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Tag: Fyodor Dostoevsky

55, or 11×5

2024-06-052024-06-13 John Winkelman

Happy birthday to me! I am now officially part of the “55 and older” cohort, which both simplifies and diminishes the experience of no longer being young here in the 21st century.

Saint Petersburg, 1994

30 years ago, as of this post, I was in Saint Petersburg, Russia, celebrating my birthday with friends and classmates in the restaurant of the Hotel Rus. The above photos is from that trip, when we visited the prison where Dostoevsky was held just prior to his mock execution. I am just to the right of the window, with glasses, shaggy brown hair, and a black shirt.

This trip, more than anything else at that time, seemed to be the dividing line between my young life and my adult life. I still pull out the photos once in a while, and I still have the dozens of books, all in Russian, which I picked up on that trip. Can I read them? Not really. Not any more. My Russian is almost nonexistent at this point. Had I time and energy to do so, I would start learning the language again. I know just enough Russian to be able to pick out the line from The Master and Margarita which became my first tattoo.

If my fifty-third year was one of re-emergence, this past year was one of re-connection. I have made contact with a number of people I have not seen in years or decades. It has been a wonderful experience, and from what I have seen of the next several months, is a process which is likely to continue for quite some time. I have heard it said that as we get older it becomes progressively harder to make new friends. This may be true, but as we get older, if we are lucky, we have more and more old friends with whom we can both share old memories and make new ones.

And now, off to work. Only ten more years to go until I retire, and I am counting the minutes.

(If you are looking for my IWSG post for June, it is here.)

Posted in LifeTagged Bulgakov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia 1 Comment on 55, or 11×5

January 2024 Books and Reading Notes

2024-02-012024-02-01 John Winkelman

After almost two months, I finally finished Demons, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Wow, was that a slog. A good slog, but a slog nonetheless. Now on to fifteen or twenty shorter, easier reads before attempting something arduous.

Almost all of the books I acquired in January were purchased at, or in anticipation of, ConFusion 2024.

Acquisitions

new Books and Reading Material in the Month of January, 2024

  1. David Estes and Dyrk Ashton, Kraken Rider Z (Wraithmarked Creative) [2024.01.03] – I have been a fan of Dyrk Ashton’s work for several years. We are Convention friends, and he is a Righteous Dude.
  2. Jean Davis, Frayed (self-published) [2024.01.19] – purchased from Davis at ConFusion 2024.
  3. Michael J. DeLuca, Night Roll (Stelliform Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  4. Reckoning: Creativity and Coronavirus (Reckoning Press) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  5. Reckoning #6 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  6. Reckoning #7 [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Reckoning Press at ConFusion 2024.
  7. Zack Be (editor), Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology (Calendar of Fools, LLC) [2024.01.20] – Purchased from Storm Humbert during a group signing at ConFusion 2024.
  8. Tamsyn Muir, Nona the Ninth [2024.01.21] – Purchased at ConFusion 2024.
  9. Lesley Connor and Jason Sizemore (editors), Robotic Ambitions (Apex Book Company) [2024.01.21] – Reward for a Kickstarter campaign run by Apex.

Reading List

Books I read in January 2024

Books

  1. Fyodor Dostoevsky (Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear, translators), Demons [2024.01.26]
  2. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2023.01.29]
  3. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2023.01.30]

