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nickfourtimes's reviews
366 reviews
21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality by Bob Joseph
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
1) "Traditional names went against the government's assimilation objectives; the government feared that leaving Indigenous people with their traditional names would take away their motivation to assimilate.
Traditionally, Indians had neither a Christian name nor a surname. They had hereditary names, spirit names, family names, clan names, animal names, or nicknames. Hereditary names, in some cultures, are considered intangible wealth and carry great responsibility and certain rights. Hereditary names have been described as being analogous to royal titles such as Duke of Edinburgh. In many cultures, the birth name was just for that one stage of life, and additional names were given to mark milestones, acts of bravery, or feats of strength. None of the great heritage, symbolism, or tradition associated with names was recorded, recognized, or respected during the renaming process."
2) "In order to obtain a permit to pass, Indians would occasionally have to travel many days by foot to the Indian agent's house, not knowing if he would be there when they arrived. If the agent was away, they would either have to camp and wait, or return home. The pass system was also a means of maintaining a separation between Indians and the European farmers, which seems illogical considering the government's goal of assimilation—it's hard to achieve assimilation if the target population is isolated on reserves. The pass system restricted Indians' access to local towns in order to prevent Indian farmers from wasting their time when they should be tending their crops, which they were restricted from selling. The pass system additionally supported the government's attempts to quash potlatches, the Sun Dance, and other cultural practices."
3) "The right to vote, which most Canadians take for granted, was a hard-fought battle for Indigenous Peoples. In most parts of Canada, Indians were offered the right to vote at the time of Confederation—but only if they gave up their treaty rights and Indian status. Understandably, few were willing to do this. Métis people were not excluded from voting as few were covered by treaties and there was nothing to justify disqualifying them. Inuit were excluded from voting and no steps were taken to grant them the right to vote as most communities were geographically isolated. In the absence of special efforts to enable them to vote, the Inuit had no means of exercising the right."
4) "Indigenous self-government is often referred to as an 'inherent' right that pre-existed long before European settlement. For this reason, some Indigenous Peoples balk at the concept of Canadian governments granting them self-government, because they believe the Creator gave them the responsibilities of self-government and that that right has never been surrendered; it was simply taken by government legislation. In this light, self-government does not have to be recognized by federal or provincial governments because the right continues to exist."
Urania's Children by Ellic Howe
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.0
1) "The first astrologer I met—later there were to be many others—was introduced to me early in 1943 by Sefton Delmer, who was by far the most imaginative and skilful exponent of 'black' psychological warfare techniques that I encountered during close on four years' employment at the Political Warfare Executive. There were two sides to the department's output: BBC broadcasts to Germany and enemy-occupied Europe, also leaflets bearing the imprint of H. M. Government and dropped by the Royal Air Force, were all 'white'. 'Black' operations, however, never indicated their British origin. Various 'black' broadcasting stations skilfully gave the impression that they were being operated inside Germany, and great pains were taken to ensure that 'black' printed matter looked as if it had actually been produced there. 'Black' material was not delivered to Germany in bulk by the RAF but was conveyed by underground channels, hence in relatively small quantities."
2) "[While] both astrology and those who practise it continue to puzzle me, I believe that the symbolism they use, but so rarely appear to understand, has a certain objective beauty, even logic. The possible meaning of the symbols, in their ever-varying combinations, can sometimes be sensed in the course of a subjective, incommunicable experience. The magic spell is broken the moment one tries to translate everything into ordinary, everyday words. Hence my theory that astrology would be fine without the astrologers."
3) "During the final decade of his long professional career Morrison-Zadkiel was little in the public eye. The 1862 almanac was the last in which Zadkiel advertised his willingness to accept professional work and Samuel Smith made his final appearance in 1863 when Zadkiel stated that 'all letters or applications on any subject whatever' were to be sent to his alter ego at Brompton post office.
In the 1870 almanac, which was published in the autumn of 1869, he failed to predict the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, but announced the existence of The Most Ancient Order of the Suastika, or Brotherhood of the Mystic Cross. The subscription for an 'Apprentice Brother' was a modest 10s. 6d. Not to be outdone, Mr Sparkes, who edited the rival Raphael almanac, advertised The Society of the Most Ancient Magi, 'instituted for the especial purpose of advocating astrology in its purity, and for the spreading of Occult Knowledge'."
4) "A surprisingly large number of Germans, including many well-educated men and women, began to study astrology in the early 1920s. The reason for this sudden preoccupation with a hitherto unfashionable, even mildly disreputable area, is not difficult to discover. The aftermath of military defeat, with all its problems and uncertainties, including a runaway currency inflation which was only brought under control at the end of 1923, persuaded many to look to 'the stars' for information and portents of better times to come. Before 1914 the comparatively few German astrologers were mostly Theosophists or occultists or both. They regarded astrology as an essentially Hermetic science. However, a large proportion of the newcomers were interested in neither Theosophy, its offspring Anthroposophy, nor traditional occultism, and preferred to think of astrology as a science in its own right which, given time and the breakdown of traditional prejudices, would be widely accepted as such."
