Writtinge lik its 1609

     I'm done editing our version of Shakespeare's Sonnets (I still have to work on A Lover's Complaint -shshhhhhhhh!), and it was astronomically interesting.

     After making a discovery about denialists in the introduction I wrote, I may have solved a puzzle that was generated by a massive misprint. I shan't pretend that I am right, but I will declare that my conclusion makes a lot more sense than anything that was corrected before.

     A thing that I realized, as I was fighting with the original texts in the Quarto, is that most of the spelling mistakes that are made today look like the way things were printed in 1609! "It was better then I thought" and other oddities like that.

It's fascinating to see that the rules that took so long to be created have almost disappeared since people started texting and using the Internet!

Perhaps the spirit of George Eld (the printer of the Quarto) floated inside the heads of too many people...

Modern typos are still weird, but the parallel with 1609 is properly nutty.

I just thought I'd share...

Varieties of Denialism

Bipeds that cannot accept facts because they don't fit their agenda, beliefs, or whatever have a way to make my blood boil.

With the film Denial coming to our screens, the number of Holocaust denialists has become more visible with these decerebrated bipeds flooding forums and comments threads.

Just this morning, I've seen a bunch of village idiots doubt that the Holocaust happened; one even found it fishy to not be allowed to doubt the evidence - and the testimonies of the survivors! There were also idiots adding the Holodomor to their list of denials.

As a historian, I understand that we can doubt that the battle of Agincourt happened exactly the way it is reported in archives - but we can dig up testimonies and get a fair idea of what happened. All one needs is hard work - and a working brain.

What I cannot understand is the collection of village idiots, from all over the rock, who can read all the documents we have in archives, and who can meet survivors or read their testimonies (be it about the Holodomor, the Holocaust, or even the sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese army), and who say, 'Nope! I don't believe it! It just can't be true!'.

They make me want to yell and make them sit down and educate themselves until their two and a half brain cells have a spark of illumination.

My introduction for the publication of Shakespeare's Sonnets for Éditions Aikyō is dealing with all the varieties of denialists about Shakespeare.

I ended up dividing contemporary denialists into two categories: prime and secondary.

Secondary denialists are the collections of village idiots who might well doubt that our planet orbits around the sun if it became fashionable in their circles to think so, or who do not have enough brain cells to understand facts and the truth. They're infuriating, but I fear most of them are just too stupid.

Much worse and twisted are the prime denialists. These are bipeds who, I think, do understand the archives and the testimonies, but who have decided to not believe them. These bipeds have decided to spread lies (not "post-truth", not "alternative facts" - let's call a spade a spade: they're LIES); maybe they're doing that to enjoy the chaos and pain their words will generate, and/or maybe they have some hidden agenda to promote - be it hatred for one subdivision of humanity, or be it to promote their own work.

If we take into account the scary number of secondary denialists, the prime denialists have a lot of quarterwits (I do fear we're talking about creatures way below the average halfwit) who are ready and willing to pay to buy their books or watch their films or documentaries.

We have ignoramuses and simpletons falling into the cunning traps of manipulators and profiters who would say and do anything to make money and become famous.

Both categories annoy me, but I have some compassion for secondary denialists... Prime denialists, not so much, as I see them as liars and dubious, devious, and unethical creatures who would deny that their own mothers gave birth to them if they could gain anything from spitting that lie.

I do believe that "Knowledge is power", and I will always fight against prime denialists who try to pervert what decent people know to be truths.

Of the Incredible Arrogance of Thieving Bankers

Back to bank-land, as I momentarily took over from my poor cousin (her fangs are firmly planted in the floor, and the next time a banker tells her a lie, she might well turn into a wifwolf!).

Today, I had news from Bank#2:

the gal gave me prices (without including the VAT!), and they're expensive, and for that price:

- one must add a percentage per transaction AND a percentage according to the amount of the transaction (because we're not paying them enough per month already!)

- they want to know everything about every Jack, Jill, Bob, Bethany, and Paul who works with us (name, postal address, and phone number). Funny they're not asking about their mums' phone numbers, blood types, and tax returns!

