Weeknote 50+51/2023
“All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people.”
Verbs
Reading: Cuddy, Benjamin Myers
Late in the year, but this could well be my book of 2023. Part of what drew me to it is my love for Durham and the North East - having spent a good chunk of my 20’s there - as well as the common thread of St Cuthbert and his impact on England that winds it’s way through the novel. Split over 4 distinct time periods, the book uses Cuthbert and Durham as a way to explore very personal stories that are each expressed in different forms and styles - ranging from the story of a young orphan travelling Northumbria with the first monks of St Cuthbert, all the way to a young lad in 2019 who is finding his way to look after his family whilst coming to work amongst the masons of the Cathedral. It’s a rich, satisfying, and quite moving book that uses it’s central conceit to produce some deeply evocative storytelling. The really accomplished interweaving of fiction, poetry, history, and the expression of faith make it a book quite unlike any other I’ve read and reminds me most, perhaps, of David Mitchell’s writing. Don’t be fooled by how it might sound in summary, this isn’t some dry work of historical fiction, it’s a really absorbing and even heartbreaking book that brings to bear deep thought, incredible skill, and tremendous writing. I’m really looking forward to going back to re-read this one in some months or years’ time.
Thinking: The Hidden Cost of Gamification, Struthless on YouTube
This feels oddly timely, despite the fact that it was released in 2018, as the complex and deeply interwoven tensions between Israel and Palestine have now reached a point of forthright conflict. Taking this as a drama, and a work of fiction, there’s some exceptional performances from all of the cast, but especially Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon. Whilst the show doesn’t shy away from engaging with the nature of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, it does leave things appropriately undetermined and nuanced. Throughout, you are left with the feeling that there is evidently good and bad on both sides and that these often reside in one and the same place, even one and the same person. It’s an engaging and quite powerful piece of classic Le Carré and carried off with immaculate design, cinematography, and direction.
Watching: A Murder at the End of the World, Disney+
We’re suckers for a murder mystery in our house, and we also fell in love with Emma Corrin, as so many did, when they played Princess Diana in The Crown and again when we saw them in Orlando earlier this year in London. I think they’re even better in this than any of those, particularly in how they play both the story that runs through the murder and the more complex backstory elements. Add to that some punishing Icelandic landscapes, sparky techno-fututism, AI, and Clive Owen bringing all intimidating the weight of a calving iceberg and were sold. It’s a fun, pacy, twisty thriller that also plays around with, and honours, all of the classic tropes of the genre. We’ve got locked room mysteries, we’ve got guests cut off from the rest of the world by the weather, we’ve got a grand gathering of everyone for the big reveal, and all of the hidden motives, red herrings, and sudden surprises your could want. As a murder mystery, it’s really enjoyable, but it also handles the addition of modern technology, AI, billionaire tech-moguls, and contemporary concerns about politics, democracy, and the environment in a way that feels totally natural and that meaningfully adds to the story which is quite a rare thing. We’re certainly hoping that this isn’t Darby Hart’s final case.
Following: The Best Philosophy Books of 2023, Five Books
Five Books has long been an amazing source for reading recommendations and inspiration. Unlike Amazon or GoodReads, these lists are curated by experts, and accompanied by interviews and discussions of the books that give some great extra detail are an incredible way to get into a huge range of subjects. The philosophy lists are always excellent and I particularly love Nigel Warburton’s end of year list that covers his top/best five philosophy books for the year. The previous years’ lists and the other philosophy lists are all well worth looking in to, as are the lists in fiction, and other non fiction categories. This year’s philosophy best of list includes Sarah Bakewell, who I’ve been a huge fan of since her book on Montaigne totally changed my left and made me a hardcore Montaigne obsessive. There’s a really fun sounding book on Diogenes and another on Derek Parfit by David Edmunds that both pique my interest, and who wouldn’t want to pick up a book called For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun!
