So, Elon Musk is talking about how to colonise Mars, and suggesting that, for those who couldn’t afford the fortune it would normally cost to make a space voyage, loans could be offered… and people could, y’know, just pay them back with labour upon their arrival…
… all at the same time that the viral hit song is a sea shanty about being a worker transported to an inhospitable place to work for a big corporation, which then pays you shit so you can never afford the passage home.
It’s like, sometimes our past speaks to us. And sometimes it jumps up and down, screaming and waving lit sparklers.
which means it’s time to eat welshcakes, sing songs about saucepans, stand in a circle and slap your knees, pin leeks to your clothes, try desperately to remember the parts of your heritage that weren’t erased by centuries of anglocentric history, and watch someone be crowned the poet king on a wooden chair while a druid does sick sword tricks over their head
And on that thought, I have a lot to say about the theme of identity throughout the Discworld in general. In every book, even the earlier, less dark ones, there’s a constant theme of being true to yourself and doing what you think is right, no matter what other people tell you, no matter what the world throws at you, no matter how life tries to wear you down.
It might be Rincewind just knowing he’s a wizard. It might be Granny Weatherwax standing in a world of mirrors and thinking it’s a trick question when she’s asked to identify which one is real, because obviously it’s her. It might be Vimes knowing he won’t let good men die even if history says that’s what happens, because it can never be what Sam Vimes says happens.
But the lesson is always the same: whoever you are inside, whatever you believe yourself to be, that is you, and nobody gets to steal that from you. Words in the heart cannot be taken.
One of my history professors is this scarily intense German guy, and today we were talking about the peer reviewing process and how vicious some academics can get, so I casually asked him what the worst review he’d ever received was.
He became very stony-faced, looked off into the distance and said, completely deadpan and in his thick accent:
I just finished Fire and Hemlock this morning and, wow, completely reminded of why I love Diana Wynne Jones so much. Plus a plot that’s essentially a retelling of Tam Lin/Thomas the Rhymer? It could have been made to appeal specifically to me, quite honestly.
Planning to do a proper review later over on my sideblog.
I did it, eventually, although it’s by no means intelligent or even that coherent!
Black History Month coupled with the Internet can fill a lot of holes in the history books my generation grew up with. Those of us seeking ways to occupy our time during the pandemic are wise to use this time to educate ourselves.
Some of this Atlantic City history was reflected over the course of the Boardwalk Empire tv series, which depicted a mirror image of black and white criminal worlds.
