The Sword and Laser discussion

I am still very much at the beginning of the book but the narrator's discussion on how to name/identify years got me thinking:

How would you name years in the real world (aside maybe 2020 which is probably something like "The Year of the Pandemic")?

Would you name them in a personal way, like "The Year When I Went On A Holiday With My Parents For The Last Time"? Or more the word events, like "The Year 'The Fellowship of the Ring' premiered in Theaters"?

What a great question! For me, I think it would have to be a mix, but mostly personal things - The year my son was born, The year I lost my mum (actually, that was the same year...)


Oddly, 2001 for me would be something like The year of the Fellowship of the Rings premier as we saw it at Universal Studios in Florida as part of a mega holiday for my son's tenth birthday :D, so probably The year of Michael's Florida holiday


Actually, that brings to mind the question of how Piranesi delineates years and seasons, how he decides when they start. Does he mention that?

Paul wrote: "Actually, that brings to mind the question of how Piranesi delineates years and seasons, how he decides when they start. Does he mention that?"

I don't remember this coming up, but for a guy who is a keen astronomical observer, it seems like this wouldn't be a problem. At one point Piranesi describes the positions of constellations in relationship to certain rooms and keeps track of moon phases to anticipate the tides. I'm thinking figuring out roughly when a year starts isn't any harder than that.

On the original question, I really liked Piranesi's year-names. I spent a few years posting a lot to a citizen science app where people uploaded pictures of plants and animals they spotted on hikes. That attuned my mind a bit more to nature, especially in spring. There was a year without flowers because an early warm spell encouraged them to bloom only for a late frost to kill them all. There was a year that was amazing for finding morels - a year with strong thunderstorms in the middle of migration which meant mornings where a lot of warblers had taken refuge in the trees. It's been a few years since I thought that way, however.

2016 - The Year Our Dogs Wabash & GoGo Came To Live With Us
2017 - The Year Of Little Rain, Big Snow
2018 - The Year Of Eye Problems Galore
2019 - The Year Of Eye Problems Some More
2020 - No Good Plague Year That I Not-So-Secretly Enjoyed
2021 - Steve

I mark my years by surgeries, at least since 2001.
2001 - both shoulders
2002 - tonsils and ankle
2003 - hand and ankle x2
2004 - ankle
2005 - 1 year without surgery!
2006 - another year without surgery!
2007 - hand
2008 - hand
2009 - ankle
2010 - spine
2011 - spine
2012 - spine
2013 - hand and spine x2
2014 - spine
2015 - wow no surgery again!
2016 - wow!
2017 - wow x3!
2018 - woo
2019 - WOOHOO
2020 - knee :(

terpkristin wrote: "I mark my years by surgeries, at least since 2001.
2001 - both shoulders
2002 - tonsils and ankle
2003 - hand and ankle x2
2004 - ankle
2005 - 1 year without surgery!
2006 - another year without su..."

She’s more machine than woman now.

Wait… are you becoming Murderbot?

To be honest, I do feel I am doing this in a way in real life. Often it's more intuitive and helpful to use personal, memorable events to mark a point in time. Like

- the year before I moved out
- the year I lived in Scotland
- the year after my graduation
- the year I started my job

Measuring time with these life events as reference points - I used "So this was x years after I finished high school" for so long - makes it more ... helpful and real?! If that makes sense. Whereas the normal years are just... well... numbers.

But I would like to be more poetic about it. "The year I watched 52 movies in theater" sounds just more interesting than "1998"...

terpkristin wrote: "I mark my years by surgeries, at least since 2001.
.."

I had made a list marked by tragedies but then felt silly. But since your years are surgeries maybe it's okay! :)

2012 - The Year We Stopped Eating Sugar
2013 - The Year of the Unexpected Personal Tragedy
2014 - The Year of the Maternal Cancer Diagnosis
2015 - The Year of the Beagle Passing; The Year of the Grandmother Passing; The Year of the Accidental Knee Injury (honestly looking back it's the knee that has proven most memorable)
2016 - The Year of the Paternal Cancer Diagnosis; The 20 Year Reunion
2017 - The Year of the Death of the Father
2018 - The Year of the Death of the Husband's StepFather
2019 - The Year of the Littlest Sister Estrangement
2020 - The Year of the Death of the Husband's Father Followed By a Global Pandemic

But I'm still standing, woah woah woah. And if anyone needs someone to talk to about the death of a parent, I can give you my resume. :)

Jan: Has what he thinks is a fun little idea.
The World: Happens.

So sorry everyone!

2021: The Year Jan Named the Years
2021: The Year We Read Piranesi and Thus Named the Years

Trike wrote: "2021 - Steve"

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Trike wrote: "Taryd Roh = Steve"

I'm noticing a pattern 😏

BTW Who the F*** is Steve? 🤔

For me I associate years with AFL footy Grand Finals

2017 The Year the Tigers flogged the Crows
2019 The Year the Tigers absolutely demolished the Giants
2021 The Year the Tigers over ran the Puddy Tats

Steve is my best friend IRL.

