h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think it's a question of consent. It's clear that the woman would not have consented to sex if she'd known the true identity of the person. To my mind, if that's not rape it's very close to it.

There's probably a whole heap of case law out there on this point. Even if it isn't technically rape, it's certainly reprehensible behaviour.

(Did I mention that I'm into the Ninth Day now? Can't remember.)

Yes, I agree with you. If it isnt then it's very close to it and definitely wrong. I think I get too technical.

You're in the ninth day already!!!!???? Wow!!! Here I am still crawling along on the third... and I'm not even reading all the tales of each day! You're going to be done /way/ before me! That's all right though, so long as you'll still talk to me about it It makes the book more fun somehow. Although I have to admit it's quite a bit of fun solely on it's own merits.

One reason I'm in the ninth day is that I was insomniac last night. Something to do with this sinusitis and not being able to breathe if I lie down. So it's all about making illness work for you.

Aw! I didn't know you had sinusitis! Poor you!
The only advantage of being sick is getting to sit around reading. It almost makes it worth it... almost but not quite.

I hope you're feeling better

Well, the doctor just ordered me to stay home until Tuesday. What a shame. I'll just have to lounge about reading.

I have finished the Decameron. Not bad at all.

I'm just about to start the fourth day. You're way ahead of me!!

Did it have an ending or did it just sort of end?

I hope you feel better very soon! But it must be nice to have some time off to read

The ending was a bit lame - everyone went home to Florence after the tenth day. *shrug* No mention of whether they found the place full of dead bodies, either.

It is nice having time to read - I have a stockpile of books I've not read yet, and I'm getting through them at a decent rate.

That is a very disappointing ending. I was expecting much more. I don't know what, but something.
I'm about half way through the sixth day now.

What are you reading now?

I have a few books half-read at the moment. There's a biography of Lady Jane Grey, a social history of Byzantium, and Frankenstein ( according to Spike Milligan). It depends what mood I'm in as to which one I pick up.

Once I get through that lot, I'll be reading a book about Macbeth - the real man and the bloke in the play.

Mostly, though, I'm reading really painfully dull economics stuff, for w*rk.

Ewww... Poor you. Economics stuff for work sounds dreadful.

Frankenstein according to Spike Milligan!!?? I have to rush out and get that now! I loved the Bible according to him

Those other two books sound interesting too. Was there a real Macbeth?

Macbeth was indeed real - King of Scotland, 1040-1057. The exact details of how he got the job are, I hope, in the book. I'll report back.

Lady Macbeth's name was Gruoch, by the way. I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce that.

Oh do let me know all about Macbeth! That would be very interesting! I had no idea he was a real person, let alone a king for a short time.

I'm sure Lady Macbeth's name isn't pronounced the way I think it is. Besides, she was more crazy than grouchy

I've only just started the book - all I've gleaned so far is that Macbeth was a member of the extended royal family, and so was Gruoch. At that time the crown didn't pass from parent to child; it bounced around between cousins before oving down the line a generation. So Macbeth was in line for the crown in some way. Whether he really did dispose of Duncan I don't yet know.

*Still eagerly waiting to hear*

I had my mid-term for the Decameron on Monday. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Incase you're at all interested... I wrote my first essay on how women are portrayed in the frame. For the second question I wrote on how the clergy and Christianity are portrayed in the tales. For the third essay I wrote on "the issue of homosexuality" in the tenth tale of the fifth day.
I was glad to find the questions were things I could answer.

I have to apologise for being gone for so long from here. My nightmare is finally over. For some reason all my exams and essays were due before the reading break. Thank goodness I'm done now and all I have to do now is catch up on all the reading I'm behind in and write an essay on the writing style of Oscar Wilde. But that will be fun

There's no need to apologise for being elsewhere - that's all part of being a student... It would indeed be fun, writing in the style of Oscar W.

As for Macbeth - it really is terribly complicated. He did kill Duncan, who was only 37 and not an old man at all, and he was killed in battle himself. Banquo is a completely fictitious character. Gruoch did have reasons for urging Macbeth to seize the throne; she had a claim on it herself, as did her son by her first marriage. (Macbeth killed her first husband, who was a cousin of his own.)

Macbeth was succeeded by Gruoch's son Lulach, who was soon afterwards killed by Duncan's son Malcolm, who then became king.

Most things in the play have some basis in reality, but the timescale has been distorted and the fact that most early Scottish kings were murdered by their successors has been glossed over. In other words, the whole system of succession was a recipe for disaster. I'm glad I bought that book. There's hours of bewildering entertainment in it.

I'll be interested in the results of the Decameron mid-term...

It would be great to write in the style of Oscar Wilde!! Unfortunately I just get to write in the conventional style about his style.

Thanks for telling me about Macbeth!! That was fascinating! I had no idea... In the play it was so shocking that Macbeth would kill Duncan, I would have never guessed that it was a common practice.

Hours of bewildering entertainment is good. I have to find a fun book to read. Now that I have some time I'm not sure what to do with myself! I suppose I could always do homework

I'm eagerly awaiting the results of my mid-term as well. I'll let you know

For a good fun book, try anything by Jasper Fforde. 'The Eyre Affair' is the first one. It has direct sequels, too.

I have to force myself to go outside and mow the lawn sometime this morning before it gets too warm for comfortable working. I'm bored already.

Thanks for the recommendation What kind of books does he write?

Mowing the lawn is a terrible job. I hope that you don't have too much grass. We have far too much grass in our yard. Actually I think we have the largest yard out of all of the yards in the area we live in. It's nice... but a pain to keep up!

It's a very small lawn area I have here, especially now that I've dug up half of it and planted shrubs. It's more like grassy pathways now.

Jasper Fforde is hard to explain. The main series of his books, involving a woman called Thursday Next who has a job policing fiction, takes place in an alternative version of reality. In this world, Wales is a Communist republic, Shakespeare is still popular entertainment and Time itself is somewhat disordered and erratic. There's a special branch of the police that investigates weird shit that happens. (That's how it's phrased.) Meanwhile, Thursday can slip in and out of fiction, which is useful when she has to get away from the Goliath Corporation, the company that seems to run just about everything. Oh, and dodos are popular pets now that cloning has been more-or-less perfected.

There, that's nice and clear, isn't it? Anyway, I do recommend Jasper Fforde.

Your lawn sounds wonderful! I wonder if I cant persuade my parents to turn our yard into a forest and plant a ton of trees. I love trees and that would certainly cut down on the lawn to be mowed. On the other hand it would be terrible come the fall when all the leaves have to be raked up!
How did the lawn mowing go?

Jasper Fforde sounds great! The next time I'm in a book store I'll certainly take a look. At the moment I'm reading a Nero Wolfe mystery for fun. After the horrors of "The Dangers of Coquetry" I feel like I deserve a reward.