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__label__wiki | 0.60275 | 0.60275 | Ahmadinejad: Obama reaction to his speech "insulting", "amateurish"
pfgetty Sat, 09/25/2010 - 9:14am
UN Speech
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Latest update 15:45 25.09.10
Ahmadinejad calls Obama reaction to 9/11 comments 'insulting'
Iranian president tells reporters he is justified in questioning the motives behind the 2001 terror attack.
By DPA Tags: Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Barack Obama UN 9/11
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who recently accused the U.S. of involvement in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, fired back at criticism waged against him saying Saturday that "the reaction [by U.S. President Barack Obama] was very amateurish … if there is nothing to hide, just present the relevant documents to the fact-finding team so that we can all together fight against the involved terrorists."
Ahmadinejad told reporters upon his arrival in Tehran from New York that "I just raised one simple question and it is not right that whoever poses a question is insulted afterwards."
The Iranian president said during his address before the United Nations General Assembly earlier this week that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been used against Muslims around the world, and used as a pretext for invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We should not allow this incident to be turned into another holy and untouchable issue," Ahmadinejad said - a reference to the Holocaust, which the Iranian president considers a pretext for Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
"The U.S. cannot raise a claim and issue a one-sided verdict, and based upon that, dictate its policies to other countries and accuse any state opposing the U.S. version of terrorism," he added.
Ahmadinejad said during a news conference on Friday that his remarks at the General Assembly were not meant to hurt the feelings of Americans, but rather to show that the U.S. government had used the tragedy to kill "tens of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Asked whether he should apologize for the remarks, Ahmadinejad shot back: "Why should the statements be perceived negatively? We have expressed our sympathies to those killed on September 11. We must now find the root causes."
Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001, including more than 2,700 in New York City when two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center.
Iran's state television network said in a statement that there was a "media competition" between Ahmadinejad and Obama in New York, which "Ahmadinejad had clearly won, and that the interview with BBC Persian "could not save Obama."
Since his arrival in the U.S. on Monday, Ahmadinejad held several exclusive interviews with the U.S. media, with the apparent aim of clarifying the Iranian stance to the American public. | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line1 |
__label__wiki | 0.587584 | 0.587584 | THE AMORAL BOORISHNESS OF MICHAEL WALSH AND HIS ATTACK ON "NEVER-TRUMPKINS"
Michael Walsh attacks never-trumpers here:
https://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2016/08/17/the-moral-cowardice-of-the-nevertrumpumpkins/
He argues us never trumpers are electing hillary.
Michael Walsh, you are an idiot.
I am a registered Democrat in ny who won't vote for any liberal, congenital liar. Neither donald or hillary.
So, please tell me how i help elect either trump or hillary as a dem voting for the libertarians in ny?
Hillary is up 30% in ny. And because we have a federal election decided by an electoral college, my voting trump - who is, right now, guaranteed to lose ny - would actually be throwing away my vote; whereas by voting libertarian i actuall send a message to both parties.
And if in some alternate universe, trump was only behind in ny by 1 or 2 or 3% - and couldd actually maybe win ny with the never-trumper vote, then he would be demolishing hillary almost everywhere else, and he still would not need my vote.
Jerks like michael walsh should stfu. Really. Stfu.
Posted by Reliapundit at 12:19 PM 4 comments Links to this post
MERKEL TALKS OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HER MOUTH
First, the good news. German premier Angela Merkel says that full Islamic veils like niqabs have no place in German society:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described full-body veils used by some Muslim women that cover the face as an obstacle to integration. [...]
Merkel weighed in on the issue in comments to the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland newspaper group published Thursday. She was quoted as saying: "From my point of view, a fully veiled woman in Germany has barely any chance of integrating."
There's just one little thing: either the women wearing them don't want to integrate, let alone relate to wider society, or, they're being forced to wear such awful garments.
Now for the bad news that ruins everything:
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday refugees had not brought terrorism to Germany, adding that Islam belonged in the country as long as it was practiced in a way that respected the constitution. [...]
"The phenomenon of Islamist terrorism, of IS, is not a phenomenon that came to us with the refugees," Merkel said at an election campaign event for her Christian Democrats in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ahead of a regional vote on Sept. 4.
What a disgrace. It may not have come from all the alleged refugees, but it certainly did come from plenty. If she thinks Islam is fine in Germany, then there's reason to doubt the sincerity of her argument against the veils. Instead of helping, she's only hurting once more. She probably hasn't even met with any of the victims of Islamofacist crimes to offer her condolences. If she's losing support from the public, it's for the best.
Posted by Avi Green at 10:56 AM 0 comments Links to this post
HOW TO MAKE NON-KOSHER RECIPES INTO ACTUAL KOSHER
If you've ever wondered how to turn recipes for non-kosher meals into those that are actually kosher, the UK Jewish News has a whole article about how it's done, and concepts that taste just like pork without actually being pork. It's a clever testament to how food development is advancing marvelously these days.
(On a semi-related note, I set up a food blog recently, where I link to recipes and various other articles for meals whenever I can.)
Posted by Avi Green at 3:23 PM 0 comments Links to this post
FRANCE'S BAN ON BURKINIS IS JUSTIFIED
More violence cropped up this week in France and Corsica, this time involving burkini wearers who, along with their male masters, led to a riot, and so several towns are now banning them from public beaches:
The French government has defended municipal bans on body-covering Muslim burkini swimwear but called on mayors to try and cool tensions between communities.
Three Mediterranean towns – Cannes, Villeneuve-Loubet and Sisco on the island of Corsica – have banned the burkini, and Le Touquet on the Atlantic coast is planning to do the same.
The mainly conservative mayors who have imposed the ban say the garment, which leaves only the face, hands and feet exposed, defies French laws on secularism.
The burkini debate is particularly sensitive in France given deadly attacks by Islamist militants, including bombings and shootings in Paris which killed 130 people last November, which have raised tensions between communities and made people wary of public places.
The socialist government’s minister for women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, said municipal bans on the burkini should not be seen in the context of terrorism but she supported the bans.
“The burkini is not some new line of swimwear, it is the beach version of the burqa and it has the same logic: hide women’s bodies in order to better control them,” Rossignol told French daily Le Parisien in an interview.
It's also bad for hygiene, and there's various health sources in France who believe, with good reason, that healthy hygiene is crucial.
Rossignol said the burkini had sparked tensions on French beaches because of its political dimension.
“It is not just the business of those women who wear it, because it is the symbol of a political project that is hostile to diversity and women’s emancipation,” she said.
On Saturday, a brawl broke out between Muslim families and a group of young Corsicans in Sisco after a tourist took pictures of women bathing in burkini. The mayor banned burkinis on Monday.
And they're doing the right thing. In fact, burkinis could be used as smuggling tools, something you can't do with a bikini (Ursula Andress sure couldn't have done that with hers in Doctor No back in 1962). For example, they could be used to smuggle smalls parts for explosives, or even hand grenades, guns and knives. They could even be used for drug smuggling and hiding documents and money. That's another reason why it's best to ban them from the beaches.
FROM PUBLIC TO PRISON MORALIST: HAREDI SLASHER BASHED UP IN CELL FOR PROVOCATIONS
The convicted Haredi murderer Yishai Schlissel is still making some eyebrow raising headlines, as it's revealed he shredded another prisoner's pictures of his daughters because he despised how they were dressed:
Yishai Schlissel, the ultra-Orthodox Jewish man serving a life sentence for the murder of 16-year-old Shira Banki at the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade last year, is being kept away from other inmates at the Ayalon Prison after a physical altercation with a fellow prisoner left him hospitalized.
Last month, Schlissel tore up photos of another inmate’s daughters he had hanging in his cell, saying the girls were “dressed immodestly.”
Enraged, the prisoner beat Schlissel until prison guards separated the two. Schlissel was hospitalized for unspecified injuries.
The Ayalon Prison warden placed Schlissel in solitary confinement for a number of days as a disciplinary measure.
After an evaluation by prison officials, the warden decided to give Schlissel a separate cell citing his volatile behavior.
The Israel Prisons Service confirmed the decision in a statement, saying that Schlissel’s “taunts, inappropriate behavior and damage he caused another inmate’s property” necessitated the move.
Now I don't know what the other prisoner was in jail for or how severe his own crime was, but Schlissel's act in itself was offensive and an act of hatred towards people who could otherwise be innocent. And assuming the daughters were of legal age, how fascinating that somebody who was hell-bent on slaughtering homosexuals at the parade has such a problem with pictures of ladies hung in his cell. He could be bitter at the realization he threw away his future and will never be able to lead a relationship with women again after the violent crime he committed against one. But it sure seems for now like he's become an isolationist in the worst possible way, and has rejected being part of the human race (remember, this was somebody who even refused legal counsel and doesn't recognize the state laws).
Frankly, he deserves whatever he got for violating the Commandment of Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder. No matter how distasteful homosexuality is, it's no justification for savagery like what he committed last year.
BAR KOCHVA'S BALLISTA BALL
Some students in Gush Etzion dug up an ancient weapon used during the Bar Kochva revolution in ancient times:
An ancient ballista ball, claimed to be one of those used by Jewish warriors fighting against the Roman Empire during the Bar-Kochba revolt, has been unearthed by high school students in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.
The rebellion, led by Simon Bar-Kochba between 132 and 136 CE, was also known as the Third Jewish Revolt, because it was the final of three Jewish uprisings against the Romans due to religious and political persecution.
It is estimated that many thousands of Jews died during the revolt, resulting in a massive depopulation of the communities inhabiting the Judean Hills.
Many survivors of the battle were sold into slavery by Roman captors.
On Monday, Yaron Rosenthal, director of the Kfar Etzion Field School, said the stone ball was discovered during an annual excavation in Gush Etzion led by school counselors shortly before Tisha Be’av.
There may still be several thousand more of these balls out there waiting to be found. Nice to see one of them was unearthed.
Donald Trump Calls for 'Extreme Vetting' of Immigrants (VIDEO)
Cross-posted from American Power.
Following-up from earlier, "In New National Security Speech, Donald Trump to Call for Ideological Screening for Terrorists."
As I wrote there, "Of course, he'll be savaged by the Islamo-coddling left-wing media."
Yep, it turns out one Politico hack claims Trump's plan will make the U.S. less safe. I know, leftist logic is just impeccable, heh.
And there's all kinds of left-wing rejoinders at Memeorandum.
Frankly, this "extreme vetting" plan is the best thing yet!
At LAT, "Donald Trump calls for 'extreme vetting' and an ideological test for would-be immigrants":
Since Donald Trump called for temporarily banning Muslims from entering the U.S., he has tried to expand, narrow or otherwise redefine the polarizing proposal that helped win him the Republican primary but has posed a greater challenge in the general election campaign.
On Monday, he added a phrase to his policy lexicon: “extreme vetting.”
To Trump, that means ensuring anyone entering the country shares American values.
The newest addition to Trump’s immigration policy came during a major speech on national security in Youngstown, Ohio, that featured an unusually subdued Trump reading uneasily at times from a teleprompter and repeating several false claims, including his assertion that he was early to oppose the Iraq invasion and the unsubstantiated pronouncement that the San Bernardino shooters’ neighbor saw bombs in their apartment before the attacks.
It followed days of criticism over Trump’s insistence that President Obama and Hillary Clinton founded Islamic State. Those comments, and other unscripted and unforced controversies, have helped distract from Trump’s core economic and anti-terrorism messages, push down his standing in polls and lead Republicans to once again urge him to curtail his improvisational style of campaigning.
Trump did not explicitly back down from his December proposal, still on his campaign website, for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.”
He did not mention it, instead calling on the departments of State and Homeland Security "to identify a list of regions where adequate screening cannot take place," which would then be referred to to temporarily halt visas.
Trump spent more of his speech defining what he said was a new ideological test for those entering the U.S., comparing his plan to Cold War-era screening.
"We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people," he said. "In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes towards our country or its principles – or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law. Those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred, will not be admitted."
Keep reading.
You can see how leftist media reports are highly critical, but of course Trump's plan is exactly what we need.
It's a great start.
On this issue alone I'd vote for Trump in a heartbeat. It's the crucial issue facing the country. We're at the crossroads. It's existential.
Leftists are going to hate it, obviously. The left is simple incapable of protecting American national security. If Trump's not elected, these issues are not going away. No doubt other candidates will again raise the prospect of "extreme vetting" to save the country.
It's a breath of fresh air.
Posted by AmPowerBlog at 7:14 PM 0 comments Links to this post | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line6 |
__label__cc | 0.682035 | 0.317965 | Clinical Flu Shot Provided On Campus: Swine flu Fails to Overshadow Seasonal Influenza Preparation
Amanda Cheek, News Editor
The seasonal flu has not left the minds of many students and faculty at George Mason University this semester. Despite the recent H1N1 epidemic, students and faculty lined up at the first clinic on campus where the flu shot was offered by the School of Nursing on Sept. 15.
Dr. Charlene Douglas, coordinator of Community Health Nursing, said that she was concerned that people were so caught up with the H1N1 virus that they would not come out for the seasonal flu shot.
Douglas also said that the seasonal flu kills about 36,000 people every year and that is just another reason people should get the flu shot.
Jenna David, a geography major and freshman at Mason, said she has never had the flu shot before but chose to get it this year because she was living in the dorms.
“Now that I live on campus, there are a lot of kids [and] a lot of germs. I feel I’m more likely to get it here than just living at home with my family,” said David.
The flu shot clinic offers the seasonal flu shot to students for $15 and to faculty for $20. A shot for pneumonia is also offered at $50 per person.
Informational flyers were handed out as students and faculty received their shots that were approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The flyer for the seasonal flu shot lists the mild side effects that could be caused by getting the flu shot, which included soreness, redness or swelling near the injection site; hoarseness; sore, red or itchy eyes; coughing, fever and aches.
Marci Jerome, assistant professor of Special Education at Mason, has been working here for 10 years and said she has gotten the flu shot every year since she had children.
“I have two children, and with the whole family, I wanted to get my shot early. I thought they might run out, and with the kids in school, I don’t want to get [sick] from them,” said Jerome.
Jerome said she did not know if there was any connection between the H1N1 virus and the seasonal flu, but she did not want to take the chance.
Douglas said that now is a great time to get the seasonal flu shot. The H1N1 vaccine will not be released until mid-October, which she said means it would not be available to the public until around late October.
Receiving the shot now will give students and faculty the time to let the seasonal flu vaccine go through their system and body, so they will have processed the first vaccine completely and be ready for the H1N1 vaccine when it becomes available, said Douglas.
Douglas believes we should not lose sight of the seasonal flu shot’s importance as a preparation against the seasonal flu, even with our knowledge of the H1N1 virus.
“[We should] prevent what we know [now] even as we prepare for what is new,” said Douglas.
The first flu clinic hosted at Mason took place in Patriot’s Lounge in Student Union Building I on Sept. 15, but there are many others that will be going on at Mason’s Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William Campuses until Nov. 12.
For a full schedule of times the flu shot will be offered at Mason, visit shs.gmu.edu. | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line10 |
__label__cc | 0.6497 | 0.3503 | About CHRISTINE ARYLO
Transformational Leadership Advisor & Coach, MBA
Social Impact Leader and Founder
Wisdom Teacher
Best Selling Author & Speaker
* Transformational Leadership Advisor & Coach, MBA
* Social Impact Leader and Founder
* Wisdom Teacher
* Best Selling Author & Speaker
Dare to Lead, Live and Succeed Differently.
Step Out of the Status Quo & Your Comfort Zone.
Step into your Full Spectrum of Power, Wisdom and Presence.
Be the change you wish to see in the world, your life and in the lives of those you love & lead.
Christine Arylo, MBA, is a transformational leadership advisor, teacher, speaker and three-time best-selling author who is recognized world-wide for her work with women to make shift happen – in the lives they lead, the work they do, and the world they wish to create.
Arylo combines 20 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience in brand marketing, business strategy, human resources, and leadership development for companies like Gap Inc., Visa, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tyco and PepsiCo, with 20 years of wisdom-based training on conscious leadership, human potential, indigenous and feminine wisdom, and yogic science to guide people to lead their lives, businesses, organizations and relationships differently.
For more than a decade, through her transformation-based consulting company, Expanding Possibility, she has been a catalyst, mentor, and advisor for established and emerging leaders on 6 continents.
From business organizations such as Salesforce, Genentech, and Google, to social impact entrepreneurs daring to make change, to change makers and influencers in a wide spectrum of industries, including healthcare, law, government, financial, tech, education and academia and more. Her work and presence hits home for all people seeking to create a better world – for humanity, the people they love and lead, and themselves.
Her blended approach to leadership gives those who work with Arylo access to expanded levels of self-awareness, resilience, presence, insight and the courage to lead the way to new ways of working, living, creating and relating.
Christine’s students, clients, colleagues and the people she mentors and leads in her programs comment that one of the things they respect most about her is that she lives what she teaches.
She continues to elevate her own presence through her practice and training as a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor specializing in vitality, stress release, women’s wellness, meditation and the mind/heart connection.
She herself has mentors – leadership and social impact advisors and spiritual mentors – she has worked with for over a decade, who continue to support her, just as she supports the leaders she mentors and students she teaches.
One of the parts of her work that brings her the most joy is hosting the weekly Feminine Power Time podcast for people around the world. A way to unplug from the craziness of the world, slow down the mind, and drop into their heart, where their true power, wisdom and presence live.
Arylo’s thought provoking approaches have appeared on CBS, NBC & FOX, TedX, and Huffington Post. Over 35,000 people have participated in her personal transformational programs, touching on topics such as Intuitive Power, Courage to Follow Your Inner Truth, and Stopping the Burnout Cycle.
She works with leaders and leadership teams and speaks and teaches often for large and small groups.
She is on faculty for several personal transformation organizations including Esalen and Kripalu. She has been a guest lecturer speaking on feminine leadership and women’s empowerment for Kellogg and Wharton, as well as, UCLA, Mills College and the Haas School of Business. She teaches within national leadership programs such as Ellevate Women’s Network and Leading Women In Technology.
