Sometimes in the reading life, you just get to a point where you're reading a series of incredibly unlike things. My currently reading this reflects a fantasy Western, faux-Victorian travelogue, a British librarian comedy/mystery, and fantasy horror. Maybe unlike topics are not my problem so much as genres in general. Either way, right now I'll be ranting about The Walking Dead: Volume 4 comic and the clash of values in A Natural History of Dragons. Both with a generous amount of love and a possible aside into Sherlock Holmes.
First, The Walking Dead comic, or as this issue is called, "The Heart's Desire". I'm slowly working my way through the series, and I know it's terribly outdated, but it's finally old enough that I can get it from the library without waiting six months. This issue is the best of the ones I have read so far--four out of twenty one or so. I really enjoyed Rick's development as a character and the introduction of Michonne, an element of chaos on top of the already-nutso world of the zombie apocalypse. I was noting that I had read the issue on GoodReads, mainly because I enjoy seeing my personal reading stats and reading what other people had to say about the work. Almost invariably, the top reviews are negative, and the occasional positive review is hidden in the middle of the pack.
It was no different for "The Heart's Desire". I'm struggling to write it off as the negative opinion of the Internet and possible trolls. The comic is genuinely written well--the dialogue sparks, the drawings vivid, and the plot is building to where the reader can feel the ground shaking from all of the suspense. The various accusations included how the female characters are shallow and seemed to think only of sex. I think the detail that's being overlooked here is that all of the characters are two-dimensional and feel symbolic. Notice how they represent various stereotypes, and how those stereotypes are invariably inverted in an interesting and fun manner. The only well-developed character is Rick, and as a reader, I'm fine with that. The graphic novel as a medium is suited to have one fully realized protagonist and part of the fun is recognizing when characters subvert their stereotypes.
I don't watch the show, which I believe may have surpassed this issue. I'm not suggesting my opinion is anymore correct than theirs, but I'm missing the point of the masochistic negative review on GoodReads. I don't mind being critical, but sometimes one of the more innocuous Internet communities can get fairly bloodthirsty. I loved the recognition that as much as the group is trying to maintain order, in a chaotic world that's usually impossible--that revelation was accompanied by a dark mood akin to, "Shit is getting ready to get real." I'm taking a break from the series because of the unfortunate wait at the library, but my thoughts about it are still following me around after two days.
Next, A Natural History of Dragons! My reading of this did take a decidedly negative turn, mainly in the way I hated how the protagonist looked down upon people who she considered to be her social inferiors. It's prejudice so deeply entrenched that she didn't recognize it in herself, even though it kept coming up, which made for some awkward interior monologue. The main character talked down to servants mostly, bullying one into taking her on a hunt for a dragon, then another by almost flat-out refusing to communicate. Isabella's relationship with her second named servant, her lady's maid Dagmira, was more interesting because Dagmira popped up on almost every page. The setting of the story is an alternate Victorian world, which had all of the fun of the wealth of knowledge being discovered that was kept in check by all of the moral stuffiness. I guess Isabella's attitude towards Dagmira was supposed to mirror that of Social Darwinism, but I don't know why we couldn't have left that unsavory bit of history out of it, or even critiqued it. That's a twenty first-century mentality, but the book itself is from 2013! (The paperback, at least.)
I was puzzled as to why this was bothering me so much, particularly as the book struck me as a fluffy Victorian travelogue. The disdainful/disrespectful attitude towards the lower class was also demonstrated by John Watson in the Holmes stories. Watson always had a thinly veiled disapproval of anyone who worked in a blue collar trade or lower. Sherlock himself embraced people of all classes and walks of life, and many of the stories are about his adventures in gleaning information or studying a case while impersonating someone of a lower class. I think the reason it didn't bother me as much with the Holmes stories is because John's prejudice wasn't featured very often, and maybe because John was a man where Isabella was a woman. Victorian women of the middle and upper classes are usually portrayed sympathetically because of their lack of intellectual mobility, etc., so maybe it was my own perceptions that were going off.
Or maybe I felt that Brennan was going so far into the deep end of Victorian mentality that she lost sight of the fact that Isabella became more and more unlikable as the narrative plodded on. (Other complaints: where are the dragons?! The cover and blurb are incredibly misleading.)
