A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and it's relevance to modern political issues

One of the things that really hooks me into this story is how the issues in this imaginary medieval world echo many of the issues in our real world. I’m not necessarily just talking about historical events. Obviously the Targaryen/Baratheon/Stark struggles echo real-life historical periods such as the War of the Roses, something which many people have written of. Other plot points echo real-world historical events as well—sometimes it seems that GRRM has taken all of the most interesting stories from European (especially British) history and put them all into one grand story. It’s fun to find connections and echoes.

But what does it say about the modern world?

I think there are quite a lot of ways in which modern life in Western society(and maybe other societies as well) has influenced the story and characters in Westeros.

First of all, consider GRRM in the context of his times and his country, the USA. George Martin was born in 1948, and was very much an enthusiastic member of the ‘baby boomer’ generation that came of age in the late sixties, when the Vietnam war was in full swing and many young people were questioning the reasons behind it and the position of the USA in its self-proclaimed ‘white knight’ and Chief Protector of the World against Communism. Not the fight against communism itself per se-- few Westerners will defend the Stalinist regimes that held sway in most of the Eastern bloc during the Cold War--but there were questions to be asked about the moral rectitude of many of the methods and goals of the USA at that time.

Honor and Duty and the Conflict with Morality

GRRM, drafted into the army, listed himself as a ‘conscientious objector’ i.e, someone who refuses to fight on moral or religious grounds. Clearly he thought that the Vietnam was morally wrong. Of course in that turbulent time there would have been great pressure on him to do otherwise; and this forced himself to do a lot of thinking about the nature of patriotism and how far one should take it? Is there ever a time when disobeying one’s patriotic duty is the morally right thing to do? This is one of the major issues of that time in the USA, when there was still a draft and many young men were forced to join the armed forces to fight for something that many of them didn’t really have much of an opinon about—or even thought were morally wrong.

The obvious exemplar of this issue is Jaime Lannister; Jaime Lannister, the prodigy knight who was named to the King’s Guard at 15; and broke his vows when he slit the throat of the king he had sworn an oath to protect—in order to save both his family and all of the innocent lives in King’s Landing. Arguably this heroic and difficult action cost him his reputation, forever stained the office of King’s Guard and lost him the respect of most of the Lords, high and low, in Westeros, who forevermore have referred to him derogatorily  only as ‘the Kingslayer.

But he’s not the only one who goes through this issue. Jon Snow’s storyline explores this theme in depth as well, albeit in many different ways. For Jon, too, is an oathbreaker. But, other than his brief selfish lapse at the end of Game of Thrones, most of Jon’s choices are justifiable and skirt the line between oathkeeping and oathbreaking; and even his final decision to lead a host of Wildlings against the Warden of the North in Winterfell has some very valid justifications behind it. Yet history would not look kindly upon yet another rogue Lord Commander “invading the North” and making for Winterfell. Particularly if he lost, as in every similar instance past.

Tywin Lannister’s methods: the War in the Riverlands and the Vietnam War

Also reminiscent of the Vietnam War(and I think inspired of them) are the methods that Tywin Lannister uses when he sets loose his ‘dogs’ of war: Gregor Clegane, Amory Lorch, and the sellsword company of the Brave Companions. His orders, given to his brother and lieutenant Kevan Lannister to ‘set the Riverlands alight from here to the God’s Eye’ seem a bit more extreme than typical medieval warfare. These people kill and torture everything.”If it could be move, they killed it. If it could be eaten they’d taken it. If they couldn’t kill it or take it, they’d burned it.” Arya’s terrifying experience the Mountain that Rides’ force of vile child-killers and torturers reminds me of nothing so much as stories of ‘death squads’ in the Vietnam War like the Tiger Force. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Force

All sides in all wars commit atrocities, I suppose. But some wars are worse than others at this kind of thing.

Slaver’s Bay and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

In a more contemporary parallel, I think that DAenery’s issues as Conqueror of the three cities in Slaver’s Bay also have some echoes in more recent American conflicts—namely, Afghanistan and Iraq.

It’s unclear how intentional this is. The Afghanistan war started in 2001 the year A STorm of Swords was published, Iraq in 2003. A Dance with Dragons was published(finally!) in 2011 in 2011, but some of the events and chapters were probably written before these wars; and others after the invasion. But GRRM has to be aware of the parallels, in my opinion. This man is not an idiot. And it’s hard not to see some of the same issues that Daenerys faces as parallels to that which the NATO forces in Afghanistan and the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ forces—the insurgency of the Sons of the Harpy; the bewildering alignment and non-alignment of various local forces, the impossible to fathom web of loyalties and enmities; the Clash of Cultures and the resulting confusion stemming from that; the initial bloody conquering followed by an attempt at government building. Of course one to one parallels are not really possible(they never really are in this series) but there is an exploration of all these issues in A Dance with Dragons. And like the real world in which the power vacuum created by the ousting of Saddam Hussein and the disarming of the Iraqi armed forces has helped spread  chaos and the rising of the Islamic State, so has ridding the Slaver Cities of their economy and stealing their army spread chaos and conflict though the entire region of Slaver’s Bay—with repercussions felt as far away as the slaving Free Cities.

Conflict and the War on—or for—the truth

In his depiction of the vast War of the Five Kings from various points of view on both sides of the conflict GRRM presents a very modern view of conflict that I think has a lot to say about how we process information that is handed to us. During war and conflict, so many narratives of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, legality vs legality exist, many of them at conflict with each other. The players of Game of Thrones realize that it doesn’t really matter whether Joffrey is the rightful king or Stannis; what ultimately matters is who wins; and the victor will very much write the history. With the birds’ eye view of the conflict enfolding before our eyes, we can choose sides. A hundred years hence, it will not be so easy. In the wake of a total Lannister victory, for example, Stannis’ letter calling out the Baratheon children’s bastardy might be completely forgotten, or might be considered no more than an evil footnote of a rumor of questionable veritude.

, I have only to look at the complex conflict of Syria to find a contemporary example. In Syria, a corrupt leader struggles to hold onto his country against a force of many non-aligned factions. Empires (or pseudo-empires) such as NATO(especially the USA, Turkey, France and the UK) and Russia(with help from Hezbollah, Iranian factions) are playing in the conflict and not necessarily with the same aims. Look only to what the Western ‘truth’ of the matter and the Russian ‘truth’ of the matter(i.e., Russian and American/European propanda) to find a example of truths that oppose. Which truth will end up victorious? Will the ‘lawful ruler’ of Syria, Assad, prove victorious over the evil forces of terrorism; or will the a new order come into being, post-tyrannical, democractic and opposed to terrorist forces of ISIL, staunch allies of the Free West;; or will Da’Esh, the Islamic State conquer the forces of infidel evil and bring about their stated aims…? Only time will tell which ‘truth’ will win out. And maybe there will always be two or more truths if the ending is definitive enough.

