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Feb. 11th, 2009 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI finished reading Metamorphoses.
The last book has some quotes I've read elsewhere, including GURPS Shapeshifters, but in different translations. I must say the entire book being 14 syllables to a line (even if it did need to stretch words all out of shape to do it) did not help with the interesting and exciting much. More like I'd be reading di dum di dum di dums and get to something and realise it had got interesting again and have to go back and find the thread a bit. So this isn't my most favourite thing ever. But it's really very impressive and a lot good.
The last book was mostly about reincarnation, vegetarianism, and rather abruptly why Rome Is The Greatest. The threads didn't really stick together in the middle. It starts out being a sort of general summing up of the principles demonstrated in the whole gigantic set of books so far - everything changes and nothing is lost, some changes we call being born and some changes we call dying, but everything, without exception, changes. That was a good bit. Although some of the examples are not good science; the bit about butterflies is true, but the bit about where bees come from isn't, and the idea hyenas can change between male and female is a bit... interesting. Then it's talking about reincarnation and how people come back as animals and animals as people. And that's why it's got some about vegetarianism - basically it's all 'don't eat that it might be your mother'. It do go on a bit though. Felt like reading those really tedious vegan pamphlets that keep banging on. Also there was a bit of 'don't eat beasts you'll be beastly' but I didn't notice it mentioning what eating vegetables does to your nature. And then it went on to 'how Rome nicked the best gods' and 'why Julius Caesar is really cool but the new dude is even cooler psst can has go home nao? kthxby' It went from the big myths from plays and stuff, the stories everyone has heard of, to being all cheerleader propaganda for the people in charge as it was being written, and it was really noticeable and a bit jarring. So not ending on a high. But there's sooooo many interesting bits and cool stories and ideas that I wasn't aware were around in that form at that time (though mostly I should know, but that's what studying is for). Is very good reading. Am glad I bought it. I can read again later.
:-)
The last book has some quotes I've read elsewhere, including GURPS Shapeshifters, but in different translations. I must say the entire book being 14 syllables to a line (even if it did need to stretch words all out of shape to do it) did not help with the interesting and exciting much. More like I'd be reading di dum di dum di dums and get to something and realise it had got interesting again and have to go back and find the thread a bit. So this isn't my most favourite thing ever. But it's really very impressive and a lot good.
The last book was mostly about reincarnation, vegetarianism, and rather abruptly why Rome Is The Greatest. The threads didn't really stick together in the middle. It starts out being a sort of general summing up of the principles demonstrated in the whole gigantic set of books so far - everything changes and nothing is lost, some changes we call being born and some changes we call dying, but everything, without exception, changes. That was a good bit. Although some of the examples are not good science; the bit about butterflies is true, but the bit about where bees come from isn't, and the idea hyenas can change between male and female is a bit... interesting. Then it's talking about reincarnation and how people come back as animals and animals as people. And that's why it's got some about vegetarianism - basically it's all 'don't eat that it might be your mother'. It do go on a bit though. Felt like reading those really tedious vegan pamphlets that keep banging on. Also there was a bit of 'don't eat beasts you'll be beastly' but I didn't notice it mentioning what eating vegetables does to your nature. And then it went on to 'how Rome nicked the best gods' and 'why Julius Caesar is really cool but the new dude is even cooler psst can has go home nao? kthxby' It went from the big myths from plays and stuff, the stories everyone has heard of, to being all cheerleader propaganda for the people in charge as it was being written, and it was really noticeable and a bit jarring. So not ending on a high. But there's sooooo many interesting bits and cool stories and ideas that I wasn't aware were around in that form at that time (though mostly I should know, but that's what studying is for). Is very good reading. Am glad I bought it. I can read again later.
:-)
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Date: 2009-02-11 11:00 pm (UTC)hyenas were widely mistaken, in ancient times, for hermaphroditic beings/creatures able to change sex on a whim because the genitalia of female spotted hyenas very closely mimics that of the male (the scientific term is "peniform clitoris"). this is due to a high level of androgenic hormones in the bloodstream of female hyena fetuses (feti?). evolutionarily, this is probably because larger girl-hyenas have a better chance at survival, and higher androgen levels means larger girl-hyenas -- the genitalia thing is just a random side effect.
(today's lesson in Random Evolutionary Stuff brought to you by Stephen Jay Gould's book Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, which is all about Random Evolutionary Stuff.)
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Date: 2009-02-12 06:07 pm (UTC)also, it's good to know the ancients were not randomly nuts, on this occasion.