P365.5r, Day 20

Get off my lawn!, a photo by grundy12 on Flickr.

There is a real photo for today after the screwups of the past few days.

Bambi and Mother, a photo by grundy12 on Flickr.

Two photos, even.

6 of 100: Meat, A Benign Extravagance

I'm not entirely sure what to say about Simon Fairlie's Meat, other than it's not what I expected.

Full disclosure: I first saw it with this cover, and for all we all know about judging books by covers, I do. For some reason, that cover made me expect a foodie's approach to the subject. Then I got the book from the library, and it came with this cheerful, vaguely hippie-ish cover that looks like it ought to be on one of Joel Salatin's books. At which point, I wondered what I was actually getting into.

What the book actually is: a collection of essays written by a small-scale farmer. But these aren't just essays you read in the local paper (or even the Guardian). They're well-sourced, almost scholarly considerations of topics related to meat, meat production, and meat eating. It was far more comprehensive than I expected, and one of the main things I took away was the importance of critical thinking about the subject- particularly when it comes to numbers and statistics! As it turns out a good number of them are something someone pulled out of... somewhere at some point, and subsequently acquire an aura of Holy Writ as they are cited and re-cited by authors who have never bothered to dig into where they came from and how they were calculated.

Another important point was the applicability of many of those numbers and statistics. A number calculated for small-scale production of grass-fed beef may not apply at all to a large-scale CAFO produced animal (or vice-versa). Also, these numbers and whether or not they are applicable tend to get politicized by the various factions (of which there are many- meat-eaters, vegetarians, BigAgriculture, small organic farmers...)

The long and short of it: meat, if raised properly as part of balanced agriculture, is something we can work into our diet without destroying the planet. The large scale CAFO practices, probably not so much. But in the immortal words of LeVar Burton, don't take my word for it...

7 of 100: The Magicians

No one told Quentin Coldwater, the protagonist of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, that roads are for journeys, not destinations. Quentin is never satisfied. There's always something better just over the horizon that might make him happy. He's never happy with where he is or what he is- even when where and what he is are pretty awesome. Quentin manages to overlook the incredible surroundings and classmates of his magic university (the "Hogwarts for grownups" line is somewhat accurate- fanfic doesn't need to add the sex and alcohol, it's already there) including the lovely and talented Alice as easily as he discarded his previous crush Julia in the beginning of the book. He spends an inordinate amount of time obsessing about a Narnia-analogue called Fillory, which a family of children called the Chatwins used to go to. Then he finally gets a chance to go to Fillory (but not until after cheating on Alice for no reason other than boredom with post-university life and getting pissy when she decides that what's good for the magical goose is just as good for the gander.) Needless to say, Fillory fails to make him happy either, especially when it turns out that Fillory isn't the child's wonderland he loved in the books, where everything is just given to you for showing up.

The book is interesting enough to read in one sitting, but at the same time, not as enthralling as you might think. For one thing, Quentin gives off a bit of a Gary Stu vibe- for all he claims he's working hard, it never feels like he is. He just shows up, somehow passes an exam he doesn't even understand, then skips into second year shortly thereafter. While it's always clear that Alice is the real talent, the only time Quentin seems to acknowledge her ability is in Fillory. And by that time, he's alternating between 'who cares, whatever, let's just do this' and CAPSLOCK RAGE about Alice and Penny. (Said rage is hilarious, considering if he'd been less oblivious and self-absorbed, he might have listened to her in the first place and not cheated on her, or been more aware of being maneuvered into cheating on her, or even just handled things better once he did.) Honestly, it's difficult to find sympathy for a guy with his head so far up his ass.

I will read the sequel, but I hope Quentin actually gets some of that clarity and strength Mayakovsky talked about in Antartica.