"Our nurses are now the truest practitioners of the healing art. If every Scottish, Welsh and English doctor and surgeon dropped suddenly dead, eighty percent of those admitted to our hospitals would recover if the nursing continued."
Probably some truth to that.
"I clenched my teeth and fists to stop them biting and scratching these clever men who want no care for the helpless sick small, who use religions and politics to stay comfortably superior to all that pain: who make religions and politics, excuses to spread misery with fire and sword and how could I stop all this?"
(But also sadly now labour too).
"Modern industry finds it cheaper to hire hands for days or weeks - when not needed they are free to beg work from other masters. When many free men are begging for work the masters are free to lower wages."
Written before zero-hour contracts were a thing.
"For a moment I feared he was trying to smother himself, then muffler eruptions showed he was using it to absorb glandular evacuations."
The only comical and descriptive bit of prose I’m including. The rest is all political.
"How lovely, God, to waken all alone, and bath and dress alone, and eat alone. When we get married Candle, we must spend some time apart to stop us going stale."
True.
I am fortunate enough to have seen the film and read the book, pretty close together as well. I never expect films to perfectly resemble books, nor should they, but it is always interesting to see how they compare and contrast. I liked both, although they really are quite different beasts with different focuses. Neither were anywhere near as controversial as some reviews/opinions I read beforehand which can only have been made by people that had neither seen the film nor read the book.
I thought last year was really good for music, but this year, a quarter of the year down, is proving insanely good.
I’m up to two hours seven minutes of tracks in my “picks of 2024” list already. Rather than go over all the albums so far I’ll pick some of the tracks:
Not just April, obviously.
Calling it as my album of the year. Actually meant to write this in February, but I’m just too slow in getting around to it. I know there are good albums yet to come (Nia Archives and Dead Pony are just two), but Big Sigh is superb, plus I wasn’t anticipating it at all - I was expecting and looking forward to New Dad’s and Sprints’, and although both are good, neither gave me the same feeling as Marika Hackman’s; And it’s all based on feelings.
No Caffeine, Big Sigh and Slime are the obvious favourites, but there is nothing I don’t like here. I’d say it’s not necessarily that morose either; last year I didn’t want to pick boygenius’ the record because I didn’t want something sad; I was wondering if I should wait for something more positive than Big Sigh, but no, it feels balanced to me.
2024 is proving a fantastic year for music.
"The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next."
Last one from this book.
"Berosty looked up at him as slow as if the hinge in his neck had rusted, and said, 'Did you ask them when I would die, then?'"
Just for the “neck had rusted” bit.
[EDIT: 2024-03-28] Came back to add a comment after the initial lazy/quick post.
"The Orgota seemed not an unfriendly people, but incurious; they were colourless, steady, subdued. I liked them."
Ha.
[EDIT: 2024-03-28] Came back to add a comment after the initial lazy/quick post.
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