Quentin's Weeknotes 11/8/20-11/14/20
This week:
Last Saturday, I visited the gorgeous Seven Tubs nature preserve in Pennsylvania with the Minister of Intrigue. It was good to see my old friend again, and the area itself is astonishly beautiful, with waterways that have eroded labyrinthine channels through the rock.- We taught our students in Collectors and Collecting about the American Indian Movement, NAGPRA, and the resistance to the desecration of Native American graves and culture in the late 20th century. We also taught Kleptomania and its origins in the growth of mass consumption and department stores in the late 19th century.
- I finished reading Michael Griffin’s collection of short fiction “The Human Alchemy”, and wrote up a brief review. It was good–stylish, character driven dark fantasy, indebted but not beholden to Lovecraft. At the same time, Griffin really likes exploring his characters inner lives and motivations, and this made for both some long passages that I occasionally wanted to skip, and also a more muted and understated horror than I was expecting. Still, good stuff all around.
- I also finished reading Junji Ito’s horror manga “Dissolving Classroom”. Ito is a master, and though I didn’t like this as well as his masterpiece Uzumaki, it’s a great read.
- On Bandcamp Friday, I bought the album “Ode to Joy” by the Toronto band The Deadly Snakes. I first heard the song “Oh My Bride” on Letterkenny and couldn’t stop thinking about it.
