Day 4: The 30 Day Book Meme
mornea just reminded me that I am totally behind on this. Oh well, I take comfort in the fact that nowhere on the tin does it say "30 Consecutive Days." Also, I have been occupied by the joint activities of substitute teaching and trying not to continually call out my family for various acts of asinine behavior.
Blargh.
Also, MUMFORD AND SONS IS BRILLIANT. EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM!
That said, here is part 4!
Now, I am going to re-interpret this so as to get more interest going for other books, since I have been awfully traditional in my answers so far in an effort to introduce people to some stuff they might not have considered...
"The first memory of all is dark and fireshot. It is not my own memory, but later you will understand how I know these things. You would call it not a memory so much as a dream of the past, something in the blood, something recalled from him, it may be, while he still bore me in his body. I believe that such things can be. So it seems right to me that I should start with him who was before me, and who will be again when I am gone."
As, probably only aeternitasbeach has recognized, the above is from the first book of Mary Stewart's wonderful series of Merlin novels, The Crystal Cave, which deals with the early body of the Merlin legend with a great deal of aplomb and dexterity (even if you don't know that it's doing that). During my junior high career, I went through a great Merlin phase wherein I read anything from Deepak Chopra to Mark Twain to E.B. White, and these books were my absolute favorites of the lot.
It takes big ol' parts of the Merlin legend and yet weaves in the magic of that in an entirely believable way and makes Merlin a very human character. This is primarily centered on him coming into his powers and more mundane things, like the repudiation of that whole myth that his father was a incubus. It also deals with a lot of the tensions of the period between Christianity and the native Celtic religions and the residual Roman cultural influence. I particularly like how Stewart handles the episode of Vortigern and his collapsing keep (he is supposed to pour the blood of a fatherless child upon the foundations to get them to stand). But, I did read these books before I had any awareness at all of the Welsh mythology surrounding Merlin (I was pretty much only familiar with the Disney-fied Merlin which is bad bad bad...), so this is not necessary.
Also, the image on Merlin hiding and listening at keyholes while in the hypocaust (a Roman heating system consisting of a series of tubes beneath the floor), is one of those images that just sticks with me from my reading.
If you happen to want to do some more reading, the other books of the series are: The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, and while that is technically the last book centered around Merlin, he makes some brief appearances in The Wicked Day, which is narrated from Mordred's perspective.
Also, I need to get back into Kyouya's head...
Blargh.
Also, MUMFORD AND SONS IS BRILLIANT. EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM!
That said, here is part 4!
Now, I am going to re-interpret this so as to get more interest going for other books, since I have been awfully traditional in my answers so far in an effort to introduce people to some stuff they might not have considered...
"The first memory of all is dark and fireshot. It is not my own memory, but later you will understand how I know these things. You would call it not a memory so much as a dream of the past, something in the blood, something recalled from him, it may be, while he still bore me in his body. I believe that such things can be. So it seems right to me that I should start with him who was before me, and who will be again when I am gone."
As, probably only aeternitasbeach has recognized, the above is from the first book of Mary Stewart's wonderful series of Merlin novels, The Crystal Cave, which deals with the early body of the Merlin legend with a great deal of aplomb and dexterity (even if you don't know that it's doing that). During my junior high career, I went through a great Merlin phase wherein I read anything from Deepak Chopra to Mark Twain to E.B. White, and these books were my absolute favorites of the lot.
It takes big ol' parts of the Merlin legend and yet weaves in the magic of that in an entirely believable way and makes Merlin a very human character. This is primarily centered on him coming into his powers and more mundane things, like the repudiation of that whole myth that his father was a incubus. It also deals with a lot of the tensions of the period between Christianity and the native Celtic religions and the residual Roman cultural influence. I particularly like how Stewart handles the episode of Vortigern and his collapsing keep (he is supposed to pour the blood of a fatherless child upon the foundations to get them to stand). But, I did read these books before I had any awareness at all of the Welsh mythology surrounding Merlin (I was pretty much only familiar with the Disney-fied Merlin which is bad bad bad...), so this is not necessary.
Also, the image on Merlin hiding and listening at keyholes while in the hypocaust (a Roman heating system consisting of a series of tubes beneath the floor), is one of those images that just sticks with me from my reading.
If you happen to want to do some more reading, the other books of the series are: The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment, and while that is technically the last book centered around Merlin, he makes some brief appearances in The Wicked Day, which is narrated from Mordred's perspective.
Also, I need to get back into Kyouya's head...