Belated Wed Reading Meme ...
Jul. 17th, 2014 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[Because I had no internet access last night due to unexplained outages across my area. Actually nothing was working yesterday...stove didn't work, visited three apartments - didn't manage to see any of them - one was unavailable, one rented, and one a 4th floor walkup. On top of that work was insane about a potential strike. What a difference a day makes. Today - the internet works fine, got a new stove, strike averted, and actually saw one apartment - hated it. But saw it. Ruling out Ditmas Avenue - not working for me.]
1. What I just finished reading?
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck - this is the novel that won the Pulitizer in 1932. Told in the simple narrative of a Chinese Fable or Folktale, it is the story of a poor Chinese farmer who marries a slave girl and acquires great wealth and prosperity through the land. Part allegory and part fable, it shows how money can enslave you and take you away from what is truly important. It also depicts how women were treated in China in the 1920s. Little more than slaves of men. The lead character, Wang Lung, is complicated. He loves the land more than anything, and often allows his desire for wealth and prosperity and superficial beauty to cloud his better judgement. As a result, in the end, he loses much of what he once held most dear.
While the English Lit major in me appreciated the novel for it's themes, and narrative style. I found it painful to read at times. It often put me to sleep. It's not a writing style I like all that much - almost no dialogue, and a simple almost monotone that put me to sleep. The writer was obviously trying to place the reader inside the mind of an illiterate Chinese man. So the language was basic English, with a simple stream of consciousness style. But it was not told in the first person point of view - but in third person. Yet, the style felt like reading an fable or simple children's story.
Eh...here's a sample, albeit not necessarily a good one of the run-on sentences that happen later in the novel, but whatever:
This style is fine for about 100 pages, but 372 pages gets a bit tiring. Also not helped by the fact that I didn't like anyone or care about anyone in the book but O Lan who dies halfway through. All the other women in the novel are annoying. So too are the men, except possibly the younger sons.
That said, I know enough about the craft of writing to know - that this is a well-written book that deserved the acclaim. The story does stick with you. And is a compelling and haunting one. I'd like to see the movie at some point - it's also a classic and won various awards. Not that I care about awards. Far better written than most of the books I've read of late (sort of goes without saying), but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. I just felt compelled to - if that makes sense?
2. What I'm reading now?
The far more enjoyable, albeit not quite as deftly written, A Dance With Dragons by GRR Martin. I'm about a third of the way through. Or 32% to be precise. Made it through yet another chapter featuring Quentin. Which isn't spoiling anything for tv show watchers since he hasn't been introduced yet and you haven't a clue who I'm talking about.
Sort of scanned a lot of the chapter. Not much happens. Actually not happens at this point at all - just a lot of wandering about. Which was probably why I'd gotten bogged down at the 20% mark the last time I attempted to read it. GRR Martin is in desperate need of an editor - or a tree pruner. The man feels the need to tell me everything single little thing that is happening in his world and from 20 different points of view.
While I appreciate detailed world-building as much as the next person (okay maybe not as much as some), I do not require THIS MUCH detail. Way too much character navel gazing..
That said? It is enjoyable in places. Certainly more so than the last three-four books I read or attempted to read. I sort of hit a reading slump after Jim Butcher's The Skin Game. You know when you keep picking up books but not quite liking any of them? I think it may have been the transition between genres?
I enjoy the portions featuring Tyrion. Although his chapters seem to ramble on as well.
For a while I wondered if they were going to kill him off. They hadn't. But they did provide an interesting twist regarding Griff/Jon Connington. Also with the introduction of Aegon, I wondering about Jon Snow's heritage. If he is Rhaegar and L. Stark's son, that would make him Dany's nephew, apparently. I'm beginning to think he may not be.
It's not clear at this point - can go either way. Assuming he survives the book - I've gotten vague spoilers from various folks that he doesn't or he does but not quite as you would think. Any how I decided to read the book to find out - and to find out how Tyrion and Jorah team up or if they do, and if Tyrion locates Dany. Don't tell me if you know - since that is my whole reason for reading the book. I want to find out what happens to Jon, Dany, Ayra, Tyrion, and Jorah. Don't care that much about Jamie and Ceresi - sort of spoiled myself on their arcs already.
