One book you might find worthwhile to read is Robert Twigger's Angry white pyjamas (ISBN 0-7538-0858-7). It's a story of how Robert Twigger gained an aikido black belt in 12 months, training 8 hours a day most days of the week, with the Tokyo Riot Police.
It was, surprisingly, a book I found looking for Richard Cohen's By the Sword (also a good read, detailing the historical development thta lead up to sports fencing).
Yeah, this is more of his biography than his treatise for future generations about the art... but there's still a ton of the intent and philosophy in there if you dig around for it. I'm glad that you're appreciating the book as much as I did.
The book I'm slogging through is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I thought I'd love it-- in actuality, teh hatred. I find its glacial pace and full-page footnotes make me want to spork my eyeballs out. No, it's not "a modern Jane Austen". I love Jane Austen and have read her books over and over with increasing delight on each reading. The only thing Jonathan Strange has in common with Jane Austen is that if one set the former on fire, it would go well with a Jane Austen novel and some tea and crumpets.
leg hair
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold And his leg hair was streaming like scarves in the cold...
I'm told it's well worth it once you get through the glacial pace, but I picked up up a year ago, read seven chapters, became busy and alas, the bookmark has not moved in all that time.
Just finished what's been written of the Harry Potter series, though (which Jonathan Strange has often been compared to) and must say it's highly preferable.
I swear by "Celtic Heroic Age," and not just because Dr. Carey is my advisor. The translations are as literal as possible in most cases, with great attention to linguistic, semantic accuracy and sense rather than poetry or artistry. While that is unfortunate, and scholars can certainly afford to be a bit more artistically-enjoyable in their translations, I prefer this to some who let artistry sacrifice sense and accuracy. Kinsella was a poet himself, but to say that the gae bulga went into all the highways and byways of Fer Diad's body is simply inaccurate; it penetrated him anally and disemboweled him, plain and simple. (Koch's Gododdin edition/translation, though somewhat critiqued by specialists, is, strangely enough, printed with translation only in the book--but no biases there, eh?) As a sourcebook for seeing exactly what the texts say, this is unparalleled; the only other such anthology which is worthwhile is Cross and Slover's Ancient Irish Tales, which both Koch and Carey think is a superior work to theirs, even though
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I really like having several translations of works that I really care about; the multiple perspectives on a single source really does it for me. (For this reason, "Le Ton Beau de Marot" has got to be one of my ten favorite books ever. Swoon. Linguist-poet love.) I didn't have anything anywhere near so literal in my collection already, so this was a really valuable addition for that reason. If I want a more storied version, I can read (with increasing levels of interpretation/fictionalization) Kinsella's translation, Eickhoff's cleaned-up adaptation, or Morgan Llywelyn's fiction novels. But you're totally right -- there are times where it's immensely valuable to just go straight to the source with a "yes, but what does it SAY" question. [grin
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Dr. Carey's own little pet from that book is, in fact, Lebor Gabala--his Ph.D. dissertation was on the first recension of it, and he's written several articles on "synthetic pseudohistory" in it--how some bits (especially certain names that appear therein) go back to Indo-European, while other bits are transparently Christian. Anyway, the text there is only the first recension; the bits from Cin Dromma Snechta that were tagged as such in the later recensions are not there (those are the bits I like because of the dogheads!). He has been hoping to revise his dissertation and publish it as a book, but it was completed over 20 years ago--that happens so often it's sickening. People still do cite his dissertation regularly, though--if I had the time and money to get a copy from Harvard, I probably would
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There's something to be said for reading the appropriate piece at an evocative site. I keep meaning to take some bit of Norse literature and read it to the troll under the Fremont bridge (and whomever else happens to want to go). Reading aloud, when well done, is a particular pleasure of mine; I enjoy a well told story.
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leg hair
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his leg hair was streaming like scarves in the cold...
Er. Time for caffeine. :-)
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*WAHhahahahahaaa*
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Just finished what's been written of the Harry Potter series, though (which Jonathan Strange has often been compared to) and must say it's highly preferable.
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