April 2019 Journal

Narrowing these down to books from now on.

The Way to the Stars: The Story of the Snowdon Mountain Railway (Keith Turner) - Forgot I read this. It's a brief overview of the Snowdon Railway in Wales, which is a gorgeous old railway (and a narrow gauge line that's always been a commercial enterprise rather than a heritage railway). The highlights are the pictures. It's not much of a read - this is more like a Wikipedia article than a satisfying book. Hope somebody writes a more comprehensive book on Snowdon someday. Pass.

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) - finally got to the end of this. It's a deeply weird novel, one that makes the Gothic novel about class hierarchy and dysfunctional relationships. One of the strangest things about it is how unclear it is whether Bronte realizes her characters are fucked up. The ambiguity doesn't do it any favors, but as it stands, this is an interesting if unpleasant work of Gothic literature.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (William Blake) - So that's what El was talking about. This is unparalleled: a gorgeous, transcendent, and bitingly funny revolutionary vision. I should dig into more Blake - I've got Songs of Innocence/Experience and Book of Urizen boxed up somewhere around here. For now, I'm glad I've finally read Blake.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race (Reni Eddo-Lodge) - Another strong read. It's not without its blind spots - most of what comes after the first chapter pales in comparison to it, and the bits about electoral politics don't land as well as the race and gender bits (although yes, there's some LGBT rights discussion that this book is missing). But this is a good read that absolutely nails the broad strokes of racism and whiteness as self-preserving, destructive machines. Would recommend to anyone.