Reading Wednesday 2/12

[liv]

Recently read

Skiing uphill: a personal reflection on Anglo-Irish relations, by Kate Ewart-Biggs. This is an account by the daughter of a British ambassador to Ireland, who was assassinated in the 70s. It's about her life after her father's murder, and somewhat about the British Council who are hosting the article, but also about tolerance and diversity: Prejudice is always personal – as I learned as a child, it does not happen to someone else so that you can walk away from it.

Book burning, womb burning by Rachel E Moss. It is somewhat a response to a horrible transphobic book published recently, but also the first actually philosophically cogent take I've seen on free speech I've seen in ages, including the quoted thread by Grace Lavery. I'm not completely sure I agree with either Moss or Lavery, but they both made me think rather than repeating platitudes. And the conclusion is amazing:

We do not have to make radical choices only if the alternative is despair. Burning does not have to be destructive. Sometimes it is the best way to clear ground to allow new growth. If you want to, you can burn yourself down, phoenix. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the ashes.

CW: transphobia as you've probably guessed from the description, but also historical Nazis and issues of fertility and reproductive justice.

As a chaser for two rather sombre articles, here's a delightful little piece about a Scots spoken word piece that went viral. A video of Pennie reciting her poem is included. And along similar lines, video clips of Scots words being used in Parliament, mostly in the service of insulting corrupt and venal politicians.

Currently reading: Not really. I've started a couple of books both novels and non-fiction but I don't have the concentration or the commuting time to stick to anything. I am somewhat randomly learning Kiddushin, the section of the Talmud that deals with marriage contracts, though. Which reminds me that a few of my friends are doing Daf Yomi, the method of studying Talmud where you read one page every day on a set schedule. So here are two amazing blog posts about Pesachim 9, on the topic of, what if a weasel?! CW: pregnancy loss.

lannamichaels: the hypothetical chometz weasel that you don't have to worry about is my favorite forever

seekingferret (no relation!): with the hypothetical weasel that might be a ninja who knows if it eats bread or not?

Comments

[watersword]

Thanks for the link to Ewart-Biggs' essay, I found it very interesting.

[antisoppist]

Katie Hickman's Daughters of Britannia has a chunk on the death of Christopher Ewart-Biggs. Hickman's father was number 2 at the embassy in Dublin and her mother had to tell the EB children that their father had died and look after them all until their mother got back. But they decided 8 year-old Katie should be told by her mother, who was being flown back at top speed. It is interesting to see 8 year-old Katie's side of that and its impact on their subsequent lives.

[cjwatson]

OK, the weasel stuff is amazing, thank you for the links!

[superborb]

I liked the Moss essay very much, thanks for linking

[silveradept]

This were all quite interesting to read. The weasels were an especially nice moment of levity in everything.