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Recent reading
Jun. 8th, 2016 08:44 pmA couple of Icelandic sagas (read in Swedish)
The Icelandic sagas have been newly translated, so I decided to dip into them. It's an interesting experience, because the style is so wildly different from today's--I have never read anything so tell-not-show. A character introduction can go like this: A man was named X. He was ugly and weak. Nobody liked him. And the names! In one story there can be people named Þorgerð, Þorgeir, Þorgrim, Þorir, Þorarin, Þorstein, and Þorkel. Usually more than one of each. Thor was a popular god, I guess.
Rojava: den kurdiska revolutionen och kampen mot IS by Joakim Medin [Rojava: the Kurdish revolution and the fight against IS]
Written by a journalist who's spent a lot of time in Syria during the war. This is a super-interesting book which unfortunately is only available in Swedish, AFAIK. It's pretty obvious which side the author is on, but he doesn't sugarcoat the Rojava revolution, either, but presents problems and bad sides as well. One of the most fascinating stories is that of the American volunteer in the YPG who is so much of a Christian conservative that he almost committed suicide because he couldn't live under the "socialist" president Obama, but who now fights in the army of an actual socialist revolution. Apparently without changing his political opinions, too. *boggles* I guess one reason could be that he just wants to fight the IS and figures that the enemy of his enemy is his friend, but we never really get the answer.
The Icelandic sagas have been newly translated, so I decided to dip into them. It's an interesting experience, because the style is so wildly different from today's--I have never read anything so tell-not-show. A character introduction can go like this: A man was named X. He was ugly and weak. Nobody liked him. And the names! In one story there can be people named Þorgerð, Þorgeir, Þorgrim, Þorir, Þorarin, Þorstein, and Þorkel. Usually more than one of each. Thor was a popular god, I guess.
Rojava: den kurdiska revolutionen och kampen mot IS by Joakim Medin [Rojava: the Kurdish revolution and the fight against IS]
Written by a journalist who's spent a lot of time in Syria during the war. This is a super-interesting book which unfortunately is only available in Swedish, AFAIK. It's pretty obvious which side the author is on, but he doesn't sugarcoat the Rojava revolution, either, but presents problems and bad sides as well. One of the most fascinating stories is that of the American volunteer in the YPG who is so much of a Christian conservative that he almost committed suicide because he couldn't live under the "socialist" president Obama, but who now fights in the army of an actual socialist revolution. Apparently without changing his political opinions, too. *boggles* I guess one reason could be that he just wants to fight the IS and figures that the enemy of his enemy is his friend, but we never really get the answer.
