Bits

[avevale_intelligencer]

I am old and jaded and cynical, and shamed by the idealism of stronger and brighter souls than I. :)

In other news, today I finished reading to Jan the second and third volumes of the Soldier Son trilogy by Robin Hobb. This was occasioned by the local library having the first volume in audiobook, but not the other two. I found them heavy going (Jan says I should probably avoid Dostoevsky, a decision I made in early life and am glad to have confirmed) but ultimately rewarding. However, I did find myself constantly brought up short by poor word choice; the same word repeated within a paragraph or even a sentence, despite the ready availability of alternatives. I would call it first-draft writing, except that I wouldn't even do it in a first draft. It really does interrupt the flow of the narrative.

And tonight we watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and found it very Terry Gilliam, rather like The Circus of Doctor Lao with added grot and the usual downbeat ending. Tom Waits made an oddly uncharismatic devil, and Christopher Plummer bore a strong resemblance to John Neville in Gilliam's Baron Munchausen. Not sure if it's one I'd want to see again, but it was enjoyable at the time.

Part three of Breaking Down The Walls Of Time is on the way.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Ever read Megan Lindholm's Wizard of the Pigeons?

That was her name when she wrote that one brilliant jewel of a book, before she wrote a number of other things so bad that she had to change her name to Robin Hobb in order to get published, because her reputation under her own name had gotten so bad by then. I'm told the Robin Hobb books aren't bad... but Wizard remains one of my favorite fantasy novels of all time. (Also, speaking as someone who now lives in Seattle, where it is set, she nailed the character of the city absolute dead perfect.)

[tattercoats.livejournal.com]

I've not read that, but I adore her Windsingers trilogy. Maybe that's among the ones you loathe... YMMV.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Haven't read it, have heard decent things about it.

[soren-nyrond.livejournal.com]

I am old and jaded and cynical, and shamed by the idealism of stronger and brighter souls than I.

If that's the case, since to my mind you have the patience of Job and the creative soul of an angel with a blank palette before it, I hesitate to estimate how elderly and steeped in cynicism I am [As to the jade, couldn't we *sell* it to someone, My Captain ?].

Mind you : "He was old, he was vile, and no stranger to vice, / He was base, he was bad, he was mean.", and we *know* how that ended.

[tattercoats.livejournal.com]

Funny, isn't it, how a good book is not the same thing as a book that's good to read aloud?

I loved reading C.S. Lewis to P, mind, and am currently loving reading The Wee Free Men to her, but there are other good books which have been a real slog to read aloud. Not so Pratchett, of course. Hobb's books - well, if that lot are the size of her other stuff, you're a brave soul to start!

[eintx.livejournal.com]

And never forget to smile at your local librarians!
We are grateful for everyone who doesn't make a scene.
("You don't have the other two? Impossible! How I hate this!!")
:)

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

My work here is done. :D

I think that large parts of the film are possibly left as exercises for those who like to find parallels. One could probably do something with the Heath Ledger character as a sort of subverted Christ figure and Parnassus as a fading God. If it was actually supposed to be about stories and the power of imagination, then I think it maybe missed its own point a little...but I could be wrong.

[aunty_marion]

I spent a few hours (well, I invoiced them for three hours, anyway) proofreading some car sales training gubbins, and picked out at least two repeated words like that. Unfortunately, I find myself doing it sometimes... (though I do try not to!).