No matter whose propaganda you choose to believe: Russia/Putin's or USA/NATO's, it's clear that neither side is being completely honest. They are warring for the truth itself. Because the Truth in these matters, ultimately, is relative. It's malleable. It's not absolute. 

The Threat of the Others and Global Climate Change

And finally,  we the readers and most of the characters focus on the issues before them, the War of the Five Kings and it’s aftermath; while north of the Wall  destructive force of demonic Ice Demons prepare to invade a land already weakened by war, about to be further weakened by what promises to be a nasty and brutal winter bringing starvation in it’s wake; and across the narrow sea Daenerys prepares an army of foreigners and highly destructive death machines(dragons) to invade at the same time.

It’s not as if the powers that be in Westeros don’t have rumors or warnings of the impending castastrophes….especially the one in the North. There have been plenty of warnings from Castle Black. But the realm’s inability to take it seriously, but aside the lesser conflict and act can be seen as a comment on our own present time and our own inability to see the impending disaster of Global Climate Change and take meaningful action against it.

There are  other issues of modern life which A Song of Ice and Fire explores; more personal issues, issues of families and relationships; love and wealth. This is only exploring the bigger, political issues, the issues that affect millions at once. But that will have to be addressed another post. 

What is Marco Rubio like in person?

 Affable, serious, ambitious, intelligent but not extremely so, a bit vacuous but likable overall.

I went to (a tiny, private midwestern )college with Marco Rubio in 1989-1990.

Someone told me he wanted to be a politician. So one day, we were standing in the lunchline.. I said, 'Hey, man, what do you want to do when you grow up/"(seems like a pretty funny question to ask but we were both 18.)

He looked at me, sort of stood up really straight and said, very seriously: "I hope to be the first Cuban-American in the United States Senate."

I said, sort of humoring him because I remember thinking that while he wasn't an idiot or anything, neither did I get the sense that was he particularly bright, "Why not president?"

He said' Oh, I don't think that would be possible. I'm not dreaming that big."

„Why not?, I asked. „Because of racism?“

“I, well, uh, well--Yeah, basically, because of racism."

“I don’t think that being Cuban is a problem for most people.”

“You don’t?”

“No, most people where I’m from don’t think about that. If you were black, that would be a different story.”

“Yeah! A black man will never get elected”, he said.

“I agree,” I said.

“It’s too bad,” he said.

“It is,” I agreed. “But anyway, I don’t think being Cuban is a big problem."

“I do,” he said.

I said, ‘Well, even if it is now, it won’t be in 20 years when you’re old enough to run for president."

He looked really thoughtful, and then he said,’ Yeah, maybe it 20 years it will be possible.”

_____________________________________

We went on and talked a bit more especially about Democrats and Republicans. At the time he was a Democrat(he was only 18) but told me he thought the Republicans had some good ideas. I remember thinking that he would probably end up changing parties at some point.

Over the years I thought of him now and again. I imagined that he was probably working in the Florida state legislature.

Recently, when I saw him on TV, I thought...''wait a minute...' Did a quick google check and sure enough...same guy!

Another college friend says he remember Marco Rubio and his girlfriend dressing in identical tracksuits and jogging together. I definitely remember a Hispanic couple that did that at that school and I think it was probably Rubio but I can't be sure it was Rubio. For the most part we were in different worlds at school, him being a football player while I was a theatre major. And he left after that year.

Vlad and Ludmila

A few years ago Jana got a call from Petr, a man who had been my student for a couple of years in some night classes(2006-2008, I believe).

 Petr worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a salesman. He was a handsome man of about forty with a strong-boned face, a thick shock of black hair and glasses—he sort of looked like Clark Kent. He had a strong sense of humor and a quick laugh. He also  was the brother of Jana’s cousin’s ex-wife.

Petr basically was asking if he could come over and have me talk into the phone to some people in America. His English was pretty good, but he had visited this place(rural Wyoming, it turned out) and had had a real problém understanding the local accent, although he said they had understood him just fine.
I was working until 6.30 on the appointed day, so we told them to come over at 7.30 or so. I must say I wasn’t too happy about doing this—I really wanted to just go for my walk and go to bed and the idea of spending some time being social did not appeal to me.

Anyway Petr arrived with a seventy-something elder lady who I believe was his elderly mother. I’ll call her Ludmila. They explained the situation to us. IN the years after the Second World War she had been a young student student when she met Vlad, a strapping handsome young man from the Ukraine. I suppose that he was part of the Soviet army that would have occupied Czechoslovakia for a time after the war.

Things went their course and they fell in love; of course, being from different countries, however, time and tide swept them apart. Ludmila married and had children and a life in Czechoslovakia, which eventually became the Czech Republic; Vlad ended up immigrating to America where he also married, settled in Wyoming and had three children of his own. And life went on.

Years later he returned to what was now the Czech Republic and, both their spouses dead and their children long flown, Ludmila and Vlad reunited. After catching up, they realized that their young love was still there and they pledged themselves again to each other. He visited Vsetin. Before retuning to Wyoming, they pledged their love.

Ludmila too visited America and Wyoming and Vlad, with Petr to help her with translation issues. There she found him another old man, living alone in an apartment complex, lonely and at the end of his life. In her words, interpreted to me by my girlfriend, he had ‘given up’ after his life and was basically waiting to die. Well,  Ludmila revived his spirits, I suppose and once again they pledged their love to each other before Ludmila returned to the Czech Republic.

But now, she said,, she hadn’t heard from him since. She had tried calling several times but he never answered his phone. She was worried that he hadn’t paid his phone bill because he was quite poor. And she was worried about him being in a general depression that afflicts older people who are alone.

 She had the number of a neighbor that she wanted to call but she didn’t speak English. Petr, her grandson, did speak English, but he was very unconfident about understanding the man at the other end of the line.

That was where I came in.
First we tried calling Vlad himself. The phone rang and rang but there was no answer.

At that point we called his neighbor, Jim. WE got an answer from his wife and Jim was there, working in his yard. He came in and talked to him. He told us that Vlad was still around but hadn’t been out much lately. From the sound of things, it seemed that Vlad was in a deep state of depression. His life almost over, his children grown and gone, his wife dead, the brief love he’d had in his youth half a world away in a country he had no legal way to move to.

I communicated this to Jana and Petr who interpreted to the old lady.

I then asked in the most polite, self-effacing way possible you know, if-it-would-be-possible-and-not-too-much-trouble-you-know, if Jim could actually fetch Vlad from next door. Jim told us he had no problem with doing that. The only problem was that Vlad had gone to the supermarket. He told us to try back in about an hour.

At this point it was after nine our time. But we sat and made small talk, had cups of tea and snacks and things.

