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The Weekend...
Sep. 5th, 2004 08:03 pmwas pretty much wasted. The sore throat had subsided by Friday evening (though I still had a cough), but it was succeeded by sinusitis, congestion and headache. I didn't get much sleep Friday night, and spent most of Saturday in bed. When I wasn't in bed, I was eating. (I always overeat when I have a cold; I justify it as "stoking the furnaces".) Oh, I spent a fair amount of time in the bathtub, too; colds tend to make me feel cold, and the tub is one of the few places I'm comfortable. But the worst was over by this morning. I still spent a lot of time napping, but I did walk the dogs and run over to Shop'n'Save for groceries. Tomorrow I'll get to the yardwork I was planning to do on Thursday...
I finished The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun, and have started on The Robots of Dawn. I don't have much to say about The Naked Sun; I toyed briefly with an analogy between Asimov's picture of Solaria and today's e-world as it's developing, keying on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rfmcdpei's post on the social disabilities of people with their own webpages, but I think the analogy is superficial. Asimov's attempt at depicting culture clash - e.g., Lije's reaction to the mores associated with "viewing" as opposed to "seeing", and the general Solarian reaction to Lije's casual use of words like "children" and "affection" - was interesting, but rather obvious. Compare, e.g., Miller and Lee in Local Custom; the reader gets to see the misunderstandings developing, while the characters remain unaware of them. (sunlizzard, is it a matter of the type of POV, or just that M&L use multiple POVs where Asimov stays with Lije throughout? Could this kind of effect be achieved, using a single POV?)
I also finished Moneyball. Now I have to pick a new bus book. Waiting to be read are Ryoma, a biography of one of the leading figures in the Meiji Restoration, and Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe. The latter actually looks more interesting to me, but I know it'll be more demanding; I tried it once before and, after about twenty pages, was already losing track of the various economic concepts involved. Or I could just pull something else off the shelves; I've read less than a third of the nonfiction in my library.
Ah, well. I don't have to make that decision before Tuesday. Tomorrow's Labor Day, so the university is closed. I'm thinking I'll watch "Norma Rae" to celebrate - or, hmm, do I have a tape of "Matewan"? That would be another good possibility.
I finished The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun, and have started on The Robots of Dawn. I don't have much to say about The Naked Sun; I toyed briefly with an analogy between Asimov's picture of Solaria and today's e-world as it's developing, keying on
rfmcdpei's post on the social disabilities of people with their own webpages, but I think the analogy is superficial. Asimov's attempt at depicting culture clash - e.g., Lije's reaction to the mores associated with "viewing" as opposed to "seeing", and the general Solarian reaction to Lije's casual use of words like "children" and "affection" - was interesting, but rather obvious. Compare, e.g., Miller and Lee in Local Custom; the reader gets to see the misunderstandings developing, while the characters remain unaware of them. (sunlizzard, is it a matter of the type of POV, or just that M&L use multiple POVs where Asimov stays with Lije throughout? Could this kind of effect be achieved, using a single POV?)I also finished Moneyball. Now I have to pick a new bus book. Waiting to be read are Ryoma, a biography of one of the leading figures in the Meiji Restoration, and Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe. The latter actually looks more interesting to me, but I know it'll be more demanding; I tried it once before and, after about twenty pages, was already losing track of the various economic concepts involved. Or I could just pull something else off the shelves; I've read less than a third of the nonfiction in my library.
Ah, well. I don't have to make that decision before Tuesday. Tomorrow's Labor Day, so the university is closed. I'm thinking I'll watch "Norma Rae" to celebrate - or, hmm, do I have a tape of "Matewan"? That would be another good possibility.
