I totally am alive.
1 went sailing 
All aboard
All aboard
25 June 2009 @ 01:06 pm
Could anyone do me a massive favour and yousendit John Mayer's 'Your Body Is A Wonderland'? One of the staff here would really like it. Mwah, darlings.
10 June 2009 @ 06:02 pm
Well. Part 1 is over. Wow.
YES EXAMS ARE FINISHED AND I AM NEVER DOING WELSH AGAIN. I THINK. I MIGHT CHANGE MY MIND. BUT EXAMS ARE OVER.
YES EXAMS ARE FINISHED AND I AM NEVER DOING WELSH AGAIN. I THINK. I MIGHT CHANGE MY MIND. BUT EXAMS ARE OVER.
07 June 2009 @ 01:48 pm
I am really, really, really not a fan of the BNP. Because I'm not a racist idiot, essentially. While browsing their website for things to laugh at, I came across this in the 'Countering The Smears' section which I am at least slightly qualified to say is pretty much a load of complete crap, since they're specifically attempting to talk about the situation in this island a thousand years ago. And since I don't want to create an account on their website (*shudders*), I'll just mutter to myself here.
ix. There is no such thing as a British people. The history of Britain is one of continued mass immigration, and we are therefore a mongrel people. What is happening now is just a continuation of that history. Yes, BNP, that's a really good point. Do tell us how you will counter this vicious smear. (Actually, the grasp of early medieval history in the framing of the question isn't too strong, either, or at least debatable, but I'll let it slide - popular misconceptions which might be used to annoy the BNP are different from the dribblings of the BNP themselves.)
Not at all - the scientific definition of an ‘indigenous’ species is a species originally present in an area. Going for the obvious here, and I won't spend too long on this as I'm not a scientist, but as far as I remember from GCSE Biology, the scientific defintition of a 'species' is something along the lines of organisms which can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. ALL HOMO SAPIENS ARE THE SAME SPECIES, YOU IGNORANT GOONS.
Therefore the indigenous British genotype is that created at the time when Britain was created as a nation, around 1,000 years ago. I'm going to assume that by 'around 1,000 years ago' combined with the mention of 'Normans' in the next sentence, they're thinking of 1066 as some sort of turning point in the creation of a British state. This is completely nonsensical. In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, it's bollocks. The formation of England is an area of huge debate, and there's not even any agreement as to what we should be looking for as an indication of its achievement - the time at which it became a political ideal and the time at which it became a political reality are two different points in history. Possibly. Because the BNP are idiots, I'm going to go with the simpler answer of 'political reality' as more fitting, in which case, you're looking possibly at Athelstan and then several decades later probably at Edgar, both tenth century. William the Conqueror did not pull together an English state out of nothingness, he invaded a state which was already formed, and had been in the process of formation (before Athelstan) for several hundred years. (If you want to think more about political ideal, then the process of formation possibly goes all the way back to the seventh century.) HOWEVER, this has barely touched on the true idiocy of this statement, which is the use of the word 'Britain'. Dickheads. Wales did not exist as a political reality. Scotland did, but was not part of any kind of 'British nation'. Yes, there was probably some level of over-kingship associated with Athelstan's reign, and Edgar's row down the Dee in 978 was very symbolic, but that is not the same thing as being 'created as a nation'.
Britain then was made up of the descendants of the original Celts, together with Nordic (or Viking) people [from Norway, Sweden and Denmark], Germanic people [Angles and Saxons], Normans [who were largely former Vikings] and the Romans. Ignoring the egregious use of 'Britain' again, I have few problems with this list. It's oversimplified, the use of the word 'original' to descibe the Celts is stupid, considering that they displaced other people who were here before them, the Vikings were Germanic, at least in terms of language, the Jutes and Frisians are missing, and the extent of intermarriage between Romans and Britons before 400 is debatable. But whatever, it's better than the atrocity of the previous sentence.
