Tags

I am currently in the process of making a new description page for my LibraryThing in order to get all my tags in place. It is a work in progress to say the least... Watch this space though.

Fishywishy

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How an Aquatic Monster was driven off by virtue of the blessed man's prayer.

ON another occasion also, when the blessed man was living for some days in the province of the Picts, he was obliged to cross the river Nesa (the Ness); and when he reached the bank of the river, he saw some of the inhabitants burying an unfortunate man, who, according to the account of those who were burying him, was a short time before seized, as he was swimming, and bitten most severely by a monster that lived in the water; his wretched body was, though too late, taken out with a hook, by those who came to his assistance in a boat. The blessed man, on hearing this, was so far from being dismayed, that he directed one of his companions to swim over and row across the coble that was moored at the farther bank. And Lugne Mocumin hearing the command of the excellent man, obeyed without the least delay, taking off all his clothes, except his tunic, and leaping into the water. But the monster, which, so far from being satiated, was only roused for more prey, was lying at the bottom of the stream, and when it felt the water disturbed above by the man swimming, suddenly rushed out, and, giving an awful roar, darted after him, with its mouth wide open, as the man swam in the middle of the stream. Then the blessed man observing this, raised his holy hand, while all the rest, brethren as well as strangers, were stupefied with terror, and, invoking the name of God, formed the saving sign of the cross in the air, and commanded the ferocious monster, saying, "Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed." Then at the voice of the saint, the monster was terrified, and fled more quickly than if it had been pulled back with ropes, though it had just got so near to Lugne, as he swam, that there was not more than the length of a spear-staff between the man and the beast. Then the brethren seeing that the monster had gone back, and that their comrade Lugne returned to them in the boat safe and sound, were struck with admiration, and gave glory to God in the blessed man. And even the barbarous heathens, who were present, were forced by the greatness of this miracle, which they themselves had seen, to magnify the God of the Christians.

How many lightbulbs does it take to change a fish?



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Bibles

This is an explanation designed to accompany the “bible” tag on my LibraryThing.

Bible, biblical, Testaments
I have a collection of 29 Bibles and biblical paraphrases to date. These are tagged both “Bible”, and “Biblical”, the “Biblical” tag referring to other books about the bible, and the “Bible” tag being reserved for Bibles, books of the Bible, and biblical paraphrases. According to the contents of the specific volume Bibles are also tagged “Old Testament”, “New Testament”, and “Apocrypha”. This does not mean the entire testament or section is included, only that the book draws from one or more of those sections. So a book containing only Esdras would be tagged “Old Testament”, a “full bible” would be tagged with all three. The “Psalms” tag I have used differently, I have used this to tag books which contain Psalms, btu not any over part of the Old Testament, in practice my two Gideons.
There are three works with the tag “extra canonical”, one of these is Good as New and also has the “Bible” tag, as it also contains books from the canon*, the other two, being editions of the Dead Sea, and Nag Hammadi scriptures are not included in my Bible count, but they are tagged “biblical”.

Paraphrase
Amongst my Bibles I further divide with the tag “Paraphrase”. What is and is not a paraphrase is obviously a judgement call. It was easy to make that decision in the case of the Good As New, or Enid Blyton’s Bible for Children. There are some who would not think of The Message as a paraphrase, I do, although I am coloured by the value judgement I make regarding it. On the other hand there are some who would say that the Good News Bible, being more of a sense than a word translation is Paraphristic. I disagree. I have chosen not to try and divide Sense and Word translations in the tagging structure.

Translations
I have tagged translations in order to group them, tagging, so far, only the non paraphristic bibles. I have:
2 “English Standard Version”
1 ”Good News Bible”,
3 ”King James Version”,
3 “New English Bible”
3 “New International Version”
3 “Revised Standard Version”

Special Note
The two gems in my collection are two particularly substantial bibles, one a particularly large leather bound New English Bible, the other a King James Version, which was presented in 1876 to Miss M.A. Thomas. Both were made available to any good home by the Religious Studies department of Bradford Grammar School. I must offer thanks to the gentleman who made the latter available to me, despite his earlier claim to it.
Also unusual is the parallel translation of the 1611(Authorised) and 1881(Revised) versions, which was published in 1882. Unfortunately it is an unlovely book, made from plates about half the size of the paper sheets used.

* See Article VI of the 39 Articles, for instance.

Christ Is Risen! N is 21! I am 22!

V - Surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia!
R - Et apparuit Simoni, alleluia!

Christ is Risen, as ever, and for the first time in my life I celebrated the fact in a church not Thornton Methodist. It was just a special though.

Shortly after Easter I celebrated both N’s and my own birthday. These are the second birthdays we have spent together, and the third since we were a couple. (I rang N from a phone box on Iona for her 19th, on her 20th we had a day trip to York). Obviously N’s was the more significant birthday, so we spent both days in Liverpool, and on her birthday went to an interesting Russian Restaurant.

