"But Apostrophes are so Cute!"
Mar. 14th, 2007 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseI wanna go home and write stories.
Now, as I said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
forodwaith yesterday, I've been thinking a lot about Soldier but not actually getting words down. The next scene is getting clearer, but I kept putting off actually setting out the details. Now I think I know why; I just had a whole heap of connections crash into my lap, and starting to brainstorm them caused them to link together into a fun chain.
I mostly blame Doctor Faustus. It's apparently good for more than fun reading (Both of them), interesting analysis, and annoying arguments about Calvinist doctrine. I've figured out much and much more about this story.
(See, I have these drowned spirits that happen to act a little like Mephistophilis claims to, in broad, aside from the bit where they start as unwilling sacrifice; Mephistophilis chose his side. Unliess you go Calvinist, which does not pretty things to the whole story.)
So now would be the ideal time to open up the file... but I left the thumb drive at home.
I was this close to going home anyhow today (to get garb, that i might skip math class and go to the whole Pi Day dance practice instead. But I realised pretty much all my garb is either dead or in the wash - well, I have the Italian Renaissance fairy, but the wings aren't exactly historic.)
Anyhow, Now I want to write ... and set myself up so I can't.
________________________________
Saw Pan's Labyrinth withforodwaith. My immediate comment to her was "To quote Cordelia Chase, 'Now I'll be stuck with serious thoughts all day.'" Admittedly, that was at past 11:00 PM.
Beautiful, very dark, very grim all around. There are two storylines; One in fascist Spain, involving rebels in the woods, and one a fairy tale featuring the young girl Ofelia, which *could* be seen as only in her mind, or really happening (I tend to favour reading these sorts of things as really happening).
Forodwaith said she wasn't wholly sure about the fairy-related part of the ending, which was almsot too fairy-tale, even, or maybe especially, for the rest of the movie's concept of Fairy. I find it satisfied one kind of story-urge I have very well, but irked others. I'm still thinking about that.
The thing I can say for sure (This is running along the edge of spoilers, but I don't think it will ruin the film for anyone watching) is that the **visuals** didn't work; too much gold and light, too perfect and lush. The scene itself is too suddenly happy compared to what came before, but the visuals are so different from the magic we've seen until then that they're almsot worse than the change in attitude.
They almost make me think I was supposed to read that end of the fairy tale as just happening in the girl's mind *even if* I read the rest of the Fairy stuff as actually happening.
Anyhow, I was cured of the "gloomy thoughts" that very night; I'd left my computer on, so i peeped at my e-mail.
My mom had sent me an e-mail lately titled "Birthday's". I corrected it in my reply, but couldn't resist poking at her for it. Her response? See the title of the post.
I have to say, of all the replies I've heard to the grammar Nazi, that's probably the best. At least, I went to bed giggling.
_________________________
Just finished Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite. Well...
Look, I finished it in the middle of having a pile of reading to do for an essay, and not only that, but reading I've been finding *interesting*, much more so than usual. She has a way of catching you up in the story and dragging you along will you or nill you.
I did like the setting; the world, how it worked, how the implications weren't forgotten, how the lack of sleep or the constant rain were more than incidental background things, but part of the significant feel of the whole. I wish I could do that. I liked the number of details of character backstory about which we were given the outline, and how and why it shaped the characters *now*, rather than the more usual loving piles of details. (I'm guilty of the latter. I could learn something.) I liked that the romance wasn't toyed with; the characters were interested in one another, got together without angsting, and the kinds of friction they had then, and had to work out, were the kinds people in relationships deal with. It wasn't a Romance Subplot, it wasn't put in in an obligatory fashion, and it didn't treat getting together as the interesting and only significant part of the relationship, as if it never changes from that point. I liked that the characters were competent in their areas, that they didn't ahve quirks tacked on, but a full internal character - though they could seem "quirky" and inexplicable seen through one another's eyes. I liked that they weren't teenagers, or adults who acted like teenagers, but adults who acted like adults. I liked, yes, it's worth saying, that the setting wasn't medieval Europe but much more based on India, though one of the characters was from a place somewhat like some parts of Europe.
I LOVED the cover, especially as it is on this hardcover, with the dark-skinned woman on the front (My understanding is that the paperback has her on the back, and the blond man on the front. Too bad.)
Recently,sartorias put up a post on excessively modern language in a more recent book; references that would require the existance of electricity in a near medieval setting. Wells does nothing so overt. Nothing she writes is obviously anachronistic, but still there were a few moments the language jarred because the tone of the sarcasm still seemed too much like idioms used only int helast quarter-century or less. "No, really?" was used a lot, along with "I never would have guessed " (for someone pointing out the now painfully obvious). Plus, "What do you mean, almost?" Combine that with the sheer amount of sarcasm the characters use, and it feels too much. I could have done without most of the sarcasm, or narrowed its use to one character, or two, but the modern idiom did snag my attention.
Not enough to jar me out of the story, which is thoroughly busy and reasonably satisfying. But it did act like a speed bump; not stopping me, but making me slow down a bit. ( I first wanted to say got me out of visualising the story and back to seeing the words on the page... but I never do completely get sucked into visuals. I can often recall where a given paragraph is on a page, and about how far into the book, even if I'm wholly absorbed in Story. Helps me find my place without bookmarks, or if the bookmark gets up and walks away {Yes, I have lain my books on top of cats when they're in a tolerant mood. They usually stay, too.})
Now, as I said to
forodwaith yesterday, I've been thinking a lot about Soldier but not actually getting words down. The next scene is getting clearer, but I kept putting off actually setting out the details. Now I think I know why; I just had a whole heap of connections crash into my lap, and starting to brainstorm them caused them to link together into a fun chain. I mostly blame Doctor Faustus. It's apparently good for more than fun reading (Both of them), interesting analysis, and annoying arguments about Calvinist doctrine. I've figured out much and much more about this story.