- they can't bloody spell (so how are we supposed to believe that they can encode?)

- they don't seem to be doing much to protect us (I e-mailed the gal a long list of potentially problematic situations, and I look forward to reading how they're planning to protect us in the cyberspace!)

- it's our webmaster who's supposed to configure everything (how cute! My cousin and I are the wedmistresses!)

Honestly, I answered the gal and asked questions, but I've got a bad feeling.

I'll contact again Bank#1, and if it comes to that, since we'll be doing all the hard work, we'll buy a bank thingy for Wordpress.

The banks keep being the most frustrating part of this business launching thingy (a solid tie with the Revenue guys, though), but we can definitely see the finish/launch line now.

Nutty Update: Bank#2's gal answered me. She'd like me to phone her coz I asked too many questions by e-mail.

ô.O

Oooookay. To Bank#1...

Positive Things

Honestly... I'm expecting something utterly weird to happen soon-ish.

Good things have been happening since my last post (though nothing's perfect, eh), and there are so many positive news that something in me is afraid (it's silly, I know, but... you won't change me; I worry).

Work is okay (and may well become more than okay if things go on unfolding the way they seem to be going).

The plot bunnies are awesome and obedient, and my writing schedule's working fine.

And there's my broken tooth... It's now repaired (it took fifteen minutes!). If whatever my dentist glued in the hole holds (it may be veneer, but I'm not sure, and I was too shaken to ask), I'm good... otherwise, I'll need a crown. The part where I was "lucky" is that I was convinced that my tooth was nerveless, but it's still alive. I could have been in quite a lot of pain. <insert shudders here>

Perhaps thing will be slightly better this year...............?

May I Use the Cruciatus on That Dentist?

*points at title* Not my current one, who is the doctor who fully reconciled me with his profession, and who I can go see alone.

You see, my teeth are oddly shaped, and not planted that well, but... they're quite solid and healthy.

When the dentist who'd always taken care of me retired (his surgery was rather far from our home, but he was quite good, and it was worth it), we decided to try one who was on our street...

I remember opening wide, and she announced that she could spot some decay on at least one tooth, which she promptly drilled and (badly!!!) filled. I say badly because it was hideous, and my current dentist said it was poor work - and I believe him (and he had to alter the filling a few years ago to correct her mistake).

I'm not pretending that my teeth are perfect, no... Not at all. I'm just saying that the lying bitch who drilled my tooth did so to make money (the day I die, I'll still be convinced that that tooth had nothing, but she twisted my mum's arm and mine to make a few quids).

And today... a tiny lil' bit of that poor tooth broke. The tooth no longer has its nerve, and nothing is too damaged, but it's quite weird - and massively unpleasant.

I'll have to manage to get an appointment with my dentist (I hope he won't be on holidays!), and I hope nothing weird will happen whilst I'm stuck in the country (the local dentist, too many miles away anyway, is said to be a bit like that guy in Marathon Man - just saying).

If some greedy cunt hadn't drilled my tooth, I probably wouldn't be on tooth-watch now, whilst I have better things to do - hence my wish to use the Cruciatus on her. Since that spell isn't real, I'll just wish her to fall and break... all the bones in both feet (and I bloody mean it).

New News (about Books)

Sorry about the silly title, I'm knackered, and my sense of humour is... erm... so-so when I'm that tired.

Since we avoided a massive snafu with the Tax People (I'm so going to call them that from now on!), there's been a lot on our plates.

First, work was nutty for us all, which doesn't help when you're trying to start a new company that's going to be your secondary activity.

Then... my cousin's working on sub-parts of our future website, and she's editing her PhD, which we'll publish.

She's done editing the French version of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, and I'm slowly translating it into proper English (I'm checking old dictionaries in order to try and stay faithful to Wilde's original meaning).

We're also working on our edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets, and things are nicely taking shape (my growly, anti-Anti-Stratfordian preface is ready, and I've made an interesting discovery about the loudest nutcase against Shakespeare in the 19th century). We're checking the modern punctuation, and we're correcting emendations that were wrongly made in the versions with the original and the modern spelling.