When the hour was up, we called Jim again. Vlad had already returned and was at Jim’s house. After a brief set of niceties, Jim and I handed our phones over to Vlad and Ludmila. I remember Ludmila talking very loudly to Vlad, asking him if everything was all right and that she was worried about him and so on. They talked for about 15 minutes.

Afterwards, she was quite upset, saying that he had said that he was still all right and still loved her. But she said she thought that he was basically putting on a brave face and really telling her how he felt. She thought that she was going to have to go back to Wyoming to try to get him to move here.

That was about two years ago. And that was the last we heard about it.

 Until Wednesday. When Jana, a court-appointed translator, was asked to translate a marriage certificate from Wyoming.

Vlad, naturalized US citizen  and native of Ukraine, aged 83. And Ludmila, native of Czechoslovakia. 

the Cops

 I wrote this in July but forgot to publish it here.

I was taking Dad to the airport in Prague yesterday morning. When we pulled onto the highway out of Zlin I realized that I hadn't bought a highway sticker yet.

"Shit,"; I said. "I haven't bought a highway sticker yet."
Dad said: "Are you gonna go back?"
I said: !No, it's only 4.30. What I'll do is I'll pull over at the first gas station and buy one. God. Do they sell highway stickers on the highway itself? Maybe they don't. Maybe they only sell them before you get to the highway?"
Dad: "Surely they do."
Me: "WEll I hope so. I guess I'll find out."
an hour later, I'm still driving, having come across only one gas station, and that was closed down and made into a rest area sans toilet. I see a gas station in the distance. I pull off the exit and over. It's 5.30. Several cars are parked at some of the tanks, including a big police van--the type they use when they are out on the highway nabbing people for not having highway stickers. The cops themselves are inside.

Me: "Damn, there's the cops. Good thing I stopped. I guess I'll get some gas here. "
I get the gas and Dad goes into pay for it. I go in and buy a ten day highway sticker. Then I go downstairs to take a much needed leak. I return to my car. Dad puts the sticker on. The cops are gone. I pull away to leave and behind the gas station, there they ARE!!! Standing outside their van. They immediately JUMP in front of me holding out their little stop sign. "Shit, they're pulling me over", I say. (Probably unnecessarily.)

The cop walks over and inspects my new-bought sticker.

He walks to the window and demands all my documents: driver's license, proof of insurance, title of the car, Dad's passport, my passport. Then he asks me if I have some Czech ID because I guess he doesn't want to accept my American passport as ID or something. I show him my green trvaly pobyt book. He looks at it and says 'Do you live in Horni Jasenka, Vsetin?'
"yes'. I say.
"Hmmm...that is very good, very good. I know Vsetin well, very well." (All of this is in Czech, of course. He has a weird accent for me, a Brno accent, I guess, since we're only about 20 kms from Brno; so he's' a little hard to understand, and I start feeling like he's a Nazi toying with me. I'm so nervous I'm shaking.

Then he says: "You need a sticker to drive on a highway. You drove here without a sticker didnt' you? And you just bought that sticker here."

I reply, doing my best Jon Lovitz pathological liar impression: "actually....I didn't drive on the highway....yeeehhhh..that's the ticket...noooooo...nooooo....I drove the other way! Yeeeahhhh.... "(thinking, he was inside the gas station--he'll never prove that I didn't come some other way! Genius!! Got him on a technicality I do!)

He looks at me and says: "Well, that's very interesting because there is only one way to get to this gas station; and that's from the highway. It's the only road here. Now, do you still assert that you didn't take the highway here?"

I shake my head, thinking, damn, I need a lawyer or something . He repeats the question. I shake my head again.

Then he says: "Well, that will be 5000 crowns." This happens to be exactly how much I put in my wallet when I left. Plus I have some change. I probably have 5700 crowns in my wallet.

Me: (gasping) "I don't have 5000 crowns on me!" (I give my most distressed, now what the hell am I going to do, am I going to be arrested? look.

He wanders around and looks at the sticker again, inspecting it very closely. I figure(now) that he realizes he's shit out of luck: I don't have 5000 kc and he can't really fine me for not having a sticker when I have one now, can he?

He comes back. And says. "WEll, this time I'll let you go. Because I know Vsetin well. You are lucky you are from Vsetin. But next time you drive on the highway without a sticker, I'll take your license. Because that will mean that you don't know the law." I refrain from pointing out how illogical this statement is.

Me: "he's letting me go."

I drive off, shaking in fear for about the next 10 kms.

Review of Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

This book, the second in Robin Hobb's Assassin trilogy, had a lot in common with the first in terms of structure. But I felt it was a lot richer in every way. The characters from the first book revealed more depths and the main character went through a lot of changes on his path towards a manhood that's going to be...interesting. 

There was a lot of unexpected things that happened in the story and I think that's what made it most interesting to me--it's not that there aren't tropes that she's using; it's just that she still manages to make them fresh and sometimes, they plot goes places where you'd never think it would.

Like the first book, the rising action rises rather slowly as Robin Hobb weaves what seems like the elements of a seemingly directionless, though entertaining, tale together into a rather complex tapestry of politics and character...and then there's the last twenty percent or so--where it all kind of explodes. The ending actually took me by surprise and I'm quite interested in seeing where it is going. 

The only real criticism, and I'm not sure if it's really a criticism of the writing so much as a personal taste thing, is that I miss the depth and breadth of world-building that my favorite fantasies have. It's not so much that it's not there...there is history. There are realms in this world mentioned but unexplored, glimpses of history...but I don't...FEEL it. There's a lack of specificity or something to it all. I don't sense the world. Part of that might be the fact that much of the novel is stuck inside the claustrophobic world of Buckkeep(other than a few outings, on sea and land) but it's also just the way it's written. I think Hobb is about characters first and foremost.



Robin Hobb's books, all of which are set within the same world, are more influential than I first thought. Recommended to fans fo fantasy.

Review of Salem's Lot

I've never read Bran Stoker's classic Dracula. I did see the Francis Ford Coppola film in the early nineties, and I have some dim memories of it. Problem was, I had made the bad decision to see it on LSD with my friends S and J. So the movie did not make a whole lot of sense and the memory that sticks out to me most was the vision of a moonlit Winona Ryder running down some stairs in her nightgown, full breasts unbound and all abounce in a most unVictorian manner. Me and my two friends involuntarily groaned aloud at the sight in the otherwise very quiet and very full cinema, a fact that to this day makes me cringe with embarassment and shame.

Anyway, Salem's Lot is based on Dracula. How loosely, I don't know: it seemed the film emphasized more a sort of love story between Dracula and Winona Ryder (this is not a thing in Salem's Lot) and I'm not sure which version is more loose.

