Missive #704

This book is a masterpiece. It is a beautiful work of art. If you haven’t read it, remedy the situation immediately. However – do yourself a favour. Don’t pick up this book as a bit of bedtime reading, to be picked up and browsed for a quiet quarter of an hour before nodding off. Ford Madox Ford is one of those writers who demands a bit of his readers.The author demands a lot. I had a difficult time following the ‘plot’ if there was one. You need to take into consideration that this was published over a 100 years ago and that it is a British author writing about British society. The first book in the series which I plan on reading. Recommended with reservations. You have to concentrate. He plays tricks with time, jolting you suddenly forward in the narrative, so that you can’t quite grasp what it is going on, before jamming the plot into reverse and going back in time again to make everything clear. Don’t worry – there’s nothing too opaque and tricky going on – you will be able to follow the action and pick up the threads, but you will need to be concentrating in order to do so. I hope that doesn’t make the book sound too demanding and put anyone off reading it, because the rewards far outweigh the effort.

A word of warning – if you are one of those ultra-modern people who can’t get along with characters who are restrained and circumspect, who do not communicate their feelings with modern-day standards of openness etc, this book won’t be for you. I know from reading reviews that a lot of such readers do exist. The people who populate this book are circumspect, discreet and undemonstrative to a very high degree. If that bothers you, give this book a miss. As great as it is, you probably won’t like it. — A Reader Review edited at goodreads.com

I had threat of rain all day last Thursday then rain through most of the night while at Goldminer’s. Got up this morning to a light rain here at the new camp. The new camp map has been updated in the right sidebar.

“The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump said in a letter to Congress as the Iran campaign hit the 60-day legal limit for unauthorized wars. I guess this is how he plans to exit but at the same time retain the blockade and the threat of continuing the war without Congressional approval. Declare victory, walk away and hope that everyone will forget.