Since my last post, I've read an issue of The New Scientist. I've also read Julian Fellowes' Snobs, Yasheng Huang's Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics, Paul Claude's complete plays, Geoff Nicholson's Lost Art of Walking, and the medieval Japanese tale Taiheiki. As much as I enjoyed Fellowes' Gosford Park, as little I enjoyed his novel. It was one dimensional, and all the characters were flat. Huang's essay was outstanding: nuanced views of China are rare, and he had lots of relevant specifics to back up his arguments. I found his argument persuasive, in particular because it recognized certain problems in official information but marshaled them well. Nicholson's essay was light, well-written, witty, but thin. Taiheiki put me in mind of all those samurai shows and films from Japan, and it also made me think of Clavell's Shogun. I reserve my last remarks for Claudel. His plays show an astonishing range, from the unplayable and obviously Greek-influenced early plays -- he read Greek well enough to translate Aeschylus -- to certain hints anticipating Beckett. I'll have to read another biography of Beckett to see if he read Claudel. He also wrote scenarios for ballet, and radio plays. Although there is certainly plenty of religious content, his most famous plays were less overtly religious than I thought. Some of the early Greek-influenced plays were actually performed in the 1940s. I was astounded.