Fionnáin started reading Lanny by Max Porter
I loved Porter's first book and my partner found this in a second hand shop.
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I arrange things into artworks, including paint, wood, plastic, raspberry pi, people, words, dialogues, arduino, sensors, web tech, light and code.
I use words other people have written to help guide these projects, so I read as often as I can. Most of what I read is literature (fiction) or nonfiction on philosophy, art theory, ethics and technology.
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Fionnáin's books
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Fionnáin finished reading Butter by Polly Barton
Butter by Asako Yuzuki, Polly Barton
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is …
Fionnáin finished reading Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
A finely spun history of clothes and where they come from
Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, Wool: through the stories of …
Fionnáin quoted On revolution by Hannah Arendt (Penguin twentieth-century classics)
About the American, French and Russian revolutions.
What the men of the Russian Revolution had learned from the French Revolution — and this learning constituted almost their entire preparation — was history and not action. They had acquired the skill to play whatever part the great drama of history was going to assign them, and if no other role was available but that of the villain, they were more than willing to accept that part rather than remain outside the play.
— On revolution by Hannah Arendt (Penguin twentieth-century classics) (Page 58)
So much in this seems so relevant to today's politics.
Fionnáin quoted On revolution by Hannah Arendt (Penguin twentieth-century classics)
About the American, French and Russian revolutions.
The word 'revolution' was originally an astronomical term which gained importance in the natural sciences through Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium...If used for the affairs of men on earth, it could only signify that the few known forms of government revolve among the mortals in eternal recurrence and with the same irresistible force which makes the stars follow their preordained paths in the skies. Nothing could be farther removed from the original meaning of the word 'revolution' than the idea of which all revolutionary actors have been possessed and obsessed, namely, that they are agents in a process which spells the definite end of an old order and brings about the birth of a new world.
— On revolution by Hannah Arendt (Penguin twentieth-century classics) (Page 42)
Fionnáin quoted White Mosque by Sofia Samatar
A rich history of wanderers, exiles and intruders. A haunting personal journey through Central Asia. …
Epp gave a sermon called "Shadows and Essence". He used Hebrews 8:5, a text on the shadow of heavenly things. A document, I think, is a shadow of earthly things.
— White Mosque by Sofia Samatar (Page 32)
Claas Epp is a figure from Mennonite history, who led a pilgrimage to Uzbekistan. I love this sentence on the document.
Fionnáin quoted White Mosque by Sofia Samatar
A rich history of wanderers, exiles and intruders. A haunting personal journey through Central Asia. …
When you know the future, everything looks like a sign. The event becomes inevitable. Even when looking backward, the documentarist is less interested in the result than in preserving the details of each passing moment.
— White Mosque by Sofia Samatar (Page 35)
Samatar is reading documents from the 19th Century and then taking the same pilgrimage in the 21st, and makes observations like this.
Fionnáin finished reading The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this passionately persuasive and sharply …
Fionnáin started reading Worn: A People’s History of Clothing by Sofi Thanhauser
A finely spun history of clothes and where they come from
Linen, Cotton, Silk, Synthetics, …
I'm doing a project on lace, and my partner recommended this book for some useful information on the post-industrial use of textile.
Fionnáin quoted The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In …
Content warning CW: animal violence
It has a name, this uniquely vile game: it is called extinction speculation. It's practiced by those who collect Norwegian shark fin, rare bear bladders and rhino horn; men and women with hearts that sing along only with the song of money.
— The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell (Page 165)
On 'extinction speculation', a practice of collecting and storing near-extinct creatures so that you can sell them for exorbitant prices when the extinction happens. This is often speeded along by paying people to kill creatures that are near-extinct.
Fionnáin quoted The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In …
We have not, historically, been good at identifying what is and is not treasure. But that can change. For what is the goldest gold, the truest treasure? Life. It is every living thing; narwhal, spider, pangolin, swift, faulted and shining human.
— The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell (Page 175)
Fionnáin started reading White Mosque by Sofia Samatar
A rich history of wanderers, exiles and intruders. A haunting personal journey through Central Asia. …
I came across this in a couple of places at the same time. I liked the synchronicity so borrowed it from the library on a whim.
Fionnáin finished reading The Power of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Fionnáin started reading The Golden Mole by Katherine Rundell
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In …
A friend printed out a chapter of this book for last year and I loved it. So I guess I started reading it then. But now I have a copy that I bought in a nice bookshop.
Fionnáin finished reading How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us
Infrastructure …