I have never eaten Russian before, so didn’t really know what to expect. I was first struck by the range of food, the menu contained food which was reminiscent of Sub-Continental cuisine, eastern European dishes, and food which sounded Oriental in nature. Unsurprising given the vast size of Russia. The place was interestingly laid out, pleasant overall - but a little more attention to detail would have been nice. E.G. To use the sink in the mens bathroom I had to stoop under a sloping roof (and I am not quite six foot tall), and my seat had an uncomfortable sag just under my right buttock, so I had the disconcerting feeling that I was sitting on the side edge of my chair. My meal was exceeding pleasant though. I had some borscht, which tasted much unlike the beetroot soup I am more used to. I followed this with some interesting affairs like mushroom burgers or similar. I wish I knew their composition because they were lovely. I washed it down with much Baltika, at least some of which was free, in apology for a mix up with N’s food. I was rather sorry not to get what I ordered (they were out), which was originally going to be a stew with mushroom dumplings, and topped with dough. All in all I liked the place, and would go to the Manchester Branch given the chance, the trip was worthwhile, and made doubly so by the music and dancing…

As it was my birthday I pulled in a handful of gifts, one way or another. Including a number of books, some of which are tagged ”Birthday ‘08” on LibraryThing.

It is safe to assume that in the near future I will be reading some of the following (Not an exhaustive list):
Kari Mauns, The Welsh Kings: Warriors, Warlords and Princes
J.L. Carrell The Shakespeare Secret
Julia Fox, Jane Boleyn, The Infamous Lady Rochford
The Book of General Ignorance
The English Year

Thank you to anyone who got me anything by way of a birthday gift, or card.

iTunes and Apple Matters

Apple Matters, is just one of a number of websites which has had a bit of a sprucing up recently. The others are: the Ship, whose new look I very much like, especially (unlike everyone else) the fixed width, partly for the same reasons I use Tofu* for reading; and the BBC, whose new look I am still getting used to. AMs look is very swish, not how I would want everything to look, but about right for one of the links which I file under “Geekery” in my book marks.

Apple Matters is an excellent place to pick up on what Apple is up to, as well as a source of the odd tip, and occasional opinion. I have it on my reader, and I recommend it to anyone interested in any of the above. I doubt it would satisfy someone really keen, but for my casual interest it is sufficient.

To launch their redesign (or just for the craic) AM has started a series of articles on how to better use iTunes, the first of which inspired me, and this post. I am one of those the article describe who has “playlists -- even smart playlists -- that are fairly dull.” I have a handful of short compilations for my listening pleasure, a series of longer collections that suit a particular feel, and a group of dull smart playlists. (Classical, Jazz, Recently Uploaded etc). Inspired by that article I have created some new lists, one of unrated music (of which there is 16.67 GBs), and one which will hopefully become my most listened to folder. It is broken down like this:

In I Dig Music:
5*, 2 Days (Rated 5 Stars, not played in the last 2 days.)
4*, 4 Days
2*, 6 Days

N.B. Excluded are podcasts, Audiobooks, Classical music, and Opera.
This gives me, at the moment, a total of 4.85 GB of music. (Out of my library of 23.09 GB). This is only a starting point. It will be improved as I rate more of my music, and it will be improved by the addition of more playlists in the folder. E.G. A playlist of infrequently played, well rated music; a dumb playlist of this week favourites etc.

For the moment though, I am happy with the results.

* Which I recently converted my sister to - so she can read Mummies Alive fanfics on it…

Data Migration and Palaeography

- The Codex Bruchsal

I have recently been composing a very dry essay on the lists and catalogues of interest to Anglo-Saxonists. I have been struck by a couple of factors. Firstly the inadequacy of the printed medium, to reliably consult Ker, possibly the first point of call for anyone interested in a particular manuscript one also has to consult two supplements, one of which is published in the journal Anglo-Saxon England (which is only available online from 2001- present, at least according to Manchester, which has one of the most comprehensive package of electronic subscriptions in the UK), the other is a chapter in a book, which at least appears to have had a fairly large print run. This is because the world of Anglo-Saxon in manuscripts is not as static as one might think, manuscripts change hands and location, are subject to renewed paleaographic investigation, and, intermittently, new leaves crop up in bindings of other books. Much relevant information needs to be consulted in other indexes anyway. As well as Ker’s Catalogue there is a list of texts, with their associated manuscripts, this is also invaluable. So we have two very different indexes, with two very different functions, but both very important. Both should be consulted before anyone goes near a real manuscript.

These texts are crying out for a database. A searchable database, one with two types of record, an MS record, describing palaeographic and codicological features and linking to the texts found in that MS, and a text record which links to the MSS where that text can be found, and also holding other information, ideally a basic bibliography, but at least editions and facsimiles of the text. To see a similar concept in action one should consult PASE (Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England), such a database would have been inconceivable in the pre-digital age, now I can explore the relations between people and places with great ease. PASE contains information on, and indexes of, people, sources, locations, events, offices (Bishop of Winchester etc), status occupations, relationships and possessions.

