Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Finished "2001: A Space Odyssey", Arthur C. Clarke - towards the end I stopped thinking of the similarities in style/themes to the Stephenson book I'd just finished and was instead reminded of Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" which I haven't read in years. I was surprised how much I enjoyed 2001 - I mean, it's of its time in many ways but nonetheless it was a good read. The imagined future tech is surprisingly prescient whilst being utterly not how things went at the same time - the detailed description of reading the newspaper downloaded onto your personal screen for instance is both similar to using your phone/tablet to look at the news and not (punching in 2 digit codes to get a specific newspaper and then further 2 digit codes to read stories).

Started "2010: Odyssey Two", Arthur C. Clarke - which begins with an introduction that explains there will be continuity errors between this one & 2001 because a) knowledge has moved on in the 15 or so years since 2001 was written and b) the film & book didn't quite match so this is a sequel to the film (which I thought was an interesting choice).

Non-fiction: Still reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East", Robert Fisk - moving from Israel/Palestine to Algeria and drawing parallels between the end of French rule and the subsequent civil war some 30 years later.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: The Two Gentlemen of Verona: Act 1 Scenes 1-2. Introducing our characters. The introduction explained this was one of the earlier plays, and the stylistic difference between it & The Tempest is noticeable, I think.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 97-116 of The History of England - through the glory years of Edward III and into his dotage. With, of course, a look at the Black Death which hits in the middle of this period.

Music: While running I listened to Little Boots "Hands", and to drown out the telly so I could think to write I listened to Belly's "Star" and "King".

Watching

ep 3 of Secret Agent Selection: WW2 - they were learning lockpicking and morse code in this episode, plus being given cover identities and facing mock interrogations (a bit like interview practice, only the stakes would've been higher ... ).

ep 1 of Syria: The World's War - having watched them in the wrong order this finished up this depressing two parter about Syria. Good to have watched, as it's good to be informed, but also very difficult to watch.

ep 2 of Popular Voices at the BBC - Crooners this time, some good singers/songs but some cheesy rubbish sung by creepy men too ;)

ep 4 of Britain's Greatest Cathedrals - we're slowing down on watching this coz it's pretty shallow, but this one was Durham.

Egypt's Lost Queens - a re-watch of a Joann Fletcher programme about four Egyptian queens (Hetepheres, Hatshepsut, Nefertari & Arsinoe). This is the one I think of when I say I don't always like Fletcher's documentaries. A bit too much back-projection of modern ideas about women, and too much stretching to give personalities to people we actually know nothing about other than that they existed.

ep 1 of Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors - two-part series using the latest information and Hollywood tech to visualise Neanderthals.