What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること, Hashiru Koto ni Tsuite Kataru …
Him, the Swedish translation for this book uses the the equivalent of the pronoun "one" (e.g. "when one is running") a lot. I wonder if that's an artefact from that you can omit pronouns in Japanese. You can do that when its obvious from the context, but there is still an implicit "I/she/he/they" there, so this is kind of strange.
Him, the Swedish translation for this book uses the the equivalent of the pronoun "one" (e.g. "when one is running") a lot. I wonder if that's an artefact from that you can omit pronouns in Japanese. You can do that when its obvious from the context, but there is still an implicit "I/she/he/they" there, so this is kind of strange.
1 New York Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us deeper into the Cosmere universe …
Content warning
chapter 1
I was going to say that the book so far is a bit overly clear, explaining stuff we already understand, until he hit me with the "this is a tale about ... gloves" joke. It didn't land well with me though since at first I couldn't make out what the narrator said :/
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with …
Here, have a mini-essay that summarises the chapter "The grammar of animacy", formatted in org-mode because I'm lazy.
The Indian language Potawatomi has a lot more verbs than English, 70% and 30% respectively of the words are verbs. One reason for this difference is that in Potawatomi words like "bay", "Saturday" or "hill" are verbs: "to be a bay", "to be Saturday" and "to be a hill". This may seem confusing, but the "verb-ness" of words are used to distinguish between animate and inanimate things.
A bay is only a noun if water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans, trapped between its shores and contained by the word. But the verb wiikwegamaa---to be a bay---releases the water from bondage and lets it live. "To be a bay" holds the wonder that, for this moment, the living water has decided …
Here, have a mini-essay that summarises the chapter "The grammar of animacy", formatted in org-mode because I'm lazy.
The Indian language Potawatomi has a lot more verbs than English, 70% and 30% respectively of the words are verbs. One reason for this difference is that in Potawatomi words like "bay", "Saturday" or "hill" are verbs: "to be a bay", "to be Saturday" and "to be a hill". This may seem confusing, but the "verb-ness" of words are used to distinguish between animate and inanimate things.
A bay is only a noun if water is dead. When bay is a noun, it is defined by humans, trapped between its shores and contained by the word. But the verb wiikwegamaa---to be a bay---releases the water from bondage and lets it live. "To be a bay" holds the wonder that, for this moment, the living water has decided to shelter itself between these shores, conversing with cedar root and a flock of baby mergansers. Because it could do otherwise---become a stream or an ocean or a waterfall, and there are verbs for that, too. To be a hill, to be a sandy beach, to be a Saturay, are all possible verbs in a world where everything is alive.
Saying "it is cooking food" when talking about your mother is almost hard to imagine because it would be so respectful, it would be to reduce her to a mere object. In English, this is still done about many things, it is classifying trees, animals, and lakes as objects when they could very well be subjects. Potawatomi has a grammar of animacy, a grammar that allows more to be people, to have animacy, to be subjects to consider. We don't necessarily need to speak Potawatomi to have this grammar, we could speak English (and other languages) with a grammar of animacy by using words like he/she/they and "someone" over words like "it" and "something". We could also go the other way; referring to people as "something" is probably still very weird, but some prefer the pronouns it/its which could blur the line between the animate and inanimate.
It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a …
I wonder if it's fair to compare this series to Kafka (I guess specifically to The Trial). mild spoilers:
The book feeds you with lots of clues and allusions that beg to be made sense of but it aggressively denies a cohesive picture like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces just don't fit.
I wonder if it's fair to compare this series to Kafka (I guess specifically to The Trial).
mild spoilers:
The book feeds you with lots of clues and allusions that beg to be made sense of but it aggressively denies a cohesive picture like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces just don't fit.
It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a …
Whew, there's a lot to unpack and process with this one. I don't know if I liked them, but I don't know in a good way. I think the titles of each book can serve as a lens to look back on them, even though Authority is the most unclear to me with that approach.
Whew, there's a lot to unpack and process with this one. I don't know if I liked them, but I don't know in a good way. I think the titles of each book can serve as a lens to look back on them, even though Authority is the most unclear to me with that approach.
It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a …
Content warning
chapter 14
OK there seems be some literalisation of certain images the people in area X have. The biologist and Control both speak of a "brightness" inside of them. Those are the exact words Saul Evans uses when he talks about people (before area X becomes a thing), that they all have a brightness inside of them that they direct towards each other, as a metaphor for how people interact with each other.
The director likens the influence of area X as "a silouhette writhing against a dull white screen". That really reminds me of the wall Control touches just before area X expands when the director returns.
Perhaps I too am searching for patterns that aren't there.
It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a …
The second part of this Book is called "Fixed light". A pretty interesting title since "fixed" could either mean "repaired" or "stationery"/" unmoving". I have no idea which it is beforehand.
The second part of this Book is called "Fixed light". A pretty interesting title since "fixed" could either mean "repaired" or "stationery"/" unmoving". I have no idea which it is beforehand.
For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area …
Whew, that was a ride! I don't think I can skip the last book now.
There's still a lot of things I don't understand, but one thing that has become clearer to me is that the author is really good to use style to convey mood. The first book is from a very detached point of view, and it shows in the dryness of the book. This book is more emotional and the prose changes style well accordingly, especially during times of high stress or unfocused delirium.
Whew, that was a ride! I don't think I can skip the last book now.
There's still a lot of things I don't understand, but one thing that has become clearer to me is that the author is really good to use style to convey mood. The first book is from a very detached point of view, and it shows in the dryness of the book. This book is more emotional and the prose changes style well accordingly, especially during times of high stress or unfocused delirium.
The opening chapter in an epic fantasy masterpiece....Bled dry by interminable warfare, infighting and bloody …
So I was listening to an interview with the author Steven Erikson. One of the questions was about the epigraphs of each chapter. For those who haven't read the books, each chapter starts with a short poem or an excerpt from a history book. The question was if he wrote the chapter or the epigraph first, and the wild thing is that he wrote the epigraphs first! They touch on the themes of the book in some way, so apparently those also served as his notes for what this chapter is going to be about.
So I was listening to an interview with the author Steven Erikson. One of the questions was about the epigraphs of each chapter. For those who haven't read the books, each chapter starts with a short poem or an excerpt from a history book. The question was if he wrote the chapter or the epigraph first, and the wild thing is that he wrote the epigraphs first! They touch on the themes of the book in some way, so apparently those also served as his notes for what this chapter is going to be about.