5) "While serving on the Russian front during the 1914-18 war Witte attempted to predict the times of Russian artillery barrages on the basis of a careful astrological record of previous ones. Given this or that combination of cosmic factors, then the Russian guns might be expected to open fire at a given moment. That, at least, was the theory. Witte, however, was puzzled by the fact that Russian shells frequently exploded in the Russian lines when, pace the stars, they should have remained silent. Intrigued by this illogical state of affairs, he sought for an answer. Eureka, it was found. These inexplicable manifestations could only be due to the influence of a planet or planets, as yet unidentified, beyond the orbit of Neptune. This deduction led to the 'discovery' of a hypothetical planet which was subsequently named Cupido. Later he and his friend Friedrich Sieggrün found seven more Transneptunian bodies which they called, in the order of their presumed distance from the Sun, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus and Poseidon. The next task was to calculate ephemerides so astrologers could incorporate these hypothetical planets in horoscopes. I have no idea how this was done."
6) "Others who met Krafft much later also recalled his gnomelike appearance. Countess Keyserling wrote in English: 'He was a queer little fellow, looked like a gnome; very pale and with burning black eyes; rather decadent like many Swiss people whose ancestors lived in a valley and inbred a lot... There was some flame burning in him, but a cold fire, like one of those dancing lights one reads about in books, which lead people astray in a swamp.'"
7) "Very little is known about the early stages of Krafft's ambitious plan, but its broad outlines can be deduced from his correspondence and publications. He sensibly decided to ignore the old astrological Tradition, with its mass of vague and often conflicting statements, and hoped to discover whether the objective statistical analysis of the factors in a large number of horoscopes would produce any data that was outside the law of mathematical probability. The presence of such data would not necessarily prove the validity of the Tradition but, he supposed, would at least indicate the existence of astral 'phenomena' as yet unknown to orthodox scientists. Hence it was not his purpose to establish, for example, that Moon in Libra in the sixth House means this or that but, rather, to identify unexpected angular frequencies or equally unexpected groupings of planets in any small sector of the 360° of the ecliptic between 0° Aries and 29° Pisces."
8) "Krafft claimed to have discovered correlations between cosmic cycles or periodicities, e.g. the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction (19.83 years), and economic fluctuations or crises. He had made a particular study of William Beveridge's 'Wheat Prices and Rain Fall in Western Europe' (in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society), and H. L. Moore's Generating Economic Cycles, New York, 1923. Both these researchers had identified economic cycles but had not associated them with cosmic phenomena. Krafft felt sure that the latter must be present and made two large-scale investigations covering German wheat prices, 1800-1930, and American railway share prices, 1831-1932. All manner of previously unsuspected related planetary periodicities and sub-periodicities were found. In fact, Krafft being the man he was, it would have been surprising if he had not discovered them."
9) [Questionnaire from the Reichssicherheitshauptamt] "11. Should members of different races (Aryans, Jews, Chinese and Negroes) — born at the same place under identical constellations expect the same astrological interpretations? If yes, then do you not admit the racial requirements of fate?"
10) "Copies of two papers alleged to have been written by Krafft at this time were in Herr Goerner's possession when I saw him. He told me that he had taken them with him when he was eventually released in April 1943. They are of interest for two reasons. Firstly, apart from a curious circumstance in connection with the horoscope of General Sir Claude Auchinleck, they represent such futile examples of short essays or background notes obviously written for psychological warfare purposes, that one can only wonder at the stupidity of the people who used Kraft's services for this purpose. Secondly, if Krafft was really responsible for these productions, he either had his tongue in his cheek or actually believed in his own nonsense."
11) "It was probably Krafft's realisation that his sole function was to provide astrological fodder for processing by hacks in the Propaganda Ministry that contributed as much as anything else to his subsequent nervous breakdown, for when he first arrived at the Muratti building he had supposed that he had something important to contribute to the German war effort. Symptoms of a kind familiar to psychiatrists now developed: he who had always been so tallkative and willing to communicate became increasingly withdrawn and silent."
2) "[While] both astrology and those who practise it continue to puzzle me, I believe that the symbolism they use, but so rarely appear to understand, has a certain objective beauty, even logic. The possible meaning of the symbols, in their ever-varying combinations, can sometimes be sensed in the course of a subjective, incommunicable experience. The magic spell is broken the moment one tries to translate everything into ordinary, everyday words. Hence my theory that astrology would be fine without the astrologers."
3) "During the final decade of his long professional career Morrison-Zadkiel was little in the public eye. The 1862 almanac was the last in which Zadkiel advertised his willingness to accept professional work and Samuel Smith made his final appearance in 1863 when Zadkiel stated that 'all letters or applications on any subject whatever' were to be sent to his alter ego at Brompton post office.