I enjoyed Salem's Lot and if I hadn't been so busy at work lately, I probably would have read it faster. Stephen King writes good believable characters. I especially think his minor characters are well-written as his protagonists seem a little samey(going by this book and 1978's The Stand). I mean, there's the erudite 'professor type', 'the doctor', 'the normal guy', 'the comic-loving kid','the pretty-but-not-gorgeous sensible down-to-earth woman'...they all seem a bit familiar. 

The book is 41 years old, having been published in 1974(it's set in 1975) and it's prose does feel a little old fashioned in a slightly Steinbeck sort of way...but the ode to the New England Fall that he writes about a third of the way into the book is a really lovely passage that would probably stand by itself. 

Stephen King is excellent at delivering the chills, the fear that the characters feel affects the reader. This is interesting, I think it is his real talent and the secret to his success. Somehow he does tap the fears we all have had(but don't really talk about) as children or even adults sometimes and brings them back to life in us. It's a neat trick. 

HIs dialogue is problematic for me. It all seems a bit too...TV-ish. It's not that it's bad; it definitely does its trick and he's deft at using it realistically for exposition but I'm left wondering if people really talk like this in real life. I remember seeing TV programs where they did, but that's aboutit.
This is a small quibble though.

I enjoyed the book very much--really it was like candy and I will definitely read more of STephen King in the future.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I got acquainted with Gillian Flynn through her short story in last year's cross-genre anthology, Rogues. What I liked about the story was it's pot-boiler tension and especially the cynical, acidic voice of the character. I had also watched the film adaptation of her best-selling Gone Girl not too long before that so I decided the time would come when I checked her out. 

Dark Places is first and foremost a mystery about a woman who is investigating the cult-related murders of her family 25 years after the fact in order to find some sort of inner peace. All of the conventional mystery tropes and techniques are there, the subtle clues, the red herrings, the recap of evidence, the consideration and rejection of various suspects...To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, as I can always see the tick-tick-ticking of the clockworks behind the plot and usually have it figured out before the character's have. This was no exception, although I must say I had two theories going here and both were only half right. 

But, man, this book is so much more than a mystery. This little book packs a lot in: the psychological aftereffects of trauma, the little lies humans constantly tell themselves to feel better, the sinister underside to the cutesy way adults treat children, sibling rivaly, the plight of desperately poor underclass drowning in debt, the 1980s farm crisis, the meanspiritedness of small towns, the exploitation of (some but not all)crimes by the media, devil worship, underage sex, the path of psychological carnage crimes and lies can wreak...All of it deftly, unpreachily, matter-of-factly part of the story and the characters themselves. 

It blew me the fuck away.

The story is mostly set in rural Kansas in the mid 1980s, in the plains north of the Flint Hills and in modern day Kansas City Missouri. Having grown up poor in semi-rural Missouri myself at the time(I'm almost exactly the same age as the imprisoned Ben Day in the story) and spending time in various places in the Midwest, she nails it. The run down feeling of urban decay. The sick feeling of envy and sadness felt by the children of the have nots. The headachey banality of evil that grows out of oppressive boredom. The hypersensitivity of misfit teenagers and the fight they make for their souls in a bleak landscape. The utterly empty and eternal loneliness of the prairie in winter that makes you feel small, effect-less, mean and meaningless. 

The prose is simple and easy to read. It reminded me a little of Chuck Palahniuk, though less minimalistic: the depressed, cynical, ever-angry voice of the protagonist had a lot to do with that. There are passages and twists of wording that are just sublime--simple, but elegant. IN a twisted sort of way.

And if the setting seems a little overly grey and depressing, run down and broken... it's worth noting that all of the point of view characters are suffering from rather real and severe depression. Things really do look like that there sometimes. All dull and headachey. Flynn has a journalistic eye that paints pictures that I've seldom seen painted before anywhere but my own memories.

It actually brought back a lot of memories. 

The characters feel incredibly real to me: if they don't leap off the page, it's mainly because they are too tired and depressed to leap. But they do get off the page and into your skull. 

The teenage boy in me identified strongly with the forlorn Ben Day(although at least he gets laid. Unlike the teenage boy in me.) But the main character, Libby Day is the real achievement here. Hateful, full of anger, dishonest, conniving...somehow, by some sort of magic, Gillian Flynn makes the unlikable sympathetic and likable. It all makes sense. How could Libby be any other than what she is?

The book is not for everybody. It's almost relentless in it's darkness. There's a lot of really disturbing themes. The climactic scenes are breathtakingly violent and really quite horrible. I like that kind of thing but a lot of people don't. Other people have complained about foul language.(that never bothers me.
But it's a breeze to read(I did it in about 2 days) and it's going to stick with me afor a long time. Yeah, if you're not squeamish...read it.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In this current age of grim, morally grey fantasy, Assassin's Apprentice seemed a bit old-fashioned and 'clean'on first impression. There seemed a lot of familiar fantasy cliches and tropes; it had hints of Earthsea, I thought, although without the keen, crystal atmosphere of LeGuin's series... It held my interest well enough but it seemed slow...as I continued to read though, it started grabbing me more and more until I really started enjoying it.

By the half-way point I was hooked and found myself staying up a little later each night to find out what happened next. There is quite a bit happening under the surface here, I think.

Having said that parts of it is a bit predictable: I don't like to think I'm smarter than the narrator(and main character) but I had certain things figured out long before he did...and I'm not sure I was meant to. But just a bit. There were also a lot of things that surprised me(usually the failure of a familiar trope to materialize as you think it's going to.)


I miss the really fine details of really great world-building, but part of that is probably the first person voice used. This is a massive series of series, so I have the feeling that I"m just scratching the surface of it...and I am intrigued about how political fortunes and situations are going to develop in this long tale. I'd probably give this first story 3 and half stars if that were possible, so I'm rounding up, here, because I expect that this fine story is just the beginning: the story is going to widen and broaden and hook me in further as I read...I'm looking forward to it! Recommended to fans of traditional fantasy.

Cops

I was taking Dad to the airport in Prague yesterday morning. When we pulled onto the highway out of Zlin I realized that I hadn't bought a highway sticker yet.

"Shit,"; I said. "I haven't bought a highway sticker yet."
Dad said: "Are you gonna go back?"
I said: !No, it's only 4.30. What I'll do is I'll pull over at the first gas station and buy one. God. Do they sell highway stickers on the highway itself? Maybe they don't. Maybe they only sell them before you get to the highway?"
Dad: "Surely they do."
Me: "WEll I hope so. I guess I'll find out."
an hour later, I'm still driving, having come across only one gas station, and that was closed down and made into a rest area sans toilet. I see a gas station in the distance. I pull off the exit and over. It's 5.30. Several cars are parked at some of the tanks, including a big police van--the type they use when they are out on the highway nabbing people for not having highway stickers. The cops themselves are inside.

