othering the muscovite
I finally finished The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko today.
Mostly because the anniversary of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth reminded me. Yes, I know, even I'm getting somewhat confused about when I mean Pratchett-bloody-awesome-novel-about-political-idealism-and-time-travel or Lukyanenko-novel-turned-into-bloody-awesome-film-of-Russian-urban-fantasy. I have to keep specifying it as Pratchett Night Watch and Lukyanenko The Night Watch. *snort*
It really really isn't a reflection on the novel that I took about three weeks to finish it. Just me deciding to only read it at home and then being too tired when I got home to actually read. Cos, jesus fucking christ, it is SO good!
I was nervous about the translation factor, yep. Just makes me uneasy that I may not be reading the words the author intended and ultimately approved. The only way I can detect that from my monolingual --- filmi Hindi doesn't count, yaar --- perspective is when a phrase or a particular word choice doesn't quite fit. And man, it was so awesome that I only found one incident of such. Well, I should say only one incident popped out at me. Which amounts to nothing in the grand scheme cos oh man oh man, what a scheme.
It was so inspiring how cleverly and without pretension the fantasy elements were woven into the urban reality. And not just that but the little innovations like the Twilight itself and oh man, the blue moss. How I adore the blue moss.
The entrance of the building looked gloomy and miserable enough. But viewed from inside the Twilight it was a genuine catacomb. Concrete walls that were simply dirty in ordinary reality were overgrown with a dark blue moss in the Twilight. Disgusting. There clearly wasn't a single Other living here to clean up ... I passed my hand over a really thick growth --- the moss stirred and tried to creep away from the warmth.
'Burn!' I ordered it.
I don't like parasites. Not even if they don't do any particular harm and only feed on other creatures' emotions. No one's even proved the hypothesis that large colonies of blue moss are capable of unbalancing the human psyche and causing depression or mania. But I've always preferred to play safe.
--- p84.
Loved the simple devices, the stepping into your own shadow to enter the Twilight and then so chillingly developed into the Twilight being a living force that's harmful to stay within. And then the simple binary of Dark and Light complicated so much by the philosophical arguments of how the Light really knows what's good and what's evil in the long run.
I did wish I knew more of Russian history and literature because the blurb on the inside of the cover calls it "an allegorical work in the tradition of ... Bulgakov." Which just makes me hope and all the more certain that one day they're going to study the trilogy at universities just like I studied Earthsea at uni. I wish I had the knowledge now to read it as an allegory. The most I can manage is the suspicion that maybe he's talking about the reality and theory of communism versus capitalism, the long shadow of Stalin versus the present of capitalist democracy and which is inflicting the more damage. But that seems possibly too simplistic and makes me more aware of how much particularity I don't know. Ooh aargh! *flails*
As it is, I'm completely energised and impressed at just how Lukyanenko releases information. Cos the first story of the book goes at a cracking pace and he doesn't stop to explain every minute detail and yet never loses me. I suspect that's because he keeps fancy names at a minimum and uses fairly self-explanatory words for the fantasy elements he's invented. Like the vampire tags and the stepping into shadow and calling the main guy 'the boss'. That's intelligent, confident, common sense writing for ya.
The lack of capitals for those tags was so very refreshing, reallly only the Call, Dark Other, Light Other, and the Great Sorceress. It was the perfect restraint of use that made the occasions a capital was used to good effect. *nod* So excellent and unpretentious.
The structure of the three stories separated by time was fascinating. I had no idea, honestly thought the first story with its pace would continue for the entire novel. So the second story was a delightful surprise, especially since it was soooo creepy with the righteous serial killer delusion trope. Great change of tone and perspective on a world we've just been thrown into. It was a very skilful story, almost elegant really, compared to the raw rocketing energy of the first.
Which made the third understandably difficult. Perhaps if I had read it in one go like the others, I wouldn't have struggled so much with the philosophy as I did. A bit too much talking and brooding for my liking. Anton took far too long to actually get going and when he did, I wasn't quite sure what the hell he was doing. Fairly certain this was entirely my fault. The ending totally took me by surprise. I'm still a little puzzled as to whether it was brilliant to subvert the fantasy trope of a great grand showdown or a bit of a disappointment. I'm kinda leaning towards the former cos I liked the novel and quality of writing so damned much. And I definitely need to re-read it.