Arylo believes when women come together, in sisterhood, with intention, shift happens. Which is why she hosts women’s empowerment, wellness and leadership retreats four times a year. And runs several online programs that connect women worldwide.
She also believes that most people have not been given the tools, practices and wisdom they need to thrive at this intense time, which is why she facilitates personal sustainability & wellness, mindfulness & meditation, and intuitive thinking & strategizing workshops, trainings and programs for corporations and organizations and their employees.
Arylo is also passionate about affecting multi-generational change and making the tools of personal development, self-awareness and self-empowerment accessible to all people – across gender, race, socio-economic backgrounds.
In 2015, she founded a social-impact organization and school – The Path of Self Love – that trains people globally to work with adults and children to develop self-empowerment, self-worth and self-compassion. The school, which runs on the principles of feminine leadership she teaches, has trained facilitators on 6 continents.
The work is being used in traditional therapy and recovery, colleges, high and middle school, nutrition and wellness programs, prisons, and with coaches, healing, and yoga practitioners.
“If we want a world full of compassionate, courageous, confident leaders, who by nature work for the benefit of humankind and this planet, then we ourselves must be models for that kind of leadership.
One of the most important roles we have is to teach our children what a strong inner foundation, rooted in self-love is.”
Christine has made several courageous life leaps to follow her heart to creating the world she desires – for herself and other. Including finishing business school and heading to California without a job to pursue her dream of working in fashion. Selling her house and car to live her dream of living and working around the world – which she did for 3 years.
She recently made another courageous life leap, this time moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to an island off the coast of Seattle on the Puget Sound to support her in writing her next trilogy. The first book, Overwhelmed and Over It: Embrace Your Power to Stay Centered and Sustained in a Chaotic World, was just recently published.
She lives with her partner in life, love and business, Noah Martin, and a bundle of Border Collie love named “Sahaji,” which is Sanskrit for “living in a state of grace and harmony.”
Christine’s work is all about working with conscious established and emerging leaders who have the courage to do things differently, to live in that state of harmony and clarity on the inside so they can be the most impactful agents of change in the world AND live a deeply fulfilling WHOLE life in which they are sustained. A reality she believes we are working together to create.
For more information on Christine’s podcast, retreats, group programs, coaching and mentoring and leadership consulting contact [email protected]
For more information on The Path of Self Love School, contact Stacey Hoffer, Director of Programs at [email protected]
I’d Love to Share Weekly Wisdom with You
for Leading, Living and Succeeding a Different Way
If we want our lives to feel differently, and we want this world to work differently, We have to have the courage, resilience and clarity to lead the way. | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line16 |
__label__wiki | 0.644383 | 0.644383 | Christ the Savior Church
Orthodox Christianity in Southbury, CT
Turkana Mission
Mission Statement of our Parish
The mission of Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is to proclaim and live out the gospel of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ as it has been handed down to us since apostolic times. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we:
Worship in the fullness of joy and truth.
Unite ourselves with Christ through sacramental life.
Reach out and care for others in love.
By being faithful to this life, we are transformed into the Body of Christ, bringing the Kingdom of God to all.
The History of Christ the Savior Orthodox Church
From the early 1970s, former rector Father Vladimir, Matushka Suzanne Aleandro, and their children were communicants at Three Saints Church in Ansonia, CT. Their pastor, Fr. Nicholas Vansuch, visited their home in Oxford and travelled the surrounding countryside. With a heart for missions, Fr. Nicholas pointed out possible mission sites. Southbury had a growing population and a history of an Orthodox presence, including Churaevka, known locally as Russian Village. There was no active Orthodox church in the area and Southbury was chosen as an ideal site for a mission.
By the late 1970s, the Aleandro family was attending Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Terryville, CT which was led by Fr. Michael Koblosh. Under his visionary leadership, Terryville experienced much change and dynamic growth including the construction of a new church building. Later, Fr. Michael was called to serve a parish out of state. When he returned and was not yet attached to a new church, he said, “Let’s start a mission!” Fr. Vladimir often shared with Fr. Michael the dream to create a mission in Southbury, a natural progression from Fr. Nicholas’ early vision.
In May 1991, Bishop Job of the Diocese of New England, Orthodox Church in America, gave his blessing to explore a mission station in the Woodbury/Southbury area. On June 16, 1991, the mission station held its first liturgy, celebrated by Fr. Michael Koblosh in the Aleandro home. Services were held for a few weeks at the Aleandros, but they knew they quickly had to find permanent lodgings if the mission were going to grow.
The mission station’s first host was Epiphany Episcopal Church in Southbury which provided their church hall for Saturday evening Vespers. We moved to our next location when Fr. Michael made arrangements to rent part of a building on Route 67 on a monthly basis. The space could not be designated as a church, so it was called the Orthodox Christian Center. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the storefront location on October 13, 1991. A large sign was made with “Orthodox Christian Center – Books Icons” and it was put out on Saturday mornings. Visitors stopped by through the day, looked through the books and icons, and asked lots of questions. Because of our unusual setup, people who would never have walked into a church were introduced to Orthodoxy.
During the next several years, Christ the Savior Orthodox Church was served by several different men of faith. Vladimir Aleandro was ordained to the Deaconate at the mission on February 1, 1992, making him the first son of the parish. Fr. Michael Koblosh continued to serve as Parish Priest and beginning on October 6, 1993, he served as rector of Christ the Savior while also taking on the duties of Liturgical and Pastoral affairs for Holy Ghost Parish in Bridgeport, CT. On June 1, 1994, Fr. Koblosh left Christ the Savior and Fr. Mac Vranes was assigned the duties of Parish Priest. Deacon Vladimir Aleandro was ordained to the Priesthood by Metropolitan Theodosius on June 29, 1995 and served his first liturgy as Rector on Sunday, June 30, 1995.
In August 1995, Fr. Vladimir received notification that we would have to vacate the Orthodox Christian Center and start searching for a new home. While we looked, the parishioners of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook, CT let us use their church on Sunday mornings before their services. By the grace of God, we were able to rent a storefront in the Middle Quarter Mall in Woodbury and moved into it in October 1995. This fourth location would be our home for almost nine years.
In December 1999 Peter and Chezelle Serev donated four acres of land on which to construct a church building, a very generous gift for which we shall be forever grateful. This gift brought us one step closer to realizing the community’s dream of having a permanent home. Our parishioners and many friends enthusiastically contributed to our building fund so that we were able to construct the church from February to August 2004. We moved from our rental space in mid-August 2004 and used another temporary space in the Middle Quarter Mall until we received the Certificate of Occupancy for our new church. The time in temporary quarters with bare walls and only a few icons reminded us that it was not the structure that made us the Body of Christ, but our community.
The first step in building an Orthodox church is the planting of the cross. The cross for Christ the Savior Church was made of cedar by Don Cole, a parishioner. On November 16, 2003 it was planted at the spot where the altar would be in the new church. This cross is now planted in the center of the island in front of the church and is lit throughout the night.
On June 4, 2005 Christ the Savior Orthodox Church was consecrated. During the consecration, the holy table or altar was built using four stones of special significance that truly summarize our history and our community’s vision. The stones were from Jerusalem; St. Nectarios Church, Aegina, Greece; the chapel in Russian Village (Churaevka); and our mother church, Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, Terryville, CT. Metropolitan Herman, Bishop Nikon, Fr. Vladimir Aleandro, and Fr. Michael Westerburg, the Chancellor of the New England Diocese, used one of the stones to hammer the Mensa or table top onto the four columns of the holy table. After completing this act, the stones were placed under the Altar where they are kept permanently.
On July 1, 2019 we welcomed Fr. Moses Locke as our next rector along with his family, Matushka Christy and their sons Elias, Seraphim, and Symeon.
Dear Faithful, Attached is the bulletin and calendar for October. Dependent on the weather, we will be outside for at least this Sunday. God bless you all. In Christ, Fr. Moses October Bulletin October Calendar
Dear Faithful, Happy New Year! The Church year ends with Dormition and begins with Nativity, a perfect image of the surrounding protection of our Lady. Links are below for the bulletin and calendar for September. A hard copy of the calendar is in your mailboxes. A modified hard copy of the bulletin has been sent to those without emails, and others who are not on this
Reopening the Church
Christ the Savior has received a blessing to increase the number of parishioners at each service! The parish may now have 50% of the building's capacity present for services (75 people). In order to facilitate adherence to these guidelines, those interested in participating in-person must sign up via Sign Up Genius by clicking here. Service Times:- Saturday Vespers:
1070 Roxbury Rd.
Father Moses Locke, Rector
Dear friends: When you shop at AmazonSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Christ The Savior Orthodox Church at no cost to you. Bookmark the link AmazonSmiles and support us every time you shop. Thank you!
Copyright © 2021 · Christ the Savior Orthodox Church · Orthodox Church in America
1070 Roxbury Rd. Southbury, CT 06488 (203) 267-1330 · Log in
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__label__cc | 0.718777 | 0.281223 | Youth Rock Climbing Championship to be held in Odesa
Jan 18 2013, 16:57
ODESA, JANUARY 18th, 2013, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ― Odesa Rock Climbing Championship among the young athletes will be held 19 January in Odesa, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent reports.
On January 19, 2013, Odesa Rock Climbing Championship among the young athletes will be held in our city. The competitions will be held at Odesa Youth Sports School No.12.
The competition is aimed at promoting rock climbing among young people and forming the city’s team to take part in the National tournaments and competitions.
The Championship will be with the strict observance of safety. Responsibility for the life and health of the participants in the area of competition lies with the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice of safety.
Competitions are scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m.
Winners will be determined according to the rules of the Cup of rock climbing and awarded with prizes. | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line20 |
__label__wiki | 0.528058 | 0.528058 | Gladeyes v Geoff
Gwen and Jade are in a band called the Gladeyes. They often practice and record at the home of Gwen’s parent’s, Trish and Geoff. Since these two people have possibly heard them play their songs more than anyone else on the planet, they could be considered experts on the subject of the Gladeyes. The Gladeyes thought, then, who better to interview them than Geoff, General Practitioner by day and Rolling Stone music critic by evening.
The interview started casually in Geoff and Trish’s living room, Geoff in his chair and Jade and Gwen cross-legged on the floor. As if waiting for this opportunity for his whole life, Geoff’s interview used up all four sides of two sixty-minute cassette tapes. Below is a small excerpt from the conversation.
nb. This was also recently published in the journal "Hue and Cry 'Stakeout.'"
Dad (Gwen’s Dad Geoff): So, am I going to be a fictitious interviewer?
Jade: No, you don't need to be fictitious, do you want to be fictitious?
D: Can I be from the Rolling Stone? Actually, who was it I was reading an interview with? Oh yeah that's right, I was reading a little bit about um… Now, you are known as the Gladeyes?
Gwen: Ha-ha, yes.
D: And how would you describe yourselves as a band?
G: Ah, you mean musically, what genre and stuff, or..?
D: Well, I wouldn't really use words like genre, just really, how would you describe yourselves as a band?…Which of you is the better musician?
G&J (laughter)
D: Which of you has got the greater..? I mean in some bands some people do more of the sort of musical side, and the others do the lyrical side. Is it sort of very mixed and shared, or does one of you have a greater interest in various aspects of it, like one of you is more interested in the lyrical side, or do you share that?
J: I think it's pretty even.
D: When you make up the words does one of you write it? Or you both kind of add in and change it, and...?
G: We have collaborated on words before but we don't so often as the music, even though it relates, the lyrics are generally written by one person.
J: Mmm, but when we started they were a bit more collaborative, it would be good to be more collaborative...
D: So does it tend to be that if you write a song, the lyrics are by one of you and another song might be lyrics by another person?
G: Yeah. But we have collaborated and we do, and even if we don't collaborate maybe on the actual writing, we might collaborate on the ideas of what the song would be about. And then the person who writes the lyrics is just the person who is more excited about it at the time.
J: Nothing's planned, like we don't say "Oh, you write three songs today," and nothing happens like that.
D: No, no, I know...No, no, I wasn't suggesting that but I was thinking, well...
G: But we would sit down and have times where we try and write lyrics together and stuff.
J: Yeah.
D: Like you have a piece of music that you've done, but you haven't got the lyrics?
G: …the chords or the structure, maybe one of us would bring that, and someone else would write more of a melody, and someone else might add the lyrics, and someone else might write little bits of lyrics. But it's really quite collaborative, but some songs are more or less collaborative.
D: Mmm.
G: …but as an overall kind of project and set of ideas I think it's really collaborative, because they all sit within that framework. And so those songs exist because of the other songs, even, you know... well, that structure’s there for them, or something.
D: Anyway, just getting on to a lighter topic, with your names - interesting names aren’t they? Gwendoline, quite a traditional female name, I’ve never heard of a guy called Gwendoline…
J&G: (laughter)
D: …and Jade is what I might call an intersexual name, because it can be a boy or a girl. So, Gwen represents the femininity and tradition of the female in your band and Jade, because there’s no males in the band, she can sort of flip over to the male side, is this right?
G: Yep. Definitely right.
J: Yeah, you’re spot on. On the money.
D: Because, I’m just going on from your music, you’ve got some really light and fun tracks, one of my favourites being Geek Boy, which, I don’t get to hear very often in fact, but, in terms of lightness and fun, and then you have…
J: It’s my Dad’s favourite song as well!
D: Oh is it? Okay.
G: Oh really? Maybe we have to do a tribute to the Dad’s?
D: Yeah. And then you have the more serious and kind-of deeper songs, and I understand that as part of your greater artistic concept you’ve developed these characters of Damien and Monika. Can you tell me about Damien and Monika?
G: Well, I don’t think they’re…
D: Do they represent anything, or are they characters?
J: Yeah, they represent…something. They’re like vessels, of people.
D: Vessels for different people?
G: They’re almost like…
J: Archetypes? Or…
G: Yeah like tropes.
D: What’s a trope?
G: It’s sort of like an archetype, but it’s actually more specific
J: Like cinema or something? Is it related to cinema?
G: It’s any kind of representation, just like something that’s reoccurring, like the idea of an innocent child that’s really perceptive. Like in Les Miserables, there’s a character called Mignon and she’s a trope, she represents a recurring archetype, within literature or…
D: So are you kind-of intending, as you produce more songs, developing a sort of narrative of these people? Like they become, um, cartoon characters is not the right word, but they become like real people that keep popping up in your songs, and become familiar to people and they become, kind of like real people?
J: Yeah, we’ll always probably write songs about people. Yeah, I think those names probably won’t keep going, I don’t know actually, but, it’s nice to bring in new characters.
G: Yeah.
D: Are there any other characters beside Damien and Monika?
J: Claudia.
D: Claudia, of course Claudia
G: Andy
D: Andy of course.
J: Geek boy, but that’s not really a name.
G: But that’s definitely like a specific character.
J: There’s gotta be more than that…
D: Where did Andy come from?
G: I think Andy was just a name.
D: Yeah, but what influenced that song? What influences do you have, do you recognise any influences in your music? Your early music is possibly a little bit influenced by the Velvet Underground.
J: Yeah, we were listening to quite specific music when we started.
D: Karen Carpenter?
D: I noticed in that book Veronica by Mary Gaitskill, that she slayed Karen Carpenter, there was a paragragh or short paragraph…
G: Where she brings her down sort of thing?
D: Well yeah sort of, she has a very good way of bringing big things down into little things and dismissing them almost. Like, a generation of women worshipping Karen Carpenter, and just saying, well, you know, she was a bit of a messed-up woman that ate, didn’t eat herself to death. The reverse. I thought it was a bit cruel, she has a cruelty…anyway, I’m digressing, and it’s not really to do with the interview. Not too much, but it’s possibly, if that’s a book that you read it might indicate something about the ways that you think.
G: I think it’s good to always have those counters anyway, you know…
D: Yeah, so do you think that your music is always a mixture of light to serious? You like to bring in all the different moods of how you feel, I mean, Andy’s quite a sad song? And Geek boy’s a kind of tongue-in-cheek happy song, isn’t it? I mean you obviously don’t think of geek boys as really being geek boys because again it’s like a stereotype, and people who get called geek boys often aren’t. You seldom are what people slot you into.
J: Yeah
D: It’s got a catchy tune, that’s what I like about it. Um, where you’ve got much more narrative types, like Bad Town Blues is more kind of narrative, isn’t it?
G: Yeah
D: So you’re quite eclectic in your style of songs, and even in your lyrics as well. Now, I’m interviewing you as an older person, and one of the things I’m noticing now is that it kind of almost bores me how novels and songs are all about the same thing, which is love. Which is obviously so pertinent to you, you know, like relationships, boy-girl relationships, and love and all the angst and intricacies of that. But as you get older, because that’s not so important to you, because you’ve kind of gone through all that, it kind of seems a bit boring in a way. I mean, recently I’ve been listening to a radio station that plays a lot of oldies stuff, and just about everything is a love tale. So, do you aim to write songs that aren’t about that, and still try to catch young people’s attention? I mean, obviously you relate to your own generation, you’re not kind of making music for different generations. Do you think you can kind of make music and lyrics that address other issues? But fun issues, and issues that are really close to people’s hearts?
G: I don’t know, I hope that we already do that to a certain extent, even within those kinds of narratives that might address things like love and relationships and stuff, you know?
D: Well you could write a song that’s about the boy-girl love thing, or about the mum-child love thing, or about the mum-dad, or the child-dad, or the child-grandad, or the child-grandmother, or what-have-you, those sorts of love things. Do you think people relate to that much?
J: Yeah I think there are a lot of songs with that kind of thing. There’s heaps!
D: One of the things I wanted to ask is the idea of doing interviews anyway. Why bother doing interviews? Why not, I mean, listen to the music?
G: I think they just inform what you do in a different kind of a way. And probably be more-or-less successful each time.
J: I like reading interviews with people.
G: Yeah, me too.
D: Interviews can be edited, especially if they’re TV and so on, so you have to be a bit guarded when you’re interviewing.
G: Yeah, it’s a real skill I guess.
D: I realise that you two, before you were interviewed by me, have had to discuss what you’re going to kind of say and not say, and I see you sort of tapping each other when you feel that one of you is revealing too much about…
J&G: (nervous laughter)
D: Um.