Short Prose

  1. Jim C. Hines, “The Girls From the Hood” (Patreon post) [2024.01.15]
  2. Rosamund Lannin, “The Lake House”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.26]
  3. Jim C. Hines, “Coyote Cave” (Patreon post) [2024.01.28]
  4. Eliza Langhans, “A Giants’ Heart”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  5. D. A. Xiaolin Spires, “Fresh and Imminent Taste of Cucumbers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  6. Anthony Ha, “Late Train”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  7. Chloe N. Clark, “Jumpers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  8. Nicole Kimberling, “Sugar-Salt Time: A Love Story”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  9. Felix Kent, “Dynastic Arrangements of the Habsburgs, Washakie Branch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.28]
  10. Eric Darby, “The Parking Witch”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  11. Gavin J. Grant, “Possum, Not Playing”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  12. Jordan Taylor, “Strange Engines”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  13. Audrey R. Hollis, “How to Be Afraid”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #39 [2024.01.29]
  14. Frances Rowat, “Ink, and Breath, and Spring”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  15. Fred Nadis, “The Giant Jew”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  16. Amber Burke, “In Pictures”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  17. T.S. McAdams, “Duck Circles”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.29]
  18. Margo Lanagan, “More Information to Help You Get to Rookwood”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  19. Mary Cool, “The Fruit That Bears the Flowers”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  20. Lisa Martin, “Seat Belt On, Falling”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  21. Jeff Benz, “The Stone People”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  22. Nicole Kimberling, “We Should See Less of Each Other”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
  23. Michael Byers, “Sibling Rivalry”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #40 [2024.01.30]
Posted in Book ListTagged Apex Book Company, ConFusion, ConFusion 2024, David Estes, Dyrk Ashton, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jean Davis, Jim C. Hines, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Michael J. DeLuca, Reckoning, Storm Michael Humbert, Tamsyn Muir, Wraithmarked Creative comment on January 2024 Books and Reading Notes

Weekly Round-up, January 27, 2024

2024-01-272024-01-27 John Winkelman

After the chaotic beginning to 2024, this past week felt like the real start to the new year.

Reading

I finally, after 57 days, finished Dostoevsky’s Demons. It was a bit of a slog for the first half but I powered through. For reference, I read The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment each in less than 30 days, and they are both longer than Demons. I think Dostoevsky’s craft was more polished with the latter two, and the stories more focused.

Also, Demons leaned more into the lives of the Russian gentry and social climbers, whose lives revolve around giving the best impressions at social gatherings. In other words, wankers. And wankers, in any culture, in any time period, don’t always make for the most entertaining subjects.

With Demons complete I am looking for a “cool down” novel. Something more current, faster paced, and, well shorter. At the moment I am reading one of my old issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, published by Small Beer Press. It’s good to read something which can be completed in a couple of hours, rather than a couple of months.

Writing

Not a lot, though I am in the process of indexing (and re-indexing) my unpublished short stories, so I can set up a schedule of editing to try to knock some of them in shape for submission by the end of the year. To that end, I have signed up for the Critique Circle, on the advice of my friend the author Jean Davis.

Writing Prompt

Subject: Revenge, Reincarnation
Setting: Boardroom
Genre: Dystopian

Interesting Links

  • Predators and Prey: Subverting Liberal and Populist Institutions
  • Setting the Record Straight: Weaponizing Antisemitism to Cancel Academic Free Speech
Posted in LifeTagged Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Small Beer Press comment on Weekly Round-up, January 27, 2024

Weekly Round-up, January 13, 2024

2024-01-132024-01-13 John Winkelman

Constant pain is a great tool for focusing one’s attention. If only that attention could be focused anywhere other than the constant pain.

I spent most of the past two weeks in thrall to a tooth which first appeared to be tender, then cracked, then infected, and finally diagnosed as both split in half and infected. My dentist removed the tooth three days ago, and my life was thereby much improved.

The pain was more manageable than the previous impacted molar back in 2008, but there was nothing about the experience which was at all pleasant.

So 2024 is starting out kind of…unpredictably.

In order to distract myself from the chronic pain of life, I have several things in the works for 2024:

First, Master Lee’s School of Tai Chi Praying Mantis Kung Fu and Tai Chi Jeung.

Second, after several years of volunteering, I am now part of the Convention Committee for the ConFusion Science Fiction Convention. For the 2024 iteration, “Labyrinth of ConFusion”, I will be the Head of Operations, assisted by past Ops people as I settle into the role.

Third, I am part of the newly-formed Grand River Poetry Collective, which is dedicated to publishing Grand Rapids poets. As we get up and running I will be posting many and frequent updates.

Reading

Still working my way through Dostoevsky’s Demons.

Writing

I got nuthin’.

