vagueflashesonthehorizon

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

Date a girl with a mind like a steel trap; in the sense that she can trap bears in it

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

pros of the last few weeks:

went to the library!!

read a large number of books (for me)!!

cons of the last few weeks:

obtained FAR TOO MANY LIBRARY BOOKS

now I have to read these things

help

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

"La, m'dear! you don't say so. Begad! who was the bold man who dared to tackle you—eh?"

— The Scarlet Pimpernel

I am not enjoying this book, for reasons such as:

the above quote

the pro-aristocracy stance

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

I finally read The Statement of Randolph Carter!! I really enjoyed it.

it had the usual purple-prose-y descriptions, but I felt like it added to the atmosphere here. I think it can feel out-of-place to me in longer stories (at least, if the entire story is Like That), but I liked it here.

...incidentally, I read it in the first place because of this song by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. spoilers for the entire story. the title of the song is also a spoiler.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

it’s august

and I have read One (1) Entire Paper Book :)

that’s right, folks: I picked up a stack of dead tree with ink on, and interpreted (almost) all the ink in it!!

anyway, the book was Brave New World. I didn’t really enjoy it. I liked the end, and apparently I liked the start, but I was bored by the middle.

probably because I never actually read the blurb. I knew it was a dystopia, but I didn’t know the actual plot. I also found it jarring that it’s clearly meant to be futuristic, but all the speech patterns are extremely old-fashioned. of course, Huxley couldn’t exactly help that, but it was still odd. and I didn’t like that they say things like “caffeine supplement” instead of “coffee” (even if it’s not what we’d call coffee). I’m sure it’s so the reader knows that the characters aren’t actually drinking coffee, but I still didn’t like it.

plus, all the characters are extremely straight for a world where ‘everyone belongs to everyone else’. which, again, 1930s book. it’s jarring, though. there’s no in-universe reason for everyone in this book to be straight!!

but hey, that’s the first Paper Book I’ve finished in a while :D

I guess I’d recommend it to people who like futuristic soft-sci-fi-ish dystopia-type things more than I do.

at the moment, I’m reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, which I think I’ll enjoy more. I’m also reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

reading notes from partway through July

I haven’t finished any paper books yet. however:

I have got further through Brave New World, I am enjoying it well enough, I think I’ve misplaced it at the moment...

I read A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka, translated by Ian Johnston. I did not intend to do this, and found out it existed by accident while looking for a Les Mis fanfiction also titled A Hunger Artist (content warning for A Depressed Narrator).

I also read (probably) more than one SCP, but the only one I remember is SCP-1313 “Solve for Bear”, which is about an equation which, when solved, results in a live (and often angry) grizzly bear. a good quote from this is “the possible military applications of irrational, exponential, and imaginary grizzly bears”.

oh, also, I am now a little further through Les Mis!! Marius continues to be ridiculous.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

...I literally just said I wasn’t going to do any more reading challenges, but:

over the rest of June, July, August, and September, I want to have read three books.

they need to be printed books on paper, because I have A Backlog; however, they can be anything from Baby’s First ABC to, idk, War and Peace?? I don’t know if I have a good translation of that, though.

also, although I normally count each short story I read as a separate thing, I need to finish an actual book to count it here. that makes me more likely to fail, but Oh Well.

the books I read were:

Brave New World

two

three

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

book suggestions to self for July (and the rest of June)

not gonna do an actual reading challenge for myself any longer, since I never complete them. or rather, I am setting myself a reading challenge, recurring monthly, to read enough things that I can make a reading notes post.

anyway.

things I Could read include:

the rest of book 3 of Les Mis

Gerda Malaperis

Brave New World

The Phantom of the Opera

Gödel, Escher, Bach (unlikely, since I’ll have to go to the library and That’s Effort)

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

reading notes from March to June

got sidetracked from this blog, whoops. obviously I didn’t set myself any reading challenges.

I did read things: several papers or snippets of papers re. physics, a whole lot of course notes, The Masque of the Red Death, the first 24-odd pages of Brave New World, possibly/probably some other things??