J: Um.
D: Have you ever thought of going brunette?
G: Jade’s the boy. So I think she should.
J: Why does the boy have to go brunette?
G: I don’t know, the girl gets to call the shots?
D: Okay, I think I have explored you quite well haven’t I? I think I’ve made you think a bit, haven’t I?
J: Yeah, there were some good questions.
G: Yeah, definitely.
J: The best interview we’ve had so far.
D: It was good for me too, I’m very proud of you I have to say. Very proud of you. I think you’ve done really, really great, kind of hard to hold it together because it’s kind of like a marriage really, it’s hard in this world to kind of maintain…
J&G: Partnerships.
The full interview is to be published as the book, So the Attainment of Perfection is Forever? Stay tuned.
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It's a blog! | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line21 |
__label__cc | 0.676604 | 0.323396 | Eastern Caribbean Stock Exchange to Trial Tokenized Security Offerings
The Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange (ESCE) plans to partner with Canadian-based digital asset marketplace provider Blockstation to pilot security token offerings (STOs), according to a Letter-of-Intent published on March 10.
Blockstation is slated to provide a platform for listing, trading, clearing, settlement and the compliant tokenization of digital assets.
The ECSE was the first regional securities market and stock exchange in the western hemisphere and was established by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).
The ECCB administers the eight members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States — Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Digital assets traded on the ESCE to be fully insured
The planned partnership will see the development a portal for issuers to manage disclosure documentation for upcoming STOs, in addition to security tools designed to assist regulators to track the circulation of digital assets. Full insurance coverage will be provided for all digital assets traded on Blockstation’s platform.
Trevor Blake, the managing director of the ECSE, stated: «The ECSE is proud to take a leading role in increasing access to and participation in our securities market through digital assets.»
The Blockstation platform will support Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) trading and will be open to international traders.
Blockstation launches digital asset platform with Jamaica Stock Exchange
Discussion between Blockstation and the ECSE started in late-2018 following trials of Blockstation’s digital asset platform with the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) and a planned pilot with the Barbados Stock Exchange.
Last month, JSE and Blockstation announced the official launch of the platform. The stock exchange is currently reviewing applications for five companies seeking to launch digital securities offerings.
ECCB plans 2020 roll-out for blockchain currency
The Eastern Caribbean States have sought to embrace distributed ledger technology, with the ECCB hoping to issue the world’s first central bank digital later this year.
After the year-long trial that began during March 2019, the project will transition to a six-month rollout across the Eastern Caribbean region.
До этого Трейдер назвал ключевые уровни поддержки для цены биткоина
Далее NBA: Sacramento Kings Auction Buddy Hield’s Jersey on Ethereum-Based Treum | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line24 |
__label__cc | 0.522127 | 0.477873 | DharmaCivilization.com
Center for the Study of Dharma and Civilization
Reaction, Revolution and Dharma Renaissance: The Case of “Hindu” Nationalism
Posted on October 27, 2012 by Dharma Civilization
By Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya
The following article is from chapter 2 of the groundbreaking new political work “The Dharma Manifesto”, by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya.
“Every major question in history is a religious question. It has more effect in molding life than nationalism or a common language.”
– Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)
The following paper will examine the Indian social movement known variously as “Hindu” Nationalism, or “Hindutva”[1].
The overtly political aspects of the ongoing Hindu renaissance that has been haphazardly developing for the last approximately 135 years, along with its repeated failure to secure its self-stated aim of instantiating Rama-rajya (Dharmic rule) on the political scene, are crucial topics that very few Hindu intellectuals have addressed in an ideologically cogent and politically mature manner. Some of the few intellectual leaders who have, in fact, addressed this issue in a truly systematic and well-formulated ideological way include Dr. David Frawley (Sri Vedacharya Vamadeva Shastri), Sitaram Goel, Ram Swarup and Dr. Koenraad Elst. I have also written about this topic very extensively, but have only begun releasing a limited number of my writings on this matter to the general public starting in early 2011, The Dharma Manifesto being the ideological dénouement of these writings. The following are a few thoughts on the current state of contemporary Dharma politics on the South Asian subcontinent, with an emphasis on the specific case of what is often termed “Hindu” Nationalism.
As we will see, the primary stumbling block that has relegated the greater Hindutva movement to near irrelevancy in the dual realms of both ideological development and engaged political action has been:
1) Its preponderance of reactionary thinking and action, rather than proactive cultivation of a more revolutionary outlook and practical strategy to both a.)gain political power and to b.) consequently govern the Indian nation-state along purely Dharmic principles.
2) The lack of the divinely-bestowed spiritual empowerment that is necessary for any self-described religious-based movement to secure meaningful success.
By the time the British and other European powers began the incremental process of colonial domination in India and the rest of South Asia in 1757, much of the Hindu community in north India specifically had already experienced hundreds of years of genocidal religious cleansing at the hands of the Mughals and other Islamic invaders before them. Without doubt, the establishment of European rule over India directly saved Hinduism (and, arguably, much of Vedic spiritual culture that served as the ancient basis of the later phenomenon of “Hinduism”) from inexorable extinction at the hands of Islam. If the British had not assumed the administration of India when they did, Hinduism would most likely not exist today, and all of present day India would be an Islamic state. All followers of Dharma must be eternally grateful to the British for this inadvertent rescue of the non-Islamic elements of Indian culture.
During the more liberal atmosphere of the British Raj period (1857-1947), history witnessed the beginning stages of a budding, if often very confused, and ultimately self-abnegating, Hindu renaissance with the emergence of such neo-Hindu movements as the Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission and Hindu Mahasabha, as well as such Hindu leaders as Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Bhaktivinode Thakura (1838-1914), Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), Arumuga Navalar (1822-1879), Gedong Bagus Oka (1921-2002), Sister Nivedita (1867-1911)[2], Annie Besant (1847-1933)[3], and many others. As a result of the rediscovery of their Vedic heritage on the part of many 19th century and early 20th century Hindu intellectual leaders, a new sense of political activism in the name of a rediscovered “Hinduism” cautiously developed with the nascent political theories of such people as Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966) and Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940).
The culmination of this new movement, which was decidedly devoted to a Hindu identity politics, has resulted in the overwhelmingly dominant role of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (founded in 1925) and its greater Sangh Pariwar family of front organizations over the realm of Hindu politics in India for the last 85 years. The overtly political manifestation of the Sangh Pariwar movement was eventually manifest in the later Jana Sangh political party. The party operated under this name from 1951-1980. It was founded by Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee (1901-1953), who was subsequently murdered by the Congress Party regime in 1953. Since 1980, the party has been known by the name Bharatiya Janata Party.[4]
There has been a clear, multi-stage trajectory in which pro-Hindu political ideology and activism have progressed in the last 135 or so years. Before I discuss the nature of that trajectory in any significant depth, first I need to lay out the three general morphologies that most political formulations have historically taken. There are three general forms of political activity observable in the modern political realm: 1) Utopian, 2) Reactionary, 3) Revolutionary.
Utopian designates a primarily futuristic-oriented politics that tends to be very unrealistic and fantasy-fueled. In many cases utopian-based ideologies tend to be eschatologically-driven and millennial in outlook, with the never-achieved (or achievable) promise of a perfect paradise on earth that can only be delivered by the particular political movement making the given promise. Such disastrously failed movements as Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, Anarchism and the political Left in general are Utopian in nature.
Reactionary, on the contrary, is primarily past-oriented[5] and looks toward a “better, more ordered time”, that is historically usually no more than several generations previous to the present era, as the archetypal hallmark and model for present-day cultural renewal. As Nicolás Gómez Dávila explains the mindset of the reactionary: “The reactionary is, nevertheless, the fool who takes up the vanity of condemning history and the immorality of resigning himself to it.” American reactionaries, for example, tend to see the 1950s as the apex of American civilization. As is clear from the term itself, reactionaries are capable only of reacting to assaults on tradition that they detect around them, and are usually incapable of proffering pro-active and positive ideas for how to foundationally transform society for the better in the face of modernity’s degenerate encroachment upon traditional values and culture. Reactionaries are especially known for timidity, intellectual incuriosity, lack of vision, as well as narrow parochialism and immaturely expressed xenophobia. Republicans, Tories, and the conservative Right in general fall under this general heading. Utopian and Reactionary represent the two furthest opposing extremes of the political spectrum.
Revolutionary, on the other hand, describes a political stance that is proactive and constructive in nature, rather than merely utopian or reactionary. Rather than supporting either unrealistic utopian goals, or merely reacting in an ineffectively knee-jerk fashion to the incessant attacks of its opponents, the revolutionary perspective proffers positive systemic change designed to transform the basic characteristics of a presently-given social reality in a wholly original and fundamental way. Revolutionaries seek to alter society, not merely peripherally and incrementally, but foundationally and swiftly.
In the very specifically Hindu/Vedic context, the revolutionary perspective looks at the ancient past (and not merely two or three generations back, but millennia back) as the source from which to derive eternal principles that are designed to be used in the present day to create a radically better future. The Dharmic revolutionary subscribes to an archeofuturism, to use Guillaume Faye’s instructive terminology.[6] Rather than merely dreaming about an unobtainable future based upon blind faith and wishful thinking, or conversely, merely reacting in a frustrated manner to the negative occurrences happening around them, revolutionaries seek systemic (and not merely cosmetic) change in the here and now.
The term “Revolutionary” tends to carry with it the stereotyped, and wholly inaccurate, notion of political violence, which is not at all the technical denotation of this word in political science terminology. Rather, by “Revolutionary” is meant a concept, ideology or movement whose aim is to affect fundamental systemic changes (i.e., a change of the prevailing system itself), rather than merely cosmetic or surface change alone (i.e., minutial changes and readjustments within the confines of the system). With this proper understanding of the terminology, the term “Revolutionary” does not in any way denote violence.
In brief, a Revolutionary movement must have the following features:
A) It is predicated upon a grand, but rationally achievable, vision.
B) It is led by a professional vanguard of elite leaders dedicated to achieving the vision, (b.i) who are capable of intellectually formulating that vision into ideological form, (b.ii) who know how to organize the masses in both the largest and most effective ways necessary to achieve the vision, and (b.iii) who themselves wholly personify the vision of the movement in their own personal character and lifestyle; i.e., the leader is the movement.
C) It has a clearly and systematically formulated ideology that encompasses the totality of political concern, including a comprehensive and defensible internal ideological structure, the minutia of economics, a philosophy of governance, social relations, geopolitical formulations, etc.
D) It has the ability to both formulate constructive alliances with like-motivated movements/organizations, and has a keen understanding of all aspects of the opposing forces.
E) Most importantly of all: a revolutionary has the resolute will to win.
As we look at the last 135 or so years of modern Hinduism, we see that Hindu forms of political expression have progressed roughly and sequentially, though certainly with significant overlaps, through the above three stages of Utopian, Reactionary, and Revolutionary.
“We Are One” – Utopian Stage (1875-1925)
Beginning in the Colonial era, and continuing down to today, such historical trends as the 19th century neo-Hindu movements and Radical Universalism, as well as such historic figures as Swami Vivekananda, Gandhi, and many of the earlier gurus who came to the West, clearly represented an early Utopian stage of Hindu political expression. The concerns of such Hindu Utopians included such unrealistic liberal Western notions as radical egalitarianism, universalism, evolutionary and historico-progressive world-views, temporal-centrism,[7] and such emotionally-driven eschatological visions as the future establishment of a pan-ecumenical world political order – what today would be more accurately termed the New World Order. Such intellectually puerile sentiments, however, did not (and could not) lead to the type of strong Vedic restoration movement necessary to revive Dharma globally.
Such a Vedic restoration is necessarily radically traditionalist in nature, and is thoroughly opposed to all the key corrosive elements that have rendered modernity non-viable. The German intellectual Edgar Julius Jung (1894-1934) presciently describes a similar vision of such a restoration in the following way.
“Restoration of all those elementary laws and values without which man loses his ties with nature and God and without which he is incapable of building up a true order. In the place of equality there will be inherent standards, in the place of social consciousness a just integration into the hierarchical society, in the place of mechanical election an organic elite, in the place of bureaucratic leveling the inner responsibility of genuine self-government, in the place of mass prosperity the rights of a proud people.”[8]
For Sanatana Dharma to both survive and thrive in the coming decades and centuries, a thorough Vedic Restoration along the lines of Jung’s words above must be brought about – a reaffirmation of Sanatana Dharma’s most ancient and orthodox cultural and spiritual expression in direct contradistinction to the values of both Western materialist modernity and shortsighted Indian nationalism (i.e., “Hindu” Nationalism).
Most of the formulators and present-day thinkers of the “Hindu Nationalist” movement represent, to one degree or another, a rather sharp historical and conceptual disconnect from the traditional Sanatana Dharma that had been taught by the Vedic Acharyas and that had been practiced by the common Hindu people for thousands of years. After 1000 years of genocidal battering on the part of Islamic invaders, modern Hinduism was definitely not at the height of its intellectual, cultural, spiritual and political/military glory by the time the British arrived on the scene. By the time the British had saved Vedic culture from extinction, a radically traditional Sanatana Dharma, in its unapologetic, pristine, and consciously Vedic-centric form, needed desperately to be reconstructed by her intellectuals and spiritual leaders. Unfortunately, a serious process of tradition-oriented reconstruction was not seriously attempted at that time.
Instead of seeing the dire problems with Hinduism that were present by the 18th and 19th centuries as something that needed to be addressed and cured from within the confines of Sanatana Dharma, the neo-Hindus instead turned to external, non-Vedic, sources for their guiding inspiration. As a result, rather than attempting a true reconstruction of authentic Sanatana Dharma, which would have made Sanatana Dharma strong and pure once again, they instead attempted an unnecessary “reform” of Sanatana Dharma along the lines of Christian norms and ideals.
Thus we saw the Christian-inspired, neo-Hindu obsessions with eliminating “caste”, eliminating sati, eliminating murti worship, Christian style monotheism, “social reform” at the expense of intellectual/spiritual development, Hegelian historicism, and Radical Universalism. Attendant upon these superfluous “reforms”, we now witness the sad legacy of a Hindu world confused about what it believes, about what even constitutes a “Hindu”, about its future, as well as Hindu children who are not interested in Hinduism, and a Hindu community of almost one billion people many of whom suffer from inferiority complexes and the psychological scars of a people disconnected from their true spiritual heritage. What Sanatana Dharma really needed was never “reform” along these neo-Hindu lines, but rather a positive tradition-based reconstruction of its eternal ideals. “Hinduism” needed to re-embrace its true essence as Sanatana Dharma – the Eternal Natural Way.
What Sanatana Dharma needed – and still needs! – were two interdependent developments.
A) A reclamation of Vedic-based, traditional Sanatana Dharma, with a highly orthodox, Vedic-centric understanding of the unitive and integral Vedic culture that had sustained Sanatana Dharma for 5000 years. It needed a purely Vedic understanding of pramana (valid means of knowledge and derivation of authority), of the nature of Dharma (in the strictest of philosophical senses, not just the popular sense), of what constitutes Vaidika (Vedic) vs. Avaidika (non-Vedic), etc.
B) Once the pure Tradition of Sanatana Dharma was reconstructed, the next organic development needed to be a strictly Vedic-based strategy for both juxtaposing, but also actively interfacing, traditional Sanatana Dharma with the modern world.
The latter project of fostering dialogue between Sanatana Dharma and modernity needed to be done, not by falsely denying the differences between the two (as almost all of the 19th century proto-Hindutva figures attempted via Radical Universalism), but in the same manner that every other ancient culture had met the challenge of modernity: recognition of most modern religions/ideologies as purva-pakshas – opposing ideological constructs; friendly and open debate with these purva-pakshas; unapologetic assurance in the exceptional status of Sanatana Dharma, and a concomitant refusal to concede to the forced imposition of an inferior status.
Unfortunately, because the unneeded distraction of “Hindu reform” became the more easily accomplished dominant paradigm of the hour, to this very day the real project of Vedic reconstruction outlined above has barely gotten off the ground. It is now time to begin the process.
Many of the “Hindu reformers” were well-motivated and sincere persons who truly felt that they were acting in the interests of Sanatana Dharma. Many of Ramakrishna’s words are very inspiring and wise. Swami Vivekananda was a truly courageous and talented leader who the Hindu people can and should take immense pride in. More, many of these personalities did accomplish some good in providing at least some modicum of a vehicle for interfacing Sanatana Dharma and modernity, however self-destructive this particular vehicle has ending up being in the long-run. In formulating a Christian-inspired paradigm for Vedic survival with only short-term successes in mind, however, they did not have the long-term implications of their syncretism in mind.
“We Are Different” – Reactionary Stage (1925-1945)
Beginning roughly in the Interwar period (the 1920s and 1930s), we then see the formulation of a strictly Reactionary form of Hindu politics with the emergence of Savarkar, Savitri Devi (the European Pagan writer Maximiani Portas, 1905-1982),[9] the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, etc. The uniformed paramilitary formations, martial aesthetic, stress on character development, egalitarian ethos combined with a rigid hierarchical structure, and much of the generic patriotic rhetoric of the RSS was directly appropriated from the newly immerging, parallel nationalist movements that were sweeping the European continent during the 1920s.
Unlike their much more successful European counterparts, however, this new reactionary Hindu movement had very few innovative ideas, did not know how to successfully engage in politics either electorally (not till the 1980s at the earliest) or in terms of mass mobilization (other than borrowing heavily from the paramilitary structure earlier developed by their much more successful counterparts in the various nationalist organizations of contemporary Europe), were wholly disconnected from the traditionalist and orthodox Vedic understanding and practice of the Yoga tradition, had no clear understanding of Dharmic political theory, and most importantly, did not know how to construct an elite political vanguard capable of leading the people by their own spiritual example.
