I started yesterday's reading with a Japanese reader that was supposedly at JLPT level 4, which is either wrong or very humbling. The story I started was Urashima Tarou, a famous Japanese fairy tale that I have heard before at least in summary but I couldn't remember it. The eponymous character saves a turtle from being tortured by some boys, and later the turtle comes back and takes Tarou to the palace of the dragon king (竜宮). There he meets a beautiful princess (乙姫), takes part in a feast, and enjoys himself very much.
This was probably eight pages worth of story, after which I was tired. Also I was trying to read it out loud, but my voice kept giving out. I'm skeptical that the book is at JLPT level four because both of the words written in Japanese above are extremely rare and yet not proper nouns, to the point that their dictionary entries specifically mentioned this story. For some reason 乙姫 was no problem, but I had no idea how to read the 宮 in 竜宮. There were a few other words that I wasn't sure of the reading, but it is true that I didn't have trouble understanding.
Next I started reading "A Clockwork Universe", which is about the start of the modern (scientific) view of the world, particularly focusing on Newton. The author had two main points in what I read: first, the 1660s were a terrible, tumultuous time to live in England, and second, nature's behavior was only seen as general rules, so things like disease, rather than having a natural explanation, were ultimately from God.
I was reminded of the filth of time period in very concrete terms. People thought baths were unhealthy. The same boats that brought fresh produce to the city returned to farms with human feces for fertilizer. A rule was made around this time that the French palace (I think?) had to be swept of human waste at least once a week. Shakespeare's globe theater had not one toilet. With all this, it's little wonder that the plague swept through London in 1665 like a curse on the wind. Then the next year brought the Great Fire of London.
While I realized that cause and effect were very poorly understood if at all, it really shocked me to hear about some of the medical remedies of the time. Bleeding people was bad, but why would anyone even consider drinking cow urine? One king was mentioned as being sick and suffering medical torture by his doctors, after which he (unsurprisingly) died all the same. I've fortunately forgotten the details, except that he was required to take sneezing powder at the same time as doing some other painful things.
The author made the claim that it was unthinkable to be an atheist at this time, but that rang false to me. I also felt like some of his metaphors were self-indulgent, and he really belabored his point that people were terrified of God, who was most likely going to send them to hell, going so far as to quote Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". I kind of want to revisit it to see if the passage wasn't taken out of context. But the author's description of the atmosphere really comes alive, and the writing is usually wonderful, and the transitions are logical and seamless. Oh, and I learned the word "hidebound", meaning inflexible or uncomprimisingly traditional.
This was probably eight pages worth of story, after which I was tired. Also I was trying to read it out loud, but my voice kept giving out. I'm skeptical that the book is at JLPT level four because both of the words written in Japanese above are extremely rare and yet not proper nouns, to the point that their dictionary entries specifically mentioned this story. For some reason 乙姫 was no problem, but I had no idea how to read the 宮 in 竜宮. There were a few other words that I wasn't sure of the reading, but it is true that I didn't have trouble understanding.
Next I started reading "A Clockwork Universe", which is about the start of the modern (scientific) view of the world, particularly focusing on Newton. The author had two main points in what I read: first, the 1660s were a terrible, tumultuous time to live in England, and second, nature's behavior was only seen as general rules, so things like disease, rather than having a natural explanation, were ultimately from God.
I was reminded of the filth of time period in very concrete terms. People thought baths were unhealthy. The same boats that brought fresh produce to the city returned to farms with human feces for fertilizer. A rule was made around this time that the French palace (I think?) had to be swept of human waste at least once a week. Shakespeare's globe theater had not one toilet. With all this, it's little wonder that the plague swept through London in 1665 like a curse on the wind. Then the next year brought the Great Fire of London.
While I realized that cause and effect were very poorly understood if at all, it really shocked me to hear about some of the medical remedies of the time. Bleeding people was bad, but why would anyone even consider drinking cow urine? One king was mentioned as being sick and suffering medical torture by his doctors, after which he (unsurprisingly) died all the same. I've fortunately forgotten the details, except that he was required to take sneezing powder at the same time as doing some other painful things.
The author made the claim that it was unthinkable to be an atheist at this time, but that rang false to me. I also felt like some of his metaphors were self-indulgent, and he really belabored his point that people were terrified of God, who was most likely going to send them to hell, going so far as to quote Jonathan Edwards' sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God". I kind of want to revisit it to see if the passage wasn't taken out of context. But the author's description of the atmosphere really comes alive, and the writing is usually wonderful, and the transitions are logical and seamless. Oh, and I learned the word "hidebound", meaning inflexible or uncomprimisingly traditional.
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