The point therefore is that the indigenous British are a fusion of genetically similar Northern and Western European peoples all coming from within a few hundred miles of each other. No. The Celts seem to have been from fairly far east. There is more than a 'few hundred miles' between Norway and Saxony. You are all idiots.
While more recent migrants from these areas can be easily assimilated therefore given their compatible genotype, the present immigration from the Third World is a very different matter. Species which move into a new area and become established there are called colonisers. Britain is therefore being colonised by foreign populations which are changing the nature of Britain.
WE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE. WE HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF EARLY MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. WUUUUUUURGH.
[To understand this it is useful to consider a non-emotional parallel: the red and grey squirrel. The red squirrel is the indigenous one, the grey one the coloniser. The grey squirrel will never be termed indigenous, no matter how long it has been here. The term indigenous has a precise scientific meaning. A species either is, or is not, indigenous; it cannot become indigenous.]
DID I MENTION WE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE?
If you are a racist, a fascist, and a memeber of the BNP, you are probably barely capable of tying your own shoelaces. Taking that into consideration, please do not talk about the emergence of the English as a nation, or England as a country, or anything to do with Dark Ages history, because it is far, far too complicated for your tiny little mind to understand. And just as a hint, for the formation of anything approaching modern Britain, you need to look many hundreds of years further ahead than 1066. So fuck off.
ix. There is no such thing as a British people. The history of Britain is one of continued mass immigration, and we are therefore a mongrel people. What is happening now is just a continuation of that history. Yes, BNP, that's a really good point. Do tell us how you will counter this vicious smear. (Actually, the grasp of early medieval history in the framing of the question isn't too strong, either, or at least debatable, but I'll let it slide - popular misconceptions which might be used to annoy the BNP are different from the dribblings of the BNP themselves.)
Not at all - the scientific definition of an ‘indigenous’ species is a species originally present in an area. Going for the obvious here, and I won't spend too long on this as I'm not a scientist, but as far as I remember from GCSE Biology, the scientific defintition of a 'species' is something along the lines of organisms which can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. ALL HOMO SAPIENS ARE THE SAME SPECIES, YOU IGNORANT GOONS.
Therefore the indigenous British genotype is that created at the time when Britain was created as a nation, around 1,000 years ago. I'm going to assume that by 'around 1,000 years ago' combined with the mention of 'Normans' in the next sentence, they're thinking of 1066 as some sort of turning point in the creation of a British state. This is completely nonsensical. In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, it's bollocks. The formation of England is an area of huge debate, and there's not even any agreement as to what we should be looking for as an indication of its achievement - the time at which it became a political ideal and the time at which it became a political reality are two different points in history. Possibly. Because the BNP are idiots, I'm going to go with the simpler answer of 'political reality' as more fitting, in which case, you're looking possibly at Athelstan and then several decades later probably at Edgar, both tenth century. William the Conqueror did not pull together an English state out of nothingness, he invaded a state which was already formed, and had been in the process of formation (before Athelstan) for several hundred years. (If you want to think more about political ideal, then the process of formation possibly goes all the way back to the seventh century.) HOWEVER, this has barely touched on the true idiocy of this statement, which is the use of the word 'Britain'. Dickheads. Wales did not exist as a political reality. Scotland did, but was not part of any kind of 'British nation'. Yes, there was probably some level of over-kingship associated with Athelstan's reign, and Edgar's row down the Dee in 978 was very symbolic, but that is not the same thing as being 'created as a nation'.
Britain then was made up of the descendants of the original Celts, together with Nordic (or Viking) people [from Norway, Sweden and Denmark], Germanic people [Angles and Saxons], Normans [who were largely former Vikings] and the Romans. Ignoring the egregious use of 'Britain' again, I have few problems with this list. It's oversimplified, the use of the word 'original' to descibe the Celts is stupid, considering that they displaced other people who were here before them, the Vikings were Germanic, at least in terms of language, the Jutes and Frisians are missing, and the extent of intermarriage between Romans and Britons before 400 is debatable. But whatever, it's better than the atrocity of the previous sentence.
