Heroic Literature and the Flu

I've been fighting the flu for a few days. For some reason, the experience made me realize a key difference between Arthurian and most other heroic fictions. If you read Robert E. Howard, for example, you will find his heroes suffering wounds, being enslaved, being thrown into dungeons to die, even being crucified; but they don't seem to get sick or suffer long periods of weakness from injury. 

Sir Thomas Malory's knights, by contrast, very often undergo periods of severe injury or illness that cause them to lose their prowess for a time. The story of Elaine of Astolat is driven by Lancelot getting seriously injured and needing to spend time in her care in order to recover. Often knights who are injured are cared for by religious men who were themselves formerly knights. It is a more complete picture of what a life of risk and hardship entails, and identifies ways in which good things can come out of such periods. (In Elaine's case, a very good thing might have happened if only Lancelot had not been so set upon Guinevere; instead it is of course a tragedy.) 

Often I have mused on how non-Arthurian fairy tales are very good models for how to live life up until adulthood; once you have married, you're just supposed to live 'happily ever after.' (Chesterton thought so too; two chapters of Orthodoxy are on the subject of fairy stories as a model for life.) Only the Arthurian stories seem to provide much help for those who aren't still coming of age, but are grown men expected to deal with the hardships and temptations of life. 

Hopefully I'll be mostly better in another day or two. Once I am, I'm hoping to start the winter reading/commentary that we usually do here. I think this year I will not do a philosophical work but one allied to philosophy: Xenophon's Anabasis, a heroic story that involves quite a bit of hardship and suffering. Xenophon was an Athenian who didn't really get along with the leadership of Athens, partly because of his friendship with Socrates, and partly because he preferred Sparta's ideals and ways. Anabasis is the story of his leadership of a group of Greek mercenaries, "The Ten Thousand," as they survive a losing battle in Persia and then have to walk all the way back to Greece. 

If any of you wish to join me, I'll hopefully be starting that series soon. (UPDATE: I will be reading the Rex Warner translation, because I have it on hand. The Gutenberg translation is by E. J. Chinnock. I doubt the differences will be major, but if we run into anything confusing the Greek is available to check which translation was most accurate.)

A young death

My young nephew, not quite 40, died suddenly this week. It was a shock and yet not completely unexpected, given the complicated state of his mental and physical health. He was struck down savagely by bipolar disease at the age of 18, a blow that was followed by some of the predictable physical catastrophes that strike people given to passing out in snowdrifts, as well as bolts from the blue like cancer. At his memorial service this Saturday in Philadelphia, I will read (or have someone read for me) this elegy:

I have an affectionate but long-distance perspective to offer on our departed loved one, Luke.

He would call or text occasionally, to offer a cheerful greeting or update, or sometimes to ask very simply and directly for help. I was never present for the crisis times and can only imagine how devastating they were. The picture his life presented to me was of a young man whose life was upended by illness, and who tried diligently for 20 years to build a nest in a hurricane. He never gave up his search for a loving home and meaningful work, and what more does any of us ever want?

God rest you, my young nephew: your illness and trouble are over now.

Bounty Hunting

You've got to set priorities in this kind of work. Is it really worth it?

It's not. I did it for a while in Savannah going on thirty years ago, and it was not at all worth it.

I do have a friend who is a bounty hunter currently though. She's the wife of the guy I go to for motorcycle repairs when it's more than I can handle. Locally the bounty hunting is run through the school board(!). It's a little complicated, but somehow bail bonds turned out to be a worthwhile investment for them. 

Happy Songs

James linked a piece by Sippican Cottage on happy songs. (Thanks to Tex, I knew of them from the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys). He warns that "The possibility of a thousand-way tie is more likely than a Top Ten list."

Fair enough! But it strikes me as odd that there are no bluegrass songs on the list. It's the happiest music of all!

Well, as long as you don't pay close attention to the words.

Simplicity in Cooking

I gather from our fantasy movies that are roughly Medieval in setting that people think the Medievals were inclined to nothing but roasted meat -- spiced with salt if anything -- bread and beer. Fancy people preferred wine, but otherwise just ate better versions of the same thing: salt and pepper, white bread instead of brown. It was a simple time, rustic and basic.

Yet in fact: 

...it is certainly quite odd by modern culinary lights to cook a capon in red wine, cut it up, and then fry the pieces before serving them with the cooking broth reduced to a sauce flavored with spices, thickened with the liver and white meat pounded into a paste and with powdered almonds. Like other similar dishes, this one (Brouet of Capon, recipe 35) is a harmonious composition, where the flavor and texture of the meat itself are mingled with the aroma and savor of a vivid sauce, making a unified impression as the dish gives the tongue a momentary surprise with its supple crispness.... We confess that we have lost both the desire for such culinary intricacy and the very notion of it, and that it is no longer of interest. Yet as historians... it is our job to highlight the gap between today's gastronomic system and that which informed medieval culinary practices. 

