Mitchell Loughlin > Recent Status Updates

Two quotes I liked
Evolution in its pig headed approximation of wisdom
In a world where enough attempts occur only one needs to succeed what is remarkable as how many times it appears to have been successful

Species that appear closely related can be found in different environments. Some are individually evolved species that have developed similar adaptations to solve similar problems, while others seem to have migrated across the ocean. The exact mechanism behind this migration is not entirely clear, but it is believed that trees, connected by their roots, transplanted by floods acting as an arc for animals and insects

32 million years ago - The Oligocene
The land masses as we know them today are relatively similar however some may be closer or future away from each other. Revolution continues at its steady pace, the landscape changing the traits most likely to thrive. Grasses begin to take hold in South America. They are hard and grating on the teeth of grazers, adaptions came in the form of ever growing enamels

Despite this I find the topic of the book exceeding fascinating. It’s like a David Attenborough style documentary going back into the geological past to find things even stranger than science fiction could imagine. Bears the size of 10 elk, dwarfism and gigantism caused by the mediterranean sea evaporating. We explore a scene with attention to the creatures who most strongly appear in the fossil records Cool stuff

Starting these notes with a mention of this booking feeling very difficult for me to read. It’s so packed with information and visuals that I have a hard time absorbing the information as someone who does not have a strong mental picture of what they read. For me it’s all outlines unless I really think about something which is not conducive to this type of reading

Reviews and reflections on creating this work.

I didn’t need 40 pages of reviews…even if they came from esteemed authors. I already read the book I don’t need to be convinced it was worth reading.

With that I did love to hear more about the events in Bradbury life that led to the creation of this book.
The story of darkness at noon being a real event and hearing him have police trouble for walking

they are the contents of the books they read. Nothing but a dust cover for someone to eventually use returning the world to a rightful state. They watch as war breaks and ends in a moment. A flash of a mushroom cloud over the city. Montags heart breaks for the people in his life to have not found this new tranquility. He joins them as they walk in silence to the ashes of the city that will become their beginning.

Reflecting on how this is plenty to make a person happy he feels empathy for those trapped in the shadow of the city. He thinks of clarriese and a simple perfect life. Eventually he wanders through the dark finding a rail road line. He follows it to a fire with men sitting around it speaking like nobody he has ever heard. They talk with substance and welcome him in. They are the forgotten thinkers

They speak for a short moment about making the right kind of mistakes before montag flees seeing a new hound has followed him. He knows that the hounds have never not found their prey and indeed it is quickly upon him. Crashing into the river within a short distance of the hound he manages to lose its sent before floating in a feuge like state down the river for who knows how long. He admires the smells and stars

The hound rears on him and he burns it, not before it sinks it’s toxin laden needle into the meat of guys calf. He runs, scooping up the books from his backyard where he stashed them. He runs, debates stealing a car and is ran off the road by children.driving recklessly. He wonders if they killed Clarice. Plants the books at a hello fireman’s home before returning to the professor.

Burning bright.
Beaty give Montag the duty of cleaning up his own mess. He hands him the salamander (flamethrower) and makes him torch his home. He learns the women called about the book but also his wife. In his ear the professor tells him to flee. Beaty taunts Montag and tells him they will need to arrest him before finding the war piece. Montag turns the salamander against his captain and watches his turn to ash

The title of this chapter ( the seive and the sand) illustrates a sort of hopelessness when things are two far gone. Try as you might it is impossible to fill a seive that is designed to sift out sand. The amount of effort given does not correlate to success.

He goes back to work with the professor in his ear and Beaty asks for the book. He says he had a dream about him and Montag debating books and throwing the arguements back in his face. He clearly has read a massive amount of books as he can quote many philosophical passages. The leaders are educated as they need to outsmart the poor. They go to a fire drill and appear at his own house

He asks for the women to just speak. Annoyed at his request they oblige talking about how children are a mistake and gross. Those who have had them rarely see them no more than 3 days a month. The rest of the time the government “educates” them.
They talk politics and an election of one handsome man against another rat like slovenly man. It’s a total sham. He reads them poetry. Bad move.

