Canals And Himthag
Dec. 5th, 2011 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madwriterNew Words: 3600 (2000 / 1600) on Chapter 1 ("Those Who Came Before") Part 3 ("The Canal Builders") of Arizona. While Kwewu and the Hohokam build the first canal branching out of the Salt River, they're also building Himthag, all the things that incorporate their way of life.
Total Words: 45200.
Reason For Stopping: Hitting some other work, plus reading / Stopped at the end of a scene so I could decide what of several possibilities I wanted to happen next.
Book Year(s): 754-758.
Mammalian Assistance: Vegas came in both days; Hayes tried to. More specifically, the first day Hayes took a few steps in, saw Vegas, then turned around and left. Today she went as far as sitting on my lap for a few moments, then got tired of Vegas staring at her and left. (Vegas is sweet and kind in the Writing Room, but nowhere else.)
Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood both days, including twice today. Walked down to campus today.
Stimulants: None / Dr. Pepper.
Today's Opening Passage(s):
Saturday: In the beginning, what Kwewu wanted was impossible. This did not slow down his work, however.
The oldest main canal and distribution canals carrying water into the fields, complete with weirs, headgates, and water control gates, had been created over four centuries before by the labor of hundreds and then thousands of people. They were the central nexus of Hohokam development, the people's independence channeled into a centralized control the same way the canals and gates channeled the water. Even if Kwewu had thousands of people at his disposal—which he didn’t—his project to fill the Valley of the Sun with water would still take years. Even with hundreds, it would stretch beyond his lifetime.
Today: He was not simply being generous. Instead, he was remembering the attack that damaged his family so badly, then the second one where Judumi went insane for awhile. The Hohokam always took the best of what they found to weave into the Himthag, their way of life. No matter how strange, if it was good it could become part of Hohokam culture. It had worked for ideas, prayers, rituals, art, medicine...why not people too?
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: Michener; Davis; The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb.