Me: "Damn, there's the cops. Good thing I stopped. I guess I'll get some gas here. "
I get the gas and Dad goes into pay for it. I go in and buy a ten day highway sticker. Then I go downstairs to take a much needed leak. I return to my car. Dad puts the sticker on. The cops are gone. I pull away to leave and behind the gas station, there they ARE!!! Standing outside their van. They immediately JUMP in front of me holding out their little stop sign. "Shit, they're pulling me over", I say. (Probably unnecessarily.)

The cop walks over and inspects my new-bought sticker.

He walks to the window and demands all my documents: driver's license, proof of insurance, title of the car, Dad's passport, my passport. Then he asks me if I have some Czech ID because I guess he doesn't want to accept my American passport as ID or something. I show him my green trvaly pobyt book. He looks at it and says 'Do you live in Horni Jasenka, Vsetin?'
"yes'. I say.
"Hmmm...that is very good, very good. I know Vsetin well, very well." (All of this is in Czech, of course. He has a weird accent for me, a Brno accent, I guess, since we're only about 20 kms from Brno; so he's' a little hard to understand, and I start feeling like he's a Nazi toying with me. I'm so nervous I'm shaking.

Then he says: "You need a sticker to drive on a highway. You drove here without a sticker didnt' you? And you just bought that sticker here."

I reply, doing my best Jon Lovitz pathological liar impression: "actually....I didn't drive on the highway....yeeehhhh..that's the ticket...noooooo...nooooo....I drove the other way! Yeeeahhhh.... "(thinking, he was inside the gas station--he'll never prove that I didn't come some other way! Genius!! Got him on a technicality I do!)

He looks at me and says: "Well, that's very interesting because there is only one way to get to this gas station; and that's from the highway. It's the only road here. Now, do you still assert that you didn't take the highway here?"

I shake my head, thinking, damn, I need a lawyer or something . He repeats the question. I shake my head again.

Then he says: "Well, that will be 5000 crowns." This happens to be exactly how much I put in my wallet when I left. Plus I have some change. I probably have 5700 crowns in my wallet.

Me: (gasping) "I don't have 5000 crowns on me!" (I give my most distressed, now what the hell am I going to do, am I going to be arrested? look.

He wanders around and looks at the sticker again, inspecting it very closely. I figure(now) that he realizes he's shit out of luck: I don't have 5000 kc and he can't really fine me for not having a sticker when I have one now, can he?

He comes back. And says. "WEll, this time I'll let you go. Because I know Vsetin well. You are lucky you are from Vsetin. But next time you drive on the highway without a sticker, I'll take your license. Because that will mean that you don't know the law." I refrain from pointing out how illogical this statement is.

Me: "he's letting me go."

I drive off, shaking in fear for about the next 10 kms.

1356 by Bernard Cornwell (version 2.0)

I previously wrote a review, came back to edit and accidentally deleted it!

This book, the fourth of Cornwell's series focusing on the fictional archer Thomas of Hookton during the Hundred Years' war is a bit of a disappointment for me.

The familiar elements of the formula are very much in place, but they seem a bit hackneyed here, as if he's just going through the motions. Previously the formula didn't bother me because it's why I read in the first place, but this time it bothered me.

The previously three novels had wrapped up the story pretty well and the creation of another mythical Christian relic for Thomas to pursue just felt lame, as if Cornwell was absolutely unable to think of anything for Thomas to do but the quest after holy relics.

Another problem is the story felt somehow truncated, as if Cornwell had set himself a deadline(he does seem to write a book a year so it's possible) and, running out of time, just sort of abruptly ended the various threads of plot in the inevetible Big Battle at the End that all of his stories have(battle scenes excellent as always). Even the death of what had been a major character in all three books seemed abrupt and out-of-nowhere.

I did like the fact that Thomas seemed to have acquired a bit more depth with age and family; and the new character, the virgin knight Roland d'something-or-other was a bit more interesting than the rest of the series' panoply of shallow tournament champions. 

Overall, the whole story seemed tired and worn out. I'm still looking forward to the next installment of the Saxon Stories(still, along with the '90's sublime Warlord Chronicles Cornwell's best work) in October, and I'll probably get around to reading other books of his, but, truth be told, I've read a lot of his books in the last year or so(no less, than 10!) and this decidedly mediocre one has convinced me to take a break.

List of things my son will eat

Meat: Chicken Rizek(Schnitzel--breaded and fried chicken breast.)

Vegetables: n/a

fruit: n/a but will occasionally eat apple or strawberry presnidavka(puree with added sugar--something like applesauce.)

Grains: potatoes occasionally. boiled rice. No flavoring. French fries.

Dairy: Milk. White cheese as long as it doesn't have holes in it. Chocolate chip or vanilla yogurt.

Any sweets as long as the sweets do not contain any fruit in them.

Rohlik (long thin roll, like a hot dog bun, but not soft. about 200 calories of carbs.) with butter or peanut butter.

Toast with butter.

Rice cake with peanut butter. (hardly ever unless I'm around to give it to him.

Pasta(no flavoring, no butter, no cheese.)



That's it. Doctor says in two years he's gained 1.5 kilos.

Why do many Americans make jokes about Canada

I have a good friend who is Canadian. And I respect Canada a lot. It's one of the greatest countries in the world and everybody knows that. 

So I've actually given this question an unusual (and probably thorougly unnecessary) amount of thought : why do Americans joke about Canadians?

The conclusion I've come to is actually very simple. 

Americans find Canada funny because of one thing: to America, Canada seems like AMERICA WITHOUT THE PROBLEMS.

This is a bit confusing because I think that problems are part of the American psyche. RAcial problems, money problems, health care problems,, guns on the streets, , an old-fashioned inefficient form of government, civil liberty problems, constant wars and tears, an obesity epidemic probably greater than Canada's(as far as I know.).

AT the same time we can boast  some pretty kick-ass movies that the world flocks to see(even if they don't like to admit it; the greatest literature of the 20th century (opinion!), and our culture has been a well-spring and inspiration of musical forms  the world over for over a century; we put a man on the moon! We rule the oceans! Our big cities serve awesome cuisine from all corners of the globe!   And so on.
 Americans are dramatic by nature; we like overcoming obstacles and surviving difficult situations and enduring suffering. Our stories and literature and even history, the very mythology that shapes our national psyche is filled with startling triumphs and crushing, humiliating defeats and failures. Heroes and bad, bad villains.

 And most of the Americans I know tend to dramatize their lives and paint them in these terms.  

So to think of an America without the problems...its' just bizarre. It's like an oxymoron. The problems America has are something that actually define America and we BROADCAST THEM FAR AND WIDE FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE AND JUDGE. It's hard to imagine living in a society without these deep seated, seemingly unsolvable problems twisted into the fabric of said society and still be 'like America.' there's something funny about it. 

Now I know, of course, that no country is really problem-free. But most developed countries do not broadcast their problems with the vigor and enthusiasm like the USA does. So I don't know what problems Canada has. And truly caring about them...well, that would be...un-American.