Either way, a fun week of reading. I had a fun discussion based on an article from Book Riot, about how to tell loved ones (spouse) that their favorite book sucks. The gist of the article was not tell them at all if you could, and if you couldn't bring yourself to suffocate your own inner snob, to be as nice as possible about it. The article illicited a huge eyeroll from me, because being tactful is a no-brainer, but I don't think critiquing the book is enough to bring damnation from your loved one. I also checked myself because I realized I would never actually be close to anyone who would be super-sensitive about their one favorite book--I can do friendly, yes, but my friends and family are people who read a lot and wouldn't get butthurt (what would we do without the Internet?) over my not liking their favorite book. I'm not sure my loved ones even have a One True Favorite Book. Mine is Catch-22, because the irreverent and acerbic tone fits my general opinion of favorite books.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Beginnings
I'm making this blog as a way of enjoying the life of a bibliophile, from the love of the shape of words, the feel of pages, and most of all, the smell of ink. (You can even buy the smell for ereaders, an interesting phenomenon in itself.) This blog is going to be a platform to talk about the nature of stories and the ways in which we enjoy them, primarily from books. As a departure from my previous blog, Frodo Lives, here I will discuss my ideas about books that seem to overrun much of my life (and I wouldn't have it any different). I'm intending to put my academic training to use and perform literary analysis on the works I read--which you'll see, are not the Great Works of Literature from the Canon of Dead White Men.
My personal tastes in reading run all over the place, which is in part due to my education in academia and my job at a library. I primarily read contemporary fantasy, usually of the epic, dark, or both flavoring. Is the term grimdark still in vogue? It applies to what I enjoy reading the most, from Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, and Lee Battersby variety to Patrick Rothfuss and Miles Cameron, who deal with dark themes but aren't as gleefully cynical as the previous authors named. I'm currently working my way through the Most Valuable Authors list on the r/fantasy sub-Reddit, which is not official but may as well be.
I'm also making a study on the origins of fantasy, mainly to understand how we got from Lord Dunsany to Neil Gaiman and G.R.R. Martin in the last century or so. Tolkien can't be ignored, and I love his works not just because they're excellent stories, but also because he did a lot of groundbreaking in the field of academia I'm eyeing to go into, medieval literature. In particular to illuminate the origins of fantasy, I've found Farah Mendelsohn the most accessible read, so she'll pop up quite a bit as well.
Besides fantasy, I enjoy tackling Viking history and will check out any book on early medieval Icelandic/Norse history I can get my hands on, good or bad. The literature of conquest of England is fascinating and I can't but be enthralled by how much the Vikings influenced English history. Occasionally I read history outside that of ye olde medieval, but not much. Instead of trying to memorize every name of every man/woman who was featured in those stories (Ivar the Boneless aside), I usually try and absorb the most interesting stories and see how whatever impact they had can be related to today, in literature or culture broadly.
I've also been reading a ton more nonfiction over the last couple of years. I love reading about how video games and intellectual discourse intersect, although I can almost hear one of my former professors droning, "There is no call for that kind of analysis." I think video games as a medium are one of the most unappreciated forms of art (RIP Ebert, you fought the good fight but I beg to differ), and so any academic cred they get, I'm checking it out. Another form of nonfiction that I have spent years combing over are books on writing, specifically fantasy, and I love gushing or eviscerating the advice doled out by writing coaches.
Occasionally I dally in mysteries. I love Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series and Ian Samson's Mobile Library Mysteries. I'm still head over heels for Sherlock Holmes in a nostalgic way--for me, the show has made changes to the original stories that can make them not as easy to enjoy. (Once again, I have the same former professor's voice in my head, "There's nothing intellectually interesting about Sherlock Holmes." I beg to differ!) I love discussing the actual written stories, though, so for anyone who wants to talk about them, fire away.
As part of this blog, I'd like to include a list of the works I'm reading, along with a blurb on my thoughts. The more interesting works will get their own bonafide blog post. Right now I've just started:
1.) The Thirteen Hallows by Michael Scott. Although it can be too easy to categorize genre works like fantasy, to best generalize this book, I'd say: urban fantasy horror. I was very interested in the GoodReads reviews on this book, because many people gave it a low rating because they expected it to be like Scott's YA series. No, children, this is genuine gory fantasy. The premise is that there are Thirteen Hallows of ancient origin that have to be protected from the hands/agents of demons, who are killing off the Keepers of said treasures to unite them and give the demons full access to our world and the yummy cuisine of man. The main storyline follows a woman who has been entrusted with one of the last pieces.
