What are you currently reading ?

Started by goat major, 03 November 2012, 06:40:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

fsn

Quote from: lowlylowlycook on 03 March 2019, 11:57:05 PM
Reading The Dark Ages by Charles Oman.  I can understand the desire to show off ones erudition but I think dropping in the word poliorcetics might have been a step to far even in the year 1893.
My Victorian edition of the Sir Edward Creasy (loaned to a "friend" and never returned) would quote Greeks and Latins and French ... but without translation. It became a bit frustrating - "as Herodotus put it ..." then a lot of what was frankly Greek to me.

I suppose it reflected his intended audience.


Lord Oik of Runcorn (You may refer to me as Milord Oik)

Oik of the Year 2013, 2014; Prize for originality and 'having a go, bless him', 2015
3 votes in the 2016 Painting Competition!; 2017-2019 The Wilderness years
Oik of the Year 2020; 7 votes in the 2021 Painting Competition
11 votes in the 2022 Painting Competition (Double figures!)
2023 - the year of Gerald:
2024 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

paulr

Quote from: Ithoriel on 04 March 2019, 01:27:56 AM
Is it good or bad that I only know that poliorcetics is the art of siege craft because of Demetrios Poliorcetes (Demetrius he Besieger) son of Antigonus Monopthalmos (Antigonus the One-Eyed) both major players in the wars of succession after Alexander the Great's death.

A walking encyclopaedia of arcane and inconsequential facts, that's me :D

Both ;D
Lord Lensman of Wellington
2018 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2022 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!
2023 Painting Competition - Runner-Up!

kipt

More soap opera...Finished "Sword Song: The Battle for London" by Bernard Cornwell.  London was called Lundene at this point of time.

Another sword and ax tale and this is book 4.

Leman

By 2647 it will probably be called Lnun. The English language seems to be collapsing in on itself.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

Techno

Listening to "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

Cheers - Phil

Ithoriel

Quote from: Leman on 04 March 2019, 02:23:03 PM
By 2647 it will probably be called Lnun. The English language seems to be collapsing in on itself.

At the rate we're going, it will be a site of scientific interest where alien documentary broadcasters will come to pontificate

"This appears to be the site of one of the major population centres of the indigenous apex predator just before their extinction. It is unclear whether it's destruction was due to intra-species conflict, the devastating effects of global climate change or the unfortunate incident in which one of our Titan Class starships impacted on the surface during the mission in which Elvis Presley was returning the monster to Loch Ness."
There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

FierceKitty

Distressing that the Minbari-Klingon alliance seems set to embrace the groc'ers apostrophe.  :'(
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Leman

Someone uttered the word Brexit for the four billionth time and the entire 15 million just sighed and gave up the ghost.
The artist formerly known as Dour Puritan!

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: fsn on 04 March 2019, 08:22:08 AM
My Victorian edition of the Sir Edward Creasy (loaned to a "friend" and never returned) would quote Greeks and Latins and French ... but without translation. It became a bit frustrating - "as Herodotus put it ..." then a lot of what was frankly Greek to me.

I suppose it reflected his intended audience.

It's remarkable how a bit of obscure language can convert a readable storyline into a hard slog.

A few years back I and some friends decided to read some Joseph Conrad, hoping for some scenario inspiration.
Heart of Darkness is his most famous, probably because of its screen adaptations.
Many of his other sea stories are set in what was then called the Malay Archipelago (Now Malay Borneo and Indonesia).
They are littered with dialogue that incorporates Melayu Pasar (lit. Market Malay) - the lingua franca of the region which forms the main basis for the modern Indonesian language, often using contemporary Dutch spellings.

Accidents of history mean I've acquired some knowledge of Indonesian and Dutch.
While I was able to glide through the dialogue, friends were struggling to leaf back and forth between a lengthy glossary and the story.
They found this interrupted the flow and turned an accessible read into a really difficult slog.

Though we found some gaming inspiration (Essentially the same 3 cultures presented in Darkest Africa: Tribal, Local Kingdoms, Regional Influence (In this case pirates) and the far-away colonial power).
There's a dearth of figures, and we decided we would be moving Darkest Africa to a different continent with few changes.

We also mentioned that Conrad's sea stories have a certain similarity, and if transposed to the Aegean and back 2500 years, they would sit nicely with the heroic Greek myths.


FierceKitty

06 March 2019, 12:45:13 AM #2964 Last Edit: 06 March 2019, 02:07:15 AM by FierceKitty
I have to admit I've always found Conrad hard going. His female characters in particular have a triviality that makes Mickey Mouse look like Hamlet.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

Techno

No....It was Donald Duck that played Hamlet.





Cheers - Phil

FierceKitty

Of course. My mistake. I was thinking of Mickey in Ibsen's A Doll's Mouse.
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

steve_holmes_11

In these parts we constantly re-assess Goofy's role in Bergman's Seventh Seal.

Was the story enhanced by changing the chess game to a keepy-uppie contest etc etc.

FierceKitty

Did you know Wagner considered calling Tannhaueser by the name of Die Minnie Singer vom Venusberg?
I don't drink coffee to wake up. I wake up to drink coffee.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: FierceKitty on 06 March 2019, 12:45:13 AM
I have to admit I've always found Conrad hard going. His female characters in particular have a triviality that makes Mickey Mouse look like Hamlet.

That's one of the things that struck me as "Straight outta Athens".
Most of those Greek ladies (or barbarian women) are one dimensional ciphers who bring their menfolk misfortune or death.
Honourable exception for Penelope at the end of the Odyssey (Probably Mrs Travers from The Rescue in Conrad's works).