Recent reading

[luzula]

I read some books!

What Fresh Hell Is This? by Heather Corinna (2021)
About perimenopause and menopause. Well, I guess I learned things? It did all feel like a huge and intimidating list of possible symptoms to get, and I don't know yet how it'll shake out for me. But I guess one advantage of knowing what's possible is that it will help me connect the dots when/if various things do happen.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K J Charles (2023)
Hmm, hm. Meh. I thought I'd try something that's supposed to be self-indulgent, and this was certainly page-turney enough, but did not really zing for me. I can't tell if it's just that my reading is still far from my previous baseline, or whether this would not have been my favorite Charles in any case. Somehow I could not keep from comparing this to others of her books and seeing commonalities in the types of characters and relationships she often writes, and thus not being entirely able to see the characters as people of their own.

Not a book, but I thought the blog series Life, Work, Death, and the Peasant by the historian Bret Deveraux was interesting. It models the life and labor of pre-modern peasants, using sources from ancient Rome and medieval Europe. And I do mean modeling, trying to estimate such things as the number of pregnancies a woman would have on average, and the number of hours worked on various tasks. It really hammers home that while yes, I do live on a farm now, and I do over time want to try to produce more of the food we eat, there is so much labor pre-modern peasants did that I don't have to do. The amount of time women spent on textile production (mostly spinning) is unbelievable. And I didn't know the medieval spinning wheel is about three times more productive than the spindle of antiquity! Carrying water (back-breaking work!), washing by hand, etc. Obviously I knew people did these things by hand, but it's so interesting seeing estimates of the time it took.

I do think modern civilization is hugely wasteful of energy and materials, but can we not find some appropriate level of energy use and technology? Pumping water for household use, and spinning thread with machines: yes, great use of energy and technology. \o/ Mining bitcoins: nope, terrible use of energy and technology. /o\

Comments

I thought of you as I was reading

[jesse_the_k]

Oh the Deveraux link looks fascinating!

Sofi Thanhauser’s WORN, a world history woven from the origins, production, distribution, design and (sometimes) demise of linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool.

A taste of her fluent prose:

The industrial revolution was a fabric revolution. The phrase “the industrial revolution" may conjure images of railroads and the steam engines, but it was cloth, and the enormous burst of productivity that the new textile machinery allowed, that raise the capital to finance the railroads. The immense power in the mechanization of cloth lay in the fact that, while markets for other industrial products had yet to be created, the market for fabric was already vast by the time modern industry, for it was formed. It was the most literal revolution: pertaining as it did to act of spin.

The cotton chapters are brutal: initially, its mass production required enslaving millions. Now it's possible because the plant (and its treated soil) have been engineered beyond the natural world.

I abandoned ship for my mental health mid-silk. (Seems like there may have been some hopeful energy in wool.)

Material historian and my #1 podcasting hero Avery Trufleman interviews the author during Thanhauser's virtual book tour.

A lot to explore at https://sofithanhauser.com

[desireearmfeldt]

I had a similar reaction to What Fresh Hell Is This? -- well, okay, perimenopause can last a random amount of time and can have some selection from a vast menu of symptoms, so...not only is there not a lot I can do about that, I don't even have any way to determine whether any random thing wrong with me might secretly be/have been for years menopause-related. And indeed, my friends who have passed menopause report wildly varying experiences. So, good to know but not really actionable...

[seascribble]

I really like almost every KJC I have read, but I haven't read any of her newer ones because I kind of feel the way you're describing based on the summaries. I wonder if it's just, like you said, our reading baselines being off, or if it's something that's coming up for others. She's written A LOT of books.

[chestnut_pod]

What an absolutely fascinating series those blog posts were! Thank you for linking them -- I especially liked the very first post about infant mortality (if I can say such a thing), because it truly framed the stakes for all the rest.

Re: I thought of you as I was reading

[chestnut_pod]

Seconding the Worn rec! Amazing book. I actually bought it in hardcopy, which I very rarely do anymore, because I just wanted it on my shelf.

Re: I thought of you as I was reading

[luzula]

Thanks for the rec! Yeah, there's a lot in how production methods interact with power structures, which it sounds like that book is digging into. The blog series definitely brings that up as well, talking about how taxes and other forms of extraction impacts peasants.

[luzula]

Well, I guess it is potentially actionable to know that something I'm experiencing might be a perimenopause sympton? As in, it might affect what, if anything, I can do about it. But yeah, the book felt a bit overwhelming.

[luzula]

No wonder she branched off into mysteries, really, having written so many historical romances--it must be hard after a while not to exhaust your ideas.

[luzula]

Glad you enjoyed! I appreciate how Devereaux, who could so easily have limited himself to writing military historical analyses of video games and movies, which is probably what draws the most audience, so consistently pays attention to ordinary people and women's work.

[nnozomi]

okay, the menopause book title made me laugh!

[luzula]

It is kind of in line with the rest of the book in portraying perimenopause as having many hellish aspects, which is not my experience so far (but who knows what's coming later). I was kind of annoyed by the overly chummy tone sometimes.