BAck to Blood by Tom Wolfe

I mean, sure, he's a bit of a bitch about other writers; and he's apparently a political conservative and that's a turn off for some people. 

But I enjoy the hell out of his stories and have since Bonfire of the Vanities in the 80s. Maybe I'm not a big critic because I read other criticisms that are well written and thoughtful, but I just don't see it that way.

This latest one has a lot in common with that book, as well as the other books he's written since. The same laser journalistic eye exposing the hypocrisy and absurdity of modern American institutions and social milieux; the ego-centric, self-characters veering from insecurity to arrogant confidence in seconds flat; themes of corruption, wealth, poverty, race and power; the everyday power struggles and assertions of dominance we all go through; the same laugh-out-loud comic, almost cartoonish scenes of depravity, lust and insecurity...all told in a rich prose dripping with wit and wordplay.

Here Wolfe applies his eye to the world of billionaire art collectors; Russian mafiosos; Haitian, Cuban and Russian immigrants and the overall racial tensions presided over by ambitious cops and a muscular(and largely Cuban) police force; Jewish retirees; and the city of Miami itself, both it's high-life and it's low-life. And he does it all in typically hilarious fashion in a story centered around earnest Cuban-American cop/body builder/secret detective Nestor Comacho. 

One of the things I like about this book--and indeed about most Tom Wolfe books is how it seems to encroach on my own reality. One minute I'm laughing at these ridiculously macho, ridiculously insecure characters; and the next minute I realize, 'My God, they are just like me.'. 

I'm left wondering...what would an enlightened being seem like in these books? Then I realized that Nestor Comacho, in duty mode, does achieve a sort of...purity of mind...that lifts him above the male ego that so contols him at other times. This purity is something new and rather nice in a Tom Wolfe book. It takes a bit of the edge off of the bitter-if-funny cynicism that I felt did add some unnecessary weight to Charlotte Simmons--the humor got lost a bit in that one.
Criticisms? Oh, I suppose a few bits could have been cut; a few sharply-drawn characters that don't really go anywhere, a subplot that seems profound but then just meanders out. But it all made sense to me. And if the character of the Haitian(or, ahem, French sil vous plait) character doesn't really do much, it made sense to me to show him as a detail in the overall  mosaic of modern, 21st century Miami.

I was really prepared to like this book, but I thought that it's poor sales(one of the biggest commercial flops ever, apparently) would probably mean it was a step below his's other stories. But I loved it. In fact, I found it, ultimately more accessible and (slightly) less cynical overall than some of the novels of the past. And while some people don't like his wordy, witty style, I love it and always have. I highly recommend it. A good story with some profound spot-on observations. The funniest book I've read in a long time. 

The Greek Situation.

dential Campaign

 

 

e Imagine going to dinner with someone. In the past you borrowed money and behaved very foolishly and now you're broke. You go out to lunch with a bunch of rich people--but you owe the rich people money.

The rich people generously lend you more money which you give to them and they use it buy lunch for themselves. They give you a bite of it. Then they say, now you owe us even more money. They have sex with your wife in front of you.

So you ask for more money to pay off your debts. The rich people generously lend you more money, which you give back to them. They use it to buy themselves lunch. They give you a crumb. And they add it to your bill. They take your house and throw you on the street.

At this point you are seriously getting hungry. You haven't eaten for a long time. Your hair is falling out and your blood pressure is skyrocketing because you can't afford to buy medicine. Your skin is breaking out in a rash. Lice have made their home in your nether regions. You have tapeworms in yndour belly.

Finally you say: enough. I can't pay you back. I must get something to eat, must take some medicine.

The rich people stare at you for a long long time. You are shaking...you can't breathe. You have a pain in your chest. You get on your knees and say...PLEASE. I need help.

The Rich people continue to stare at you.

You throw up. Surely they can see the desperate straits you're in.

They just stare at you.

Finally you break down...even a crumb is better than nothing. 'Please...' you whisper....'Lend me some money. I'll do anything you want." The rich people stare at you. Then one of htem lifts his boot towards you. You lick the bottom of it.

THe rich people lend you more money. You give it to them. They buy another lunch and give you a few bites. They sodomize your children.

And they add it to your bill. And talk to themselves about what a lazy asshole you are.

Greece is you. The rich guys are the EU

Thoughts on the latest Game of Thrones episode (Unbowed Unbent, Unbroken)

Regarding the posts I see from A Song of Ice and Fire fans regarding the controversial scene.... I think a lot of it is misguided.

. Violence towards women in Westerosi society(which tries to reflect our own history to a certain extent) is one of the themes of the book series and it's a much bigger  theme in the show. The rape is hardly the first one they've shown in the show.

 I think where the show fails is that it  has this sort of glorification of brutal power. All other forms of power are irrelevant in the show., The Sansa of the books shows a different kind of power, a power reliant on her feminine charms. She soothes the raging Hound a number of times. She takes on the role of Queen to comfort the scared women and children (even though she herself is pessimistic and terrified, she instinctively does it as a kindness to the others) by singing the Hymn to the Mother during the Battle of the Blackwater. She even is able to soothe and convince a quaking, palsied boy into taking a dangerous journey down a dangerous mountain path . And in the sample chapter which GRRM recently published on his blog, she seems to be using a more self-aware sexual element to achieve her desires and wishes. This is power. How you achieve your desires, wishes and goals is power. Which is actually also historically accurate. I mean, historically, women were not *just* victims. They also had their own forms of power, and I'm not talking about the handful of medieval queens who wielded incredible political power in more traditional ways.  More on this later.. . By cutting Sansa's storyline and throwing her into Ramsay's arms they have taken her power away. I'm not sure if it's a conscious decision to excise that view of power from the story but there is a pattern that has emerged over the five seasons that leads me to suspect that it might be partially that, which I'll get into below.

Now, Sansa is arguably the most feminine character in the series; not only is she pretty, not only does she have exquisite courtesy, but she also exemplifies a sort of medieval feminine ideal: she sews well and straight, she plays the harp, she sings, she dances. It's not that Sansa is  anti-feminist;, that is just who she is. She is a girly girl. That's her natural state. So by taking her storyline away, they are in a way saying, that 'the feminine', as a sort of Jungian archetype, can never have any sort of power; they are saying that only traditionally masculine traits can be powerful. And that's a gross misreading of the books, in my opinion, and not historically accurate. (I say historically accurate, because, even though it is a fantasy series, there are several connections with real medieval history, and several events and characters have been inspired by real historical events and characters. See the brilliant Race for the Iron Throne blog for a deconstruction of this aspect of the (books) series.)