But it’s also a funny name to drop into such situations. Other good ones are Kent, Frank and Doug, but I just watched a Superman show so that was out, I just wasn’t feeling Frank, and Doug is the butt of far too many jokes and too many bad guys in movies are named Doug.

I put a lot of thought into these jokes. Not quality thought, but definitely quantity.

Oh I am going to have to sit and think about this. I wasn't reading the book but this and the podcast might sway me.

2019 The Year I Retired After 40 Years Working for the Man
2020 The Year I Was Going to Take My First European Vacation and the Pandemic Began
2021 The Year Wearing a Mask Became Normal

The year i discovered Wonderland aka the year I first went to San Diego Comic-con. It was so much to take in

Trike wrote: Wait… are you becoming Murderbot?"

I WISH. Would make a lot of things SOOOO much easier.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "But I'm still standing, woah woah woah."

High five for still standing!
I also call 2001 the year of 9/11 and the year of the tornado. That I was stupid about. And ended up driving in. And being probably 500 feet from where 2 girls died.

Trike wrote: 2021 - Steve"

Ha! I think Karen is a more appropriate name.

I would call this past year and a half-ish, "The era (because it feels like an era) COVID-19 ruined everything."

BTW, I'm listening to the audiobook, and every time I hear "...the year the albatross came to the southwestern hall," I think I grind my teeth a little bit. :P

I'm pretty sure 2020 would be The Year of BurningDumpsterFloodwater.gif.

terpkristin wrote: "High five for still standing!
I also call 2001 the year of 9/11 and the year of the tornado. That I was stupid about. And ended up driving in. And being probably 500 feet from where 2 girls died.

"

Ooh 2002 would be my big tornado year. Two weeks after we moved from Indianapolis to Greencastle, Indiana, there was one of the longest tornado tracks in Indiana. It hit the apartment complex up the block from the apartment where we lived, and flattened the gas station where I used to catch the bus to go to work! I never got used to tornados in my 6 years in that state. I would imagine they aren't that common in Maryland!

I learned then that they were more common than I thought, but yeah. My entire thought was "they never touch down, there's no risk".

Yeah.....needless to say, tornadoes give me panic attacks now.

Growing up in Ohio I’ve lived through three close encounters with tornadoes, including the 1974 Xenia tornado which effectively wiped that town off the map (killing the entire family of one of my classmates, who escaped because he was at a friend’s house).

I will tell you this, if you see the sky turn a sickly pea-soup green — and you’ll know it when you see it; it is unlike any other weather effect in nature — and everything goes dead quiet, RUN FOR THE BASEMENT.

Don’t stand there gawping, don’t try to listen for the tornado. It is already there. You have maybe a minute. Grab your kids, grab your pets, and RUN.

I've seen funnels in the distance a few times. I think only 1 touched down and did damage. But a few years ago I heard the freight train caused by wind, and it is a sound I hope to never hear again. It actually wasn't a tornado, but straight line winds. But it did as much damage as a tornado, over a very wide stretch of area. Wind speeds were clocked at 110mph and the tree damage was significant, most damaged homes were from falling trees. Some people were without power for over 2 weeks. Just looked it up apparently it was part of a Double Derecho. A very rare occurrence.

What a fun idea! No tornadoes or weather-related scares in my recent history....

2013: The One with the Wedding
2014: The One with the Car Accident
2015: The One with Two Pregnancies, One Birth
2016: The One with the Move (FL to NV)
2017: The One with the Stay At Home Mom Life
2018: The One with the Birth and the Int'l Move (NV to the UK)
2019: The One with the Postpartum Depression and Anxiety
2020: The One with the Pandemic
2021: THE ONE WHERE WE MOVE BACK TO THE US! WOOT! WOOT!

I'm hoping 2022 is "The One that was Totally Boring and Pleasant" :)

My husband and I have moved almost yearly since we've been together, so I often mark time by where we were living when something happened. Aka, "Oh, that happened when we lived in the Onyx house, the California Ave house, the Channing house, etc."

Moving sucks, but I guess it's a decent way to mark the time, lol.

Molly wrote: "My husband and I have moved almost yearly since we've been together, so I often mark time by where we were living when something happened. Aka, "Oh, that happened when we lived in the Onyx house, t..."

Are you sharecroppers?

Trike wrote: "Molly wrote: "My husband and I have moved almost yearly since we've been together, so I often mark time by where we were living when something happened. Aka, "Oh, that happened when we lived in the..."

Just a couple of twenty-something's trying to figure shit out, lol. But with any luck, our next move will be to our forever home and I will never have to pack and move all my shit ever again.

At this point I’d think you’d have it down to a knapsack and a bindle on a stick.

Me, I have too many books to ever move again.