Introduction

So I want to say at the outset that while I generally found this section of The Bible much less upsetting to read, it still has its own share of issues. I am going to try and avoid rehashing already discussed subjects and instead move on to some new ones. Namely its portrayal of women, the nature of free will, and the interactions between God and Moses.

Women and Society

The Bible's portrayal of women is a bit … strange to me. Firstly because they don't seem to appear nearly as often as one would expect, and never in any substantial or independent role; at least so far. Now I accept that this is at least in part a product of who wrote The Bible, and the expectations of the societies they were a part of. However, if I am being honest, I don't understand why an entity so far beyond humanity would choose to reinforce those biases. And, while I acknowledge that it could simply be that due to social constraints, males were simply the best tools to get what needed doing done, I find that answer to be a bit unsatisfying in the context of a God who can flood the earth.

More to the point; many of The Bible's examples of human failure seem to be arbitrarily assigned to women. Women are also depicted as more prone to evil, or simply as glorified possessions. When a woman is positively mentioned, so far as I can recall reading; it's because she gave birth. Genesis 19:8, Genesis 19:26, and Genesis 19:31 create a pretty good representation of how The Bible seems to view women. First as possessions, then as weak and fallible, and lastly as having value only for their ability to bear children.

Author's note: I am trying to not get bogged down in a discussion of slavery, and rape again. But I do want to say, the actions described in Genesis 19:31 are just … incredibly* disgusting. Rape is always wrong, and that is what that chapter described.*

Free Will and Choice

One thing that I have found genuinely confusing is the limits; self imposed or otherwise, of God's ability to interact with the world. It seems reasonable to assume that God has the ability to directly control anything that they want to, and that they simply choose not to in most situations. But in the case of the Pharaoh, God seems to be directly subverting human choice and free will?

And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, "Let my son go that he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.'"

–Exodus 4:21

Now the interesting portion of this to me is God saying "I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go." More for the fact that it seems to imply that god is directly subverting or overriding a human's ability to make choices, than because it is counterproductive. This hardening is repeated several times throughout the chapter, and it really made me wonder. If God has both the ability and willingness to override human independence, why they don't do so more often? What are the moral implications of choices made as a result of that intervention.

One example of this is the deaths of the Egyptians who pursued the Hebrews as they fled into the desert. The Egyptian army pursued the Hebrews at the command of the Pharaoh who was being… influenced by God. I acknowledge that the death of a few thousand charioteers is bordering on inconsequential by the scale of a being that has previously wiped out all life on earth. But I do think its worth considering that those Egyptians are mounting the pursuit at the order of the Pharaoh, who is being influenced to do so. Is it unreasonable to say that the entity doing that influencing is responsible for those deaths? More generally, how does that type of intervention affect the morality of those following the Pharaoh. Can you really say that the Egyptians were in the wrong here, when they were explicitly following God's plan?

Moses and God

I want to end this post on a bit of a lighter note, not everything in The Bible has been terrible to read. Following the escape from Egypt into the Wilderness, an almost co-operative dynamic develops between God and Moses. My favorite example of this was;

But Moses said to the Lord, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for in your might you brought up this people from among them, and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O Lord, are in the midst of this people; for you, O Lord, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go in front of them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if you kill this people all at one time, then the nations who have heard about you will say, 'It is because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to give them that he has slaughtered them in the wilderness.' …"

–Numbers 14:13

Which I could not help but translate it into a modern conversation.

"Yeah you could kill all of us. No one's denying that. But if you do… everyone will think you are a quitter"

I found these interactions between God, Moses, and the Israelites to be a really interesting dynamic. With Moses acting as a mediator between the fallible and often short-sighted populace, and God, who often seems to fail to consider human motivation, lifespan, and social dynamics. Instead expecting rote obedience, which within the context of the Abrahamic faiths is understandable. The fundamental tenet is, "fear and obey God".

The nature of the Bible

Depending on who and when you ask, the Bible is either a collection of myths and stories, or the literal word of God: transmitted through the prophets. As someone who lacks established belief in the Abrahamic faiths, I tend to view it as the former. Thankfully I don't think this distinction matters much for the style of analysis I intend to do. Rather than attempting to disprove or argue with the "factuality" of the events described, I am instead focusing on the morals, lessons, and ideals espoused by those events, In the hope that I can evaluate those things on their own merits.

This also means I will be glossing over the creation stories in this post. It is well established that the events described there do not align with our current scientific understanding. I honestly don't think that the accuracy of this section of the Bible actually has that much relevance on the value of the rest.

On God, and those who Follow

So I am just going to come out and say it at the start. I did not enjoy Genesis. I did not find it beautiful or inspiring. The followers of God seem to use the threat of divine punishment as a cudgel to batter the world around them into submission, and when needed God is all too happy to follow through on their threats. I do not see this as justice, or as the acts of a just God. I see it as the acts of a bully: "Do what I want or I will hurt you", and the followers of God are consistently deceptive, abusive, or simply selfish.

Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.

