When the day breaks and there's too much pain staying

[sovay]

First it was so hot that I couldn't fall asleep, and then when I finally did the cat did everything in his power to wake me back up again. During the hour or so of actually passing out, I dreamed of trying to review the semi-recent film of an Austen novel that doesn't exist. It was called Patience and was traditionally viewed as a companion piece to Persuasion, which in this history had not been a posthumous publication. The film was one of the famous ones from the '90's that I was trying to catch up with ahead of the new adaptation. I needed to be so much more functional today than I am. Have some links.

1. Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein has put out an open call for submissions from marginalized reviewers and fans specifically. "For the last five decades, most of the scholarship and criticism on Lovecraft and Mythos fiction, and most of the relayed experiences of being a fan, writer, or scholar in the Lovecraftian milieu, have been from white, male, cisgender, heterosexual, abled, Christian, and American viewpoints. What I'd like is other perspectives."

2. Courtesy of reconditarmonia: fanart for Utopia, Limited. There's a fair amount in the artist's collection. I wasn't expecting it, either. I'm just charmed.

3. Courtesy of handful_ofdust: cultivating reading attention, like any other ability. "you may have to set goals so small they seem silly. you may have to brainstorm and testrun concentration mechanisms that are odd . . . i have faith in you."

4. I took a quiz about haunting classical sites and got Istanbul:

Or is it Constantinople? This city has seen so many identities, you barely keep track; it suits you that way. Carrying in your breast that ancient flame, you are not bound by one person, but your ghost shifts according to the situation. Very, very sexy.

I was expecting something a little more archaic, but you know what, I'll take it. [edit] Out of curiosity, I re-ran the quiz, changed one answer (not the cursed scenario, that's still Catullus on Facebook, although I think Catullus on Twitter would be truly cursed), and got the Pnyx, which is sort of the exact opposite.

5. I don't feel called out by this tweet, I just hadn't realized it was endemic to the profession. Then again, see above.

I made a life decision and clicked on the AO3 tag for Frank Wildhorn's Rudolf and I can't read most of it, but insofar as you can have a juggernaut ship in a fandom the size of a shoebox it looks like Rudolf/Taaffe with some Mary/Taaffe for good measure and I couldn't stop laughing.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

In re Rudolf, so not a relative?

[sovay]

In re Rudolf, so not a relative?

Not a close one. It is the same family. I grew up believing that we were descended from the Austrian Taaffes because my father and his brothers had been brought up to believe it, but then his youngest brother got into genealogy when I was in college and it turned out we're descended from one of the other branches which eventually emigrated direct from Ireland, which doesn't stop it from being funny that the historical Eduard Graf von Taaffe was a dead ringer for my father's third-oldest brother, give or take nineteenth- versus twentieth-century fashions in mustaches. In other words, I am not in line to petition for the restoration of either the Irish or the Austrian titles. Technically I have an ancestral castle in Ireland, but so do a lot of people and in any case it's a private clinic these days. (Smarmore Castle near Ardee; I've never been there. Taaffe's Castle in Carlingford is a sixteenth-century tower house which I did visit in 2004, a picturesquely ivy-flourishing, slate-roofed ruin that isn't on the water anymore because the harbor was dredged and the docks built up. selkie and I checked out what had happened to Ellischau when I was in D.C. and it didn't look occupied, either. [edit] It's a cultural monument of the Czech Republic! Speaking of places that the borders changed out from underneath.) I still feel sentimentally attached to taaffeite.

[jesse_the_k]

Impressive research indeed.

Seems appropriate that today I learned about a mineral that was first named as a gemstone.

[sovay]

Impressive research indeed.

Well, the genealogical stuff was my uncle's.

Seems appropriate that today I learned about a mineral that was first named as a gemstone.

There's a piece of taaffeite in the Harvard Museum of Natural History that I used to visit. It's very attractive. Chances of my ever owning a gem of it, given its rarity and my poverty, alas, are low.

[strange_complex]

Thanks for the link to the ancient haunting quiz. I got the Forum Romanum, which I was happy with:

You are a reminder of what was surrounded by everything that has come and gone since. Somehow, you never cease to feel relevant even when lost for centuries: you don't need the physical space when you haunt people's hearts and minds just as easily. Plus, you might find yourself frequented by cats as well as tourists. A blessing.

For summer, the weather here is grey and miserable. I wish we could average it out with North America a bit. I think we'd all benefit.

[sovay]

Thanks for the link to the ancient haunting quiz. I got the Forum Romanum, which I was happy with

Nice! You're welcome. I'm so glad you have the appropriate icon.

For summer, the weather here is grey and miserable. I wish we could average it out with North America a bit. I think we'd all benefit.

Seriously.

[troisoiseaux]

Ooh, thanks for linking that quiz! On the basis of picking the answers that struck me as the funniest, I got The Pnyx—

Just outside the ancient city, yet brimming with power, you look forgotten but your memories carry further than even the glamourous temples that people visit instead. Those who see beyond your bare bones can get a taste of ancient Greece: a place where people exchanged wits in debate, where women got absolutely smashed and cursed their men, where those who admire democracy go to pay homage. Worthy, powerful, if no longer beautiful, the Pnyx is just right for those who choose substance over presentation.

[sovay]

Ooh, thanks for linking that quiz! On the basis of picking the answers that struck me as the funniest, I got The Pnyx—

You're welcome! I think it is delightful that that's how it worked out.

