"so, what, no fucking ziti now?"
Yesterday on my train ride home, I finished Galore by Michael Crummey, which is about six (I think?) generations of fishermen in a hardscrabble Newfoundland town; it covers the Devine & Sellers families from the Napoleonic Wars through WWI. I would categorize it as magic realism - it begins when a whale beached on the shore is cut open and a still-living man is found amid everything else inside the whale's gut.
The writing is really lovely, though you have to deal with the fact that Crummey chooses not to use quotation marks around his dialogue - that, along with the generational focus and family feuds in a very specific place gave the whole thing a real Faulknerian feel to me (King-me Sellers reminded me a lot of Thomas Sutpen, actually, and the fact that his grandson is named Absalom only made the connection stronger in my mind), which for me is an upside, but which may be a downside for you.
I thought the book was strongest in its first section, because Devine's Widow and Mary Tryphena and Callum and Lizzie and King-me and Father Phelan are the strongest characters in the book, and when the story moves past them to the next generation, it loses a lot of immediacy and power, at least for me. The only other character who really pops off the page like that afterward is Bride, and she also fades away during Eli and Tryphie's stories.
I would give this book 2.5 stars for really lovely writing and an amazing evocation of a particular place but I never really engaged emotionally with the characters once that first set was gone, so I can't really rate it higher.
Then last night was for reading comics. Winter Soldier #2 came out yesterday, so I read that. It contained one of the best sentences ever written in the English language. I suppose it is technically a spoiler, though it is worth being spoiled for for the HILARITY. When Bucky says, "I'm not losing my mind here...That gorilla just used a jetpack, right?" I cackled out loud in glee. I don't really care about the machine-gun-wielding, jetpack-wearing gorilla as much as I care about Bucky and Natasha's relationship, but Bucky's disbelief was HILARIOUS, considering everything he's seen. I also enjoyed the fact that his idea of an undercover look was to have a terrible moustache. He's clearly of the Dick Grayson school of disguises. Which I guess makes sense because I don't think Steve is any good at disguises either, though I could be wrong. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much and hope they keep it up.
So I went from that excellence to catching up on Red Hood and the Outlaws. Which. WHY? WHY IS IT SO TERRIBLE? The art is SO PRETTY (ZOMG JASON. SO PRETTY and SO NAKED. I also can't get over how much Rocafort makes him look like Bruce. It is a little scary, really.) but ugh, it's like getting smacked in the face with BADNESS every time they focus on Kory. (There are other issues as well, but that is the one that looms over everything, to me.) Was that supposed to be metacommentary on fannish responses to the new Kory when Crux is like, "I thought you [Roy] and Jason treated Kory like a blow-up doll and now you're rushing to her rescue!" Or was that already written when the response to this version of the character occurred? I do like that Jason's red bat outfit was apparently Dick's (ah, that panel where he's all naked and dreaming of Dick...more of that, please), and that Dick/Kory is still a thing, though I'm confused because of the ridiculous compressed timeline.
Mostly because I also caught up on Nightwing and hey, Dick Grayson grew up in the circus! I bet you didn't know that! (FUCK YOU, HE'S AN ACROBAT!) and if Raya was his first crush, how old was he when his parents died? I just feel like 10 is kind of young - not for crushing behavior, but for the way the relationship is portrayed. Of course, it doesn't matter because she's totally betraying him, except she'll probably have a last minute redemption and then die, because that is what women do in comics.
But! Dick and Kory (and Roy) were a thing, but still no Wally or Donna? WHY DOES DC HATE SUNSHINE AND PUPPIES?
Ahem. I did love that Alfred showed up, but oh my god, what was that shirt he was wearing? Alfred! You have better fashion sense than that!
Reading this mostly made me want the Spider-man/Nightwing teamup more than ever, because I feel like that is the best of all possible crossover team-ups for sheer punnery and also eating pizza while hanging upside down from gargoyles. Though I would also accept Peter Parker/Jaime Reyes because nerdy bug men who make many pop culture references for the win! (I clearly have a type. I don't know why this surprises anyone.) (Otoh, I think my crossover OTP has to still be Wonder Woman/Captain America, because OMG YES. Though Zinda Blake/Steve Rogers is ALSO an acceptable xover OTP, and any combination of Jason, Dick, and Bucky is bound to be a good time. I also want the movie/comics crossover where Darcy gets rescued by Nightwing and everybody's like, "That guy doesn't exist!" and then the next time she sees him, Natasha's with her, and well, you know Dick/badass redheads=OTP, and Natasha would just be SO UNIMPRESSED. SOMEONE WRITE THIS FOR ME NOW!)
I suppose I will eventually catch up on other Batman stuff to see what's up with Damian.
Did you see they cast Katie Cassidy as someone who is probably Dinah Lance in that Green Arrow show on the CW? I mentally cast Yvonne Strahovski as Dinah, but I guess Katie Cassidy's not a bad choice.