– Genesis 9:25

This quote is a great example. Ham, Noah's son, finds his father passed out naked. Because of this, Noah condemns his grandson Canaan before God, and God seems to be ok with this. There is no rebuke of Noah for drunkenness. The moral of this story genuinely seems to be, God just takes the side of whoever they like the most. This is shown again when Abram enters Egypt.

But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. So Pharaoh called Abram, and said, "What is this you have done to me?" Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, 'she is my sister,' so that I took her for my wife?

–Genesis 12:17

I acknowledge that there was some danger to Abram. But, I feel like he could have chosen not to go to Egypt then. Or at the least, that the Pharaoh and his whole household shouldn't be cursed for acting on the lies given to them by Abram. It's really hard for me to read:

Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.

–Genesis 13:2

and not think that he leveraged the support of God to gain earthly wealth. Abram shows up, lies about his wife. People believe him, and then receive divine punishment because they trusted the servant of God. Meanwhile Abram gets rich. I just don't see much of a moral here other than, if God is on your side you can do what you want. This is shown again in the story of Hagar.

Now in general I would try to interpret slavery in a book like this as, for lack of a better term reflective of the times. Even if the followers of God keep slaves, that isn't necessarily a reflection on God's stance on slavery. Case in point, Abrams wife saying:

You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.

–Genesis 16:2

Now, for the record: slavery is wrong, rape is wrong, forced surrogacy is wrong. And yes, I think a just God would take actions against a follower behaving in such a way. But, honestly I also don't really think it is fair to hold a whole religion to account based on the actions of a single adherent. Unfortunately this position is undermined by direct actions of God.

He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me! But Abram said to Sarai, Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please.

Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I am running away from my mistress Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit to her. The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will so greatly multiply your off spring that they cannot be counted for multitude.

–Genesis 16:4

So, just to be clear. My reading of this is that a slave, after being raped and beaten. Runs away, and God sends an angel to intervene and tell her to go back, and …. be raped and beaten some more ??? This isn't a follower of God behaving badly. This is God themselves again rewarding someone who is doing something objectively terrible. This is a pattern that reappears later in Genesis. More to the point this isn't even the end of Hagar's troubles at the hands of God. Eventually God tells Abraham to send her out into the desert, and while I acknowledge that the word of God is a pretty good indicator for them surviving. I still can not get past how utterly, and totally morally bankrupt this whole situation is. A slave, raped, beaten, and forced to raise a child. Only to be cast out into the desert, perhaps to die as far as any of the mortals involved can tell. All at the direction of God.

Conclusion

In short I finished Genesis deeply upset. I am still upset writing this several hours later. I object not to the factuality of the stories. But to the idea that the God described by these stories is in any way just, or good. I object to the idea that the characters in these stories displays traits and behaviors that one should aspire to.

Summary

A Memory Called Empire is the first book in a series by an author I have not previously read. I enjoyed the book, and I think they did a good job balancing the need for a "completed story" within this book against the needs of world building for a larger series. By the end I still had a lot of questions about the world and things happening in it, without the feeling of a cliffhanger ending. I would describe this book as a solid character-driven sci-fi story.

——— Spoiler Warning ———

Full Review

The story focuses on the experience of a newly appointed ambassador from a small nation traveling to the neighboring empire for the first time. I really enjoyed the author's usage of poetic / narrative self determinism as a defining characteristic of the empire. The idea that citizens of this empire sort of "self-select" into character roles previously defined in their societies' collective literature, and how this expectation to "follow the narrative" can become self-destructive. They also do a really good job illustrating how a society can build values around somewhat arbitrary things. In the case of Teixcalaan it's poetry. This is a perfect fit within the context of a society so focused on narrative beauty, but it's important to keep in mind that throughout all of this we are interacting with the Teixcalaanli nobility.

The story does not really do much to address what life is like for the more ordinary citizen of Teixcalaan, and maybe it doesn't need to. But I think it's worth remembering as you read through this book that what we are seeing is not the "norm", but the "ideal". The Teixcalaan we see is the story that the empire tells itself: The idealized concept of what every Teixcalaanli "should be".

The protagonist, ambassador Mahit does not fit easily into this Teixcalaanli narrative of self-determination and achievement. Like most of her people she has an "Imago machine". A brain implant: with what amounts to an AI built from the recorded thoughts of her predecessor. Unusually the goal of this implant is not to act as an embedded assistant, but to be gradually integrated into the "host" until they reach the point of being a single gestalt personality. For the ambassador that would only be a single generation, but that seems to be the exception rather then the rule. With some "Imago Lineages" going back 15 generations or more.

The story spends a lot of time dealing with the nuance of what a device like that could mean for the definition of the self, how such a device could be misused, and how societal norms and expectations define our values around such things. To Mahit the idea of an Imago is not only "normal", but desirable: something she has dreamed of. While to the Teixcalaanli it is either repugnant, or a way to bypass the normal social order.

Overall I thought the book discussed some really interesting ideas, and I am looking forward to reading the second.