I'm hoping it continues to get better. I think it will for two reasons: 1) it's already better than the first 20% of the book which focused far too much on Reek/Theon for my taste (ghod I hate the Ramsey Bolton/Theon story arc...in both the tv series and the novels...wish they'd just kill them both off and be done with it, but no - the writers are sadistic and must torture me with them), 2) all the other books get better towards the second half.
GRR Martin likes to build up to a cliff hanger - which would be less annoying if it didn't take so long to get to the resolution. Even between chapters. He often has fifteen chapters in between each chapter cliff-hanger. That's because he's telling the story in fifteen separate points of view, with each chapter a separate point of view, and from a character that is often not directly involved with another one or very far away from them, such as continents.
Not that I necessarily have anything against cliff-hangers. I don't mind cliff-hangers - if I get to see what happens in a week or two, but making me wait, in Martin's case, 5-6 years - is pushing it. Which is why I take so long to read his novels - I figure if I stretch it out, by the time I finish, he will have completed and published the next book. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - by the time I finished it, he'd published Dance with Dragons, same with Storm of Swords - by the time I finished reading it - Feast of Crows came out. This process has been working for me.
So...since I've taken up reading Dance with Dragons again - if the pattern holds, Martin should have completed and published Winds of Winter or whatever he's calling it at the moment - by December or 2015. Just in time for me to pick up where I left off.
Reading Martin's books slowly does have its benefits. Plus you tend to pick up on some things better.
While I clearly like to whine about Martin's writing, I do apparently enjoy it on some level or I wouldn't keep reading his books. We know this - because I gave up on Roger Zelzany's book and MZB's Mists of Avalon. But I have managed to make it through 4 books of the Game of Thrones series. Martin's characters are more complicated and far more interesting than MZB or Zelzany's. He's more into character development than ritual or philosophizing. Not a fan of philosophizing in books. Reading philosophy tends to put me to sleep. I prefer metaphor or the subtle indirect approach. More story, less lecture. Which may explain why I struggled with the Good Earth and The Lord of Light - both swayed more towards allegory and philosophizing than towards character and story.
It may have a lot to do with how I think.
In any event - plot wise, Tyrion has survived the stone men, but Connington didn't.
Also, Dany is debating marrying a prince of Mereen in order to prevent further bloodshed. But her heart isn't in it. Meanwhile she's still lusting after Daario, even though she realizes he's a sellsword and a bit of a sadist. (Although I'm beginning to think, as is Dany, that everyone in Martin's story is a wee bit on the sadistic side, including his fan-base.) Will state - the tv series recasting of Daario has made the character a heck of a lot more interesting and likable to me. I like the actor playing him on the series, therefor, I now appear to like the character - same thing happened with Jorah, Tywin, Ceresi...I'm nothing if not consistent.
Like I said, not all that much is happening. I keep wanting to stretch my arms through the ether and shake GRR - get on with it already! Enough meandering around things! Move the plot forward. But alas, I'm hoisted on my own petard - GRRM is a character boy after my own heart not a plot boy...he cares the most about building and examining, to minute detail, his characters. And he has about 50 of them - he wants to examine.
3. What I'll be reading next?
With any luck Magic Breaks by Illona Andrews - which is getting rather decent reviews from various journals. Library Journal liked it, although they do tend to like most things - librarians unlike former English Lit majors don't tend to be that critical of what they read. They tend to be more interested in organizing the books and making them accessible to others. English Lit majors feel an insane need to analyze and critique them to death.
That said, the Library Journal review is notable for this comment: "With the exception of a weirdly steamy sex scene in the middle - the book tends to focus more on action."
