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The Aspern Papers has genuine suspense, though it is not a horror story. It is among the greatest short stories ever written, as with The Turn of the Screw. It covers the plight of a young man who studies the histories of writers living and dead. He comes upon a house, purportedly a place once of Mr. Aspern, the renowned author, whose "papers" unknown to the world remain. Were they diaries, another story? We do not know. The narrator then tries every possible way to befriend the old woman of the house, and her attractive daughter, so as to get at the papers. I will tell nothing more.
The Turn of the Screw is a brilliantly told narrative of a haunting. The Spirits, either of the dead or someone's imagination (we do not know)intent themselves on two extrordinarily bright children (boy and girl). The nanny must look after it all.
Now, again, the reader must be made aware of the difficulty of Henry James. He cannot easily be read. Thankfully, I succeeded.
Concentration, time, effort, these are the tools. If with patience you tackle James, you will be very well satisfied. You will see the realism of his characters, and how that the very dialogue between them has a living intensity. They speak so polite, intelligently, and subtle.
I do feel that Henry James was a magnificent genious. And has aptly been titled "the Shakespeare of novels."
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Todorov reinforces the myth that the Aztecs believed the Spanish were gods, an idea that springs from the accounts of Diaz and from the earliest Indian accounts, all which were written over 30 years after the described events, by people without access to the inner workings of the Mexican court. The Indian accounts, written under Catholic supervision, do not relate to the "what happened" as much as they do to the "what should have happened." These Indians would not have known what happened and would have been well-versed in the accounts of their Spanish masters. The idea that Montezuma thought they were gods seems to be a good way for the Indians to explain what they did not understand.
Mistranslations of Indian words also account for this myth. Teotl, mistranslated by the Spanish to mean "god", more closely means "weird" or "strange". Todorov relies heavily on this myth to advance his thesis of miscommunication.
Todorov also falls into the trap of believing that the Aztecs were frozen by their obsession with signs and with astrology. He believes that the Aztecs were dominated by a past-oriented tradition whereas the Spanish were the only participants able to adapt. He argues that the Spanish use of written words gave them an ability that the oral-tradition based Aztecs did not. Reality, however, suggests that the Aztecs were very good at improvisation, especially during battle. Within the first few encounters with their Spanish enemies, the Aztecs learned how to beat horseman, how to avoid being hit by cannons, and that the Spanish were not impressed with tactics designed to frighten and demoralize the enemy.
Montezuma's lack of quick action does not mean he was frozen with fear, or that he was waiting for signs from his astrologers, instead it seems to be exactly what how a man who could put tens of thousands of soldiers in the field would react to a small party of Spanish. His gifts to the Spanish were not symbolic of his wishing to buy their friendship, but were a statement of Montezuma's power and wealth.
Todorov's book is important because it raises issues about how the self discovers the other. But it's advancement of outdated myths cannot be ignored.
An important aspect of Todorov's thesis is his well-supported claim that it was precisely the claim to European racial superiority that the Christianity strongly reinforced[es] provided justification for the actions of the Spanish, even in its most severe manifestation. In fact, Todorov invokes the unimaginably horrible image of Catholic priests bashing Indian baby's heads against rocks, ostensibly to save them from damnation to Hell, which their "savage" culture would have otherwise consigned them to.
The logic of this deed and other like them illustrates the pernicious influence of Christianity in the Colonial project, which lies at the root of the hegemonic self-image of Western experience-first defined from the perspective of Columbus and Cortez.
If religion was a guiding principle in the lives of the conquerors, as Todorov points out, so to was it for the conquered, especially in the case of the Aztecs. Baffled by the paradox of the famous story concerning Cortez and his several hundred Conquistador's ability to defeat the entire Aztec empire, which numbered at least several million, Todorov reveals that it was primarily due to Montezuma's belief that Cortez and his party was Gods, which led to his reluctance to raise an army in opposition. In the middle section of the book Todorov gives a detailed analysis of this stunning historic event and shows that Cortez' victory was not necessarily due to any great military achievement, instead it was mostly the result of the Aztec's refusal to mount any kind of a effective defense until it was too late. Thus, it was Montezuma's indecision, born of his own religious belief that led to the sudden collapse of the Aztec empire.
In the final third of the book Todorov investigates the impact that these events have had on the subsequent writings on the subject. In particular, he focuses on the work of three writers, all Spanish, but among the first generations of Europeans native to South America. These works that are primarily only known to scholars in the field offer many surprises to the contemporary reader, showing that there was a far more open view of the non-European "Other" expressed by those who lived among them in the waning days after conquest. Perhaps, that is one of the most insidious luxuries of victory-the ability to show compassion for the defeated, but always, yet always too late.
Todorov's work is an important work, which would be of great interest to students of literature, history, cultural/indigenous studies and post-colonial theory. After reading this book Columbus Day and all that it necessarily represents will never be seen in the same way again.
I like how Tim stresses that one should not hold the light's hand and hide from the dark; the dark must be faced and explored.
All in all, his work is better than that of Mr. Konstantinos *COUGH*FLUFFY*COUGH*, and the rituals... ugh! Must... breathe... fresh... air!
At least the cover doesn't look cheesy.
