and I swear that I don't have a gun
We closed early yesterday because of the nor'easter; the announcement said 3:30 but of course I was here waiting for people to get their shit together and send me documents for a mailing that was supposed to go out yesterday. At 4:15, boss2 came over and said go home, it could go out in the morning, so I did.
Here, the storm was mostly snow that immediately turned to slush, so the commute home was gross but it's mostly gone this morning. I did see a tree completely uprooted in Central Park that wasn't like that yesterday; I imagine the roots and the ground were so weakened by Sandy that the extra weight of snow + wind just pushed it right over.
I really hope all the people without heat and power - and those who lost it (again) - last night are okay. Ugh. Weather.
In other news, I finally finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The last book is kind of a slog. I mostly enjoyed it, until a thing happens in book 6 that is just so utterly ridiculous that it jarred me right out of the story, and for me, it never recovered from that (in fact, it just seemed to dig itself deeper, and King's defense of it in the afterword did him no favors in my mind either). And if I had that reaction, I can only imagine how people who'd waited years for the next volume felt.
I really hate that King's so contemptuous of metafiction in his afterword, and yet that is EXACTLY what he was doing, and doing it in the most self-indulgent way possible. Do I understand what he was trying to say by inserting himself into the story? Yes. Do I think it works? No. Not with him as a character. I think it *could* have worked had he come up with a thinly fictionalized version of himself and some books that were intrinsic to that world - I get that the point is that fiction impinges on our reality and the interaction between fiction and reality shapes the world and us as people - but it was so hamfistedly done that I was annoyed rather than amused.
The other thing I really hated was the whole Mordred storyline. I would like a version of these books without that in it at all - I hate the demon pregnancy trope with the power of a million fiery supernovae, I hate the way it separated Susannah from the rest of the characters for so long, and it was completely pointless, a hyped up threat that turned out to be toothless!
The first five books have such great narrative momentum (even if they are too long and could be edited down quite a bit and still be compelling - probably even more so), and then that's just killed dead in book 6, and it only recovers late in book 7, once Roland and Susannah are united again. I also feel Patrick is introduced SO LATE that having him be the solution to the problem of the Crimson King felt unearned. Cool idea and fitting with the theme of stories - and art - shaping the world, but it was way too close to the end for him to show up, imo.
I didn't mind that Eddie died, but oh man, I hated that he killed Jake again. HATED IT. I'm glad Susannah survived and got to have a version of happily ever after with Eddie (and Jake and Oy) in some alternate universe.
Roland is stuck in his Groundhog Day of a life, but there's hope; this time something changed, so he might be able to save his ka-tet this time around, and maybe find an end for himself. I think he's a great character and he's my favorite of the bunch, and it made sense to me that he would end alone the way he started, though I'm not sure WHY he has to keep going through the experience over and over, especially since he doesn't get to remember any of it and therefore learn from it. Is it his literalness and lack of imagination that doom him? I don't know.
The other thing I found really annoying was the useless filler phrases that were constantly repeated - "may it do ya" "hear me very well" etc. Cutting down on those alone would have made everything shorter in a good way. And seriously, Mr. King, never write any kind of folk song or poetry again, because that was all just horribly painful and bad.
So you know, the first five books are really good reading, and by that point, you want to know how it ends so you slog through the last two endless books for a somewhat satisfying ending.
And our internet is down so this entry won't post. Sigh.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/516753.html.
people have commented there.
Here, the storm was mostly snow that immediately turned to slush, so the commute home was gross but it's mostly gone this morning. I did see a tree completely uprooted in Central Park that wasn't like that yesterday; I imagine the roots and the ground were so weakened by Sandy that the extra weight of snow + wind just pushed it right over.
I really hope all the people without heat and power - and those who lost it (again) - last night are okay. Ugh. Weather.
In other news, I finally finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The last book is kind of a slog. I mostly enjoyed it, until a thing happens in book 6 that is just so utterly ridiculous that it jarred me right out of the story, and for me, it never recovered from that (in fact, it just seemed to dig itself deeper, and King's defense of it in the afterword did him no favors in my mind either). And if I had that reaction, I can only imagine how people who'd waited years for the next volume felt.
I really hate that King's so contemptuous of metafiction in his afterword, and yet that is EXACTLY what he was doing, and doing it in the most self-indulgent way possible. Do I understand what he was trying to say by inserting himself into the story? Yes. Do I think it works? No. Not with him as a character. I think it *could* have worked had he come up with a thinly fictionalized version of himself and some books that were intrinsic to that world - I get that the point is that fiction impinges on our reality and the interaction between fiction and reality shapes the world and us as people - but it was so hamfistedly done that I was annoyed rather than amused.
The other thing I really hated was the whole Mordred storyline. I would like a version of these books without that in it at all - I hate the demon pregnancy trope with the power of a million fiery supernovae, I hate the way it separated Susannah from the rest of the characters for so long, and it was completely pointless, a hyped up threat that turned out to be toothless!
The first five books have such great narrative momentum (even if they are too long and could be edited down quite a bit and still be compelling - probably even more so), and then that's just killed dead in book 6, and it only recovers late in book 7, once Roland and Susannah are united again. I also feel Patrick is introduced SO LATE that having him be the solution to the problem of the Crimson King felt unearned. Cool idea and fitting with the theme of stories - and art - shaping the world, but it was way too close to the end for him to show up, imo.
I didn't mind that Eddie died, but oh man, I hated that he killed Jake again. HATED IT. I'm glad Susannah survived and got to have a version of happily ever after with Eddie (and Jake and Oy) in some alternate universe.
Roland is stuck in his Groundhog Day of a life, but there's hope; this time something changed, so he might be able to save his ka-tet this time around, and maybe find an end for himself. I think he's a great character and he's my favorite of the bunch, and it made sense to me that he would end alone the way he started, though I'm not sure WHY he has to keep going through the experience over and over, especially since he doesn't get to remember any of it and therefore learn from it. Is it his literalness and lack of imagination that doom him? I don't know.
The other thing I found really annoying was the useless filler phrases that were constantly repeated - "may it do ya" "hear me very well" etc. Cutting down on those alone would have made everything shorter in a good way. And seriously, Mr. King, never write any kind of folk song or poetry again, because that was all just horribly painful and bad.
So you know, the first five books are really good reading, and by that point, you want to know how it ends so you slog through the last two endless books for a somewhat satisfying ending.
And our internet is down so this entry won't post. Sigh.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/516753.html.
people have commented there.