“Nazi-onanism” for “nationalism,” in a good piece by Vicente Álvarez (via Libro de Notas) on the growing intolerance and aggression of regional movements in Spain.
Brits tend to see Trafalgar (search) as the stage on which British naval hegemony was established. The French official view, on the other hand, is that it is just another anniversary. For some Spaniards, meanwhile, apart from being a reminder of the perils of entrusting project management to the French, it recalls imperial glory (we’re…
Here’s another daisy for my chain of Spain-goes-south posts, unlikely to be of interest to anyone at all, although the ads may amuse. Vital Fité’s Las desdichas de la patria viewed China as an imperial basket case. Ricardo Beltrán y Rózpide in La geografía en 1898 (1899) explains why it was to remain so: The…
Here’s another nugget from that dark and dirty vein, Spain’s colonial adventures. It’s from Vital Fité’s Las desdichas de la patria (The misfortunes of the motherland; 1899), in which he reflects on national destiny following the disastrous loss to the US of Cuba and the Philippines: If others’ troubles could console us, a brief examination…
This and the huge and prosperous French population in SE England just go to confirm the notion that Britain is where the French go to work, while France decays gradually into a gigantic agricultural theme park dotted with wildlife reserves dedicated to obscurantist and ageing political dogmatists. Spain, on the other hand…
The novel is progressing. I’ve hit the 50K mark and plot and characters are showing signs of improvement, partly because I’m putting a bit more time into research and a bit less into peripatetic weird shit collection. One of the puzzles I’m working through at the moment is the lack of a sub-Saharan chiliastic movement…