I wish I could have gone on reading it for ten years

[fictualities]

True confession: I hate December. It's dark, where I live. The sun comes out about once every two weeks, looks around, thinks the better of it, and then goes away again. December's also cold, and very frequently icy/snowy/slushy/slishy/bone-breakingly slippery yech. And did I mention that it's dark

Comments

[fictualities]

Wow, that is such an AWESOME quote! What story is it from? I'd love to read it. It's very cool how the narrator is simultaneously aware of himself as a reader looking for the Ur-book and as a writer who is aware of his own readers, who are presumably looking for their own Ur-books. He's thinking of readers and writers as part of a community, and everyone in that community is looking for the same thing, something that somehow exceeds language even though language is the medium everyone is using to approach it. Amazing!

[fictualities]

Thank you! "Street of the Crocodiles" is an inherently cool title, and I'd add this to my list of to-reads on the strength of that alone.

[altariel]

Guilty of loving December. I love the half-light. I love the cold. I love feeling the year fading to black and the sense of the new one rising. In the city centre yesterday, mid-afternoon, the sun was setting rose pink on the yellow stone of Great St Mary's. Later, out in the fens, there were no clouds in the night sky, and the constellations were plain to see. Each morning this week I have woken up to frost in the garden and on the roofs of the houses behind us. Crisp and clean and clear. I really love December. I also really love your list. How about 'Little Gidding'?

Going out for a walk now ;-D

[fictualities]

Little Gidding is an ideal addition to this list. :)

And thank you for reminding me that half-light has a beauty of its own. (My normal December blahs have been exacerbated a bit this year because the sun has been out only once here in the past twenty days. *whimpers*) But, yes, at this time of year, the light slants, comes at you sideways. The shadows are different, sharper somehow, interesting, maybe because cold light illuminates without nourishing so it seems more purely about seeing (though I expect that doesn't make much sense).

On the other hand driving behind a salt truck in heavy traffic on the tenth cloudy day in a row can kind of make me forget about the transcendent part of winter. :D The transcendent part exists, though, and the salt truck doesn't make it any less real. And I'm getting out for a walk this weekend somewhere far away from the salt truck, even if it kills me. *determined*

[altariel]

the sun has been out only once here in the past twenty days. *whimpers*

*whimpers with you* We've been getting a very bright, cold, clear light: the sun sets early, but it's glorious during the day.

I typed all this, and then went out and was reminded almost immediately of the thing that drives me most crackers about December and winter in general: being nearly hit by bikes that don't have their lights on. Grrrrargggle!

[lame_pegasus]

Try the Riddlemaster-Trilogy by Patricia McKillip. Brilliant, colorful, imaginative fantasy, perfect for an escape from darkness, dampness and frost. :-)Aaand... her book The forgotten beasts of Eld. And Evangeline Walton's marvelous Mabinogion (a dazzling version of a welsh legend cycle). Aaand... Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant. Simply stunning.

[rabidsamfan]

You've read Red Moon and Black Mountain! AAAAHHH!!! I thought I was the only person in the world who knew that book!

Yaaaah! *loves*

er, and yes, it would be a very good addition to your list. Highly recommended. *goes off to hunt for her copy*

[fictualities]

Oooh, I LOVE Red Moon and Black Mountain! What a fantastic addition! I forgot all about it, probably because it's in storage. But yes yes yes.

I read the McKillip books long ago, too long ago for them to be fresh for me. Never read the Walton; you're something like the third person to rec it to me. It sounds great! Thanks for the suggestions!

[lame_pegasus]

I would like to add Peter S. Beagle's The last unicorn.. Wonderfully poetic, with fantastic images. I particularly remember the sentence: Their hooves sang like cymbals past him... (which took my breath away, even in the german translation).

[ilthit]

I love December. Except. It's supposed to have SNOW in it. I'm living in Belgium now and I'm feeling your blues. :( Stupid warm country. It would be nice and bright if only we had snow to reflect the lights. SIIIGH.

As for movies/books/etc:

Harold and Maude (movie) - A repressed/depressed teenager finds love of life, and love, with a 79-year-old ex-activist. Funny and morbid and full of joy. Okay, so there's a downer towards the end, but then a little uplift as well, and it IS all about joy.

The Producers and Happy Feet (movies, obviously) - they always make me happy, whatever the month, and one has a repressed character finding joie de vivre, and the other has a whole damn nation of penguins finding their groove. It just works for me.

[fictualities]

Oh, Harold and Maude is PERFECT, yes yes yes. And I never thought the ending was downer, even when I was a kid. Sad, yes, but not ultimately a downer, and it really is all about the joy.

The Producers -- the original version with Zero Mostel? That's hilarious and I adore it. For some reason I've never seen Happy Feet -- probably because it came out just after I'd seen that RL penguin movie and I wasn't quite ready yet to see comic penguins. The day will come, though, I'm sure, when I'm recovered enough for Happy Feet -- it certainly looks fabulous.

[ilthit]

It's been a long time since I saw the original, and I'm afraid I'm talking about the remake. Hey, it's almost the exact same movie, verbatim, and the performances are so funny. I can't imagine any original Franz Liebkind being funnier than Will Ferrell. I may not like the sort of buttcrack humour he's been known to do, but the man has no shame, and he's had me rolling with laughter in both the Producers remake and Starsky & Hutch.

Happy Feet - I just can't see that movie without it making me so happy. The singing and dancing is a part of it, but then you kind of also don't feel ashamed of liking it so much because it has that sequence with humans towards the end which is kinda rockin'. And you feel so sorry for Memphis, and all.

[allisona]

Oh, such a wonderful list of books! I had to smile when I saw "Phantom Tollbooth" on the list- it's a favorite of mine and it's been quite some time since I've read it. Love the scenes you mention and the other one that sticks with me is when they're all in the car and Milo is wondering how to make it go and he's told, "Shhh! It goes without saying...". And, sure enough, as soon as they're all quiet, the car starts to move :).

[fictualities]

when they're all in the car and Milo is wondering how to make it go and he's told, "Shhh! It goes without saying...". And, sure enough, as soon as they're all quiet, the car starts to move

Eeeeee, I love that part! Then again there's little about The Phantom Tollbooth that I don't love. In a way it's the ultimate Spiritual Renewal for Geeks book -- it teaches you among other things to notice language. Milo's always being forced to notice what common expressions really mean, not to poke fun at cliches, exactly, but to value them and show how much sheer imagination is embodied in our language. God, I love that book.

[allisona]

I should mention some comfort books of my own. One of my very favorite series since childhood is the "Emily of New Moon" books by L.M.Montgomery (Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, Emily's Quest). As much as I love Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables", Anne rather pales in the sequels as she grows up- Emily never does- there's kind of a wildness in the Emily books that the Anne books don't have. Plus, the last chapter of "Emily of New Moon" is one of my favorite passages in children's literature (when Emily brings her poetry to her teacher to review and accidentally gives him her character study book, instead).