Wednesday Media Consumption Roundup

[mousetrappling]

Books

Fiction: Started "The Cardinal of the Kremlin", Tom Clancy. I remember little about this one, at least the almost total absence of women so far has meant rather less gratingly sexist attitudes from the protagonist so far ;) It feels much more info-dumpy than Patriot Games, I've just suffered through a great long thing about Soviet attitudes to nuclear war that has me wondering what an actual Russian would think of it (given some of the eye-rolling stuff about Brits in the other one ...).

Non-fiction: still reading Gerald Harriss's "Shaping the Nation: England 1360-1461" - still reading the chapter on domestic politics 1369-1413. Just covered the Peasant Revolt & how the main message Richard II took away from that was not to trust the peasants and a need to assert his regal authority.

Maps: 1650-1763 CE - the Europeans beginning to carve up the New World between them and to muscle in on Asia. The steppe nomads are getting squeezed out between Qing China and the Russian Empire. The balance of world trade has now shifted with the Middle East no longer the centre, instead it's all about the west of Europe & transatlantic trade routes. Slave trade in full swing & destabilising West Africa.

Listening

Podcasts: ep 56-68 of Renaissance English History podcast. A bit of a look at literature, plus more interviews with authors & historians. I particularly enjoyed the interview with Melita Thomas of Tudor Times where they talked about Bess Hardwick in terms of how her life tells us about inheritance of property, property in marriage etc. And the episode where she had the two presenters of the Reconsider podcast on, whose thing is to look at current affairs with an intent to encourage critical thinking. So they were showing how they would apply scepticism & detachment as principles when thinking about historical narratives (like Anne Boleyn as either husband-stealing whore or saintly Protestant proto-feminist, and how the evidence when you actually think about it shows she's more complex). For me there wasn't anything new in what they said, but they said it entertainingly, and I might check out their podcast some time. Might be a good grounder in US politics.

Sunday podcast: ep 15 & 16 of Our Man in the Middle East - Gaza & the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for the first ep, then an overview of the history of the sectarian divisions in the Middle East & why they matter. Continues to be utterly depressing but worth learning about.

Music: while running I've mostly listened to the 100 Hits Rock compilation (just like last week!).

Games

Engare - a puzzle game based on geometry & Islamic geometric art. It also has a drawing mode, but I've barely looked at that. The puzzles so far have been fun, although on the entertaining diversion level not the compulsively compelling level. I'm about 2/3 of the way through I think - in less than 2 hours - so it's as well it's rather cheap. I'm enjoying it.

Watching

ep 1 of Utopia: In Search of the Dream - this'll be a three part series (presented by Richard Clay) about utopias in literature & attempts to implement said ideas in the real world. This ep was mostly about what the concept was & some of ways we've imagined utopias.

Pedalling Dreams: The Raleigh Story - hagiography about the bike company from start as a small workshop in Nottingham to eventual sale to a foreign company. A bit "rar-rar they were the best" but still quite interesting.

ep 1 of The Legacy of Lawrence Arabia - series presented by Rory Stewart about both Lawrence of Arabia's life & the current (as of 2010) state of Iraq. Both threads are essentially about how we (the West, and Britain more specifically) fucked it all up. I rather suspect I'd not get on with Rory Stewart's domestic politics (he's the rather upper class Tory MP for Cumbria) but his opinions on the Middle East seem shaped by actual experience (he's worked for the Foreign Office and walked through the region) and make a lot of sense. He's also rather clearly a bit of a Lawrence fanboy.

ep 1 of Eight Days that Made Rome - Bettany Hughes on Channel 5 looking at eight specific turning points in Roman history. This one was the defeat of Hannibal, tho obviously the episode set us up with an overview of Roman & Carthaginian history to get us to understand why it mattered.

Harry Potter: A History of Magic - a look at the real life history of magic and how J K Rowling used or didn't use this in her world building for the Harry Potter universe. Ties in with the upcoming(?) British Library exhibition. Not sure what I thought of this - I think it was intended as fun fluff for fans, but I don't really rate Harry Potter as much as it seems the rest of the world does. I mean - I think it's a well done example of the type (well, mashup - boarding school stories, orphan is chosen one, magic is real & it's just that it's hidden) and if I'd found it when I was 10 & reading Chalet School books & Diana Wynne Jones & David Eddings I'd've loved it. Or possibly even in my late teens/early 20s when I was clearly still reading a lot of stuff with "finding one's tribe" narratives (judging by my re-reading of my fiction shelves I was a lot bigger on this back in the day than I am now). But discovering it in my 30s I wasn't hooked at all.

Comments

[magid]

I, too, didn't love Harry Potter. Too old by the time it was published, plus overall it felt like characters didn't grow so much (and boy the later books needed editing). However, I do appreciate her talent for naming candies! And I think she's a good person; I hope she'll write something non-Potterverse that I'll like.

[mousetrappling]

One of the things that did come across in the documentary was how down to earth & grounded she seemed. A lot of the other people interviewed in it were fluttering around practically worshipping her, but she seemed like an interesting person one might like to have a conversation with, if that makes sense.

I think I've heard good things about the detective novels she wrote under a pseudonym, but I've not actually got round to checking them out myself.