There's definitely the sense of a narrative that yields up more and more upon each subsequent read, like Earthsea. Even now, I've realised how the anti-climax of the third story is a great counterpoint to the massive showdown in the first story, dim as my memory is.
What really startled me was the significant difference between the movie and the book, that Egor isn't related to Anton at all and doesn't irrevocably choose to go to the Dark. I kept waiting for the miscarriage curse revelation to come out so it was kind of bizarre that it didn't. And seeing as how the next book features a different protagonist, I'm thinking it may never happen. We'll see.
Having seen the movie first and read the book second, I can be forgiving and understand why they chose to add that dramatic little device. Cos yeah, the relationship is far more subtle and therefore works better as such in the book. Wouldn't necessarily translate to the screen. It's not quite as bad as the blatant way they changed the ending of Chocolat so it's okay. And I can understand why the Twilight is called the Gloom in the movie. I mean, aside from the fact that 'gloom' is a far more evocative word, perhaps there was also an intended separation from the third book. Mind you, I rather like the sequence of the book titles. *nods*
Weirdly enough, I bought The Day Watch today and am into the first chapter. And it's kind of horrific and wonderful to see how they've taken the prologue of this book and switched the details around to make the first bit of the film for Night Watch. I did get told that the film for Day Watch would actually be based on the second half of the book for The Night Watch and having read the blurb of the movie, I'm guessing it's actually the third story of the first book. Oy.
I want to read at least The Day Watch before watching the movie even though, yes, I know the two may have nothing to do with each other. Just on the off chance.
There's a Time Out quote on the back of my paperback. "So good that the film feels like a trailer for it." Naturally, that made me go "Oh hey, way of a tall claim to make! I fucking LOVED the film!"
You know what? They were absolutely bloody right. Omigod.
Definitely a case of believe the hype.
Mostly because the anniversary of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth reminded me. Yes, I know, even I'm getting somewhat confused about when I mean Pratchett-bloody-awesome-novel-about-political-idealism-and-time-travel or Lukyanenko-novel-turned-into-bloody-awesome-film-of-Russian-urban-fantasy. I have to keep specifying it as Pratchett Night Watch and Lukyanenko The Night Watch. *snort*
It really really isn't a reflection on the novel that I took about three weeks to finish it. Just me deciding to only read it at home and then being too tired when I got home to actually read. Cos, jesus fucking christ, it is SO good!
I was nervous about the translation factor, yep. Just makes me uneasy that I may not be reading the words the author intended and ultimately approved. The only way I can detect that from my monolingual --- filmi Hindi doesn't count, yaar --- perspective is when a phrase or a particular word choice doesn't quite fit. And man, it was so awesome that I only found one incident of such. Well, I should say only one incident popped out at me. Which amounts to nothing in the grand scheme cos oh man oh man, what a scheme.
It was so inspiring how cleverly and without pretension the fantasy elements were woven into the urban reality. And not just that but the little innovations like the Twilight itself and oh man, the blue moss. How I adore the blue moss.
The entrance of the building looked gloomy and miserable enough. But viewed from inside the Twilight it was a genuine catacomb. Concrete walls that were simply dirty in ordinary reality were overgrown with a dark blue moss in the Twilight. Disgusting. There clearly wasn't a single Other living here to clean up ... I passed my hand over a really thick growth --- the moss stirred and tried to creep away from the warmth.
'Burn!' I ordered it.
I don't like parasites. Not even if they don't do any particular harm and only feed on other creatures' emotions. No one's even proved the hypothesis that large colonies of blue moss are capable of unbalancing the human psyche and causing depression or mania. But I've always preferred to play safe.
--- p84.
Loved the simple devices, the stepping into your own shadow to enter the Twilight and then so chillingly developed into the Twilight being a living force that's harmful to stay within. And then the simple binary of Dark and Light complicated so much by the philosophical arguments of how the Light really knows what's good and what's evil in the long run.