The RSS and Sangh Pariwar defined itself, both historically and to this very day, exclusively in negative juxtaposition to what they were not: they were not Muslims; they were not Christians; they were not Marxists; thus, if only by necessary default, they were “Hindus”. However, to this very day, the RSS has found itself incapable of defining in positive identitarian terms what it actually means to be a Hindu in the spiritual sense of this term. Savarkar’s blind imitation of then-fashionable European racialist theory in the formulation of his interpretation of “Hindutva”, or “Hinduness”, as designating a specifically racial group was doomed to failure from the outset. For Savarkar and all those who followed in his footsteps, being Hindu meant being Indian; being Indian meant being Hindu. Thus, Hinduism for the Hindu Nationalists was merely another term for the Indian race![10] Being a politician, and not a Vedic philosopher, Savarkar did not understand that Sanatana Dharma does not equate to the Indian race. Sanatana Dharma is a world-view and spiritual tradition. It is the sacred heritage, not merely of those people who happen to possess an Indian passport, but of the entirety of the Indo-European peoples.
To this day, rather than facilitating the radical, systemic change necessary to bring about a new Dharma civilization (which is clearly not at all the aim of these Hindutva movements, and never has been), the Reactionary tendency in pro-Hindu politics has shown itself to be an un-visionary, anti-intellectual, philosophically impotent and currently irrelevant political force. It finds itself dedicated more to a rather light version of Indian Nationalist conservatism than Vedic nation building.
The deepest extent of their political program essentially consists of a return to an era more within the comfort zone of the octogenarian men who lead this reactionary movement – possibly a return to India circa 1855 for Savarkar and Hedgewar, or an India circa 1955 for an Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. A Dharma Nation will never be achieved by the feckless Reactionaries, if only because such a goal is not even within the scope of their actual aims or intellectual understanding.
Sadly, the vast bulk of so-called “Hindu activism” that takes place today still falls under the category of Reactionary, and is more a reflection of amorphous Indian Nationalism, and general pride of place and ethnicity than any serious attempt to reorder society (either Indian, American, or global) in such a manner as to reflect Dharmic principles instantiated in concrete political form.
Many of the attempts at polemical and ideological writing that we have seen arising from “Hindu Nationalists” make it all too apparent that they are not yet politically mature enough to either vie for power or to govern a working nation-state. When, and only when, it comes to the point that self-described “Hindu Nationalists” develop the philosophical maturity to engage in the nuanced ideological struggle necessary to win power, and only when they learn how to develop temporary and practical alliances with others while also keeping the greater goal of political power in mind, will they be ready to govern the current nation-state of India. Only then will “India” become Vedic Bharat once again! Contemporary “Hindu Nationalism” needs to move away from the fantasy-rhetoric level that they have wallowed in for so many decades, and begin the hard work of engaging in real politics in the real world.
“We are Vedic!” – Transforming the RSS into a Revolutionary Movement
Without doubt, the current attempt at Vedic restoration is seen as almost being synonymous with the vision, leadership, organizational structures and ideological pronouncements of the RSS movement. With approximately six million dedicated activists, the RSS is officially the largest volunteer organization on the Earth today. Unfortunately, the RSS has served as a sadly flawed and ideologically challenged vehicle for Vedic restoration. The RSS will need to address the following problems if it is going to transform itself from a Reactionary movement to a Revolutionary one:
A) Distinguishing between Indian Nationalism versus Vedic Restorationism. Many difficulties arise when these two separate concerns become indistinguishable, as they very clearly have in the minds of almost all “Hindu Nationalists”. Indian Nationalism is an ethnicity/national/racial movement. Vedic Restoration, on the other hand, is a religious/cultural/philosophical one. The RSS has, in my opinion, been more of an Indian Nationalist movement than a Vedic Restorationist movement. More, this is the primary reason why the BJP so badly lost the Indian national election of 2004 – because they tried to appeal to Muslims, Christians, pseudo-secularists, and other non-Hindu Indians merely as patriotic Indians, rather than appealing exclusively to the majority community as follower of Sanatana Dharma[11]. The RSS’s main concern has become Indian Nationalism rather than Sanatana Dharma…and this has only set the movement back.
B) Within the current day Vedic Restorationist movement, we must clarify the difference between Hindu Revival (a political/social/cultural phenomenon), which the RSS is predominantly engaged in, versus Vedic Reconstruction, (an intellectual/academic/philosophical/spiritual matrix of projects), which is precisely what such individuals as David Frawley, Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, Shrikant Talageri, Subhash Kak and myself, as well as other, more traditionalist, Vedic thinkers are engaged in. Both are projects of seemingly rival significance, and the different natures, goals and methods of these two separate projects need to be understood.
C) Within the parallel projects of Hindu Revival and Vedic Reconstruction, we need to distinguish between a Neo-Hindu versus a Traditionalist world-view, which has been addressed to a much greater extent in the book Radical Universalism: Are All Religions the Same?, by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya.
The RSS is currently a neo-Hindu, revivalist, Indian Nationalist movement. What it needs to become is a Traditionalist Vedic Reconstructionist movement. Like some of the 19th century neo-Hindus of the past, the RSS has done much good for the Indian nation-state historically. The RSS has been on the front-lines of defending Hindu India from foreign aggression, both military and missionary.[12] The sacrifices of countless individual RSS members are too numerous to mention. Today, however, both India and Sanatana Dharma need radically more. The RSS needs to change quite radically if it is going to maintain itself as an effective organization in the future.
The following is a ten point program that Hindu Nationalists should implement if they truly wish to transform their nation of India for the better.
1) Annihilate the immediate existential threat from the Communist terrorists, Islamic Jihadists and Christian missionaries who have enslaved your country.
2) Stop graduating countless engineers, “IT professionals” and medical personnel, and instead begin to once again encourage your children to become philosophers, sadhus (sages), artists, thinkers, warriors and leaders.
3) Revive the Kshatriya warrior spirit of your ancestors and no longer revel in weakness in the name of ahimsa.
4) Re-Aryanize, re-Vedicize and re-spiritualize the entirety of your present-day culture.
5) Eliminate the Dalit problem once and for all by allowing those many individuals who are eligible among this community to enter the varna system in accordance with their inherent individual psycho-physical nature. If a Dalit behaves like a brahmana, then he is a brahmana. Period!
6) Learn to interact with modernity in a successful manner. That means, without excuses, rededicating yourselves to excellence and perfection in everything you do and communicate.
7) Build your own economy instead of depending upon the West for economic success via immigration and outsourcing of jobs. To do this, you will need to completely exorcise your economy of even the slightest taint of socialism and collectivism. Once and for all – Socialism simply does not work!
8) Start to carry yourselves with courage and pride in your Vedic heritage, rather than viewing this heritage as an embarrassing burden from the past. If you do not reclaim your immense Vedic heritage, someone else will reclaim it from you.
9) Make spoken Sanskrit the sole recognized language of your nation.
10) To successfully achieve all of the above, stop reaching for any and all excuses for why you have not yet been able to achieve these goals. Victory belongs only to those who reject excuses. Then, and only then, will Bharat regain the respect of the world.
Dharma Nationalism: A New Revolutionary Approach
The new stage that Hindu activism needs to take is undoubtedly the Revolutionary approach. It is clear that Indian Hindus now need to enter the Post-RSS phase of Hindu activism. As a starting point, 21st century Hindu activism needs to make a sharp break from its more paranoid and pessimistic past, and begin to start thinking in much more realistic, concrete, strategic and winning terms.
The enemies of Dharma have had the gift of being able to think and strategize on a long-term basis. Their end goal has always been the end of Dharmic civilization and the creation of their own dystopic vision of reality ranging centuries into the future! Contemporary Hindu activism, on the other hand, has only seemed able to operate reactively, only thinking about some immediate injustices that have just occurred in the news today – and even then only rarely reacting effectively, if at all. The contemporary Indian Hindu activist movement needs to stop looking for excuses, and beat the enemy at their own game.
A truly Revolutionary Dharma activist movement has not existed on the world scene until 2012. The seeds of its birth have now come to fruition in the form of the Dharma Nationalist movement.
Indeed, the Indian nationalist fueled “Hindu” activism of the past will now quickly take a back seat to the spiritually fueled Dharma Nationalist activism of the future. Unlike parochial “Hindu Nationalism”, Dharma Nationalist activism is, indeed, comprehensively total in its application. It is based primarily upon spiritual/philosophical concern, and only secondarily on ethnic/national concern. It is motivated by the spiritual insight and compassion gifted to us by the eternal Truth of Sanatana Dharma, and not merely on an empty pride residing in the relative and temporal, ever-changing geographical boundaries of the nation-state of India. It fosters a true selfless action akin with that of the rishis, and not merely a series of political calculations based upon the personal need for power and aggrandizement.
More crucial than any other juxtaposing comparison to the failed Hindu activist endeavors of the past: Dharma Nationalism presents a clear, realistic, and achievable strategic diagram revealing exactly how society should be best structured in order to ensure the maximal amount of happiness and prosperity, to the fullest degree of qualitative and spiritual depth, for the greatest number of living beings. This fact will be abundantly evident upon an attentive reading of The Dharma Manifesto.
[1] Tentatively translated as “Hinduness”.
[2] Born as Margaret Elizabeth Noble, an Irish social worker who abandoned Christianity and became a follower of Sanatana Dharma.
[3] The second leader of the Theosophical Society after Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891).
[4] “Indian People’s Party”.
[5] Reactionaries do not look to ancient or Classical antecedents for guidance for the present, but tend to only look back a few generations at most.
[6] See Guillaume Faye’s Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age for more on this innovative concept.
[7] My term for the deceivingly comforting psychological phenomenon exhibited by any given generation that convinces them that the particular era in which they find themselves represents the most important and advanced era in history. A much more healthy approach in reconciling one’s subjective perception with the particular times in which one finds oneself was nicely stated by the German philosopher Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) in the following manner: “Live with your century, but do not be its creature.” (On the Aesthetic Education of Man)
[8] Edgar J. Jung, Deutsche uber Deutschland (Munich, 1932), p. 380.
[9] Savitri Devi and Savarkar were in agreement on several basic issues of Hindu Nationalism. Babarao G.D. Savarkar, brother of V.D. Savarkar, even wrote the Forward to Savitri Devi’s book “A Warning to the Hindus“.
[10] “India is dear to us because it has been and is the home of our Hindu Race, the land which has been the cradle of our prophets, and heroes and Gods and godmen …. The real meaning of Swarajya then, is not merely the geographical independence of the bit of earth called India. To the Hindus independence of Hindusthan can only be worth having if that ensures their Hindutva – their religious, racial and cultural identity.” (Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Hindu Rashtra Darshan, vol. 4, pp. 218-9)
[11] Approximately 83% of the Indian population are followers of Sanatana Dharma – a clear majority.
[12] Balraj Madhok, the president of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party in the late 1960s, is a living example of the patriotic fervour of Hindu Nationalism. He wrote the following in 1970: “Western countries also have been exerting to exploit India’s illiteracy and poverty by using their economic aid measures, their cheap and provocative literature, and, above all, their missionaries as instruments for a campaign of mass conversion. We want to warn these foreign powers not to indulge in activities that violate India’s sovereignty and independence and demand that the Government of India take stern measures to curb them.” (Indianisation? What, Why and How. New Delhi: S. Chand, 1970, p. 103)
This article is from chapter 2 of the groundbreaking new political work “The Dharma Manifesto”, by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya.
The Dharma Manifesto serves as the first ever systematic revolutionary blueprint for the nascent global Vedic movement that will, in the very near future, arise to change the course of world history for the betterment of all living beings. The Dharma Manifesto signals the beginning of a wholly new era in humanity’s eternal yearning for meaningful freedom and happiness.
Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya has been acknowledged by many Hindu leaders throughout the world to be one of the most revolutionary and visionary Vedic spiritual masters on the Earth today.
With a forty year history of intensely practicing the spiritual disciplines of Yoga, and with a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Sri Acharyaji is one of the most eminently qualified authorities on Vedic philosophy, culture and spirituality. He is the Director of the Center for the Study of Dharma and Civilization.
His most historically groundbreaking politico-philosophical work, “The Dharma Manifesto”, is now offered to the world at a time when its people are most desperately crying out for fundamental change.
Posted in 2012 | Tagged hindu nationalism, hindu think tank, india, rss, sangh parivar, savarkar, sri dharma pravartaka acharya, the dharma manifesto
Dharma Revolution: An interview with Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Part One)
The Dharma Manifesto: An interview with Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Part Two)
A Vedic Critique of Marxism
Paths are Many, the Rishis Call It by Many Names
Clash of Civlizations: A Hindu Response
About Sanatana Dharma
DharmaCentral.com
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__label__wiki | 0.921541 | 0.921541 | Expanded ‘8 1/2’ Soundtrack & New Recording of Bernard Herrmann’s ‘The Bride Wore Black’ Score Announced
Posted: December 10, 2018 by filmmusicreporter in Film Music Albums
Tags: 8 1/2, Arthur B. Rubinstein, Bernard Herrmann, Cinema Paradiso, Ennio Morricone, Jermoe Moross, Nino Rota, The Bride Wore Black, WarGames
Quartet Records has announced its latest releases, including an expanded soundtrack album for the 1963 drama 8 1/2 directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo and Barbara Steele. The 2-CD features the complete score from the Academy Award-winning film composed by Academy Award winner Nino Rota (The Godfather, Romeo and Juliet, Death on the Nile), including over 20 minutes of previously unreleased music. Visit the label’s official website for the full album details, to listen to audio samples and to order the album, which is limited to 2,000 units.
The label has also announced a new digital recording of the score for the 1963 drama The Bride Wore Black directed by Francois Truffaut. The album features the film’s complete score composed by Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Vertigo, Taxi Driver) recorded with the Basque National Orchestra under the baton of composer Fernando Velázquez (The Impossible, Mama, A Monster Calls), including over 15 minutes of music not used in the final version of the movie. Visit Quartet Records’ website for the full album details, to check out audio samples and to order the CD.
The label’s other new releases include a 60th Anniversary remastered soundtrack edition of the 1958 western The Big Country featuring music by Jerome Moross, a 35th Anniversary expanded soundtrack edition of John Badham’s 1983 classic WarGames featuring music by Arthur B. Rubinstein and a 30th Anniversary remastered soundtrack edition for Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1988 drama Cinema Paradiso featuring music by Ennio Morricone. | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line39 |
__label__cc | 0.58404 | 0.41596 | Prevalence and trends in enamel fluorosis in the United States from the 1930s to the 1980s
Author: Beltrán-Aguilar ED, Griffin SO, Lockwood SA.
Journal Name: Journal of the American Dental Association
Publish Date: February 2002
Volume/Page: 133(2):157-65.
Categories: Dental Fluorosis, Prevalence, Total Body Burden
BACKGROUND: The National Survey of Dental Caries in U.S. School Children: 1986-1987 conducted by the National Institute of Dental Research, or NIDR, remains the only source of national data about the prevalence of enamel fluorosis. The authors analyze these data and describe changes in the prevalence of enamel fluorosis since the 1930s, as reported by H. Trendley Dean.
METHODS: A sample of children comparable to those described in the 1930s was selected from the NIDR data set among children living in households served by public water systems during the child’s first eight years of life. The type of water system (that is, natural, optimal and suboptimal) for each household had been recorded in the NIDR data set using data from the 1985 U.S. Fluoridation Census. The NIDR data set included information about the children’s history of fluoride exposure obtained from parents.
RESULTS: In the 1986-1987 period, the prevalence of enamel fluorosis (ranging from very mild to severe) was 37.8 percent among children living in residences with natural fluoride (0.7 to 4.0 parts per million fluoride ions, or F-), 25.8 percent in the optimal fluoride group (0.7 to 1.2 ppm F- and 15.5 percent in the suboptimal fluoride group (< 0.7 ppm F-). The largest increase in fluorosis prevalence from the 1930s to the 1980s was in the suboptimal fluoride group (6.5 to 15.5 percent).
CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Exposure to multiple sources of fluoride may explain the increase in enamel fluorosis from the 1930s to the 1980s. The exposure to fluoride from sources such as dietary supplements has decreased since the 1980s because of reductions in the recommended dosage, but these changes occurred too late to have an effect on the study cohort. Evidence of simultaneous use of systemic fluorides indicates the need to reinforce guidelines for the appropriate use of fluorides and promote research on measuring total fluoride exposure.
Using urinary fluoride and dental fluorosis as biomarkers of fluoride exposure in brick kiln workers in Balochistan, Pakistan.
A cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the level of urinary fluoride and dental fluorosis in brick kiln workers (n=100) and a control group (n=20) in Balochistan, Pakistan. The fluoride level was also assessed in groundwater samples(n=30). The results showed the urinary fluoride level was significantly greater (p<0.05)in the brick
The prevalence and risk factors of fluorosis among patients in a pediatric dental practice
Seven hundred eight patients aged 5-19 years in a pediatric practice in North Carolina were selected using a random-start, systematic sampling procedure and enrolled in a case control study to determine risks for fluorosis. Subjects were examined by four trained examiners using the Tooth Surface Index of Fluorosis (TSIF). Information
Risk factors associated with fluorosis in a non-fluoridated population in Norway.
In Norway, there is no water fluoridation and little naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water. Fluoride toothpaste is used by 95% of the population and there is a long tradition of fluoride supplement use. The purpose of this study was to record the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis in
Systemic fluoride. Sources, amounts, and effects of ingestion
Fluoride may be ingested from a variety of sources, including many foods and beverages. Fluoride intake varies greatly among individuals and is dependent on dietary constituents and use of fluoride products. Although ingestion of toxic amounts of fluoride is rare, the prevalence of dental fluorosis has increased in North America, suggesting that the levels of fluoride ingestion
Severe Dental Fluorosis: Perception and Psychological Impact
[caption id="attachment_8879" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Severe fluorosis - Photograph by David Kennedy, DDS[/caption] In its severe forms, dental fluorosis causes highly disfiguring brown and black staining of the teeth, which can cause chronic embarrassment and social anxiety for the impacted child. In 1984, a panel from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) warned
Dental Fluorosis Impacts Dentin in Addition to Enamel
Dental fluorosis is a mineralization defect of tooth enamel marked by increased subsurface porosity. The enamel, however, is not the only component of teeth that is effected. As several studies have demonstrated, dental fluorosis can also impair the mineralization of dentin as well. As noted in one review: "The fact that | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line40 |
__label__wiki | 0.693095 | 0.693095 | 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'
Martin Edwards' Crime Writing Blog
Island murders
I’ve never visited the Shetland Islands, but reading Ann Cleeves’ breakthrough novel Raven Black made me want to. It was the first book I’d ever read about Shetland and it made a great impression on me. Now, there’s a positive flurry of Shetland-based crime novels. Ann’s follow-up novel, White Nights is due out soon. Meanwhile, there’s a new author to look out for She is S.J. Bolton, whose debut novel Sacrifice is also set on Shetland.
