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From
jordannamorgan:
Comment and I will give you 3 interests on your list, and 3 icons, for you to explain. Then you must post the answers in your own journal and allow others to comment.
Jordi's questions for me:
Interests:
"alistair maclean"
"authenticity"
"godey's ladies book"
I'll do these in reverse order, because I wanna spend the most time on the first. :D
3. godey's ladies book - Actually Godey's Lady's Book, but when I first entered it I wanted to use the one with the most other users. Godey's was one of the most prominent nineteenth century women's periodicals. Its black-and-white and color fashion plates are extremely helpful for researching 1860s clothing, but it was far more than a fashion magazine. Bound editions of it go for ridiculous sums on ebay.
2. authenticity - This refers to the goal of being authentic in recreating the 1860s. At this point, I focus most on the clothing since that's what interests me the most. It's very important to me to actually recreate the look, and a look appropriate for my age, situation, location, and circumstances. (Some of these can vary according to the setting.) It's an outgrowth of my Truth obsession. :D
1. alistair maclean - Alistair MacLean was an author of action/adventure/spy books from the 1950s into the 1980s. I haven't read all of them, by any means. The new Wikipedia article is fantastic, since it describes the progression in his writing that I'd suspected but hadn't verified. The novels of his first ten years are simply phenomenal; all the favorites I own are from this period. Others seemed incredibly dull to me, so dull that I've never re-read them. It turns out these are all from the later periods. But the good ones are so excellent that I re-read them again and again. The one thing that stayed consistent through his writing was his avoidance of sex. It simply isn't there.
Jordi, you've discussed how much you admire Leslie Charteris's writing. When I was actively writing, Alistair MacLean (at his best) was my ideal. He could write brief but nearly poetical descriptions that laid out the terrain as clearly as a combat site - which it often ended up being. He wrote with an exquisite dry sense of humor, just enough to lighten the mood when things get really, really dark. His dialogue was more than just words; it had spice and interest and wit, without being the least bit forced or unnatural. His characters were put in the most incredibly difficult situations and survived, and succeeded, due to their own qualifications and guts, but weren't Mary Sues. And, most of all, his mastery of a complex plot and ability to trick the reader, even into thinking the good guys are bad and vice versa, was complete. (Ever heard of a triple agent? It's mind-blowing.)
Even now, and even turning from Dorothy Sayers and Tolkien (and yes, even Charteris), I'm struck by MacLean's ability. In more than a few ways he was a precursor to Tom Clancy, but compared to him Clancy is just a clearly-told story. MacLean was a writer.
Thank you for bringing him up. I've been discouraged by the few novels of his that I've found at libraries, since they really weren't that good. But now Wikipedia has a real article and I can see why he seemed so inconsistent. I've put in a lot of Reminders at PBS, with hopes that they'll turn out to be good 'uns. I'm sorry this was so long; but I've never been able to discuss him.
Icons:
CDV profile
Cynic
Vintage - blue suit
1. CDV profile
A CDV or carte-de-viste is a photograph printed on medium-weight cardboard. It was a fairly new technology by the time of the Civil War. This one is unusual because the scan I have is large and good-quality, it's a closeup that doesn't fade out details of the dress (which are very interesting), it's a profile view, and it has very good detail of the hair. There are some decent basic Civil War hairstyles out there, but there's a whole lot more in CDVs that I've never seen reproduced. This one is quite intricate - I'll bet at least some of it is a hairpiece.
The icon displays the extent of my iconing abilities, too. *g*
2. Cynic
Confession: I <3 Gregory. Not in a swoony fangirlish way, but I've enjoyed everything I've seen him in (Including the film The Guns of Navarone, from the excellent book by Alistair MacLean.), which is a pretty wide variety. I don't think the icon itself is particularly unusual, but the whole "cynic" thing is useful in the comment conversations I get into. And the raised-eyebrow expression is one that I use very much in real life, and always have. I try for my icons to express the emotion I'm feeling when I make my comment. Greogry does it very well. *g* It looks like there's a tiny smile, too, which keeps the eyebrow from being too devastating. ;)
3. Vintage - blue suit
This one is at best a stop-gap icon. (Although a pleasingly-colored stop gap.) When I use it, it means my post is more focused on the era's style itself and not a particular movie, year, or person. It'll likely be rotated out in the next big icon dump I do, but since I just did one last month that won't be for a while.
jordannamorgan:
Comment and I will give you 3 interests on your list, and 3 icons, for you to explain. Then you must post the answers in your own journal and allow others to comment.
