Genesis, again.
I am very bad at sticking to things. (Which is odd, considering that I was described, at one point, as being 'sticky', in French, which was entirely, exactly true). I am bad at New Years resolutions precisely because of this, and so don't tend to make them very often. This year I have three, although they're all fairly abstract: Be a better
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I quite often get mine at times when I've got Things that need working through, or fixing, or decisions made about them, and the arguments will bounce back and forth in my skull over and over again until I can't escape the conclusion I've already come to, which is a mite inefficient (although it does allow me to then act on it with few qualms about wether it's the right thing, and just lets me worry about the consequences instead). In this case, I didn't really think I had any Things, and didn't find any; it was just a case of being too awake and really not ready to go to sleep yet whilst being tired, so I thought about the smaller sort of epiphanies.
What I think hooked me with Wicked was the writing; I mean, the prologue was very funny amd clever and quite intriguiging, but it wasn't until the first chapter that I was really hooked, because it was so very different than what you'd expect - theology, ornate description, emnity and the mysterious clockwork theatreIt defied my expectations, somehow, which is what all good books should do. :D
As for recommendations - Wicked is the only Maquire I've read, so I can't say anything on that one, and I've not really read much Carter. We're studying her short stories in English at the moment (although I was lent a copy of the anthology last year by the head of department after I talked to him about my proposal of doing my coursework on stories from Smoke & Mirrors), and they're very, very... unusual. They're all retallings of folk-stories and myths, but very adult ones: the sex is not brushed under the carpet, the underlying gender-politics are pulled out and prodded and played with, and a rather large feminist agenda is waved around like an orriflamme.
This has caused no end of interesting and heated debates in our set, not to mention some rather amusing embarrasment at the begining of term (when we were just getting used to having mixed sets, and the first thing we had to read out was 'I remember how, that night, I lay awake in the wagon-lit in a tender, delicious extasy of excitement, my burning cheek pressed against the impeccable linen of the pillow and the pounding of my heart mimicking that of the great pistons ceaselessly thrusting the train that bore me through the night, away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment, into the unguessable country of marriage.' Oh, the delicious awkwardness of that silence...). A Freudian analysis of, well, any of it, would be a lot of fun.
That said, I enjoyed it immensely once I'd got acostomed to it; the language is fantastic, and the stories themselves very clever. It's definately not for everybody, but if you like that kind of thing it's most certainly well worth a look. :D
(And I manage to neglect to mention the title: it's The Bloody Chamber.)
(Also, oddly enough, when we were given the task of doing a recreative piece in her style, and I was rooting around for inspiration, I hit upon Neil Gaiman's Monarch of the Glen - which, I later discovered, has a quote at the begning from one of the stories in The Bloody Chamber. It's a small world...)
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*shivers* I can't imagine having to be the one to read that aloud. I think I would probably drop dead of embarrassment, or possibly just pass out, but either way... I'm assuming your class eventually matured enough to be able to discuss? ;)
I'll go take a look at The Bloody Chamber, then -- hopefully they have it at my library. It sounds interesting, & if it's not my thing, I have a few RL friends who would like it for its unusual grittiness, I think.
Also, oddly enough, when we were given the task of doing a recreative piece in her style, and I was rooting around for inspiration, I hit upon Neil Gaiman's Monarch of the Glen - which, I later discovered, has a quote at the begning from one of the stories in The Bloody Chamber. It's a small world...)
Don't you love it when writers reference one another? It always gives me a little thrill to think, oh, he's reading what I'm reading -- (!).
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Eventually, yes. Although we did manage to reduce various people to making inarticulate noises at several times when Ms Carter was having altoether far too much fun... :P
Don't you love it when writers reference one another? It always gives me a little thrill to think, oh, he's reading what I'm reading -- (!).
I squeed very muchly when I realised that Susanna Clarke was referencing Stardust at every available opportunity. in one of her short stories I got odd looks from the other people in the check-in queue,alas... :D
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