The point therefore is that the indigenous British are a fusion of genetically similar Northern and Western European peoples all coming from within a few hundred miles of each other. No. The Celts seem to have been from fairly far east. There is more than a 'few hundred miles' between Norway and Saxony. You are all idiots.
While more recent migrants from these areas can be easily assimilated therefore given their compatible genotype, the present immigration from the Third World is a very different matter. Species which move into a new area and become established there are called colonisers. Britain is therefore being colonised by foreign populations which are changing the nature of Britain.
WE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE. WE HAVE NO UNDERSTANDING OF EARLY MEDIAEVAL HISTORY. WUUUUUUURGH.
[To understand this it is useful to consider a non-emotional parallel: the red and grey squirrel. The red squirrel is the indigenous one, the grey one the coloniser. The grey squirrel will never be termed indigenous, no matter how long it has been here. The term indigenous has a precise scientific meaning. A species either is, or is not, indigenous; it cannot become indigenous.]
DID I MENTION WE LIKE WHITE PEOPLE?
If you are a racist, a fascist, and a memeber of the BNP, you are probably barely capable of tying your own shoelaces. Taking that into consideration, please do not talk about the emergence of the English as a nation, or England as a country, or anything to do with Dark Ages history, because it is far, far too complicated for your tiny little mind to understand. And just as a hint, for the formation of anything approaching modern Britain, you need to look many hundreds of years further ahead than 1066. So fuck off.
07 May 2009 @ 06:58 pm
HELLO. Long time no see! I, uh, have no idea what's been going on, and will not attempt to educate myself because reading my flist during exam term is a bad idea, but please tell me anything you want me to know. ♥
And yes, exam term. :( I have already done more revision than I did at all last year, though, so I'm... mostly not stressed. And ten days after my exams finish, so on the 20th of June, I'm off to South Africa for three and a half months. :O I arrive back on the 3rd of October, and term starts on the 5th. The 4th is going to be a fun day.
Okay, back to Canu Urien. Love you all.
And yes, exam term. :( I have already done more revision than I did at all last year, though, so I'm... mostly not stressed. And ten days after my exams finish, so on the 20th of June, I'm off to South Africa for three and a half months. :O I arrive back on the 3rd of October, and term starts on the 5th. The 4th is going to be a fun day.
Okay, back to Canu Urien. Love you all.
11 February 2009 @ 02:25 pm
Thank you for hugs, they are massively, massively appreciated. I'm not really in the mood to go over what's up because it will just get me down again, but I will when I feel better.
♥
♥
10 February 2009 @ 11:24 pm
08 February 2009 @ 11:44 am
Guys, this essay about representations of Loki in the two Eddas is almost two thousand words and I've only just started on Snorra Edda. And it's so fucking boring. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH.
However! Read Lokasenna, preferably Larrington's translation, if you ever get a chance. It is fun! Poor Loki. He's such an angry outsider. :(
However! Read Lokasenna, preferably Larrington's translation, if you ever get a chance. It is fun! Poor Loki. He's such an angry outsider. :(
05 February 2009 @ 06:38 pm
Apropos of nothing, during WWII this is where my maternal Great-Granny's family were:
One sister was in a Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia - she had five of the children with her and her husband was in another camp with the oldest son. A couple of the children developed long-term problems from severe malnutrition and brutal treatment.
Father and mother were both in the Netherlands, of course, which was totes a fun place to be. (The Germans weren't very nice to the Dutch. Lots of other relatives on the Dutch side spent time in concentration camps, but these great-great-grandparents avoided it.)
One sister stayed in Germany and her husband, who was German, fought in the German army. (They weren't Nazis, family say, they just... didn't leave or speak up or anything. And there must have been hundreds and thousands like them, who were able to shut their eyes juuust enough. I mean, hell, the current Pope is one of those. All evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing.)
