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I want to listen to people of color. I want to read books by people of color.
I am sick to death of white people behaving badly on the Internet.
That is all. |
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The Rime of the Ancient Wrangler
....is my Viable Paradise homework assignment, written under the following constraints.
Cory Doctorow had us write and then randomly pick a person, place and thing from a stack of index cards. Mine were:
- balloon animal wrangler (which I liberally interpreted as wrangler of balloon animals, ie genetically modified domestic-surveillance airsquid)
- village
- stiletto
Jim Macdonald assigned us stories for an anthology. Mine was:
- light verse
- science fantasy (um...)
- non-mammalian reproduction (squid!)
We were also given a Halloween toy that had to be included:
First and last lines had to be circular. The example given was the opening and closing of Watership Down, which I promptly stole.
Finally, it had to be written in a genre I generally dislike:
- cozy murder mystery
- Mafia thriller
And include the point of view of a person whose POV I find repugnant:
- willing tool of DHS surveillance
Naturally I chose to write an epic poem. My main characters - Bear, Doyle, Macdonald, Doctorow, Gould, Mixon, PNH and TNH - are the VP instructors. The baby squid are the VPXI attendees.
I was forced to read this aloud. My apologies to all who heard it.
( Read more ) |
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"...he arranged (through a loan from his friends the Rothschilds) for England to buy a crucial stake in the Suez Canal, and he made Queen Victoria Empress, not merely overseer, of India."
In other words, Dizzy was directly responsible for the outcome of the Urabi Revolt, and for the banquet in Simla. Whew. |
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England's first and only Jewish PM famously said "Never complain, never explain." But he also evaded face-blindness by asking "How is the old complaint?"
Well, Dizzy? Which is it to be? WHICH? |
| » Jazz age Iraq |
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Grass, a Nation's Battle for Life
A Dweller in Mesopotamia
From the latter:
"By day, Baghdad is not so impressive. Too much squalor is apparent. Yet there are quaint street scenes.
"Ancient windows, overhanging the street in one quarter, reminded me strongly of pictures of old London. The feature that I could not help noticing, not only in Baghdad but in all Mesopotamia, was the absence of local colour. It is true that the sun gives a blazing and confused suggestion of colour to objects by contrast with bluish shadows, especially in the evening, but there is[Pg 88] often very little colour in things themselves."
Mar. 27th, 2006 @ 04:14 pm
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| » (No Subject) |
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I finally created a Wikipedia entry for Crabbet. It's already been corrected once! (I called Al Khamsa a registry - it's just a breeding group. Thanks, Starlingfeather!)
Mar. 8th, 2006 @ 11:36 am
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| » John Stuart Mill |
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Introductory, On Liberty, 1869
"There is a limit to the legitimate interference of collective opinion with individual independence: and to find that limit, and maintain it against encroachment, is as indispensable to a good condition of human affairs, as protection against political despotism."
"Wherever there is an ascendant class, a large portion of the morality of the country emanates from its class interests, and its feelings of class superiority. The morality between Spartans and Helots, between planters and negroes, between princes and subjects, between nobles and roturiers, between men and women, has been for the most part the creation of these class interests and feelings: and the sentiments thus generated, react in turn upon the moral feelings of the members of the ascendant class, in their relations among themselves."
"The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him, or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil in case he do otherwise. To justify that, the conduct from which it is desired to deter him, must be calculated to produce evil to some one else. The only part of the conduct of any one, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
"It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their faculties. We are not speaking of children, or of young persons below the age which the law may fix as that of manhood or womanhood. Those who are still in a state to require being taken care of by others, must be protected against their own actions as well as against external injury. For the same reason, we may leave out of consideration those backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage. The early difficulties in the way of spontaneous progress are so great, that there is seldom any choice of means for overcoming them; and a ruler full of the spirit of improvement is warranted in the use of any expedients that will attain an end, perhaps otherwise unattainable. Despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians, provided the end be their improvement, and the means justified by actually effecting that end. Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then, there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one. But as soon as mankind have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion (a period long since reached in all nations with whom we need here concern ourselves), compulsion, either in the direct form or in that of pains and penalties for non-compliance, is no longer admissible as a means to their own good, and justifiable only for the security of others."
