It may well be just a combination of poor editing and poor translation that makes me feel that this book I bought on the beachfront is unreadable. Although I’m in favour of everything indie, traditional publishers try to make sure that what reaches our eyes has some integrity, either by refusing to publish something, or by making sure that if they do decide to take a risk with it, it is properly edited.
I don’t doubt that there’s a grain of a good story hiding in this novel, but what’s there makes me shudder and cringe, and then I feel too lazy to go on reading it. Too bad.
The Web of Meaning, by Jeremy Lent
Instead, started to read this.
- Introduction to the Web of Meaning (article)
- Living into an Ecological Civilisation (invidious link)
Links
Alan Rusbridger (former editor of the Guardian): “Ten years ago, Edward Snowden warned us about state spying. Spare a thought for him, and worry about the future” https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/06/edward-snowden-state-spying-guardian-alan-rusbridger
Even now the British government, in hastily revising the laws around official secrecy, is trying to ensure that any editor who behaved as I did 10 years ago would face up to 14 years in prison. Lamentably, the Labour party is not joining a cross-party coalition that would allow whistleblowers and journalists the right to mount a public interest defence.
Operation Chastise – Wikipedia
The times were different, but the present conflict was not the first in which a dam was targeted. In this earlier attack on six German dams, some 1,600 civilians were killed by the flooding (a thousand of them labourers, mainly Soviet, enslaved by Germany). Movies present this as an act of bravery and genius, rather than as a war crime.
The Ukrainians are blaming Russia for the attack on the Khakhovka dam and calling it “ecocide”. But a similar accusation could be leveled at Ukraine, if the “Discord Leaks” report appearing in the Washington Post is correct, according to which Ukraine was responsible for the attack on the Nordsream II pipeline last year.