She was in England, of course, with her husband and her children, one of whom was my Granny, and they had a pretty okay war, all told. But Jesus Christ, not a good time to have a spread-out family. Apparently they none of them heard from any of the others for four years. (Also, I think, not a very good time to be a foreign family who spoke a language that sounded veeery similar to German. But Granny doesn't really talk about that.)
One sister was in a Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia - she had five of the children with her and her husband was in another camp with the oldest son. A couple of the children developed long-term problems from severe malnutrition and brutal treatment.
Father and mother were both in the Netherlands, of course, which was totes a fun place to be. (The Germans weren't very nice to the Dutch. Lots of other relatives on the Dutch side spent time in concentration camps, but these great-great-grandparents avoided it.)
One sister stayed in Germany and her husband, who was German, fought in the German army. (They weren't Nazis, family say, they just... didn't leave or speak up or anything. And there must have been hundreds and thousands like them, who were able to shut their eyes juuust enough. I mean, hell, the current Pope is one of those. All evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing.)
She was in England, of course, with her husband and her children, one of whom was my Granny, and they had a pretty okay war, all told. But Jesus Christ, not a good time to have a spread-out family. Apparently they none of them heard from any of the others for four years. (Also, I think, not a very good time to be a foreign family who spoke a language that sounded veeery similar to German. But Granny doesn't really talk about that.)
03 February 2009 @ 04:48 pm
Ack, essay. ‘Irish nature poetry takes its inspiration from a good deal more complex than a simple “love of nature”’. Discuss. What even is that?
I think I'm going to live in a house next year, rather than go back to Girton. I think. Details maybe some other time, when I'm not procrastinating on writing about 'Irish nature poetry'. (That's not even a genre, dude. Like, seriously. I know this for a fact.)
I have about 16000 words of vocabulary to learn before the exams. And a lot of grammar. And talking of Irish, with a normal language you could expect to need to learn maybe about twenty grammatical paradigms to have a firmish grasp on how things work, right? For mediaeval Irish, I need to learn about a hundred and twenty. I just. IDEK. You will never understand how hard this language is unless you try to learn it.
Right, essay.
[ETA: Also,
Ro milt m'oitid ar thuus,
is buide lem ro-ngleus;
cid bec mo leim dar duae,
niba nuae in brat beus.
(I wasted my youth to begin with, I am glad that I so decided; though my leap over the wall had been small, the cloak still would not be new.)
YEAH MAN.
I think I'm going to live in a house next year, rather than go back to Girton. I think. Details maybe some other time, when I'm not procrastinating on writing about 'Irish nature poetry'. (That's not even a genre, dude. Like, seriously. I know this for a fact.)
I have about 16000 words of vocabulary to learn before the exams. And a lot of grammar. And talking of Irish, with a normal language you could expect to need to learn maybe about twenty grammatical paradigms to have a firmish grasp on how things work, right? For mediaeval Irish, I need to learn about a hundred and twenty. I just. IDEK. You will never understand how hard this language is unless you try to learn it.
Right, essay.
[ETA: Also,
Ro milt m'oitid ar thuus,
is buide lem ro-ngleus;
cid bec mo leim dar duae,
niba nuae in brat beus.
(I wasted my youth to begin with, I am glad that I so decided; though my leap over the wall had been small, the cloak still would not be new.)
YEAH MAN.
01 February 2009 @ 07:00 pm
Organs all scraped out and extracted and given to people, and the rest donated to science, probably for medical students to cut up and make jokes about.
OR a giant Viking cremation with a massive boat and violins playing as I get pushed out onto the sea and a huge bonfire. Maybe I could have a wax replica made of my body for that to be done to, and my real body could go to science?
(I have very strong views about the non-sanctity of dead bodies. What made them a person is gone. Sure, have a funeral or a cremation and symbolically say goodbye and have flowers and stuff, but for God's sake do something useful with the body itself! When my own death is a little more looming I might switch my view, though. :D)
29 January 2009 @ 03:12 pm
I'm genuinely ashamed to be part of a university that responds to public protest in the way that this one has. Fuck you, Cambridge.