In the 1870 almanac, which was published in the autumn of 1869, he failed to predict the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, but announced the existence of The Most Ancient Order of the Suastika, or Brotherhood of the Mystic Cross. The subscription for an 'Apprentice Brother' was a modest 10s. 6d. Not to be outdone, Mr Sparkes, who edited the rival Raphael almanac, advertised The Society of the Most Ancient Magi, 'instituted for the especial purpose of advocating astrology in its purity, and for the spreading of Occult Knowledge'."
4) "A surprisingly large number of Germans, including many well-educated men and women, began to study astrology in the early 1920s. The reason for this sudden preoccupation with a hitherto unfashionable, even mildly disreputable area, is not difficult to discover. The aftermath of military defeat, with all its problems and uncertainties, including a runaway currency inflation which was only brought under control at the end of 1923, persuaded many to look to 'the stars' for information and portents of better times to come. Before 1914 the comparatively few German astrologers were mostly Theosophists or occultists or both. They regarded astrology as an essentially Hermetic science. However, a large proportion of the newcomers were interested in neither Theosophy, its offspring Anthroposophy, nor traditional occultism, and preferred to think of astrology as a science in its own right which, given time and the breakdown of traditional prejudices, would be widely accepted as such."
5) "While serving on the Russian front during the 1914-18 war Witte attempted to predict the times of Russian artillery barrages on the basis of a careful astrological record of previous ones. Given this or that combination of cosmic factors, then the Russian guns might be expected to open fire at a given moment. That, at least, was the theory. Witte, however, was puzzled by the fact that Russian shells frequently exploded in the Russian lines when, pace the stars, they should have remained silent. Intrigued by this illogical state of affairs, he sought for an answer. Eureka, it was found. These inexplicable manifestations could only be due to the influence of a planet or planets, as yet unidentified, beyond the orbit of Neptune. This deduction led to the 'discovery' of a hypothetical planet which was subsequently named Cupido. Later he and his friend Friedrich Sieggrün found seven more Transneptunian bodies which they called, in the order of their presumed distance from the Sun, Hades, Zeus, Kronos, Apollon, Admetos, Vulkanus and Poseidon. The next task was to calculate ephemerides so astrologers could incorporate these hypothetical planets in horoscopes. I have no idea how this was done."
6) "Others who met Krafft much later also recalled his gnomelike appearance. Countess Keyserling wrote in English: 'He was a queer little fellow, looked like a gnome; very pale and with burning black eyes; rather decadent like many Swiss people whose ancestors lived in a valley and inbred a lot... There was some flame burning in him, but a cold fire, like one of those dancing lights one reads about in books, which lead people astray in a swamp.'"
7) "Very little is known about the early stages of Krafft's ambitious plan, but its broad outlines can be deduced from his correspondence and publications. He sensibly decided to ignore the old astrological Tradition, with its mass of vague and often conflicting statements, and hoped to discover whether the objective statistical analysis of the factors in a large number of horoscopes would produce any data that was outside the law of mathematical probability. The presence of such data would not necessarily prove the validity of the Tradition but, he supposed, would at least indicate the existence of astral 'phenomena' as yet unknown to orthodox scientists. Hence it was not his purpose to establish, for example, that Moon in Libra in the sixth House means this or that but, rather, to identify unexpected angular frequencies or equally unexpected groupings of planets in any small sector of the 360° of the ecliptic between 0° Aries and 29° Pisces."
8) "Krafft claimed to have discovered correlations between cosmic cycles or periodicities, e.g. the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction (19.83 years), and economic fluctuations or crises. He had made a particular study of William Beveridge's 'Wheat Prices and Rain Fall in Western Europe' (in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society), and H. L. Moore's Generating Economic Cycles, New York, 1923. Both these researchers had identified economic cycles but had not associated them with cosmic phenomena. Krafft felt sure that the latter must be present and made two large-scale investigations covering German wheat prices, 1800-1930, and American railway share prices, 1831-1932. All manner of previously unsuspected related planetary periodicities and sub-periodicities were found. In fact, Krafft being the man he was, it would have been surprising if he had not discovered them."
9) [Questionnaire from the Reichssicherheitshauptamt] "11. Should members of different races (Aryans, Jews, Chinese and Negroes) — born at the same place under identical constellations expect the same astrological interpretations? If yes, then do you not admit the racial requirements of fate?"
10) "Copies of two papers alleged to have been written by Krafft at this time were in Herr Goerner's possession when I saw him. He told me that he had taken them with him when he was eventually released in April 1943. They are of interest for two reasons. Firstly, apart from a curious circumstance in connection with the horoscope of General Sir Claude Auchinleck, they represent such futile examples of short essays or background notes obviously written for psychological warfare purposes, that one can only wonder at the stupidity of the people who used Kraft's services for this purpose. Secondly, if Krafft was really responsible for these productions, he either had his tongue in his cheek or actually believed in his own nonsense."