Hmmm, weirdly steamy? The author was rather happy about the review and in particular the one about the sex scene. Which they'd been told to tone down, but ignored and decided to write like an action scene anyhow. Now I can't wait to read the book if for no other reason than the weirdly steamy sex scene. No wonder the author is ov
1. What I just finished reading?
The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck - this is the novel that won the Pulitizer in 1932. Told in the simple narrative of a Chinese Fable or Folktale, it is the story of a poor Chinese farmer who marries a slave girl and acquires great wealth and prosperity through the land. Part allegory and part fable, it shows how money can enslave you and take you away from what is truly important. It also depicts how women were treated in China in the 1920s. Little more than slaves of men. The lead character, Wang Lung, is complicated. He loves the land more than anything, and often allows his desire for wealth and prosperity and superficial beauty to cloud his better judgement. As a result, in the end, he loses much of what he once held most dear.
While the English Lit major in me appreciated the novel for it's themes, and narrative style. I found it painful to read at times. It often put me to sleep. It's not a writing style I like all that much - almost no dialogue, and a simple almost monotone that put me to sleep. The writer was obviously trying to place the reader inside the mind of an illiterate Chinese man. So the language was basic English, with a simple stream of consciousness style. But it was not told in the first person point of view - but in third person. Yet, the style felt like reading an fable or simple children's story.
Eh...here's a sample, albeit not necessarily a good one of the run-on sentences that happen later in the novel, but whatever:
It was Wang Lung's marriage day. At first, opening his eyes in the blackness of the curtains about his bed, he could not think why the dawn seemed different from any other. The house was still except for the faint, gasping cough of his old father, whose room was opposite to his own across the middle room. Every morning the old man's cough was the first sound to be heard. Wang Lung usually lay listening to it and moved only when he heard it approaching nearer and when he heard the door of his father's room squeak upon its wooden hinges.
But this morning he did not wait. He sprang up and pushed aside the curtains of his bed. It was a dark, ruddy dawn, and through a small square hole of a window, where the tattered paper fluttered, a glimpse of bronze sky gleamed. He went to the hole and tore the paper away.
"It is spring and I do not need this," he muttered.
He was ashamed to say aloud that he wished the house to look neat on this day. The hole was barely large enough to admit his hand and he thrust it out to feel of the air. A small soft wind blew gently from the east, a wind mild and murmurous and full of rain. It was a good omen. The fields needed rain for fruition. There would be no rain this day, but within a few days, if this wind continued, there would be water. It was good. Yesterday he had said to his father that if this brazen, glittering sunshine continued, the wheat could not fill in the ear. Now it was as if Heaven had chosen this day to wish him well. Earth would bear fruit.
He hurried out into the middle room, drawing on his blue outer trousers as he went, and knotting about the fullness at his waist his girdle of blue cotton cloth. He left his upper body bare until he had heated water to bathe himself. He went into the shed which was the kitchen, leaning against the house, and out of its dusk an ox twisted its head from behind the corner next the door and lowed at him deeply. The kitchen was made of earthen bricks as the house was, great squares of earth dug from their own fields, and thatched with straw from their own wheat. Out of their own earth had his grandfather in his youth fashioned also the oven, baked and black with many years of meal preparing. On top of this earthen structure stood a deep, round, iron cauldron.
This cauldron he filled partly full of water, dipping it with a half gourd from an earthen jar that stood near, but he dipped cautiously, for water was precious. Then, after a hesitation, he suddenly lifted the jar and emptied all the water into the cauldron. This day he would bathe his whole body. Not since he was a child upon his mother's knee had anyone looked upon his body. Today one would, and he would have it clean.
He went around the oven to the rear, and selecting a handful of the dry grass and stalks standing in the corner of the kitchen, he arranged it delicately in the mouth of the oven, making the most of every leaf. Then from an old flint and iron he caught a flame and thrust it into the straw and there was a blaze.
This was the last morning he would have to light the fire. He had lit it every morning since his mother died six years before. He had lit the fire, boiled water, and poured the water into a bowl and taken it into the room where his father sat upon his bed, coughing and fumbling for his shoes upon the floor. Every morning for these six years the old man had waited for his son to bring in hot water to ease him of his morning coughing. Now father and son could rest. There was a woman coming to the house. Never again would Wang Lung have to rise summer and winter at dawn to light the fire. He could lie in his bed and wait, and he also would have a bowl of water brought to him, and if the earth were fruitful there would be tea leaves in the water. Once in some years it was so.
