So today I went to the farmer's market and the library and used my new baskets. This will take some getting used to.