11) "It was probably Krafft's realisation that his sole function was to provide astrological fodder for processing by hacks in the Propaganda Ministry that contributed as much as anything else to his subsequent nervous breakdown, for when he first arrived at the Muratti building he had supposed that he had something important to contribute to the German war effort. Symptoms of a kind familiar to psychiatrists now developed: he who had always been so tallkative and willing to communicate became increasingly withdrawn and silent."
The Hard Switch by Owen D. Pomery
adventurous
funny
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
1) "The Hard Switch is coming. This is the name people have given to the point when alcanite runs out. The once commonplace mineral that enables inter-system jump navigation. When the last piece has gone, the vast, diverse and scattered inhabitants of the galaxy will be stuck wherever they are. Some will have the means to choose this. Others will take what they've got. Or at least the best they can get."
2) "'Welcome! Oh, what's this? A pet?'
'Don't... touch... the glass.'
*Hhhrrrkkk...!*
'I'm an engineer.'"
3) "'Hallsman.'
'Fuck! You scared me. This is a very alarmist way to deliver my payment.'"
4) "'They increased the size of the landing disc to take mega-freight, in a bid to get as much mineral off-planet before The Switch. People here are working overtime to make as much out of it as possible before it all shuts down.
Makes no sense though, when all planets are isolated again, economies will become localised and no one has any idea what the Standard will be worth here by then. But no one is thinking long term, everyone believes they have a plan to get off-world before the bridges go down.
They think they're unique in that too. But in reality the maths doesn't work. How about you?'
'Ah, don't worry about us. We've got a plan.'
'Haha. Of course.'"
5) "'Brace yourselves, this won't be graceful.'"
Tenth of December by George Saunders
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
1) "From across the woods, as if by common accord, birds left their trees and darted upward. I joined them, flew among them, they did not recognize me as something apart from them, and I was happy, so happy, because for the first time in years, and forevermore, I had not killed, and never would."
2) "We left home, married, had children of our own, found the seeds of meanness blooming also within us."
3) "Oh, God, what a beautiful world! The autumn colors, that glinting river, that lead-colored cloud pointing down like a rounded arrow at that half-remodeled McDonald's standing above I-90 like a castle."
4) "Yeah, right. Like any of that was happening. Like he was racing back. They'd see through him. They'd fry his ass. People were always seeing through him and frying his ass. When he'd stolen Kirk Desner's flip-downs, the kids on the team had seen through him and fried his ass. The time he'd cheated on Syl, Syl had seen through him, broken off their engagement, and cheated on him with Charles, which had fried his ass possibly worse than any single other ass frying he'd ever had, in a life that, it recently seemed, was simply a series of escalating ass fries."
5) "So goodnight to all future generations. Please know I was a person like you, I too breathed air and tensed legs while trying to sleep and, when writing with pencil, sometimes brought pencil to nose to smell."
6) "I took me to the Banks of the River, and tarried there awhile, as the lowering Sun made one with the Water, giving generously of Itself & its Divers Colors, in a Splay of Magnificence that preceded a most wonderful Silence."
7) "Yes, Suzanne said. We also have a pool. You should come over this summer. It's cool if you swim with your shirt on. And also, yes to there being something to us. You are by far the most insightful boy in our class. Even when I take into consideration the boys I knew in Montreal, I am just like: No one can compare."
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
1) "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men."
2) "There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought. Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees. Towards morning she muttered, 'Lawd, you know mah heart. Ah done de best Ah could do. De rest is left to you.' She scuffled up from her knees and fell heavily across the bed. A month later she was dead.
So Janie waited a bloom time, and a green time and an orange time. But when the pollen again gilded the sun and sifted down on the world she began to stand around the gate and expect things. What things? She didn't know exactly. Her breath was gusty and short. She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, 'Ah hope you fall on soft ground,' because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed. She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether. She knew that God tore down the old world every evening and built a new one by sun-up. It was wonderful to see it take form with the sun and emerge from the gray dust of its making. The familiar people and things had failed her so she hung over the gate and looked up the road towards way off. She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie's first dream was dead, so she became a woman."
3) "The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again. So she put something in there to represent the spirit like a Virgin Mary image in a church. The bed was no longer a daisy-field for her and Joe to play in. It was a place where she went and laid down when she was sleepy and tired.
She wasn't petal-open anymore with him. She was twenty-four and seven years married when she knew. She found that out one day when he slapped her face in the kitchen. It happened over one of those dinners that chasten all women sometimes. They plan and they fix and they do, and then some kitchen-dwelling fiend slips a scorchy, soggy, tasteless mess into their pots and pans. Janie was a good cook, and Joe had looked forward to his dinner as a refuge from other things. So when the bread didn't rise, and the fish wasn't quite done at the bone, and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on back to the store.
Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered. But looking at it she saw that it never was the flesh and blood figure of her dreams. Just something she had grabbed up to drape her dreams over. In a way she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further. She had no more blossomy openings dusting pollen over her man, neither any glistening young fruit where the petals used to be. She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them."
4) "She didn't read books so she didn't know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop. Man attempting to climb to painless heights from his dung hill.
Then one day she sat and watched the shadow of herself going about tending store and prostrating itself before Jody, while all the time she herself sat under a shady tree with the wind blowing through her hair and her clothes. Somebody near about making summertime out of lonesomeness."
5) "She got up to stir around and see if she could find him, and found herself too worn out to do much. All she found out was that she was too old a vessel for new wine."
6) "All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom. Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood."
7) "In a little wind-lull, Tea Cake touched Janie and said, 'Ah reckon you wish now you had of stayed in yo' big house 'way from such as dis, don't yuh?'
'Naw.'
'Naw?'
'Yeah, naw. People don't die till dey time come nohow, don't keer where you at. Ah'm wid mah husband in uh storm, dat's all.'
'Thanky, Ma'am. But 'sposing you wuz tuh die, now. You wouldn't git mad at me for draggin' yuh heah?'
'Naw. We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don't keer if you die at dusk. It's so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin' round and God opened de door.'
He dropped to the floor and put his head in her lap. 'Well then, Janie, you meant whut you didn't say, 'cause Ah never knowed you wuz so satisfied wid me lak dat. Ah kinda thought—'
The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."
8) "'Ah know all dem sitters-and-talkers gointuh worry they guts into fiddle strings till dey find out whut we been talkin' 'bout. Dat's all right, Pheoby, tell 'em. Dey gointuh make 'miration 'cause mah love didn't work lak they love, if dey ever had any. Then you must tell 'em dat love ain't somethin' lak uh grindstone dat's de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.'"
A Little History of Art by Charlotte Mullins
informative
medium-paced
3.0
1) "It is 1305 in Padua, Italy, and Giotto is showing his assistant where to spread today's fresh plaster on the chapel wall. He is going to paint on it while it is still damp using a technique called buon fresco, so his colours sink into the plaster to form a luminous wall painting. It is quite a challenge, knowing just how much plaster to apply. He has to paint the whole lot in one day or it will dry out and his colours will no longer be locked in but will sit on top. He knows what he is doing though - he has been painting frescoes in Enrico Scrovegni's private chapel for over two years now. The chapel will soon be complete, the walls covered in frescoes and the ceiling twinkling with gold stars against a dark blue heavenly sky."
2) "It is midnight on 14 May 1504 as a giant naked man begins to move through Florence's silent streets. The man is David, Michelangelo's most ambitious sculpture to date. It has taken him two years to carve and has taken the cathedral board almost as long to agree on where to locate it. Michelangelo signed a contract to make a colossal sculpture for the top of the cathedral's façade but ultimately the board decided to give it a more public home. It is now to be placed outside the Palazzo della Signoria, home to Florence's government."
3) "Claude's collectors were not Poussin's intellectuals but the aristocracy of Europe. In Claude's paintings, trees again frame the landscape and draw us in to the view. In Pastoral Landscape from 1647 the trees flank the river, which lures us further into the scene as we follow its path to the hazy mountains in the distance. People are present only to give scale and pinpoints of colour. In many of his scenes the sun is rising, casting a golden glow over every leaf and blade of grass. The rich morning light hovers over, under and in front of everything it touches.
Landscape is not natural; it doesn't simply exist. Landscape is not the land itself but a carefully selected view that is sketched or painted to tell a particular story of man's relationship to the earth. For Poussin and Claude it is dotted with fictitious Roman temples and harks back to the dawn of classicism. For Dutch artists, by contrast, landscape reflected aspects of contemporary life. Windmills and churches rise from flat swathes of land; boats and ships set sail under heavy skies. The rise in Dutch landscape painting was fuelled by the interests of the middle-class collectors who bought them. They didn't live in private palaces or cathedral cloisters but out there, in the real world, where their ships bobbed at anchor and their windmills turned in the fields. They had fought hard for their land, battling rival nations and even the sea itself, by pumping low-lying lakes dry to create more land for farming."
4) "Shortly after this exhibition [Jacob Epstein] dismantled Rock Drill and amputated the figure at the waist. He removed one arm before casting it in bronze and later exhibited the mutilated torso without the drill. The First World War, which had started in 1914, stripped him of his enthusiasm for futuristic machinery. He wrote that the Rock Drill figure now represented the armed, sinister figure of today and tomorrow. No humanity, only the terrible Frankenstein's monster we have made ourselves into? The battle droids in Star Wars bear an uncanny resemblance to Epstein's original figure - inhuman robots each wielding an automatic weapon."
Les damnés de la terre by Frantz Fanon
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 29%.
the prose is dense, technical, and, well, french. i would not get out of it all that it has to give.