When I am in less of a hurry, I might write a better post about this, but I've got to go to a production meeting. Just. basically, ignoring the rights and wrongs of whether the protest should have been happening (I stopped actively participating on Monday because I was uneasy about some aspects of it), it is disgusting that the university felt the need to respond with intimidation and force and as much power as it could possibly bring to bear.
And if I hear that any of the protesters who were actually noted to be at the protest (not purposefully, I managed to miss all of the times that the proctors felt it necessary to take names and photograph people, because they're dickheads) are getting in trouble, I'm going to email Girton's senior tutor and tell him that I was also at the protest.
I finish by repeating myself: fuck you, Cambridge. I am disappointed and disgusted and look forward to getting the fuck out of here.
When I am in less of a hurry, I might write a better post about this, but I've got to go to a production meeting. Just. basically, ignoring the rights and wrongs of whether the protest should have been happening (I stopped actively participating on Monday because I was uneasy about some aspects of it), it is disgusting that the university felt the need to respond with intimidation and force and as much power as it could possibly bring to bear.
And if I hear that any of the protesters who were actually noted to be at the protest (not purposefully, I managed to miss all of the times that the proctors felt it necessary to take names and photograph people, because they're dickheads) are getting in trouble, I'm going to email Girton's senior tutor and tell him that I was also at the protest.
I finish by repeating myself: fuck you, Cambridge. I am disappointed and disgusted and look forward to getting the fuck out of here.
Current Mood: furious
25 January 2009 @ 08:47 pm
Okay, just to sort out in my head what needs doing. The occupation is tiring me out, and i'm not really getting shit done. In an okay way, but still, I need to get my stuff together. Occupation = important. Me also = important.
TOMORROW:
- Starting veganism, must go food shopping.
- Lectures at 11 and 2.
- At the Cafe Project from 8pm to 11pm.
- Go to the UL and read for essay.
- Try and meet up with director of The Heights.
- Sort out dentist and Feelgood tickets.
- Try and sort out room for auditions for No Man's Land.
TUESDAY:
- Write essay.
- Translate Norse.
- Read for Norse essay.
- Orfeo in the evening.
Solidarity, comrades. (OMG, I love being around people who say 'comrade' unironically. It's a feat that I can't manage, but I'm glad that there are still people in the world who can.)
TOMORROW:
- Starting veganism, must go food shopping.
- Lectures at 11 and 2.
- At the Cafe Project from 8pm to 11pm.
- Go to the UL and read for essay.
- Try and meet up with director of The Heights.
- Sort out dentist and Feelgood tickets.
- Try and sort out room for auditions for No Man's Land.
TUESDAY:
- Write essay.
- Translate Norse.
- Read for Norse essay.
- Orfeo in the evening.
Solidarity, comrades. (OMG, I love being around people who say 'comrade' unironically. It's a feat that I can't manage, but I'm glad that there are still people in the world who can.)
25 January 2009 @ 12:36 am
So, it's awesome, guys. Like, left-wing as all hell, with everything that entails - the hour and a half long meeting of PAIN being a major case in point, because consensus and discussion and facilitation between sixty people rocks until one little person gets stuck on a point and then it all grinds to a halt. A democratic, jazz-handy kind of halt, but still, indisputably, a halt.
On the other hand, today I have: heard 'comrade' used unironically, met a lot of people I really respect, and been part of something bigger than me, something that might genuinely have some concrete results. The Vice-Chancellor is coming to open negotiations with us tomorrow. If we can just get the donation of educational materials, and maybe one or two scholarships for Palestinian students, I'll be happy.
I'm home for a shower, and then I'm going down to sleep there.
On the other hand, today I have: heard 'comrade' used unironically, met a lot of people I really respect, and been part of something bigger than me, something that might genuinely have some concrete results. The Vice-Chancellor is coming to open negotiations with us tomorrow. If we can just get the donation of educational materials, and maybe one or two scholarships for Palestinian students, I'll be happy.
