2008-10-01, 09:37 AM — Chalice by Robin McKinley
I am quietly thinking about talking about books and writing here. The state of my life has been such that I really only have the energy to keep up one blog... but I have been reading a lot lately, and I would like to keep track of some thoughts about what I have been reading. I don't know if I am ever going to update it after this, but why not try?
Just finished Chalice, Robin McKinley's latest book. I was lucky enough to find her blog and found out that it was being published about a month after. I am a huge McKinley fan; she was the first fantasy author I ever read, with the notable exceptions of C.S. Lewis and Tolkein. I haven't loved everything she's ever written (haven't even read some of it, to be honest) but there are a couple of her books that number among my very favourites of all time.
I'll try to avoid spoilers, but if you read this there is at least one question that will be answered for you as soon as you start reading.
Chalice was delightful. It started slowly, and picked up a definite sense of suspense, of deepening dread, as the story went on. The first two parts are almost entirely background, although not entirely; and the writing is such that I find it hard to mind. The third part starts to pick up speed... and then the fourth part. Everything is resolved in the fourth part, and it... seems to happen too fast, and too neatly. There's an element of deus ex machina that I don't like, although she certainly set it up to happen starting in part one. And I really don't like the way that she resolved the hero's story. I have tried to get over it and give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, but it... just... makes him far less interesting as a character, and everything far too neat at the end. It makes it feel like he was working his way toward something and in the end... well, deus ex machina.
This is not to say I don't like happy endings. I'm addicted to them, and if I happen to know that a book doesn't have a happy ending I frankly have a hard time reading it all the way through. I don't really need "perfect" endings, that is, perfect from the standpoint that all important storylines are tucked into each other neatly. I can go away without having everything perfectly resolved, if the author has done a good enough job of assuring me that my favourite characters are strong enough to handle what comes next.
The thing that bothers me about the ending is that the characters I loved were strong enough to handle what comes next without taking away the hero's essential characteristics in a rather pat way. I ... ended up feeling that he was a little betrayed. That everything he had worked towards was ... pointless, because it would have happened the same way if he had done nothing.
Which is too bad, because the rest of the story is amazing. I've read complaints that the characters aren't fully realized, and that may be true for everyone but some of the essential characters -- but there is no need for the secondary characters to be fully fleshed out, because the central characters are so completely well done.
Despite my misgivings about the resolution, I will read this book again. I will keep it on my shelf and be glad to have it there. I will recommend it wholly to others, happily. I can hardly wait for her next.
2007-09-25, 09:24 AM — BAM! kicking me up a notch
Holy hell, school is taking it to me. It's insane. There is so much to do. And now I'm sick, of course.
I'm still enjoying the actual content, though. The paper I wrote for yesterday wasn't one of my most brilliant efforts, but I think it was better than the nothing I've done for a couple of years. The paper I wrote for today was much, much better. I think it was just a matter of remembering how to write. For school, that is.
It has meant that I have done nothing at all outside of school and KWFN stuff and I'm starting to feel that familiar crankiness. Also, the dishes are going to wash me, and I think something is building a fort on my desk. The plants are going to walk off and search for their own water soon -- the ones that haven't died. The fish tank filter is broken and I haven't fixed it, although everyone is still alive thanks to the magic of (aquatic) plants.
What I would really like to do, but will not be able to until... well, tomorrow at the earliest, is curl up and watch like, ten episodes of Inuyasha, and maybe play some video games. I don't want to read anything, not even something fun. I have been reading my brains out and now they are feverish.
2007-09-11, 09:19 AM — MLIS this way
Interesting how now that I've started thinking about library and information issues (which were previously barely on my radar) I find this sort of article far more fascinating than I used to. It's only been two days of classes and already I'm starting to look upon access to information in an entirely different way. For example, I think the US Gov't's actions in the above article are not only a massive waste of government funds and time (big surprise) but also impinging upon what I now realize should be a very basic right.
The amazing thing is that after two days, I'm aware, in a very real sense, of an entire sphere of human activity that I was only vaguely aware of before. It makes me wonder if people like me have no idea that library and information science is as ubiquitous as it is, what do people who have never had an interest in libraries think?
I was worried I was going to find this degree boring. There's no chance of that, I'm afraid. I'm actually going to start thinking deep thoughts again... in as much as I ever have...