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“As I threw off my wet coat I came upon the little book, and took it out. It was one of those little books wretchedly printed on wretched paper that are sold at fairs, "Were you born in January?" or "How to be twenty years younger in a week."” Just starting Steppenwolf, and I’m struck by how much these sound like clickbait. Plus ça change…
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Mar 29, 2023 04:50
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 13:50 |
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Relevant to my interests! Love that classical poo poo. Got to visit Knossos as a teen, it is extremely cool and I still think about it a lot. You could really see how the myth of the labyrinth might come from a place like that.
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May 3, 2023 02:25
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Theseus, blue eyed and blonde haired, typical greek. The layered tits-out dresses his mother wears sound accurate for mycenian greece but T-dog wears pants? Was a hero in a short skirt too much for 1958 readers, or did Renault have an issue, I wonder.
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May 5, 2023 17:14
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Genghis Cohen posted:I can't see where this art/cover image you're describing is, but for what it's worth there are plenty of characters in classic Greek sources described as fair haired, can't remember about eye colour. Remember that modern Greeks are a little bit Turkish although you should absolutely not mention this to them. As for Greeks in trousers, you're right it would be unthinkable. But I very much doubt Mary Renault had any issues with men in skirts, almost all her novels explicitly have gay male romance as a major plot point, this novel and its sequel are actually the only ones I can think of that don't have a gay male protagonist. Chapter 3: “I began to be tired, and cold; my leather breeches dragged at my thighs, my wet belt pinched my breathing. “ “He is blue eyed and flaxen like a Hellene; but he is built like the Shore People, wiry and quick and small” I know that Achilles for example is blonde, but the “like a Hellene” part made me chuckle, because, well, met many Greeks? I doubt that ancient Greeks were significantly lighter haired than modern ones because ancient sources tend to associate light hair with barbarians. Heroes having light hair could have been meant to show their exeptionality or imply grace (children often have light hair that darkens with age). The pants thing stood out because the novel seems so well researched otherwise. Renault absolutely knew that they were anachronistic but chose to put them in anyhow. What’s up with that? Totally enjoying the read, just poking a bit of fun.
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May 9, 2023 15:10
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I picked up Rocannon’s World in an ebook called Worlds of Exile and Illusion, packaged with two other novels. It’s super short! I’m already about a third through. There are flying cats, swords, dwarves and elves, also spaceships, rayguns, and helicopters. Mandy from the film Mandy would love this book, it rocks.
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Nov 2, 2023 04:35
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Opopanax posted:Kobo as well 3$ (Canadian) on Apple Books thing.
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Nov 2, 2023 14:50
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I loved how Semley’s Necklace is basically a classic fairy story that also works from a sci fi perspective. Also enjoy how the League’s first contact protocol appears to be: blow some poo poo up to show the primitives who’s boss, then give them technology so that you can better exploit them later.
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Nov 2, 2023 22:12
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I’ve got Moon of the Crusted Snow on my list. It’s promises snow.
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Nov 18, 2023 00:01
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I’ve just started Love, two chapters in. It’s really good at putting you right there in their heads. Looked up a couple of the products mentioned so far that would be familiar to Norwegians and now I want a Märklin train set too. Read a bit of Planet of Exile too, I may go on a Le Guin binge in the new year, and I was amused that the titular planet is orbiting Gamna Draconis because that’s also the name of a graphic novel I recently bought and also haven’t read yet.
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Dec 18, 2023 00:48
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ovenboy posted:My library actually had it in Norwegian and I almost grabbed it until I thought I might miss out on some nuance. Did they mention Märklin in the English translation? They just called it "train set" in the Swedish translation. Märklin definitely was a thing when I was a kid though. Yeah, in chapter 2 Jon is thinking about a Märklin train set. Jon thinks about trains a lot. In the same chapter Vibeke muses on the efficacy of Spenol moisturizer.
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Dec 18, 2023 14:49
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I read up to chapter 10 last night and didn’t notice any more so it’s not like a recurring thing. I do like it as a bit of scene setting, this could be anywhere, but it’s not, it’s a specific place.
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Dec 18, 2023 18:57
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Done with Love, that was a really tense read. Real sense of dread as all the characters and situations seem a bit off (except maybe Tom of Finnmark).
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Dec 21, 2023 22:39
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I just finished Planet of The Shelved By Genre podcast is doing the Earthsea books in the new year, I’ll probably read along with them, though I’m more inclined towards the Hainish stuff.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:22
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For January, I'm coming back to a book I picked up a couple years ago and then put down and forgot for unknown reasons. Not because it wasn't good, I liked what I read a lot. 
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Jan 4, 2024 02:21
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 13:50 |
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Inventory by Darren Anderson is sort of a memoir, I guess, but it’s more like an archaeology of trauma. It’s about Northern Ireland and The Troubles, and colonization and occupation. It’s mostly about Anderson’s family, whose stories he tells through objects. Some of them are real, concrete things, like his aunt’s wedding dress that was thrown around her living room by smirking British solders who smashed her face with a rifle butt as a parting gift a few days before her wedding. Some of them are less concrete, like letters home from his grandfather in the war that he never found, maybe were never written. Anderson’s a very engaging writer, always wandering off on extended tangents but never losing me along the way. Late in the book when he’s talking about his own teen and college years it did start to feel a little cliche for a bit, maybe that’s just the universality the angry young man story. It comes around at the end for a satisfying conclusion, though. I enjoyed this book thoroughly.
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Jan 25, 2024 23:33
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