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   Ergative Absolutive (ergative@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 27-Apr-2025 23:00:38 JST Ergative Absolutive

   • Ada Palmer

   Hey, for anyone still sleeping on
   @adapalmer new book on Inventing the Renaissance, the conversation between the Ambrosian Republic, Machiavelli, Francesco Sforza, Bianca Maria Visconti, Milan, the Milanese Ghibellines, and 19th-century historians is alone worth the cover price.

   @bookstodon

   • Embed this notice
     HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 (histopol@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 27-Apr-2025 23:00:35 JST HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

     in reply to

     • Ada Palmer

     @adapalmer

     Semantics:
     If something occurs "suddenly," it is very hard to avoid, aka the opposite of "inevitable."
     The only way I see the two terms going together is to ignore general safety precautions, e. g. a not buckling up your safety belt in a car or a plane.

     @ergative @bookstodon

   • Embed this notice
     Ada Palmer (adapalmer@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 27-Apr-2025 23:00:37 JST Ada Palmer

     in reply to

     @ergative @bookstodon That betrayal was so sudden yet so inevitable!

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     HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 (histopol@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Apr-2025 22:51:20 JST HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

     in reply to

     • Ada Palmer

     @adapalmer

     I can see the merit of your argument.

     People on the Italian mainland always seem to have been prone to deception and back-stabbing, it seems...Prime literary examples, #ColleenMcCullough's #Cesar saga and #ThePrince by #Macchiavelli (not to mention the #Borghias, for that matter.)

     I'd still argue that THEM not knowing what was about to happen, did not make it "sudden." It needn't have been. They were apparently in ignorance of many martial principles,...

     @bookstodon @ergative

   • Embed this notice
     Ada Palmer (adapalmer@wandering.shop)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Apr-2025 22:51:22 JST Ada Palmer

     in reply to

     • HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

     @bookstodon @ergative @HistoPol

     It’s a TV quote (Firefly)

     In my book I use it for a moment during a revolution in Milan when the Ghibellines suddenly betrayed the Guelphs, inevitable because it replayed an old factional pattern inescapable in the region over 300 years, but sudden b/c that specific political switch (suddenly supporting the attacking force) was sudden & caught everyone by surprise. Thus Milan’s republic fell suddenly but inevitably like so many neighbrs

   • Embed this notice
     HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 (histopol@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Apr-2025 22:54:58 JST HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

     in reply to

     • Ada Palmer

     @adapalmer @bookstodon @ergative

     ...e. g., "“All warfare is based on deception.”
     "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”
     “Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.”
     But most importly,
     "Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces...

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     HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 (histopol@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Apr-2025 22:56:02 JST HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

     in reply to

     • Ada Palmer

     @adapalmer @bookstodon @ergative

     ...of silver in honors and emoluments [for spies,] "
     – Sun Tzu

     And there would be quite some more, but I don't recall the story enough. 😏

     //