Stone Lantern by the waterfall
Portland Japanese Garden
Originally uploaded by Splinter Group. This stone lantern in the Portland Japanese Garden captures the essence of the garden, for me. I like the balance of light and dark, the softness of the moss on the hardness of the stone, and the diagonal line of the waterfall. The stone lantern has something of the appearance of a grinning goblin wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
aenodia and I went to our book discussion group this evening. Tonight's book was "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman, which she and I had recommended to the group. I was rather disappointed in the reaction to the book. I really enjoyed it, as did aenodia, and the book has been winning awards in the F & SF genre. One person liked it a lot, one thought is was OK, one didn't like it at all and didn't finish reading it. Another dismissed it as "mere entertainment" and said it didn't measure up to the standard set by his favorite authors. "Mere Entertainment"! Riiiiighhhtt! I don't know if Gaiman's book will become deathless prose like that of Shakespeare, or DeFoe, or Poe. I am reasonably certain that those authors wrote to *entertain* their readers, though. These two group members just didn't get the story at all. Neither of them regularly read F & SF stories or find those concepts interesting. I think they are missing some darn good stories, but that's *their* problem. Well. as the old saying goes, 'It's a good thing everybody doesn't like exactly what I like or they'd all want o eat my dinner and marry my wife!" Thank goodness for the endless variety of human likes and dislikes. It may be a while, though, before we suggest another book for the group.