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tree_and_leaf... having had a good but very tiring time in Italy. Didn't get to a post office, but postcards will get posted eventually from the UK!
I read Robert McCrumb's biography of PG Wodehouse, which was good, Natasha Solomon's Mr Rosenblum's List, about a hapless but determined Jewish refugee trying to build a golf course in Devon (better than it sounds, but the author overdid the 'quirky Jewishness' a bit and the 'quirky Devonian yokels' a lot) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which... can I have that bit of my life back? I'd can think of many things I'd rather have done with it.* I really do not care about Mikael sodding Blomkvist, his alleged magnetic attractiveness to women, and his confused sex-life**, or his alleged world-class journalism, which is better than any journalism anywhere in Sweden, and don't you forget it, buddy, or his solipsism.*** (On an unrelated topic, you ought to be careful with this book if you have triggers relating to sexual assault and violence. There are some very nasty bits in it indeed).
Although I admit I am partly annoyed with it because I was lead to believe it was well-plotted and the opening chapter suggested we were going to get a complicated mystery about financial shenanigans, whereas we got a bog-standard serial killer with nasty sexual aspects, though I suppose having two (father-and-son) killers with a different M.O. was vaguely original - except actually it felt like cheating. I suppose this is partly a result of reading a thriller like a detective novel, but... And I called what was going on with the flowers almost immediately, which I generally never do. I don't believe in either Blomkvist or Salander (and if you're really trying to write a character with Asperger's - as Blomkvist speculates - you're doing it very unconvincingly), and I don't particularly want to, as they are both dull as ditchwater and utter Mary-Sues. She's certainly no grown-up Pippi Longstocking, whatever various people have said (though I'm not convinced you can have a grown-up Pippi Longstocking anyway, isn't that like having a grown-up Peter Pan?) Pippi is charming. Salander...isn't. The Biblical bits of the serial killing are silly, and I didn't buy Blomkvist's Pentecostalist daughter - who exists only to solve that bit of the puzzle without realising it - recognising the coded Biblical references as such, even when preceded by names so that everyone thinks they are telephone numbers. I could see someone encoding it like that if they actually wanted to keep it secret, but no-one actually writes out Bible references like "22315" for Exodus 23:15. Or do they in Sweden? It seems unlikely.
Also: Swedish welfare state surely not quite that callously paternalist? (Or if Salandar's previous guardian was really (a) that benign and (b) that convinced she could run her own life, why didn't he try to get her released from guardianship? He is a relatively elderly man and ought to have anticipated the stroke which he in fact had).
And dear God, the writing's boring.
You lot have all been posting busily, so: if you've posted anything you'd think I'd want to see (be that personal news or fic/ fic recs), could you point me at it?
* Incidentally who on earth said it was well-written and translated? It reads like a less idiomatic Dan Brown. (Of course, the translator may have been entirely accurate).
** Not being in an open relationship, I can't really comment on it, but this aspect of the book really did strike me as just a massive male fantasy.
*** Actually, forget Dan Brown. It's more like Left Behind, only with sex, swearing, and worryingly lovingly detailed sexual assault.
I read Robert McCrumb's biography of PG Wodehouse, which was good, Natasha Solomon's Mr Rosenblum's List, about a hapless but determined Jewish refugee trying to build a golf course in Devon (better than it sounds, but the author overdid the 'quirky Jewishness' a bit and the 'quirky Devonian yokels' a lot) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which... can I have that bit of my life back? I'd can think of many things I'd rather have done with it.* I really do not care about Mikael sodding Blomkvist, his alleged magnetic attractiveness to women, and his confused sex-life**, or his alleged world-class journalism, which is better than any journalism anywhere in Sweden, and don't you forget it, buddy, or his solipsism.*** (On an unrelated topic, you ought to be careful with this book if you have triggers relating to sexual assault and violence. There are some very nasty bits in it indeed).
Although I admit I am partly annoyed with it because I was lead to believe it was well-plotted and the opening chapter suggested we were going to get a complicated mystery about financial shenanigans, whereas we got a bog-standard serial killer with nasty sexual aspects, though I suppose having two (father-and-son) killers with a different M.O. was vaguely original - except actually it felt like cheating. I suppose this is partly a result of reading a thriller like a detective novel, but... And I called what was going on with the flowers almost immediately, which I generally never do. I don't believe in either Blomkvist or Salander (and if you're really trying to write a character with Asperger's - as Blomkvist speculates - you're doing it very unconvincingly), and I don't particularly want to, as they are both dull as ditchwater and utter Mary-Sues. She's certainly no grown-up Pippi Longstocking, whatever various people have said (though I'm not convinced you can have a grown-up Pippi Longstocking anyway, isn't that like having a grown-up Peter Pan?) Pippi is charming. Salander...isn't. The Biblical bits of the serial killing are silly, and I didn't buy Blomkvist's Pentecostalist daughter - who exists only to solve that bit of the puzzle without realising it - recognising the coded Biblical references as such, even when preceded by names so that everyone thinks they are telephone numbers. I could see someone encoding it like that if they actually wanted to keep it secret, but no-one actually writes out Bible references like "22315" for Exodus 23:15. Or do they in Sweden? It seems unlikely.
Also: Swedish welfare state surely not quite that callously paternalist? (Or if Salandar's previous guardian was really (a) that benign and (b) that convinced she could run her own life, why didn't he try to get her released from guardianship? He is a relatively elderly man and ought to have anticipated the stroke which he in fact had).
And dear God, the writing's boring.
You lot have all been posting busily, so: if you've posted anything you'd think I'd want to see (be that personal news or fic/ fic recs), could you point me at it?
* Incidentally who on earth said it was well-written and translated? It reads like a less idiomatic Dan Brown. (Of course, the translator may have been entirely accurate).
** Not being in an open relationship, I can't really comment on it, but this aspect of the book really did strike me as just a massive male fantasy.
*** Actually, forget Dan Brown. It's more like Left Behind, only with sex, swearing, and worryingly lovingly detailed sexual assault.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-10 01:18 pm (UTC)And very glad you had a good time in Italy.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-11 01:15 am (UTC)And I am so uninterested in any kind of male fantasy. That's part of why I really dislike Neverwhere (graphic novel) in terms of the overall story (I like the art, and my two favorite characters are London Below and the Marquis. So yeah.)
I'm going to post a quote about asceticism soon, and you might find it interesting. Should I hold off a day or two to let you catch yr breath. Obvoiusly, deep discussion isn't required, just thought I'd ask since you actaully are the intended audience in a sense : )
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-11 09:46 pm (UTC)If you post tomorrow, I'll have time to read it - after that things get a bit mad until Monday at the earliest :) Sounds interesting, though!
I wouldn't say I disliked the Neverwhere plotline, but I find I can't really remember all that much about what actually happened - but I do remember the Marquis, and the general world-building, very strongly.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-11 09:48 pm (UTC)I don't mind trashy thrillers as such. Trashy thrillers that are both skeevy and trying to hit you over the head with their right-on-ness really put me off.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-18 04:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-18 08:21 pm (UTC)