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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   3224 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 10, 2023

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 going through Milton's Paradise Lost. Has been on the backlog for a while.

Paper I'm reading: Quandt's Dark Participation.

I finished reading The Mossad by Eisenberg Landau that I picked up in a used book store. I’m not entirely sure how accurate it was, but it gave the impression of spy agencies being more like TV than I was expecting- with lots of honey pot traps, kidnapping targets off the street into a tinted van, clever heists to steal blue prints over the course of a year, etc.

I’ve also been listening to The Hail Mary Project and it’s been really good

I'm reading a biography of Oliver Cromwell by John Buchan titled simply Cromwell. I don't really have the prerequisite knowledge of English History. Buchan drops names and I am like: who? But Wikipedia to the rescue. I type "Pym" into the search bar and navigating the disambiguation page to John Pym turns out to be easy.

Why am I reading about political turmoil and civil war? Because the book was only 50p in the Cat Protection League charity shop. Definitely nothing to do with contemporary resonances or grim forebodings.

I lack the prerequisites, too, so…what’s the resonance? Wasn’t this Revolution one of the Protestant schisms?

Speaking of Cromwells, last week I read through Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Oliver's distant ancestor, Thomas Cromwell (Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, The Mirror & the Light). Really enjoyed it. Historical fiction is often saddled when it deals with famous individuals but the incidents involved are simultaneously famous enough and factually unsure (like Anne Boleyn's fall) that it still finds itself with plenty of space to maneuver. Great prose too.

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