And if the woman wearied, there would be her children to light the fire, the many children she would bear to Wang Lung. Wang Lung stopped, struck by the thought of children running in and out of their three rooms. Three rooms had always seemed much to them, a house half empty since his mother died. They were always having to resist relatives who were more crowded - his uncle, with his endless brood of children, coaxing.
This style is fine for about 100 pages, but 372 pages gets a bit tiring. Also not helped by the fact that I didn't like anyone or care about anyone in the book but O Lan who dies halfway through. All the other women in the novel are annoying. So too are the men, except possibly the younger sons.
That said, I know enough about the craft of writing to know - that this is a well-written book that deserved the acclaim. The story does stick with you. And is a compelling and haunting one. I'd like to see the movie at some point - it's also a classic and won various awards. Not that I care about awards. Far better written than most of the books I've read of late (sort of goes without saying), but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. I just felt compelled to - if that makes sense?
2. What I'm reading now?
The far more enjoyable, albeit not quite as deftly written, A Dance With Dragons by GRR Martin. I'm about a third of the way through. Or 32% to be precise. Made it through yet another chapter featuring Quentin. Which isn't spoiling anything for tv show watchers since he hasn't been introduced yet and you haven't a clue who I'm talking about.
Sort of scanned a lot of the chapter. Not much happens. Actually not happens at this point at all - just a lot of wandering about. Which was probably why I'd gotten bogged down at the 20% mark the last time I attempted to read it. GRR Martin is in desperate need of an editor - or a tree pruner. The man feels the need to tell me everything single little thing that is happening in his world and from 20 different points of view.
While I appreciate detailed world-building as much as the next person (okay maybe not as much as some), I do not require THIS MUCH detail. Way too much character navel gazing..
That said? It is enjoyable in places. Certainly more so than the last three-four books I read or attempted to read. I sort of hit a reading slump after Jim Butcher's The Skin Game. You know when you keep picking up books but not quite liking any of them? I think it may have been the transition between genres?
I enjoy the portions featuring Tyrion. Although his chapters seem to ramble on as well.
For a while I wondered if they were going to kill him off. They hadn't. But they did provide an interesting twist regarding Griff/Jon Connington. Also with the introduction of Aegon, I wondering about Jon Snow's heritage. If he is Rhaegar and L. Stark's son, that would make him Dany's nephew, apparently. I'm beginning to think he may not be.
It's not clear at this point - can go either way. Assuming he survives the book - I've gotten vague spoilers from various folks that he doesn't or he does but not quite as you would think. Any how I decided to read the book to find out - and to find out how Tyrion and Jorah team up or if they do, and if Tyrion locates Dany. Don't tell me if you know - since that is my whole reason for reading the book. I want to find out what happens to Jon, Dany, Ayra, Tyrion, and Jorah. Don't care that much about Jamie and Ceresi - sort of spoiled myself on their arcs already.
I'm hoping it continues to get better. I think it will for two reasons: 1) it's already better than the first 20% of the book which focused far too much on Reek/Theon for my taste (ghod I hate the Ramsey Bolton/Theon story arc...in both the tv series and the novels...wish they'd just kill them both off and be done with it, but no - the writers are sadistic and must torture me with them), 2) all the other books get better towards the second half.
GRR Martin likes to build up to a cliff hanger - which would be less annoying if it didn't take so long to get to the resolution. Even between chapters. He often has fifteen chapters in between each chapter cliff-hanger. That's because he's telling the story in fifteen separate points of view, with each chapter a separate point of view, and from a character that is often not directly involved with another one or very far away from them, such as continents.
Not that I necessarily have anything against cliff-hangers. I don't mind cliff-hangers - if I get to see what happens in a week or two, but making me wait, in Martin's case, 5-6 years - is pushing it. Which is why I take so long to read his novels - I figure if I stretch it out, by the time I finish, he will have completed and published the next book. That's what happened with Feast of Crows - by the time I finished it, he'd published Dance with Dragons, same with Storm of Swords - by the time I finished reading it - Feast of Crows came out. This process has been working for me.