Sacrifice looks as though it may venture into territory occupied by one of my favourite horror films, The Wicker Man. The author says she is fascinated with British traditional folklore, and the story is apparently based on an eerie Shetland legend, about the story of the ‘Kunal Trows’ of the most northerly Shetland island, Unst. It’s high on my to-read list.
White Nights is right at the top of that list, after the success of Raven Black. Ann’s a fellow member of Murder Squad who has been writing thoroughly enjoyable mysteries for about twenty years, but her career received a real fillip when Raven Black won the CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger for best novel of 2006. The book combines atmospheric writing (the traditional fire festival Up Helly Ya provides a vivid backdrop to the latter stages of the book) with a neat plot and an engaging detective, Jimmy Perez. Originally Ann conceived the novel as a one-off, but its popularity prompted her to sign a contract to write three more Shetland books, one for each season of the year. Quite apart from good sales in this country, the award of the Dagger has raised her profile overseas, and she’s now a best-seller in Scandinavia, in addition to have signed deals to publish in a variety of other countries around the globe.
The Shetland setting, I think, is probably the feature that caused this particular novel to achieve more recognition than its predecessors, even though such books as The Sleeping and the Dead really are very good indeed. There’s something fascinating about islands, and they do make excellent settings for crime novels (think And Then There Were None and P.D. James’ The Lighthouse.) Maybe island magic will work wonders for S.J. Bolton’s career too.
Posted by Martin Edwards 8 comments:
Tell No Lies and Presumed Innocent
I’ve been reading a debut novel by an American lawyer, Julie Compton, called Tell No Lies. It’s strange that so many attorneys write crime novels, whereas in the UK there are only a handful of lawyer-novelists. Why is it? I’ve never understood. I do, though, know a number of English solicitors who tell me that they mean to write a book ‘when they have a bit more time’. Can it really be true that our colleagues in the States are, in comparison, under-worked? Doesn’t seem likely, somehow.
Certainly, the protagonist in Tell No Lies is kept fully occupied. Jack Hilliard is a trial lawyer with an apparently happy all-American family life who runs for D.A. at the same time as embarking on a dangerous liaison with a sexy attorney called Jenny Dodson. Poor old Jack finds it all too easy to compromise his principles, not least in relation to his stance on the death penalty. When Jenny is accused of murder, he finds himself in the embarrassing position of being aware that she has an alibi – it seems she was frolicking with him at the time the victim was shot to death.
As ever with an American novel about a murder trial, the publishers are making comparisons with Scott Turow. However, it’s better to judge Julie Compton’s book on its own merits. Turow is, as far as I’m concerned, in a different league from all other American lawyer-novelists, or at least all those I’ve read. Presumed Innocent is a genuine masterpiece – one of the most gripping thrillers I’ve ever come across. It is one of the few books that literally kept me up half the night, so keen was I to find out what was going to happen. Nothing by John Grisham (and I’ve enjoyed a number of his books, especially the first half of The Firm and The Rainmaker) comes close. I’ve not read everything Turow has written, but it must be open to doubt whether he can ever surpass that brilliant first novel. It combines a great plot with superb characterisation, a wholly credible portrayal of the legal system, and very good writing. What more could anyone ask?
Florence Maybrick
When I first embarked on the Harry Devlin books, I was surprised that no fictional whodunit series had previously been set in Liverpool. One of the reasons why this seemed odd was that not one, but two of the most extraordinary and fascinating real life murder mysteries of all time occurred in Liverpool. I mentioned the Wallace case recently in connection with the death of Jonathan Goodman. The other case was that of the murder (if it was murder) of Florence Maybrick.
The Maybrick case has, in recent years, attracted renewed interest because of the purported diary of Florence’s husband, James Maybrick, who is believed by some people to have been Jack the Ripper. That’s another story (also fascinating, since whether you believe that the diary was fabricated or not, it’s an extraordinary piece of work) which I’ll talk about some other time.
Florence was an American who married a cotton broker (whose brother was a well-known composer) and settled in Battlecrease House at Aigburth, Liverpool, across the road from the cricket ground. The marriage wasn’t perfect; James had various mistresses, one of whom bore him five children, and Florence had a fling of her own. When James suffered an illness and then died, arsenic was found in his body. Florence was thought to have had motive, means (she’d bought arsenical fly-papers) and opportunity. Amidst massive publicity, she was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. The judge who presided over the case eventually went insane. Florence was reprieved at the last minute, but not before she’d heard the sound of hammering outside her prison cell as her gallows were constructed. She spent fifteen years in prison before being released and promptly wrote a book about her experiences and went on the lecture circuit. More than half a century after being sentenced to hang, she finally died in impoverished obscurity in her native USA.
And that’s only a much-condensed summary of an amazing story. It’s long fascinated me and, some years ago, I had the rare privilege of being taken around the hugely atmospheric Maybrick house by its owner – a memorable experience. The Maybrick case has inspired a number of novels – some say it even influenced the Sayers classic Strong Poison. There’s a much closer connection with Joseph Shearing’s Airing in a Closed Carriage, and The Wychford Poisoning Case by the marvellous Anthony Berkeley. For some reason, I’ve not said anything much about Berkeley on this blog. But he’s one of my favourite detective story writers of the past; more about him soon.
Posted by Martin Edwards No comments:
A re-make is never as good as the original movie (well, hardly ever; I suppose there are exceptions to the general rule, though none spring to mind as I type.) What about sequels? Do they ever surpass the first work?
The question is prompted by recent comments on this blog about sequels to Rebecca, and also by a couple of other things. Over the week-end, I watched Children of the Damned, the sequel to Village of the Damned, which I posted about recently. The second film owes nothing to its predecessor apart from John Wyndham’s original idea of spooky children with uncanny and terrifying powers of mind control. It’s very much a film of its time, with a heavy Cold War influence. The cast is excellent, and includes not only Alan Badel, but also Ian Hendry (who was originally the main star of ‘The Avengers’, believe it or not, Patrick Macnee being his sidekick), and Alfred Burke, later to star in perhaps the best of all British p.i. television series, ‘Public Eye’.
The first half-hour is brilliantly creepy, but the rest of the movie doesn’t quite live up to that initial promise. One of many differences from the first film is that there’s no personal connection between the main characters and the children, and lack of such immediate involvement is a real weakness in the closing scenes. I think the sequel was worth doing, because it contains some thought-provoking ideas, but overall it doesn’t adequately resolve them, and isn’t as good as the earlier film.
‘The Sunday Times’ carried a story yesterday about the ‘mystery of the missing Da Vinci sequel’ – the fact that Dan Brown has not yet produced the promised follow-up to his mega-seller. The story says that The Da Vinci Code has earned him ‘an estimated £125 million.’ Perhaps there is no mystery, and Mr Brown is simply enjoying his enormous wealth. Meanwhile, I'm striving to resist the temptation to call my next Lake District Mystery The De Quincey Code!
The really amazing aspect of the story is nothing to do with sequels, but rather a suggestion that authors never have to endure Deadline Hell. Dan Brown’s British publisher is quoted as saying ‘there is never any clause from a publisher to a novelist that they have to deliver at a certain time. We would not impose such a thing on a contract.’ This observation will, I think, startle a number of authors, as it did me.
Like Shelley Smith, Philip Macdonald had a book chosen by Julian Symons for inclusion in the Collins Crime Club Golden Jubilee Collection. Like her, he is a writer of the past whose work deserves to be read today. I’d rate him as one of the most interesting crime novelists to emerge from the Golden Age. Even though many of his books have flaws of one kind or another, he had the gift of creating fascinating situations that keep you turning the pages.
His usual detective was Colonel Anthony Gethryn. Gethryn was in spirit a character of the 1920s, and he featured in The Maze, which kicked off the Crime Club list in 1930, but he appeared as late as 1959, in a weird but entertaining serial killer story, The List of Adrian Messenger. This is the book that, in its 1963 film version, included fleeting appearances from such unlikely Golden Age figures as Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster. George C. Scott was cast, rather improbably, as Gethryn.
There is something intensely cinematic about most of Macdonald’s work and it’s no surprise that he finished up working in Hollywood. He was associated with the screenplays of Rebecca and Forbidden Planet (and he wrote the novelisation of the latter, under a pseudonym.) These are credits that most writers would kill for. Oddly enough, he did not write the screenplay for Twenty Three Paces to Baker Street, a very good 1956 movie based on a Gethryn novel. The script came from the pen of Nigel Balchin, a writer of considerable literary gifts who sometimes ventured into criminal territory. Balchin's own work is of great interest, and I'll post about him separately one of these days.
Macdonald wrote two lively multiple murder books, X v Rex and Murder Gone Mad, long before The List of Adrian Messenger. He tried his hand at impossible crimes and wrote a few good short stories. Michael Gilbert, an even better crime novelist than Macdonald, said that the cleverly conceived denouement to The White Crow, an early Gethryn story, influenced the resolution of his play A Clean Kill. If you enjoy Golden Age detective stories, do give Macdonald a try.
Questions of identity – and not just ‘whodunit?’ - lie at the heart of many of the finest crime stories ever written. Ten years ago I wrote an article about impersonation which was included in the Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing. Now Cambridge Scholars Publishing have produced a book of erudite essays called Questions of Identity in Detective Fiction, edited by Linda Martz and Anita Higgie. My copy has just arrived.
A quick glance suggests that the book contains a good deal that is of interest. Gillian Linscott, a very capable writer, is the subject of a study of her ‘suffragette fictions’ featuring the feisty Nell Bray. One chapter addresses Christie’s work for the stage, another tackles Tony Hillerman, yet another (by Suzanne Bray) examines ‘a new generation of Anglican writers’ – the books of Kate Charles, D.M.Greenwood and Phil Rickman are among those considered.
Sharon Wheeler asserts, provocatively but intriguingly, that ‘in the 1980s crime fiction was a tired and stale-looking genre.’ She argues that it was rescued by feminists, some of whom were lesbian writers, notably Val McDermid, who is now widely acknowledged as one of the leading crime novelists in the UK, and indeed the world, and (a novelist I feel deserves to be better known) Katherine V. Forrest. Her main subject is the work of someone I've never read, the American gay writer John Morgan Wilson, and she says of the books: ‘the plotting is of a high standard, but Wilson’s focus is on his central character and how a man who has lost everything can survive.’
Opinions vary about the merits of taking an academic approach to the genre. It can be over-done and in the past I've read some essays which gave the impression that the authors had neither read widely in the genre nor enjoyed what little they had read. But there are some academics whose work is thought-provoking and worthwhile even for those who read crime simply for entertainment. And one benefit of works of crime reference which is, to my mind, indisputable, is that they draw attention to writers who might otherwise go more or less unnoticed. I’m looking forward to finding out which hidden gems the various contributors to this volume recommend.
An Afternoon to Kill
Reprinting neglected classics of crime fiction is a great service performed by a small number of admirable publishers. It’s still a great service, even if the books turn out, in the cold light of day, not to live up their reputations. In the field of short fiction, Doug Greene’s Crippen and Landru have done a marvellous job in resurrecting innumerable splendid stories that would otherwise still be gathering dust. I’ve mentioned Rue Morgue Press recently in connection with Dorothy Bowers, and their books are always worth a look Ramble House have reprinted the weird yet unforgettable Harry Stephen Keeler, as well as some books by such interesting and varied authors as Rupert Penny and Joel Townsley Rogers.
I’d like to think that one day, someone will reprint the hard-to-find books by C. Daly King that I mentioned the other day. Obelists Fly High was reprinted in the UK in 1980, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Collins Crime Club (a great imprint, sadly no more – killed off by the accountants, I guess.) Symons chose and introduced twelve titles in all. Some were familiar – such as Christie’s The ABC Murders. Others were competent but unexceptional – books by Freeman Wills Crofts, Elizabeth Ferrars and Andrew Garve. And there were one or two gems.
Best of all, I thought, was Shelley Smith’s An Afternoon to Kill. Smith was a very good writer, whom Symons plainly admired, but who seems to have given up on crime fiction prematurely after producing some very good books (the same is true of Margot Bennett, again someone I read and enjoyed on Symons’ recommendation.)
An Afternoon to Kill is such a terrific story that I don’t want to say much about it, for fear of giving the game away. But it really is very enjoyable, as well as clever. Time for another reprint, perhaps?
A different kind of crime
Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, a colleague at work suggested that we take half an hour to visit Liverpool Town Hall – a stone’s throw from our office – and have a look at an exhibition relating to Holocaust Memorial Day. So I went along, and I was very glad I did.
The exhibition is called RESPECTacles. It’s a quite extraordinary work of art consisting of innumerable pairs of second hand spectacles (some donated by celebrities ranging from Elton John to Ronnie Corbett, to say nothing of Tony Blair) and it’s inspired by photographic images taken during the Holocaust. I found the record of the Nazis’ terrible crimes very moving – as much so as when I visited Anne Frank’s house nearly twenty years ago, and that’s saying something.
The setting for the exhibition is utterly magnificent. The Town Hall is impressive externally, but even better on the inside. Yet although I pass it every day, I’d only ever been inside the Town Hall once before. This too gave me pause for thought. It’s so easy to take things for granted – to assume that ‘we’ll get round to them sooner or later’. And sometimes we never get round to it.
Since Christmas I’ve been labouring over the tedious task of proof-checking, hating the unpleasant weather and the traffic queues on the motorway, reading tedious financial documents, and sometimes feeling fed up. The January blues, and I suppose plenty of other people succumb to them. But seeing those dreadful photographs of the gas chambers at Auschwitz and learning about the lives of people who were sent there, never to return, made me realise how absurd it is not to appreciate to the full all life’s pleasures while one can. I knew that already, but it did no harm to have such a poignant reminder of a fundamental truth.
Thrones, Dominations...
When I posted recently about Dorothy L. Sayers, fellow blogger Jilly asked if I’d read Thrones, Dominations. This is the book that Sayers started and abandoned. The writing wasn’t interrupted by her death; she simply gave up on writing detective fiction. Eventually, the estate selected a writer of distinction, Jill Paton Walsh (who has tried her hand at detective stories in the past) to complete the book. It can have been no easy task, but I was impressed with the result; she did the job as well as it could have been done, and that the book, read as a whole, was better than, say, Whose Body? or Five Red Herrings. Encouraged by this success, Paton Walsh produced A Presumption of Death, utilising some of Sayers’ material. I felt this was not quite as gripping as the earlier book, but still a likeable read.
Finishing a book written by someone else is a fascinating challenge. Almost everybody seems to have had a go at The Murder of Edwin Drood - Dick Stewart has even written a book, End Game, devoted to listing all those who have done so. Unfinished novels by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Cornell Woolrich are amongst those that have been completed by other hands.
On a slightly less exalted level, I had the privilege of completing the late Bill Knox’s last Thane and Moss story, The Lazarus Widow. I’ve written about this elsewhere, so I won’t go on about it at length right now – but it was certainly one of the most interesting experiences of my writing career. The fact that it worked out happily in the end (and, most important, for Bill’s family, who have become friends) was intensely rewarding. I’m not surprised that Jill Paton Walsh found the invitation to complete Thrones, Dominations impossible to resist.
The trouble with ingenuity
I’m someone who loves elaborate plots in crime novels, and as I mentioned the other day, I started Fear and Miss Betony, by Dorothy Bowers, with high hopes, given the claim that ‘The Golden Age of detective fiction was known for elaborate plots. This may well be the most ingenious one of them all.’ Now I’ve finished the book, I’m reflecting on both its strengths and its weaknesses.
Bowers’ writing style is literate and appealing. Here, the encounter between the eponymous Emma Betony and a sinister fortune teller called The Great Ambrosio is highly atmospheric and memorable. The setting (the book was published in 1941) is nicely done; the story gives a reminder that, albeit changed, life in England still went on while the Second World War raged. And Bowers understood the importance of character. Right at the end, Inspector Dan Pardoe makes the point that: ‘The key to this was character – as to so much else. The impact of character on circumstance, circumstance on character.’
The structure of the book is unusual. Emma is brought in by her former pupil, Grace Aram, to help understand an apparent campaign to murder a patient run at the nursing home-cum-school that Grace runs. Pardoe only appears near the end of the book, after murder is done. But the victim is not the person whom one has been led to expect: shades of Christie’s Peril at End House.
However, there are shortcomings. The detective work seems a bit perfunctory and at least one clue is withheld from the reader – not exactly fair play. More important, there are too many characters (this is a subject touched on in a recent post and comments.) This means that one quickly comes to the conclusion that the culprit is likely to be one of the few individuals in the story who is truly memorable. Worst of all, I still can’t understand why the murderer went to so much trouble. It seems to me that the objective might have been achieved more easily and at much less risk.
This is the trouble with ingenuity – much as I admire it. Sometimes the whole exercise is over the top. Ultimately, the reason I like the book is not because of the plot (because I’m afraid I figured out the solution some time before the end) but because Emma Betony is a splendid character, depicted with skill. One can see that the author really liked her, and with good reason. My favourite Bowers book remains Deed Without a Name, but Rue Morgue Press have done whodunit fans a real service by reprinting all her five novels. Each of them has elements of distinction and her early death was a tragedy that robbed us of a writer of genuine talent and rich promise.
Jonathan Goodman, who died earlier this month, was one of the leading British criminologists of the past forty years. He was probably best known for a book about one of Liverpool’s most celebrated real life murder mysteries, the killing of Julia Wallace. The Wallace case attracted the interest of crime writers as eminent as Raymond Chandler and Dorothy L. Sayers; DLS wrote an essay about the puzzle (she believed, no doubt rightly, that Julia’s husband was innocent of the murder) and, in a letter to John Dickson Carr in 1937 expressed astonishment that he had never heard of it, saying ‘it certainly is a grand case.’
