7/15/2000
Son of Oscar Wilde by Vyvyan Holland
| V.Holland |
Preface opens
with description of visitation from his mother.
O. Wilde
named after Oscar I of Sweden.
Good for
him for standing up for his parents, especially his mother.
Holland
named his son Merlin (30)
Holland
on the confusion surrounding his date of birth, “. . . I am completely immune
from the importunities of astrologer as for being able to tell them the exact
hour of my birth, I cannot be certain of the exact day.” (31).
Like his
description of his childhood especially the fight of the sword cane with Cyril
where he got hit in the bum. But one
wonders if Cyril would it a bit differently.
On the
money box, “This was a constant source of frustration to us until we discovered
that no money-box was proof against a table-knife and a little ingenuity.” (47)
Constance and Cyril
Cyril
was killed by a sniper in WWI
Hadn’t
realized that the auction include the children’s toys and his wife’s
books. Surely if it had been someone
else something could have been done. The
poor children.
“But
most disturbing of all were the telegraph poles. Being used to the straight orderly ones in
England, the cooked French variety filled me with terror; I saw them as live
creatures, snakes writhing out of the ground, seeking something to devour”(55).
French
governess does not at all sound pleasant.
Like the
description of going though the St. Gotland tunnel by train.
It is
always the older child who bears the weight.
English superiority
expressed “Even in those days the German people were sheep, herded and bullied
by their overlords, who like sheep-dogs, marshalled them and kept them in
order. We, however, as free born
Irishmen resented this regimentation and ug in out toes against it” (77)
Description
of schools in Germany in pride of the English.
But in his description of the Jesuit school, he makes at first something
to be disliked but them tells of how great the teachers were.
Think
that his analysis of the name change to Holland, his mother’s family’s idea was
slow to distance the family from the Oscar Wilde Scandal.
Gives a
good portrait of society and the reader seems to connect with him.
Seems so
sad about the family, how Wilde never saw his children again. Such a tragic waste. His sons never got to know him except for his
writings and this is a man who is known
for his fairy tales written for his sons.
Reading his fairy tales one could not know what the future would be so
tragic that it happened that way.
Would
the author have been happier knowing sooner?
Don’t think so.
7/18/2000
Aristoto by
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
 |
| I love this cover. |
[Note- based on the life Arisoto]
Like
the reference to the beginning of the change in the painting styles on pages
26-27. Also aristo’s dismay at the
English names, especially trying to info a rhyme for Wessex. “. . . for these English with the impossible
names” (31).
Ludovico
(fantasy) on the Amazons, “Their queen, in fact, said I was almost brave enough
to be a woman” (91).
Both
realms are fantasy.
Not sure
how right she got the title character, but her portrait of Margret Roper [Note-
Thomas More’s daughter] seems accurate.
Particularly in response to her dedication to her father. More himself seems to be nice, not like the
man who would tell his wife that he gave her a fake jewel. It is an interesting what if alternate
history.
I like
how Yarbro defends Richard III in a way and actually makes More friendly to
him.
Like the
fact that Lodovico in her novel has a good marriage. While in La Fntasisa he struggles with
romantic plot point of love for a friend’s girl.
That the
fantasy takes place in the Americas is not too clear. Aztec Empire?
Incan?
What the
book doe is show how a person’s imagination makes them into something they want
to be. Domino’s tale would have had him
as and ordinary part. Ludovico becomes
the hero his fantasy when he achieves in
killing Beni. Indeed, Lucidcao fits into
his fantasy would much better because the fantasy world operates on honor where
reality operates on power. I like the
end where fantasy and reality merge, where he mixes the two in his mind.
7/19/2000
Dragondoomby Dennis L. McKiernan.
[Note – this is part of his Mithgar series, which draws
heavily from Tolkien but has more kick ass women. But it is a stand alone novel. Funny story, I
actually first read this first in high school.
Later, when we graduated a friend gave me the first volume of the Iron
Trilogy. It was only after I read that I
realized the connection to this book.
This is the best Mithgar book in my opinion.]
Has to
be one of the most tragically romantic novels ever written. Romeo and Juliet
mixed with The Hobbit with the dragon taking the dwarves’ treasure and
the killing of the dragon. Almost as if McKiernan
were playing a what if ending. The book
is odd for it does lack the presence of the Warrows [Note – Warrows are
McKiernan’s version of Hobbits].
Like the Iron Tower Trilogy, Dragondoom is based upon Tolkien’s Middle Earth. But McKiernan expands upon it, adding to the
realm a Chinese style setting. He merges
our world and Middle Earth.
McKiernan’s tone is always one of
historian or lost letter. He keeps to
the idea of the text being found. We
care for the characters but we do not know them as well as the characters in Lord of the Rings. This is especially true in
many of the early Mithgar books. He seem
to have moved away from this as he continued to write. But the romance here is nor forced as it was
in Dragonstone. It
seems that the reader knows the characters better as in Cavern of Socrates [Note – one of McKiernan’s non Mithgar books]
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