Comments | xiombarg: Backlog, Part I

xiombarg

Backlog, Part I

May 15, 2006 21:38

So, while I've been too busy to read LJ, I have been doing other reading, especially on the Metro, which is a time during which I can't do anything online at all. I've been doing a LOT of reading, so it's going to take several posts to catch up on WHAT I've been reading ( Read more... )

review

Comments 11

toothlesshag May 16 2006, 03:24:10 UTC

You know, when I was like 14 and my mom threw "The Mists of Avalon" at me, and I read it on a family trip, I didnt really think of it as being pro-pagan. I guess it is though. To me, it was just a statement - Hey - There was a religion there before Christianity - and Hey - Mary is kind of a godess for a reason. That and it seemed very pro woman to me. And I thought it was just sort of a different telling of the legend. (However, at the time it was my only exposure to Arthurian literature besides Disne's the Sword in the Stone, and the musical Camelot - so I didnt really have all the background for it.)

xiombarg May 16 2006, 03:25:31 UTC

Ah, yes, it's also a very feminist interpretation of the myth, which sort of goes hand-in-hand with most neo-pagan Goddess worship stuff.

mediaprophet May 16 2006, 03:36:48 UTC

I agree re: Mists of Avalon. The made4tv movie sucked, I warn you. But the book is awesome. Also, one month after I read it, excerpts from it it were 1/3 of my senior english final exam in high school. The copy I own is the copy I borrowed from a friend in that class, and she borrowed The Witching Hour from me. Neither of us returned the other's book. She used to drop E all the time. Good times.

Anyway, yeah, it's actually a page-turner. One of the best versions of the Arthurian tales ever. The neo-pagan parts come out pretty strong in the silly reverence for highly historically inaccurate druids/picts/old religion. But read as a fantasy novel instead of a historical account, it works really well. In following an old-if-not-cliched fantasy convention, the author SHOULD make the reader respect the mysterious and primordial old magic that the new and modern ways are forcing out. It worked for Star Wars.

epiphanyofhope May 16 2006, 03:41:43 UTC

My dad really liked The Mists of Avalon. At least I think he did. I read parts of it.. then I think I lost interest. Or maybe it was another book. Oh well :-P

xiombarg May 16 2006, 04:30:31 UTC

One of the things I find interesting about it is that it's actually respectful of a liberal form of Christian, albiet not the type that some of the characters are pushing.

epiphanyofhope May 16 2006, 04:42:37 UTC

Interesting. One of the things I DON'T like about some fantasy/sci-fi/etc books is that some of them try to convince the reader that "its" religion is the best rather than just entertaining the reader. I like my entertainment.. not a lecture in scifi form :-P

drivingblind May 16 2006, 04:42:56 UTC

There's an eighth hardcover Dresden book out right now, Proven Guilty. :)

xer0rules May 16 2006, 11:59:05 UTC

I've been waiting for this book ever since I devoured Dead Beat over a weekend. Just waiting for the library to call me, since I have all the books in paperback.

xer0rules May 16 2006, 12:00:13 UTC

Good call on the Dresden Files, they're not great literature, but they're a damned fun read all the same. You ought to look at the Nightside books by Simon R. Green, they're of a similar bent.

Love the Dresden Files.