Wearing: Mission to the Moon, Swatch x Omega
I’ve long loved watches. That comes, I think, from having a dad that owns a jewellers and having spent too many hours working in that shop as a teenager. I don’t particularly have an interest in expensive watches, it would be much use even if I did, so Swatch are a company I’ve really liked and I’ve bought quite a few of their watches for years as they’re relatively inexpensive and often very inventive and creative in design. That said, the Omega Speedmaster is, to my tastes, the most beautifully designed watched to have ever existed. It’s story of having been to the moon with Apollo astronauts only adds to the incredible heritage of the watch - especially being a space nut as I am. Unfortunately, it remains a little pricy for my blood so I’ve not got one in my collection quite yet. Though I am happy to remind my wife that I’ve got a big birthday coming up in about 18 months…
Last year, then, when Swatch and Omega announced a collaboration to make a series of 11 watches, inspired by the Omega Speedmaster, and representing each of the nine planets, the moon, and the sun, I was a little excited. It’s taken me quite a bit of time to finally track one down as they’re only available in select stores around the world and can’t be reserved or bought online. However, just before our trip to Switzerland we were in Belgrade for the day and I was finally able to get my hands on the Mission to the Moon MoonSwatch as they had just gotten one in stock, and I am very, very much in love with it.
Words
A fork in a Swiss lake.
Last week we took a trip to Switzerland, thanks to a flight voucher we still had from COVID flight-cancellation-times. We stayed in Geneva and took trips out to various towns and locations around the lake; spending 4 nights in the city. Once we had both gotten over the intense shock of just how expensive everything was (joke - we never got over that, even though we very much knew in advance - 8EUR for a box of cereal!?) we then had a really lovely winter break. Our first day was spent in Geneva itself, enjoying the various shops and restaurants in the city as well as spending some time in the museums and galleries before having dinner at the Christmas market by the water front - the poutine was so good I didn’t even get a picture of it.
The second day was an absolute life-highlight for me as we took the tram out of the city and visited CERN. Physics, space, and science are a big part of what I’m fascinated with and to visit CERN felt very special. I wonder if it felt how others might feel visiting somewhere religiously significant to them perhaps? We managed took book on to one of the few small tours that run and we had the chance to visit the now decommissioned Synchro-cyclotron that ran from 1957 until the early 1990’s. A huge piece of equipment that allowed the very first high-energy research to take place at CERN.
After that we crossed the site and were able to visit the ATLAS experiment headquarters. ATLAS is one of the two largest CERN experiments, along with ALICE, and was involved in the initial detection and confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson in 2012. We were even able to get to see the operations room of the experiment which was very quiet due to the winter break. We were incredibly lucky to have, as our guide for the tour, a now-retired former CERN physicist who took evident delight in explaining to us the complex engineering challenges and the remarkable science involved in the LHC and ATLAS.
I was also weirdly excited to have been able to buy an 8.5Tb magnetic tape drive of LHC data as a souvenir. Every few years the entire archive of LHC data is migrated onto newer, denser magnetic tape drives to enable more efficient, and continuously stable, storage and the previous archive of drives is then made available for purchase in the CERN shop to help fund the project. It’s a fun thing to have on a shelf in my office and, whilst I don’t think I will ever be trawling through the terabytes of data that are on there, there could always be a Higgs event hiding in the ones and zeroes.
On our last day we took the train further around the lake and spent time walking through, or travelling between, Villeneuve, Chillon, Montruex, Vevey, and Lausanne. Powerfully bright, clear weather with mirror-still water made for a really relaxing and enjoyable time walking between the towns and having lunch along the way. The 8 metre fork (above), known as the Fork of Vevey, was created by Swiss artists Jean-Pierre Zaugg and added a really fun touch of absurdism or surrealism to the water front in Vevey. We also hugely enjoyed MUDAC (Museum of Contemporary and Applied Arts) in Lausanne that had two great exhibitions on and occupies a really impressive, brand new, site in central Lausanne.
Earlier this week we had slava, celebrating the Saints’ Day of my wife’s family, which happens to be St Nicholas! I’ve really enjoyed celebrating this particularly holiday since moving to Serbia as we never really could when we lived in the UK and Italy, and it’s come to mark the start of Christmas time for me now. Tomorrow, I’ll be travelling to the UK and will be there for about a week to spend Christmas with friends and family, and then I’ll be heading back to Serbia ready for New Year and Orthodox Christmas in January. After that? Maybe some sleep…