Clare > Recent Status Updates

Stories like The Jaunt just aren't that scary to me, because if a technology like this actually existed, there would be regulations such that what happens in this story just... wouldn't happen. This is only scary if you believe basic industry safety regulations aren't possible. Or, like, basic advances in anesthesiology. It's such a strange 80s mentality to think that nothing can be done about simple problems.

Bailing on the commentary.

The commentary is not helpful.

The commentary section is not useful.

Re-reading this, and just to note, the audiobook version I'm listening to (the 2004 Minford translation) has a laughably racist introduction. Man. It's just... so transparently limited in its worldview. It's really best to read this work from a more general human vantage point than getting mired in whatever hot take conservative Westerners want to give on Chinese culture, because the lessons themselves are universal.

"We stood no prospect of breaking their spirits."

Sounds like the modern military apparatus could stand to re-read their Lawrence. From Vietnam to Afghanistan to Palestine, historically, bombing campaigns and brute force tactics simply radicalize the general populace and redouble resistance. To quote another author, "there's no strength like a poor man's spine when his back's against the wall."

Want to wage a war without knowing if the terrain is sand or crumbling slate or bare rock escarpment? T.E. Lawrence will not stand for that.

This is getting deep into detail, but, man, it starts strong.

"Blood was always on our hands: we were licensed to it. Wounding and killing seemed ephemeral pains, so very brief and sore was life with us. With the sorrow of living so great, the sorrow of punishment had to be pitiless. We lived for the day and died for it."