Likewise. It is easy to be unaware of all sorts of things. I read the uses of literacy which I found lying around at home when I was 13 or 14 at the same time as a load of Orwell journalism notably politics and the English language and what he had to say about comics then D&O in P &L, TRTWP etc and it opened my eyes to all sorts of things.
Sorry - I’m not familiar with the abbreviations.
Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier.
Have you re-read them as an adult Véronique?
Like you I read pretty much all Orwell’s books in my teens, and found them insightful - but re-read the main reportage recently - part of my general lock-down re-reading-classics project - and found them a little disappointing second-time-round - particularly because I now feel he never really grasped what it means to be working-class.
Yes and I had the same impression as you esp for D&O and WP - he was with but not of, I think, and possibly because of that fitted in better in Paris among the down and out than in England. I think the conditioning of early life school Burma would have been impossible to overcome completely, and thought HTC stood up to rereading rather better.
And a clergyman’s daughter and KTAF oh so drear.
I spent my teens wallowing in Orwell Waugh MacNeice Auden Isherwood Spender Empson & co. Obviously I read other things too but they were my go-to comfort reading in English. Before them my absolute favourite non fiction book was IA Richards’ practical criticism.
I was a sad weirdo.
Yes I was weaned on the ‘new criticism’ too - until I discovered the heady French mixture of marxism and semiotics…
I’m sure you’re right about Orwell - better in both France and Spain than the English class system - and I agree about Catalonia - still wince when I think about his bullet in the throat…
Barthes 
and then obv Foucault Derrida Kristeva Todorov et compagnie but Barthes my favourite not least because he has a sense of humour.
Argh just remembered I was made to read examples of Nouveau Roman at far too young an age (blame Francophile Scottish grandfather) and god how hellish and awful, put me off for life. Michel Butor was bien nommé as far as I was concerned. And Nathalie Sarraute can rot too.
Yes Barthes was a revelation - amazed that you also know Julia Kristeva - another of my favourites but far less recognised (outside France) - Derrida and Foucault of course - giants - but also on the more specifically literary side theorists like Michel Pêcheux, Pierre Macherey, etc…
You’re really bringing back memories!
I was meaning in the clinical sense, I am not judging people, this statement is said without mallice and with considerable concern.
As said above it is with concern, no, not all will eat from fast food outlets but many do as can be seen by the queues. A lot will also be eating unhealthly and not be aware of this and that is the concern. Diabetes figures eclipse covid but is there a national/international EU wide campaign to educate? People learned to wear masks, wash their hands etc etc but the food and how it affects people barely if ever makes any news. That is the concern. Because of continuous glucose monitors it has never been easier to see the results of certain foods. One person may get a spiked insulin level from one food that does not do the same to another and so far that seems to be related to gut microbiome. This is why personalised care is likely to bring so many more benefits than one size fita all medication. Prof Tim Spector had his son eat a fast food diet for 2 weeks, it took his gut bacteria 2 years to recover with the intervention of the Tim and his team to advise and supply foods to rebuild the microbiome. If that intervention wasnt there how obese would his son have become? It is real concern not nasty accusation, most of the processed food and drink companies know exactly what they are putting in the food and drink to spike hunger every few hours and the shear number of outlets that maje it easy and cheap to continue to graze all day and a lot of the night as well.
Insight this morning into how deeply corrupt the biggest American agribusiness multinationals are.
You probably won’t have heard of them, because they operate through literally hundreds of consumer-facing brands throughout the world - but having just read this report on their human rights abuses, I now find that the same companies have been caught lobbying the EU to stop environmental action:
Interesting initiative from the UK…
The Jump campaign asks people to sign up to take the following six “shifts” for one, three or six months:
- Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste
- Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year
- Keep electrical products for at least seven years
- Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years
- Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not keep hold of your existing vehicle for longer
- Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to a green energy, insulating your home or changing pension supplier.
Most of it makes sense, but i cant live with only 1 new pair of socks, one new pair of pants and one t-shirt a year!
Thats ridiculous, you have fly back again. Ok just teasing
I found it interesting that they ask people to make the changes ‘for one, three or six months’ - but some are much longer term. It is apparently though based on research - the idea being I guess that once people make the changes they’ll like them - or at least adjust to them - so they become permanent.
They do also admit on the linked website that some changes - eg. getting rid of personal motor vehicles - are really dependent for many people on government action (eg. providing more universal and inexpensive public transport).
Could super-sized heat pumps make gas boilers extinct?
Cameron’s decisions to effectively end onshore wind projects in England, cut solar subsidies and slash energy-efficiency schemes played a large part in rising bills.
Despite call me “Dave” the sales of solar panels has increased now we face higher bills. Problems in the supply chain for unexpected demand is hampering things. New Austrailian development has increased the efficiency to 26% which is quite a jump from the average panel at 21%
In Italy, the government provides a remarkable 110% of the cost of home energy improvements, which it pays as a five-year tax credit (the 10% covers financial and transaction costs). This superbonus scheme pays for everything: insulation, ventilation, new windows and doors, solar panels, heat pumps…
Finland has equipped roughly one-third of its homes with heat pumps. It installs about twice as many every year as the UK does, though it has only about a 10th of the number of homes. Almost every day, I hear professional ignoramuses announce that “heat pumps wouldn’t work in our cold climate”. But they work just fine in Finland, which is much colder.
The Netherlands proposes to disconnect all its homes from the gas grid. In Estonia, the capital city, Tallinn, and most other counties offer free public transport. If Italy and Estonia can afford it, so can we.