I'm home for a shower, and then I'm going down to sleep there.
23 January 2009 @ 11:38 pm
Oh, for fuck's sake. I go away from Cam for a night and that's the night that some direct action kicks off? There's an occupation in protest at the situation in Gaza going on in the Law Faculty building, I got a text from a mate a few hours ago, and I swear to God I am so on that, but I'm in London for tonight. ARGH. Fingers crossed, it'll still be on tomorrow, and I can head down when I get back, because a) good cause and b) I literally can't think of anything more awesome to do. Like, EVER.
Christ, I need to pay for more paid time on this LJ. I need my 'dirty hippie' icon!
[ETA: Guys, I really, really want to be there. I feel so lumpish and useless, slouching here, about to have a shower and go to bed and do normal boring stuff, when I could be doing something. Fuck's sake. :( :(]
Christ, I need to pay for more paid time on this LJ. I need my 'dirty hippie' icon!
[ETA: Guys, I really, really want to be there. I feel so lumpish and useless, slouching here, about to have a shower and go to bed and do normal boring stuff, when I could be doing something. Fuck's sake. :( :(]
21 January 2009 @ 05:48 pm
So I'm gonna try being vegan for a month. Any recipes/suggestions?
I hate not having a paid LJ, I want to use my curious icon. Siiiigh.
I hate not having a paid LJ, I want to use my curious icon. Siiiigh.
19 January 2009 @ 01:33 am
I AM IN A COMIC.
I am massively excited by this, yes, because![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
schiarire's comics are awesome. (The guy who helped me with the bags was not nearly as good-looking as he has been portrayed, however.)
I am massively excited by this, yes, because
schiarire's comics are awesome. (The guy who helped me with the bags was not nearly as good-looking as he has been portrayed, however.)16 January 2009 @ 01:37 pm
I will be in South Africa from the 20th of June to the 2nd of October. OMGOMGOMGOMG THIS IS GOING TO AMAZING.
Was on the phone with the brother wot is in Tasmania yesterday. After we chatted for a while, he began a conversation like this: "So yesterday evening I started to get a tattoo but I'd drunk too much and it was bleeding too heavily so we had to stop." Not a good beginning, but not disastrous. So I asked him what he was getting. "A cross on my finger." Much closer to being disastrous. I mean, WTF? That's an extremely visible tattoo. So I asked him how long he'd been thinking about it. "Oh, about a day." So then I insulted his decision-making processes for a while, and we talked about how painful hand tattoos are and what he's going to do if he wants to get a job where they aren't down with visible tattoos, and he finally said that he was rethinking it. Followed by, "I don't know how much of it I've got already though, because I can't see at the moment. It might be half-done."
Fabulous. Mum's going to freak, ahahaha.
He also said he's thinking of applying to drama school when he gets back, and I don't quite know what to do with that. He's a good actor, but I don't really think he's anywhere near good enough, and he's one of my baby brothers, man, the thought of him getting rejected from anything he wants to do is painful. So I kinda said he should go for it, but I don't know whether I should have been more realistic. And actually, my realism might have been wrong - maybe he's a fucking amazing actor, I haven't seen him act for a while. It's not really up to me to make the decision. But still. Argh.
I'm about to write an essay on Scela Muicce Meic Datho (The Tale Of Mac Datho's Pig), my first on any Old Irish lit, and I've just been reading some secondary sources, including some faaascinating stuff about the conception of honour in early mediaeval Irish society, and how it was this entirely external conception, and how gift-giving functioned (a good anthropological parallel is potlatch, if anybody's heard of that?) and how it diminished your status to accept a gift and not return it, and also diminished your status not to accept a gift, because it was an admittance of an inability to return it, locking everybody into this cycle of extravagant feasting. And also if you made an oath in private, it was absolutely no dishonour to break it because nobody knew you'd made it, and you constantly had to fight for position because you were only worth as much as you were judged to be worth. It's fascinating how a lot of this stuff is now internalised for us, your personal code of integrity and honour, but it meant nothing for the Irish unless somebody saw it or you boasted about it loudly enough that you were believed.
