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I'm a terrible journaler. I don't write enough lately to have a handle on what I want to highlight. So, here goes some random stuff...
Books I've read lately:
The first book I finished in 2020...
Was Bill Bryson's "Shakespear," which was amazing in that he tells us the very few facts we actually know about Shakespear in the first few pages, and then forms the book around that, telling a lot about the society at the time. I had no idea that London was swept with black plague repeatedly during that time, and that the populace in general had such an obsession with sweet foods that most people's teeth were black. (If they didn't turn black, though, some people would artificially blacken their teeth so they could look like the cool kids.)
Second finished book -
Robin Hobb's "Shaman's Crossing." It had a satisfying end, though the action had to happen mostly in the dream world. Weird conceptually in that the main character's soul has been divided and the other part of his soul is having another whole life. Hobb (Megan Lindholm) does trilogies, that's what she does, but I have to admit that I admire the fact that they're almost always about cultures coming into conflict, each with their own goals, and a few people stumbling through trying to resolve that conflict and find a way a way forward. It's hard to resolve something like cultural conflict in even as few as three books.
Book three of this year -
"A Seal Called Andre" by Lew Dietz and Harry Goodridge. (Dietz explains in the forword that he had to get Goodridge out to breakfast and get him to reminisce in order to pull the material out of him. His opinion was that this was the best time for it, even though Goodridge thought it was best after dinner and a drink. ;) ) Tons of interesting information about nature, the changes that happened in how we related to the natural world during Goodridge's life, and about harbor seals. Clearly Goodridge was amazed and intregued by the intelligence and physical abilities of harbor seals, and when you read about some of the things he 'trained' them to do it seems ridiculous that humans aren't working with these animals on a regular basis.
However, I put quotes around 'trained' because he seems to have thought that all he had to do was find a way to communicate to them what it was he wanted and they seemed happy to oblige. He didn't withhold food from Andre, and in fact Andre was fine with hunting on his own. (If he didn't like the fish Goodridge offered him he would use it as bait to catch the fish he preferred, and when he swam on his own back from the Boston Aquarium every spring he demanded entry into his own enclosure in Rockport harbor, so I don't think Andre felt he was 'captured.')
My own thoughts on seals -
Currently there's a problem with whales getting caught in the lines that attach bouys to lobster traps. Clearly a seal could be employed to run a line down to the trap when the lobster catcher wishes to bring the trap up. But of course there's a law against catching wild animals and 'imprisoning' them, these days. And that's because you can't expect humans to be humane.
Books I've read lately:
The first book I finished in 2020...
Was Bill Bryson's "Shakespear," which was amazing in that he tells us the very few facts we actually know about Shakespear in the first few pages, and then forms the book around that, telling a lot about the society at the time. I had no idea that London was swept with black plague repeatedly during that time, and that the populace in general had such an obsession with sweet foods that most people's teeth were black. (If they didn't turn black, though, some people would artificially blacken their teeth so they could look like the cool kids.)
Second finished book -
Robin Hobb's "Shaman's Crossing." It had a satisfying end, though the action had to happen mostly in the dream world. Weird conceptually in that the main character's soul has been divided and the other part of his soul is having another whole life. Hobb (Megan Lindholm) does trilogies, that's what she does, but I have to admit that I admire the fact that they're almost always about cultures coming into conflict, each with their own goals, and a few people stumbling through trying to resolve that conflict and find a way a way forward. It's hard to resolve something like cultural conflict in even as few as three books.
Book three of this year -
"A Seal Called Andre" by Lew Dietz and Harry Goodridge. (Dietz explains in the forword that he had to get Goodridge out to breakfast and get him to reminisce in order to pull the material out of him. His opinion was that this was the best time for it, even though Goodridge thought it was best after dinner and a drink. ;) ) Tons of interesting information about nature, the changes that happened in how we related to the natural world during Goodridge's life, and about harbor seals. Clearly Goodridge was amazed and intregued by the intelligence and physical abilities of harbor seals, and when you read about some of the things he 'trained' them to do it seems ridiculous that humans aren't working with these animals on a regular basis.
However, I put quotes around 'trained' because he seems to have thought that all he had to do was find a way to communicate to them what it was he wanted and they seemed happy to oblige. He didn't withhold food from Andre, and in fact Andre was fine with hunting on his own. (If he didn't like the fish Goodridge offered him he would use it as bait to catch the fish he preferred, and when he swam on his own back from the Boston Aquarium every spring he demanded entry into his own enclosure in Rockport harbor, so I don't think Andre felt he was 'captured.')
My own thoughts on seals -
Currently there's a problem with whales getting caught in the lines that attach bouys to lobster traps. Clearly a seal could be employed to run a line down to the trap when the lobster catcher wishes to bring the trap up. But of course there's a law against catching wild animals and 'imprisoning' them, these days. And that's because you can't expect humans to be humane.