While Timothy Roderick does follow Wiccan principles such as the Rede ("Harm none"), this is a far cry from the usual light-and-faerie-dust fare of many Wicca books out these days. He uses Jungian archetypes, psychology, and historical mythology (with liberal quotes from the master of mythological studies, Joseph Campbell) to delve into the shadow self of the psyche and bring about healing and acceptance of this darker side of one's human nature. This does not mean that he is condoning evil or negativity...but is merely showing the reader how to get to the shadow self and work with it to help deal with negativity instead of supressing it.
The format is a step-by-step process in which the reader is introduced to an aspect of the shadow self through a guided meditation with a fairy tale for an example, then rituals are given for each new moon to further enforce what has been learned. Later in the book, more advanced workings are introduced.
Timothy's writing style is easy to follow and very straightforward while still being lyrical and very intelligent at the same time. One won't find white light workings here, but as we are reminded in this book, everyone has a dark side and balance is not achieved without working with it as well.
In this novel, Kelvin and his sister Jon are dragon hunting with Mockery, the mule they have just bought. Jon finds a scale and then another and then more, following the dropped dragon scales up and over the nearby hill. On the other side is a dragon, which she first thinks is dead, but then only injured. To resolve the problem, she bounces a stone off the dragon's snout with her sling and gets his attention. Now she decides that she is in trouble and yells for Kelvin. Coming down the hill, she falls in a hole and can't get out. Kelvin goes to her rescue and falls into the same hole.
The dragon doesn't see Jon when he comes over the hill, but he does see Mockery. As he goes after Mockery, Jon pops up, yells that he can't eat their mule, and bounces another stone off him. Now the dragon is after Jon again. When the dragon grabs Jon with his tongue, Kelvin and Jon drop a boulder on it. The dragon reflexively lets go of Jon and tries to pull his tongue out with no success. Kelvin sends Jon after the tent pole to use as a weapon. Of course, she has to ask why he wants the pole and then checks out the injury on Mockery where the dragon has pulled out the mule's tail, but finally she brings back the tent pole. Kelvin sharpens the pole and stabs the dragon in the eye, which causes the dragon to jerk up his head, with pole and Kelvin attached thereto. The resulting fall knocks Kelvin unconscious.
When Kelvin comes to, he finds himself up a tree, the dragon dead, and Jon busy prying off scales. They remove as many scales as they can reach without moving the dragon and start home. However, a bandit acosts them, steals the scales, and heads off to sell Jon to the Boy Mart (he hasn't yet noticed that Jon is a girl). Kelvin tries to stop him, but is totally ineffective. The only thing left for him to do is to follow Jon and the bandit, but instead he goes home and reports the kidnapping. The guardsmen identify the bandit -- a former guardsman -- but kick Kelvin out for wasting their time. The youngest guardsman, however, refers Kelvin to his father, Mor Crumb.
This novel is about a prophecy of the Roundear that will unite the kingdoms of Rud. Kelvin has round ears from his Terran father and so is supposed to fulfill the prophecy. He has fought a dragon, but he has a long way to go before he is ready to lead armies. His sword play needs a lot of work. So does his aggressiveness; Jon has more than he does.
This story is a magical quest tale, searching for the magical artifacts of Mouvar the Magnificent. On the way, Kelvin learns to fight and to be an effective leader. He has plenty of help, starting with Jon and Mor Crumb.
Recommended for Anthony fans and anyone who enjoys light adventure tales with a touch of humor.
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The one thing which this book does cover very well is the armor, and Bryant probably does know what he is talking about, as he is an armor specialist. This mismatch between the very deep armor and the quite shallow history made me confused as to who the author's intended audience was supposed to be.
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Thistleton is one of the leading British scholars of hermeneutics today, and it shows in the work. This is thorough and careful exegesis, often much more careful than Fee's work, which I also admire. This, plus Thistleton's immense vocabulary, can daunt even the most sophisticated reader. But his style is lucid, and, for a commentary, enjoyable. His scholarship is impeccable, and even when one disagrees with him in the end, one understands why one can come to such a view rationally even if you don't accept his presuppositions, which is not always possible in Fee's work.
In short, this commentary is the new standard in Greek scholarship, and is set to be it for a long time. If you don't have the background for this commentary, it is very difficult going. But it rewards careful study.
This books gives the basics of space science. From these basics, you should be able to branch out to more advanced tomes (Example books: The Starflight Handbook, The Third Industrial Revolution, etc.)
Use this book to get started, but don't trust its entirety.
This book covers the science behind spacecraft, and delves into the history of spaceflight, both manned and unmanned. It also covers the technology, even going into the math of calculating thrust, impulse, etc.
I have used the section on theoretical spacecraft design in a novel that I am currently writing. I have found the information it includes to be very valuable.
the only fault with 1985 is that it tells a unprobable story in a totally un-living fashion. his misinterpretations of syndicalism and anarchism also disturbs me. a good idea, but poorly executed.
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However, the author did not spend very much time on the index, and this limits the usefullness of the book compared to the online documentation.
For example, all of the eCos functions start with "cyg_", yet none of them appear in the index.
All things considered, however, the book is a great buy.
I wish the author could expand the porting section to other processor.