# Latro musings

*The Urth list — 3 messages, 2 voices, 09 Aug 2003*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4153>

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### Lisa Schaffer-Doggett
*09 Aug 2003, 03:18*

Hi all,

Unfortunately, I have woefully little to contribute to the 
understanding of these great  books, but I've found the discussion 
going on here quite helpful.  I just picked up a U of Chicago edition 
of Herodotus' History which I plan to read as soon as I finish the last 
few pages of Legends of the Samurai.  On an aside, I also picked up a 
copy of Hamlet's Mill which I plan to tackle after H (thanks Crush).  
The farther I travel on the path of the Autodidact, the more pissed I 
get at my public (including college) education.  I should have read 
Herodotus ten, if not fifteen, years ago.  Oh well.

Anyhow back to Latro.  This is my one contribution, and it's only an 
aesthetic one.  I found that while I was reading the Soldier omnibus I 
was having a devil of a time keeping track of all of the people and 
events.  A few times I backtracked to figure out what was going on but 
then I stopped and just read through.  It was quite an interesting 
effect, forgetting a lot of what I read.  Very disorienting, but it 
produced quite an empathetic bond in me with Latro and made him one of 
my favorite characters in the works of Wolfe's I've read.

For what it's worth,
Don

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### Josh Geller
*09 Aug 2003, 04:07 · follows Lisa Schaffer-Doggett*

> On Fri, 2003-08-08 at 20:18, Lisa Schaffer-Doggett wrote:
>                                              I also picked up a 
> copy of Hamlet's Mill which I plan to tackle after H (thanks Crush).

I've found that most people do better if they work up to 'Hamlet's 
Mill'. I generally recommend that people first read Anthony Aveni's
'Stairways to the Stars' and William Sullivan's 'The Secret of
the Incas' before they tackle 'Hamlet's Mill'. The first is a good
general work on what's called archaeoastronomy these days, the 
second is a specific application of the ideas and methodology
described in 'Hamlet's Mill' to the history and archaeology of
Andean civilization.









.

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### Lisa Schaffer-Doggett
*09 Aug 2003, 03:59 · follows Josh Geller*

> On Friday, August 8, 2003, at 09:07 PM, Josh Geller wrote:
> 
> I've found that most people do better if they work up to 'Hamlet's
> Mill'. I generally recommend that people first read Anthony Aveni's
> 'Stairways to the Stars' and William Sullivan's 'The Secret of
> the Incas' before they tackle 'Hamlet's Mill'. The first is a good
> general work on what's called archaeoastronomy these days, the
> second is a specific application of the ideas and methodology
> described in 'Hamlet's Mill' to the history and archaeology of
> Andean civilization.

Thanks for the suggestion.  On looking back, I see that you brought up 
Hamlet's Mill to Crush.  So double thanks.  God only knows when I'll 
get to all this stuff.  I need a personal reader like Borges had 
(though I'd rather not go blind).  Maybe I won't sleep.  Yeah.

Don

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