(See, I have these drowned spirits that happen to act a little like Mephistophilis claims to, in broad, aside from the bit where they start as unwilling sacrifice; Mephistophilis chose his side. Unliess you go Calvinist, which does not pretty things to the whole story.)
So now would be the ideal time to open up the file... but I left the thumb drive at home.
I was this close to going home anyhow today (to get garb, that i might skip math class and go to the whole Pi Day dance practice instead. But I realised pretty much all my garb is either dead or in the wash - well, I have the Italian Renaissance fairy, but the wings aren't exactly historic.)
Anyhow, Now I want to write ... and set myself up so I can't.
________________________________
Saw Pan's Labyrinth with
forodwaith. My immediate comment to her was "To quote Cordelia Chase, 'Now I'll be stuck with serious thoughts all day.'" Admittedly, that was at past 11:00 PM.Beautiful, very dark, very grim all around. There are two storylines; One in fascist Spain, involving rebels in the woods, and one a fairy tale featuring the young girl Ofelia, which *could* be seen as only in her mind, or really happening (I tend to favour reading these sorts of things as really happening).
Forodwaith said she wasn't wholly sure about the fairy-related part of the ending, which was almsot too fairy-tale, even, or maybe especially, for the rest of the movie's concept of Fairy. I find it satisfied one kind of story-urge I have very well, but irked others. I'm still thinking about that.
The thing I can say for sure (This is running along the edge of spoilers, but I don't think it will ruin the film for anyone watching) is that the **visuals** didn't work; too much gold and light, too perfect and lush. The scene itself is too suddenly happy compared to what came before, but the visuals are so different from the magic we've seen until then that they're almsot worse than the change in attitude.
They almost make me think I was supposed to read that end of the fairy tale as just happening in the girl's mind *even if* I read the rest of the Fairy stuff as actually happening.
Anyhow, I was cured of the "gloomy thoughts" that very night; I'd left my computer on, so i peeped at my e-mail.
My mom had sent me an e-mail lately titled "Birthday's". I corrected it in my reply, but couldn't resist poking at her for it. Her response? See the title of the post.
I have to say, of all the replies I've heard to the grammar Nazi, that's probably the best. At least, I went to bed giggling.
_________________________
Just finished Martha Wells' Wheel of the Infinite. Well...
Look, I finished it in the middle of having a pile of reading to do for an essay, and not only that, but reading I've been finding *interesting*, much more so than usual. She has a way of catching you up in the story and dragging you along will you or nill you.
I did like the setting; the world, how it worked, how the implications weren't forgotten, how the lack of sleep or the constant rain were more than incidental background things, but part of the significant feel of the whole. I wish I could do that. I liked the number of details of character backstory about which we were given the outline, and how and why it shaped the characters *now*, rather than the more usual loving piles of details. (I'm guilty of the latter. I could learn something.) I liked that the romance wasn't toyed with; the characters were interested in one another, got together without angsting, and the kinds of friction they had then, and had to work out, were the kinds people in relationships deal with. It wasn't a Romance Subplot, it wasn't put in in an obligatory fashion, and it didn't treat getting together as the interesting and only significant part of the relationship, as if it never changes from that point. I liked that the characters were competent in their areas, that they didn't ahve quirks tacked on, but a full internal character - though they could seem "quirky" and inexplicable seen through one another's eyes. I liked that they weren't teenagers, or adults who acted like teenagers, but adults who acted like adults. I liked, yes, it's worth saying, that the setting wasn't medieval Europe but much more based on India, though one of the characters was from a place somewhat like some parts of Europe.
I LOVED the cover, especially as it is on this hardcover, with the dark-skinned woman on the front (My understanding is that the paperback has her on the back, and the blond man on the front. Too bad.)
Recently,
sartorias put up a post on excessively modern language in a more recent book; references that would require the existance of electricity in a near medieval setting. Wells does nothing so overt. Nothing she writes is obviously anachronistic, but still there were a few moments the language jarred because the tone of the sarcasm still seemed too much like idioms used only int helast quarter-century or less. "No, really?" was used a lot, along with "I never would have guessed " (for someone pointing out the now painfully obvious). Plus, "What do you mean, almost?" Combine that with the sheer amount of sarcasm the characters use, and it feels too much. I could have done without most of the sarcasm, or narrowed its use to one character, or two, but the modern idiom did snag my attention.Not enough to jar me out of the story, which is thoroughly busy and reasonably satisfying. But it did act like a speed bump; not stopping me, but making me slow down a bit. ( I first wanted to say got me out of visualising the story and back to seeing the words on the page... but I never do completely get sucked into visuals. I can often recall where a given paragraph is on a page, and about how far into the book, even if I'm wholly absorbed in Story. Helps me find my place without bookmarks, or if the bookmark gets up and walks away {Yes, I have lain my books on top of cats when they're in a tolerant mood. They usually stay, too.})
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 07:15 pm (UTC)I don't mind Wells' slight modernisms, but then I'm fondest of her Ile Rien books where the setting is more analogous to the 19 & 20 C.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 04:02 am (UTC)This book sold me on reading Wells avidly. The one thing wrong was very minorly wrong, and doesn't retract from the umpteen right.
I starterd reading the Element of Fire via her journal, stopped halfway through the first chapter or something like that, and never resumed, but I should like to buy a copy of that and the rest sometime.
(But since I've opted to wait even to buy the Kushner in any form from any source, I won't be buying Wells yet... I decided to read Swordspoint again, so I don't expect that resolution to last very long at all.)