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

a confession:

I have never read a single book in my life.

what I’ve written about?? all the long posts detailing how I will at least attempt to read something, about my theories regarding certain middle Frankenstein brothers, about whatever else I post here??

fake. it’s all fake.

I’m not even sure what words are; I never learned to speak, read, write, or communicate with or understand others in any manner. honestly, it’s a mystery how I’m writing this.

I don’t know how I didn’t get found out earlier. I suppose I got really lucky, in that these combinations of strange symbols form words, and that those words form sentences and paragraphs and posts, and those posts a) are coherent and b) seem to talk about real things.

maybe the real vague flashes on the horizon were the lies we told along the way.

that’s it, folks. goodbye, have a nice [length of time], and don’t forget: words are the enemy, and books are not to be trusted.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

February reading notes!!

I did not meet any of my goals. I’m a bit annoyed, because two of them were specifically chosen to be really really easy, but I completely forgot the easy ones existed. this suggests I should maybe write my goals on a post-it, or something.

I did, however, take almost all my old library books* back, and I got out The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage!! this was an Excellent idea, because reading through a comic/graphic novel (what is the difference??) is much quicker than a Book Comprised Entirely Of Words; plus, I feel Directly Targeted by the entire thing. it is My Jam to an embarrassing extent. I love Ada Lovelace. what can I say.

I also read several SCPs. out of these, ones I particularly enjoyed and remember particularly enjoying include:

SCP-3318 “Can You See Me”, which is about a dead cat collecting flesh, I guess?? cw for, well, a dead cat collecting flesh.

SCP-3880 “ILLEST RAIN SOUNDS ∞ Hours No Looping - White Noise, Nature/Healing/Ambient, Meditation/Insomnia/Study ASMR [ORIGINAL]”, which I liked because Online Community.

there are other SCPs I read and enjoyed, but I can’t think of them right now. What Do You Mean I Could Check My Browser And/Or Youtube History And Find Out.

plus: Esperanto poetry!! roughly once or twice a year, it seems I go through a phase of reading Esperanto poetry instead of doing other more useful things.

my favourite was Al mia amatino neesperantista (“To my love, who does not speak Esperanto”) by William Auld. I just really like the mental image of someone Pestering Their Partner To Learn Esperanto, for reasons such as “wouldn’t it be better if we did Zamenhof’s exercises, instead of arguing about trifles (Such As Whether You Should Learn Esperanto)??” and “if you learned Esperanto, you could read my poetry”.

I also liked En amara horo (“In a hostile hour”) by Kalman Kalocsay, although I couldn’t really understand a lot of it (I found a translation of part of it, and one of the whole thing (into both Lojban and English) — but I can’t find the link to the latter. however, from what I understand, it’s about the ideals of the Esperanto movement, and how much (and whether) people still consider them, despair about community infighting, and ultimately deciding that the community is still good and valuable and has Good Ideals. or something. I’m going off faint memories of other people’s translations, here.

La Vojo (“The Journey”) and Pregho sub la verda standadaro (“Prayer beneath the Green Flag”) by LL Zamenhof himself. both poems gave me Les Mis emotions. La Vojo is about a difficult journey to a better world, Despite Everything Which Opposes, in defiance of all that is bad around us**.  Pregho is a prayer(!!) asking to “return peace to the younglings / of the great human race” and for strength to work towards worldwide siblinghood (...I guess?? there’s gotta be a better way to phrase that).

I translated La Vojo (badly), and bits of Pregho sub la verda standadaro (slightly less badly imo), so if You, Dear Reader, are interested in these particular poems but don’t speak Esperanto, I can help a bit!!

* ie, (mostly) fiction books from my local library. I still have Way Too Many books from my uni library...

