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I finally have time to read a lot again!
Aug. 9th, 2007 06:54 pmFragile Things, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman may be following in the Neil Stephenson path of “got too famous and now his editors are afraid of him.” Fragile Things has some incredible, vibrant, creepy, ingenious, imaginative stories that only Neil Gaiman could have written. The Lovecraftian ones are especially welcome, as Gaimon writes Lovecraft-style oblique horror a lot better than Lovecraft ever did. The Sherlock Holmes/Lovecraft crossover (yes, I’m serious) is exactly the sort of crazy crossover done perfectly that one expects from really good fanfic. I love those moments when published sci-fi authors reveal themselves to be just big fanboys like us, you know? Anyway, that’s some of them. But there are also a
Big huge book roundup.
May. 19th, 2007 10:35 amThe Dirk Gently books are actually much funnier than the Hitchhiker sequels (and as funny as the first Hitchhiker). This is Adams take on the kind of supernatural stuff that Gaimon does- and of course, Adams does it better. (I heard someone once say that, while Gaimon may be the greatest comic-book writer and artist ever, in the company of people like Pratchett or Adams on the humor side or Gene Wolfe or Russel Hoban on the SF side, he is like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Anyway). It's funnier than Hitchhiker stuff because it has more of a plot to hang on. Dirk is a delightful character.
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Dumas
Fun. Predictable after first three or four. Have to be very straightforward and simple, because Holmes can't be seen wandering down the wrong path for dramatic tension. Fascinating character- this is one of those characters that's been re-worked at re-appropriated ad infinitum, and seeing the original actual Holmes was pretty interesting.
( Terry Pratchett is still amusing, but on a downward slide )
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Graham
Well how cute. More uneven and less of a unified plot than I expected/remembered, with episodes both so very bucolic and British, rather annoying (the Lewis-like encounter with Christ) to just jolly fun (toad). The chapter where Rat meets the Sea Rat and is stricken with wanderlust might be the best description of t hat feeling I've ever read. Toad is a great character, and the image of toad as Ulysses is hilarious. Quite cute.
( I am having a tough time grappling with Gene Wolfe )
So in short? I think Wolfe is probably a genius. But the first reading has left me at a loss for words, pretty literally, and I will need to read these again.
Well, this show sure has crashed and burned, yes? It sure does suck when it becomes obvious that the writers have put a great deal LESS thought, LESS care and love and planning and analysis, into the show than the average fan. When it becomes clear that they never knew where they were going and don't much care where they've been. Hard to keep caring. Not worth it.
( I have a lot of critical things to say about Rome. Don't be fooled, this kind of nit-picking comes from a place of total love. )
Movie roundup
Apr. 16th, 2007 08:45 pmTo be honest, I can't think of a puzzle-movie that can surpass this in complexity, in the intricacy and emotional punch and satisfying conclusion of its layers and layers of mystery. It's much more complex than Fight Club, yet with far more emotional and thematic resonance than something like Memento, which may be the closest comparison. A movie like this is a balancing act- on the one hand is something like Memento, where the audience spends the entire moving figuring it out, so that all appreciation of plot and dialog and theme and atmosphere and sheer enjoyment goes out the window- on the other hand, make it not a complex enough puzzle and your movie has no point. The structure of it, with its layers of narration and misdirection and deception and obsession, is truly incredible. I have NEVER seen a puzzle-movie that holds up so well on a second viewing, after the big reveal. Every single detail points to the truth, every clue that should have been there is there, there is not one single moment that serves only as red herring or doesn't quite fit- absolutely everything snaps into clarity and focus with the final reveal, in a way that is absolutely perfect. It's a hard thing to do. I've never seen it done so well. I'm predisposed to like it, if only for the unreliable narration and the thematic elements of truth and fiction and deception- but damn that was good.
Children of Men, movie
Pretty half-decent dystopia, worth adding to the collection. More adventure movie than serious exploration of dystopia, but the basic concept of infertility works as a key and I think the exploration of what that would actually create is basically believable- the level of chaos and lawlessness when there quite literally is NO future for the human race. The little details made it work- taking shelter in the abandoned school, the strangely empty feel of some of the crowd scenes, the abundance of animals as stand-in children. The causes were completely unexplored, which can leave you feeling oddly unsatsfied, but it ranks as a perfectly fine example of the genre.
