Books and Elementary
Jan. 19th, 2013 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1) While reading, or rather slowly meandering my way through Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, I decided to buy another cheap crappy novel on Amazon Kindle. One does not plow through Atwood, a page-turner she's not. Atwood is literary...much like AS Byatt. Actually they write a lot a like and remind me a great deal of each other. John Jakes apparently once told my parents during a book club gathering...that literary writers are in love with language, words, the craft of writing...not story or plot or necessarily characters. The literary writer cares most about the words or writing beautifully. There's little dialogue, lots of description, and often the story feels like it is going nowhere. While the genre or non-literary writer is more focused on plot, story, character, theme. I agree and disagree.
Atwood's novel Blind Assassin definitely has plot, story, and characters, and she definitely has something to say...but it's not something one flips through in a race to find out what happens next. And yes, the plot...well it meanders. Not that I'm one to judge, my plots tend to meander too.
At any rate, I'm still reading Atwood's book for two reasons: 1) the depiction of age and lonliness but hanging in there is oddly comforting and it's nice to have a protagonist/narrator who is 90 for a change of pace, too many female writers write about 20 somethings or teens, as if that's all there is, 2) there's a story within a story within a story (interesting narrative structure) yes - interspersed within the narrator's story of her life are chapters from her dead sister's post-humously published novel, which was considered a bit risque at the time (aka the 50 Shades of the 1940s) about two characters having a sordid affair as they write or tell a science fiction story about an corrupted city on an alien world that is shrunk and placed beneath a bunch of rocks. (What can I say, I'm a sucker for weird ass narratives.)
The crappy book that I bought on Amazon had a plot that hit a lot my kinks...for lack of a better term. 1) Memory loss - am fascinated by stories about memory loss, 2) long-lost love or love returned from the dead...3) psychological tales or psychological manipulation.
I'll let you know if it is any good. The fact that it was only 99 cents does bode well - I expect there to be a lot of typos and grammatical errors. Here's the thing about Amazon - the cheaper the book, the less likely it will have had a decent editor at any point in its history. You really do get what you pay for on Amazon. Not that many books have decent editors nowadays, but there are degrees. The 99 cent books remind a great deal of unedited fanfic. (Actually it probably is unedited fanfic that some poor soul decided to self-publish after getting rave reviews.) What's amusing is it got 4-5 star ratings on both Amazon and Good Reads - I had to hunt for the negative reviews (they are there). Actually all books on Amazon have negative reviews - regardless of who writes it. It's quite entertaining. Bewildering at times, but entertaining.
At any rate - story kinks?
* memory loss (hard to do well...but I'm a sucker for it anyhow) and then return of memory
* psychological/mental illness or shift in personality
* return from the dead (no not as a zombie, I'm possibly the only person I know who is NOT entertained by rotting corpses wandering about eating people and/or crazy people doing it. The whole cannibalism thing is a big turn off.)
* ghosts
And am suddenly drawing a blank, don't you hate it when that happens...you had a thought...it was there...then suddenly gone. Maybe my fascination with memory is I appear to be having issues with mine?
2. Elementary...hmmm, just saw last week's episode. Have decided by the way that Sherlock Holmes is possibly the inspiration behind character's like Spock and Mr. Data.
Could be wrong. At the very least the precursor to those characters.
Can't talk about the episode without spoilers.
* So...anybody else wondering if Holmes' father might be Moriarty or the guy hiring hitman to pose as Moriarty to drive Sherlock bonkers? Too many coincidences. One - he knows Holmes is in NYC. Two - he sends messages to the hitman by text. Three - Watson is contacted by cell phone and never sees the father. Eh, probably not.
* Watson asks to continue with Holmes. But Daddy actually turned her down. I know because I had to rewind five times to read the dang message. Stupid eyesight. Finally did. And was surprised to see that it said "No, thanks for your concern, but am disinclined to retain your services at this juncture, you will receive your final check presently." In short, Watson lied to Holmes (he started to rub off on her, didn't he?).
* In all the versions of Sherlock Holmes - two things happen that threaten to drive him batty and take him over the edge - Irene Adler and Moriarity. Irene gets killed either at Moriarity's hand or because of him, and Holmes becomes obsessed with catching Moriarity.
In some versions - we're not sure Moriarity exists - the Seven Percent Solution wondered about it. In the Conan Doyle novels - Holmes pushes himself and Moriarty over the falls.
This version references both - the Moriarity obsession and how Irene Adler's death led to it.
Also the fact that Holmes is quite close to the edge - and was willing to torture and kill "M". Watson sees his dark side and also realizes how diabolically clever he can be.
