Collection

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Updated Reading List 6.1: Ancient Jewish History

Historiography, Theory, Methodology, Construction, and Philosophy of History American History Ancient History Atlantic World History European History

Jewish History: Ancient-Late Antique*

A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, Second Edition by J. Maxwell Miller and John Haralson Hayes

A Brief History of Ancient Israel by Victor H. Matthews

The History of the Jews in the Greco-Roman World: The Jews of Palestine from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest by Peter Schlafer

The Ancient Jews from Alexander to Muhammad (Key Themes in Ancient History) by Seth Schwartz

Surviving Sacrilege: Cultural Persistence in Jewish Antiquity by Steven Weitzman

*A lot of my preferred books in the realm of “Ancient Jewish History” fall under the heading of “Biblical Studies,” which will be in a separate, “History Adjacent” reading list. Some of these are also featured/repeated in the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict Reading List, which I am presently editing. NOTE: I’m an Amazon Affiliate; I will receive a small portion of the proceeds from ANYTHING [hint] you purchase on Amazon via my links. I am an independent scholar, and need $$$ to pay my translators etc for my book on Jewish women’s Holocaust resistance, so anything you can do helps! If you’d rather not give your $$$ to Amazon but still want to help this independent scholar out, my paypal is here.

Basic Story Structure

Basic story structure looks like this:

Setup/Exposition - we meet the protagonist in their every day life, possibly meet a few other important characters, and learn important basics about the setting. We also learn about the protagonist’s internal conflict.

Rising Action - The inciting incident turns the character’s life upside down, the character responds by forming a goal. The protagonist pursues this goal while the antagonist/antagonistic force throws obstacles into their path, which they must overcome. Sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail and have to try again or find a way around it. This struggle builds the conflict and increases the tension as the story races toward the climax.

Climax - this is the “big showdown,” where the protagonist faces the antagonist/antagonistic force head-on, and usually (but not always) succeeds.

Falling Action - this is the aftermath of the big showdown, where the dust settles and all the final pieces come to rest. Most of the story’s loose ends will be tied up here if they weren’t tied up already.

Resolution/Denouement - this is where the story is wrapped up once and for all. We see the protagonist (and other characters) settled back in their old life or getting used to a new normal. If there is a moral to the story, it is revealed here. If the story is leading into a second book, a little bit of set-up for the new story will occur here.

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Can’t Take My Eyes Off You by Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons except from the jukebox of a 50s themed diner, right as you feel like time has stopped because you’ve just caught sight of the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen and already feel like you’re falling in love. Everything but you and her seem to fade away.

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Film Noir Movies

People think that Film Noir is a reaction to World War II. Not true. Most of the great hard-boiled and noir pulp fiction came out during the 30’s, as a reaction to the great depression. Film noir didn’t become a big thing until after the war (post 1945), because the powers that be didn’t want to release pessimistic, down-ending films that would lower the country’s morale.

This could be a very loooong list. Hundreds of films in fact. So I am just going to list the films that I heard mentioned specifically in various film noir documentaries and books, as examples of great noir.

Film Noir Era 1945-1958

The Letter (1940)

The Stranger on The Third Floor (1940)

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Glass Key (1942)

This Gun For Hire (1942)

Shadow of A Doubt (1943)

Double Indemnity (1944)

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Laura (1944)

Murder My Sweet (1944)

Phantom Lady (1944)

Detour (1945)

Fallen Angel (1945)

Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Scarlet Street (1945)

The Big Sleep (1946)

Black Angel (1946)

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

The Dark Corner (1946)

The Dark Mirror (1946)

Decoy (1946)

Gilda (1946)

The Killers (1946)

Notorious (1946)

The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

The Stranger (1946)

Body and Soul (1947)

Born To Kill (1947)

Brute Force (1947)

Crossfire (1947)

Dark Passage (1947)

Dead Reckoning (1947)

Desperate (1947)

Kiss of Death (1947)

Lady In The Lake (1947)

Nightmare Alley (1947)

Out of The Past (1947)

Ride The Pink Horse (1947)

T-Men (1947)

The Big Clock (1948)

Call Northside 777 (1948)

Cry of The City (1948)

Force of Evil (1948)

He Walked By Night (1948)

Hollow Triumph (1948)

Key Largo (1948)

The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

The Naked City (1948)

