Category: Aa

Citizen — Claudia Rankine

By 5t4n5

Citizen -- Claudia RankineA rather different way of saying the things that need to be said, containing a mixed bag of poetry, prose, vignettes, etc., detailing what it’s like to be perpetually on the receiving end of racism, from micro-agressions to extremely overt racism.

Maybe, instead of forcing children to read Shakespeare and Dickens at school, we should be encouraging them to read books like this and encouraging them to engage in constructive dialogue with each other about the issues raised and the experiences of those on the receiving end of racism and other bigotry.   Racist is not something people are born, it’s something people are taught, and its very clearly up to schools and educators to start stepping up and making much more effort with the young minds in their care.

In the UK “Citizenship” and “Relationship” education is not on the curriculum until after 11 years of age: this is far, far too late.   How our societies are peopled — our citizens — and how we relate to those other citizens within our societies should be permanently on the curriculum from the very first day of school, not be left in the hands of young people’s peers, bad television, bad websites, and ignorant parents who read nothing but vile, tabloid drivel.   A child who has been nurtured badly up to the age of 11 is highly unlikely to respond to positive nuturing by over-worked, underpaid, stressed-out teachers after the age of 11.

Claudia’s Page

#poetry #claudiarankine

Star Maker — Olaf Stapledon

By 5t4n5

Star Maker -- Olaf StapledonI managed to get 31% into this and then just had to give up trying.   I really couldn’t manage any more of it.

Imagine that William’s favourite book is Gulliver’s Travels and he decides to have a go at writing a sci-fi version of it having read Brave New World just before starting.   I think that pretty much sums up the first 31%.

The problem is that while Gulliver’s Travels and Brave New World are both very good books, both are very well written and keep the reader’s attention, Star Maker is tedious, dull and plodding: at least that’s how i found it to be.   I can imagine for its time it was very exciting, but sadly some books just don’t age well and i think this is one of them.

I don’t feel that it’s bad enough to warrant a place on “The Deleted” page, so it will get a reprieve and stay in my Amazon lists for now and i may give it another go at some future date when i’m feeling a lot better about life and stuff.

Olaf’s Page

#scifi #sfmasterworks #olafstapledon

Tomato Ketchup Recipe

By 5t4n5

Ketchup bottleWhatever you may use tomato ketchup for, stop using the shite you buy in bottles.   It’s not healthy or good for you and tastes crap because it’s made with crap.

Try a super delicious, super healthy, tomato ketchup instead . . .

You’ll need a good strong blender, i suggest at least 1500 watts: this is not some watery smoothie, it’s a thick sauce.

I am not responsible for your blender breaking if you attempt to make this recipe.   This is a thick sauce and it is up to you to decide weather to risk your blender or not.

Into a 750ml blender cup . . .

400g     Tomatoes (for a more tomato-ey taste, swap out some — or all — of this weight with tinned tomatoes)
30g     Apple Cider Vinegar
50g     Currants
100g     Apple (use all the skin of the apple and then make up the rest of the 100g with the flesh)
25g     Celery
25g     Onion
11g     Fresh Ginger
11g     Garlic
35g     Orange
0.8g     Black Peppercorns
0.8g     Whole Dried Chilli
2g     Coriander Seeds
1g     Cumin Seeds
2g     Dried Sage or Oregano
0.5g     Dried Thyme
1.2g     Star Anise
1.2g     Fennel Seeds
2.5g     Smoked Paprika
2.5g     Paprika
10g     Whole Flax/Chia Seeds
25g     Dried Tamarind
Add some water if you think your blender needs it.

If you do use tinned tomatoes, find ones that are vine ripened and tinned in concentrated tomato juice as they’re much tastier and richer.   Like these ones.

For making good home-mixed herb and spice recipes you’ll need something to weigh 0.1g increments.

Wherever possible always use whole spices as they’re living seeds, super healthy and much tastier.   The blender will take care of them, if your blender doesn’t deal with the whole spices then buy a better blender.

Give it all a good blendy whizz bang.

Sooooo much nicer tasting and infinitely more healthy than bottled junk-food ketchup.

Keep in the fridge and use quickly, there’s no preservatives and other garbage in this, it will go bad in a few days.   If you don’t plan using it all in a couple of days then store some in the freezer for later use.

#5t4n5 #vegan #wfpb #recipes

Crome Yellow — Aldous Huxley

By 5t4n5

Crome Yellow -- Aldous HuxleyI was in my 20’s when i last read this, somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago, and i still think it’s a very good book.

There is, however, a problem with this book: Aldous was very clearly a product of Victorian England and his use of words really reflect this, especially in his early writing, and there are the very occasional racial words/comments used — which i counted twice.

It’s a very awkward place to find oneself, caught between two cultures.   By my standards the use of such language is completely unacceptable, yet, having read a few Victorian books and also post Victorian books, like this, written by those who were educated by Victorians, it is clear that the use of such language was, very much, the standard of the day.

Do we now throw the babies out with the bath water?   Admittedly, by contemporary standards, the bathwater we are dealing with is now considered untreated sewage, but in it’s day it was considered fit for drinking.   I certainly don’t feel that Aldous was, in anyway, being racist and derogatory, but simply using the words and cliches of his day.

