Occasionally iO9 manages to sneak some thought in.

Here's a jumping off place with regards to studying specfic written by African-Americans before WWII.

The Black Fantastic: Highlights of Pre-World War II African and African-American Speculative Fiction

And before some of you start crabbing about "revisionist history" and how "everybody's gotta be ( Read more... )

For Book 2 I'm researching that golden oldie of SF, the artifical uterus.  I'm looking at pictures of fetus in utero (Jaysus, you'd think I'd be done with that by now, you know?); and of course you can't get away from in utero photography without running into Lennart Nilsson's groundbreaking photographic explorations, done in the 1960s.  I'm sure ( Read more... )

My loving people,

We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength ( Read more... )

Maggots.  Prison.  Vicious beatings.  Brothels.  Decks awash with blood and blubber. 19th century Van Diemen's Land.

Hey, if you like big fat epic books with lots of grotty action and history, check out Bryce Courtenay.  He wrote The Power of One, which was made into a movie, but even better is The Potato Factory, which is a fictionalization of ( Read more... )

Because our washer and general plumbing system is kind of hosed up (ha, I see what I did there), one has to keep a weather eye on the works so that it doesn't drain all over the laundry room floor. I had to wash The Teen's jeans last night, so I was up late. God bless Netflix.

An aside--I refuse to have the tv upstairs. We don't have a terribly big ( Read more... )

Here's a thought-provoking essay on violence, and poetry, and being Irish.

One might say these are concurrent states.

Poetry and Violence - Brendan Kennelly

Excerpt:

Most of us do find violence frightening and disgusting; but this doesn’t mean, of course, that a poem successfully presenting that same violence is disgusting and/or frightening. But, long ( Read more... )

One wonders if the seanchaí who imparted the Táin Bó Cúailnge to the monks who transcribed it was familiar at all with the Iliad, or if perhaps the monks themselves were.  I'm thinking specifically of the similarities between Achilles' chariot horses and Cú Chulainn's chariot horses.... 

So I was saying to The Young Idea at lunch today, "Wait until you get to the Civil War."  (This prompted by a review in Newsweek of the Library of America's The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It.)

She responded to me, "Mom, why is it in school we always hear about slavery and the Civil War, and that kind of stuff, but we never ( Read more... )

Of course Helen Thomas got the axe.  Come on, naive much?

Big thanks to jmhenry for the link.

Peretz, Thomas, and the Middle East Double Standard

An excerpt:

Indeed, former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan and Slate’s Jack Shafer have criticized Peretz for his recent remarks but have also suggested that his stewardship of the magazine should mitigate ( Read more... )

I am trying to find audiobooks with lovely English or UK women readers.  Bloody difficult.  Why?  There are men out the wazoo reading all these things, Caesar, and Aristotle and Chaucer, but no women that I've been able to find.

I ran across Julie Andrews readingr from her memoirs and nearly cried.  Now she could read my history for me and I would ( Read more... )