"There are also many positive acts for the benefit of others, which he may rightfully be compelled to perform; such as, to give evidence in a court of justice; to bear his fair share in the common defence, or in any other joint work necessary to the interest of the society of which he enjoys the protection; and to perform certain acts of individual beneficence, such as saving a fellow-creature's life, or interposing to protect the defenceless against ill-usage, things which whenever it is obviously a man's duty to do, he may rightfully be made responsible to society for not doing."
"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest."
Jun. 15th, 2005 @ 11:07 pm
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| » Rubaiyat |
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VIII
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.
XXXII
There was the Door to which I found no Key;
There was the Veil through which I might not see:
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was--and then no more of Thee and Me.
LXXI
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
Jun. 7th, 2005 @ 04:14 pm
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| » Hadiths |
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A searchable database of hadiths, including the warning that such a tool does not replace true scholarship in Islam.
May. 24th, 2005 @ 02:34 pm
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| » Ibrahim |
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One of my characters is a Wahhabist horse-breeder. Here's some scriptural precedent:
The Cow
1. [2.239] But if you are in danger, then (say your prayers) on foot or on horseback; and when you are secure, then remember Allah, as. He has taught you what you did not know.
The Family of Imran
1. [3.14] The love of desires, of women and sons and hoarded treasures of gold and silver and well bred horses and cattle and tilth, is made to seem fair to men; this is the provision of the life of this world; and Allah is He with Whom is the good goal (of life).
The Accessions
1. [8.60] And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them, whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them; and whatever thing you will spend in Allah's way, it will be paid back to you fully and you shall not be dealt with unjustly.
The Bee
1. [16.8] And (He made) horses and mules and asses that you might ride upon them and as an ornament; and He creates what you do not know.
Suad
1. [38.31] When there were brought to him in the evening (horses) still when standing, swift when running--
The Banishment
1. [59.6] And whatever Allah restored to His Apostle from them you did not press forward against it any horse or a riding camel but Allah gives authority to His apostles against whom He pleases, and Allah has power over all things.
The Koran
May. 24th, 2005 @ 02:25 pm
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| » From the Gerty archive |
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1 January 1907 - "Oh, and a most successful afternoon we spent with Lady Anne. She was dressed in full Bedouin costume and we saw her Arab horses and her garden with wolves and foxes wild in it, and she told us all about the lawsuit with Wilfred Blunt and insisted that we should come down again before we left. I must try and go. She is an interesting woman."
11 January 1907 - "I lunched with Lady Anne today and spent a couple of hours in her charming garden. I forgot to tell Hugo that she loves being photographed - no, I think I told him. We have become great friends. Today as I went away she said "How shall I do with not seeing you again?" It's not a demonstrative affection, quite prim and formal in fact, very odd altogether. But I take a great pleasure in wandering about with her through her orange groves and listening to her funny disjointed talk. You will realize her quite well from Hugo's photographs."
6 December 1915 - "Yesterday I made holiday for an afternoon and went to see Lady Anne who was most kind and affectionate. We had great talks about Arabia and I shall go down to her again next Sunday. It's an oasis of peace and quiet after the noise and crowd of Cairo. How I hate hotels and the perpetual living in public which they imply! One loathes it more than ever after months of a hermit's existence."
25 January 1916 - "It has been cold and wet here for a month. Last Sunday I was so frozen that I could not sit indoors and shiver all day, so I went down to Lady Anne, walked about her garden and had tea with her which was better than the icy office."
May. 20th, 2005 @ 03:54 pm
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| » Folks the Blunts knew |
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May. 19th, 2005 @ 04:11 pm
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| » Crabbet Park |
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May. 18th, 2005 @ 07:15 pm
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| » Wilfred by William Morris |
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May. 18th, 2005 @ 07:11 pm
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| » Wilfred in Arab drag |
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May. 18th, 2005 @ 07:09 pm
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| » Wilfred caricatured |
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May. 18th, 2005 @ 07:08 pm
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| » Well, since I'm here anyway |
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I might as well use this as a scrapbook.
So, violin repertoire for a late-19thC Englishwoman:
Also of note:
May. 18th, 2005 @ 05:26 pm
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mizchalmers's journal