-Redon, Sabban & Serventi, trans. Edward Schneider, The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 22.

The use of advanced pre-cooking techniques to create flavor and differentiate texture is not wholly lost. When describing how to create a venison braise, for example, I advised browning the meat, then the vegetables in the grease used to brown the meat, then assembling them together and braising them to get a richer flavor than you would get from just putting it all in the pot with liquid alone. There are still some modern recipes with pre-cooking stages, some of which use fire as did the Medieval ones.

It is much less common, though. We tend to give our recipes variety by changing the ingredients instead: for lunch we will have venison, last night roast beef, perhaps chicken for dinner. At a time when there was less variety of ingredients and more time to devote to the exercise of cooking in the kitchen, these more sophisticated approaches made more sense. 

In any case our ancestors were much different from how we often imagine them as a culture. They were smarter, more sophisticated, and rather wiser than we often give them credit for having been. 

Shuttering FEMA

In NC, our new President suggests shuttering FEMA and just sending money to the states as necessary. 

That's only a very slight change from what is done now. For the most part, local responders are the front line -- we were the ones out the morning of Helene and for weeks afterwards -- with the state stepping in to provide support that the local organizations don't have. (For example, we have Swiftwater teams and rescuers -- I am one myself -- but the state has Swiftwater teams that have more equipment than we do locally, especially including boats.) The State governor declares a state of emergency, and that opens up a big funding window for local responders as well as increased ability for the National Guard to support us. FEMA's chief role is to coordinate providing additional Federal funding, and occasionally to provide personnel that mostly help fill out forms and verify the details so that money can flow. 

Their direct aid provision role is quite limited; I never once saw a FEMA employee doing anything, although I've heard there were some teams triaged to other areas. Other states, though, will also send resources across state borders to help (as in California now, where fire departments have deployed strike teams from as far away as, yes, North Carolina in support of local crews).

In general I'm always in favor of closing down parts of the Federal government, or government in general. Making things voluntary whenever we can, privatizing when we can't rely on volunteer resources alone, localizing when we can't privatize, driving things down to the lowest possible level is always what I like to see. Therefore, instinctively I like this idea.

It would require some combination of cutting red tape on all those forms and verification processes, and/or funding state/local employees to do the same stuff where tape can't get cut.

"As Equals"

Today the NYT ethicist asks the question, "What's the rule about looking at women in public?"

Glancing at someone in a public place is always permissible; there’s often a fleeting moment of mutual acknowledgment — perhaps a slight nod or smile — before both parties look away. This momentary connection is part of how we experience our shared social world. No doubt if you find the person attractive, your glance may well linger involuntarily for a moment. But prolonging that moment further can cross a line. We can’t control our initial notice of others; we can control our subsequent choices. I suspect your ‘‘quick’’ glance wasn’t so quick.

In public settings, it’s generally intrusive to display sexual interest. That it may sometimes be welcomed doesn’t change the situation. Yes, a brief friendly glance that produces a smile and a direct reciprocating look can mean you’re being invited to maintain eye contact. But if there’s any doubt, the unease caused by leering is bad enough that you should err on the side of averting your gaze. In your case, there normally should be doubt. Being aware of whatever shortcomings we may have in the skills of everyday life can guide us toward better practices. Just as people who know they have a poor sense of direction learn to check maps more often, someone who struggles to read social signals around looking would do well by being reserved and not risk making others uncomfortable. It’s a matter of taking the trouble to do what, for you, doesn’t come naturally, and adopting habits that respect everyone’s dignity.

When it comes to men looking at women, in particular, there’s a broader social context in which women often experience unwanted attention or feel unsafe. The sexual etiquette I’ve described allows men and women to enjoy public spaces as equals. 

Something weird is going on with these definitions of  'equality.' The other day we were talking about an assumption that women would need rights men don't have in order to have equality. Here we've got a rule that applies to men only -- though especially to men who 'have trouble reading social signals,' meaning unequally even among men -- which somehow make men and women 'equals' in public spaces.

In Iraq we were given similar advice: not to look at or acknowledge the presence of women at all. That was only a stronger version of this advice -- to err on the side of caution by looking away -- but it certainly wasn't effective at creating a more equal society. I gather that the ethicist thinks this is going to work better because the intent is now to avoid offending the women, as opposed to avoid creating an offense to which their male 'guardians' would be obligated to respond. It's nevertheless strange that 'the rule' in New York City, of all places, should so closely resemble the rules in Baghdad or Kuwait City.

Loving Big Brother

I was reminded of the haunting close to 1984 when reading this piece from the NYT about a woman who rejected the Presidential pardon she was given. 

A retired drug and alcohol counselor who lives in Boise, Idaho, she pleaded guilty in January 2022 to a misdemeanor offense for entering the Capitol during the riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison and three years of probation.

