Astral Codex Ten

The Family That Couldn’t Sleep

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The Family That Couldn’t Sleep

Article

The Family That Couldn’t Sleep is a recurring book in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 3 times across 3 issues between July 12, 2024 and October 11, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep by D. T. Max was published in late 2006”; “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep is beneath all else a ‘character-driven narrative’”; “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep portrays him as all four”. It most often appears alongside Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Dominion, Don Juan.

Metadata

  • Category: Books
  • Mention count: 3
  • Issue count: 3
  • First seen: July 12, 2024
  • Last seen: October 11, 2024

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep
July 12, 2024 · Original source
The Family That Couldn’t Sleep by D. T. Max was published in late 2006. This glues it to a very particular era. A spectre was haunting Europe – the spectre of mad cow disease. Something was tearing through Britain’s cows, turning them inside out, eating their brains and thrashing their souls. It had been doing so since, DTM thinks, “the late 1970s”. When we look back in retrospect and think about a timeline like this, knowing everything we know, you can’t help but feel a shiver down your spine.
The Family That Couldn’t Sleep comes from this era of...optimism? Yeah, let’s say optimism. The wildest predictions – that hundreds of thousands of people across Britain would be struck by vCJD around the turn of the millennium – were clearly wrong. The disease was severe enough to strike the fear of prion diseases into people’s hearts; the name, entirely unfamiliar a few years earlier, now defines a bogeyman cluster of The Worst Diseases Possible. It seemed possible they could be human epidemics, if small ones. This was enough to be scary. But it wasn’t quite as scary as a Game Over.
Accordingly, The Family That Couldn’t Sleep is beneath all else a “character-driven narrative”. It first introduces us to, of all poetic things, a fallen noble-blooded Venetian family. The money ran out, you see – not because of profligate spendthrifts or revolutionary uprisings, but because of whispers, taunts, that its members were cursed to go mad. In midlife, it seemed, a strangely high fraction of them were struck by a specific sort of insanity. It started with a fever that never quite let down, even after any supposed illness should have ran its course. A little trouble sleeping – but is that so unusual, for someone feverish in the languid Italian summers?
Vote In The 2024 Book Review Contest
September 27, 2024 · Original source
1: Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa 2: Dominion 3: Don Juan 4: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep 5: How Language Began 6: Real Raw News 7: Two Arms And A Head 8: How The War Was Won 9: Silver Age Marvel Comics 10: The Complete Rhyming Dictionary And Poet’s Craft Book 11: The History Of The Rise And Influence Of The Spirit Of Rationalism In Europe 12: The Pale King 13: Nine Lives 14: The Ballad Of The White Horse
Inline links: Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa, Dominion, Don Juan, The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, How Language Began, Real Raw News, Two Arms And A Head, How The War Was Won, Silver Age Marvel Comics, The Complete Rhyming Dictionary And Poet’s Craft Book, The History Of The Rise And Influence Of The Spirit Of Rationalism In Europe, The Pale King, Nine Lives, The Ballad Of The White Horse
Book Review Contest 2024 Winners
October 11, 2024 · Original source
The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, reviewed by Vat, a neuropsychology/genetics student who writes at Vates Rising.
Inline links: The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, Vates Rising