What sort of strange diagetic layering would then result? It is a novel addressed to the reader from the perspective of the character, who narrates the actions of the author, who instructs the reader and the character. It's commentary on itself, and so commentary on commentary about the novel seems a bit much. Except it isn't. Before I read it, I ( Read more... )

Well, that was a hard read and no mistake. It's not that the writing was particularly difficult to understand - it was very easy to understand. Just. Very evocative. The whole middle of the book was almost unbearable, in addition to nauseating, and then you get to the end and it's just a summary of how all the main character's friends died. And ( Read more... )

‎"No chance!" said Sorry beside her, reading her thought by some uncanny skill of his own. "We've just got to grin and bear it. Look at the mud. It's very calm, isn't it? Let's calm ourselves by looking at mud for a while."

In other news, it looks like Werder's succeeded in buying the Greek defender with the impossible name. Which is good; I am ( Read more... )

 And I really wonder why that is. Because, seriously, why? I love writing, and playing the harp, and bookbinding, and studying Japanese, but I will expend great amounts of energy to avoid actually doing so. Thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that I've reached a level of proficiency in all of them where I'm not terrible enough anymore to ( Read more... )

It's interesting how your perspectives alter over time, I'll give it that - last time I read Jane Eyre, I was an extremely opinionated thirteen-year-old or thereabouts, and was immediately out of patience with Jane and disgusted by Mr. Rochester. I'm still disgusted by Mr. Rochester, but I can identify with Jane a little now. Jane was an older teen ( Read more... )

 So, up until two days ago, my experience of Gothic novels had been entirely limited to Northanger Abbey and the first few pages of The Castle of Otranto (read before my roommate yanked it from my protesting hands and told me very firmly that it was her book, which she was reading for her class). I suppose it makes sense that my knowledge was ( Read more... )

 That would be my response to the first day back at school. I am extremely, excessively, absurdly happy and excited about my Japanese language and Japanese literature courses. The former is a continuation of last semester's ow-but-awesome (cannot wait to see Asai-sensei again), and the latter is an organized class. I know, right? 信じられない。But it is, ( Read more... )

 And bored. Really, really bored. I have exhausted my capacity for lying still (not sleeping, because I'm not quite sick enough to nap at the moment) - one hour. I have exhausted my capacity for eating - one bowl of rice, and a mikan. There's studying to do, there's always studying to do, but I've just about exhausted my capacity for creativity ( Read more... )

 So, the Genki II book is on the whole excellent. It is informative, fairly entertaining as textbooks go, and well-organized. I don't really mind going over it again, and at the speed we're covering stuff, I'm actually glad I'm not in the level above this. I would die. But there's one thing I'm not happy about reviewing, and that is the reading on ( Read more... )

I am learning all of the words contained in an illness. Binetsu - slight fever. Seki - cough. Nodo - throat. Kusuri. Particularly nodo no kusuri, which comes in a variety of nasty forms. I am particularly unfond of the vitamin drink, although the gargle is likewise unpleasant. According to my brother, who is the source of this illness, I may have ( Read more... )