Summary

The library at mount char is a hugely fun read, and I absolutely recommend it. The story is fast paced, and the author has a remarkable ability to get you immediately invested into characters as they appear. Creating a sense that your understanding of the protagonist is as much a part of the plot as the protagonists own growth within it.

Review

This book took me on a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Most of the characters are, to be blunt monstrous. I spent the first half of the book legitimately hoping the protagonist would fail.

Throughout the story all the characters do horrific things. It is almost overwhelming at the beginning. There really does not seem to be anybody to "root for", and the more you learn about each character the less you want any of them to succeed. But, as you learn more about the world in which they exist it starts to feel much less random. May be not the individual actions of the characters. A lot of that does not start to make sense until the end. But the characters them selves make sense. Who they are, and why they are the way they are.

In my opinion this is ultimately a story of necessity. A sort of re-asking of "do the ends justify the means" under the most extreme of circumstances. I found it to be a hugely compelling read. If upsetting at times to work through. In the end I found the decisions to be …. understandable. Unpleasant, Disagreeable, and even Painful to consider. But also compelling. If you assume that the characters in the story are not missing obvious solutions that we as the reader see from the outside. It's hard to say that they are wrong.

Why a Blog

The biggest appeal of blogging to me, is as a tool for learning. Most obviously for writing as a skill itself. Which requires a lot of practice to improve at. But also for other subjects. There is famously a saying that, if you can't explain it you don't understand it. I strongly agree with this. Writing short essays on a subject is know to be one of the best ways to study a subject. Synthesis is key to understanding, and retention. I am entering a period of my life where a lot of my time and energy is going to be spent learting new things, and writing essays on them. Why not make those available to the public. Which leads me to my second point.

Contributing to public knowledge. This can be a somewhat continous issue in the modern era of LLMs, and funily enough. In the previous incarnation of this website. I had a few articles that we niche enough that their contents were actually served back to me. But I stand by my belief on this one. That ultimately contributing to the collective body of human knowledge, in any way. No matter how small. Is always a good thing. If that happens via LLM, well then so be it. I'm not happy about a corporation making money of my work, but to be honest. This was never a money making endevor for me, so I'm also just not that bothered by it.

Lastly, it builds a record of work. Weather for job applications, college course placement, or as a simple gallery of personal accomplishment. Having a record of the things you have done, and lessons you have learned is awesome. For me making it public, and open to comment is motivating. It opens the door for spontaneous colaboration, and learning for others who are doing similar work.

My Goals for this Website.

• Creative Writing Crucible: My writing skills are abysmal. I know this, and it something I guinely want to improve. What better way then knowing that the public can actually read what I have written.
• Project Logs, and Subject Synthesis: For the next year, my focus is going to be on starting college. This requires me to pick up a lot of new skills, and to be honest. Relearn my high school level Math and Science. Essays, and project logs are going to be a major part of my learning plan.
• Finding My Voice: I have struggled in the past to find ways of expressing myself. I studied art heavily for several years, had two pieces shown in galleries, and have even sold my work. I eventually moved away from art becuase I felt like I didn't "have anything to say". I have always enjoyed teaching, and I love helping others. My hope is that by framing expression as contributing to a greater body of knowledge will help me find my creative "voice".

Local Development and Reproducibility with Nix Flakes

The first goal was to build the blog using a Nix Flake. This makes it so that once it is working, it will always work. The flake.nix defines the development environment, and envrc tells zsh to load it automatically when I enter the directory.

{
  description = "Personal Blog Environment";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
  };

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, flake-utils }:
    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
      let
        pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
      in
      {
        devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
          buildInputs = with pkgs; [
            git

            # Publishing engine
            quarto

            # Required for executing Jupyter notebooks and Python code blocks!
            python3
            python3Packages.jupyter
          ];

          shellHook = ''
            echo "=========================================="
            echo "Quarto version: $(quarto --version)"
            echo "Python version: $(python3 --version)"
            echo "=========================================="
            echo "=========================================="
            echo "Run 'quarto preview' to start the live server."
            echo "=========================================="
          '';
        };
      }
    );
}

Quarto Features, and Site Layout

I went with Quarto because it is explicitly geared towards academic websites. It supports inline (), Citations, SRC blocks, Jupyter Notebooks, and even rendering to PDF, or PowerPoint slides all as part of the core engine. No need for fragile extensions. Visually it looks pretty good out of the box, and it support a lot more customization later if I want to do so. My website is currently based heavily off of this build guide.

The general layout groups posts into two categories.

• General, which are post that are independent. These are organized based on publication date, and tag.
• Project, Which are hubs that list post that share a common theme.

Building and Publishing with GitHub

So I am just going to come clean up front here. I have… no idea how this works. I asked Google Gemini to configure this for me, and it did. Which to be honest I consider a great example use case for LLMs. Just do this common configuration task for me so I don't need to speed a bunch of time fighting with it like I did with Hugo. I will dig in to this at some point. But for now I am happy to write it off as simly working.