***
Last night, I dreamt that I was working with Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey to infiltrate Tony Soprano's family and we were trying to get Dr. Melfi to break doctor-patient confidentiality, and also sneak into a family party. Sadly, I never got to say, "So, what, no fucking ziti now?" which shows a sad lack of initiative on the part of my brain.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/435167.html.
people have commented there.
The writing is really lovely, though you have to deal with the fact that Crummey chooses not to use quotation marks around his dialogue - that, along with the generational focus and family feuds in a very specific place gave the whole thing a real Faulknerian feel to me (King-me Sellers reminded me a lot of Thomas Sutpen, actually, and the fact that his grandson is named Absalom only made the connection stronger in my mind), which for me is an upside, but which may be a downside for you.
I thought the book was strongest in its first section, because Devine's Widow and Mary Tryphena and Callum and Lizzie and King-me and Father Phelan are the strongest characters in the book, and when the story moves past them to the next generation, it loses a lot of immediacy and power, at least for me. The only other character who really pops off the page like that afterward is Bride, and she also fades away during Eli and Tryphie's stories.
I would give this book 2.5 stars for really lovely writing and an amazing evocation of a particular place but I never really engaged emotionally with the characters once that first set was gone, so I can't really rate it higher.
Then last night was for reading comics. Winter Soldier #2 came out yesterday, so I read that. It contained one of the best sentences ever written in the English language. I suppose it is technically a spoiler, though it is worth being spoiled for for the HILARITY. When Bucky says, "I'm not losing my mind here...That gorilla just used a jetpack, right?" I cackled out loud in glee. I don't really care about the machine-gun-wielding, jetpack-wearing gorilla as much as I care about Bucky and Natasha's relationship, but Bucky's disbelief was HILARIOUS, considering everything he's seen. I also enjoyed the fact that his idea of an undercover look was to have a terrible moustache. He's clearly of the Dick Grayson school of disguises. Which I guess makes sense because I don't think Steve is any good at disguises either, though I could be wrong. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much and hope they keep it up.
So I went from that excellence to catching up on Red Hood and the Outlaws. Which. WHY? WHY IS IT SO TERRIBLE? The art is SO PRETTY (ZOMG JASON. SO PRETTY and SO NAKED. I also can't get over how much Rocafort makes him look like Bruce. It is a little scary, really.) but ugh, it's like getting smacked in the face with BADNESS every time they focus on Kory. (There are other issues as well, but that is the one that looms over everything, to me.) Was that supposed to be metacommentary on fannish responses to the new Kory when Crux is like, "I thought you [Roy] and Jason treated Kory like a blow-up doll and now you're rushing to her rescue!" Or was that already written when the response to this version of the character occurred? I do like that Jason's red bat outfit was apparently Dick's (ah, that panel where he's all naked and dreaming of Dick...more of that, please), and that Dick/Kory is still a thing, though I'm confused because of the ridiculous compressed timeline.
Mostly because I also caught up on Nightwing and hey, Dick Grayson grew up in the circus! I bet you didn't know that! (FUCK YOU, HE'S AN ACROBAT!) and if Raya was his first crush, how old was he when his parents died? I just feel like 10 is kind of young - not for crushing behavior, but for the way the relationship is portrayed. Of course, it doesn't matter because she's totally betraying him, except she'll probably have a last minute redemption and then die, because that is what women do in comics.
But! Dick and Kory (and Roy) were a thing, but still no Wally or Donna? WHY DOES DC HATE SUNSHINE AND PUPPIES?
Ahem. I did love that Alfred showed up, but oh my god, what was that shirt he was wearing? Alfred! You have better fashion sense than that!
Reading this mostly made me want the Spider-man/Nightwing teamup more than ever, because I feel like that is the best of all possible crossover team-ups for sheer punnery and also eating pizza while hanging upside down from gargoyles. Though I would also accept Peter Parker/Jaime Reyes because nerdy bug men who make many pop culture references for the win! (I clearly have a type. I don't know why this surprises anyone.) (Otoh, I think my crossover OTP has to still be Wonder Woman/Captain America, because OMG YES. Though Zinda Blake/Steve Rogers is ALSO an acceptable xover OTP, and any combination of Jason, Dick, and Bucky is bound to be a good time. I also want the movie/comics crossover where Darcy gets rescued by Nightwing and everybody's like, "That guy doesn't exist!" and then the next time she sees him, Natasha's with her, and well, you know Dick/badass redheads=OTP, and Natasha would just be SO UNIMPRESSED. SOMEONE WRITE THIS FOR ME NOW!)
I suppose I will eventually catch up on other Batman stuff to see what's up with Damian.
Did you see they cast Katie Cassidy as someone who is probably Dinah Lance in that Green Arrow show on the CW? I mentally cast Yvonne Strahovski as Dinah, but I guess Katie Cassidy's not a bad choice.
***
Last night, I dreamt that I was working with Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey to infiltrate Tony Soprano's family and we were trying to get Dr. Melfi to break doctor-patient confidentiality, and also sneak into a family party. Sadly, I never got to say, "So, what, no fucking ziti now?" which shows a sad lack of initiative on the part of my brain.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/435167.html.
people have commented there.