Read everything you can!

Erotic Exchanges by Nina Kushner

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel that I must start by saying that Nina and I went to high school together. When she published Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century Paris I told her I would give her a review on my blog.  This is not, however, just supporting a friend and her career, as I found this book interesting, and fairly accessible to non-historians, as well as non-French speakers (although I did have trouble keeping some of the names straight).

First of all, I want to recognize the amount of research that clearly went into this book.  I have great respect for Nina for wading through handwritten police reports from the 1700s, in French, no less.  I can only imagine that the handwriting alone was a challenge!  This is clearly a topic of great interest to her, and this book will clearly be important to those interested in the history of Paris, of prostitution, and of women's roles.  I don't think I would have had the persistence to pursue this sort of work (although folks said that about my dissertation as well, so, to each his own, as they say).

The accessibility of this book comes mainly through the vignettes about the women and their various men that are woven throughout the analysis of their situations.  Stories of girls entering the world of high-class sex for sale, of families using this world to advance themselves through their daughters, and the tales of love, wealth, poverty, and death that connected everything together.

In my view, this book gave a lot of positive views of these women.  Many of them were clearly in complete control of their lives, and often strung along multiple men, so they really never had to suffer a decline in lifestyle.  The connections between the theater, the ballet, and the opera and this world (the demimonde) were well laid out, and ran deep during the time period under study.  It seems that the police inspectors in eighteenth-century Paris could probably have made good money as paparazzi and gossip writers in Hollywood today!

Now, this is an academic publication, even with its stories and accessibility to a more general audience.  As such, there are some more dense parts to it.  Anyone unfamiliar with this style of writing and chapter formatting may find it slow-going in places, but hopefully they will stick with it to really take in the observations made along the way.

If there is one weakness (and I joked with Nina about this on facebook), it is the lack of illustrations.  She replied to my comment on that by saying that if there had been, the book might be selling more copies.  Alas, readers will have to make do with the pictures in their own minds.

Erotic Exchanges was educational, interesting, with stories that read, in places, like a soap opera.  Nina Kushner brought these women, and men, to life and opened up a somewhat hidden world to her readers.  Don't just take my word for it, pick up a copy for yourself.

Reading is Addictive

Post by Patricia Polacco.

The Sanguinists Series - James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

Armageddon is coming, but a trio of individuals from prophecy can save us.  The Woman of Learning, the Knight of Christ, and the Warrior of Man must save the world from the plotting of the immortal Judas Iscariot.  What?  And.... there are vampires.  On both sides of the battle.

There are two books in this series, so far:  Blood Gospel, and Innocent Blood.  I have read many of James Rollins' Sigma Force books, which typically involve the search for some kind of mystical, historical, or scientific (if not all three) item that poses a threat to the world and civilization as we know it.  I have not read anything else by Rebecca Cantrell, who apparently is best known for her historical-mystery Hannah Vogel series.  In reading this I was expecting a blending of mystery, thriller, treasure hunt, and religious undertones (since so many of the great historical-mystical stories seem to involve some kind of religion to some extent).  What I wasn't expecting was the undead, yet, they appeared, and were woven deeply into the mythology that Rollins and Cantrell have developed around their heroes.

Without giving too much more away, these good-vs-evil novels bring a new twist on both religious fiction as well as vampire mythology.  They are fairly fast reads, and if the thought of an archaeologist, soldier, and priest teaming up to save the world excites you, then pick up Blood Gospel soon, and join the adventure.

Happy Birthday to the Shat!

Post by Star Trek: Renegades Official.

The TARDIS

Post by The Doctor Who Hub.

What was Padgett Powell thinking?

Do you think it's possible to write a book using only questions?  Have you heard of The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell?  Would you believe me if I told you this 164-page book has no declarative or exclamatory sentences in it at all?  Do you think I can write this entire post using only interrogatives?  Will you keep reading to see if I can?  Would you like to see some examples of the questions from the book?  Do you think I will post some regardless of your desire to see them?

• Are your emotions pure?  Are your nerves adjustable?  How do you stand in relation to the potato? (p. 1)
• Wasn't the world better when the term "haberdasher" was current? (p. 18)
• If you had a loud 400 hp 1969 GTO with a Hurst three-speed on the floor and the Allman Brothers' "One Way Out" playing as loud inside the car, would you not be unstoppable not only in all the serious adolescent ways but even now in nearly all of the serious postadolescent pre-senile ways? (p. 41)
• Have I told you of the time my grandmother escaped the nursing home and I found her a block away on a door stoop expiring in the sun and she said to me, "What took you so long?" (p. 72)
• If you were given a fully restored cherry vintage automobile and a paid-for apartment in a foreign city and could have one other thing to go with these gifts, what would it be? (p. 97)
• If you heard someone say "In America, one word says it all," what would you expect that word to be? (p. 112)
• Does it change things a bit for you to perceive that these questions want you bad?  And that they are perhaps independent of me, to some degree?  That they are somewhat akin to, say, zombies of the interrogative mood? (p. 113)
• Why do "making hay" and "haymaker" have substantially different meanings? (p. 137)
• When a woman wears a pair of men's pajamas and removes the top, retaining the pants, do you find this a sexually stimulating outfit? (p. 153)
• Would we be happier if we had something we do not have, or if we were told something we've not been told, or if we said something we've not said, or if we did something we've not done, or if we did not have something that we do have? (p. 162)
• Are you leaving now?  Would you?  Would you mind?  (p. 164)

Does this all seem random?  Why would someone write an entire book like this?  Was there method to his madness?  Who would then publish such a work?  And, most importantly, who would read such a book, cover to cover?  Would you say such a reader was highly intelligent?  Is there a method to the reader's madness?

Are you curious about this book?  Curious enough to seek it out and read it?  Am I recommending it?  Would a recommendation from me make a difference to you?  What, I wonder, will you do now?