Xan ’s Comments (group member since May 11, 2018)

Xan ’s comments from the Essays group.

Well, you could embrace postmodern historiography, declare there is no objective truth or that there are many truths, and then rethink history into an unfolding of a happier destiny. I'm only half kidding. I don't like postmodernism because it says things about us I don't like, but over the years I've begrudgingly admitted to myself they might have something when it comes to history.

It's always helpful to keep a character name matrix when reading Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

Thanks I'll keep in mind what you say about Andrei and Tolstoy going forward.

I'm also interested in the kind of women Natasha, Sophie, and Marya become. I'm getting a little ahead of myself in our reading, but I read somewhere that towards the end Natasha describes Sophie as (view spoiler)[a sterile flower (hide spoiler)]. What a whiplash comment that is, and what a far cry it is from the soothing advise Natasha, as a young girl, consoled Sophie with in the wonderful moment you mentioned.

And I'm even more intrigued about that comment now that I know Tolstoy's feelings towards women and who Marya and Natasha are modeled after. The whole Nikolai/Marya/Sophie dynamic is, well, interesting.

Sounds like the way Andrei treats his wife is the way Tolstoy thinks men should treat all women, particularly wives. Is Andrei the type of man Tolstoy thinks all men should strive to be?

Interesting that he describes women's qualities as vices in the current age but virtues in prior ones. In other words, it is not women who have changed but the times. Perhaps he should look elsewhere for blame?

I have problems with Andrei up to this point in the novel. He is an arrogant no-nothing, his conceit being he believes he knows much. His father suffers the same conceit.

Andrei, Nikolai, and a host of other wealthy aristocratic men think they know war and that it is noble. Tolstoy could have as easily blamed men for all that is wrong.

Cool

Murderbot, our lovable curmudgeon AI.

Yes, that was Napoleon. The French took the Rosetta Stone from Egyptians and the British took it from them. When Napoleon invaded Egypt he brought a bevy of scientists and collectors with him.

Ouch, Sappho. That's terrible.

What's with these people who steal ancient artifacts and keep them in their basement so only they can see them? Something seriously wrong with these people.

Interesting thing about poop, every species's poop is unique. Learn them all, and you can tell what animals inhabit an area without ever having seen them.

My ornithology professor speculated that birds poop to aid liftoff. I don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting idea.

He had a pet Myna bird. Don't ever get a Myna bird. They can mimic car and bus horns and train whistles, and they will do so in the middle of the night. Or so he says.

Papyrology -- We have a field for everything.

Decades spent piecing papyrus back together reminds me of Darwin spending eight years dissecting and cataloging barnacles. How exciting , , , for someone else. I wonder what type of glue one uses to piece together 3,000 year-old plant guts.

I hope this inspires a good ancient artifact forgery mystery novel.

Love that word, papyrus.

Don't cry. Laugh. Then laugh some more. Politics is where sublime comedy resides -- a reflecting pool, a memorial to folly and farce.

No, not full Clancy; slow Clancy.

Hey, while reading Animal Farm in english comp class a classmate insisted it was about the U.S. The rest of us had a good laugh. Now I want to find him to say, "Let's talk."

Funny or scary?

Yes, I'm watching this wearing more than a little deja vu with a smattering of OMG on my face.

Thanks, Ian. No, I don't think an ebook would work if the notes are not inline (same page). I hadn't thought of that. Hyperlinking back and forth between text and notes when there are a lot of notes is very intrusive and annoy me.

Lia wrote: "Let me know your user experience if you get it! I like the idea of keyword-searchable digital dictionary, but book as physical object I interact with has its appeal ... unless they’re so heavy they..."

You have a point. The hardcover edition is about 2500 pages. I'll probably get digital.

Lia wrote: "Are you thinking about the print or t..."

Print. I figure I'll be shuffling pages back and forth all over the book, and I don't like digital for that.

Having said that, the digital price is inviting. Also, I see there is a new edition at half the price of the previous one. Still a lot, but not what I thought it was.

Thanks, Ian. Now I remember why I didn't buy the one I really wanted, the Oxford Annotated Bible: the price. Perhaps HarperCollins.

If not ex nihilo, I think you have the problem of where the something else came from. Can God be omnipotent if the something else out of which he creates the world is already there? Who created it?

Now this may not have been the view at the time of the creation stories, but I think it became the view.

Why do you call it Essays? Meaning your essays?

Thanks, Lia. Very interesting and useful.

All of this interests me very much.

However, I don't have the bandwidth to read and study this the way you guys have. This worries me that I won't get nearly enough out of the group discussion, or I will be lost in it. Is there any one book you would recommend alongside reading the bible?

Question open to everyone.