My reaction: I'm only a quarter of the way through this book, and already I have counted four home invasions. We are talking about people or demons going in and savaging you, your possessions, and your family (not necessarily in that order or all at once). It's enough to make me jump at small noises and look over my shoulder constantly, because this book exactly plays on the fear of the safety of the home. I'm not normally a fan of horror, but the story is compelling enough that I'm muscling my way through the gratuitous gore.
2.) A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan and Todd Lockwood. The sequel to this book, Tropic of Serpents, just came out and that finally prodded me into opening this. I have longed wanted to read it, as it follows the adventure of a faux-Victorian lady in her discovery and study of dragons.
My reaction: I love everything about this book, from the first person narration that veers between curious to stuffy, to Lockwood's illustrations and the brown color of the ink. Isabella is likable as a narrator because she doesn't care for the stiff mannerisms of her time--they get in the way of learnin'!--but she's graceful enough to put up with it until she can get back to her dragons.
3.) Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Another one of those books I've been intending to read for a verrry long time, and am just now getting around to it. I'm not crazy about the US cover, but the UK cover was hellaciously expensive, so US it is. This story follows Shy South and her companion Lamb as they discover that the family farm has been razed and Shy's siblings kidnapped, and thus Shy and Lamb pursue the kidnappers. The plotline of The Searchers is coming to mind, but what I love about Abercrombie is how appearances can be deceiving. This not a Wild West fantasy fulfillment story. I haven't quite figured out what is it yet.
My reaction: As much as I love Cosca's razor sharp wit, especially filtered through Temple's biting view, I'm considering skipping the chapter I'm on just to get to what's going on with Shy and Lamb. Cosca has gone from dangerous to officious, and while the reader never loses sight of how dangerous a company of mercs are, Cosca is beginning to remind me of a used car salesman instead of the rogue I remember from The First Law Trilogy. I'm hoping that's just another one of Abercrombie's tricks again.
Books, books, everywhere! I spend a lot of time reading and shamelessly get books from the library...Thus, why I rarely read books the same year they're released. Sometimes, like in the cases of Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss, I do that on purpose so as to avoid "catching up" when the next book in the series hasn't been released yet.
I genuinely love talking about books of all shapes, sizes, and genres, and so if there's any feedback, fire away. I plan on writing future content for good websites for book lovers (yay, Book Riot!) and fun literary criticism on books I've finished recently. The inspiration for this blog came from A Natural History of Dragons when Isabella discusses being "ink nosed"...I love that expression, and so I modified it to something I identify with. To be ink nosed! What joy there is in it.
My personal tastes in reading run all over the place, which is in part due to my education in academia and my job at a library. I primarily read contemporary fantasy, usually of the epic, dark, or both flavoring. Is the term grimdark still in vogue? It applies to what I enjoy reading the most, from Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, and Lee Battersby variety to Patrick Rothfuss and Miles Cameron, who deal with dark themes but aren't as gleefully cynical as the previous authors named. I'm currently working my way through the Most Valuable Authors list on the r/fantasy sub-Reddit, which is not official but may as well be.
I'm also making a study on the origins of fantasy, mainly to understand how we got from Lord Dunsany to Neil Gaiman and G.R.R. Martin in the last century or so. Tolkien can't be ignored, and I love his works not just because they're excellent stories, but also because he did a lot of groundbreaking in the field of academia I'm eyeing to go into, medieval literature. In particular to illuminate the origins of fantasy, I've found Farah Mendelsohn the most accessible read, so she'll pop up quite a bit as well.
Besides fantasy, I enjoy tackling Viking history and will check out any book on early medieval Icelandic/Norse history I can get my hands on, good or bad. The literature of conquest of England is fascinating and I can't but be enthralled by how much the Vikings influenced English history. Occasionally I read history outside that of ye olde medieval, but not much. Instead of trying to memorize every name of every man/woman who was featured in those stories (Ivar the Boneless aside), I usually try and absorb the most interesting stories and see how whatever impact they had can be related to today, in literature or culture broadly.