So...since I've taken up reading Dance with Dragons again - if the pattern holds, Martin should have completed and published Winds of Winter or whatever he's calling it at the moment - by December or 2015. Just in time for me to pick up where I left off.
Reading Martin's books slowly does have its benefits. Plus you tend to pick up on some things better.
While I clearly like to whine about Martin's writing, I do apparently enjoy it on some level or I wouldn't keep reading his books. We know this - because I gave up on Roger Zelzany's book and MZB's Mists of Avalon. But I have managed to make it through 4 books of the Game of Thrones series. Martin's characters are more complicated and far more interesting than MZB or Zelzany's. He's more into character development than ritual or philosophizing. Not a fan of philosophizing in books. Reading philosophy tends to put me to sleep. I prefer metaphor or the subtle indirect approach. More story, less lecture. Which may explain why I struggled with the Good Earth and The Lord of Light - both swayed more towards allegory and philosophizing than towards character and story.
It may have a lot to do with how I think.
In any event - plot wise, Tyrion has survived the stone men, but Connington didn't.
Also, Dany is debating marrying a prince of Mereen in order to prevent further bloodshed. But her heart isn't in it. Meanwhile she's still lusting after Daario, even though she realizes he's a sellsword and a bit of a sadist. (Although I'm beginning to think, as is Dany, that everyone in Martin's story is a wee bit on the sadistic side, including his fan-base.) Will state - the tv series recasting of Daario has made the character a heck of a lot more interesting and likable to me. I like the actor playing him on the series, therefor, I now appear to like the character - same thing happened with Jorah, Tywin, Ceresi...I'm nothing if not consistent.
Like I said, not all that much is happening. I keep wanting to stretch my arms through the ether and shake GRR - get on with it already! Enough meandering around things! Move the plot forward. But alas, I'm hoisted on my own petard - GRRM is a character boy after my own heart not a plot boy...he cares the most about building and examining, to minute detail, his characters. And he has about 50 of them - he wants to examine.
3. What I'll be reading next?
With any luck Magic Breaks by Illona Andrews - which is getting rather decent reviews from various journals. Library Journal liked it, although they do tend to like most things - librarians unlike former English Lit majors don't tend to be that critical of what they read. They tend to be more interested in organizing the books and making them accessible to others. English Lit majors feel an insane need to analyze and critique them to death.
That said, the Library Journal review is notable for this comment: "With the exception of a weirdly steamy sex scene in the middle - the book tends to focus more on action."
Hmmm, weirdly steamy? The author was rather happy about the review and in particular the one about the sex scene. Which they'd been told to tone down, but ignored and decided to write like an action scene anyhow. Now I can't wait to read the book if for no other reason than the weirdly steamy sex scene. No wonder the author is ov
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no subject
Date: 2014-07-18 04:07 pm (UTC)Also, I agree with your areas of interest, with one exception (some of the Tyrion chapters bore me). I also think that you'll enjoy a couple of the Brienne chapters.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 03:56 am (UTC)Not a lot happens.
And I agree - regarding the Tyrion chapters - they are dull. He's doing far too much navel-gazing. If I see the quote "where do whores go" one more time - I'm going to hurl. Ugh.
Don't mind Asha and Dany's chapters quite so much. More happens in those.
More happens in Jon Snow's chapters too for that matter.
It's a long book - I've been reading reading reading...and still only 39% of the way through.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 02:09 pm (UTC)Good luck.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 04:17 pm (UTC)I sort of know what happens to Brienne - I spoiled myself on Brienne and Jamie - by reading ahead or skipping all the chapters but theirs when I was bogged down in Feast of Crows. (I did the same thing when I was reading Clash of Kings - got bogged down, and skipping over to Storm and just read the Jamie chapters.)
