Abraham Lewik > Recent Status Updates

Such a dullness.

Oh I wish for His Noodly Appendage to smear awareness upon the author and all readers of this text. Seriously, who believes this quote?

"- in fact the Englishman in India unconsciously tended to adopt the ideas of social stratification of the Indians whom he ruled,..."

Even the racism, religious bigotry, elitism of the British Empire was actually invented in India.

To the challenge on the footnote, my response is "No".

It's hard to get through this without my pedant's radar pinging.
The author writes that a story is as old as the oldest part. This take on the ship of Theseus is incorrect. I refer to the Mitchell & Webb Look episode 4.

Things change all the time. The author gives story and includes lyrics from an older song so visually appears on the page as reframed.

More bullshit that all Southeast Asian scripts are derived from Sanskrit. Also phrased to ignore the evolution of writing through Dravidian Tamil before influencing much of Southeast Asia. It wouldn't have been hard to learn a smidgeon about Vietnamese.

"... the most scientific script in the world."
Hahahahaha

The author wastes paper speculating on a ridiculous linguistic theory. Dravidian languages "suffixes ... piled up one upon another", but Sanskrit had "great compound words". The analogy and the tense show elitism.

One language is a degenerate of another. The "degenerate" language became a major Asian language.

To paraphrase;
And the Buddhists look back to Vedic rather than Sanskrit.

Extremely dubious they themselves phrase it that way.

Previous chapter on religion had one paragraph about Islam in India. Not even a subheading. Nothing I could find in the foreword or wherever about choosing to skip Islam.

Silly hypocrisy which doesn't need to here. "One student at least disagrees (with the hypothesis that Indian art has religious messages)...".
Then of course a religious message is delivered using Indian art of that period. Why the cringe away from the culture he immediately asserts?

And I quote, "In fact many of the works of this part is the canon are of later composition, and the details of the account of the council are suspect, but the record shows that by this time widespread differences had developed when the order."

So the content is falsely dated and the details too. Yet it's evidence for an early schism despite being produced later. It's proof? Melts my brain.

Divine Madness - Roger Zelazny
The Dread Tomato Addiction - Mark Clifton
Dueling Clowns - Barry Longyear

The 3rd is my favourite from this set. Brings the Discworld to mind. It should be quite difficult to translate.

Started this morning and I'm loving this. The 'behavioural futures market' is so catchy, and I might read some Zuboff later. A hopeful drive to layout the Past's interpretation of the Future. Feels good to read some philosophy.

The Dead Valley - Ralph Adams Cram,
Very good, quite atmospheric.

The Dancing Partner - Jerome K. Jerome,
A tragic little thing. The tale is very precise, and the takeaway too.

The Damned Thing - Ambrose Bierce,

A fun setting, and certainly kindled my interest. Leaves me with an impression of VanderMeer.

Crazy Annaoj - Fritz Leiber,

Lacks a certain oomph. The character study paired with the Gypsy prediction felt alright. However, without time to establish her stereotype, her true nature doesn't really work out. The story shows us someone who commits to love despite contrary indicators.

Common Denominator - John D. MacDonald,
Expensive story about how we feel about our cultural motives.

Cinderella, Inc. - Christopher Anvil,
Enjoyable and allusive to our psyche. Through romance we find a new version of ourselves, yes?

The Chicago Plan to Save a Species - Thomas Easton,
A silly little exploration of how to practically save a fantastic beast (& where they found it).

The Chasm - Bruce Walton,
A good redux of a classic sci-fi short. Shame it doesn't get more renditions in mainstream content.

Capsule - Rosalind Straley,

Absurdist style. Nice to find. Nothing especially good.

The Briefing - Randall Garret,

Designed to antagonist a religious fringe. I prefer other methods. Fell short of my tastes.

Bounty - T. L. Sherred,

I don't like it. I don't get it. Dumb violence with a weird society discourse.

The Big Bounce - Walter S. Travis,

Quite a casual tale. Not in the top half of stories so far. Playful though, which is refreshing.

Better Than We Know - William F. Temple,

More emotional than anything so far. Strike a nice balance between sci fi behind the scenes and a relatable man on the main stage. Finishes in a very hopeful way. I liked it.

The Assassin - Robert Silverberg,

A bit silly in it's conclusion to be honest. The character who is capable of designing the tech would not fail in that way. Weaker story, didn't like it much.

All Cats Are Gray - Andre Norton,

More adventurous than the previous story. It's good.