"If angels fight, weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right"

[larryhammer]

Accumulated links -- certified organic, so you know it's a good salad:

Socks are my greatest love.

Animator vs. Animation. Yeah, sometimes characters are like that.

How to fail to promote yourself by blogging.

Literary analysis can be fruitful for worldbuilding. Take, for example, how the question of whether "spells themselves are imperatives or performatives, and, if the latter, what happens when you violate their felicity conditions" can spark ideas.

Emma of Normandy: by her marriage to Ethelred the Unrædy,* she was queen consort of England, replacement for his previous wife Aelfgifu, stepmother of King Edmund Ironside, mother of King Edward the Confessor; by her marriage to Canute the Great, she was queen consort of England, replacement for his previous wife Aelfgifu, stepmother of King Harold Harefoot, and mother of King Harthacanute. I'm surprised Judith Tarr hasn't wrapped a novel around her already. Especially since she was often, as a replacement, called Aelfgifu.

* You all DO know that in Old English, his name means "unlucky" and not "unprepared," yes? Good.

---L.

Comments

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

*obligatory squee about subject line taken from Richard II*

*obligatory remarks about pathetic-ness of self*

*obligatory 1066 reference to paddling one's own Canute*

[larryhammer]

I almost mentioned the Egg-kings, but decided the real thing is more interesting by itself anyway.

Though if her second husband was into spanking, she probably did paddle her own Canute.

---L.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

You all DO know that in Old English, his name means "unlucky" and not "unready," yes? Good.

Or "foolish", or, if you look at the word from the right angle, "poorly advised."

[larryhammer]

I knew about the poorly advised possible sense, but not the foolish. Interesting. But then, in the Icelandic sagas, it sometimes seems that making foolish decisions isn't clearly distinguished from being unlucky. Something to think about.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That linguistics article was fascinating; I downloaded it. The notion of the blocking counterparts in ordinary language was so cool! And felicity conditions, too. Very neat.

Um, no, I didn't know that about Unredy. Now I do. *feels smarter*

Now I have to go look at your other intriguing links.

[larryhammer]

Language Log is almost always interesting. They find such neat stuff, talk about neat things. And they're wonderfully cranky about Strunk and White.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was playing the animator versus animation one, and my ten-year-old walked in and said, "Oh yeah, I love that one." I said, "...you've seen this already?" "Yeah," he said, "At Kyle's house. Click on animator versus animation II, it's even better"

D'oh.

[larryhammer]

I think the first is actually better -- fresher, anyway.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(I didn't actually click on the second. "Later," I told him.)

third of three comments....

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

In the article on shameless blog self-promotion, the thing that **really** struck home was the line about the people waiting patiently for their turn to insert themselves and their talk back into the conversation. It's so clear when that's happening. ... and yet, I know I've done it myself from time to time. But, yuk.

Re: third of three comments....

[larryhammer]

Yup. Guilty as charged myself. I've spent many years training myself out of it -- with the side effect of learning to listen.

---L.

Re: third of three comments....

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly. Pay attention, I keep telling myself. Don't be so caught up in what you want to say that you're not hearing what *they're* saying. My first boyfriend helped teach me to listen....