In Doyle's novels and all the versions of the story - it's made clear that the line between Holmes and the devilish Moriarity is quite thin. Holmes steps close to that line on various occasions. It's the old "Heart of Darkness" motif - star into the abyss long enough, it stares back into you. This the writers state is the challenge of being some who solves murder mysteries for a living, after a while...the criminals get inside you as do their crimes. Agatha Christie dissects this moral price in Curtain - with Hercule Poirot.
Sooner or later it always comes up.
Interesting episode.
Atwood's novel Blind Assassin definitely has plot, story, and characters, and she definitely has something to say...but it's not something one flips through in a race to find out what happens next. And yes, the plot...well it meanders. Not that I'm one to judge, my plots tend to meander too.
At any rate, I'm still reading Atwood's book for two reasons: 1) the depiction of age and lonliness but hanging in there is oddly comforting and it's nice to have a protagonist/narrator who is 90 for a change of pace, too many female writers write about 20 somethings or teens, as if that's all there is, 2) there's a story within a story within a story (interesting narrative structure) yes - interspersed within the narrator's story of her life are chapters from her dead sister's post-humously published novel, which was considered a bit risque at the time (aka the 50 Shades of the 1940s) about two characters having a sordid affair as they write or tell a science fiction story about an corrupted city on an alien world that is shrunk and placed beneath a bunch of rocks. (What can I say, I'm a sucker for weird ass narratives.)
The crappy book that I bought on Amazon had a plot that hit a lot my kinks...for lack of a better term. 1) Memory loss - am fascinated by stories about memory loss, 2) long-lost love or love returned from the dead...3) psychological tales or psychological manipulation.
I'll let you know if it is any good. The fact that it was only 99 cents does bode well - I expect there to be a lot of typos and grammatical errors. Here's the thing about Amazon - the cheaper the book, the less likely it will have had a decent editor at any point in its history. You really do get what you pay for on Amazon. Not that many books have decent editors nowadays, but there are degrees. The 99 cent books remind a great deal of unedited fanfic. (Actually it probably is unedited fanfic that some poor soul decided to self-publish after getting rave reviews.) What's amusing is it got 4-5 star ratings on both Amazon and Good Reads - I had to hunt for the negative reviews (they are there). Actually all books on Amazon have negative reviews - regardless of who writes it. It's quite entertaining. Bewildering at times, but entertaining.
At any rate - story kinks?
* memory loss (hard to do well...but I'm a sucker for it anyhow) and then return of memory
* psychological/mental illness or shift in personality
* return from the dead (no not as a zombie, I'm possibly the only person I know who is NOT entertained by rotting corpses wandering about eating people and/or crazy people doing it. The whole cannibalism thing is a big turn off.)
* ghosts
And am suddenly drawing a blank, don't you hate it when that happens...you had a thought...it was there...then suddenly gone. Maybe my fascination with memory is I appear to be having issues with mine?
2. Elementary...hmmm, just saw last week's episode. Have decided by the way that Sherlock Holmes is possibly the inspiration behind character's like Spock and Mr. Data.
Could be wrong. At the very least the precursor to those characters.
Can't talk about the episode without spoilers.
* So...anybody else wondering if Holmes' father might be Moriarty or the guy hiring hitman to pose as Moriarty to drive Sherlock bonkers? Too many coincidences. One - he knows Holmes is in NYC. Two - he sends messages to the hitman by text. Three - Watson is contacted by cell phone and never sees the father. Eh, probably not.
* Watson asks to continue with Holmes. But Daddy actually turned her down. I know because I had to rewind five times to read the dang message. Stupid eyesight. Finally did. And was surprised to see that it said "No, thanks for your concern, but am disinclined to retain your services at this juncture, you will receive your final check presently." In short, Watson lied to Holmes (he started to rub off on her, didn't he?).
* In all the versions of Sherlock Holmes - two things happen that threaten to drive him batty and take him over the edge - Irene Adler and Moriarity. Irene gets killed either at Moriarity's hand or because of him, and Holmes becomes obsessed with catching Moriarity.
In some versions - we're not sure Moriarity exists - the Seven Percent Solution wondered about it. In the Conan Doyle novels - Holmes pushes himself and Moriarty over the falls.
This version references both - the Moriarity obsession and how Irene Adler's death led to it.
Also the fact that Holmes is quite close to the edge - and was willing to torture and kill "M". Watson sees his dark side and also realizes how diabolically clever he can be.
In Doyle's novels and all the versions of the story - it's made clear that the line between Holmes and the devilish Moriarity is quite thin. Holmes steps close to that line on various occasions. It's the old "Heart of Darkness" motif - star into the abyss long enough, it stares back into you. This the writers state is the challenge of being some who solves murder mysteries for a living, after a while...the criminals get inside you as do their crimes. Agatha Christie dissects this moral price in Curtain - with Hercule Poirot.
Sooner or later it always comes up.
Interesting episode.