Rose à l'île by Michel Rabagliati
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
1) "J'ai loué un petit chalet avec ma fille pour quelques jours, loin de la ville. En fait, c'est elle qui l'a trouvé sur Internet. Une annulation de dernière minute."
2) "— J'ai pris une douche pis toute, ça fait du bien! C'est capoté, cette bécosse-là, mais ça marche bien pareil! C'est quoi, la toune que tu jouais?
— Mazurka des planètes.
— C'est beau, ça fitte avec ici, je trouve.
— Oui, c'est très marin.
— J'ai faim, je fais ma spécialité: grilled-cheese-cretons, t'en veux?
— Pour sûr!"
3) "Quelques semaines après les obsèques, je suis allé chercher des trucs qu'il désirait nous laisser, à ma sœur et à moi. Ça tenait dans deux sacs IGA. Il ne nous a pas laissé d'argent, il n'en avait pas, ce qui n'était pas vraiment une surprise.
Dans le premier sac, il y avait des enveloppes avec des photos de ma grand-tante, de ma grand-mère et de mon grand-père, des certificats de naissance, des passeports, des papiers d'immigration datant de leur arrivée au Canada dans les années 1930. Il y avait aussi tout un fatras de vieilles correspondances, des cartes postales écrites par des gens dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler, des médailles de guerre, des chaînettes, des breloques, quelques bijoux sans valeur, deux vieilles montres qui ne fonctionnaient plus, quelques décorations à chapeaux et des fleurs en corde que ma tante Janette fabriquait."
4) "Comment en suis-je arrivé là? Il y a des jours où je ne le sais plus vraiment. Avec le temps, c'est devenu flou. J'admets que je suis en grande partie responsable de mon naufrage, mais tout de même. Il y a cinq ans que le navire a sombré et que je flotte, encore accroché aux débris. Il faudrait tout de même avancer un peu, regarder vers l'avenir, tirer des plans, ce genre de chose. Le passé ne revient pas et l'avenir n'est pas encore là, seul le moment présent importe. Shit, je l'ai-tu entendue à toutes les sauces, celle-là. Aujourd'hui est le premier jour du reste de votre vie! Ben oui! Pis hier est le jour d'avant le premier jour du reste de votre vie et demain est le jour qui vient après le premier jour du reste de votre vie. Gimme a break, simonac!
Bon, inutile de s'énerver, on parle pour parler. C'est pour ça qu'on fume sur un rocher en regardant le fleuve. C'est fait pour ça, le fleuve: regarder au loin en fumant la pipe comme un vieux pêcheur de morue brodé au point de croix."
5) "C'est des affaires ben simples. Les petites joies de la vie sont autour de nous, pas à Disneyland. Le bonheur, c'est pas spectaculaire."
2) "— J'ai pris une douche pis toute, ça fait du bien! C'est capoté, cette bécosse-là, mais ça marche bien pareil! C'est quoi, la toune que tu jouais?
— Mazurka des planètes.
— C'est beau, ça fitte avec ici, je trouve.
— Oui, c'est très marin.
— J'ai faim, je fais ma spécialité: grilled-cheese-cretons, t'en veux?
— Pour sûr!"
3) "Quelques semaines après les obsèques, je suis allé chercher des trucs qu'il désirait nous laisser, à ma sœur et à moi. Ça tenait dans deux sacs IGA. Il ne nous a pas laissé d'argent, il n'en avait pas, ce qui n'était pas vraiment une surprise.
Dans le premier sac, il y avait des enveloppes avec des photos de ma grand-tante, de ma grand-mère et de mon grand-père, des certificats de naissance, des passeports, des papiers d'immigration datant de leur arrivée au Canada dans les années 1930. Il y avait aussi tout un fatras de vieilles correspondances, des cartes postales écrites par des gens dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler, des médailles de guerre, des chaînettes, des breloques, quelques bijoux sans valeur, deux vieilles montres qui ne fonctionnaient plus, quelques décorations à chapeaux et des fleurs en corde que ma tante Janette fabriquait."
4) "Comment en suis-je arrivé là? Il y a des jours où je ne le sais plus vraiment. Avec le temps, c'est devenu flou. J'admets que je suis en grande partie responsable de mon naufrage, mais tout de même. Il y a cinq ans que le navire a sombré et que je flotte, encore accroché aux débris. Il faudrait tout de même avancer un peu, regarder vers l'avenir, tirer des plans, ce genre de chose. Le passé ne revient pas et l'avenir n'est pas encore là, seul le moment présent importe. Shit, je l'ai-tu entendue à toutes les sauces, celle-là. Aujourd'hui est le premier jour du reste de votre vie! Ben oui! Pis hier est le jour d'avant le premier jour du reste de votre vie et demain est le jour qui vient après le premier jour du reste de votre vie. Gimme a break, simonac!
Bon, inutile de s'énerver, on parle pour parler. C'est pour ça qu'on fume sur un rocher en regardant le fleuve. C'est fait pour ça, le fleuve: regarder au loin en fumant la pipe comme un vieux pêcheur de morue brodé au point de croix."
