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d_aulnoyAs I was driving home on Thursday, a little light went on.
No, not in my head: on my dashboard. As I drove home through the pouring rain that apparently washed the last remnants of sanity from the California drivers (guys, srsly? 90 mph in the second coming of the Flood? why?!?) , a little light went on and said, Service Engine Soon.
This is a very cruel thing to do to a new driver, just because I have only the faintest idea of what "soon" means. Like, in a week? Or pull over to the side of the road now and hope that Triple A can save me? But I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, opted for the latter option, and was rewarded with a large bill for the privilege of having my oxygen filters changed.
Also, cars have oxygen filters? Who knew?
On Thursday, I confirmed that apparent (but sad) truth that college students hate J.R.R. Tolkien's critical work. Why? How? I do not know. I only hope that Anne Fadiman's "The Joy of Sesquipedalians" goes over better. Also, while you can attribute my use of "srsly" to my in-class use of LOLCat's as an example of the continuing lingual shift that teachers must both be aware of and incorporate into their teachings, Dear Internets: Vowels are your Friends.
Today, I picked up a bargain copy of Rebecca at Borders. Why would I do this when I have a perfectly good copy already? Well, in part because I realized when I started to re-read it this week that I'd inadvertently stolen my roommate's copy during the move (sorry, Bryn! I'll be mailing that back Wednesday), and in part because it contains an Author's Note from a 70-something Du Maurier who basically says that she really has no idea why this book, out of all of her works, is so damned popular, and in part because it contains an Epilogue that removes all doubt as to the nature of the depressing existence that Max and Wossname lead post-Manderley. Given the fact that I generally need to be able to empathize with a character in order to enjoy a book, and given that the character who is closest to achieving that effect in Rebecca is in fact a lacuna of the highest order, why do I enjoy this book so? And why do the people who insist on writing "sequels" attempt to ignore it? Seriously, Wossname is a terrible, moral-less jellyfish of a woman who's perfectly happy to accept murder if it proves her to be (in her own small way) victorious, and Rebecca is, in point of fact, delightfully amoral because she is, in fact, delightfully amoral, and not a misrepresented saint. Aside from fairy tales, if ever there was a story I was tempted to try my hand at, it would be the early life of Rebecca ... but that's probably what all those others thought, too.
I also picked up a copy of Mary Gentle's Ilario: The Stone Golem. The cover blurb from Locus says, "The foremost SF/fantasy novel of gender in quite a while." The cover blurb is, in fact, either confusing it with the first book, Ilario: The Lion's Eye, or just plain outright lying, as I'm 298 pages into a 361 page book, and I can freely tell you that it is nothing of the sort. I am, in fact, rather sorely disappointed by this, as gender-bending SF novels are a small and private pleasure of mine (small and private not in the scope of my enjoyment of them, but simply in the fact that as they're not my specialty, I don't really try to write about them), and picking up a book from an author who generally does creative things with gender politics only to find that this is the one novel in which she chooses instead to focus on creative historical revisionings is ... slightly disappointing. Alas. I still recommend that you go and read The Secret History if you have not already done so. Got any recommendations for me? Think along the lines of "The Women Men Don't See" and The Left Hand of Darkness, and, god help me, the original Wraethu trilogy, which I damn near memorized as an angsty, gothy teen.
Well, I guess that's enough rambling for one night: tomorrow, Alice!
No, not in my head: on my dashboard. As I drove home through the pouring rain that apparently washed the last remnants of sanity from the California drivers (guys, srsly? 90 mph in the second coming of the Flood? why?!?) , a little light went on and said, Service Engine Soon.
This is a very cruel thing to do to a new driver, just because I have only the faintest idea of what "soon" means. Like, in a week? Or pull over to the side of the road now and hope that Triple A can save me? But I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, opted for the latter option, and was rewarded with a large bill for the privilege of having my oxygen filters changed.
Also, cars have oxygen filters? Who knew?
On Thursday, I confirmed that apparent (but sad) truth that college students hate J.R.R. Tolkien's critical work. Why? How? I do not know. I only hope that Anne Fadiman's "The Joy of Sesquipedalians" goes over better. Also, while you can attribute my use of "srsly" to my in-class use of LOLCat's as an example of the continuing lingual shift that teachers must both be aware of and incorporate into their teachings, Dear Internets: Vowels are your Friends.
Today, I picked up a bargain copy of Rebecca at Borders. Why would I do this when I have a perfectly good copy already? Well, in part because I realized when I started to re-read it this week that I'd inadvertently stolen my roommate's copy during the move (sorry, Bryn! I'll be mailing that back Wednesday), and in part because it contains an Author's Note from a 70-something Du Maurier who basically says that she really has no idea why this book, out of all of her works, is so damned popular, and in part because it contains an Epilogue that removes all doubt as to the nature of the depressing existence that Max and Wossname lead post-Manderley. Given the fact that I generally need to be able to empathize with a character in order to enjoy a book, and given that the character who is closest to achieving that effect in Rebecca is in fact a lacuna of the highest order, why do I enjoy this book so? And why do the people who insist on writing "sequels" attempt to ignore it? Seriously, Wossname is a terrible, moral-less jellyfish of a woman who's perfectly happy to accept murder if it proves her to be (in her own small way) victorious, and Rebecca is, in point of fact, delightfully amoral because she is, in fact, delightfully amoral, and not a misrepresented saint. Aside from fairy tales, if ever there was a story I was tempted to try my hand at, it would be the early life of Rebecca ... but that's probably what all those others thought, too.
I also picked up a copy of Mary Gentle's Ilario: The Stone Golem. The cover blurb from Locus says, "The foremost SF/fantasy novel of gender in quite a while." The cover blurb is, in fact, either confusing it with the first book, Ilario: The Lion's Eye, or just plain outright lying, as I'm 298 pages into a 361 page book, and I can freely tell you that it is nothing of the sort. I am, in fact, rather sorely disappointed by this, as gender-bending SF novels are a small and private pleasure of mine (small and private not in the scope of my enjoyment of them, but simply in the fact that as they're not my specialty, I don't really try to write about them), and picking up a book from an author who generally does creative things with gender politics only to find that this is the one novel in which she chooses instead to focus on creative historical revisionings is ... slightly disappointing. Alas. I still recommend that you go and read The Secret History if you have not already done so. Got any recommendations for me? Think along the lines of "The Women Men Don't See" and The Left Hand of Darkness, and, god help me, the original Wraethu trilogy, which I damn near memorized as an angsty, gothy teen.
Well, I guess that's enough rambling for one night: tomorrow, Alice!
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 02:03 pm (UTC)man, I missed out on the chance to teach Jane Eyre as I Can Haz Heathclif??
no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-29 11:44 pm (UTC)Hmm. I know I've read a fair amount of such- that, and gay-friendly etc.- but I can never think of titles or authors when someone asks. So annoying!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-30 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-30 06:50 am (UTC)*I have a needs-to-be-worked-out theory about the tonality of SF vs. fantasy, and how examples of one written in the tone of the other will always appeal to the fan of the original genre, and not the genre the novel itself is set in: see, all the SF fans who *want* to like John Scalzi's writing, but pull up short on the fantasy-ish characterization.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:07 am (UTC)/CHip