bsag's micro blog

A couple of days ago, I darned a much-loved cardigan. I didn’t make the cardigan, but I wear it a lot and it is a merino/cashmere mix that is soft and warm. It developed a large-ish hole in the back which I have been meaning to fix for ages.

I’m not good enough at darning (nor did I have quite the right matching thread) to do invisible mending, but I also didn’t have the courage or flair to try a visible mend. So the darn is a kind of fence-sitting half-way house between the two which probably says a lot about my general approach to life.

Anyway, I enjoyed the process of darning, and making something whole and usable again.

This could be seen as a pretty standard period romance (love across the divide!), but it is elevated somewhat by an interesting exploration about how people manage relationships after a war. How should the ‘victors’ treat the ‘vanquished’?

I have to admit that I have never heard of Rudy Ray Moore, but I thought this was really fun. It is a very affectionate tribute to the man, and treats him with appropriate respect, rather than making fun of him.

This morning I saw an incredible sky. I was driving so couldn’t photograph it, but it was the most amazing pale salmon with golden lemon tones. There was a heavy mist lying on the fields and wrapping the trees like a comfort blanket. The rising sun lit up the drops of dew on the grass like fairy lights. Everything was distilled but diffuse and shining. I wanted to keep it safe.

Sweet and funny story of two smart and ambitious girls who suddenly realise they need to live a little before they graduate from high school. The bond between Molly and Amy is so touching and believable, and I loved their adorable dorkiness and strong feminist principles, set against the seemingly air-headed hedonism of the rest of the class. I’m going to have to watch it again to pick up on all the references, home-made posters and so on.

After years of using a Magic Trackpad, I got a Logitech MX Ergo trackball. It has taken a little getting used to, but I like it. I can put it between the halves of my keyboard which is better ergonomically, and switch it between connecting to my iMac and MacBook Air with one button. Thus really helps when I am working from home on my laptop. The angle feels very natural once you are used to it.

My husband often buys me books he thinks I will like. He’s really good at picking them, but as a result I end up with quite a stack of books and it takes me a while to get around to reading them. I therefore picked up this book without remembering quite what grabbed me about it when I received it. As soon as I started reading it, I couldn’t believe that I had let it languish for so long on the ‘to read’ pile.

The story is set in the near-ish future when Biology departments in Universities and subsequently commercial companies are able to project the consciousness of young human ‘phenomenauts’ into the 3D-printed organic bodies of animals. The phenomenauts are able to feel what it is like to be a dolphin or a spider or fox (to the extent that this is possible while still remaining human), experience their senses and move around in a real environment in the company of real animals. If anything could hit all my wish fulfilment buttons at once, it is this idea.

Initially, the phenomenauts’ job is to study and monitor animals, but the companies are starting to develop the experience for tourism. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by animals, and wanted to be able to occasionally take off my humanity like a coat and experience life as an animal. I do a much more hands-off and objective version of this professionally, and every colleague I’ve told about this book (and believe me, I haven’t been able to shut up about it) has said that it would be amazing to be able to do that. So you see where I am coming from.

The story follows the Katherine North of the title (or Kit, as she prefers to be known) who - at the age of 19 - is a veteran among phenomenauts at ShenCorp. They employ young children because their brains are plastic enough to cope with the body shock of projecting in to radically different bodies and sensory systems. Emma Geen describes beautifully what that experience might be like, and does an excellent job with the biological detail while leaving enough room for speculation and some gorgeously poetic moments. She also shows how spending so much time in other ways of being changes the phenomenauts. The altered perspective changes their own ways of being as humans. For example, Kit spends quite a bit of time as a fox, and as a human finds herself more aware of dominance behaviours, territoriality and so on among other humans. It also makes her acutely aware of the realms of information (like smell or ultraviolet-sensitive vision) that are a closed book to humans.

The book weaves an exciting thriller in among Kit’s phenomenaut experiences, but I won’t provide any spoilers about that. It is a gripping book and one that I have often found myself thinking about since I finished it. Emma Geen apparently read Psychology and Philosophy at University, and that shows itself in the many fascinating ideas she presents the reader with. I will certainly be reading it again.

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