Andrew > Recent Status Updates

review ongoing

"The next two months were to expose the folly of [Gordian I's] position, the weakness of the Senate, the imbecility of Maximinus and the fragility of armies on the move—the staggering idiocy, one might say, of the entire imperial system." (p. 105)

go Brewers!

"A system being unpredictable doesn't mean that it is enchanted, and magical explanations for things aren't really explanations."

I've heard very good things about Emily Wilson's new translation. I was moved to shed an actual tear upon reading her introduction, which is more than I can say for every translation of the Iliad I have ever read! I'm hoping this will be the one that finally lets me understand and appreciate this poem.

OMG I'm going to fish this because of course, but I have to ask: has this poem survived so long because it's truly great literature--or is it considered great literature only because it has survived for so long? I'm sure if I took course on it I could be made to appreciate it's beauty. But when any art is regarded at length and with gravity owing to its provenance, one could probably be made to appreciate its beauty

"The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure. How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate?" Théoden at Helms Deep, in J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. And me, since 2016.

I certainly chose quite the day to begin reading this one. God save The Queen.

'Now, he has nowhere else to go. There was Kansas and Los Angeles and the long gray slice of Asia and in all those places he’d been a petty thief and a faggot and alone.'

'And what punctuation! What Punctuation! There's a reason Hemingway so rarely resorts to colons and semicolons: Faulkner took them all.'

love it

enjoyable in a rather boring sort of way

Heart of Winter is proving to be a well crafted and ably written story. It sets a high bar for its many sub-genre peers.

'My face seats five, and my honeypot's on fire'

It's as if Eco is constantly winking at the reader, in a form of historically-mediated dramatic irony. Personally, I find it little too on the nose, and it makes for ponderous reading. Still, I'm plodding along.

a good deal of prattle and not much else thus far

Thank goodness I've kept up with my Latin over the years!

I really just don't know what to do with this development: 'Wait, what? So he did have a dick? Then where . . . As I watched, a long, thick cock slid out from that slit. It looked slick with some kind of natural lubricant, the head smooth and bulbous and . . . fuck.'

is it weird that I have fond memories of this stuff from law school, and just kind of want to read up on it for fun?

sooooooooooooo overwrought

so far, an unexpected gem

[Andrew] head[ed] into Eddie's room for clothes: briefs, a worn T-shirt from the stack in the closet, a pair of ragged tan cutoffs, low-heeled socks with a hole in the toe. . . . Riley knocked on the wall and pushed open the half-shut door. His face twisted through several contradictory emotions and he said, 'For fuck's sake, Andrew. Is there anything in this scenario that feels heterosexual or well-adjusted to you?'

not the most relatable of characters

Andrew subsided. The night whipped past in silence. His knuckles hurt. And he kept hearing Riley say he was your—on loop. What word should he put after? . . . Through the cavern and their hauntings since, through a life spent with Eddie keeping him leashed but cared for at the same time, he couldn’t find a label that fit where he needed it to go. Maybe instead, just a hard stop: he was yours.