Yet, oddly this treatment does seem to play into a form of feminism and a view of men as victimizers and women as victims that I occasionally see in American discourse. Ultimately, I think that this and other aspects of the show* reflect the show writers' view of modern American issues. They seem to be declaring themselves feminists but there is an unconscious edge of misogyny underneath. I actually this is an echo of the USA mixed vision of women in general. (I'm not picking on the USA, other places have other problems with this.)This is very different in the book. I think GRRM has a mysogynistic bone or two in his body, like many men, but I think his own unconcious view of feminism is a much more sixties-based one, and it's much less militant and much more positive. Mostly though, and this should be underscored twice,  I think GRRM's just trying to write a good story, as opposed to the show-runners who are trying to shock and yet be (barf) socially relevant .

And to some extent that is the goal of dramatic art. The Red Wedding (in book especially, but also in the show) worked because its so shocking that it causes catharsis--it's shocking because the way it's written makes it unexpected, but it's still just basically a tragic(in the classic sense) scene. But it worked because it was logical in the confines of the plot. It was not gratuitous. NOt shock for shock's sake.
 They seem to be going for more and more of these moments and they are getting less justified, less logical and therefore more gratuitous. 

But anyway, back to to their portrayal of women. It's not just Sansa's feminine power that they've taken from her.

 By taking dany's strategic decisions in her battles away from her and giving them to her generals they also take her power away. By reducing Catelyn and even Cersei to caricatures of the 'concerned mother trope'  they also take away catelyn's political smarts and her non-brutal power and strength; while the glossing over of Cersei's narcissism and paranoia and secret longing to have the sort of brutal masculine power that the show glorifies  reduces her character, too. (though it does make her more likeable)

But, personally, I'm not offended. All of these elements have been in the show since the first season and they've become more pronounced over time.  Ultimately it's just that the the show runners have a limited faith in complexity. There is a definite pattern over the series in(their portrayal of women and their presentation of brute, masculine strength being the only kind of power that exists.  In the end they just dont understand subtle characters like sansa. And that's a real shame.

The point they are making about women is clear but it's dumb.

Personally, as a fan of the boook series I"m much more disgusted with the horribly written, horribly staged, horribly acted Dorne subplot. They cut Jaime's journey of self-growth and self awareness, his slow transformation into a hero; cut Arrianne Martell's character completely and the complex plot to place Myrcella on the throne in place of Tommen coming into conflict with Doran Martell's grander plan to supplant the Lannisters entirely and replaced it with 'The Dornish are crazy. They like to fuck and fight!' It's lame. But, you know? It's like watching Star Trek at this point. It's got a campy 'so laughably bad it's kind of good' feeling to it to me.

Lance





*for examplethe reduction of the ser Loras character to a gay stereotype, and his subsequent struggle against the Taliban-like Faith Militant,  the equating of all religion to fanaticism, the glorification of the secular and the physical and the selfish...I could go on.

Goodbye Columbus by Phillip Roth

Goodbye, Columbus is a brutal, funny collection of short stories about second and third generation Jews assimilating in suburban America in the mid-twentieth century.

I really liked this complicated stories with their complex, well-drawn characters. Philip Roth does not shy away from showing the darker, pettier sides of suburban America, but he doesnt wallow in it, either. The characters are selfish, lustful, silly, yet never really less than real. I feel that I've known each of these characters. Never more so than in the opening novella from which the collection gets the title. It struck a really familiar chord in me, from its portrait of the suburban home, to it's detailing of the romantic fling the narrator has, and the concerns and worries and obsessions of the characters. In fact, it's eerie how much it pulled me in; I could feel the air conditioning, feel the heat of the summer, smell teh sweat on skin...

I'm not Jewish, but I almost felt Jewish reading this. Make no mistake, there is not a single story here that doesn't concern Jewishness. Judaism is wrapped around these stories and inseparable from them. But they transcend that.

Being set 60 or 70 years ago(published in 1959) hasn't really dated the stories too much, other than a few terms(colored boy, for example)and a few details. Overall, it really felt fresh to me. There's a bitter sadness to these stories, and an beautiful anger--and a wicked sense of humor. I chuckled to myself more than a few times. 

And man, can he write!

There are some powerful stories here which range they range from incredibly good to unbelievably good--more than a few disturbing moments too. They're probably the best short stories I've read since I read JD Salinger in the 90s. In fact, I'd say they resemble JD Salinger. They're sort of a mix of Salinger and Saul Bellow, but funnier.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes great 20th century AMerican literature.

My Tuesdays

Jana made the observation yesterday that me and my family 'write a lot.' That made me feel kind of proud, though I'm not sure she didn't actually mean that we were addicted to Facebook, haha. I guess she has fewer FAcebook friends than I do(though I've unfollowed most of mine) so she tends to see a lot more updates from my brothers and sister than her other Facebook friends.

It's true that I can sometimes really get into writing, whether it's a book review or whatever. I don't really consider myself a writer, though at one time I was and did.

 In truth I'm probably not disciplined enough and I have spent too much time and energy getting my business going and so on. I don't work as hard at work as I used to, partially because policies are policies and once you make them, things run more or less smoothly without you, and getting Jana and Zuzka(assistant) working for me has meant that my job on the management side has dwindled to financial management, hiring(and firing--thankfully it's only happened once) and making the schedule.   This is still an enormous amount of work, I reckon that the schedule is about 100 hours of work and hiring new teachers probably the same. But gone are the days of the 60 or 70 hour work seeks, leaving home at 5.00 and getting back at 9.pm. That was the heart attack year, incidentally!

 Fortunately, this year I don't have to hire any new teachers from abroad as they're all staying. Knock on wood. What this means is that for the winter I basically do nothing but look at the money and make sure we're not spending more htan we're taking in so that we survive the summer, when there is much less work but the same amount of fixed costs.

. The school year is winding down and I definitely have that 'home-stretch' feeling. I'm looking forward to teaching a little less and relaxing and reading a little more in the summer. One of the teachers is staying through the summer, which means I'll be able to take it a little easy and give him some of the hours I usually teach--I'm usually just as busy in the summer as not. I started out the year as one of the school's busiest teachers but I've ended up having a pretty easy schedule, though I do have some stressful classes. I've been saving money for the planned vacation in America next year, and I suppose some of that will be going for living costs this year.

We haven't really made plans for this year: what I'd like to do is maybe have a little holiday in the High TAtras of Slovakia--it's not as good for little kids as Austria is but for bigger kids and adults it's just as good,

If there's one thing living in the Czech Republic has taught me it's how to look and plan ahead and save money. The amount of money that I have saved would have been absolutely impossible in the States. I remember one time realizing that, as I walked through Denver one hot summer day that I hardly went ten minutes without spending money somewhere. And when I visit America, I was surprised at how often Dad or Blake, when they were driving, would just casually stop the car somewhere, run in and get a Coke or something to drink. It blew me away. I've been trained to think about every little purchase I make. Which is not to say I never splurge but it's something I always ask myself about first. Because, SUMMER IS COMING. Summer with its smaller amount of work and vacaations to boot. After spending a penniless summer in 2004 eating almost nothing and spending my copious free time watching fish swim in the Bečva and sitting in mz bedroom in the evening practicing saying Czech words outloud, I've learned to control my spending much more tightly than back in the US of A.

