Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog

Is that:

A. A flock of birds

B.A giant shrubbery or forest of stunted trees

C. A host of warriors armed with spears?

Guesses in the comments!

This Intro has now officially out-stayed its welcome - luckily only 7p to go.

Mr. "Gary Stu" Knightly?

"Basilica" of Pallazo della Regione, Vicenza: a two storey loggia with Roman influence so obvious even I could recognise it without being told. Not completed until nearly four decades after Palladio's death. Many of the motifs and techniques of Georgian Bath architecture can be seen just in the buildings presented so far. If you had any doubt the term "Palladian" was appropriate, this book would remove it rapidly.

And the scales fall from Emma's eyes...

A discrepancy between Palladio's design for one of his manor houses and contemporary descriptions of the actual building: was the design what Palladio originally planned but never finished? Lots of these houses were ambitious projects that were never completed because of a financial shortfall.

Hmmm - how will this Frank stir things up? Assuming he can escape his relatives long enough to actually make an appearance?

PKD - one of the most inventive SF authors ever and a prolific writer of novels and short stories. Unfortunately some of these stories have become predictable because since they were written the ideas have been recycled too many times. Others are unintentionally amusing as 1950s gender roles survive unchanged several centuries into the future - but people will say the equivalent about much contemporary SF in 70 years from now, too. Although some of the stories are conventional (e.g. consequences of nuclear war) Dick, like Bradbury, also wrote a different kind of SF from most of his contemporaries. Not interested in pulp adventure stories or stories that turn on some application of science, Dick instead starts to question identity and reality. These themes began in this volume (1950s) and came to dominate later. Of course, this is a new viewpoint on the age-old question of what it is to be human? An angle that also was adopted and developed into a staple SF theme by those who came after.

Which is all to say PKD was a pioneer in many ways and I should read more.

If Shakespeare made up so many words, how did anybody understand them?

Emma is still blind to the truth, despite Knightley's blunt warning.

Tackles head on the fact that the era required playwrights to cater to the widest possible audience, from illeterate, poor commoners to the highest nobility and royalty - suggests Shakespeare was more successful at this than any of his contemporaries. His "small Greek and less Latin" might have been advantageous in this respect.

Imposter: The kind of identity questions that later became the trademark of Alastair Reynolds.

The book seems to be ordered chronologically and one can already trace dramatic improvement in the designs. I've just got to the first facade that I'd recognise as Palladian from my knowledge of Bath architecture.

Interesting point about how the closure of the theatres for 18 years caused an irreparable discontinuity in English drama, with much French influence imported by Charles II upon re-opening. I don't remember this point from the later book. All the mystical mumbo-jumbo allegedly familiar to Shakespeare (on flimsy evidence) is entirely familiar, however.

I am loving the photos, especially the giant double-page ones. (This is another laaaaaarge format book.)

I bought this because the Intro by Hughes is supposed to be a precursor to Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being. Glutton for punishment, right?