PlotLines is a terrific site: “The classics, mapped – every journey in the book, drawn on a hand-tinted period map, with the real 1890s Ordnance Survey wherever the story walks in Britain.” For anyone who, like me, reads novels with maps and atlas at hand, trying to trace the characters’ travels, it’s a godsend, and it’s brilliantly done — check out the way it traces Leopold and Stephen’s crisscrossing paths in Ulysses. It’s got dozens of novels, including War and Peace, which must have been quite a challenge (a minor annoyance: the text talks about Austerlitz, but the map shows Slavkov, with no explanation that that’s the modern name), with “more to come.” It was created by Chris Moran (under the pseudonym Peter Guillam, a character from John le Carré), and you can read about how he did it, using the Claude desktop app, here.
Not gonna make a separate post, because how many people are interested in Proto-Elamite, but in case you are, Kate Kelley’s Proto-Elamite: Writing and Society in Early Iran has been published as a New Cambridge Element (whatever that may be), and it’s available for free for the next couple of weeks. (Via Nelson Goering’s FB post.)
For those who don’t wish to patronize Xitter, the short link on X expands to the Elamite Element at:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/protoelamite/3684B7262E21A8B6AF8657D948A5B1A6
In the OP:
A monograph, perhaps?
Thanks for the expansion, I try to avoid X but was lazy.
Can anyone else see the images of tablets and maps and so forth on the Proto-Elamite webpage? I cannot, and I’m not sure if it’s a browser settings issue or a network settings issue.
“The study of ancient writing, though not an institutionalised field itself, has developed over the past two decades into a dynamic domain of inquiry across specialisms. This series aims to reflect and contribute to this ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue, while challenging schematic views on writing in the ancient world.”
I can’t say I’m familiar with the pejorative sense of “schematic” that’s obviously intended here. Is it British, or just from a deeper stratum of Academic-Jargonese than I have managed to become familiar with?
The images have all been replaced with placeholder gifs that are a single pixel in size. We’re getting the bare text as a teaser.
…or maybe the pictures are included in the supplementary zip files; I haven’t checked (and haven’t read most of the text yet).
Schematisch in the sense “oversimplified”, “assuming simpler rules than there are”, is common in German, FWTW.
It works for me in Firefox. In Chrome it complains of a lack of WebGL. In Firefox, to zoom out I need to first click on “begin the story”, rather than “explore the map”.
But then, technical issues aside, it looks nice. The 1890 base map is a nice touch.
It’s largely made by AI (Claude), which means that I will regard any errors or displeasing design decisions with no sympathy at all.
Yeah, I was distressed about the AI thing, but if you read his account you realize it was extremely useful — in fact, I get the impression it couldn’t have been done on a practical scale without AI. The damn thing does have its uses as long as you keep your whip handy.
It looks like the problem is very specific to some configuration in the Proto-Elamite Element webpage.
As it turns out, Cambridge Core is one of the many sites that I have full or partial access to through my library website proxy.
So when I look at the other Elements in this series Writing in the Ancient World (“Language and Script in Achaemenid and Hellenistic Central Asia”, “Writing in Bronze Age Crete”, “Hieratic”, “Cypro-Minoan and Its Writers” (which show me an abstract and a paywall when I look at them without my library login)) all show up properly through my library proxy, including the images, as well as a downloadable PDF. But “Proto-Elamite” still shows up with broken images through that same library proxy, and no PDF.
Will it be fixed before access ends on 2026-08-04? I have no idea.
The trouble with using an APE for purposes like these is that you can’t trust any individual assertion that hasn’t been checked “manually.” Did Chris Moran do this? (Not a rhetorical question: I dare say he did.)
If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion (about looking into how Claude was used), just read the description at the link. It is way more interesting then checking individual facts.
Schematic is also used in Russian with about the same sense as in German (simplified to show the main features, not detailed or fleshed out). I wouldn’t say it is pejorative.
