capeandcowl | 021 // Video, 'round lunchtime

[Peter's sitting cross-legged in one of those swanky mesh office chairs, what looks like a scientific journal propped open on one knee and a mechanical pencil held loosely in one hand. Judging from the camera perspective he's propped up his communicator on one side of his desk, but it's hard to see where he found the space. The rest of the visible surface is covered in the detritus of research: a half-open laptop; scattered print-outs; coffee mugs both paper and ceramic; graph paper notebooks open to half-completed diagrams of molecules and circuits both; a haphazard stack of journals with arcane names like PNAS, Biopolymers, Advanced Materials and the like. A couple of empty sushi cartons are balanced on top of the stack, chopsticks and a crumpled napkin tucked inside.]

I've been buried in research lately, and it just occurred to me that other than Carol's book I haven't read anything that's not in a cover like this-- [he picks up the journal off his lap and flaps it to demonstrate; it appears to be an issue of Physical Review Letters, whatever that is]-- in, what, six months?

I think I could use some help breaking out of my rut. What kinds of things do you read for pleasure, Network? Any recommendations? For those of you who are big readers, anyway-- I know not everyone is. [Though he clearly doesn't get why not.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm currently enjoying Too Close To Touch. I suppose I've had some small affection for office-themed stories more recently, and Georgia Beers often tends to at least start them in such a setting. Woman suddenly leaves her job to explore other possibilities and finds love along the way, but this example avoids the pattern by maintaining a plotline between a busy executive and her alluring assistant. I could lend you my copy once I'm finished.

Of course, the fondest recommendation I'd generally offer such an inquiry would be Women of the Bite. It's something of a favorite.

Those do sound, uh ... interesting.

[Did she just recommend ...? No, can't be.]

I'm pleased that you would think so! I'm more accustomed to their being dismissed as trashy when I've personally found them far more enlightening.

The latter is an anthology, mind, so the variety it offers can be somewhat mixed in quality, but largely ranging from moderate to heavy, in my consideration.

I'll ... be sure to keep that in mind.

Not quite to your taste, I take it?

Well, I guess I'll never know until I try, right?

[This will end well.]

Perhaps a sampling would better accomplish that. I could provide a few other anthologies for the purpose, if you like.

I -- yeah, why not? Maybe the next time we meet up for a shoot?

Both editions of Love Shook My Heart may serve, then. They shall be in my possession when next I visit the office.

Looking forward to it. [Wait, how did he talk himself into this corner exactly.]

What do you tend to read on a more regular occasion?

[He flaps his journal at her.] This. Or when I find the time, science fiction, maybe a little philosophy.

Well, I've never had pleasant experiences with the sciences, but philosophy is perhaps a subject I should become better versed in.

I'm a big fan of Camus and Sartre -- we can do a book trade if you like.

I can recognize the merit in this agreement! It would benefit me to better understand human modes of thought to improve my interactions with your culture.

Right, exactly. Call it a cultural exchange.

What kinds of things do, ah, trolls -- is that the right name? -- do trolls like to read? Other than office romance, that is.

As previously stated, most of my compatriots regard my predilections as distasteful. Many of them who read are more interested in historical texts.

Sounds a little on the dry side.

I'm sure they can be informative, and I do not eschew a proper education when it is needed, but it is a truly dull direction for one to express their passions.

Well, I guess I can hardly judge. [Gesturing at his own stacks.] I know people who'd rather gouge their eyes out than read this stuff.

That strikes me as something of an extreme reaction! Despite my assurance that adoption such an action wouldn't be terribly permanent, I'd much prefer to read them for the sake of my personal edification. It may not be the most glamorous prospect, but it can at least be useful.

Oh, no, I meant -- it's a figure out speech, meaning you find something incredibly boring. No actual eye-gouging, I promise.

Uh, right. Of course. Though why one would use such a phrase to imply that their last visual memory would be something so undesired is curious.

Because humans think hyperbole is the most amazing concept to have ever existed in the entire history of the multiverse, of course.

Humor based in insincerity I can grow accustomed to, but to extend it to deliberate exaggeration and empty overdramatic theatrics just strikes me as a needless contrivance to be kept in the toolkit of rhetoric.

video;

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