Decisions

I had started reading a book on the Libor-fixing scandals which came to light following the financial crisis of 2008-9, but to read it on a Saturday feels like a violation of my shabbos ban on all things financial, so I turned to fiction. First I polished off a Lauren Goff story which I had started last night (being very observant of shabbos norms, which decree that it kicks off when the sun goes down Friday). 

Then I turned my attention back to Delillo's The Names, a book which had haunted me since the first time I read it (which may, upon inspection, have preceded the inception of The Grouse), and which I had picked up again sometime in the last couple of months and had then set it down for a spell when it seemed to be a bit of a grind. Now I believe I have my groove back and it is moving towards the spare, haunting tone I remember from my first reading.

Much of it takes place in Greece, which is making me think. As I've noted, I've been studying Italian, German and Ukrainian on alternate days on Duolingo. There are drawbacks to each of these languages, and to Duolingo as a platform. Italian is too easy, really, it almost feels like a waste of time to key my way through the exercises. German is kind of interesting, but one of the voices that reads on Duolingo has such an incredibly annoying voice I just want to shoot myself. With Ukrainian I feel almost like I'm cheating. It just shares too much with Russian. It differs enough to be a freestanding language, don't get me wrong. This is no accident. Ukrainian romantics normed the literary language around southeastern dialects so as to self-consciously differentiate it from Russian.

I am also just sick of learning how to say "sweater" and "skirt" in all these languages, upon which Duolingo just insists. 

In any case, in The Names the protagonist is studying modern Greek, which sounds like it might be a more worthy endeavor. I'll have to confer with my linguist buddy Eric about it.