1.
Audiobook reading: This week I thoroughly enjoyed Tina Brown's book The Palace Papers. It felt like the antidote to Netflix's "Harry & Meghan" - a documentary as substantial as a plate of meringues. In the conclusion, Brown writes:
"It is ironic that after so much talk of duty perhaps the most powerful survival element of the monarchy has turned out to be marital love. Without the caring resolve of the queen mother, George VI would have been a stammering introvert who could never have lead the country in its hour of need. Without Philip's bracing loyalty, the Queen could have been a lonely conformist run by her courtiers. Without finally being allowed to marry Camilla, Charles would have suffered a slow death of the soul instead of his late flowering into an unapologetically happy man. And without Kate's serene empathy, William might have collapsed under the pain of his childhood and the weight of his future." [...] "The fascination of monarchy is that its themes repeat themselves because its protagonists are earthly. When George V rebranded the monarchy as the House of Windsor and turned it into the emblem, not just of the British family, but of a sacralized, exemplary version of the British family, there was one central flaw: their humanity. There will always be the rebels, the problem-children and the miscreants because the crown rests on a family as fallible as any other."
2.
Differences: There's a section of a thesis in which previous research on the subject you are writing about has to be acknowledged. While I was confident no one had written an academic paper on Aubigny itself, I've discovered lots of research on nearby communities. One short paper written in the sixties discussed family relations in a neighbouring community, the research being done mostly through interviews. I felt like dismissing it. What kind of person goes to the trouble of writing a paper based on asking random people about their relations? Preeminent anthropologists apparently... The joke's on me. What is interesting is the degree to which a field of study shapes how you think about things. I engage with documents. An anthropologist emphasizes fieldwork. This was something Levitt highlighted in a podcast episode with Brad Gregory in which he remarks on the difference between economists and historians:
LEVITT: (...) Why do you think economists and historians have such a hard time talking to one another?
GREGORY: My sense is, and you correct me if I’m wrong about what I say about economists and then vice versa. My impression is that economists grow exasperated by the tendency of historians to say about virtually any question: “that’s complicated” or “it depends on what you mean,” or “with respect to what part of the population?” In other words, even before an attempt to answer the question, they’re already complicating it and muddying the waters, so to speak. Historians — and again, this is a bit of a caricature, but you’ll recognize it, I think — they sometimes get impatient with the way in which economists seem to think that any and all forms of intentional human behavior can be modeled, quantified, and churned through some kind of a quantitative analysis in a way that is related in one sense or another to calculative or instrumental rationality.
LEVITT: I think you put that really well. The words I would use, which are very close to what you use, is that economics values simplicity and universality.
3.
A delightful meal: Pork chops, salted, lightly fried, served with oven-roasted beets (tossed with olive oil salt and pepper), crinkle-cut sweet potato fries, seared button mushrooms and a simply dressed butter-leaf lettuce salad. (Chef's kiss)
4.
Writing: I work on more than one project at a time and sometimes find the transition difficult. This week, forcing myself to do edits was tough. This post on The Marginalian was especially encouraging. Giving myself a deadline helped. And Carter Barnett’s advice: “The best way to write when you don't want to is just to write when you don’t want to.” (via)
5.
This week’s photo: The snow and cold is still sticking around here, see?