I wouldn’t say it is pejorative
It isn’t necessarily pejorative in German either, but can be used that way, by adding words meaning “too”, “only”, “purely”, etc, or like in the sentence quoted by JWB.
a New Cambridge Element (whatever that may be)
The CUP website describes their book series that they have named Cambridge Elements. They could just as well have called it “Cambridge Basics”, because that’s what it is, sort of. Each book sets out the central ideas currently exercising researchers/workers in particular fields. Basic cutting edges, I guess, not so central.
They make it weird only by calling each individual volume an “Element”. They don’t use the words “volume” or “book”, but instead “publishing solution”.
Actually it’s all dolled up, pretentious and buzzy, but could be useful if you have a dog in the fight.
I’m sure its mother loves it.
The Elements series is Cambridge’s take on what’s often called the minigraph — basically a very short book. They’re fairly trendy, but also do have a legitimate place. Talking with several people who’ve worked on minigraphs (including my wife, who did one with ARC that at 57k words might be too long to count), they really are projects you approach rather differently from normal monographs. They’re also a bit broader in scope than your typical long article, but probably have more in common with that format. Or at least the the impression I’ve gotten, not having tried to write one myself.
Kate says that there’s supposed to be a download PDF option for the book, which would have all the images and suchlike correctly rendered for everyone, but that’s missing for some reason. Both that and the online image issue are supposed to be getting fixed by CUP.
I went to the Plotlines depiction of My Antonia — it’s beautifully done, as you say, and the commentary is lovely. Makes me want to read the book again.
Of proto-, paleo, neo-, pomo- or any other kind of Elamite I am utterly ignorant.
ETA: And will very likely remain so.
Cambridge Univ. Pr. is indeed touting an extraordinarily large number of different “Elements” series (some still “forthcoming”) in a variety of different fields, including subfields of linguistics. The vast majority of them are titled “Elements in X” but a minority are “Elements of X,” and I’m not sure I can quite decipher the pattern. https://www.cambridge.org/core/publications/elements/cambridge-elements-series
Two more that are freely available for a limited time (until 2026-08-0{6,7}):
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/egypt-and-the-levant/6CE8812ED7F79465926B97E1F7E5BF30
https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/magic-in-the-ancient-near-east-and-the-hebrew-bible/9EA6C33F757538D97A26F4894A73A162
I’ve been pondering the concept of “magic” for a while. I have my own thoughts on the matter, but the author of the latter work writes:
I’m stealing “para-human entities”. It seems perfect for Homeric gods* for example.
* …let’s say I’m trying to emulate the gender-neutral theos in the older books of the Iliad by reaching to the early neuter attestations of the Germanic word…
The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, originally regarded as male in India, is usually represented as female in China and Japan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin
Bodhisattvas are basically above all that sort of thing.
“Magic” is a pretty fraught category anthropologically, for all kinds of reasons (like “religion.”) Practices labelled as “magic” by Europeans in Africa, for example, certainly don’t always involve attempts to get “para-human entities” on-side, unless you define “para-human” so loosely that it has little or no connection with “human.” Magic is not usually regarded as the same kind of thing as prayer to a god, even in cultures that actually have gods.
A highly popular and very lucrative magical system among Europeans and Americans goes by the name “homoeopathy”, for example. I’m pretty sure that the practitioners do not suppose themselves to be appealing to parahuman entities. Nor do incantations seem to feature much.
I’m pretty sure that the practitioners do not suppose themselves to be appealing to parahuman entities.
In Germany, where possible they invoke Demeter* to enhance their sales pitch. That provides a harvested-by-moonlight vibe.
Nor do incantations seem to feature much.
The chanting of marketing phrases doesn’t count ?
*De-‘me-ter
Demeter is a brand of organic* stuff and has nothing to do with homeopathy AFAIK.
* Bio-
The Demeter people seem to be easy about recommending homeopathic stuff, provided it’s understood as ancillary. I guess they can’t afford to be too stand-offish, since all these pseudoscientific notions sorta bleed into each other.