[choco_frosh]

Boo to the heat!

[sovay]

Boo to the heat!

I don't like this global warming. If only there were something countries and corporations could do.

[nodrog]

could do and would do are two things.  Certainly:  If I were Pharaoh I would decree the building of vast solar mirror farms to power enormous factories pulling CO₂ from the air, combining it with hydrogen from seawater to make methane, from which a very clean-burning gasoline can be concocted.  Sungas® - Run your car on sunshine!  Infinitely renewable, carbon-neutral by definition… Wonderful.

But I’m not Pharaoh.

[minoanmiss]

I wish I had time to contribute to _Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein_. I have always been intrigued by Lovecraftian views of the universe, you know, without the overt racism (and indeed as a tool for examining racism and other bigotries).

[sovay]

I have always been intrigued by Lovecraftian views of the universe, you know, without the overt racism (and indeed as a tool for examining racism and other bigotries).

The submissions look open-ended rather than a window with fixed dates: maybe you can write for the 'zine when your life eases up, as it firmly deserves to do. I've seen much done with Lovecraftian fiction from marginalized perspectives, but much less with marginalized scholarship, which makes this call especially neat.

[minoanmiss]

makes a note, and contemplates at the edge of my thought whilst doing annoying tasks

[lilysea]

Thank you for sharing! ^_^

Since I got sick [chronic illness that affects concentration] I have struggled to read books

graphic novels help

ENORMOUS print on my laptop helps

also I recently ordered this - it helps concentration by letting you focus on one line at a time




https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/523424302/reading-tool-for-kids-leather-reading

[sovay]

Thank you for sharing!

You're welcome!

also I recently ordered this - it helps concentration by letting you focus on one line at a time

Oh, interesting! Since I read in blocks, I suspect it would aggravate more than assist me, but I am glad it exists and is helpful to you.

[nineweaving]

I so want to see that film of Patience! It’s a wonderful novel, witty and rueful. I had hopes of that cast.

Nine

[sovay]

It’s a wonderful novel, witty and rueful. I had hopes of that cast.

Timothy Spall was in it!

(That is a real part of the dream.)

[anna_wing]

I got the Pnyx! Which I did not get to, either time that I was in Athens. A future visit, one spring, autumn or winter Some Day (I avoid holidaying anywhere below 1000m high in summer if I can help it).

[sovay]

I got the Pnyx! Which I did not get to, either time that I was in Athens.

A foretelling!

(I avoid holidaying anywhere below 1000m high in summer if I can help it).

How does it affect you? I assume heat, but I live at sea level myself, so am used to summers well below.

[anna_wing]

I've spent most of my career in tropical climates, so I do not consider the sun my friend (wrinkles, age-spots and skin cancer, ugh, give me that nice, daily vitamin D pill). Non-summer holidays are my exotic escapes, and the chance to wear my nice cashmere coat and be outside walking around in nice, cool air. Europe in summer is randomly hot and muggy, but without the air-conditioning that I would have at home. I don't travel in Japan for fun in summer either, for much the same reason.

One of the annoying things about climate change is that February in Europe anywhere south of Oslo is no longer reliably still winter; it's practically early spring, too warm for my good winter ensembles, especially now that Uniqlo's Heat-tech stuff is so effective.

[sovay]

Non-summer holidays are my exotic escapes, and the chance to wear my nice cashmere coat and be outside walking around in nice, cool air.

That makes sense to me. The news about south of Oslo is depressing.

[thedarlingone]

I got Vergil's poetry:

Not bound by place or time, constantly rewritten and copied, misinterpreted and reinterpreted and beautifully interpreted, you hide in the student's attempts to recite the verses in metre, in the monk's careful brush strokes, in the skill of the poet who never dies.

I'm... really not sure what to do with that. I mean, it's not exactly inaccurate, but I was expecting a place. Kind of hoping for one. I've been unbound by time and place for too damn long already. :S

[sovay]

I mean, it's not exactly inaccurate, but I was expecting a place. Kind of hoping for one. I've been unbound by time and place for too damn long already.

I am sorry. I didn't know it was possible to haunt poetry in this quiz. I hope you can be genius loci soon.

[tree_and_leaf]

I absolutely adored Istanbul when I was there two years ago - it's a wonderful and multilayered place, you're pretty much always conscious of the sea, and ferries are an important part of the public transport system. There are also a lot of semi-feral cats who the Istanbullus love and look out for.

Which is to say, I think you'd really like Istanbul.

[sovay]

Which is to say, I think you'd really like Istanbul.

Thank you. Years ago, I was woken by a friend calling to tell me he'd just been to the Aya Sofya and thought of me. (And the cell reception was terrible and I was still really flattered.)

[vass]

From Gaudy Night, quoted from memory and probably inaccurate, "If she could make the dry bones of philology live again, she was a rare bird indeed."

[sovay]

From Gaudy Night, quoted from memory and probably inaccurate, "If she could make the dry bones of philology live again, she was a rare bird indeed."

The point still stands.

[nodrog]

“When the day breaks and there's too much pain staying”

Expressions, "Don't Give Up"

Those two could be one sentence - that I needed.

I’m not feeling or doing well right now, Sonya, and I came over here to vicariously visit a friend of long standing.

[For the record:  I apologize for my bad manners towards your friend.  Mea culpa.  It shouldn’t have happened and I’m genuinely sorry.]

May I stay?