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Reading: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein recommended to me many times by many people. I am mostly a bit bemused. Heinlein is Heinlein and his writing in 1966 is, frankly, a lot less eye-rolly than much else from the era. What puzzles me somewhat is that the book seems to consist mostly of the narrator, or his friend the Prof, explaining How the World Works. This is fair enough, a lot of SF, and a lot of Heilein is in part a political manifesto, it's just that there doesn't seem to be a lot more to this and, given one aspect of How the World Works is an assumption that humanity placed in a sufficiently harsh environment with sufficiently few actual laws will naturally develop into a terribly polite society in which people respect each other, each other's property and person and, assuming there are few enough women, treat said women particularly well seems, well, not quite as elder statesman imparting wisdom as the author intends. In fact, Heinlein's Luna colony makes me think mostly of Tolkien's shire only without the nostalgic focus, the vague assumption of sufficient resource to go around, and the implicit classism to provide some kind of legal structure.

Listening: Miscellaneous podcasts as usual - though I have started to listen to series of public lectures hosted by the LSE. It admirably oscillates between left and right wing speakers but so far I have found speakers from both sides rather irritatingly inclined to construct straw men, prefer a bon mot over an actual point, and to argue somewhat from conclusion back to evidence rather than vice versa.

Watching: B. has discovered a genre of Japanese amine which mostly involves someone cooking a dish, someone else eating it and experiencing the joy of the wonderful flavours and... well that's about it. It is remarkably relaxing to watch.

Crossposts: https://louisedennis.livejournal.com/455853.html

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liadt

I don't think I'll be watching 'Food Wars' either by the sounds of it!

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purplecat

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