Watching Joe Biden turn into a mumbling moron with stuffed artichokes for brains has reminded me that for us older folks it’s use it or lose it. So, I’ve initiated a cultural renaissance right here in Dunwich. I’ve got three very different reading projects going on. They are:
- Northmen: The Viking Saga, AD 793-1241, by John Haywood
- The Concept of Anxiety: A Simple Psychologically Oriented Deliberation in View of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin, by Søren Kierkegaard
- The Bounty Trilogy: The Complete Series: Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea & Pitcairn’s Island, by James Norman Hall (Author), Charles Nordhoff (Author)
The Kierkegaard book on “Anxiety” is the most questionable project. I took some courses in philosophy as an undergraduate and found them to be highly annoying. They seem to spend so much time and effort splitting hairs that by the end, all of the audience has walked away in boredom. And they employ so much specialized jargon that the notes for the vocabulary sometimes outweighs the text itself. But I want to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. He claims he wants to make philosophy more about what we need to do as human beings and less about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. I figure the least I can do is slog through the argument.
The Bounty trilogy is just a book I’ve always meant to read and now have finally gotten around to. And so far, it’s a good one. I’m finding that the 1930’s Charles Laughton movie is pretty close to the text. It’s an exciting adventure story that has the added advantage of having actually happened. It is a fictionalized account but it is based on the documents left by the protagonists and by their descendants. Other than the myriad of parts of a sailing ship that I don’t know the names of the book is a fast read. I’ll have a review of this when I finish.
The Northmen book is something I’ve been interested in learning more about for a while. I was writing a sci-fi/ fantasy story that used Valhalla as a plot element and I just kept running into aspects of Norse mythology and history that I wasn’t up on. This book looked to be a way to fill in some gaps and also provide me with some information I’ve always been interested in. The Scandinavians had a very large impact on several different aspects of European and by extension world history. I feel like I should know a lot more about their origins before I start introducing them and their culture into my stories. I’ve just gotten started with the book but already I’ve learned a bit about the origins of the Goths, Burgundians and Vandals that I didn’t already know.
As I said yesterday, our whole lives shouldn’t be railing against the progs. As the ZMan says, a negative identity does not provide a basis for a viable society. We must pursue the actions and goals that have intrinsic value. If we are claiming that the Left is trying to destroy our way of life by denying us the opportunity to do things that we value then shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to do these things? Otherwise, it’s all just cant and posturing.
So, stretch your mind and learn something new. Then figure a way to make some of it relevant to your life.
Psychology/psychiatryis little more than organized charlantry. Virtually all serial killers have passed through the hands of the so-called mental health system. If a medical doctor was as bad at their job as a shrink, they’d lose their license and likely be jailed and sued into oblivion.
Did you know that we have jury trials because of the vikings? They are a fascinating people. And we still don’t know who by or where the Ulfbert swords were made. The steel was centuries ahead of its time.
I’ve been interested in finding out some details about the ancient Scandinavians for a long time. This book will probably raise more questions than answers but I have to start somewhere.
War Pig, what can you tell me about Ulfbert steel?
Ulfberht steel was crucible steel. It was remarkably fine grained and had very few inpuruties. Likely imported from south Asia. Europe did not work out crucible steel for centuries after the Ulfberht swords were made. You can learn a great deal in the NOVA special on PBS. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ciave Also MAN AT ATMS REFORGED did a short on making an Ulfberht sword from scratch. They made their own steel from ore and all. The flexibility and strength in sword steels today we rather take for granted. Ulfberht steel would have seemed to be magic to the smiths if the age. An… Read more »
What people forget is that Bligh, when set adrift with the loyal sailors, performed a legendary and miraculous feat of navigation, perseverance and seamanship to make it back to friendly waters. He may have been a tyrant but there is no doubt he was a great sailor and navigator.
Of course I can’t speak to the accuracy of the characterization of Bligh in the fictionalized account but he seems much more than a one dimensional monster. I guess working in a system that used the cat o’ nine tails as a feedback device is bound to be abnormal.