>>42153223>I'm in the weeds on a writing projectCool, what are you writing about?
I’m planning on writing a story, but I want to do some research for it and read a few book about the time and place I’m writing about before I start, so it’ll probably be postponed till early next year. Right now I’m just noting down any ideas I get, and I’ve done about a thousand words, just so I have something, as a kind of encouragement.
Premise:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-DUykbknlQntxq5ZpZCjM_OQnTiohQeC3RY6s9pjK0w/mobilebasicStory (so far):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-dgnpqcdeBvgyMQbYQIk493pU4Busb-SNGqgNiabvBQ/mobilebasic (keep in mind this hasn’t been edited or properly preened through.)
>The Moon of Hoa BinhSounds really interesting, although I unfortunately don’t think I’ll be able to check it out. Too long, and Amazon says it costs over a hundred pounds.
>how do they relate for you?I bought an old hardback copy of Plutarch’s Lives from a charity shop about a month ago. I tried, but it was too difficult. Because it’s an older book there aren’t any good explanatory notes, and the book constantly makes reference to obscure things, people, and places from thousands of years ago, sometimes just from our perspective, sometimes these events were ancient and obscure even to Plutarch. That made a lot of it completely unintelligible (especially the Greek lives), not to mention that a some of the quotes from the book were in Ancient Greek, so yeah.
A lot of the book feels like I’m reading a fiction story with no context going in. You might hear as many as 20 names in a single page, half of which you can’t pronounce, and next to none of which you’ll know. Things like the names of all the family members and friends, rivals, etc of someone who themselves is really obscure.
Without at least a basic understanding of the people he’s talking about I wouldn’t even recommend trying to read most of the Lives, you’ll just get lost. Still keeping it because I want to read it as some point in the future, but that won’t be any time soon.
Anyway, getting away from my ramble. I bought The Republic and The Laws because I wanted something written roughly from the same time that was easier. Plutarch’s Lives is over 1.5x as long as War and Peace, this book is like a short novella.
Culture and Anarchy seemed interesting to me because of the time it was written. Sounded like it would be interesting perspective on culture from a time I’m fascinated by.
>And by the way, do you read a lot of poetry?No not really, but I do have a Kipling book.
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