Politics and a book review

[dragojustine]

Awesome day with wendy yesterday. Gymnastic superstars tour thing! About one-third high-energy exhibition, one-third amateurish Cirque-du-Soliel knock off, one-third truly crappy concert, yet somehow combined for way more entertainment value than I anticipated. Also, much better ratio of barely pubescent girls to hot hunks without shirts than I was

Comments

[wendy]

The hot guys were a highlight for SURE.

It is good to be pandered to!
My fave quote of the day! lol

[dragojustine]

Heh. No joke.

SPOILERS FOR 'PASSAGE'

[advection]

I adored that book, and I loved the length of it -- the parts that seemed interminable to a lot of people (you're not the only one!) seemed an integral part of it, to me, a medium-conveys-message about crooked hallways and confusing byways and shifting mazes in all their literal and symbolic forms, and how hard it can be to get from here to there. That struggle is part of the experience of the book, and without it the end wouldn't have nearly the same power. To me the whole thing was unputdownably gripping, and the last page seemed open enough to interpretation -- you could take it in spiritual way (transcendent or woo-woo comforting), or explain it as the last spasm of hallucination as the last neurons fired and died. The only part I really didn't like was the contrivance of the shooting (if I'm recalling it correctly). I don't know that I'd have had a better way to suggest, but it felt ... not convenient, exactly, but engineered for the purposes of the book instead of a seamless inevitability.

Re: SPOILERS FOR 'PASSAGE'

[dragojustine]

Hm. Well, I found it un-put-downable too, obviously (there went my whole day today). I just happen to have a bit of a personal crusade against length for the sake of length, born from too many years in doorstop-epic-fantasy-land, and I'm forever trying to convince genre fans that MORE WITH LESS really is true. That said, I completely see the "medium is the message" factor, what with her final conclusion being all about struggle and futility. So. hmmm. Thanks, for that. I still adore her, in any case.

As for the end: I know she didn't come down definetely on the side of spiritualism! But going so far out of her way to leave the possibility open seemed like enough to undermine the book by itself.

Re: SPOILERS FOR 'PASSAGE'

[advection]

I cannot tell you how much I agree with your crusade. I think what you and I both probably find to be interminable, repetitive, lazy padding in doorstop fantasies is part of what the people who make them best-sellers enjoy about them -- they love the prolonged immersion and they're comfortable with that kind of pacing, and a tightly plotted stand-alone novel of reasonable length would be an unpleasant read for them. Those fantasies are like glacially slow reality shows and soaps compared with a tight, dramatic arc of The West Wing or something. But the structure of Passage did work for me. And she is adorable. I also totally see your point about the open-ended ending being its own kind of cop-out. I'm still not sure about the ending -- still uncomfortable about it, after all this time since I read it, for reasons I've never really put my finger on.

Re: SPOILERS FOR 'PASSAGE'

[dragojustine]

Well, a definite rejection of spiritualism is such a hard sell in our culture- but the fundamental conflict of the book (far more than solve the mystery or save the little girl) was Joanna's desire to hold on to her scientific integrity, and I just cannot abide that being undermined for the sake of being "inspiring" and/or inoffensive. I'm not saying that was the motivation, but it smells of it to me.

RE the crusade: preach it! I made the mistake of reading 6000 pages of Robert Jordan at an impressionable age, and will never fall for that crap again. Well-crafted writing just does not require that.

[dragojustine]

I am glad you liked! My personality tends so much to "I am RIGHT and you are SO SO WRONG," that I think it's important for me to remember that right and wrong are in the IDEAS, not necessarily the labels.

Who?

[anonymous]

"(Yes, THAT Wick Allison