Susan Hated Even More Stuff
-
-
-
A thirteen-year-old adoptee born in Russia with fetal alcohol syndrome, his golden sheperd Chancer, and the trainer who taught Chancer...
-
Fellowship of the Ring mice. Obviously.
-
Sherlock Holmes
Benedict Cumberbatch
Stunning. Absolutely stunning.
An Artificial Light by Seanan McGuire.
Omar Khadr, a sixteen year old Guantanamo Bay detainee weeps uncontrollably, clutching at his face and hair as he calls out for his mother to save him from his torment. “Ya Ummi, Ya Ummi (Oh Mother, Oh Mother),” he wails repeatedly, hauntingly with each breath he takes.
The surveillance tapes, released by Khadr’s defence, show him left alone in an interrogation room for a “break” after he tried complaining to CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) officers about his poor health due to insufficient medical attention. Ignoring his complaints and trying to get him to make false confessions, the officers get frustrated with the sixteen year old’s tears and tell him to get himself together by the time they come back from their break.
“You don’t care about me. Nobody cares about me,” he sobs to them.
The tapes show how the officers manipulated Khadr into thinking that they were helping him because they were also Canadian and how they taunted him with the prospect of home (Canada), (good) food, and familial reunion.
Khadr, a Canadian, was taken into US custody at the age of fifteen, tortured and refused medical attention because he wouldn’t attest to being a member of Al Qaeda, even though he was shot three times in the chest and had shrapnel embedded in his eyes and right shoulder. As a result, Khadr’s left eye is now permanently blind, the vision in his right eye is deteriorating, he develops severe pain in his right shoulder when the temperature drops, and he suffers from extreme nightmares.
He has been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, suffering extremely harsh interrogations and torture (methods), and is now 25 years old.
(via t92marihoene)
(via windmillsqueal)
(via anuin)
I agree that there was plenty from the Epic that was missing from this book, but that didn’t bother me when I read it. I usually try to ignore (in as much as it is possible) the source when reading an adaptation. I don’t always succeed, especially if it is something that I am passionate about, but I do try.
I will agree that what exactly Achilles saw in Patroclus was a bit of a mystery, but I sorta saw it as Patroclus’ own lack of self-esteem.
I will say this much for the book: it’s a gay love story that’s beautifully written.
That, and it joins the rare club of literature (a whole two books I can name off the top of my head) that actually presents one of the Trojan War’s primary heroes as something of a decent human being. It’s not a viewpoint actively shared in retellings of the Epic Cycle, and it’s nice to see that Achilles isn’t constantly demonized.
Beyond that, however, I can’t say that I was incredibly impressed with Miller’s take on the Trojan War. Don’t get me wrong, the book was very beautifully written, engaging, and for all its fallacies, I found myself continually driven toward the end (like the long-list of inaccurate interpretations of myth that I find myself enjoying despite their nature.)
But let me get a few things straight here. And spoilers will be all over the place here on out (though if the story itself surprises you, we have a few things to discuss, like that boulder you’ve been living under for 3000 years).
Shark Extinction: The Shocking Truth
Ocean lovers everywhere, we are at crisis point. The top predator species in the food chain of our oceans is being hunted to extinction. Some shark specie populations are estimated to have declined by over 99% since the 1970′s!
The repercussions for marine eco-systems are dramatic and have devastating consequences down the food chain. To name but one example, species of Rays and Skates can explode leading in turn to the shocking decline of shellfish fisheries and a rapid reduction in water quality. And that’s just for starters!
(via scientificillustration)
