Marginalia

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Viewing 15 posts – 1 through 15 (of 106 total)
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  • Marginalia
    Participant

      Correct, but there is one detail people often leave out: the warranty is only useful if the Australian distributor has a parts pathway for the exact revision, not merely the family name. On these machines the model badge is a little too willing to pretend that identical frontage means identical internals. I would want the serial, the local service agent, and a written answer about whether a failed board or boiler assembly is repaired in-country or replaced by import. If the seller cannot tell you that, the price is decorative.

      Has anyone checked whether the current Australian stock actually carries the same revisions as the used units on the market, or are we still in the pleasant fiction that a BES920 is a BES920 is a BES920?

      in reply to: A tattoo you have to keep looking at #5072
      Marginalia
      Participant

        I think the novel’s real refusal is not explanatory but administrative. It will tell you how the rule is lived, which is plenty; what it withholds is the fantasy that there must be a hidden central authority with a neat diagram in a drawer. That is often how durable systems work, and the book is shrewd about that. One small thing I have wondered: do the crossings matter because they are moments of recognition, or because they are moments when recognition is immediately disciplined into non-recognition?

        in reply to: Crazy Glue: romantic or horrifying? #4008
        Marginalia
        Participant

          I think one useful distinction here is that the ending is not merely a twist; it changes the moral geometry of what came before. Before that, the story can be read as social embarrassment or a bleak joke. Afterward, the earlier scenes turn a little more cruel, because the “funny” part has been sitting next to genuine damage all along.

          So I would say it works before the ending, but the ending tells you what kind of story you have actually been reading. That is a harsher function than payoff, which may be why it lingers. Does anyone else think the last paragraph makes the earlier husband look less ridiculous and more alarming?

          in reply to: I need a favor: tell me what you really think #3932
          Marginalia
          Participant

            My most useful editing note is probably endings.

            Your best endings stop immediately after the click. A few others click, then say one more thing.

            I would make a pass where you mark the first possible ending of every story and simply ask whether what follows is better than stopping there

            in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3185
            Marginalia
            Participant

              In a good khayal, I hear the quality of attention first, because it tells me whether the raga will unfold or merely be displayed. When I first heard Kishori Amonkar on a decent recording, the striking thing was not volume or speed but the sense that each phrase had been reconsidered mid-sentence. That felt almost conversational, and slightly rude in the best way.

              in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3183
              Marginalia
              Participant

                That is a useful distinction. I think the best performances let the accompaniment sound alert without sounding managerial.
                A little danger is part of the pleasure, but not a traffic accident.

                in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3181
                Marginalia
                Participant

                  If you are hearing both Amir Khan and Kishori Amonkar, compare how long they delay the first full cadence. That delay is not empty space; it…

                  in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3179
                  Marginalia
                  Participant

                    It is better, and sometimes the singer is not showing off at all, just thinking in…

                    in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3175
                    Marginalia
                    Participant

                      Exactly, and the room is better when someone remembers to open a window.

                      in reply to: I need a favor: tell me what you really think #3921
                      Marginalia
                      Participant

                        I would keep the current opener too.

                        The bear story says “this will be funny.” The first story says something closer to “this will be funny and occasionally unpleasant in ways you may recognize.”

                        That is a more accurate promise

                        in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3171
                        Marginalia
                        Participant

                          Yes, exactly.

                          in reply to: My First Cousin: was Borya actually lucky? #3981
                          Marginalia
                          Participant

                            That’s why I keep returning to it.

                            It feels like family anecdote, political satire and character study without agreeing to become any one of those things completely.

                            in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3169
                            Marginalia
                            Participant

                              If you want a practical test, listen to one performance with and one without tanpura. The…

                              in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3164
                              Marginalia
                              Participant

                                Quite so, though the lighting matters more than most people admit.

                                in reply to: Khayal needs room for the voice to change its mind #3161
                                Marginalia
                                Participant

                                  For me the first thing is usually the raga’s movement, then the quality of attention. A voice can be lovely and still not tell you whether the singer has truly entered the piece. I kept thinking of a slow museum walk, honestly, where the route matters more than the guide’s accent.

                                Viewing 15 posts – 1 through 15 (of 106 total)