Reading

[cimorene]

1. I make slow progress in the Silmarillion. I've just reached the part where the text tells you that the next epic sequence is more thoroughly covered in the Children of Húrin, a sobering thought because it already feels a bit agonizingly boring. I definitely cannot finish a chapter of this at a time between other stuff. Of course, if Children of Húrin is more like a folktale or novel (an epic poem?) - more like the Hobbit or LOTR - than like this, that would actually help it. But it definitely doesn't feel brief in its current form.

2. Finished The Gunslinger earlier this week. This is the first thing by Stephen King I've ever read, because horror is not a genre I'm interested in spending time on, but I've seen some adaptations and talked about it a lot with waxjism over the years. This is the first volume of The Dark Tower, an epic dark fantasy series, and that's why I was interested to try it. The first volume of the sequence was written when he was only nineteen, however, and it's definitely less impressive than some later efforts, mainly (and glaringly) in the female characters, which is something King later became well known for. It was mostly an enjoyable read, although I was upset that my wife didn't warn me that the protagonist's donkey dies early on (it's really only mentioned, not named or characterized, but I get teary about animal death easily) and a hawk named David who is much characterized and befriended dies late in the story in a flashback. (I cried and had to stop reading several times in that scene.) She says she didn't remember either of these events because they were so early in the epic. I intend to continue the series, in between some other books, however.

3. I've started reading William Morris's The Sundering Flood, as recent posts probably indicated. I've already read most of his 'medieval romances' over the years - this might actually be the last one I haven't read. I find his narrative voice and use of language absolutely delightful and very restful.

4. My youtube viewing of stuff related to historical reconstructions and hand sewing pointed me to what I started reading most recently, actually the unpolished phd dissertation of Dr Robyne Calvert from the University of Glasgow, Fashioning the Artist: Artistic Dress in Victorian Britain, 1848 - 1900. This is the fashion movement most closely associated with the pre-raphaelites and with my man William Morris, author of delightful 'medieval romance', father of the Arts & Crafts movement and designer of beautiful fabrics and wallpapers. (He is mentioned, but it is actually much more concerned with his wife, Jane.) I watched a fascinating video by Abby Cox featuring Dr Calvert, Dress Historian Explains Cottagecore and Dark Academia's Connection to Victorian Aestheticism, and followed the link to Dr Calvert's webpage.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Children of Hurin is more narrative, but not much more. Also it's REALLY SAD.

Yeah, the Silmarillion cannot be treated like a regular book. I have to read it in small doses.

[cimorene]

Ugh it's bad enough already! Definitely not reading that.

[msilverstar]

The Silmarillion is incredibly hard to just read through, though it's nice to have read it and be familiar with those things.

I have found some good fanfic that makes everything so much more vivid. I'd like to offer my Silmarillion bookmkarks

[cimorene]

I do intend to check out the fandom, but not until I've finished the book.

[laurenthemself]

If you carry on with Dark Tower, I haven't read it in a while, but they do list book two on Does the Dog Die? here. I'm not 100% sure what beloved animal death is in book two, I don't remember any, but there's graphic violence against giant lobster creatures (to be fair, the lobsters start it).

They don't seem to have the later books, but either I can check ahead for you or if Wax remembers she can let you know. Happy to help if I can.

[cimorene]

Oh thanks, I'll check that out!

[torachan]

I love the Dark Tower series. The third book (The Waste Lands) is my favorite and the great thing about reading these books now is that you won't have the experience I did, which was reading The Waste Lands around the time it came out and then being left with a cliffhanger for six years before the next book came out, and then finding out that the new book is an extended flashback and the plot doesn't actually progress at all (though at least the cliffhanger is resolved). The book after that took another six years to come out. ;_;

[cimorene]

LOL.

Yeah, I was reading a commemorative edition of The Gunslinger and it has an introduction about how he finally decided to finish the series after having a brush with death (a car accident?) that made him confront his own mortality, causing him to write the last two volumes after twenty years (or was it more?).

Relatedly, my mom loves to tell about following Roger Zelazny's Amber series when it came out when my parents were both in college and they were poor, so she actually read the books at the university library where you weren't allowed to remove them from the library, you had to read in a reading room, on a stand I think, which is just - bonkers. And the books were originally spoken of as being a trilogy, while he ultimately wrote five books and then another five later about the original protagonist's son. So my mom deliberately waited a few years for the third book to come out so that she could avoid cliff hangers, then read the three of them in the reading room, thinking it was a complete series, only for the third book to end with a literal cliffhanger, where the protagonist is actually hanging onto the edge of a cliff by his hands! Wax says The Gunslinger is from the late 70s, so I suppose it must've been right around the same time - as King says in his intro, a time full of epic fantasies because of the first generation of adults who were nurtured on LOTR as children.

[torachan]

When I read Wheel of Time, there were three books out, and fantasy trilogies were just The Thing, you know? I'm not sure if it was billed as a trilogy or just my assumption, though I do feel like something on the front cover of the third one mentioned trilogy. At the time, there really weren't a lot of longer ongoing series, so I foolishly assumed it was complete, and then not only was it not, but it just kept going on and on lol. (I never did read the whole thing because I gradually stopped being interested in that sort of epic fantasy, especially when the books are so long and I forget what happens between books, and no longer have the time/interest to reread previous books when a new book comes out.)

[cimorene]

Yeah, I had the same problem with those. After a few I just didn't have enough time to reread and couldn't remember where they left off. I also got tired of various aspects of the writing as I got a bit older, but the time involved was a big factor.

[waxjism]

Word on this. The Waste Lands is also my favourite and I had to wait all that time for Wizard and Glass etc. I think I have more of an appreciation for W&G now vs how I felt at the time.

[torachan]

Oh yeah, I was very disappointed with Wizard and Glass at the time, but I went back and reread the first four books before reading the final three and liked it a lot more.