5) "C'est des affaires ben simples. Les petites joies de la vie sont autour de nous, pas à Disneyland. Le bonheur, c'est pas spectaculaire."
The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern by Carol Strickland
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.0
1) "Art was born around 25,000 years ago, when the subhuman Neanderthal evolved into our human ancestor, Cro-Magnon man. With greater intelligence came imagination and the ability to create images in both painting and sculpture." [yeesh.]
2) "For Western civilization the nineteenth century was an age of upheaval. The church lost its grip, monarchies toppled, and new democracies suffered growing pains. In short, tradition lost its luster and the future was up for grabs. Unfamiliar forces like industrialization and urbanization made cities bulge with masses of dissatisfied poor. The fast pace of scientific progress and the ills of unrestrained capitalism caused more confusion."
3) "American midwestern architect Louis Sullivan's credo of 'form follows function' became the rallying cry of the day. The new designs were to express a building's commercial purpose, without any overlay of historical ornament. It was somehow fitting that the first new school of architecture to emerge in centuries was born in Chicago, 'Stormy, husky, brawling, /City of the Big Shoulders,' as poet Carl Sandburg would later call it. Chicago was a city without a past, a city of new immigrants that seemed to be making itself up as it went along."
2) "For Western civilization the nineteenth century was an age of upheaval. The church lost its grip, monarchies toppled, and new democracies suffered growing pains. In short, tradition lost its luster and the future was up for grabs. Unfamiliar forces like industrialization and urbanization made cities bulge with masses of dissatisfied poor. The fast pace of scientific progress and the ills of unrestrained capitalism caused more confusion."
3) "American midwestern architect Louis Sullivan's credo of 'form follows function' became the rallying cry of the day. The new designs were to express a building's commercial purpose, without any overlay of historical ornament. It was somehow fitting that the first new school of architecture to emerge in centuries was born in Chicago, 'Stormy, husky, brawling, /City of the Big Shoulders,' as poet Carl Sandburg would later call it. Chicago was a city without a past, a city of new immigrants that seemed to be making itself up as it went along."
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings by Ken Williams
informative
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
4.0
1) "I have three great loves in life: Roberta, computers and boats. That said, this is not a book about any of those things, although the first two of those are important to the story."
2) "If you want to win in life, find something to sell, and sell it. Learn to accept and even cherish rejection. [...]
The newspaper had never seen anyone like me. I was a selling machine. I loved selling, and I especially loved making money. I claimed every sales award and couldn't stop selling."
3) "Did I mention that I know how to sell?
Being a starving seventeen-year-old, our first date was not particularly amazing. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and talked for hours. A couple weeks and a handful of dates later, I informed Roberta that we were to be married. She thought I was insane or joking, but that's only because she didn't know me. That was about to change.
Her dad became my strongest ally, and saw in me a chance to rescue his errant daughter. He pushed Roberta from his end, and threw roadblocks in the way of other suitors.
It took a few dates to sell Roberta on the idea of marriage but closing a sale is what I do best."
4) "We needed to form a real corporation for her to buy part of, transfer ownership of all the games into the corporation, and then sell her some stock. With the help of lawyers she referred us to, all of that was quickly accomplished.
Unfortunately, during this process I discovered that there was already a large company that had our company name, 'On-Line Systems.' I was very proud of my background dealing with networks and knew, even at the time, that networking would someday be key to Sierra's future. I wanted to keep the 'on-line' part of the business name. Renaming the company did not require a lot of creativity. We were located near Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains, near the famous landmark Half Dome. So, overnight we became Sierra On-Line, with Half Dome as our logo."
5) "Instead of just doing a revved up version of Wizard and Princess, Roberta had started a new game, to be called King's Quest. IBM was giving us upfront money, as royalty advances, to help fund the development of the game.
In hopes of bringing back some of the laid off employees, I flew to IBM and pitched them on additional games, and even a word processor! During that meeting I showed them the progress we were making on King's Quest and they were blown away."
6) "We overworked our developers, and this resulted in union organizing. This was a low point for morale around the company. I was personally devastated. From my perspective, I was doing whatever it took to provide jobs and grow the company. However, the employees felt the company was abusing them.
In fact, both sides were correct."
7) "As Sierra would rise and fall over the years there would be employees who were laid off, or just didn't make the cut. DJ, our older son, was bullied in school by the children of former Sierra employees who had a grudge against Sierra. One parent, an ex-Sierra employee, even slugged DJ. Question: What adult slugs an elementary school kid? The answer, 'Someone with a grudge against their employer.' It was a company town, with all the good and bad that goes with it."
8) "One day toward the end of 1996, I received an email. In it, Gabe Newell said he had an early build of a game ready for presentation. Sierra had no interest in publishing games that we hadn't developed internally, but given the circumstances, I took the meeting. I figured that, in the worst case, I'd get the inside scoop on how they were able to obtain rights to the Quake engine.