** a) I really like that phrase; b) Can’t Have Universal Siblinghood Without Kindness, Wouldn’t Want Universal Siblinghood Without Kindness, Nothing Saying The Steps We Take To ~The Shining Chosen Goal~ Can’t Be Kindness. the concept of steps of kindness doesn’t really make sense, but whatever.

goal for March is to do enough reading that I can make a Reading Notes Post. I don’t care if it’s One (1) Chapter Of Les Mis, several SCPs, catching up on Wards, reading Fifty Entire Classic Novels, or anything else; just, enough to make a post.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

Frankenstein Opinion: sure, we all talk about how Victor Frankenstein barely wrote to his family the entire time he was away, and didn't visit home Once (’[upon returning to Geneva,] I passed through scenes familiar to my youth, but which I had not seen for nearly six years’), but why did his family not visit him??

they presumably have enough money to travel. Alphonse presumably had a pretty well-paying job, as did prior generations, if he was a civil servant or some such (the book says '[Alphonse] had filled several public situations', at least), plus they're able to send Victor on a tour round England a few months after he returns from Ingolstadt.

and Alphonse is working less by that point, too: 'During the two years that had elapsed previous to [Alphonse and Caroline's] marriage [he] had gradually relinquished all his public functions'. so it's not as if he's so busy with work that he can't take some time off to visit his son.

obviously, since it's Victor 'Unreliable Narrator' Frankenstein narrating the story, maybe his family did come and visit and he never mentioned it?? or maybe there is a reason they didn't, and he just never mentions it??

however, imo the former is fairly unlikely, since particularly from his third year away and onwards they would probably have noticed him acting Rather Odd. also, Elizabeth's letter makes me suspect they really haven't seen each other in six years — stuff like “Little alteration, except the growth of our dear younglings, has taken place since you left us”, “Since you left us, but one change has taken place in our little household” — although it doesn't explicitly say anything.

and Alphonse doesn't even have the (VERY tenuous) excuse of being so obsessed with chemistry/his New Project that he just... straight up forgot to interact with anyone.

was this just a normal way of acting for 18th-century people?? am I missing something obvious here??

in summary, What The Hell, Alphonse???

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

reading challenge 4: I’m out of amusing subtitles

(4 Feb 2018 to 28 Feb 2018)

1. read at least one chapter of Les Mis. c’mon, self. even that can’t be too much. if you read one (1) chapter, you make your goal. how’s that for some easy points.

2. finish something. I don’t care what. you need to do this to make your goodreads goal for the year.

bonus goals:

3. finish one of the fics you downloaded (and draw an art for it, mayhaps??)

4. read The Statement of Randolph Carter. it’s not that long. you’re already spoilered for the ending. Just Do It™.

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

notes on my third reading challenge

well, folks, I lost all motivation. it’s so hard to remember that I was ever interested in reading, let alone now. it’s hard to remember I’m interested in anything (other than whatever low-effort content is Right In Front Of Me at any given time).

that is to say, I did not really get anywhere much.

I got partway through Frankenstein, by listening to it at night to help fall asleep, but I kept having Emotions about it, and pausing to Have Those Emotions instead of continuing. such is the danger of Interests, I suppose.

I didn’t read much of Les Mis at all :/

I did, however, start Gödel, Escher, Bach, as I’m sure you’ve all seen from the posts. that’s good, I think?? not good that I’m reading something that certainly wasn’t on my list, but. eh.

given I keep failing these, no matter how simple I make it, I need to rework my system — but I’m not sure how.

(edit: I just remembered that if I pick up a book, I’m usually moderately successful at Sticking With Reading The Thing for a bit. this suggests that a) I need to keep leaving books lying around in convenient places and hope that At Some Point this entices me into Actually Picking One Up, or something, and b) reading shorter books, so I can actually finish something in a short number of reading sessions, is a good idea)

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

I was going to make a joke post about 'words and thoughts [following] formal rules', but I wanted it to be partly in lojban, which I don't speak

this is the kind of individual I am

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

two-part invention could have, I think, had Achilles get the Tortoise to accept Z, had Achilles only thought of using self-reference—

—ie, instead of saying

d. if a, b, and c are true, z is true

saying

d. a, b, c, and this statement d are all true.

does this apply to other situations where 'the distances [in an infinite series] were constantly [increasing]'??

[vagueflashesonthehorizon]

do the Dialogues in geb pass the Bechdel Test

femswap AU of the Dialogues