It also explained why they brawl a lot at feasts, in the stories, because where you were seated and what food you were served depended on these tiny gradations of status, and if you felt that you were not being served your due or whatever, you couldn't just take quiet solace in your own knowledge of your worth, because you had no worth if the others didn't think you did. So you had to jump up and wave your sword around and SHOUT LIKE THIS. And then people responded, and it all degenerated.
Obviously, the stories depict a lot more constant fighting, with a higher body count, than was practically possible, being a larger than life depiction of society, but they do give a distorted mirror onto actual life for Irish noblemen, and it's a hilariously loud and shallow and aggressive affair. It's cool.
From the above, you may deduce that I am back in the Cam. :D Oh, and one tiny thing that I forgot: recipes that include the words "cake mix" in the ingredients? ARE NOT RECIPES. I don't know what they are, really. Random experimentation that is probably very tasty but also not something that other people need to know the True Secret of because there is no True Secret because you used CAKE MIX? Something like that.
Was on the phone with the brother wot is in Tasmania yesterday. After we chatted for a while, he began a conversation like this: "So yesterday evening I started to get a tattoo but I'd drunk too much and it was bleeding too heavily so we had to stop." Not a good beginning, but not disastrous. So I asked him what he was getting. "A cross on my finger." Much closer to being disastrous. I mean, WTF? That's an extremely visible tattoo. So I asked him how long he'd been thinking about it. "Oh, about a day." So then I insulted his decision-making processes for a while, and we talked about how painful hand tattoos are and what he's going to do if he wants to get a job where they aren't down with visible tattoos, and he finally said that he was rethinking it. Followed by, "I don't know how much of it I've got already though, because I can't see at the moment. It might be half-done."
Fabulous. Mum's going to freak, ahahaha.
He also said he's thinking of applying to drama school when he gets back, and I don't quite know what to do with that. He's a good actor, but I don't really think he's anywhere near good enough, and he's one of my baby brothers, man, the thought of him getting rejected from anything he wants to do is painful. So I kinda said he should go for it, but I don't know whether I should have been more realistic. And actually, my realism might have been wrong - maybe he's a fucking amazing actor, I haven't seen him act for a while. It's not really up to me to make the decision. But still. Argh.
I'm about to write an essay on Scela Muicce Meic Datho (The Tale Of Mac Datho's Pig), my first on any Old Irish lit, and I've just been reading some secondary sources, including some faaascinating stuff about the conception of honour in early mediaeval Irish society, and how it was this entirely external conception, and how gift-giving functioned (a good anthropological parallel is potlatch, if anybody's heard of that?) and how it diminished your status to accept a gift and not return it, and also diminished your status not to accept a gift, because it was an admittance of an inability to return it, locking everybody into this cycle of extravagant feasting. And also if you made an oath in private, it was absolutely no dishonour to break it because nobody knew you'd made it, and you constantly had to fight for position because you were only worth as much as you were judged to be worth. It's fascinating how a lot of this stuff is now internalised for us, your personal code of integrity and honour, but it meant nothing for the Irish unless somebody saw it or you boasted about it loudly enough that you were believed.
It also explained why they brawl a lot at feasts, in the stories, because where you were seated and what food you were served depended on these tiny gradations of status, and if you felt that you were not being served your due or whatever, you couldn't just take quiet solace in your own knowledge of your worth, because you had no worth if the others didn't think you did. So you had to jump up and wave your sword around and SHOUT LIKE THIS. And then people responded, and it all degenerated.
Obviously, the stories depict a lot more constant fighting, with a higher body count, than was practically possible, being a larger than life depiction of society, but they do give a distorted mirror onto actual life for Irish noblemen, and it's a hilariously loud and shallow and aggressive affair. It's cool.
