Given the US war on, erm, libraries of all things, are they coming after museums as the next culture-warring locus? Like people who couldn't care less about ethics trying to close museums lest people learn something about people somewhere else.
Another rec for libraries - brilliant places for exploring. And also one for LIBRARIANS. When you go in to sign up for a library card, ask the librarians for suggestions. You will probably make someone's day to let them help you get into reading. Librarians are really cool like that :)
Also look around for a wee display of curated selections. Those will change every month or so and feature recommended books.
E-books are another possibility and there are many sources of free ones - another low cost way of exploring and experimenting. I read free fluff from the book store app built into my tablet when I'm not up to anything serious, go to Project Gutenberg and Standard E-books for out-of-copyright classics when I am, and sometimes find something on the e-book system I have access to with my library card sign-in. (I rarely buy e-books as I prefer to put my book budget to subscriptions from small presses because they need our support and an unexpected book arriving in the post is a delight.)
Some of the high school curriculum will always be dry, but some of it is just forced on us when we're still too young to really understand what's going on and it's much more interesting when we have enough experience and maturity to get it. So if you come across something you have bad memories of but it sounds interesting, try it again.
For a specific rec, I'm going to suggest Death and the Penguin by Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov. 1996, but shouldn't be hard to find in translation given the recent western interest in Ukraine. This was my review:
"Quietly absurdist, yet feels well grounded in the realities of time and place. Pacing, flow and details are excellent; exceptionally well written and translated. Don't find out more about it, wondering what is going on is part of its appeal, just read it :)"
Self-hosting on Mumble isn't going to help me join existing communities on Discord, is it? I already have an over-abundance of opportunities to talk to myself ;P
I don't come anywhere near close to meeting the requirements for intentional communities. Chronic illness is a real bastard. I don't need much and the quality of my life could so easily be improved by just a little help from others, but everyone - even intentional communities - is caught up in focusing on how much others can help them. What I can give is less tangible, and therefore dismissed.
I don't want to abandon society but I do recognise we'd all be far better off if we lived in ways which were less isolating. Every person/family for themselves harms us all.
I tend to set things down if it's not working for me at the moment, because sometimes later I'll come back to it and it will. But in this case, where it's part not the whole you're struggling with, maybe you just need to know what the point of the bits you find uninteresting is? The writer will have included all of it for a reason.
I'm generally in favour of casting the actor who can best get the non-physical elements right, like the character's way of thinking and being in the world. So for any single example I'm open to arguments why that person was the right choice.
BUT there's a larger issue also at play in which roles Jews are cast in. Generally speaking Jews get to play Jews when it's a negative stereotype - think the loud, shrill, NYC Jewish woman trope, but when it's a more positive character, those roles generally go to non-Jews. That's the real problem.
Oh look, another one BEFORE the 2007 change in status.
I'm really don't have the spoons for your lack of understanding on this basic fact. Besides your bizarre instance that authors require the free use of someone else's characters to express their ideas instead of, oh I don't know, creating their own characters to express those ideas.
emma @ emma @beehaw.org Posts 12Comments 111Joined 2 yr. ago
Given the US war on, erm, libraries of all things, are they coming after museums as the next culture-warring locus? Like people who couldn't care less about ethics trying to close museums lest people learn something about people somewhere else.