Dany's meandering at the moment - should I stay or should I go, should I marry this wimpy prince or bed Daario. I have a feeling the tv series will move a bit quicker on these points.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 04:22 pm (UTC)I'm not surprised you skipped ahead with Brienne. :)
I'm praying that the series condenses AFFC and ADWD. I have criticisms of some of the choices the series has made to date, but I think it'll work in their favor now that we're into the parts where they can pick and choose.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 11:03 pm (UTC)They've also condense a lot of Dany's chapters in Storm. Not to mention Brienne and Jamie, who were wandering about a lot longer. So my guess is they'll do the same here - and most likely introduce plot points from the unpublished Winds of Winter, with slight variations. I think there is only two more seasons planned at the moment. Of course it's HBO's highest rated and most critically acclaimed series, so I doubt it's going anywhere soon.
It has alienated some book fans - they made some choices that annoyed even me this year - which is saying something.
Although I don't think you can claim the tv series is more rapey than the books, after the past five chapters I've read. Plus, it's a story about medieval wars - rape tends to sort go with the territory, be like objecting to people getting decapitated and cut down - it happens in war. It's not pretty, it's sadistic, it's nasty, but so is war.
People and a lot of fantasy writers have a tendency to romanticize it. I'll give GRRM credit for not doing that at least. He shows it in all its bloody horror.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-19 11:12 pm (UTC)I agree on the condensing. I hope they do.
I don't object to the sexual violence in the books. It's a reasonable, if cynical, take on the Middle Ages (as anyone who reads A Distant Mirror can attest). And there's no doubt we're supposed to find it horrifying. Plus, it's balanced by several strong female characters.
The issue with HBO -- and maybe this just happens when print is translated to film -- is that the sex and nudity seem gratuitous even when they're probably less common than they are in the books. I always have the suspicion that titillation is their intent even in situations which should be awful.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-20 03:05 am (UTC)And they appear to do it consistently. In fact - Dominic West and another actor on the Wire, comment on the nudity and sex scenes as being done for the purpose of titillation in their commentary - in relation to the WIRE. And it was certainly apparent in The Sopranoes, True Blood (over the top in True Blood and mostly male), and The Leftovers.
It's almost as if they think - if we aren't doing it, we are letting our subscribers down.
I don't object to the sexual violence in the books. It's a reasonable, if cynical, take on the Middle Ages (as anyone who reads A Distant Mirror can attest). And there's no doubt we're supposed to find it horrifying. Plus, it's balanced by several strong female characters.
Not always. It's weirdly conveyed in some sections. In two consecutive chapters - first with Dany, second with Asha, sexual violence is almost a fantasy. It's written in a way that reminds me a great deal of the boddice ripper romance novels I've read. Dany fantasizes about Daario's hard and violent kisses, preferring them to the sweet gentle ones that her intended bride groom bestows. And Quarl violently rips Asha's clothing, and states he'll take her now - it's written as a rape scene but changes to an erotic one, and you realize half-through, it's a sex role playing game that they are playing. (Reminded me a little bit of Jamie and Ceresie in the crypt on the tv show, except more consensual.)
I can sort of see why a lot of readers objected to it. (I didn't necessarily - it's that type of book. The characters are all violent and sadistic. Sort of goes with the territory. Now if I were reading Pride and Prejudice and this sort of thing popped up, I might take exception. Same deal with Buffy - I couldn't get that upset with sexual violence being portrayed on the series - because hello, it's about a teenage girl slaying her demons and about killing vampires. What do you expect? Now if it had been on a show like say...Cheers, I might be annoyed.)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-20 03:21 am (UTC)Heh about True Blood. The only thing I can say in its favor is that it really has pushed the envelope on male nudity. That's... progress?
no subject
Date: 2014-07-20 02:27 pm (UTC)Although, I don't think network tv has done full frontal male nudity - only HBO has done that. Don't know why - there's nothing that mysterious about a penis. We're weird about nudity. More people need to take live figure drawing courses - once you spend hours drawing male and female naked bodies - you get over it.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-20 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-20 02:39 pm (UTC)Like I said, more people should take live figure drawing courses - you get over seeing the boobies, after you've drawn them a million times.
Artists don't care.