Recent reading

[regshoe]

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers (2019). For book club, which continues to introduce me to interesting new things—some science fiction this time! I loved the worldbuilding in this book, which is about a small team of scientist-astronauts exploring new planets a couple of hundred years in the future. Much of the sci in the sci-fi is ecology, which was very much my thing—I really enjoyed the inventive, weird and wondrous descriptions of the environments and lifeforms of the different planets, and the central concept of 'somaforming'—where the human astronauts, instead of using external technology to protect them from the environmental hazards of space, edit their own genes to give them adaptations to the different planets' conditions—was a great idea, and according to Chambers's afterword was actually based on real research that someone is doing, which I thought was very cool. I wasn't so keen on the characters and their relationships—it all felt rather lacking in substance, and sometimes aimed at a depth I don't think it really justified. As for the political worldbuilding, especially the concept of the independent, donation-funded space agency, I think I approved of it more than I actually liked it, and the ending seemed to get muddled up in a point it was trying to make about the real world and lose the logic of the story. Overall, however, definitely worth it for the cool alien ecology!

England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell (1933). I came across this in the Yuletide tagset, where it caught my attention because the main character's name is Donald Cameron—and, as it turns out, his dad is named Ewan! Actually it's a comic novel about the England of the 1920s as seen from outside, told through the story of Donald's project to write a book on the English, their character and habits. It's a fun book, with lots of good absurd comedy, although one feels that the satire is rather too nice at points. Very much of its time, in both a good and a bad way—the attitudes are definitely period-typical, but so is everything else about it, and it makes for a rather bewilderingly wide and detailed picture of the current moment of 1920s England (a period which, somehow, I always find much more confusing to read about than those either side of it). Contains a description of a village cricket match of which E. W. Hornung might have been proud. And there are in fact a few jokes about Clan Cameron and the '45!

The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill (1972). Inspired by Sea-Green Ribbons, I decided to read a bit more about the history of this period. This is all about the various radical movements and ideas that were around during the 1640s and 50s, when they weren't being censored quite so much as they were under the Stuarts—particularly the Levellers, Diggers (/True Levellers), Ranters and the early Quakers. Hill examines the social, political and economic context out of which radical ideas emerged, who joined radical movements and why, the ideas of some specific influential writers and where it all ended up going. This is absolutely fascinating stuff! To be very brief, lots of people in the 1640s had the idea that rich men hoarding all the goods of the world for themselves was a bad thing even if they weren't kings, that religious authority existed largely to uphold an unjust system of property, that ordinary people (women as well as men!) could reason and judge for themselves and ought to have a share in the land and its products; these ideas went in various directions, some sensible, some strange. Hill portrays the period of relaxed censorship as a sort of bright patch amidst the darkness of history, where we have a record of what ordinary people and radicals were thinking for a brief time before they were forced underground again (though we can infer that radicals existed both before and after this period). I found the discussion of geographical economics, with the importance of woods and commons and 'waste land' and their inhabitants, particularly interesting, as well as the religious ideas—there were things in there that reminded me of some things I've read about modern progressive Christianity, apparently opposing itself to more traditional views, but here they are just as radical in the seventeenth century. Gerrard Winstanley and George Fox are my new historical faves—Lilburne and the other Levellers of Sea-Green Ribbons don't come across terribly favourably in comparison to their more radical contemporaries, but perhaps that's what Mitchison found. The overall impression I'm left with is of how much of a shame the Restoration was—some of these people really had the right idea, and Hill argues that history could have gone very differently if they had succeeded in turning the world upside down. (Though he does manage to end on an optimistic note about the contemporary relevance of history—I liked that!).


And now to spend the rest of the evening sketching out plans for my Yuletide assignment :D :D

Comments

[osprey_archer]

I had a similar reaction to To Be Taught, If Fortunate. Loved the worldbuilding and the life forms on the different planets, didn't think that the book quite earned its attempts at deeper moments - like the way all the characters descend into despair on the planet with the sucking sea slugs, and when they get off the planet our narrator nearly commits suicide by drifting off in space.

[regshoe]

The despair-inducing sea slugs was one bit that really worked for me, actually, although it wasn't pleasant—the noise, ugh... although I agree that the suicide attempt afterwards wasn't well-done. That and the attempts at profound emotional Points elsewhere in the book.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I think the slugs themselves worked well - it just didn't build up enough for me to the narrator's suicide attempt. Everyone seemed despairing, but not quite THAT much.

[lilliburlero]

Gerrard Winstanley <3 <3 <3 There is also A Film: https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-winstanley-1975-online

[regshoe]

Oh, wow, I shall have to watch that—thank you for the link!

[rachelmanija]

Have you read or seen Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire? It's also about the Levellers, Diggers (etc.) I've only read it but it reads very well.

It feels so tragic that they didn't win. Things could have been so different.

[regshoe]

Oh no, I haven't—thanks for the rec!

[hyarrowen]

England, My England - is that the one where he takes two pages to describe someone taking a catch at cricket? (Or was that How to be Topp?) Must dig that one out again. I remember enjoying it, in a golden afternoon sort of way.

[regshoe]

Haha, yes it is—I got a bit lost in all the cricketing detail, but it was still a very enjoyable scene. :D

[nny]

Sounds like some really interesting reading! I've been meaning to read Becky Chambers for a while - I've had the long way to a small angry planet on my Kindle for blinkin' ages.

[regshoe]

I'd vaguely heard of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, but I probably wouldn't have picked up something like this on my own—it was interesting, anyway! I'd certainly recommend To Be Taught, If Fortunate if the space ecology sounds like something that would appeal to you.

[luzula]

The World Turned Upside Down sounds very interesting; I'll put it on my to-read list! I think I first came across these movements in the song of that name, which I'm sure you've heard.

these ideas went in various directions, some sensible, some strange

I read a book a couple of years ago about some egalitarian social movements in the Middle Ages, which definitely went in strange directions! I hope none of these went off the rails that badly.

[regshoe]

There was a lot of believing that the end of the world was imminent (which I suppose is fairly understandable given what the current events of the 1640s must have been like to live through), making apocalyptic prophecies and so on. Then there's the Ranter belief that the light of Christ within every person was so important that true believers could never sin, and if they committed theft, adultery etc. it was actually perfectly all right with God—from a modern perspective this one seems like kind of a recognition of the fact that contemporary definitions of 'sin' often had little to do with actual wrong, but also kind of obviously full of terrible implications.

Pursuit of the Millennium also sounds interesting! This book had a little bit about older radical movements like the Lollards and the Familists, making the point that the radicals of the 1640s didn't spring into being out of nowhere, and radical medievals seem like a fascinating topic as well.

[luzula]

Then there's the Ranter belief that the light of Christ within every person was so important that true believers could never sin, and if they committed theft, adultery etc. it was actually perfectly all right with God—from a modern perspective this one seems like kind of a recognition of the fact that contemporary definitions of 'sin' often had little to do with actual wrong, but also kind of obviously full of terrible implications.

Wow. Yes, now that you say it, I think I've heard of that one before. Obviously full of terrible implications, yes! But at the same time, one wishes those Puritans would relax a bit when it comes to some 'sins'...