Fascinating, thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:48 PM on May 5, 2008

Independent schools (UK) had one.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 12:02 PM on May 5, 2008

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:26 PM on May 2, 2008

Interesting article, thanks. I'd like to do more reading-as-vacation - I did some last week for the first time for ages, reading a book on early Renaissance Florence, just because I was staying somewhere and it was lying around - and it's good to read about something you're more-or-less unfamiliar with. Beacuse my research is on books I like to read it's easy to get into a state where every book I read is also important for research and I'm taking notes as I go. Not the right state of mind for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:19 AM on April 7, 2008

I currently hate "more than", as in "I'd be more than grateful," "you're more than welcome".
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:47 AM on March 29, 2008

(I should add that this is in the Telegraph, not known for its commitment to feminism.)
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:21 AM on March 9, 2008

Here are links for the first 25. They may be a bit random. I'll try to do the second half later today. I'm trying to finish a paper, but on the other hand am doing so whilst listening to LN's music, so owe MF something.

1 Sculpture of Khafre (Chephren)
2 The Hunts of Ashurbanipal
3 Riace Warriors
4 Terracotta Army - BM exibition, Wikipedia
5 Altar of Zeus from Pergamon
6 Nasca Earthworks
7 Murals,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 9:00 AM on March 9, 2008

Thanks for your link, kirkaracha - I remembered your post, but souldn't track it down as it was longer ago than I thought.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 9:01 AM on March 9, 2008

madamjujujive, I certainly don't want to defend the selection, but I'm not sure that this particular list does demonstrate women as the object of the male gaze. The subjects are quite diverse: male rulers, male hunters, male warriors, gods and giants, landscapes, Buddhas, mythological creatures, a couple, abstract patterns, Mary, male and female saints, cities, plants, prostitutes, a 'plane ... Possibly the closest to the male gaze are the Demoiselles d'Avignon and the Lady with Ermine.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 10:10 AM on March 9, 2008

francesca too, which table did you look at?
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:06 AM on February 8, 2008

Thanks, francesca too, interesting - I'll email them about the source of those data and see what they say.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:58 PM on February 8, 2008

Personally, I'm peeved that the one dude's library we actually almost recovered was some kind of insane lunatic for poetry and (ick!!) the philosophy of poetry. Gag me. I mean, why couldn't he have been Posidonius, or Strabo, or Cicero, or a big fan of Stratonican dynamics, or Erasistratean physiology, or Aristarchan astrophysics? Poetry!? Christ!

Thought this was partly a joke and partly an expression of his own intellectual interests.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:27 PM on January 26, 2008

Seriously, though, are there any romance novels that are worth defending?

Heyer, for a start. Beyond that, as jokeefe says, it gets messy in terms of what you'd want to call - and what writers would want to be known as - romance. It can get circular: romance writers are no good, therefore any writer who could be identified as romantic is either no good or not writing romance.

Daphne du Maurier's another one where critics have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 5:42 PM on January 25, 2008

How to Do Nothing.
How to Be Idle.
NPR programme on How to Be Idle.

And MetaFilter is the 32nd result for "How to do nothing", in this AskMe.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:32 AM on January 1, 2008

I struggle with Pym's novels, partly because they can be unbearably sad, and I don't tend to find the humour others do (failing in me, I know). There are some good online articles about her - Pym's Cup, which starts

Some day an earnest young scholar in pursuit of a suitably narrow research topic may turn to the works of British writer Barbara Pym and compile an exhaustive index of the occasions when pots of tea are brewed and consumed in her 11 novels.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:04 AM on December 28, 2007

Thanks for the tweaks, steef - I'm on a dial-up connection at the moment so they're particularly useful to me. Like the "Distrest Poet" image you picked, too. And what a great place to live, Grangousier - complete with reindeer on the building oppposite.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 12:14 AM on December 23, 2007

I put in a page with The Lady of Shalott on it - the "knite n burgha… lord n dame" say "who iz thiz??! n wtf iz here??!". Fair comment really.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 10:11 AM on November 4, 2007

This AskMe question has some interesting stuff on recovering fundamentalists.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:38 AM on October 27, 2007

Thanks for this, lampshade, unfortunately I too find it fascinating.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 6:34 PM on August 18, 2007

Lovely, COBRA!.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 3:42 PM on August 16, 2007

Interesting, thanks, particularly the interview. I'd like to know more about his mother's work.

"Who would not be a cat of Louis Wain's, capable of creating ten minutes' sunshine in a childish heart?"
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:53 PM on August 12, 2007

grouse?
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:24 PM on May 20, 2007

Ooh, there's never enough filk on MetaFilter. I like Rich Fantasy Lives, lyrics.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:43 PM on April 25, 2007

Thanks for this. I particularly like this scene from 1940 - two women, one man and an enormous egg - and this strange bunny family. Did you see the information about the exhibitions, cards people have sent in etc, on this page?

