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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   2706 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 30, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

I’m still on The Poacher from Stratford. Thoughts below.

Master and Commander was great, it does such a good job capturing experiences that are completely foreign but really happened. When they're being pursued by a frigate for days, and they can see it in the distance, and it's gaining but over the course of days, the dread and tension it brings. It's a masterpiece.

I've started And The Band Played On, got it at the coffee shop on their second hand book shelf. God is it brilliantly written. Not sure what I think of the arguments, but the passion that drips from it, written as he was dying.

On audio I'm halfway through Two Towers, and I'm thinking I might skip to the first half of Return of the King and complete that line of the story, then go back and do the whole Frodo storyline in one go after. Experimentally. It would throw off some aspects of Gondor, I think, but mostly listening on audio I'm just not in the mood to have Gollum in my earbud. Idk.

On Shakespeare, I'm excited for the local Shakespeare festival, doing Cymbelline a couple towns over. I was just thinking of that play.

I can vouch, secondhand, for @pigeonburger 's point here. Most of the folks I know who powered through the jargon really enjoyed the whole series.

Reading Russian lit has taught me that the best way to get used to unusual words and uses is to just motor through it and figure it out later. For a while reading Dostoyevsky was difficult because I was trying to understand every word and reference and every relationship and every name and nickname. When I just let it wash over me and hoped to pick up what was going on later from context, I came to understand more. I'm sure I'm wrong about a few things in the naval jargon.

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