The speak on the futility of revolution under a system and culture built to distract. Again there is a focus on the importance of downtime not filled with distractions but an allowance to let things breathe.
They talk about preparing for the downfall of war turns sour.
Montag returns home to a house filled with women watching their show and dancing. It’s a technicolor babbling mess of a plot and he turns it off

The sieve and the sand
Montag reads for hours with his wife. The things Beaty said did not slake his thirst for knowledge but only wrentched open his eyes to the shallowness of the life he has built around himself. Mildred does not see what he sees. She fears his actions but tries to distract herself inviting the girls over to watch their shows. Montag visits an old professor English and gives him the bible.

Rin speaks to the the phenoix and burns the city to the ground running her relationship with Kitay. Chagran and the rest of the Cike are with her though and she is named leader.

Her dragon boy is definitely alive as the next book is titled after her region. Real enemies to lovers good guy realizes the girl is a monster story

She said the same thing that the women blocking the pantheon said. That’s why she was so strong to put up a fight with C earlier. Rin must be her daughter. There is no other reason why we wouldn’t know her parentage by now. Also might be why she refused to call the phenoix to defend Speer

The empress was the person who sold them out according to the doctor. Is it just fear? She knows she can’t control them?

She feels their anger. Altan encouraged her to take it from them and channel it. That is where his power comes from. In unison their eyes snap open in the mortal realm, flames licking their bondage. They melt their guard then their shackles then the doctor. They flee the tower before running into an entire army. Altan fights to allow Rin to swim to their island. He explodes in an inferno and she hears the queen

After a short respite from the torture the doctor reappears and threatens to send a plague to the mainland by releasing infected fleas. He doses both Rin and Altan with heroin but something happens. They are launched from their bodies into the spiritual realm as she had been before with Chagran. Altan guides her to their people in the golden age. She feels at home and one with the despite not knowing them.

Someone mentioned mind powers don’t work on speerlies. This was definitely a hint to a fight with the empress

Why did the empriss kill tyr. That whole sceen seems out of place. He was attempting to spy on the federation but she killed him. The federation seemed to expect her. This makes me think more and more that their general is the warrior. But why is he attacking the mainland rather than revealing himself.
And if she could control Tyr, a powerful shaman then shouldn’t she control the warrior.

Is Jiang a coward or wise.
So far he has had a mixed record. He saved Rin from eternal madness. Sealed himself in the mountain when he didn’t trust his decisions any longer. Feared Altans anger. Feared Baji and Suni. It seems like he could have done more but didn’t.

The doctor fills in the role of the typical evil doctor using war to advance medicine. He is unfeeling, creepy, and has a squeaky humerlous laugh. He questions Rin under threat of dosing A with more and more opium. Comments on how the empire subsided the speerlies with opium for generations and mentions that Rin has seen this before.

They run after him and are met by the federation encamped outside of the cave entrance. The cave suppresses the abilities of the gods so they could not call the phenoix and are overwhelmed by the numbers. Rin ponders on how they knew her and Altan would be there.
Theory: Chagran attempting to stop them from unleashing hell on the planet tipped them off.

Altan is Turkish for red dawn. Al meaning red.

He explores them not to follow through with this crazy plan. The pantheon works dude to balance and unleashing thousands of crazed deities without proper balance would be apocalyptic. Altan once again is too head strong. Rin follows her commander over her master and Jiang reseals himself in rock. They then attempt to release a former Cike who could summon wind. It does not go well and he escapes

She overhears Altan and Chagran talking through a plan to empty the mountain of crazies and unleash them on the world. Chagran emphasizes that this is insane and won’t work but Altan is too head strong. He sends C + Q north to do something……

He and Rin head north to the mountain to unleash the demigods. When they arrive the first person they see is Jiang who is reveled to be the gatekeeper

After learning of altans opium dependency Rin was angry. Her team helped talk her off the ledge and colored in Altan’s back story. He had been kidnapped from the island as a child and experimented on to help determine how Speerlies tick. He was forced to watch as the doctor’s autopsy’s living people, his friends and relatives. This made the rage bloom inside Altan and is the reason he is so strong yet fragile

Umm wow. Chapter 21 was very dark
They arrived at the capital city and were met with mass destruction. The federation soldiers are taught that there lives are meaningless as a cog in a machine. This makes the lives of their enemies completely meaningless.
I actually don’t want to type examples but they treated lives as sport. Kitay and venkah survived by hiding and worse