The writing prompt for the next week is:

Subject: Empire, Economics
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Procedural

Interesting Links

  • Author Chuck Tingle was invited, then dis-invited, and then re-invited, to attend the Texas Library Association annual conference. At the moment it is not certain if Dr. Tingle will be attending the event.
  • A fun, link-filled thread over at Metafilter, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dungeons and Dragons.
Posted in LifeTagged ConFusion, ConFusion 2024, Fyodor Dostoevsky, poetry, writing comment on Weekly Round-up, January 13, 2024

Weekly Round-up, December 9, 2023

2023-12-092023-12-09 John Winkelman

Hello. This is me trying to get back into the habit of weekly blog posts about goings-on in my life. We will see how long it lasts, and how my intentions endure the slings and arrows of *gestures at everything*.

***

I have been thinking about Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, and also about Frank Wilhoit’s quote about capitalism.

Ashby’s law states, more or less, that in any control system, the control apparatus must be able to account for (e.g. be as complex as) all possible variants in the system being controlled.

Wilhoit’s quote is as follows: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”

There is some resonance between these ideas which I have been exploring in my (almost non-existent) downtime, and I will post updates to these thoughts as they crystalize.

***

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, and I have logged my eighth win out of eleven attempts, I feel like I have the energy to continue writing. In past years that has not been the case for many and varied reasons, but this year, though I am well into my mid fifties, I have energy reserves which were simply not there in years past. So I will take advantage of that.

Writing, be it creative, work-related, keeping a journal, or blogging, is a habit which requires practice and maintenance. And when pulling out of a slump, there are two parts to restarting the practice: getting out of the habit of not doing the thing, and getting into the habit of doing the thing.

***

Currently reading: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Fields of Castile by Antonio Machado, Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

***

The writing prompt for the past week was:

Subject: Undead, Addiction
Setting: Ship
Genre: Magic Realism

I didn’t do much with this one, other than to come up with a few interesting scenarios during my walks to and from work.

The writing prompt for the next week is:

Subject: Addiction, Artificial Intelligence
Setting: Border Town
Genre: War

***

Random links for the week:

  • Literary Fight Club: On the Great Poets’ Brawl of ‘68 (LitHub) – This would have been a fun party to attend.
  • Gulag Archipelago: Fifty Years After The ‘Bomb’ That Exploded Lies Of Soviet Rule, Solzhenitsyn’s Son Recalls Book’s Impact (Radio Free Europe) – I haven’t yet got far in The Gulag Archipelago, but I did read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and it has stuck with me for over 30 years.
  • The Bond villain compliance strategy (Bits About Money) – This is why financial crimes should be treated as violent crimes. De facto, the wealthier the criminal, the more severe the punishment should be.
  • The Etymologies of Capital, Capitalist, and Capitalism: A Brief Sketch (Naked Capitalism) – I like that “capitalist” and “decapitate” share the same etymological roots
  • Pressley, Welch introduce legislation to guarantee right to vote for people with felonies on record (Associated Press) – I’m all for this. All citizens should be allowed to vote in any election in any district of which they are constituents. This right must not be limited in any way. Not by photo ID requirements (which is to say, poll tax), gerrymandering,  limited access to voting locations, limited location hours, or any of the other ridiculous barriers to democracy which conservatives have put in place, and continue to put in place, for decades. Even the slightest limit or restriction on the voting rights of any American citizen is nothing less than full-on, deliberate fascism.
  • Censoring Imagination: Why Prisons Ban Fantasy and Science Fiction (LitHub) – The simple answer is, of course, that the cruelty is the point. When it comes to book bans in prisons the goal, like banning books in schools and universities, is to create an under-educated underclass in a state of permanent precarity. This plus the decades and centuries of purposefully and openly racist carceral policies in the USA demonstrate that the American version of conservatism is nothing more than aristocracy and feudalism with the serial numbers filed off.
  • Pluralistic: “If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing” (Cory Doctorow) – Exactly what it says on the tin.

 

 

Posted in LifeTagged Antonio Machado, Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety, Frank Wilhoit, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Min Jin Lee, NaNoWriMo, reading, writing comment on Weekly Round-up, December 9, 2023

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