But these keep people happy and out of the opium dens, so.
https://www.demeter.de/biodynamisch/tierhaltung/gesundheit
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Eine präventive Behandlung mit diätetischen Futterzusätzen, homöopathischen oder phytotherapeutischen Mitteln – z.B. Zufütterung von Bitterkräutern – ist möglich. Immunologisch wirksame Mittel (Impfungen) sind erlaubt. Ein präventiver Einsatz von chemisch-synthetischen allopathischen Mitteln wie Antibiotika ist im Ökolandbau generell verboten.
Integrativer Ansatz im Krankheitsfall
Kommt es doch zum Krankheitsfall, so müssen unmittelbar Maßnahmen zur Beseitigung oder mindestens Linderung der Beschwerden eingeleitet werden. Die Behandlungsmethode ergibt sich im jeweiligen Einzelfall aus der Fürsorgepflicht des Tierhalters und der tierärztlichen Indikation – also der Empfehlung des Tierarztes. Grundlegend hierbei ist die Schwere des zu behandelnden Falls unter Berücksichtigung des Allgemeinzustands des Tieres. Phytotherapeutische und homöopathische Präparate sind bei der Behandlung vorzuziehen
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An article on the website of my health insurance company starts:
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Gegen jedes Leiden ist ein Kraut gewachsen – glauben jedenfalls 72 Prozent der Frauen und Männer in Deutschland. Sie vertrauen auf die Heilkräfte von Pflanzen und Kräutern und wünschen sich eine “sanfte” Medizin für die Therapie ihrer Beschwerden.
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On the topic of homeopathy: https://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0?si=neza3y3234kgwfj2
The PlotLines site is neat, but I found all the straight-line (geodesic?) paths weirdly off-putting. I’m sure it would be impractical to show real road routes, but I was nonetheless disappointed not to see them. I guess that’s what comes of having lived with a geographer.
Oh, so preventive antibiotics are “allopathic”, but vaccines are not. *snort*
But yeah, I didn’t know Demeter is heavily into homeopathy, but I shouldn’t be surprised; it’s first-wave 1970s or 1960s organic stuff, so it’s all about vibes.
They don’t use the word “vaccine” straight-up, but only in parentheses, as if merely to explain what “immunologisch wirksame Mittel” means – and slyly borrow the plausibly deniable allopathic cachet of “Impfung“. Similar expressions are used for alcoholic drops like Pro Symbioflor. “Zur Unterstützung des Immunsystems“.
it’s first-wave 1970s or 1960s organic stuff, so it’s all about vibes.
Early 20th century esotericism / nature mysticism, actually.
Rudolf Steiner in the vanguard.
Ah, that makes even more sense.
No alcohol in those drops, BTW. “Zutaten: Bakterienkulturlysat (aus Enterococcus faecalis DSM 16440 und E[scherichia] coli DSM 17252), Laktose, Zinkgluconat”. Also, as usual, the question mark in the URL and everything after it is unnecessary.
copy and paste is good enough for me.
homoeopathy
as opposed to chiropracty, which is very much a “performative… set of procedures conducted by professional practitioners according to written or oral predefined rules, which has a clear objective, involving the assistance… of para-human entities that influence human reality” (here, by appearing in a dream to transmit the original form of the procedures to its founder), though it rarely gets called “magic”.
Wikipedia on “chiropractic”:
The stupid oxide! It stinks!
One more recent school of homoeopathy dispenses with the post-hoc supposed scientific explanations of water restructuring and such, and goes full woo: you can get homoeopathic treatments long-distance from anywhere, over the phone, with no physical materials involved. I personally find that more honest and sensible.
i thought that was just reiki?
That too, but they’re independent. I’ve known practitioners of both.
It’s not that far off from Evangelical laying on of hands via the TV screen.
The issue with the images and lack of a PDF download seem to have been fixed.
Thanks, I just downloaded a copy.
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