(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Marks and Sparks has got their Christmas decorations up. Let's take a moment to ponder the full horror of that, shall we?

Sometimes I hate the modern world so very, very much. The fact that I know perfectly well that, being what I am, I'd have hated any given century even more is very little consolation!

In other news, it is Reformation Day/ commemoration of Martin Luther. I've always really liked Luther, despite everything, and not merely for his prose style (though that helps). So have a gratuitous Luther quotation:

"If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree."

The mixture of gloomily staring into the darkness and yet refusing to stop hoping is, somehow, very Luther.

Also: relating to that other holiday taking place today - I've just noticed that there is a row of carved pumpkins on the MCR piano. Criminally, I forgot my camera, but the one with the college crest (sort of - they haven't managed to difference it properly) is particularly impressive.

Comments

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

*nods* - it's a post-apocalyptic work, the premise being that the northern hemisphere has wiped itself out with nuclear bombs, and the radiation is working its way down south. The quotation reminded me immediately of the couple in the book who are putting a mammoth effort into their garden despite the fact that they know they won't survive to see the fruits.

[tree_and_leaf]

Ah - yes, that does sound very comparable!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the garden - it is clearly too long since I have read it.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

On the Beach is one of my least favourite books by Nevis Shute. It was rather too negative for my liking. I wasn't keen on A Town Like Alice either, though I can't put my finger on why.

I much preferred The Trustee from the Toolroom, or Round the Bend, or In the Wet; though the latter is strange, probably the closest that Shute got to fantasy or SF.