From the above, you may deduce that I am back in the Cam. :D Oh, and one tiny thing that I forgot: recipes that include the words "cake mix" in the ingredients? ARE NOT RECIPES. I don't know what they are, really. Random experimentation that is probably very tasty but also not something that other people need to know the True Secret of because there is no True Secret because you used CAKE MIX? Something like that.
09 January 2009 @ 06:36 pm
Reading Tolkien when you're down with the whole Anglo-Saxon literature thing, even a tiny bit, is an infinitely richer and more fascinating experience. One interesting thing I have noticed (I'm reading it to my little brother at the moment): the idea of nature being hostile, like in the Forest with the hobbit-eating willow trees, is very Anglo-Saxon: most of the poetry takes place within this massively hostile world where the only way to protect yourself is to be with other people. I mean, England? Not the most welcoming environment, weather-wise, or any other wise, really.
Obviously, that has suvrived in many other ways: I only point it out in Tolkien because I can be pretty sure that he was directly influenced by the Old English literature. It's always fascinating to remember that they really, truly were our intellectual forbears, not just this distant people in the past, with no bearing on life. That's one of the best things about the period that I study: that, right there, is where the tiny seeds of our national consciousness were formed, our gloomy, rainy, murky national consciousness, where monsters lurk and men must be men (God, did men have to be men, in a very particular and very violently aggressive way) and about fifty per cent of thoughts revolve around alcohol and warmth and sex, and there is endless amusement from smut, and bad, bad things come from outside the mead-hall. Grendel lurks in the edge of our minds, man, and it's awesome.
Two ASNaC posts in one day, argh! It's because I'm doing so much work at the moment. I am virtuous! I just wrote an essay on the skáldasögur authors being more interested in male rivalries than erotic love, discuss, which is TOTALLY TRUE, god. I mean, man, Old Icelanders had no idea how to do romance. Fighting and viking-ing and strong women and killing, they're fab at, but give them a man and a woman passionately in love and it's kind of, metaphorically, like watching someone desultorily playing with a Ken doll and a Barbie doll, sort of vaguely smushing them together and then getting bored. I mean, dude. Gunnlaug Ormstungu (a hero of one of the sagas, depending on your definition of hero) is described as being in love more than was reasonable. Uh-huh, anonymous saga writer. I am totally convinced that you are down with the whole romance thing.
I seriously wish I had people to talk in detail about this stuff with. Or you know, laugh at the saga writers with. I 'm easy. GODDAMN OBSCURE COURSE.
Obviously, that has suvrived in many other ways: I only point it out in Tolkien because I can be pretty sure that he was directly influenced by the Old English literature. It's always fascinating to remember that they really, truly were our intellectual forbears, not just this distant people in the past, with no bearing on life. That's one of the best things about the period that I study: that, right there, is where the tiny seeds of our national consciousness were formed, our gloomy, rainy, murky national consciousness, where monsters lurk and men must be men (God, did men have to be men, in a very particular and very violently aggressive way) and about fifty per cent of thoughts revolve around alcohol and warmth and sex, and there is endless amusement from smut, and bad, bad things come from outside the mead-hall. Grendel lurks in the edge of our minds, man, and it's awesome.
Two ASNaC posts in one day, argh! It's because I'm doing so much work at the moment. I am virtuous! I just wrote an essay on the skáldasögur authors being more interested in male rivalries than erotic love, discuss, which is TOTALLY TRUE, god. I mean, man, Old Icelanders had no idea how to do romance. Fighting and viking-ing and strong women and killing, they're fab at, but give them a man and a woman passionately in love and it's kind of, metaphorically, like watching someone desultorily playing with a Ken doll and a Barbie doll, sort of vaguely smushing them together and then getting bored. I mean, dude. Gunnlaug Ormstungu (a hero of one of the sagas, depending on your definition of hero) is described as being in love more than was reasonable. Uh-huh, anonymous saga writer. I am totally convinced that you are down with the whole romance thing.
I seriously wish I had people to talk in detail about this stuff with. Or you know, laugh at the saga writers with. I 'm easy. GODDAMN OBSCURE COURSE.