06 June 2011
22 May 2011
Ripping yarn
Looking for a book that won’t make you think but will keep you turning the pages? Look no further.
This is a classic for good reason. The writing is not overly florid given when and where it was written (late 19th Century Britain). The plot is absolutely ridiculous, but the pace of action will keep you on board with it. The entire story revolves around a plot to dethrone the king of Ruritania (forerunner of Latveria, Elbonia and Kerplakistan) and a lookalike. I’ll say no more as the whole plot hinges on your ignorance of it.
04 May 2011
Made the turn 14 minutes in
That’s right: the turn from bad to so bad it’s good. Why? Joan Baez (henceforward known to me as “the old-lady-in-church singer”) started singing and a bird of prey alit on Bruce Dern’s arm. It really doesn’t get any worse than that.
501 Must See Movies? Yeah, only if they meant must see it make the turn.
28 April 2011
A story about "Anthem, Expanded 50th Anniversary Edition"
Please tell me this isn’t representative of Ayn Rand’s writing.
I can ignore the bits of her philosophy that I don’t care for, but the much of the rest is tough. She’s got a story that is compelling and fast moving. I can appreciate that as well done, but the prose itself is tough. It almost felt that she didn’t have an ear for the music of English, which is strange considering she made her living with words both as a screenwriter and novelist. (Yes, I know English isn’t her first language, but this goes beyond that.)
Of course I can forgive that, since the story is different enough to be memorable.
29 March 2011
Quick read on how the Bible came to be
It’s not scholarly or in-depth, but this little book presents a breezy explanation about how one of the most influential books in Western civilization came to be. It was not a straightforward process.
This book is not sectarian, nor is it particularly religious. It does what it claims to in the title. This book sticks to the facts. If you’re ever mildly curious about the topic and don’t want to read der wiki, this is for you.
22 March 2011
Freelance isn't quite it
But better than nothing. I’ve gotten a massive project from my former employer. Since I can do the project at home, it’s all the better.
Oddly, between this freelance project and the new home-school consortium I’m adding to my roster this fall, I think (maybe, just maybe) I may have accomplished this task.
But I’m not marking it as done just yet.
10 March 2011
A review of "Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages"
Abley has a point about minority languages being worth saving. The problem to me is that he’s making the wrong argument for it.
His angle on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis seems wrong. (Though I don’t know what the latest research is,) There’s doesn’t seem to be much evidence to support it in its strongest senses. So what’s the big deal? Abley repeatedly makes the point that when we lose a language, we literally lose a way of thinking. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem so according to research, though subjectively it does seem so.
He also tries to make a correlation between a language taking on foreign words and expressions and its safety among the land of the living. Au contraire! It makes a language richer to broaden its base. While I wouldn’t suggest that English isn’t a juggernaut that infiltrates the most isolated parts of the world, English words and idioms in a language isn’t prima facie evidence that they’re killing the invaded tougue. Enough. I’m getting a bit of schadenfreude from commenting on the foibles of that idea.
For the record, the previous paragraph had words either directly brought over from or naturalized to English from: Latin, prima facie; French, au contraire; German, schadenfreude; Greek, isolated; Hindi, juggernaut; Norse, they. So clearly this tendency for languages to accrete foreign words isn’t a necessary precondition for demise.
Except that he’s right. Language is a cultural thing. Answer this: Can a person be culturally Russian and not speak Russian? That idea is almost preposterous. Sure you can be of Russian heritage or live in Russia and not speak Russian, but to identify as ethnically Russian? Similarly it is difficult to conceive of French culture without the French language. But what about being Welsh? Can you be culturally and ethnically Welsh without speaking Welsh? Seemingly the answer to that is yes. What do we lose by having Welsh people who speak nothing but English? This is where the book was interesting. He explored exactly some of those facets of minority languages, and this is why I unabashedly recommend this book. He explored the challenges minority-language speakers face both with the majority language and the fights within the community over such things as spelling. He looks at how languages are passed from generation to generation.
It isn’t perfect, but Abley makes a point: the world is a poorer place without these small languages.