Today I enjoyed this chapter:
Ah, yes, isn't it a RELIEF that the horn has been dispensed with. But loudspeaker, yikes!
Finally finished a long new list of archaeological sites I made. Finally! But felt disillusioned. One of my sources I'd long regarded as Mary Poppins-esque -- practically? perfect in every way -- definitely is not. Unlike so many of my secondary sources, I thought this lady had it together, had done her homework.......until today when I finally checked her references. She'd given me a handful of the sites I wanted to check -- and lo and behold, they were MYTHICAL religious sites, spoken of in the 1700s and early 1800s as interesting literary sites, but never taken very seriously by real academics. Oh well, good to know about her (I had wondered, since the publisher of her work so often has authors with serious make-up-the-"evidence"-as-you-go-along problems). And it was good to go through such a list -- well, hers was almost completely useless, but for the great bulk of the sites to check I used the Archaeological Survey of India's newest list, which brought me somewhat at least up to date, as I hadn't checked in a year or so.
I hate being disillusioned though, and it was easier to feel frazzled after all that wild goose-chasing because a well is being dug by somebody through solid granite very close to our library and my ears are really suffering in spite of windows closed, ear protection, etc.
Hmm, and just as I was typing this up, our electrical system blew up. Twice. So I'm copying this, having turned off everything, and will post later!! Hopefully not too long from now! It's very convenient to have Mr Brilliant as a husband. Update: About 16 hours later our power is restored. And a hint for you: When in India, have a laptop with battery backup! A desktop model would have lost all unsaved data for me, because our normal TWO layers of battery backup (and FIVE layers of voltage surge and related protection) immediately turned off when this happened, but my MacBook just calmly started using its battery.
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India
Unfortunately...sick, the kind when one can barely eat. Also I get terribly off-kilter when there are things like screaming strangers suddenly appearing, and ugly construction stuff being delivered nearby. (Fav quote on such things: "I'm a pretty quick fellow, as a rule, but when it comes to homicidal maniacs in the front garden, I am not ashamed to confess myself temporarily baffled" - Lord Biskerton in Wodehouse's Big Money.) Though had a highlight when spoke with someone with knowledge of Sanskrit about a particular word that was puzzling me, which really helps explain a fascinating passage. For the last half-hour of my work day I'll try to get a good start on another chapter of that epic.
...I should read more Wodehouse. And I do think I might make my Friday this week A German Day:
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India
Wow, and I thought I had been working a long time and having plenty of frustrations. Just read the intro to the critical edition of the monster work on ancient architecture (Manasara Silpasastra) that I'll be reading as my last primary work for my own monster history book(s). The poor guy who did this (in 1933, Prasanna Kumar Acharya) dealt with...
...the fact that this work, which he really wanted to translate, was only available in fragments, and he had to actually go out and find more manuscripts (he found about 10, in 4 different writing systems; 2 he'd heard of, in yet another writing system, were lost; this is not shabby for obscure Sanskrit works)
...He also dealt with literally thousands of Sanskrit technical terms whose definitions were not known -- so he not only studied those manuscripts and many other primary documents but traveled all over South Asia with architects and archaeologists and gathered information before making his conclusions.
...Unfortunately there are still lacunae after all this work. Of course his translation reflects when lacunae are present, when a term is not guaranteed accurate, etc.
...This all took SEVENTEEN years.
...Then someone had promised to get it published. And in those long-ago days before good communication the guy wasn't there when our guy showed up in his city. But finally someone else helped, and also offered him a professorship.
...Then somebody reviewed it. And of course claimed he could do much better and that our guy hadn't looked at archaeology, which is ridiculous. (Apparently the reviewer hadn't actually read the work.) And that somebody, very famous in his day, published his own a year or so later -- which I just got as a PDF and I'm pleased to report that he'd just strung together some pictures and added some captions. Definitely not better than our guy. He comes across as a crazy religious kook.
Current time travel apparatus location: Pondicherry, India
My work for some years has been toward being ready for "a better library." I assumed I'd have a lot of choice, and was just checking for a city I'll be visiting later this year that is reputed to have a university with a fabulous department and library specializing in my subject, for me to get a head start on some of that research. Well, I just checked on the worldcat site for specific sources I had on my long list, and found that even well-respected journals for some of my area are only available in Europe, especially Germany. Mmm, German might be more necessary than I thought! No wonder no one ever wrote what I'm writing; not only does it take years to go through (very disturbing) material, but few copies of such material seem to be extant!
Current time travel apparatus location: The Round Library, Bangalore, India