She said she did not want a pardon.

“Absolutely not,” Ms. Hemphill said in an interview on Wednesday. “It’s an insult to the Capitol Police, to the rule of law and to the nation. If I accept a pardon, I’m continuing their propaganda, their gaslighting and all their falsehoods they’re putting out there about Jan. 6.”

Ms. Hemphill, 71, who was called “MAGA Granny” in some news headlines, has said that she no longer supports Mr. Trump or believes his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. She said that a therapist had helped change her view of the attack by telling her she was “not a victim of Jan. 6; I was a volunteer.”

I'm not sure how fair my reaction is. On the one hand some of what happened on January 6th that year was genuinely bad and/or foolish behavior, for which it would be legitimate to feel sorry on reflection. One could consider this exactly the sort of rehabilitation that the system is supposed to produce (even if it rarely does).

On the other hand, the prosecutorial abuses we are now seeing come to light are stunning, fully enabled by DC judges and DC juries that are so hostile to Republicans, especially Trump supporters, that it calls into question whether it is even possible to hold a fair trial in that venue. The treatment of the prisoners, both before and after trial, is horrifying to see in America. Kurt Schlicter, a lawyer in Texas, has been making the argument that none of the trials were fair enough to be considered valid by our usual standards.

She got off fairly light, probably due to her age and sex, which is also arguably unfair but at least rationally defensible. I can see how she might want to put it all behind her; and her willingness to love big brother got her a glowing NYT profile, for whatever that's worth. I worry more about the role of therapy in bringing about this transformation than I do about the prison abuses, perhaps. The abused prisoner at least still maintains mental clarity about who is using power to dominate whom; perhaps my concern with that independence of thought is misplaced. Maybe it's health and not Stockholm syndrome encouraged and deepened by 'therapy' that she is displaying here. 

Perhaps.

Forgiveness

My Gutenberg project this week has been a biography of George M. MacDonald by his son Greville MacDonald. I've never been able to read the father's books, though I wanted to like them upon reading C.S. Lewis's raptures about "Lilith" and other stories. Lewis thought highly enough of MacDonald to make him the central teacher in "The Great Divorce," a favorite of mine. I'm going to try again with "The Princess and the Goblin." In the meantime, here is an excerpt from one of MacDonald's many letters to his wife, which made me see why Lewis was so devoted to the man:

I was preaching last Sunday about forgiveness, and I felt that not to forgive was just to send one to the hell of our little universe. Not to be forgiven and taken in by any human heart is the worst mishap that can befall. May I be taught a lesson hard to learn. You do not need it so deeply as I do--you only break out in thunder and lightning! I have a cold smile deep in my heart like a moth-eaten hole, when I feel really wronged....

Bambi to Burger

My mother bought us a quality meat grinder for Christmas that I’m finally getting to use tonight. It’s a real upgrade. If you are thinking about butchering your own venison or other game, or just want to buy in bulk and save on the butcher bill, I recommend it. 

Caption Contest

 There are a few images that come to mind.

"Angel Eyes"

"Mortal Kombat"

Perhaps some of you have clever thoughts, though? 

Model 1902

There's been a lot of talk about the dancing with 'a military sword' at the Inaugural ball. Since some of the regulars here are enthusiasts of the blade, I thought it worth pointing out that it was specifically a M1902 saber, currently in use by both the Army and the Air Force for all purposes for which swords are required. 

The Marine Corps uses two different swords, one for NCOs and another for officers. Vance just accepted one of the Army swords for the occasion, but he is entitled to his own on occasions when he might still wear the dress uniform. He elected civilian attire for this National Holiday as is appropriate for a Vice President. I have heard that NCOs in the Army can sometimes use the 1840 sword, but I have never seen it done.

“Ph.D.-Level”

Noticing this story about “Ph.D.-Level” AI, I have to assume that the phrase is similar to “Milspec.” I mean that it sounds more impressive the less you know about what it actually entails. 

See how effective faculty meetings are at achieving basic goals for a while, or spend time with actual military-spec equipment and supplies, and you get a different perspective. 

Sweeping Clemency

Gee, this might be shocking except that just earlier today…

But now it really isn’t, is it?

Scandalous Clemency

The last hours of the outgoing administration involved scandalous exercises of the pardon power. They are themselves demonstrations of the wickedness of the departing order. I suspect that there will be significant investigations into everyone pardoned, since there are crucial truths to uncover around each of them and they cannot now claim 5th Amendment protections. 

One defensible exercise was the clemency granted to Leonard Peltier. His conviction was always dubious, based on the testimony of the same FBI that was engaged in the COINTELPRO operations against the recently-mentioned MLK. The FBI hasn't just been bad in the last few years; this wannabe secret police has been bad since its foundation. Gun battles with them ought to be considered gently by juries, under the assumption that they probably deserved whatever resistance they provoked. Instead he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and, eligible for parole since 1993, has been kept in harsh conditions amid regular beatings likely encouraged by the prison guards. 