I'm also trying to finish my third Muff&Sherly story.

We're swimming in plot bunnies, and we'll all share them with you next month.

In Kafka-land

Dear Administrations,

would you please stop trying to give me an ulcer or a heart attack?

Sincerely,

Dru

My cousin, her mum, and I have spent last night attempting to read the additional bumph sent by our local "HM Revenue & Customs" (the IRS, if you're on the other side of the pond).

First... It's always written in North Korean (or in Romulan!).

And then, after picturing our publishing adventure closing before it even opened... we discovered that we're not concerned by the bumph they sent (our status is so rare - okay, and recent - that we're not on their map).

My cousin will have to go see them, explain (in veeeeeeeery simple words) what we do, give them the legal reference that concerns our status, and pray to Zeus that they acknowledge that we're right (otherwise they could ask us a pay a tax we cannot afford to pay).

We're trying to do everything by the book, and we're being probed, and investigated, and doubted (and generally not helped at all) even though we've done nothing to deserve that.

How do con-men go through these nets? Do they bulldoze and/or cajole their way though?

It's the third time we fear we might have to stop launching our own business. I hope it's the last time - and I hope we can go on...

Wish us luck?

Literary News

Strangely enough, we, at Éditions Aikyō, are currently editing a lovely book, full of entertaining short stories, and in one of them, there's a brief mention of a female POTUS (as if it had happened in the election before the one that just happened). We're planning to write a barmy, tongue-in-cheek summary to promote that book, and since Wednesday morning, the author, our friend DeForest suggested that we insist on the fantasy/science-fiction side of some of his stories. I think he's got a point...

On my side, I'm busy editing Muff&Sherly 2, and I'm finishing the third novel in that universe.

I'm also still planning the plots for my Victorian spy story, and modern spy plots.

Whilst my cousin and Usagi are busy gathering info so that they can write a few prefaces we're going to need for a few books we've decided to add to our catalogue, I'm also editing a version of Shakespeare's Sonnets (from the first printing, with the original spelling, and with a modern version of each sonnet, too).

As well, we will have an edition of Oscar Wilde's Salomé (from the 1893 edition in French). Now... huge question: most published translations of that play into English are based either on the faulty version committed by Oscar's lover, or on the one where corrections were attempted after Oscar's death by one of his close friends. Both allow a grammatical mistake in English in... the very first line - and neither is close enough to the original text in French. 

I never planned that, but... I'm tempted to translate it myself. So...How nutty am I?

Let me show you what bothers me:

From 1894 ->

SCENE
[A great terrace in the Palace of Herod, set about the banqueting hall. Some soldiers are leaning over the balcony. To the right there is a gigantic staircase, to the left, at the back, an old cistern surrounded by a wall of green bronze. The moon is shining very brightly.]

THE YOUNG SYRIAN: How beautiful is the Princess Salome to-night!

THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from the tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things.

From 1912 ->

SCENE
[A great terrace in the Palace of Herod, set above the banqueting-hall Some soldiers are leaning over the balcony. To the right there is a gigantic staircase, to the left, at the back, an old cistern surrounded by a wall of green bronze. Moonlight.]

THE YOUNG SYRIAN: How beautiful is the Princess Salome to-night !

THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: Look at the moon ! How strange the moon seems ! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. You would fancy she was looking for dead things.

And here's what I would do:

SCENE
[A huge terrace in the palace of Herod, overlooking the banqueting hall. A few soldiers are leaning over the balustrade. To the right, there's an impressive staircase. To the left, at the back, an old cistern surrounded by a patinated bronze wall. Moonlight.]

THE YOUNG SYRIAN: How beautiful is Princess Salomé tonight!

THE PAGE OF HERODIAS: Look at the moon. The moon looks very strange. She looks like a woman leaving a tomb. She seems like a dead woman. One might think that she’s looking for dead people.
 
So?

Watercolour for My Bunnies

Pfft! Who needs to sleep when there are so many plot bunnies, edition bunnies and drawing bunnies? Um, who???

Here's a lil' something I did for Muff&Sherly 2:

Of course, it'll have to go through tons of filters when we print it...