Recent reading + some RL stuff

[luzula]

I am at the family summer place, graaaading student papers. I am grateful to have a job that sometimes allows me to do this. We have planted the potatoes, onions, and Jerusalem artichokes, done most of the weeding, partly sawed up a fallen tree for wood, got the water pump working, etc. There's more sowing to be done. Today Mom and I picked nettles and made soup from them, and some day soon I'll make rhubarb cordial (yum!).

Yet again I feel like I haven't got much time for reading? Only two books since May 7th, ah well.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (2005)
For book club. I have read Pratchett before, but it was ages ago? One of the book club members recommended the audiobook read by Stephen Briggs, which turned out to be a good choice for dramatizing the humor. I did enjoy this, but I don't think I am likely to turn into a huge Pratchett fan.

Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 by Paul Kléber Monod (1989)
This is often quoted in other books, and my university library had it, so...there's some stuff about material culture that was interesting, and also about Jacobite riots and in what contexts they occurred and who were the people who did it (mostly skilled craft workers, apparently). Some good stuff about what makes the movement so difficult to grasp from a modern perspective, because the political categories just aren't the same. Quote: It helped to create a framework for extra-parliamentary radicalism, even as it nurtured forms of elite sociability that would later become bulwarks of conservatism.

Also, check out this excellent revolutionary slogan from 1719! Would work for basically any movement!

How long will you be
ignorant of your strength?
Count your numbers.
Sure you ought to fight with more resolution for liberty than your oppressors for dominion.
Count your numbers.

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

I liked Going Postal, but I think I prefer the miniseries adaption tbh.

[luzula]

Ha, I had no idea there was one!

[aurumcalendula]

Yep! It was released in 2010 (it looks like it's available to stream for free on a couple places). I particularly like how they expanded Adora Belle role.

[philomytha]

That’s really interesting about the political categories, because that’s always something that’s seemed so opaque to me in reading anything about this period. It’s so tempting to try to map the past onto the present but it really doesn’t work for this at all.

[luzula]

Yes--you sometimes see people assuming that Jacobites = modern conservatives, and Whigs = modern progressives, but you really can't make that sort of mapping. The more I read about it, the more I see how complicated it was (which is of course true of most subjects!).

[chestnut_pod]

Good luck with the graaaading! All your garden bounty sounds lovely.

[luzula]

Thank you! I'm actually mostly done with the graaaading, at least the first step of it where I give feedback (then I have to check if their revisions can get a passing grade).

[nnozomi]

That really is an excellent revolutionary slogan. I'm tempted to borrow it for fictional purposes? (With credit of course!)

Sounds like you have been extremely busy between grading and farming; I hope you're getting some relaxing time somewhere in there. (If you can make rhubarb cordial, can you make rhubarb crumble? Do you have rhubarb crumble there? One of my favorite baked desserts.)

[luzula]

Well, I certainly don't own it, so feel free! : ) It is from an anonymous pamphlet called Vox Populi, Vox Dei from 1719, which resulted in the printer John Matthews being hanged. But that pamphlet was in itself a response to a pamphlet from the other side with the same title, from 1710!

Yes, I do sometimes make rhubarb crumble, with homemade vanilla custard! It's delicious.

[regshoe]

Aww, Discworld! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :D Going Postal isn't my favourite of the series, but it is very good fun.

I've just been reading the Jacobite chapters in The Road Not Taken by Frank McLynn, which also discusses the popular and revolutionary aspects of Jacobitism—and I agree it is strange and fascinating how different the political categories are to modern ones.

And all that gardening sounds lovely. I hope the rhubarb cordial goes well!

[luzula]

Re: The Road Not Taken, we do keep passing recs around! : ) I hope you enjoy it.

I haven't made the rhubarb cordial yet--I should get around to it tomorrow.

[regshoe]

:D I've definitely enjoyed it so far—I read the earlier chapters too, which contained some interesting stuff about the Levellers and Diggers amongst other things, though I'm now giving it a break before tackling the later chapters.