I did wish I knew more of Russian history and literature because the blurb on the inside of the cover calls it "an allegorical work in the tradition of ... Bulgakov." Which just makes me hope and all the more certain that one day they're going to study the trilogy at universities just like I studied Earthsea at uni. I wish I had the knowledge now to read it as an allegory. The most I can manage is the suspicion that maybe he's talking about the reality and theory of communism versus capitalism, the long shadow of Stalin versus the present of capitalist democracy and which is inflicting the more damage. But that seems possibly too simplistic and makes me more aware of how much particularity I don't know. Ooh aargh! *flails*
As it is, I'm completely energised and impressed at just how Lukyanenko releases information. Cos the first story of the book goes at a cracking pace and he doesn't stop to explain every minute detail and yet never loses me. I suspect that's because he keeps fancy names at a minimum and uses fairly self-explanatory words for the fantasy elements he's invented. Like the vampire tags and the stepping into shadow and calling the main guy 'the boss'. That's intelligent, confident, common sense writing for ya.
The lack of capitals for those tags was so very refreshing, reallly only the Call, Dark Other, Light Other, and the Great Sorceress. It was the perfect restraint of use that made the occasions a capital was used to good effect. *nod* So excellent and unpretentious.
The structure of the three stories separated by time was fascinating. I had no idea, honestly thought the first story with its pace would continue for the entire novel. So the second story was a delightful surprise, especially since it was soooo creepy with the righteous serial killer delusion trope. Great change of tone and perspective on a world we've just been thrown into. It was a very skilful story, almost elegant really, compared to the raw rocketing energy of the first.
Which made the third understandably difficult. Perhaps if I had read it in one go like the others, I wouldn't have struggled so much with the philosophy as I did. A bit too much talking and brooding for my liking. Anton took far too long to actually get going and when he did, I wasn't quite sure what the hell he was doing. Fairly certain this was entirely my fault. The ending totally took me by surprise. I'm still a little puzzled as to whether it was brilliant to subvert the fantasy trope of a great grand showdown or a bit of a disappointment. I'm kinda leaning towards the former cos I liked the novel and quality of writing so damned much. And I definitely need to re-read it.
There's definitely the sense of a narrative that yields up more and more upon each subsequent read, like Earthsea. Even now, I've realised how the anti-climax of the third story is a great counterpoint to the massive showdown in the first story, dim as my memory is.
What really startled me was the significant difference between the movie and the book, that Egor isn't related to Anton at all and doesn't irrevocably choose to go to the Dark. I kept waiting for the miscarriage curse revelation to come out so it was kind of bizarre that it didn't. And seeing as how the next book features a different protagonist, I'm thinking it may never happen. We'll see.
Having seen the movie first and read the book second, I can be forgiving and understand why they chose to add that dramatic little device. Cos yeah, the relationship is far more subtle and therefore works better as such in the book. Wouldn't necessarily translate to the screen. It's not quite as bad as the blatant way they changed the ending of Chocolat so it's okay. And I can understand why the Twilight is called the Gloom in the movie. I mean, aside from the fact that 'gloom' is a far more evocative word, perhaps there was also an intended separation from the third book. Mind you, I rather like the sequence of the book titles. *nods*
Weirdly enough, I bought The Day Watch today and am into the first chapter. And it's kind of horrific and wonderful to see how they've taken the prologue of this book and switched the details around to make the first bit of the film for Night Watch. I did get told that the film for Day Watch would actually be based on the second half of the book for The Night Watch and having read the blurb of the movie, I'm guessing it's actually the third story of the first book. Oy.
I want to read at least The Day Watch before watching the movie even though, yes, I know the two may have nothing to do with each other. Just on the off chance.
There's a Time Out quote on the back of my paperback. "So good that the film feels like a trailer for it." Naturally, that made me go "Oh hey, way of a tall claim to make! I fucking LOVED the film!"
You know what? They were absolutely bloody right. Omigod.
Definitely a case of believe the hype.