Howard Hughes Gets Her Second Wind. (Part Two)

[greygirlbeast]

Er...yeah. So. Anyway. There's also a pretty good review of Alabaster out from Publisher's Weekly. I quote:

ALABASTERCaitlí­n R. Kiernan. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $25 (160p) ISBN 1-59606-060-3

Comments

[blakesrealm]

Here are the locations that IMDB associates with the film, perhaps High Falls, NY?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055471/locations

[sovay]

Kiernan imbues the tales with disquieting gothic imagery and envelops them in rich, evocative prose that conveys cohesiveness beyond their fragmentary plots.

That looks like a pretty good review to me. Congratulations.

Review

[mackatlaw]

Yeah, but it's so vague as to be almost useless. We can tell the review liked it. But what sort of "disquieting gothic imagery"? Details, please!

Similarly, "rich evocative prose" is a rubbish phrase, full of useless odds and ends that should be thrown out.

Also, how exactly does Kiernan's prose compensate for fragmented plots? (Which is how I parse that sentence.)

That was my trouble with the entire review, when I put it under a magnifying glass: long words, little said.

Mack

[sovay]

That was my trouble with the entire review, when I put it under a magnifying glass: long words, little said.

I don't consider it a great critical analysis. I do consider it positive, meaning that with any luck it will encourage people to buy copies of Alabaster and enjoy the stories in greater depth than this gloss provides. Which is, I think, all that a Publisher's Weekly review is supposed to do.

Similarly, "rich evocative prose" is a rubbish phrase, full of useless odds and ends that should be thrown out.

There's only three words in that phrase: you wouldn't have much left when you were done. Or with what would you replace it?

Also, how exactly does Kiernan's prose compensate for fragmented plots? (Which is how I parse that sentence.) I don't parse it as compensation-"rich, evocative prose that conveys cohesiveness beyond their fragmentary plots." Without making too much of this one sentence, I took it rather as a suggestion that the story exists more in the language and the atmosphere than in the actions. Which may not be not

Review Parsing

[mackatlaw]

“Which is, I think, all that a Publisher's Weekly review is supposed to do

[sfmarty]

Sometimes I wish you would stop mentioning good films to me. My Netflix list is soooo long!

I trust your taste tho.

Congrats on the review!

Hemingway Filter

[mackatlaw]

Allow me to run this review through my “Hemingway Filter” and turn it into newspaper style, with shorter words, concrete nouns, and action verbs. See what you think

Edit: typographical errors

[mackatlaw]

"should have been discussed"

"patrons in monster-slaying"

But you got the idea and amusement, I hope.