Less celebrated, but equally intriguing, is a crime committed at Gorse Hall, Stalybridge, (about 40 miles from Liverpool and close to the area where Dr Harold Shipman later pursued his murderous trade), which Goodman considered in an excellent book, The Stabbing of George Harry Storrs. The Storrs case dates back to the early years of the last century, but it continues to intrigue. Two different people were tried for the murder, but neither was convicted. Gill Linscott used some of the basic facts in her Nell Bray mystery, Dead Man’s Music.
I first became interested in the Crippen case when I created a character – Nic Gabriel in Take My Breath Away – who had written a book about it. Over the years I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the story. My own researches into the case were greatly assisted by Goodman’s The Crippen File, a wide-ranging collection of newspaper cuttings and other documents about the police investigation and trial of one of my favourite (alleged) murderers. I tried to make contact with Goodman to discuss the case a while ago, only to learn he was unwell. Thus a conversation that I would have found fascinating never happened. Goodman’s other work included The Passing of Starr Faithfull, and The Burning of Evelyn Foster. Bloody Versicles: the rhymes of crime, is a unique compilation of felonious verse: here is a segment of one grotesquely unfair ditty from the time of the Wallace case:
‘Willie had a mistress,
Willie had a wife.
He only wanted one of them,
So Willie took a life.'
I’ve had a weakness for parodies since I was about eleven years old and the English teacher asked us to write a couple in successive weeks – one a sci-fi parody, one a parody of a detective story. My effort at the former made it into the school magazine – my first ever publication – but the latter has plenty of nostalgic appeal for me, as it was a Sherlockian pastiche, ‘The Orange and Purple Worms’.
I’ve managed to avoid most of the action movies mercilessly parodied in Simon Pegg’s comedy Hot Fuzz, but I enjoyed the film a lot all the same. Pegg plays a Scotland Yard cop who is too smart for his own good and finds himself exiled to a pretty town in the west country, where crime is minimal and the police have no interest in detection. Needless to say, mayhem ensues, with a series of violent and wittily executed murders taking place. However, there is remarkably little effort on the part of the local constabulary to solve them. What is going on?
Hot Fuzz is from the same people who made Shaun of the Dead an entertaining spoof of zombie films. The cast is brilliant, including the likes of Timothy Dalton as a rascally supermarket manager and Edward Woodward taking charge of the Neighbourhood Watch. Maybe the action goes on a few minutes too long – comic crime is notoriously difficult to do perfectly, whether on the page or on the screen – but even so, this is well worth watching, with plenty of genuinely funny moments.
P.S. This is my 100th blog post. I think of the blog essentially as a conversation between people whose interests have much in common with mine and I've really appreciated all the comments and feedback. Thanks.
Culture and Coroners
Liverpool’s year in the spotlight as European Capital of Culture got under way with a free event said to have been attended by around 50,000 people. I couldn’t be there – ironically, work had taken me down the East Lancashire Road to Manchester – but it was fun to see highlights on television, especially of the long-absent Ringo Starr playing the drums and singing his latest song, ‘Liverpool 8’ (admittedly, it’s not exactly up to the standard of ‘Penny Lane’ or ‘Strawberry Fields’.)
After I started working in Liverpool, it occurred to me that it would be a great place to set a mystery series and I still think so. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric location; I took these photos, and many others, while walking round the city centre and thinking myself back into Harry Devlin's view of the world. Above all, it's a city in which anything can happen. The people are great and – true to the cliché – naturally and spontaneously witty.
When I was writing Waterloo Sunset, I needed to do much more research than usual. I received a great deal of generous help from a number of people, including the former Dean of the Anglican Cathedral, the boss of a community cinema, and the head of Merseytravel (who provided me with elaborate plans of subterranean Liverpool that I found so compelling as to persuade me to adapt the story-line to them.) Most of all, I was assisted by the city coroner, Andre Rebello. There is an important character in the story who is a coroner, and an inquest scene featuring a couple of suspects in the mystery. The snag is that I’ve never attended an inquest. But Andre gave me generous assistance and readily came up with workable solutions to potential plot problems. So did another local coroner, Jean Harkin, when a last minute query was raised by my editor. My discussions with Andre and Jean proved quite fascinating and I was left with great admiration for the work that coroners do.
I’m one of many writers who owe a good deal to people who willingly provide information which may make a huge difference to the quality of the final book. In my early days as a novelist, I tended to rely on my own knowledge and didn’t do much research. Now I do much more – and I’ve discovered that it’s hugely enjoyable.
Ed Hoch
News travels fast on the internet; a good thing, except perhaps when the news is bad. I was saddened last night to learn of the death of Edward D.Hoch, one of the finest of all writers of short mysteries, and certainly the most prolific. His first story appeared in 1955 and he has contributed a story to every issue of ‘Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’ since 1973. Although he wrote five novels, the short form was what he loved and he was a master of it.
Crippen & Landru published several excellent volumes of his stories, including Diagnosis: Impossible and The Ripper of Storyville. He paid tribute to the inspiration of Ellery Queen in another C&L book, the fascinating The Tragedy of Errors, and his close relationship with Fred Dannay (one half of the Queen writing duo) was clearly a major influence upon his career. He was a very versatile writer, but had a particular interest in ‘impossible crimes’ and stories involving codes and ciphers, and produced many excellent examples which rang the changes on the basic themes quite splendidly.
Ed Hoch edited numerous anthologies; as a contributor, he was also an anthologist’s dream, as I found out after I got to know him. We met a handful of times at Bouchercons, but thanks to the wonders of email I came to think of him as a friend. Our first encounter was in Nottingham in 1995. Ed and I competed in a ‘Mastermind’ quiz along with Sarah J. Mason and Marv Lachman – the quizmaster being the renowned bookseller, writer and editor Maxim Jakubowski. It was great fun, and Marv included a photo that I cherish of the four of us on stage together in his book The Heirs of Anthony Boucher. The copious references to Ed in the book illustrate his importance in the world of mystery fiction.
After that encounter, I would invite Ed from time to time to contribute stories to CWA anthologies. He always replied quickly and affirmatively and always delivered excellent work. I was truly delighted when he told me that one of them, ‘The War in Wonderland’, (set in Cheshire) from the Green for Danger collection of rural mysteries, had won a Barry award.
The last time I saw Ed and his wife Pat was at a cocktail party during the Las Vegas Bouchercon. I hardly knew anyone else there, but as ever, they were welcoming and very good company. The final time I heard from him was about ten weeks ago, shortly after I started this blog. His reaction to it was very encouraging, and that was typical. He was a true professional, but more important even than that, he was a genuinely kind and generous man. I shall miss him, but his stories are a wonderful legacy. They will be enjoyed for many years to come.
Posted by Martin Edwards 1 comment:
What is an Obelist?
C. Daly King was one of the most intriguing American writers of the Golden Age. His work could be fascinating, but also frustrating. He is best remembered for his short story collection The Curious Mr Tarrant, which features a number of ‘impossible crime’ situations, including a much-anthologised classic, ‘The Episode of the Nail and the Requiem’, as well as a fresh take on the Marie Celeste mystery. His six detective novels include Obelists at Sea, Obelists en Route and Obelists Fly High.
‘Obelist’ was a word that King made up. He defined it in Obelists at Sea as ‘a person of little or no value’ and then re-defined it in Obelists en Route as ‘one who harbours suspicion’. Why on earth you would invent a word, use it in your book titles, and then change your mind about what it means?
It beats me, but it illustrates Daly King’s quirky approach. He was a psychological theorist, author of books such as Beyond Behaviourism, which maybe explains things. It certainly explains, though it hardly excuses, the rambling debate about psychological theory in Obelists en Route (one footnote draws the reader’s attention to ‘as good an account of the hormic apologetics as can be found’ in a journal called ‘Psychologies’, which I’m sure is not the same as the glossy publication on sale in W.H.Smith.)
Julian Symons thought King wanted to demonstrate psychological theories through his elaborate whodunits, but if that is so, he wasn’t really successful. And yet there’s something about his work which compels interest, despite the failings. As Symons says, Obelists Fly High is ‘an astonishing performance…almost nothing is as it seems.’ True to form, King started the book with an epilogue and ended it with a prologue. As Symons said, the latter is likely to leave the reader ‘gasping and possibly indignant…There is a plan of the plane, and not one but two full pages given to the ‘reported movements’ and ‘actual movements’ of the characters at given times. Top this with the ‘Clue Finder’ which…suggests nearly forty points that might have led you to the murderer, and you have – well, certainly you have one of the most extraordinary detective puzzles of the twentieth century.’
Obelists En Route boasts no fewer than seven diagrams, a Clue Finder and a ‘bibliography of references’. Obelists at Sea under-achieves, with a measly five diagrams and no Clue Finder. I’ve never seen Clue Finders in any other detective novels, although I’ve heard it said that Elspeth Huxley used a similar device in one or two of her books. They were rather an appealing idea.
Daly King published three other detective novels. I found Bermuda Burial dull and disappointing. Arrogant Alibi and Careless Corpse are fabulously rare and I’ve never come across copies at an affordable price. But, because he was such a quirky writer, I will keep looking for them.
Crime fiction and science fiction
After watching the film Village of the Damned last weekend, I started to think about the links between sci-fi and crime fiction (or should I say cri-fi?) The film is based on The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, someone whose books I devoured as a teenager. Wyndham, like H.G. Wells, was a writer who tends to appeal to readers who aren’t really sci-fi buffs, as well as enthusiasts for the genre. The film might be rather dated (I saw the 1960 version, not the re-make) but I thought it well-done, with plenty of suspense, and one or two nice mysteries. It’s a long time since I read the novel, but the adaptation is, I think, reasonably faithful to the original.
I don’t read much sci-fi (though I’m an avid watcher of Dr Who), but in Waterloo Sunset, I have used science fiction as one of the background elements. The reasons for this relate to the theme, as well as the plot. Harry Devlin spends quite a lot of time in a (fictitious) bar called the Stapledon. I named it after Olaf Stapledon, a Merseyside man who wrote well-regarded science fiction books in his spare time. (Has there ever been another Scouser called Olaf? I wonder.) He went to the same Oxford college as me and worked in a shipping office in Liverpool close to my own office. Nevertheless, I haven’t yet got round to reading any of his novels. Perhaps a treat in store?
Back to John Wyndham. His first literary executor was a friend of mine, a solicitor who was a marvellous companion, but confessed – to my amazement, for in all other respects he was a civilised fellow of fine judgment – to having no interest whatsoever in fiction. Maddeningly, when I interrogated him about what John Wyndham was like, and what he had to say about his books, he could recall very little. Wyndham was evidently a quiet and private individual, pleasant but not inclined to open up too easily.
I did, however, recently discover a little known fact - that, in the 1930s, Wyndham wrote a detective story called Foul Play Suspected, under the name John Beynon. It’s a rare book, which cropped up on eBay a while back and was sold for a sizeable sum.
There are plenty of other writers who have crossed over between sci-fi and crime. Isaac Asimov is an obvious example, and the excellent Fredric Brown achieved success in both genres. Among detective writers who have dabbled are W.J. Burley and P.D. James, while a good many novels combine elements of both genres. I’ve never tackled sci-fi myself, but I would like to have a go one of these days – in a short story, not a novel.
Posted by Martin Edwards 14 comments:
Dorothy Bowers and Rue Morgue
I came quite late to the work of Dorothy Bowers. Until a few years ago, I’d never heard of her, but an article by the industrious Philip Scowcroft in Deadly Pleasures alerted me to her existence. She only wrote five books and died in 1948, shortly after being admitted to the Detection Club. Yet her work earned much acclaim, and in some quarters she had been seen as a successor to Dorothy L. Sayers. I was impressed by Deed Without a Name, which features Inspector Dan Pardoe, and has a very well-realised setting in England’s ‘phoney war’, and wanted to find out more about this relatively little known author
In the end, I did, thanks in part to the admirable detective work of Tom and Enid Schantz. They are booksellers based in Boulder, Colorado, who have set up Rue Morgue Press, which is dedicated to rediscovering worthy but forgotten detective novels. They’ve now reprinted all of the Bowers books, and have discovered facts about her rather sad life which are recorded in the valuable introduction to these nicely produced new editions. Like several other detective novelists, including Colin Dexter and Bob Barnard, she was keen on crossword puzzles and sometimes compiled them for publication. She never married, and succumbed to TB, which no doubt explains the six-year gap between her fourth and fifth books; she died at the age of 46, a year after the publication of The Bells at Old Bailey, a book that, compared to her best work, I found rather disappointing,. Before long, all her work was out of print.
Bowers’ mysteries remain intelligent, well-written and readable to this day. There’s something out of the ordinary about them which puts Bowers head and shoulders above many of her contemporaries. I’ve been hoarding the one that I haven’t read, and which Tom and Enid reckon is one of her best – Fear and Miss Betony. I’m starting it now and after a run of modern crime novels, it will be good to slip back sixty-odd years in time.
As for Rue Morgue Press, it’s worth checking out their list. I thought I was familiar with plenty of crime writers of the thirties and forties, but I must admit the names of Maureen Sarsfield and Joan Coggin had completely passed me by. Thanks to Tom and Enid, though, the books of those writers, both of whose careers in the genre were very brief and frankly made little impact even at the time, have been made available for a fresh generation of readers. And Murder at Shots Hall, by Sarsfield, became one of their best-sellers.
A change of scene
One of the interesting things about writing two different series, set respectively in Liverpool and the Lakes, is the need to change approach when shifting from one to another. After a long break, I really enjoyed getting back into the city scene with which I’m very familiar (because I’ve worked there since 1980) in Liverpool. So creating the environment for Waterloo Sunset was pretty straightforward – even though I still needed to do plenty of research, which included exploring the building of the block opposite my own office and taking the opportunity provided by a fire drill one morning of exploring a little oasis of greenery tucked just off a six-lane highway and which I'd not paid much attention to over the years.
Now I’m back writing about the Lake District and although I know parts of the area (not all of it, by any means) very well, it’s a different matter creating a strong picture of a place that you don’t see as regularly. All the more so because I don’t have a particularly strong visual memory. This means there is a need for regular return visits (which prompts family members to urge me to write a Lakes book set in the height of summer again, rather than another with a winter backdrop – well, maybe next time!) For my own part, I need no excuse to escape to the Lakes whenever the opportunity arises. Even the areas that attract the tourists still have plenty of appeal to me and, after The Arsenic Labyrinth was set in Coniston, the new novel is taking me to Ambleside, where Hannah and Marc have moved.
On my first visit of the year to Ambleside, I had the pleasure of meeting Steve at Fred Holdsworth’s bookshop in the centre of the town. I’m a huge admirer of the work that independent booksellers do in a far from easy commercial climate and this is a small but very welcoming and well-stocked shop that has flourished for many years, and will, I hope, continue to flourish far into the future.
Because the new book is set at around this time of year, it’s all the more important to remind myself of how places look and feel in the depths of winter. The contrast between a bright summer day on the fells and their brooding atmosphere in winter is quite something. As my career has developed, I think I’ve become both a more descriptive writer and one who deals with characters’ relationships in increasing depth. This evolution is something I’m happy with, though I keep reminding myself that story is paramount. And in a mystery novel, I think that means that a strong plot and a reasonable amount of incident remain important.
With films, as with books, variety is good, and I’ve watched a very varied group of movies lately. The Page Turner, directed by Denis Dercourt in 2006, is the only one with sub-titles, and certainly the most under-stated. But the build-up of tension is highly effective, resulting in one of the most disturbing psychological suspense movies I’ve seen in a long time.
The basic set-up is this. Young Melanie, daughter of a butcher, has her heart set on a career as a pianist. But at an important examination, her concentration is disturbed when one of the assessors, herself a successful pianist, unpardonably allows an autograph-hunter to disturb the playing. The girl’s dreams are ruined as a result.
We next encounter her a few years later, working as an intern for a top lawyer. She manoeuvres a short-term assignment to look after the lawyer’s young son, himself a would-be pianist. When it turns out that the lawyer’s wife is the woman who wrecked her ambitions, it becomes apparent that Melanie is bent on revenge.
There are all kinds of hints as to the horrors that may or may not unfold. Will the boy be drowned, will his favourite pet have its throat cut? Will Melanie seduce the lawyer, or his wife? In fact, the most dramatic moment of violence in the whole film is unexpected and cleverly in keeping with Dercourt’s method of defying expectations.
Music plays a huge part in the creation of a chilling atmosphere and the concept of the intense relationship between a pianist and the person who turns the pages of sheet music for her is brilliantly exploited. If it’s whiz-bang action you want, The Bourne Identity is recommended. But I liked the subtlety of The Page Turner just as much.
How many characters?
One question that any writer has to answer is this: how many characters (excluding the walk-on parts) shall I create for this book? For a writer of detective stories where plot is important, there is a particular challenge. Too few credible suspects, and the mystery suffers. Too many, and it’s hard for the reader to get a handle on who is who; it may also be difficult for the author to draw the people in sufficient depth.
A traditional stand-by in the Golden Age was the ‘cast of characters’ which helped readers to keep all the suspects straight in their mind. Ngaio Marsh and Christianna Brand were among those who made use of this device. So did the eccentric, but interesting, American C.Daly King, author of the ‘Obelist’ books. (I'll post more fully about King another day.)
Cast lists have fallen out of fashion to some extent in modern times. Some readers positively object to them, arguing that if a cast list is required, it’s a sign that something is wrong with the book. I understand this argument, but don't think it's necessarily correct. Cast lists are still to be found in some books, notably history-mysteries. Good examples are to be found in a couple of highly successful, high quality series set in the past: Lindsey Davis’s Falco books and the 1950s Lydmouth series by Andrew Taylor.
I tend to like reading and writing books with reasonably large casts of characters. From a writer’s perspective, perhaps large casts are easier to handle within a series, where the core cast is already established. Existing relationships can be nudged forward, while space is given to developing the characters who haven’t appeared before.