I've also been reading a ton more nonfiction over the last couple of years. I love reading about how video games and intellectual discourse intersect, although I can almost hear one of my former professors droning, "There is no call for that kind of analysis." I think video games as a medium are one of the most unappreciated forms of art (RIP Ebert, you fought the good fight but I beg to differ), and so any academic cred they get, I'm checking it out. Another form of nonfiction that I have spent years combing over are books on writing, specifically fantasy, and I love gushing or eviscerating the advice doled out by writing coaches.
Occasionally I dally in mysteries. I love Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series and Ian Samson's Mobile Library Mysteries. I'm still head over heels for Sherlock Holmes in a nostalgic way--for me, the show has made changes to the original stories that can make them not as easy to enjoy. (Once again, I have the same former professor's voice in my head, "There's nothing intellectually interesting about Sherlock Holmes." I beg to differ!) I love discussing the actual written stories, though, so for anyone who wants to talk about them, fire away.
As part of this blog, I'd like to include a list of the works I'm reading, along with a blurb on my thoughts. The more interesting works will get their own bonafide blog post. Right now I've just started:
1.) The Thirteen Hallows by Michael Scott. Although it can be too easy to categorize genre works like fantasy, to best generalize this book, I'd say: urban fantasy horror. I was very interested in the GoodReads reviews on this book, because many people gave it a low rating because they expected it to be like Scott's YA series. No, children, this is genuine gory fantasy. The premise is that there are Thirteen Hallows of ancient origin that have to be protected from the hands/agents of demons, who are killing off the Keepers of said treasures to unite them and give the demons full access to our world and the yummy cuisine of man. The main storyline follows a woman who has been entrusted with one of the last pieces.
My reaction: I'm only a quarter of the way through this book, and already I have counted four home invasions. We are talking about people or demons going in and savaging you, your possessions, and your family (not necessarily in that order or all at once). It's enough to make me jump at small noises and look over my shoulder constantly, because this book exactly plays on the fear of the safety of the home. I'm not normally a fan of horror, but the story is compelling enough that I'm muscling my way through the gratuitous gore.
2.) A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan and Todd Lockwood. The sequel to this book, Tropic of Serpents, just came out and that finally prodded me into opening this. I have longed wanted to read it, as it follows the adventure of a faux-Victorian lady in her discovery and study of dragons.
My reaction: I love everything about this book, from the first person narration that veers between curious to stuffy, to Lockwood's illustrations and the brown color of the ink. Isabella is likable as a narrator because she doesn't care for the stiff mannerisms of her time--they get in the way of learnin'!--but she's graceful enough to put up with it until she can get back to her dragons.
3.) Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Another one of those books I've been intending to read for a verrry long time, and am just now getting around to it. I'm not crazy about the US cover, but the UK cover was hellaciously expensive, so US it is. This story follows Shy South and her companion Lamb as they discover that the family farm has been razed and Shy's siblings kidnapped, and thus Shy and Lamb pursue the kidnappers. The plotline of The Searchers is coming to mind, but what I love about Abercrombie is how appearances can be deceiving. This not a Wild West fantasy fulfillment story. I haven't quite figured out what is it yet.
My reaction: As much as I love Cosca's razor sharp wit, especially filtered through Temple's biting view, I'm considering skipping the chapter I'm on just to get to what's going on with Shy and Lamb. Cosca has gone from dangerous to officious, and while the reader never loses sight of how dangerous a company of mercs are, Cosca is beginning to remind me of a used car salesman instead of the rogue I remember from The First Law Trilogy. I'm hoping that's just another one of Abercrombie's tricks again.
Books, books, everywhere! I spend a lot of time reading and shamelessly get books from the library...Thus, why I rarely read books the same year they're released. Sometimes, like in the cases of Scott Lynch and Patrick Rothfuss, I do that on purpose so as to avoid "catching up" when the next book in the series hasn't been released yet.
I genuinely love talking about books of all shapes, sizes, and genres, and so if there's any feedback, fire away. I plan on writing future content for good websites for book lovers (yay, Book Riot!) and fun literary criticism on books I've finished recently. The inspiration for this blog came from A Natural History of Dragons when Isabella discusses being "ink nosed"...I love that expression, and so I modified it to something I identify with. To be ink nosed! What joy there is in it.
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