KASHWAK=NO-FO
My Latin text actually has u's instead of v's. In capitals, you have V instead of U (APULEIUS --> APVLEIVS), but in lower-case, it's the other way around. But nobody actually does that. Do you know what this does to my vocabulary? I spend five minutes looking up "ciuitate" in three different dictionaries, rapidly approaching a panic, only to realize that the word is "civitate" and it's a motherfucking cognate. also, the Tufts classics website does not have Apuleius, so the amount of time and effort I have to expend on Latin has just skyrocketed. Arg.
I finished Cell today, and I have reactions to share.
God, am I glad I don't own a cell phone.
It didn't really feel like a Stephen King story until the people started echoing the music. Then it got a truly otherworldly, creepy, Tommyknockers-type feeling...which kind of petered out after awhile. I think it has something to do with his writing in this one--one bit would end and they're about to do something, and then the next bit would start and they've already done it but it didn't work and here's why. I've noticed it in a couple of his other books, but this time I think he did it much more often, and it irked me. It made the whole thing seem to move in fits and starts.
The Raggedy Man is just plain scary. Not Flagg-scary, and not Mordred-scary, but perfectly adequate for this story. Taking over other people's voices is somehow one of the creepiest things I've ever read.
I should have known Alice wasn't going to make it. One of them certainly couldn't; King never lets his ka-tet stay whole. But I should have known it would be Alice. I mean, how many more times was he going to tell us that she was pretty? We got it!
And the Head. I knew the Head was going to kill himself; the theatricality came through pretty well in the Zantac and stuff. I did not fucking call the Raggedy Man & Co killing him first. But didn't somebody in Dreamcatcher poke himself in the brain, too? I didn't finish that book--it was overdue and not good enough to pay a fine for--but I really thought someone died similarly in that one.
The verisimilitude should have been awesome--Guantanamo Bay, 9/11, Google--but it was just kind of jarring to me. I kept thinking about how dated this book is going to be in five years or so.
I was ready to figure he just wasn't going to give us a Dark Tower hint--Route 19 and fading roses don't necessarily add up--and then right at the end he gives us Charlie the Choo-Choo. I squealed. Gleefully. Out loud, because I am that nerdy.
But the ending. The ending just pissed me off. There's a difference between an open ending--I'm thinking the ending of The Stand--and a bullshit cop-out. This was the latter. Jordan's idea (oh God, I love Jordan, I want him to be my little brother) seemed really far-fetched to begin with, but I was expecting to see what happened up until about five pages before the end. That was when I thought--you know what? He's not going to tell us. He's going to say "fo-fo-you-you," and that'll be it. I'm kind of proud of that insight; usually I fuck up mightily when I try to predict things. But you can't do that to a reader in a novel! You can do it in a short story, although some people hate "The Lady or The Tiger" for the same reason, but in a novel? I spent $20 and probably twelve total hours reading this thing, and the plot that began in the first chapter never really gets resolved. I feel kind of cheated. I mean, I certainly want him to fix his son and go find the others and make out with Tom, 'cuz OTP, but I don't think that's what happened. I don't know, though, because King copped out.
I sound really negative here; I don't mean to. I liked the book. I love Clay and Tom and Jordan and Alice. The ending just soured it a little for me.
But damned if I'll answer any kind of phone on October 1.
The short unspoilery form: Stephen King likes fonts and twelve-year-olds. But not that way. Also, if that's how he envisions comic-book illustrations, I cannot fucking wait for the Dark Tower comics. Overall, I'm glad I read it, but kind of sorry I paid $20 to do so. Ah well.
And now it's too late to go get food before Lost. Speaking of Lost, it airs at the same time as Bedford Diaries. I should probably watch Bedford and get a torrent of Lost, but it's Lost, man. I have to watch it.
And then I'll go get food.
EDIT: I suddenly want to point out how Delta and Omega are both ka-tet, and if they ever come up against ka-shume I will cry.