Carbonated

"For most Americans in 1776 to be a simple democracy was not a good thing, which is why nearly all the state constitutions formed at the time created governors and senates to offset the democracy embodied in their houses of representatives.

Democracy in the eighteenth century was not yet the article of faith that it would become in the decades following the American Revolution. It was still a technical term of political science, meaning simply rule by the people. In traditional political thinking going back to the ancient Greeks, rule by the people alone was never highly regarded, for it could easily slip into anarchy and a takeover by a tyrant. The best constitution was one that was mixed or balanced, where the people's rule was offset by the rule of the aristocracy and monarchy. Eighteenth-century intellectuals admired the English constitution so much because it seemed to have nicely mixed and balanced the three simple forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, in the Crown, House of Lords, and House of Commons."

- The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, Gordon S. Wood

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Interesting book - first non-fiction for me in a long while (since IB ended!) It's not particularly painful nor particularly smooth-going, but it's one of those revisionist takes on an established view, and that's always interesting.

Finished Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills and Susan Sontag's In America over the past few days. Ishiguro was lovely, darkly subtle and confusing and tragic - I want to read more of his works. Sontag was sharp and astute in her portrayal of Old World Poland vs New World America but held no emotional appeal for me. I'm on my way to finishing almost all my library books! After Ben Franklin, only Rushdie's Fury left.


I've been quite restless recently and I'm sure it's because of the lack of things to do - after driving and conversational Malay classes there isn't much else, whereas the rest of the world seems productively employed somewhere. I've been looking for options but it's all a bit limited when I'm constrained by an irregular schedule and another internship coming up in April. Well, we'll see.

Happy Chinese New Year! by the way. It's been more toned-down this year maybe because it's less of a contrast to my lifestyle pre-CNY (during school term it's always a mad rush before CNY and so that period becomes a much-needed breather). In any case my priority this festive season is to not get a sore throat... and to spend some time with family.

Funny how life never really changes.

I miss my Z :(