But the right answer to the question posed by the title of this post is probably that there isn’t a right answer. It all depends on the book in question, and on what the writer is trying to achieve.
Have His Carcase
I saw some of the tv adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers novels at the time they were made in the 1980s, starring Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walter, but not all of them. At last I’ve got round to watching one that escaped me first time around, Have His Carcase. It’s a Sayers book for which I have a genuine fondness, because it was the first of hers that I ever read, at the tender age of around 13.
By then I’d read plenty of Christie, and all of Sherlock Holmes, but Sayers was a very different writer and I quickly devoured her novels and short stories. Some of the period stuff and background I found tedious as a teenager, but I admired the writing as well as the plots, and I still do. My all-time favourites are The Nine Tailors, Murder Must Advertise and (although a lot of people don’t rate it) the interesting and unusual The Documents in the Case, co-written with that shadowy figure Robert Eustace. (Eustace also co-wrote one of the all-time classic detective short stories, ‘The Tea Leaf’.)
Lord Peter Wimsey is a challenge for any actor because of his evolution over the years from a Bertie Wooster type to someone of genuine sensitivity and deep passion, as well as intellect . In the 70s, I enjoyed the series starring Ian Carmichael, which focused on the earlier books. Petherbridge is a more serious actor, and he did justice to the way in which Sayers developed her detective. As for the casting of Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane, I think it was inspired. Walter is invariably an impressive performer, but she caught the subtleties of Vane’s character to perfection.
The pace of the story is noticeably slower than you would find in present day tv drama, but the production values were high, and even today it is easy to see why the series was a popular success. It’s also good to be reminded of an interesting book and I look forward to watching the remaining episodes.
As for Sayers, she had faults as a writer, and critics such as Julian Symons, Raymond Chandler, Q.D. Leavis, Edmund Wilson are amongst those who have pointed them out. But she aimed high and was capable of brilliance, and for those qualities, she can be forgiven much. It’s no surprise to me that, half a century after her death, she is still regarded as one of the major detective novelists of the last hundred years.
Harcourt and Henry Wade
Just when I thought I’d finished my set of essays for the Harcourt Encyclopaedia, the phone went and the editor, Barry Forshaw, asked me to write something about Henry Wade. It’s a pleasure to do a short piece, because if there is one Golden Age British writer who deserves to be better known, in my opinion it is Henry Wade.
‘Henry Wade’ was the name under which Henry Lancelot Aubrey-Fletcher wrote varied, thoughtful and entertaining crime fiction for thirty years. His career stretched from the 1920s to the late 1950s, when psychological suspense was coming to the fore. He played an important part in the development of the genre, especially but not only in the credible portrayal of the business of detection, and the ordinary people whose lives are changed by crime. I am really not sure why his gifts have long been under-estimated by commentators, who are apt to bracket him with the so-called ‘humdrum’ writers such as John Rhode.
Aubrey-Fletcher had a distinguished military career during the First World War, and several of the Henry Wade novels reflect his understanding of the impact that conflict had on those who lived through it. The Dying Alderman (1930) is a capable whodunit with neat use of a ‘dying message’ clue, but Mist on the Saltings (1933) is even more effective; a study in character that was ahead of its time. The novel also benefited from an evocative setting on the East Anglian coast. Released for Death (1938) presents a sympathetic picture of a criminal exploited after leaving jail by a career villain.
Lonely Magdalen (1940) is even better, offering a realistic yet gripping account of an investigation into the apparently commonplace murder of a prostitute whose body is found on Hampstead Heath. The book, structurally very accomplished, is written in three sections; the central part of the book details the dead woman’s misadventures in her younger days before the police inquiry resumes following her identification. This novel, like many of Wade’s best, features Inspector John Poole, a shrewd and sympathetic Oxford-educated detective whose other cases include a very enjoyable ‘inverted mystery’, Too Soon to Die (1954.)
I’m not suggesting that everything he wrote was a masterpiece. But many of them still read well today. His work bridged the gap between the detective novel as game and the crime novel focusing on character. Henry Wade also had a far better understanding of police procedure than most of his contemporaries - and he described it well.
One disappointing experience with an author can put you off for a long time, perhaps forever. Many years ago, my late father enjoyed an early thriller by Robert Ludlum, but when I tried it, I didn’t get beyond the first twenty pages or so and I was never tempted to try Ludlum again. But of course, it’s a mistake to be deterred too easily. I worry sometimes that if a reader didn’t enjoy an early book of mine, they will give up on me permanently, when all the time I’m trying (hard!) to get better.
Did I miss out by giving up so quickly? Well, Ludlum’s sales were in no way adversely affected by my lack of interest. By the time he died in 2001, he’d sold upwards of 200 million copies (estimates seem to vary; perhaps figures become meaningless by the time you reach that level) and I gather that more than a dozen ‘Robert Ludlum’ novels have appeared since then, apparently thanks to the efforts of various writers chosen by Ludlum’s estate to keep the torch burning.
At long last, I’ve been induced by the generally excellent reviews to sample the Bourne movie series starring Matt Damon and based on Ludlum’s most celebrated character, an amnesiac CIA man. And I thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Identity – certainly enough to try the next in the series, and perhaps the books on which they were (very loosely, I guess) based.
Although I didn’t care for that one Ludlum book I tried so long ago, I do admire the thriller writer’s art, even when it’s practised by authors with relatively few literary pretensions, like Ludlum. The film tells a gripping story and there is plenty of focus on the character’s dilemma, as he tries to work out who he is, and how to survive the seemingly overwhelming forces stacked up against him, as well as on incident (the car chase is terrific, the love interest neatly handled.) First class light entertainment. I’m looking forward to watching the sequel soon.
There’s a real difference between thrillers and detective novels, by the way, though it’s not easy to define in a sentence. One of the best accounts of the distinction came from someone skilled at writing both, the late Michael Gilbert, in an essay called ‘The Moment of Violence’. It’s included in a book of essays that he edited called Crime in Good Company, and it remains full of insight, fifty years after it was written.
Leslie S. Klinger and Sherlock Holmes
I mentioned recently the Sherlockian pastiche that I’ve been labouring over. As a way of practising the craft of writing, trying such a different style and voice is quite a useful exercise, as well as enjoyable. This is the fifth story I’ve written about the great consulting detective. Who knows? One day I may get the chance to collect them all into a single volume. Anyway, this time around, my attempt to think myself into the world that Conan Doyle created was assisted by a wonderful research tool,
There are plenty of books about Holmes, some of them excellent, but my main source nowadays for information about the man himself, Watson, and their world, is The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited in three volumes by Leslie S. Klinger, a monumental and expertly researched piece of work. (It’s also attractively produced and, in terms of value for money, very reasonably priced.)
It may give an idea of the quality of Klinger's achievement to say that John Le Carre, no less, contributes an Introduction. He describes Watson’s voice as belonging to ‘a tweedy, no-nonsense colonial Britisher at ease with himself’ and adds: ‘Professional critics can’t lay a glove on Conan Doyle, and never could.’ And he offers quite a tribute: ‘With no Sherlock Holmes, would I have invented George Smiley?’
Klinger’s own introduction, ‘The World of Sherlock Holmes’, is a fascinating read, and his annotations to the stories provide vast amounts of background information about the stories, answering questions like: ‘who was Watson actually married to, and when?’ For a writer following in Conan Doyle’s footsteps, Klinger’s work is invaluable. Open any page at random and there is almost certain to be something of interest that’s a bit out of the ordinary – for instance, a chart to help the reader decide which particular snake was the ‘swamp adder’ which featured in ‘The Speckled Band.’ There is also a lot of very entertaining trivia – I’m tempted to suggest that, even if you hate Sherlock (but, really, how could you?) you would find plenty here to amuse and entertain you, including various insights on the late Victorian era. But above all, for anyone wishing to re-acquaint themselves with the Canon, the Klinger editions are, quite simply, a source of almost endless pleasure
Deadly Pleasures
I’ve been reading the latest issue – number 52, it’s been running a long time - of George Easter’s crime fiction magazine ‘Deadly Pleasures’. As usual, it’s packed with interesting information, including some fascinating articles from immensely knowledgeable contributors such as Philip Scowcroft, who is always a mine of information, and Marv Lachman, author of that definitive study of crime fandom The Heirs of Anthony Boucher.
Marv’s book discusses Bouchercon crime conventions at length, and I first met George at one of them – in Toronto, back in 1992. He’d recently read All the Lonely People and it was immediately apparent that he had a real love of British crime fiction. Needless to say, I warmed to him instantly. My vague recollection is that he’d originally planned to write a book under the title Deadly Pleasures, but his plans changed and the magazine was the happy result.
It’s proved highly successful over the years and has spawned the ‘Barry’ awards, named after crime fan and former contributor, the late Barry Gardner; in 2007 George Pelecanos and Ken Bruen respectively won the prizes for best novel and best British novel.
The main emphasis of the magazine is on reviews; I contribute one or two myself, but the leading commentators include George himself, Larry Gandle, Bev de Weese, Ted Hertel jr., Britain’s own Ali Karim, and Maggie Mason. Ali is someone else I met at a Bouchercon – at the vast Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, in this case. A strange place for a first encounter, considering that at the time we lived not too far away from each other on the other side of the Atlantic, in Cheshire.
It’s fascinating to compare Larry Gandle’s shrewd and occasionally acerbic assessment of books nominated for CWA awards with the judges’ verdicts. On the whole, I concentrate on reviewing books I like rather than those I don’t, and (though I haven’t discussed it with him) I suspect that Ali has a broadly similar approach. However, the world would be a poorer, and less well-informed, place if all critics went about their work in the same way. I don’t always agree with Gandle’s opinions (although I had a lot of sympathy for his assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of those of this year’s crop that I've read), but they are invariably insightful, well-argued and worth reading. And they are among the highlights of a consistently good publication.
Priscilla Masters
Many crime writers started their career in print by publishing something rather different from a mystery novel. Julian Symons began with poetry and Minette Walters with romantic fiction. Colin Dexter wrote texts for students (as N.C. Dexter) in the 1960s, and some of James Sallis' early work focused on the jazz guitar. Going back further in time, S.S. Van Dine (aka W.H.Wright) wrote well-regarded books of art criticism before creating the Golden Age sleuth Philo Vance (whose cases were best-sellers in their day, although to read them now, it's not entirely easy to believe.)
My own first published book was a racy little tome called Understanding Computer Contracts, and Priscilla Masters, a friend who also appears on the Allison & Busby list, started out with a little book called Mr Bateman’s Garden. It’s a children’s story, set in the extraordinary, long-forgotten but now restored, gardens of a Staffordshire National Trust property, Biddulph Grange (a must to visit if you are fascinated by unusual gardens, and a real favourite of mine.)
Some time after that, Cilla wrote her first detective novel, Winding Up the Serpent, published in 1995. It introduced her principal detective, DI Joanna Piercy, and earned much positive comment. It’s a book that has become highly collectible – a first edition in fine condition might cost as much as a thousand dollars. Since then, Cilla has produced a range of good stories, including mysteries with a strong medical theme (she works part-time as a nurse, and makes even better use of her expert medical knowledge than did Dame Agatha) and River Deep, a splendid book featuring a female coroner, Martha Gunn. Martha, a strong and appealing character, returns in Cilla’s latest, Slipknot. It's interesting to compare Cilla's modern day Shrewsbury with the town portrayed by Ellis Peters in the Brother Cadfael books.
I first got to know Cilla when we did a couple of library events together in Lancashire, the best part of a decade ago. She’s a witty and entertaining public speaker, and we’ve often talked of doing more gigs together, although so far work commitments have got in the way. But a couple of years ago she very ingeniously wove my novel Take My Breath Away into a Joanna Piercy book called Wings Over the Watcher. A unique and generous gesture that I much appreciated.
John Banville, alias Benjamin Black
I’m reading Christine Falls, the first novel in a projected crime series written by John Banville under the pseudonym of Benjamin Black. It’s not a case of identity concealment, since the publisher trumpets the author’s real name on front and book covers and the first two pages of the book. Presumably, the creation of the Black pen-name is to differentiate this novel (and its successor, Silver Swan) from Banville’s other work.
Banville won the Man Booker Prize in 2005 for The Sea. I confess that I haven’t read that, or The Book of Evidence (short-listed for the Booker), but I did like The Untouchable, which features a character reminiscent of the spy Anthony Blunt
It’s nothing new for the best writers to try their hand at crime fiction (or, at least, novels with crime at their heart- which are perhaps not quite the same thing.) Dickens, Greene, Amis father and son and even Dylan Thomas are among those who have dabbled; and of course, Sebastian Faulks has been hired to write a James Bond thriller. But it’s certainly interesting to see what Banville does with some elements of the genre, even though I’m not sure he’s truly working within it.
This book won enormous praise on publication; the late Michael Dibdin, himself an estimable crime novelist, was among those who raved. It features a pathologist called Quirke, who encounters the corpse of the eponymous Christine and soon realises that her death is shrouded in mystery. However, there isn’t much resemblance to the work of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs. No deranged serial killer, no DNA evidence. In fact, the setting of the early chapters is Dublin in the 50s, and after a hundred pages, it looks as though Banville’s focus is on examining the nature of sin rather than on springing too many surprises about the identity of the principal sinners. But we’ll see.
The first review
An unexpected New Year present was an early (astonishingly early) review in Publishers Weekly of Waterloo Sunset – ‘impressive…skilfully weaves the strands together…twisty whodunit’; yep, thanks, I’ll definitely settle for that.
It’s always difficult to predict how reviewers will react to one’s new book. The secret is not to fret about reviews too much in advance – but needless to say, this is much easier said than done, hence my relief right now. I’ve been very lucky with critical reaction over the years, but the reality is that you can’t please all the people all of the time. Nevertheless, if the vibes generally are negative, chances are that something has gone wrong. So I’m hoping that others will share the opinion of the PW reviewer. This is the first time that one of my Harry Devlin books (as opposed to the Lake District Mysteries) has been published in the US at the same time as the UK. So far, the Lakes books have probably struck more of a chord with American readers than the Liverpool series, but I’d like to think that Waterloo Sunset will make an equal impression on both sides of the Atlantic.
It’s certainly a book I was very keen to write and I’d like to take this opportunity to say how much I appreciate the support of my UK and US editors, Susie Dunlop and Barbara Peters, in agreeing (despite, I’m sure, reservations about my taking a year off from the Lakes) to let me return to my first series. Publishers need good writers, but it’s equally true that writers need good publishers. And my experience of Allison & Busby and Poisoned Pen Press (as well as Luebbe, my German publishers) has been enormously positive. I want to repay their faith by continuing to improve as a novelist
Right now, there’s only one snag. The PW review was based – as is often the way - on an uncorrected advance reading copy of Waterloo Sunset. I still have to crack on with the corrections for the American edition, as well as working on the copy edited manuscript from Allison & Busby. I confess that I’m not the most enthusiastic proof-checker in the world (I blame checking too many legal documents over the years – now I tend to read what I think I wrote.) Certainly, I lack the discerning eye of my fellow blogger Juliet Doyle, whom I came to know when she put in tireless and very effective work on the proofs of my last law book.
But at least now I can get on with the task in good heart, buoyed by that lovely first review.
Writing about crime fiction
I’ve been grateful for the reaction to my essay about ‘The Detective in British Fiction’, which appears on my website. To set it in context, it may be worth saying a bit more about how essays like this, for crime reference books such as the forthcoming Harcourt Encyclopaedia, come into being.
I’ve contributed to a variety of encyclopaedias and similar compendiums about crime fiction over the years, including the St James Guide, 100 Great Detectives, and the Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing. The last of these was quite an experience.
The story of the Oxford Companion began, so far as I was concerned, with my coming up with the idea of such a book and pitching it to OUP. Michael Cox, an excellent editor and anthologist, later to achieve fame and fortune with his own novel, The Meaning of Night, came to my home in Lymm to discuss the project in (about) 1990. All looked good until the news came that OUP in New York had commissioned a similar book, to be edited by Rosemary Herbert. So my project died instantly. With hindsight, I realise that although the idea was attractive, the work involved would have been demanding – quite murderously so. And Rosemary was ideally qualified for the task.
I was asked to contribute to Rosemary’s book, and I met her at a Bouchercon in Toronto in 1992. Some of the topics for essays were challenging (‘The prodigal son in crime fiction’ struck me as especially tricky) but Rosemary and Catherine Aird, who led the UK branch of the editorial team, were terrific to work with. As time passed, the number of essays I was asked to write increased. However, the in-house editors at OUP kept changing and the process of getting the book to print seemed interminable. One or two contributors had, indeed, died by the time the Companion was published, and in the end (through no fault whatsoever of the external editors) at least one critic suggested it wasn’t quite as cutting edge in content as it might have been. I still think it’s a real mine of interesting information, though, and I'm proud to have been associated with it.
With the Harcourt book, as with any similar work, one is limited by the subject matter one is given, as well as by word count. So, when writing about the detective in British fiction, the real challenge is this: how can I squeeze more than a century and a half of material into 3000 words? To say that one has to be highly selective is an under-statement.
All this means that such essays tend to skim somewhat on the surface of things, due to constraints of length and the need to avoid duplication of other essays in the same book. Even so, I find that they are fun to write. Above all, there is always the hope that one will draw interesting books, characters or authors to the attention of someone who will enjoy reading them, and who would otherwise not have encountered them. That’s where the real satisfaction lies.
First sentences
I don’t think it’s true that a good opening sentence means that the book as a whole is bound to be equally effective. But it helps. There’s much to be said in favour of grabbing the reader’s attention, although this can be done with subtlety as well as with a shock. Over the years, authors as good – and as different from each other - as Dickens, Orwell, Camus and Daphne du Maurier have created memorable openings to memorable novels.
There have been some wonderful opening sentences to crime novels, too. Ruth Rendell is very good in this department, as she is in almost everything she does in the genre – perhaps best of all at the start of the masterly A Judgment in Stone: ‘Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.’ Who could not want to know how that happened?