Biden was typically cowardly here, not pardoning the one character on his list who might have merited a pardon. He just gave him clemency to "lifetime house arrest." What a disgrace.

UPDATE: More on Leonard Peltier’s case. 

A Big Day

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. He was a complex figure, much more than his simplified hagiography makes out, but he definitely did some good things as well as whatever bad things he may have done. 

In Mississippi and Alabama, it's also Robert E. Lee Day. Exactly the same sentence applies to that gentleman as to the one previously mentioned.

Also there's some other stuff going on.

It's still too cold here. 7 degrees this morning, windchill according to the National Weather Service down to twenty below. 

Tribute to a Shared Birthday

 

Whitey Morgan & the 78s

What took me to Asheville was that a great Outlaw Country band was playing at the local music hall. Tonight they’re playing in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium. I don’t know why they’d come through this area to get there: I-40 is closed, and the route to Tennessee is far harder from Western North Carolina than once. 

The band has been recording and touring for 15 years now, and they’ve really matured in the last few. Their sound has deepened and sophisticated. I’ve heard that they spent some time with the last of the Waylors while Waylon’s old band was still alive, and learned how to make the rich sound that that band used to make in the ‘70s. Whether that’s true or not, they’ve now had time to fully integrate their approach. They really sounded good last night. 

They also had some kind words for the audience coming out to see them during such a hard time, and played multiple encore songs. 

In spite of the reputation of Outlaw acts and the promotional material promising a ‘rowdy’ show, it was a friendly crowd. A guy in a cowboy hat offered to buy me a beer. I thanked him and said I was ok. An hour or so later I walked to the bar, and another guy insisted on buying me a beer. Everyone was happy and there was no unpleasantness at all. 

The ERA and Abortion

Several of the articles about Biden’s (or more likely some junior Twitter staffer’s) declaration on the ERA held that it might somehow grant women a right to abortion. I have been trying to understand how this argument is supposed to work. 

My reproductive right (singular) as a man is that I have the right not to engender a pregnancy by forgoing sex. That’s the only right I have: no one may legally force me to breed against my will. Equality with that is already the law. 

As far as abortions go, I have no rights whatsoever. I have no right to demand one, should I engender a child I don’t want; I have no right to refuse one, should a child whom I desperately want be in danger of abortion from his mother. Women thinking the ERA will grant them a right to abortion surely don’t want equality with me on these points. Equality would mean no rights at all. 

Men can’t even terminate their legal duty to financially support an unwanted pregnancy, or the 18 years that follow. (Nor do I wish for them to do so; one ought to care for one’s children.) 

Here I finally found Senator Gillibrand making her version of the argument. 

“It’s the clearest pathway to challenge Dobbs’ holding that women in their reproductive years have no right to privacy, but arguably, men do,” she told POLITICO, referencing the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

There’s no male right to privacy in a court case alleging paternity. A man can’t tell the court that it’s none of their business if he fathered the child or not. Now in many states, a mother can abandon her child at certain places (often including fire departments) and be freed of all responsibility; every state has some version of this “safe haven” law. This does not apply to fathers who wish to be freed of their children.

It’s a little alarming that the main right this group seems to want is the right to kill unwanted children. However, I would like at least for everyone to understand that there is no parallel right being enjoyed by men. Equality with us means substantially fewer rights than women currently enjoy. 

Für Elise

Elise asked me for names of charity organizations still helping in western NC. I visited Asheville and Swannanoah and checked around. Most of the local churches did a big thing before Christmas, and are currently paused because they got hit by the hurricane too. However, Baptists on Mission still has a big operation going here. 

Meanwhile, Savage Freedoms is the group that was operating out of the Harley Dealer running helicopter operations. They are the go-to local group. 

That Harley dealer just reopened after 12 weeks of mud removal and repair. I went by there to ask the question about who was leading operations. SF is led by one of their customers, former Special Forces, and mostly comprises their customer base. 

Great people. They gave us a tour of everything after I explained that we were Jackson County firefighters who were looking for ways to help them. They have made a space for a sister shop from Chimney Rock, which was completely destroyed, on their back porch enclosure. I bought some stuff from them. 

Those seem to be the top two right now. 

Asheville is in tough shape. Swannanoah is worse. Not only the River Arts District but also the Biltmore village was totally destroyed. Giant piles of debris and mud everywhere. Most of the roads are open now, even if there’s no longer anything to service, but some near the river still aren’t. 

Almost all the fast food places are closed because of the water boiling order. Few restaurants are open except the ones with real kitchens so they can just boil water. Lots of businesses are badly damaged and may never reopen.