Tristan > Recent Status Updates

"[Bülow's] contradictory utterances on the subject [Weltpolitik] suggest that it was little more than the old policy of the 'free hand' with a larger navy and more menacing mood music. 'We are supposed to be pursuing Weltpolitik,' the former chief of the General Staff Alfred von Waldersee noted grumpily in his diary in January 1900. 'If only I knew what that was supposed to be.'"

"In the end he talked and argued himself into another journey at government expense to Tashkent. There he stayed, marvelling at the power of geographical arguments in a theoretical discussion [...]"

always remarkable wading through the deep and muddy waters of well-presented history. still dealing with serbia, of course, the epicentre, but to look at the rest of the book and know that it will cover russia, britain, austria, etc. with the same depth is vertiginous & hammers home the "rube goldberg" feeling of ww1

comme ça on commence...

okay i get the love for pynchon now