A Fractal of Loops

Pet Foolery, #93

Highlights include:

For your first two years (when you were small) you lived in a foster home with people who raised you into a very polite young man. Two is like you plus me, that's what two is.

Some people adopted you before me and they called you Timmy (which is a stupid name) and they returned your ass almost immediately because you were so annoying at that age.

Like think about how annoying you are right now at seven years old, but way worse.

I'm better than them though, I don't call you Timmy and I wore earplugs to bed for three years because you love to scream at bedtime. Earplugs are like when I roll over and go back to sleep even when you are yelling so so so loud.

I got you at a time in my life when I was really sick (being sick is like when I'm up late because I'm throwing up and you are a very handsome good boy who sits with me) and they had to put me asleep for a procedure. A procedure is like what happened to you when they put you asleep and took your balls away.

When I read this the first couple of times, I think I misunderstood how this trade relationship worked and assumed these merchants were importing into the Ethuveraz. But that's not right. These are exporters, here to buy silk and various industrial goods.

I am not a historian, so my understanding of this part of real world history is from high school, supplemented by a handful of books about the spice trade. But my very basic understanding of how this played out in real life factory goods were concurrent with colonialism (don't ask me about cause and effect I don't know) and real world flow of trade that I learned was that silk and tea and spices moved towards Europe (in the worst possible way as they were being extracted by colonizing nations) and manufactured goods were sent back from Europe (still in the worst way possible with mercantilism).

But the set up in the Ethuveraz seems to be silk and manufactured goods go out, spices go in, and everyone seems to have tea about equally (iirc both Ethuverazheise and Barizhaise teas are mentioned in Cemeteries). And these countries seem to be on basically even footing.

I don't have anything interesting to say about this, in the historical sense I'm basically just throwing it out as bait in the hope someone better informed will be irritated enough to come and explain properly.

Neither of them covered the transport of silk into Europe, so I clearly need another book but I come bearing interesting silk facts.

I couldn't find the specific silk plague that was connected to the development of rayon but I did find a silk plague connected to the development of microbiology! A guy called Agostino Bassi identified the cause of a specific silk work plague as a fungus microscopically, and developed an infection control protocol to stop the spread. His work was then developed by Louis Pasteur.

Here are some other weird silk facts I found while I was skimming, because silk is a deeply weird substance.

Silk is a filament, so structurally, more like synthetic fibers than other natural fibres.

An intact silk worm cocoon is a single silk strand, so really good silk, isn't spun its reeled. There is also spun silk, but its lower grade because its made from damaged cocoons.

This is actually really important, because the machinery used to reel silk directly gave rise to firstly, the spinning wheel (wheels were only invented once, in China, and they double the rate thread can be produced at) and big industrial reeling machines (in Italy). The spinning wheel is also the origin of the drive belt, which is used in, among other things, motors.

Silk was used to pay taxes, a lot of small scale sericulture was historically, literally done to pay taxes.

When I read this the first couple of times, I think I misunderstood how this trade relationship worked and assumed these merchants were importing into the Ethuveraz. But that's not right. These are exporters, here to buy silk and various industrial goods.

I am not a historian, so my understanding of this part of real world history is from high school, supplemented by a handful of books about the spice trade. But my very basic understanding of how this played out in real life factory goods were concurrent with colonialism (don't ask me about cause and effect I don't know) and real world flow of trade that I learned was that silk and tea and spices moved towards Europe (in the worst possible way as they were being extracted by colonizing nations) and manufactured goods were sent back from Europe (still in the worst way possible with mercantilism).

But the set up in the Ethuveraz seems to be silk and manufactured goods go out, spices go in, and everyone seems to have tea about equally (iirc both Ethuverazheise and Barizhaise teas are mentioned in Cemeteries). And these countries seem to be on basically even footing.

I don't have anything interesting to say about this, in the historical sense I'm basically just throwing it out as bait in the hope someone better informed will be irritated enough to come and explain properly.

Neither of them covered the transport of silk into Europe, so I clearly need another book but I come bearing interesting silk facts.

I couldn't find the specific silk plague that was connected to the development of rayon but I did find a silk plague connected to the development of microbiology! A guy called Agostino Bassi identified the cause of a specific silk work plague as a fungus microscopically, and developed an infection control protocol to stop the spread. His work was then developed by Louis Pasteur.

Here are some other weird silk facts I found while I was skimming, because silk is a deeply weird substance.

Silk is a filament, so structurally, more like synthetic fibers than other natural fibres.

An intact silk worm cocoon is a single silk strand, so really good silk, isn't spun its reeled. There is also spun silk, but its lower grade because its made from damaged cocoons.

This is actually really important, because the machinery used to reel silk directly gave rise to firstly, the spinning wheel (wheels were only invented once, in China, and they double the rate thread can be produced at) and big industrial reeling machines (in Italy). The spinning wheel is also the origin of the drive belt, which is used in, among other things, motors.

Silk was used to pay taxes, a lot of small scale sericulture was historically, literally done to pay taxes.

protagonist leads a miserable life either as an orphan, in an abusive household, or both. one day, however, protagonist suddenly is revealed to be Super Special and they have to leave their home to go to The Magic School. at magic school they are an outsider and are probably resented for their Super Special Status, however they gradually manage to make friends with the other magic school outcasts and also solve the plot

these are coming of age stories, centered on young protagonists who have faced a lot of adversity. there are often themes of generational trauma, elders being fallible, and learning responsibility. the central power fantasy revolves around being so Super Special no one can hurt you anymore