Mind you, some of the Golden Age detective novelists, including some of the best, seemed to work on the principle that the more mundane the opening, the better. Take an example that Harry Keating has quoted in Murder Must Appetise from Miles Burton’s Death in the Tunnel: ‘The 5.0 p.m. train from Cannon Street runs fast as far as Stourford, where it is due at 6.7. On Thursday, November 14th, it was, as usual, fairly full, but not uncomfortably so.’ At least this method does not raise expectations too high. Yet Burton (aka John Rhode and Cecil Waye) was a successful writer in his day and retains a loyal fan base; some of his novels go for very high prices in the collectors' market.
Of course, precisely how to open a novel is a subject much in mind since I have started work on a new book. Here are some of my past efforts:
‘Do you think I murdered Alison?’ asked Stirrup. (Suspicious Minds.)
‘How long have you been afraid of me?’ (First Cut is the Deepest.)
‘The dead woman smiled. So far, so good.’ (Take My Breath Away.)
‘You’d never believe it to look at me now, but once upon a time I killed a man.' (The Arsenic Labyrinth.’
And here – at least, unless and until I have a change of mind – is the start of the new novel:
‘The books were burning.’
What better way to begin a new year than to start writing a new book?
I’m working on the first chapter of the fourth Lake District Mystery today. It’s always an exciting time, that stage when the wonderful story ideas that have sprung to life in one's mind haven’t been compromised by the limitations of one's talent. I always begin full of hope - and then after a while the angst starts to set in. Why isn’t the plot working? How do I get from this scene to where I really want the story to be? Does what I’m saying about this character contradict his or her past, as described in an earlier book in the series? Talk about a roller-coaster ride.
But today, at least, it’s going well.
I send my best wishes to everyone who reads this blog from time to time, including in particular those who either encouraged me to start it, or to keep it going (or both.) To my amazement, I've managed to produce a new post for each day since the blog began and I've found the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable. In 2008, I'll continue to combine updates about my own writing with thoughts about crime fiction in general, past and present, as well as the occasional excursion into true crime.
Here’s hoping for a peaceful and healthy year ahead. – and for some really good reading from authors familiar and currently unknown. In a short space of time, I’ve been truly gratified to get to know some very generous people through blogging. It’s a great community, and I’m thrilled to have become part of it.
Martin Edwards is the 2020 recipient of the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in UK crime writing. His latest novel is Mortmain Hall, a crime novel set in 1930. He has received the CWA Dagger in the Library, awarded by UK librarians for his body of work. He is President of the Detection Club, consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics, and former Chair of the CWA. His contemporary whodunits include The Coffin Trail, first of seven Lake District Mysteries and shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for best crime novel of the year. The Arsenic Labyrinth was shortlisted for Lakeland Book of the Year. The Golden Age of Murder won the Edgar, Agatha, H.R.F. Keating and Macavity awards, while The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books also won the Macavity and was nominated for four other awards. He has also received the CWA Short Story Dagger, the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, a CWA Red Herring, and the Poirot award “for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre”.
Martin Edwards Books
Current and Recent Reads
Best British Crime volume 9
At the Scene of the Crime
BV Lawson
Beverle Myers
Bolo Books
Books Please
Bookwitch
Christine Poulson
Clarissia Draper
Classic Mysteries
Clothes in Books
Crime Pieces
Crime Scraps Review
Crime Squad
Dave Quayle
David Cranmer
Declan Burke
Deighton Dossier
Elaine Simpson-Long
Elizabeth Foxwell
Euro Crime
Evan Lewis
Existentialist Man
Fiction Feedback
Focus on Fiction
Gerald So
Geranium Cat
Hannah Stoneham
Harriet Devine
Hey Dead Guy
I Prefer Reading
In Search of the Classic Mystery
Jan Burke
Jane Finnis
Janet O'Kane
Jeri Westerson
John Norris
Jose Ignacio Escribano
Julia Buckley
Juxtabook
Kate Jackson
Keith Walters
Kelli Stanley
Kiwi Crime
Lesa Holstine
Lesley Cookman
Lewis Peters
Lourdes Fernandes
Lynne Hatwell
Mason Canyon
Mean Streets Crime
Moira Redmond
Mrs Peabody Investigates
Murder by Type
Mystery Bookshelf
Mystery Reader
Mystery Writng is Murder
Mystery*File
Patti Abbott
Paul Brazill
Pauline Rowson
Peter Rozovsky
Poe's Deadly Daughters
Prashant Trikannad
Random Distraction
Reactions to Reading
Rob Kitchin
Rob Lopresti
Roberta Rood
Sandra Ruttan
Sandra Scoppettone
Sandra Seamans
Scott D. Parker
Seana Graham
Sexton Blake
Shirley Wells
SleuthSayers
Stephen Booth
Steve Brewer
Steve Dolman
Sunnie Gill
The Oliva Reader
Thriller Guy
Tim Heald
Tipping My Fedora
Type M for Murder
Vicki Delaney
Xavier Lechard | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line44 |
__label__wiki | 0.51024 | 0.51024 | Things To Do near Haytor Vale
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Ullacombe Farm Shop, Haytor Vale, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Approx halfway up the Bovey Tracey to Haytor road keep an eye out for this excellent farm shop that stocks a wide range of local produce including meat, vegetables, cheeses, cakes, jams. The sizeable and inviting cafe, which includes an outdoor seating area, is run by very friendly and helpful staff...
The Rock Inn, Haytor Vale, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Haytor Rocks beauty spot Haytor Rocks is Dartmoor's most popular tor. It's also the National Park's most popular beauty spot. Situated on the east flank of the moor, Haytor Rocks overlooks stunning South Devon countryside and coast. The Rock Inn is located in the village below this famous to...
Yarner Wood Templer Way Walk, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Yarner Wood is part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve. The Templer Way is a long distance footpath running between Dartmoor and the South Devon coast following, as far as possible, the route of the old granite railway. This walk takes in some of the best sections of the wood and railway....
Yarrow Mine/Devon Wheal Francis/Yarner Copper Mine, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
At Yarner Wood Reserve Base, painted on an angled wood panel, are depictions of the Yarner Wood area through history. One, particularly dark, is of a bleak landscape. In the foreground is a mine. It's hard to imagine when wandering around this wood today that there was once a thriving copp...
Yarner Valley, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Two streams arc through Yarner Wood and meet near Yarner Wood Base Reserve. To the north is Woodcock Stream. To the south is Yarner Stream. The valley cut by the latter is particularly impressive and we'd recommend visiting for its natural beauty, birdlife and historical features. We've positione...
Ilsington Manor House (Ruins), Ilsington, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
In the north eastern corner of Ilsington St Michael's Church are the remains of Ilsington Manor House. A Dartmoor National Park Authority information board tells the story of the manor house and provides floor plans and drawings. George Ford 'is thought to have rebuilt the house in...
Ilsington St Michael's Church, Ilsington, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Another Dartmoor church rebuilt in the 15th century, Ilsington St Michael's Church is thought to have been first constructed during the 11th century. Look out for the ruins of Ilsington Manor House in the north eastern corner of the churchyard. There's also an alarming story associated with&...
Ilsington St Michael's Church Lych Gate, Ilsington, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Just west of Ilsington St Michael's Church is Ilsington St Michael's Church Lych Gate. A local information board reads: 'The first building on this site that we know of was likely to have been of medieval origin, for in the year 1639 it was being used as a schoolroom for about 30 b...
Yarner Wood, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
'Yarner Wood was purchased in 1952 by the Nature Conservancy and became England's first National Nature Reserve.'* Today, it's part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve that incorporates nearby Trendlebere Down and parts of the Bovey Valley. It's a superb place. There are nature trails, bird...
Haytor National Park Visitor Centre, Haytor Vale, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
At present, Dartmoor has three National Park Visitor Centres. The largest and most impressive is up in Princetown. Next is Postbridge National Park Visitor Centre with its special display relating to Dartmoor's rich prehistory. The smallest is at the foot of the hill that rises to Haytor Rock...
Haytor Down, Haytor Vale, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
This is probably the most popular area of moorland in Dartmoor National Park. In high Summer, or after a good dumping of snow in Winter, its many car parking areas are rammed full with vehicles. Its popularity is partly owing to its location on the eastern side of Dartmoor near the large towns of So...
Yarner Wood Bird Hides, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
'The internationally important upland oak woodlands in this National Nature Reserve are one of the best places to see woodland birds of many kinds but especially the enigmatic pied flycatcher, secretive lesser spotted woodpecker and vocal wood warbler.' The Natural England information boards at the...
Yarner Wood Reserve Base/Natural England Office, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
The Yarner Wood Reserve Base/Natural England Office is situated next to the car park and main access point for Yarner Wood. Just across the car park from the office is a bird hide providing views over a large pond (the stew pond) frequented by birdlife. Leaflets providing information about Yarn...
Yarner Wood Nature Trail, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Yarner Wood is part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve. Dotted around the wood, you'll find posts to which are attached numbered Yarner Wood Nature Trail waymarkers. You can follow either the short loop that runs close to the Yarner Wood Reserve Base or extend it into a longer loop&nb...
Templer Way, Dartmoor, Dartmoor National Park (approx. 1 mile away)
Haytor Rocks is, arguably, Dartmoor National Park's most famous tor. The rocks rise from Haytor Down which is peppered with disused quarries and crossed by an old tramway on which granite was transported from the moors down to Stover Canal and then to the coast at Teignmouth from where the rock was... | cc/2021-04/en_head_0072.json.gz/line50 |
__label__wiki | 0.592209 | 0.592209 | Bodyhacking
This Robotics Designer Has a Plan for Sex to Go Social
Kate Hakala•@explikateme
• •Tweet
Warning: some of the videos embedded in this article may be NSFW.
You get home half-exhausted, open a bottle of Chianti, and think about soaking in the tub. Instead you turn on your laptop, read a few New York Times articles and find yourself instinctually headed towards that one site your browser loves to autofill. It’s a social network filled with cam girls, single people, and horny avatars all waiting to have sex with you — through a robot interface.
That is Seth’s vision of the future, at least. He’s the creator of FriXion, the first ever social network that’s working to allow its users to touch one another using various haptic devices — over any stretch of distance. And for the average user, the “touching” will involve hand holding, kissing, even full-on penetrative sex.
FriXion works like this (and I’ll try to use layman’s terms): The network uses off-the-shelf sex toys and already existing technologies and connects them using their open and universal API (just call it an interface). So, essentially it’s a platform that allows teledildonic devices — dildos, vibrators, and sleeves, for example— to interact with each other using real-time bidirectional force feedback. Seth uses the word “telemetry” a lot and what he means is that through FriXion, one toy can feel what the other toy is feeling.
If you move one way, your partner’s toy will move the other way. Some of the sci-fi features currently being tested include measuring biometrics like heart rate, which would then translate to a soft pulsing on your partner’s device in real time. And any and all of these devices can interact where their functionalities overlap. If that was too much techno-mumbo-jumbo for you, let’s put it this way: This network for sex toys gives a pretty convincing imitation of intimacy.
“Frixion is a software platform we’re developing to enable people to connect physically over distance,” explains Seth, who chose not to share his last name, as we spoke last year. “It feels like the act of sex. While you’re thrusting, I’m being penetrated. You’re pushing back. I’m feeling the resistance.” Compared to other sex machines or long-distance sex tech, Seth claims that FriXion provides a very organic motion, one that’s true to real-life sexual interactions. Just watch the promo videos. Pair it with a virtual reality simulator like the Oculus Rift, and you could see users having a near three-dimensional experience with other users, porn, cam girls, or even avatars.
“It feels like the act of sex. While you’re thrusting, I’m being penetrated. You’re pushing back. I’m feeling the resistance.”
I’ve never been so certain that if an interview subject’s invention were used by a large group of people, that the reality of sex or even human relations might be changed forever. But remember the big “if” in that sentence. That “if” —whether people want to adopt this kind of technology— weighs a lot.
If CES 2015 proved we are closer and closer to an Internet of Things, FriXion would be a grand slam in the direction of true technological intimacy. By 2025, many experts claim that robotics will become an integral, normal part of our daily existence. Stowe Boyd, lead researcher for GigaOM Research, predicted that, “Robotic sex partners will be a commonplace, although the source of scorn and division, the way that critics today bemoan selfies as an indicator of all that’s wrong with the world.” But what of a network that allows for actual humans to be on the other side of the robot’s moving parts? Will that type of technology be met with the same scorn and division? That’s the question currently on Seth’s mind.
In 2014, sex continued to go high tech, and in 2015, Seth feels that it’s bound to go more and more social. If we’ve outsourced nearly every aspect of our livelihoods and identities to machines, what’s to stop us from turning to machines to satisfy our most basic desires? Seth hopes to offer the ultimate in customized masturbatory experiences. A place that not only connects your toys but a place to meet new people, and a hub for virtual sex.
“The beta will initially support users to meet, have sex, and transact payments between each other using an e-wallet. Retail prices for the various devices will run the gamut, the V2 wristband accelerometer will start at $40. The F1 robot is currently the only way to have a meaningful bidirectional experience and it retails for $199,” Seth explains. He sees FriXion as a great interface to inspire more and more tech developers to innovate now that they have a means of communicating with other toys. FriXion is already able to support smart fucking machines like the Diltron, the Shock Spot, Klic-Klic, Lovense, High Joy, and Black Cat Box. “For the cost of a tablet or an iPhone, you’ve got virtual sex and a frickin robot that does other things.”
But at its heart, FriXion is intended to be a social network, Seth stresses. He explains the Facebook/dating site mash-up of the FriXion network: “You’re going to a have a profile, a timeline, a feed. We want to use the profile in ways that work similarly to OkCupid, if that’s how you want to use it. When you sign up, we’ll have check boxes and you can check as many as you want: cam girls, casual encounters, dating, relationships, long distance relationships. We’ll kind of unlock the functionality with those check marks. And if they’re interested in dating, we’ll be pushing matches for you to reach out and connect with people.”
“I had to sit around and look around and say: I’m having sex with a robot with a person. Isn’t that amazing?”
Seth’s okay with developing a network that could very well have implications for sex work, like cam girls offering live events or porn stars holding haptic showcases. “It’s a real risk that we’re taking by taking such a broad approach,” he tells me. “When I saw this technology working, I really felt in awe of where we are. I had to sit around and look around and say, ‘Okay, this is 2013 [at time of development]. I’m having sex with a robot with a person. Isn’t that amazing?’” Seth admits, “I couldn’t justify only selling it to cam girls or something like that. I thought that was just weird. At the same time, I couldn’t justify just pitching it as tech for long distance relationships only. So we just decided to put the tools out there and invite everybody.”
There may also be a gamified future with FriXion, where users earn trophies for different sexual achievements — say a badge for 100 sexual partners, a star for partner loyalty. These partners don’t even have to be human. “You can imagine on Utherverse or Second Life where two avatars could meet each other and connect using their Frixion credentials and their devices connect and they’re having real human sex with each other, but only seeing their avatars and the avatars are animated using the data received through the FriXion API,” Seth rattles off excitedly.
It’s a very postmodern view of the sex industry. It’s an imagined future where, when browsing online dating profiles, people can expect to have sex teledildonically before they even meet in person. For Seth, it’s about not wasting anybody’s time and it’s about finding compatibility as soon as possible.
As our conversation comes to a close, Seth puts out a challenge to me. “What’s the most recent innovation in the sex tech industry?” I think for a moment. “Bluetooth-enabled wearable vibrators, probably,” I say. But I can hear Seth shaking his head. He sees toys like that as gimmicky and only practical for a few novelty uses. “I hope that creating this useful infrastructure is going to create a renaissance. It’s going to untie people’s hands to make really useful devices. A lot of these gimmicks you see are gimmicks because they don’t have the licenses to create functionality that is more useful. It’s why you see on FriXion there are devices that are stroking and reciprocating.”
For transhumanists and technophiles, FriXion sounds like a dream interface. If remote sex with feedback is what you’re looking for. Other already established “adult” networks like Uplust focus on NSFW social sharing and companies like KIIROO are focused on users who are looking to bring back the immediacy to their long distance relationships. FriXion has a much more laissez-faire attitude to what will go on within its interface. With sexy avatar lovers and trophies for conquests, it sort of sounds like a Spike Jonze film or William Gibson story waiting to happen. Are we prepared for it in 2015?
“I still have to remember that some people are ashamed to talk about sex,” Seth admits. “I’m very matter-of-fact and clinical about it. I have to remember some people aren’t. It is a bit frustrating, but I feel like our timing is really good. Haptics are huge this year. I think it’s pretty obvious that sex is one of the most useful applications of haptics.”
It’s hard to say what it will mean when we have a virtual experience that feels the same as the real deal — but what’s most important is that these products are actually meeting a demand of the consumer. And at the end of the day, if the consumers actually enjoy virtual sex. As David Levy, an artificial intelligence expert, once put it to The Kernel, “The question is not whether it is better to have sex with a robot or sex with a human being, but whether it is better to have sex with a robot or no sex at all. In the case of teledildonics, I see the products as increasing the sexual possibilities between humans, not decreasing the desire for human-human sexual contact.”
For many of us, opting into the network would be something of a rebellion.
The effect of postmodern sex remains to be seen, if it will even come at all. At the time of writing, FriXion is still in its early adopter stages, where users can request an invite in return for discounts and giveaways. Seth tells me that by March 2015 he hopes to send out a new batch of invites and roll it out to a wider audience. This year, he’s most excited about the trajectory of haptics and the virtual reality space. Seth thinks, “It will really blow people’s minds and will continue to challenge what modern relationships can look like. It really shifts the core experience to lose all awareness of the device and be present in a virtual space with a virtual partner.” For many of us, opting into the network would be something of a rebellion. We’d be consenting to something we’re not used to okaying in such intimate spaces: complete novelty, exploration, freedom, anonymity.
“This kind of multi-use, robust, flexible approach to solving the problem I think is going to be the most appealing to people and it’s really going to be the killer app that makes intimate technology practical,” Seth assures me confidently.
I hang up the phone and contemplate one day having sex with someone over an internet connection, through a robot-powered vibrator, without ever really knowing who that someone is. I’m still mulling it over. “That’s got to turn someone on,” I think to myself.
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