Jordi's questions for me:
Interests:
"alistair maclean"
"authenticity"
"godey's ladies book"
I'll do these in reverse order, because I wanna spend the most time on the first. :D
3. godey's ladies book - Actually Godey's Lady's Book, but when I first entered it I wanted to use the one with the most other users. Godey's was one of the most prominent nineteenth century women's periodicals. Its black-and-white and color fashion plates are extremely helpful for researching 1860s clothing, but it was far more than a fashion magazine. Bound editions of it go for ridiculous sums on ebay.
2. authenticity - This refers to the goal of being authentic in recreating the 1860s. At this point, I focus most on the clothing since that's what interests me the most. It's very important to me to actually recreate the look, and a look appropriate for my age, situation, location, and circumstances. (Some of these can vary according to the setting.) It's an outgrowth of my Truth obsession. :D
1. alistair maclean - Alistair MacLean was an author of action/adventure/spy books from the 1950s into the 1980s. I haven't read all of them, by any means. The new Wikipedia article is fantastic, since it describes the progression in his writing that I'd suspected but hadn't verified. The novels of his first ten years are simply phenomenal; all the favorites I own are from this period. Others seemed incredibly dull to me, so dull that I've never re-read them. It turns out these are all from the later periods. But the good ones are so excellent that I re-read them again and again. The one thing that stayed consistent through his writing was his avoidance of sex. It simply isn't there.
Jordi, you've discussed how much you admire Leslie Charteris's writing. When I was actively writing, Alistair MacLean (at his best) was my ideal. He could write brief but nearly poetical descriptions that laid out the terrain as clearly as a combat site - which it often ended up being. He wrote with an exquisite dry sense of humor, just enough to lighten the mood when things get really, really dark. His dialogue was more than just words; it had spice and interest and wit, without being the least bit forced or unnatural. His characters were put in the most incredibly difficult situations and survived, and succeeded, due to their own qualifications and guts, but weren't Mary Sues. And, most of all, his mastery of a complex plot and ability to trick the reader, even into thinking the good guys are bad and vice versa, was complete. (Ever heard of a triple agent? It's mind-blowing.)
Even now, and even turning from Dorothy Sayers and Tolkien (and yes, even Charteris), I'm struck by MacLean's ability. In more than a few ways he was a precursor to Tom Clancy, but compared to him Clancy is just a clearly-told story. MacLean was a writer.
Thank you for bringing him up. I've been discouraged by the few novels of his that I've found at libraries, since they really weren't that good. But now Wikipedia has a real article and I can see why he seemed so inconsistent. I've put in a lot of Reminders at PBS, with hopes that they'll turn out to be good 'uns. I'm sorry this was so long; but I've never been able to discuss him.
Icons:
CDV profile
Cynic
Vintage - blue suit
1. CDV profile
A CDV or carte-de-viste is a photograph printed on medium-weight cardboard. It was a fairly new technology by the time of the Civil War. This one is unusual because the scan I have is large and good-quality, it's a closeup that doesn't fade out details of the dress (which are very interesting), it's a profile view, and it has very good detail of the hair. There are some decent basic Civil War hairstyles out there, but there's a whole lot more in CDVs that I've never seen reproduced. This one is quite intricate - I'll bet at least some of it is a hairpiece.
The icon displays the extent of my iconing abilities, too. *g*
2. Cynic
Confession: I <3 Gregory. Not in a swoony fangirlish way, but I've enjoyed everything I've seen him in (Including the film The Guns of Navarone, from the excellent book by Alistair MacLean.), which is a pretty wide variety. I don't think the icon itself is particularly unusual, but the whole "cynic" thing is useful in the comment conversations I get into. And the raised-eyebrow expression is one that I use very much in real life, and always have. I try for my icons to express the emotion I'm feeling when I make my comment. Greogry does it very well. *g* It looks like there's a tiny smile, too, which keeps the eyebrow from being too devastating. ;)
3. Vintage - blue suit
This one is at best a stop-gap icon. (Although a pleasingly-colored stop gap.) When I use it, it means my post is more focused on the era's style itself and not a particular movie, year, or person. It'll likely be rotated out in the next big icon dump I do, but since I just did one last month that won't be for a while.