In addition to ongoing political stress, I had extra familial and health stresses lately, including two hypertensive episodes on successive days. Blood pressure of around 190/120 plus autonomic nervous failures feels weird but not in a way I recommend to anyone. I read shallowly.
I did finish
The Fall of Cadia by Robert Rath, which remained excellent and gave me a satisfying look at planet smashing and the opening of the Great Rift that looms so large (and so interesting, to me) in Warhammer 40K lore. I’ve already read Chris Wraight’s wonderful descriptions of those first moments in his Watchers of the Throne and Vaults of Terra books from perspectives on Earth, so now I feel all set. Thumbs up for the audiobook narration, too.
And I reread Mark Fisher’s philosophical book
The Weird and the Eerie, a shower and engaging look at some kinds of strangeness. As he defines them, the weird is about juxtapositions that bring together normally separated things, like places and artifacts revealed within newly exposed ruins - things you don’t expect to encounter in this place and time. The eerie overlaps some with this, bring about the mysterious presence of something that ought not be there or the mysterious absence of something that should. Fisher had wide-ranging interests and draws examples from horror, science fiction, literature, genre and mainstream movies, post-punk music, all kinds of stuff, with a happy disregard for arguments about what’s in some way worthier than something else. I liked it all over again. Another excellent audiobook, too. If this sounds interesting, you should read it. If not, not.
