I'm Very Intellectual... I also play racquetball.
I was desperate last night after finishing The Last Continent, (I SO LOVE the Wizards of the UU!) so I picked up a book I'd bought ages ago, started reading it at lunch today. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
I bought it when I wanted my reading to actually reflect what I wanted my intellect to be. I bought some Jane Austen, Bronte, some more Shakespeare, an so I wouldn't get bored (as I feared I would) Dracula by Brahm Stoker.
It's so interesting, the style of some classic writing. Jekyll and Hyde is told from the perspective of a lawyer, who is a friend of Jekyll. After hearing a story about a man called Hyde, he starts doing a little investigating on his own, with proper motivation. I just find it such a strange choice to tell the story from an outsider's point of view. But, that's how we perceive things anyway, isn't it? You get more description from an outside narrator. And, I'm guessing these authors figured that it would be easier to tell a story about damaged people, or a changed person from outside the head of the title character. In other words, from the point of view of a perfectly sane human being. Makes sense.
Dracula is one that is told from the points of view of four different characters learning as a group of Count Dracula, and trying to destroy him. The same goes for Wuthering Heights. Perfectly sane house keeper and traveler telling us a story about these crazy, selfish, crazy people. Frankenstein, however, is at least told from the point of view of the main character. But! he's not the monster, is he? Same concept.
I'll have to remember that concept if I ever decide to write horror.
Needless to say, I went to Powell's today. I bought more books than I had planned, which usually happens.
The King of Torts - John Grisham
The Associate - John Grisham
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
On the flip side, however, the supply should last me a while, because I'm not going to quit Jekyll and Hyde and start on something shiny and new. I'm interested. I'd like to keep going. It is also not very long. :P
I kind of wish I could read it without already knowing basically what the twist is, that it's the same man. But, seeing all of these characters find out will be fun.
I bought it when I wanted my reading to actually reflect what I wanted my intellect to be. I bought some Jane Austen, Bronte, some more Shakespeare, an so I wouldn't get bored (as I feared I would) Dracula by Brahm Stoker.
It's so interesting, the style of some classic writing. Jekyll and Hyde is told from the perspective of a lawyer, who is a friend of Jekyll. After hearing a story about a man called Hyde, he starts doing a little investigating on his own, with proper motivation. I just find it such a strange choice to tell the story from an outsider's point of view. But, that's how we perceive things anyway, isn't it? You get more description from an outside narrator. And, I'm guessing these authors figured that it would be easier to tell a story about damaged people, or a changed person from outside the head of the title character. In other words, from the point of view of a perfectly sane human being. Makes sense.
Dracula is one that is told from the points of view of four different characters learning as a group of Count Dracula, and trying to destroy him. The same goes for Wuthering Heights. Perfectly sane house keeper and traveler telling us a story about these crazy, selfish, crazy people. Frankenstein, however, is at least told from the point of view of the main character. But! he's not the monster, is he? Same concept.
I'll have to remember that concept if I ever decide to write horror.
Needless to say, I went to Powell's today. I bought more books than I had planned, which usually happens.
The King of Torts - John Grisham
The Associate - John Grisham
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
Hogfather - Terry Pratchett
On the flip side, however, the supply should last me a while, because I'm not going to quit Jekyll and Hyde and start on something shiny and new. I'm interested. I'd like to keep going. It is also not very long. :P
I kind of wish I could read it without already knowing basically what the twist is, that it's the same man. But, seeing all of these characters find out will be fun.