This is where I get to my second point, those in the field of manuscript study are somewhat suspicious of technological solutions to many problems. They embrace them, but with reservations. This is largely because they have all been burnt, especially by microfiche, but by all sorts of digital data forms as well. The British Library is the best example of the problem, which, rumour has it, expends a lot of money maintaining the equipment to read floppy disks of several types, CDs laser disks, microfiche, cassettes, of various types, reel-reel etc. All libraries expended a lot of money on microfiche, including microfiche catalogues which are now almost entirely useless. A project to compose an Old English Dictionary(started in ‘73, currently on G) to supersede Bosworth-Toller begun on microfiche, and had to invest considerable effort in digitising that microfiche when it became clear that microfiche was a pretty dead medium. A lot of information is still only available on microfiche, and libraries have to maintain machines, and train staff in their use, so that staff can in turn instruct the occasional keen student. If the effort to maintain equipment, and train staff, fails, then the Library or institution will be left with boxes of useless celluloid. Digitising microfiche can be done, with automatic readers, for $0.15 a page, making a single newspaper a little more expensive to digitise than to buy, and that is just producing images, not OCRing or transcribing the text.

- Microfiche

On the other hand the codex has remained a compatible medium for two millennia. Arguably there was no significant advance in data preservation between the codex and the internet. And putting stuff in stone in pyramids is still the hands down most endurable data preservation method. So one can see why people are skeptical about the long term benefits of technology as a solution to data preservation.

I think the internet is different though, once information is digitised, it should never become inaccessible, because, especially with the advent of the internet, it should be possible to migrate data with limited danger of mutation/corruption. The internet should make this even easier, if server A becomes obsolete, it should be possible to migrate all the information seamlessly, and easily to server B, thus preserving the data, and silently upgrading the medium. Even the software should be easily transferred, especially if everyone uses standard forms. It is possible that in one hundred years my Scrivener files will be unreadable, but if I save a copy in .rtf, it should not be too hard to maintain the information. (Bear in mind that whatever replaces .rtf will HAVE to be compatible with .rtf)

On the Use of Words

misogynist, n. and adj.
A. n. A person who hates, dislikes, or is prejudiced against women.
B. adj. That is a misogynist; characterized by hatred of or prejudice against women; misogynistic.

- Oxford English Dictionary

I have been thinking recently about the application, and misapplication of certain terms. My thinking was triggered by the use of the term “Misandrist” by a Shipmate of Ship of Fools, who was referring to those who advocated the Ordination of Women. It reminded me of the use of the term “Homosexualist” on the very interesting, and informative website Fish Eaters. See this section on veiling (The website is worth exploring, despite the conservative authorship).

This annoys me, and I will try and explore why in this post. One element is the use of jargon or terminology in order to give authority to a position. Here it is used to add a sense of rationality to a position that I believe to be irrational, (more on my beliefs later) and as such it winds me up a little. There is something else distinctive about these two usages, in that they are a subversion of other concepts and terms. Misandrist is a deliberate reversal of misogynist, homosexualist is an attempt to make the advocates of sexual equality the bigots. As devices therefore they both attempt to shape the territory of the debate which they inhabit. Instead of a debate between equals these terms attempt to label the parties in the debate. If I allow you to term me bigot in a debate you do not need to listen to me, if I am able to establish myself as the rational figure of authority, then what I say begins to carry credence. I am not saying this is an intentional tactic, or not always. We tend to believe that we are right and others wrong, we have to believe this. (Simply speaking If I think proposition A is true, I do not, by definition, think it is not-true,) One of the ways we can enforce our own sense of rightness, which is a comforting thing to do, if by labeling opposing opinions as inherently wrong. This saves us the trouble of interrogating ourselves, if you are a bigot, I don’t need to bother listening to you. Of course you are misusing the Bible and quoting out of context, of course you are using dodgy statistical/scientific data.

- Eve astride the Serpent

Of course sometimes the use of a term will be intentional, I suspect the use of the word misandrist is a considered attempt to subvert the same language used against those who, for instance, oppose OoW. Here I am hinting about a problem though. If I do not like the use of misandrist against positions I hold, should I not also oppose the use of the phrase misogynist? During oral presentations of Research Outlines on Tuesday one of my peers described the assignation of women as “meek and mild” as “misogynist”. (To be fair she used this as an example of misogyny, rather than as a description therof) So now I am wondering, is that a good use of the term? Is the concept of misogyny cheapened by application to proto-complimentarist understandings of Gender? Or is it legitimate to say that such concepts of Gender are entirely bankrupt, to a degree that the bigot designation sticks?

I certainly intend to think twice before using these terms, but then I need to try and work out when they are appropriate. I spent some wordage over christmas discussing the misogyny of one reader of John Rylands’ Manuscript 2 : Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. In this case I was using misogyny in fairly technical context, but even then, did I pay less regard to the subtleties of Medieval gender Politics by labeling a position so broadly?

For more on misogyny specifically:
On Misogyny, Misandry and Misanthropy
Wikipedia on Misogyny