Pitfall (1948)

Raw Deal (1948)

The Street With No Name (1948)

They Live By Night (1948)

Act of Violence (1949)

Border Incident (1949)

Criss-Cross (1949)

Impact (1949)

The Reckless Moment (1949)

The Set-Up (1949)

Thieves’ Highway (1949)

The Third Man (1949)

White Heat (1949)

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

D.O.A. (1950)

The File on Thelma Jordan (1950)

Gun Crazy (1950)

In A Lonely Place (1950)

Night and The City (1950)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Side Street (1950)

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Where Danger Lives (1950)

Where The Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Ace In The Hole (1951)

His Kind of Woman (1951)

On Dangerous Ground (1951)

The Prowler (1951)

Strangers On A Train (1951)

The Bad and The Beautiful (1952)

Clash By Night (1952)

Kansas City Confidential (1952)

The Narrow Margin (1952)

Sudden Fear (1952)

Angel Face (1953)

The Big Heat (1953)

The Blue Gardenia (1953)

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Niagra (1953)

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Crime Wave (1954)

Human Desire (1954)

Rear Window (1954)

The Big Combo (1955)

The Desperate Hours (1955)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

The Night of The Hunter (1955)

The Killing (1956)

While The City Sleeps (1956)

The Wrong Man (1956)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Touch of Evil (1958)

Vertigo (1958)

Neo-Noir Era 60’s-90’s

À bout de soufflé/ Breathless (1960)

Shoot The Piano Player (1960)

Underworld, U.S.A. (1961)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Harper (1966)

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

Dirty Harry (1971)

The French Connection (1971)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Chinatown (1974)

Taxi Driver (1976)

Body Heat (1981)

Blade Runner (1982)

Blood Simple (1984)

To Live and Die In L.A. (1985)

Blue Velvet (1986)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

The Grifters (1990)

King of New York (1990)

Miller’s Crossing (1990)

New Jack City (1991)

The Silence of The Lambs (1991)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

True Romance (1993)

Natural Born Killers (1994)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Devil In A New Dress (1995)

Heat (1995)

Se7en (1995)

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Fargo (1996)

L.A. Confidential (1997)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Payback (1999)

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IT au where Olaf is a cannibalistic clown

Once upon a time I worked in this little burger/coffee/ice cream shop and a lady came in one winter and asked if we had a caramel apple drink and we were like ‘well we have cider’ and she was like ‘no I don’t remember what it’s called but this place made a drink that was chai tea, apple cider, and caramel’ and Breezy offered to try and make something for her but she changed her mind and left so Breezy and I were like ‘alright let’s try this’ because we had chai tea, instant cider mix, a shit ton of caramel, instant hot water from the espresso and too much free time. 

And let me tell you it was delightful. It tastes like watching the leaves changing color and dancing in the wind. It tastes like picking out pumpkins and gourds and fresh apples at the farm up north. It tastes like witches and freedom.

I make it every year now and this year I walked in the house on the morning of October first with all the ingredients and shouted ‘FALL DRINK’ and my roommates were like ‘????’ so I made them Fall Drink and now every time they get home from work they’re like ‘Fall Drink pls?????’

Anyway I remember literally nothing else about that woman but I’m very grateful to her. 

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Hi, Sleuth! I've been rereading LS' 13 suspicious incidents, and in Sub file B, there seems to be a side B to every incident. I wonder what do you make of them? Do you think the various reptile mentions are references to the overlying plot that concerns the Bombinating Beast? Or do you think it could have something to do with Monty's reptiles? And what do you think the last, nine-lettered word would be? Thank you so much for your time, keep up the amazing work!

Hi, @illiteraven! So sorry to keep you waiting. My Ebook version of “File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents” doesn’t feature the “Side B solutions”, so I had to leave your question on the backburner for months. Now that I’ve got a copy in my hands, I’ll elaborate.

At first glance these “solutions” which don’t connect to any mysteries seem to be one of Daniel Handler’s literary experimentations. We are skipping to the endings of stories with no proper context. “All The Wrong Questions” is a series of mystery novels, so this could be a commentary on the temptation to skip ahead to the end in order to read the solution.

Then again, some of the Side-B snippets do seem to connect to the mystery of the Bombinating Beast somehow, and there are recurrent characters and themes from one snippet to the other. So maybe they’re remnants of subplots Daniel Handler considered for “All The Wrong Questions” even though they didn’t make it to the final draft.

