Giving up on a Book
It's always hard to give up on a book. Especially a book that I really want to like, that I have high hopes for, that I like the film or musical adaptations of. Readers, I have given up on The Mists of Avalon.
I'm sorry, because I truly think that there's great ideas there -- a feminist retelling of the Arthurian mythos? Morgan le Fay as someone who is trying to fight a losing battle and overwhelmed by greater forces, as opposed to an evil scheming witch? Great! Sign me up! And I really like the movie! But... I'm facing the same problem my mom did when she read the book years ago. It's kind of boring.
Also, I'm finding I have little patience with disparaging Christianity. And you could make a drinking game out of all the times that the author disparages Christianity just because it's there -- and an extra drink the writer disparages Christianity for a trait which she later ascribes to the religion of the Goddess. And it's not just the Christianity-bashing, it really isn't. I don't like Morgaine as a character -- she's not malicious, but she barely makes any decisions for herself either. Mostly she kind of sits around and mopes because she can't change her feelings, and she can't go against the will of the Goddess. Her three mother figures go on about how much they love Morgaine, then they treat her like a pawn or like garbage. That's not love.
The book suffers from something I'm afraid my own stories do -- too much time spent on little niggling scenes that accomplish nothing, that could have pretty much been summed up as "And so, with one thing and another, three years passed. Oh, and the king and queen failed to have a child." The pacing is so slow, and I just put it down and haven't wanted to pick it up since!
And Gwynhwyfar is -- spelled like that when everyone else's name is rendered in perfectly normal English? It's just distracting. It makes me think she's a horse of some kind and everyone whinnies her name.
Also, and this is probably a failing for a LARPer, but I have just never ever found the love triangle of Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot that compelling. I just don't. Give me a good Cupid and Psyche any day, or Viola and Orsino (*swoon*!) but not that situation.
So I'm dropping the book. Maybe I'll try it again at some other point. Any of my f-listers like the book, I'm sorry, and I'd be happy to talk about it with you anytime!
In other news, I've had my big event of the summer -- the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. I volunteered to try and sell greeting cards of flowers to nuns. Lots of nuns! Yet I still acted like I was at Comic-Con -- fangirled over Tangled, sang 'Still Alive,' and treated the cards like they were foul monsters from the deepest depths of hell. Which they were, as I had to constantly kneel and stand up again to get them -- in a skirt that was not meant for such maneuvers. Dangit!
I've done quite a bit of drinking in recent days -- I discovered that I do like Mai Tais, but I don't like Manhattans, however virgin Mojitos are the bee's knees. Someday I will learn about cocktails whose names do not start with 'M,' I swear it.
I've had plenty of meetups with my high school friends, which was much needed. More writing and reading -- The Well of Lost Plots is sadly not nearly as good as it was 4 years ago, but who cares, I have it back now, and it's fun to annotate. And I'm almost done with The Uses of Enchantment and my own copy of Thief of Time.
I'm sorry, because I truly think that there's great ideas there -- a feminist retelling of the Arthurian mythos? Morgan le Fay as someone who is trying to fight a losing battle and overwhelmed by greater forces, as opposed to an evil scheming witch? Great! Sign me up! And I really like the movie! But... I'm facing the same problem my mom did when she read the book years ago. It's kind of boring.
Also, I'm finding I have little patience with disparaging Christianity. And you could make a drinking game out of all the times that the author disparages Christianity just because it's there -- and an extra drink the writer disparages Christianity for a trait which she later ascribes to the religion of the Goddess. And it's not just the Christianity-bashing, it really isn't. I don't like Morgaine as a character -- she's not malicious, but she barely makes any decisions for herself either. Mostly she kind of sits around and mopes because she can't change her feelings, and she can't go against the will of the Goddess. Her three mother figures go on about how much they love Morgaine, then they treat her like a pawn or like garbage. That's not love.
The book suffers from something I'm afraid my own stories do -- too much time spent on little niggling scenes that accomplish nothing, that could have pretty much been summed up as "And so, with one thing and another, three years passed. Oh, and the king and queen failed to have a child." The pacing is so slow, and I just put it down and haven't wanted to pick it up since!
And Gwynhwyfar is -- spelled like that when everyone else's name is rendered in perfectly normal English? It's just distracting. It makes me think she's a horse of some kind and everyone whinnies her name.
Also, and this is probably a failing for a LARPer, but I have just never ever found the love triangle of Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot that compelling. I just don't. Give me a good Cupid and Psyche any day, or Viola and Orsino (*swoon*!) but not that situation.
So I'm dropping the book. Maybe I'll try it again at some other point. Any of my f-listers like the book, I'm sorry, and I'd be happy to talk about it with you anytime!
In other news, I've had my big event of the summer -- the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. I volunteered to try and sell greeting cards of flowers to nuns. Lots of nuns! Yet I still acted like I was at Comic-Con -- fangirled over Tangled, sang 'Still Alive,' and treated the cards like they were foul monsters from the deepest depths of hell. Which they were, as I had to constantly kneel and stand up again to get them -- in a skirt that was not meant for such maneuvers. Dangit!
I've done quite a bit of drinking in recent days -- I discovered that I do like Mai Tais, but I don't like Manhattans, however virgin Mojitos are the bee's knees. Someday I will learn about cocktails whose names do not start with 'M,' I swear it.
I've had plenty of meetups with my high school friends, which was much needed. More writing and reading -- The Well of Lost Plots is sadly not nearly as good as it was 4 years ago, but who cares, I have it back now, and it's fun to annotate. And I'm almost done with The Uses of Enchantment and my own copy of Thief of Time.