Journal 2

 

1/9/2001

Valperga by Mary Shelley

               Pg. 16 – more on the idea that love exists between men thorough Ruggeri’s is tempered by the obvious love that he bears his wife as expressed in the opening pages of the novel.  Unable to get into the book at this time.

 

1/15/2001

The Nightingale  by Kara Dalkey

[Note – part of the fairy tale retelling novel series edited by Datlow and Winding. Retelling of Andersen’s story].

               Despite the changes, I think that Andersen would have liked it.  It’s interesting because the only truly evil characters are the spirits.  Some minor characters walk that line, but their motivations are understandable.

               What is particularly nice about the story is the that it isn’t the traditional type of love story.  Where most authors would have Tankerfo and Ugeshi get back together, Dalkey does not.  In the span of the book both characters have grown in a ways that indicate being kept about was better for them.

 

1/15/2001

Stalin’s Teardrops  by Ian Watson

“Stalin’s Teardrops”

               The idea of the map makers being deliberately making maps confusing is wonderful..  Interesting idea that the space allowing a person to travel into youth.  Gusa and Valentin become lost.  Mostly Gusa because of her inability to accept it.  Valentin because he either accepts it too much and becomes lost in it.  Like Perkin.  Destroying  the egg destroys the map.  But the two seem too quickly to accept where they are.  Do the women want children because they themselves are unable to give birth?  Perkin taken so they can use his artistic skill to make the egg.

 

“Gaudi’s Dragon”           

               Deals with the search for self as in the sense of “Teardrops”.  Martha is unable to see herself as separate from her brother, like the characters in “Teardrops”.  They lose sight of their adult selves.  The dragon stands for artistic  power?  Perhaps why it is known to Martha, it senses in her a similar spirit, the idea of a creator.  But where as Gauid was a loner, Martha has a lover so the dragon has two parents, two hosts instead of one.

 

“In the Upper Cretaceous with The Summerfare Bigrade”

               I think the fact that Watson does not tell the reader the reason why for such a trip adds charm to the story.    Like how a character can grow with the story  How he learned various lessons and revolves around hi new self.  At the same time, Watson is paying statements to the advent of race relations.  Realistic enough to be real. 

“The Beggars in our Backyard”

                Very strange.  Reminds me of Joyce Carol Oates.  That same type of Gothic weird family.  Also of reminds one of the Gormengast novels  in the beggars vs. Eugenia family.

 

“From the Annals of the Onomastic Society”

               A good story because it is very believable.  Like the idea of the reaction of the lady.

“Lancelot, Lancelot”

               Seen this type of story before.

“Tales from the Western Willow”

               Interesting fox hunting story.  Stories do illustrate w a weird sense of self.    Charlie ids himself with the foxes,  it strengthens their marriage and the teucria become  what they disguised themselves as. How does the visual affect the real us?  Disguise vs. reality.  Like with Fevvers in Nights at the Circus”

“Case of the Glass Slipper”

               The overuse of science distracts from the tale itself.

 

“The Human Chicken”

               Chicken-Boo! [Character from the Animanics]   Wonder  if the creator of that read this story.  It is subtle point on Oxford with the election of the chicken.

 

“In Her Shoes”

               A very uncomfortable story.    Almost incestuous weaselly with the Clay and the end with the lox man.  Is more incestuous taking over the body of a child?  Unclear.  What is clear is that he never loved his daughter if he is willing to use her so cruelly.

“The Pharoah and the Maddamselle”

                Too weird.

 

               All the storis in the collection seem to deal with the idea of self and what makes a person’s self.  How does one separate oneself from others?  Where does the disguise begin and end?

 

1/17/2001

The Sword of Shannara  by Terry Brooks

[Reread]

               Lack anything in the way of a strong female character with the possible exception of Shirlm and that is awful.  Even the mothers are said to have died.  One of the characters is married and one is engaged but the significant others get passed over.

               Pg 345, description of tress,  “But giving the overall impression that they were nature’s stepchildren”.  Description re-enforces stories of stepmother and show the uimage of the evil stepmother is still being used.

               Characterization does not ten to be too deep.  Flick thinks about the Gnomes he fought, but he only fought one.

               Relationship between Marmion and Shirl develops too quickly and suddenly.  In fact, she seems a stick character.  There is nothing more to her than her beauty and gentleness.  It is almost a world absent of women.  Even Dagel’s finacee is only there to symbolize what he is fighting for.  She and Shirl and could be interchangeable.  Would have been nice if one of the characters had a  living mother.

               Balinor is still my favorite character.  He is like Shea described him.

               Brooks at times uses the phrases to describe character.