A critic once said of A Jest of God that Rachel really wasn’t worth writing about because she was no more interesting than anybody you might sit next to in the streetcar. And I thought that doesn’t say much about the book but it says a lot about that critic. (- Margaret Laurence) It’s interesting […]
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A Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Interview with Margaret Laurence, Part I
In a sense writing a novel is a sort of discovery . You know more or less where you’re headed but everything could change in the doing of it. And, you know, you can be very surprised. (- Margaret Laurence) This video interview dates from 1966 when Margaret Laurence was 40 years old and on […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: authors # 4 on happiest jobs list
Why were these jobs with better pay and higher social status less likely to produce happiness? Todd May writing in the New York Times argues that “A meaningful life must, in some sense then, feel worthwhile. The person living the life must be engaged by it. via The Ten Happiest Jobs – Forbes. Fascinating list: […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: New Blog!
Writers have so many ways of procrastinating. But this one is constructive and has a higher purpose…seriously. I was inspired by the bookclub Slaves of Golconda. When I was asked to suggest a few books for our next reading, I thought it would be fun and interesting to come up with a list of recent, […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Yesterday I saw a 3D movie and it was gorgeous. This is how it came about. My dear sister-in-law and her boyfriend were intending to take my kids to Canada’s Wonderland on Saturday but changed their plans due to an uncertain weather forecast. As it turned out, Saturday was a beautiful day, albeit warm, a […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: A Reading Find: The Real Shangri-la
The other day, A and I were talking about our kids. One thing led to another as it does, and soon we were talking about patriarchy and matriarchy. A, who has an encyclopedic knowledge (his nickname is Mr. Peabody though he is much cuter), told me about the Naxi (also spelled Nakhi) and the sub-group […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: The Mind’s Eye: A Review
“Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes.” Oliver Sacks. Oliver Sacks, now 77, has been a New York neurologist since 1965 and an author for 40 years. The Mind’s Eye is his […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: painting on water
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Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Page 262
I am pushing to get as far as I can today because tomorrow, with temp going up to 34C (that’s 93F) tomorrow, I have no expectations of getting anything done other than lying in front of a fan. I’ve been learning to be more careful and punctilious in getting characters from point A to point […]
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Page 125
That’s where I’m at today. It’s hard to take a break in the afternoon to walk, though it’s good to get out of the house. This novel has always had a lot of energy, even through all the years, but now there is so much momentum it’s hard to pull away. I made falaffel sandwiches […]
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Continue readingredjenny: Early Farmers in the Americas – Farming because they wanted to, not because they had to
This is an interesting article, especially for me, with my interest in indigenous precolumbian agriculture in the Americas.
Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy “pioneer” crops, according to new evidence of the first farming in eastern North America.
Because the area appears to have been well stocked with wild food sources, the discovery may rewrite some beliefs about what led people to start farming on the continent, scientists say.
Rather than turning to farming as a matter of survival, the so-called Riverton people may have been exercising “free will” and engaging in a bit of gastronomic innovation, archaeologists say.
This does not surprise me in the least. We always assume ‘prehistoric’ peoples started farming because they had to, as a survival technique, but we don’t ever stop to think that they might be just like us, inventing new things simply because they want to. Did we need the iPod or the car? Was our survival significantly enhanced because of either of them? We grow later to think we can’t live without electricity, flush toilets, and the internet, because they make our lives easier or more enjoyable.
Continue readingAround the world and throughout ancient history, people switched from mainly hunting and gathering to farming as a way to cope with environmental stresses, such as drought—or so the conventional wisdom says.
But the new research “really challenges the whole idea of humans domesticating plants and animals in response to an external stress [and] makes a strong case for almost the polar opposite,” said lead study author Bruce Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Before they began farming, the Riverton people lived among bountiful river valleys and lakes, apparently eating a healthy and diverse diet of nuts, white-tailed deer, fish, and shellfish, the study says.
[…]
But that doesn’t mean farming didn’t give the Riverton culture a practical advantage: In addition to their normal fare, the people may have relied on the crops as a stable source of food—insurance against shortages of wild food sources..
redjenny: Early Farmers in the Americas – Farming because they wanted to, not because they had to
This is an interesting article, especially for me, with my interest in indigenous precolumbian agriculture in the Americas. Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy “pioneer” crops, according to new evidence of the first farming
Continue readingredjenny: Early Farmers in the Americas – Farming because they wanted to, not because they had to
This is an interesting article, especially for me, with my interest in indigenous precolumbian agriculture in the Americas. Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy “pioneer” crops, according to new evidence of the first farming
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read.
Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises:
1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.
2 – It is neither possible, nor desirable, to return to a pre-civilized state of being.
3 – It is therefore desirable to imagine and enact a post-civilized culture.
I certainly don’t agree with the whole thing but I do like its spirit: “We are for an ecologically-focused green anarchism and we are for mutual aid, free association, and self-determination.”
Download it here (small PDF file), or try Post-Civ!, a deeper exploration for more detail.
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read. Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises: 1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.2 – It
Continue readingredjenny: Post-Civilization
Post-Civ! A brief philosophical and political introduction to the concept of post-civilization is an interesting read. Post-civilized thought is based on three simple premises: 1 – This civilization is, from its foundation, unsustainable. It probably cannot be salvaged, and, what’s more, it would be undesirable to do so.2 – It
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