Deep Mine:Dagwood is most likely a reference to Dagwood Bumstead, a character from famous comic-strip Blondie (Link), who gave his name to the Dagwood sandwich. As a gourmet, Handler would know that. Dagwood is also a pun on a character from its Side-A story Dagmar. The buzzing sound is reminiscent of the Bombinating Beast, as well as the ondulations of the Great Unknown. The Museum could also be a reference to the Museum of Objects.

Backseat:Please refer to my commentary on “Missing pets”.

Quiet Street:The V.F.D. reference is a reminder of the organization’s interest in Stain’d-by-the-Sea, as evidenced later by Lois Dressing’s observation of Lemony’s progress.

Beneath The Street:Secret underground passageways are a specialty of V.F.D. The mention of buzzing sounds also ties with the “Deep Mine” Side-B story.

Small Courtyard:Another mention of Violetta and Dagwood. Apparently their father feared Stain’d-by-the-Sea ‘s stone buildings would eventually get destroyed by “violent animal life”. It seems like he knew the Bombinating Beast was coming. According to Hangfire in the last ATWQ book, a lot of adults actually knew what he was dying but fled out in terror or were assassinated.

Missing Pets:These tanks were probably the same ones Hangfire used to raise/grow his experiments. It’s possible the reptiles were also used as genetic material to manufacture an imitation of the legendary Bombinating Beast. Mrs Flammarion is likely a member of Inhumane Society, just like her husband, and could have been tasked with providing the fish tanks and reptiles.

Large Meal:The salted meat recalls Qwerty’s and Hangfire’s interest in caviar, which also requires a great deal of salt. The local reptilian delicacies could have been a convenient way to explain the disappearance of reptiles in the area, in order to dispose of their bodies after Hangifre’s experiments.

Other Name:The initials are likely “I.S.” or “A.F.” as Inhumane Society and Armstrong Feint are known to steal honeydew melons from Partial Foods.

Sand And Shore:Apparently the abandonned boats in the empty sea are still good for something. Perhaps Cleo Knight could look into that to save her city from economic disaster.

Poor joke:Pretty much what it says on the tin.

Message recorded:Members of V.F.D. seem to carry evidence in their hats, which ties in with a shady adoption deal Arthur Poe is later guilty of in “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”.

Nervous Wreck:“Mother of Icarus” seems to be a parody of “Icarus’s Mother” by Sam Sherpard (1965). The play concerns two men trying to send a secret message during a picnic so their friends don’t realize they intend to crash a plane. So the fact that Lemony is pressing us not to look for a secret message is ironic.

Last Word:The word uttered by the mysterious figure in “Shouted Word” is commonly theorized to be “Ellington”, which has nine letters, so it would fit. Hangfire was probably looking for his daughter in the city, trying to convince her to follow his orders again in exchange for “sparing” her father’s life.

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videos i find myself frequently rewatching (most of these are film/television related, with some random topics and serotonin perks thrown in here and there)

how andrew wyeth made a painting

why miyazaki is a true romantic

over the garden wall: why is the unknown so familiar?

ginger rogers, katharine hepburn, and the 1941 oscars

the bisexual anti-fascist (marlene dietrich)

missed calls: a eulogy for the movie phone booth

edvard munch: what a cigarette means

parasite vs sunset boulevard: the disillusionment arc

anatomy of anatomy of a murder

saul bass’s movie posters

we’re all stupid and boring

the outsider’s guide to the social world

over the garden wall’s historical clothing inspirations

the psychology of heroism

comedy dies slow: the marvelous mrs. maisel

late night tv needs to change

the man from u.n.c.l.e (2015): style vs substance

when shakespeare got cool

the weird ways to adapt mary jane

aaliyah, britney, & the apathy of lifetime biopics

why chad and ryan switched clothes in high school musical 2

why megamind is a subversive masterpiece

school of rock’s perfect scene

the movies that inspired knives out

can 4 average people beat a pro crossword puzzler?

how david fincher uses pop music

the beach party genre

how to bring folklore to life

is the lonely genius real? 

in defense of love at first sight

forming real human connections? sounds fake but ok

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painting of joan of arc but she's got a lil carabiner. is this anything.