I've got an easy day today because we're doing PET examinations at a local school--well, Jana and Petr are doing them. My morning class was consequently cancelled because the students in it are taking the test. I don't go 'til 2.00 today. I'll geet off at 8.30, so really just 6 a nd a half hours of work and it's all pretty easy on Thursdays.

Tuesdays are my demanding days. Let me tell you about my Tuesdays. I get up at 4.30 and do my morning ritual of coffee and reading. (sometimes I get on the net but usually I read on my Kindle.) At 5.45, I jump in the shower, get out, skip shaving, get dressed, hunt for my keys/phone/wallet/kindle/laptop and head out to work. At abuot 6.05,  I drive across town to pick up Catherine, who, like me, also works in Val Mez on Tuesdays. Then we drive to Val Mez, which is about 13 miles away. Sometimes we chat amiably, especially now that it's light out and that gives me energy. Sometimes we exchange a few pleasantries and sit the rest of the journey in the silence. It's all good. I usually get to the office in VM at about 6.40 at which time I turn on the kettle, set up my laptop and hastily plan my first lesson, which starts at 7.00. 

My student shows up at 7. He is always exactly on time. I think he literally walks into the school at the precise moment that all the second hands in the world are pointing straight up at the twelve. I give him his tea, and sit down and teach him for 60 minutes. Jiři is a pretty nice guy. He's short and looks a little rodent-like. He's the HR manager at a factory in Hranice na Moravě. His wife is a doctor, as is his daughter and his son is studying computer engineering in Brno. He's about a typical a middle-class Moravian as you can find. Works hard. Goes for walks at the weekend. Skiing holidays in the winter. Croatia in the summer.

 After he takes off, I horse around on the Internet for about 15 minutes or talk to Petr about some important business. Then I go into overdrive and I plan the rest of my work day in the next 35 minutes or so. I make some copies and I'm out the door at about 9.25, running late for my lesson at MTT, a factory which makes plastic mouldings that make pieces for cara(like the plastic inside of your car doors or the light frames and 'glass'(it's plastic) around your tail lights. They also make tools, but not tools like hammers and such. They make these huge industrial machines that...make molds and so on. I don't really know what they do. Anyway, I usually get there about three our four minutes late(it's four kilometres away and I always underestimate how bad the traffic will be.) It doesn't matter because my student, Petr is always even later. He always comes in at about a quarter til ten apologizing for his lateness. I always say, 'that's OK, I was actually a little late, too.' We have our lessons. Petr is also pretty typical for a Moravian in these parts, but he's sportier than average, I'd reckon(and Moravians are a sporty bunch) He lives in a village about 5 miles from Val Mez, and when it's not raining or snowy, he rides his bike to and from work. He's a technical designer for MTT, meaning he designs these industrial machines they make. He's 50 but he looks about 35. He has a very thick accent. His wife is a psychologist, his son a technical designer and his second son is kind of a deadbeat of whom petr despairs. He goes on exotic holidays every couple years(safari in Africa, hiking in Nepal) and he also goes on a fishing trip to Norway every spring. At weekends, he and his wife travel somewhere in the Czech Republic, often to South Moravia to wine cellars or for cycling in the Bohemian lowlands or whatever.

I finish that one at 11, and drive straight back to Vsetin, where I walk in the office at about 11.30. I eat lunch which I've either prepared the night before or which I've had Zuzka order for me from one of the restaurants in town. I don't like ordering from the restaurants in town because they nearly always include something I shouldn't eat, like potatoes or they are late and I don't have time to eat. Anwyay, i finish eating at 1115, at which time I take a toilet break for 15 minutes. Then I correct homework for the next half hour and if I play my cards right, I can take it easy from 12-12.30 and check the bank account and pay whatever invoices have piled up on my desk.

At twelve thirty I pile everything into the other car(the one for teachers that no one uses this year because none of the teachers can drive, so I drive it a couple of times a week so it doesn't fall apart.) 

This car used to belong to Petr. He sold it to the school for 30 000 kc earlier this year. It's a bit of a hunk o' junk but it's the fastest ship in the galaxy. Petr smoked in it constantly so it smells very strongly of cigarette smoke. If you're not a smoker, this is absolutely the worst smell in the galaxy. But fuck it.

Anyway, I drive about 6 kms to Austin(google maps says it's 7 kms but mapy.cz says it's about 6.) a factory where they make explosives used in mining and for blasting holes in hills for highways to go through. It's an American-owned company, based in Ohio. It's called Austin for its founder who founded the company like 180 years ago or something. I teach there from about 1.00 to 4.00, to lessons back to back. I don't mind it at all. I really like the students and if ever a class is lacklustre or boring, it's nearly always my fault.

My first lesson is comprised of too IT technicians, a chemist and...Petr. I'm not sure what Petr does, to be honest, but I know he works 6 days a week. He's a big bellied, recently divorced guy who makes a lot of self-deprecating, ironic jokes, which are actually pretty funny despite the fact that he's probably the weakest student in the class in terms of language skills. Then there's Miroslav, the IT technician whose passion is building and flying model remote control planes, Bron'e, an IT technician who has a girlfriend at university in Olomouc who he visits every weekend, and Jarda, a chemist and electrician  who uses over formal words all the time as if he's learned most of his English from istruction manuals. Which he has. His daughter, who I taught at when she was 14 is some sort of English-Czech translator and teacher in Brno.

After that there's the advanced class: Jana, who is a technical designer working on her Master's Degree, Magda...I think she works in the purchasing department. She's about 32 but her sons are in their teens. Tomas, another IT guy, but higher position than the ones in the first class. And Tonda. Tonda's about 45 but he had a mild stroke a few years ago and changed his position. I'm not sure what he did before, but now he's in charge of safety procedures. Austin's pretty strict about safety because, after all, they make explosives.

When I'm teaching there, classes are intermittently interrupted by explosions echoing through the tree-clad hills as somewhere in the huge complex the chemists are testing products. The windows rattle, I mutter 'excuse me' (which no one EVER gets) and we carry on. 

Anyway, at 4 o'clock, I get into the school car and drive as fast as I possibly can BACK to Val Mez. This takes about 40 minutes on average, becaue the traffic is quite heavy between the two towns at that time. Then I get in, teach my lessons from 445-8.00 deliver the homework I've checked to the three ladies who I give extra homework to, and finally I'm finished at 8.00. I drive back home, and get in usually about 840. at which time, exhausted, I change clothes, climb into bed and read a bit before sinking....And that's my day.