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Notes -
So, what are you reading?
I'm going through the Quran. Some themes are emerging. The sight of the unseen, the desire to express things which seem difficult to communicate, the rejection of wealth and privilege as a justification for belief, and above all the adherence to principle rather than expedience because the things desired were themselves provided by their God. Repetition of form but not substance seems like a principal means of expressing subtlety.
There's an evident underlying rage, but I think that we lose much by examining only the words and not the approach. There was a dream here, one which may help fill some of the gaps in my understanding.
Still on McGilchrist and Dumas.
Going on a Jack the Ripper walking tour around Whitechapel in January (after which my poor girlfriend couldn't sleep a wink, God bless her) inspired me to reread Alan Moore's From Hell. I never rated it as highly as Watchmen (which I also reread last year), but reading it this time I think it might be even better. From Hell feels a lot more interested in actually telling a story rather than showing off what can be done with the medium. It's also exhaustively researched: you get the distinct impression that Alan Moore has read any and every book with even the most tangential connection to Jack the Ripper from cover to cover.
The review of Lying for Money (of "the optimal amount of fraud is not zero" fame) posted on Astral Codex Ten is so fascinating that I've read it three times - if that's not a recommendation for the book itself I don't know what is, so I bought it yesterday and I'm going to read it next.
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