Found some more Easter postcards here, though I can't see anything about date or country on the site. And here're some rabbits decorating.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:28 AM on April 7, 2007

I was wondering today who buys the copies of the Daily Express that the sandwich van where I work flogs - most of the staff are social workers so presumably not the target audience.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:49 PM on April 4, 2007

Thanks, I liked this, and know some children who will too.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 6:50 AM on March 18, 2007

"a weak and sentimental writer, incapable of writing Frankenstein": made me think of Mr Mybug in Cold Comfort Farm, trying to prove that Branwell Bronte wrote his sisters' novels - "it's male stuff". It would be nice to think Lauritsen's book won't get much attention, but I guess it'll be everywhere for a while.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 10:52 AM on March 14, 2007

I started reading Heyer about six months ago - I'd always thought she was for fourteen year-olds, and having missed her at that point (I think I did read Cousin Kate, which according to her biographer is not typical and somewhat unpleasant) I was an uninformed sneerer. Now I'm that dull kind of convert that keeps recommending her to people. She writes well, the relationships she describes are not unrealistic (for instance, the men who marry for money and then gradually fall... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:22 PM on March 12, 2007

Oh, and thank you for the post.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:33 PM on March 12, 2007

I think I have a couple of spares, infini - I'll have a look and email you. They do tend to get handed around so may be a bit tatty. Thanks for the two mystery recommendations - I'll give them a go, though sounds like they may be a bit dark for me (I am a wuss).
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:53 PM on March 12, 2007

parmanparman - I'd be grateful if you could give a bit more detail about what you say about the law round this and the Guardian having access to school records. I work with child data (in the UK) and there are some really tight rules around sharing things - to the point where local authorities have only recently, as a result of legislation in the Children Bill, been legally able to share identifying information on some groups of children with the DfES. So I'm interested in quite what it means... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:02 PM on March 12, 2007

A chunk of the novel is online. Thanks for the story.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 12:06 PM on March 6, 2007

Thanks. I've no idea what experts might think of this, but I like his writing style.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:26 PM on March 2, 2007

This seems a bit like the symbol sequences they used to (still do?) have in comics and local papers - you'd have to decode the pictures into a saying or proverb. Rebus puzzles, I think they are called (Wikipedia). This page has one of Lewis Carroll's rebus letters - not quite the same as White's, as Carroll doesn't replace every word with a symbol.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:46 PM on February 18, 2007

There's a recent book by Tobias Jones about intentional communities, called Utopian Dreams - here's a Guardian review with the wonderful title "I want to live like commune people" and an interview in the Church Times.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:29 AM on February 12, 2007

Hooray! Thank you.

Here's Monorail Cat having a sitdown. And He's taking pictures again.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:39 PM on February 10, 2007

Reminded me of Larkin's An Arundel Tomb in terms of what appear to be gestures of love from the past and what we make of them.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 3:32 AM on February 7, 2007

Thanks for this - but now I've had to spend twelve minutes (by the BBC clock) looking up How We Used to Live. I still remember - a quarter of a century on - the scene where the child next door died of an illness (scarlet fever?). The original versions don't seem to be available, although there are CD ROMss apparently based on it, and a book.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:19 PM on February 1, 2007

kyrademon: Red hair genes 100,000 years old. There's some discussion of this on the Dawkins website - ""It has been postulated" based on the fact that, like the existence of God, it can't be proven false".
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:31 PM on January 16, 2007

gorgor_balabal - even with the "extremely dangerous ingredient that should be handled with the utmost care"?
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:41 AM on January 14, 2007

+a, sorry gorgor.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:42 AM on January 14, 2007

Fascinating, thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 6:12 AM on December 17, 2006

There's another second-hand Book Club at Loganberry Books - and they'll deliver to the UK, which this one doesn't seem to. Otio, I take your point, but the serendipity that could result from second-hand books you haven't chosen yourself arriving when you aren't expecting them sounds good to me.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 12:08 PM on December 12, 2006

Thanks for this. I knew nothing about him, and was interested.

(I liked the spiritual white pigeon [final link], particularly given the discussion a couple of days ago about pigeons in Surrey).
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 6:27 AM on December 10, 2006

Another example where it's incorrect: I put in What Katy Did and unsuggestions included The Hobbit, Slaughterhouse Five, A Widow for One Year and Grendel, all books I have and think are good. But I do see the point of unsuggesting 13 Stephen Kings in this case.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 11:48 AM on December 5, 2006

I thought infini was a woman - judging by the page linked from her/his profile (now removed I think). I think that makes some difference, but I'm not sure what ...
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 5:56 AM on November 24, 2006

I got Best in Show too (though fair enough, I would quite like to see it). There are a couple of weird questions there - I wonder what they are picking up by asking how long it takes you to fall asleep. And the free-text thing about describing your first love - wonder what words they are expecting and how they analyse them.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 3:14 AM on November 21, 2006

Good point, intermod, thanks for that.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 1:21 AM on November 22, 2006

Just to clarify, the team may be international, but the questionnaire assumes you work in the US (eg - required question "Which state do you live in?").
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 4:09 AM on November 21, 2006

Ah, fair enough LGGNo6, that makes much more sense. Thought it was another of these annoying situations where you don't find out it's not relevant until the end. Have actually been able to answer it more or less honestly now (still couldn't find my job though), thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by paduasoy at 2:59 PM on November 21, 2006