In November, Sierra and Valve had set a meeting, which ended up happening during a rare Washington snowstorm. I do not recall many details from the meeting itself, except that within half an hour of Valve's presentation of their game, called Half-Life, I made my pitch and offered to publish their game."
9) "Walter Forbes and his management team had lied to Sierra and were destroying the company we had spent seventeen years of our lives building. At that point, all Roberta and I wanted was to get away from CUC. I tried to put the best possible face on the disaster, but there was no denying that the merger was a total mess. That said, I remained convinced that Walter and his team were smart business people and that the software business would recover. Perhaps without the Davidsons and myself the company would shift to focusing on product and stop being sidetracked by anything to do with the former leaders.
Roberta was even more upset than I was and insisted that we sell our stock along with my resignation. We talked about selling stock over a long period of time, but there had been a stock market crash in Asia and it rattled us. We decided to just blow out our CUC stock all at once. That decision would turn out to have been a very lucky one."
10) "This book is full of my opinions. I absolutely guarantee you that some of my opinions in this book are bad ideas. The problem is that I don't know which ones."
2) "If you want to win in life, find something to sell, and sell it. Learn to accept and even cherish rejection. [...]
The newspaper had never seen anyone like me. I was a selling machine. I loved selling, and I especially loved making money. I claimed every sales award and couldn't stop selling."
3) "Did I mention that I know how to sell?
Being a starving seventeen-year-old, our first date was not particularly amazing. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and talked for hours. A couple weeks and a handful of dates later, I informed Roberta that we were to be married. She thought I was insane or joking, but that's only because she didn't know me. That was about to change.
Her dad became my strongest ally, and saw in me a chance to rescue his errant daughter. He pushed Roberta from his end, and threw roadblocks in the way of other suitors.
It took a few dates to sell Roberta on the idea of marriage but closing a sale is what I do best."
4) "We needed to form a real corporation for her to buy part of, transfer ownership of all the games into the corporation, and then sell her some stock. With the help of lawyers she referred us to, all of that was quickly accomplished.
Unfortunately, during this process I discovered that there was already a large company that had our company name, 'On-Line Systems.' I was very proud of my background dealing with networks and knew, even at the time, that networking would someday be key to Sierra's future. I wanted to keep the 'on-line' part of the business name. Renaming the company did not require a lot of creativity. We were located near Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountains, near the famous landmark Half Dome. So, overnight we became Sierra On-Line, with Half Dome as our logo."
5) "Instead of just doing a revved up version of Wizard and Princess, Roberta had started a new game, to be called King's Quest. IBM was giving us upfront money, as royalty advances, to help fund the development of the game.
In hopes of bringing back some of the laid off employees, I flew to IBM and pitched them on additional games, and even a word processor! During that meeting I showed them the progress we were making on King's Quest and they were blown away."
6) "We overworked our developers, and this resulted in union organizing. This was a low point for morale around the company. I was personally devastated. From my perspective, I was doing whatever it took to provide jobs and grow the company. However, the employees felt the company was abusing them.
In fact, both sides were correct."
7) "As Sierra would rise and fall over the years there would be employees who were laid off, or just didn't make the cut. DJ, our older son, was bullied in school by the children of former Sierra employees who had a grudge against Sierra. One parent, an ex-Sierra employee, even slugged DJ. Question: What adult slugs an elementary school kid? The answer, 'Someone with a grudge against their employer.' It was a company town, with all the good and bad that goes with it."
8) "One day toward the end of 1996, I received an email. In it, Gabe Newell said he had an early build of a game ready for presentation. Sierra had no interest in publishing games that we hadn't developed internally, but given the circumstances, I took the meeting. I figured that, in the worst case, I'd get the inside scoop on how they were able to obtain rights to the Quake engine.
In November, Sierra and Valve had set a meeting, which ended up happening during a rare Washington snowstorm. I do not recall many details from the meeting itself, except that within half an hour of Valve's presentation of their game, called Half-Life, I made my pitch and offered to publish their game."
9) "Walter Forbes and his management team had lied to Sierra and were destroying the company we had spent seventeen years of our lives building. At that point, all Roberta and I wanted was to get away from CUC. I tried to put the best possible face on the disaster, but there was no denying that the merger was a total mess. That said, I remained convinced that Walter and his team were smart business people and that the software business would recover. Perhaps without the Davidsons and myself the company would shift to focusing on product and stop being sidetracked by anything to do with the former leaders.
Roberta was even more upset than I was and insisted that we sell our stock along with my resignation. We talked about selling stock over a long period of time, but there had been a stock market crash in Asia and it rattled us. We decided to just blow out our CUC stock all at once. That decision would turn out to have been a very lucky one."
10) "This book is full of my opinions. I absolutely guarantee you that some of my opinions in this book are bad ideas. The problem is that I don't know which ones."