As to the rest of the book it is very clearly a satire and critique of England in the early 1920’s and it’s very clear that Aldous was not supporting of many views expressed in this book, but laying bare the thinking and ideas of his day.   If you are interested you can read much more about this on it’s Wiki page.

The interesting thing for me is that just over 5 years ago i spent 3 years living at one of England’s great houses and its huge estate, including parklands, shrubberies, woods, Italian gardens, ponds, lakes, etc., and it certainly made reading about Crome a whole different experience.   Sadly, to be honest, the upper classes, and their sycophants, haven’t really changed much from the attitudes and behaviour satirised and parodied within Crome Yellow.

This book is also, very much, the forerunner to Brave New World, and i would suggest a must read for fans of that book.

Aldous’ Page

#aldoushuxley

The Lollipop Shoes — Joanne Harris

By 5t4n5

The Lollipop Shoes -- Joanne HarrisBook two of the Chocolat series.   I really enjoyed Chocolat. so this is another one of those sequels in the unenviable position of having a lot to live up to.   Did it?   Well, it didn’t do too bad a job.

I would say my only real criticism of it was that it went on for far too long.   Chocolat was a mere 359 pages whereas The Lollipop Shoes is 594 pages, and while reading it one gets the feeling that it could have been trimmed down a fair bit and the story would have benefited.

As i say, that’s my only real criticism.

I certainly enjoyed knowing that there are two further books in this tetralogy, as one can’t be certain how this is going to end.   Is Vianne going to be left high and dry with the further two books dedicated to her fighting back, or is Vianne going to triumph here and now and we’ll move on to some other tale in the next book?   We’re also not even sure who is going to be Vianne at the end of this book as it’s mostly about identity theft and Vianne becoming the target of an identity thieving witch: can chocolate witchery save the day again?

At the end, the only real judgement one can pass on this book is: am i going to read Peaches for Monsieur le Curé?   Not straight away.   As i said, this went on for a bit too long and i have a few other books i’ve been looking forward to reading, but Peaches for Monsieur le Curé is queued up on my Kindle ready to be read at some time in the not too distant future.

Joanne’s Page

#joanneharris

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.

By 5t4n5

This week in politics we were given a very good example of Dunning-Kruger effect.

On top of the Dunning-Kruger we also get to see extreme Narcissistic Personality Disorder in action, with Trump deciding that this test would be almost impossible for anyone else to pass.

If the president of the usa is — by his own admission — finding a cognitive impairment test, “very difficult”, and finds it hard to believe that most other people wouldn’t be able to pass it then please, please, someone, anyone, remove this clown from office.

That some people are still believing that he’s a great president and will vote for him again just shows that democracy is a load of bollox: when you give idiots the vote they’ll vote for idiots.

And so, in this age of fake news, we have the president of the usa performing his own fake news for our entertainment dollar.

Please watch his face and right hand as he recites his pre-arranged “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.”

YouTube

This content is blocked because YouTube cookies have not been accepted.

Now consider how everything was arranged for this interview:

I shall say no more.

#5t4n5 #donaldtrump #personwomanmancameratv #politics #fakenews #thoughts

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate — Robin Sloan

By 5t4n5

Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate -- Robin SloanI really enjoyed Annabel Scheme and also everything else that Robin has written, so i went into this with very high expectations: sadly, i don’t think it reached them.

While it’s not a bad book and is quite an ok read, it just all felt a bit rushed.

Yes, i know, it was written as a serial article for a newspaper and maybe Robin was hobbled with some level of word count, or maybe Robin was in a rush to get on with other things: i’ve no idea.   What i do have an idea about is that this book just isn’t as good as the original Annabel Scheme book.

But, hey ho, it’s enough to keep us Robin Sloan fans happy for a while and you can at least read it for free in it’s original form at the newspaper’s website.

In the meantime, we keep our fingers crossed for a full length novel coming from Robin soon.

Robin’s Page

#scifi #robinsloan

Good Neighbours — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

Good Neighbours -- DeAnna KnipplingI really enjoyed this.   A nice captivating little short to fill an hour or so.

In East Smithville the fog is always coming and with it, the Fairies who whisk people away, not to be seen again for years.   This is the story of one such person returning — for a while at least.

I admit to being thoroughly disappointed that it ended, i really wanted it to keep going: away with the Fairies.

Well worth a read of your time and it would be really good if DeAnna came back to East Smithville some time and wrote a few more short stories about people returning.

DeAnna’s Page

#fantasy #fairytale #deannaknippling

A Perfect Moment — DeAnna Knippling

By 5t4n5

A Perfect Moment -- DeAnna KnipplingI revceived this as an ARC from DeAnna to read, comment and review.

As a short story, anthology stocking-filler it does what it’s supposed to.   I was quite happy to read it and wasn’t put off at all but, it doesn’t do much more than that.

As with a lot of these shorts for anthologies, there’s usually a really good idea at their core but the word count to play it out just isn’t available, and i do feel that this is one of those.   There’s a greedy reader part of me that wants this spun out novel length into a temporal food-fight similar to Recursion by Blake Crouch.

DeAnna’s Page

#deannaknippling