• 10 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 1st, 2023

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  • Another far fetched change I would like to see in our society: shorter work days. I don’t think there is any real reason why we settled on 8h work days, and with the growth of productivity I see no reason why we should stay there. A shorter work day (at same pay) would allow the worker to have more time to enjoy life - and the family they chose to create.







  • I don’t think that would be a problem related to not write chronologically. Think of a reader reading about Ireland nowadays. How much do you need to know about why Irish people do not like English people in order to understand and enjoy the story? I don’t think much other at all. If you really want, you can easily insert a brief line about the background and have later in a gull story about the background itself.


  • “Latest hack you figured out”

    As a new parent, there have been countless little hacks shared with me that really helped my life. The first one: “sometimes babies just need to cry it out” (within reason). Helped me drop the parent guilt of hearing your baby cry and not being able to fix it right away.

    Latest one: if you are excited, they will likely be as well. (Experiences of potty training)



  • Writing style.

    I am down for any book, as long as the author can play with the language. It can be long winded as Wallace, or poignant like Vonnegut, or poetic and soft like Haruf, or dry and almost scientific like Asimov, or logic bending like Pratchett, but all these authors can use language like an instrument. This property doesn’t make a book easy to read, but makes it most definitely worth my while.





  • I started Blood Meridian by McCarthy. It was a Christmas gift from an American friend. I had never heard about it before then, and I went into it more or less blind. It’s a much bleaker read than I was expecting, but the language is keeping me hooked: it has been a while since last time I had to check the meaning of an English word, and this me taught me plenty.

    On the side, I’m reading a German young adult romance novel to learn better German. It’s a light read, to nicely compensate and lift my spirits a bit.


  • From an academic level, he stands aside, presenting himself as and taking pride in being a “poet maudit”, a cursed poet. So his themes are very peculiar. But he also has a really good classical education, thus he builds very balanced verses, while often playing with the musicality of words.

    For me, very personally, it sounds so incredibly good while being almost over the top dark and tortured. I love the contrast that creates.

    The poem I particularly like is the one he chose as introduction of his works. It’s alluring, while alluding to the future corruption. I imagine it to be the call of a new drug.



  • As an Italian, I’m most definitely biased, but the Divine Comedy, and mostly the Inferno, are worth a read if you are willing to read the notes (all the historical references are near-impossible to understand otherwise). Some sections are romantic, some politic/religious/esoteric, some epic, a couple really fun. There is a bit for everyone. The Paradise becomes more serious, concentrating most on religion and politics, and I found it less exciting.




  • I walked into a random bookstore and got advised to read “Rossignol” by Audrey Pleynet. As far as I know it has only been published in French, but I hope this is going to change.

    It’s a short read, but absolutely amazing. A woman is on the run, and mixes memories of her past in a futuristic space station to flashes of her escape. Only slowly do all the pieces fall together, creating a tale with many emotions, strange characters and glimpses of a lively mixed station where all are welcome, but where tensions between groups are rising.

    I loved it for the deep characterization of the main character, while all others are just fast drafts. I loved it for the sci-fi and the politics and the action.

    I started it yesterday and already finished it.