Mai > Status Update

Back to the meat of the thing, and confronted with one of the pitfalls of ‘descriptive’ history. Our intrepid historian has just described the cannibalistic ritual practices of the ancient Minoan religion, and then gone on to observe that this religion helped to hold a “peaceable society” together for centuries. ‘Scuse me, since when is cannibalism “peaceable”?

Well, I’m glad that I did read the intro, because otherwise I’d have missed some good lines: “It is the same with European history as with a camel. The practical approach is not to try and define it, but to describe it.”

So far I've discovered that if I rest this behemoth on my stomach to read while lying down, it takes about 5 minutes for me to start experiencing back pain. Unclear whether my core muscles are just that weak or this book is just that heavy.