bibliophilia
Aug. 27th, 2004 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojJust finished The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon, two days after finishing The Fellowship of the Ring. I suppose I should revel in the accomplishment of both, since I doubt I'll get much pleasure reading after school starts.
Both good books, although I was reminded several times of some comments made by people who'd read the Tolkien books after seeing the movie trilogy, to the effect that the books... um... lack a certain something? Like, emotion?
Not that they're emotionless, but they are very much written by a man in a time and place where real men did not write about feelings unless said feelings were manly. Excitement. Dismay. Surprise. You know, Tally-ho, yonder lies in ambush a passel of goblins - let's make short work of them, men!!
The scene where Gandalf dies, for example. They all stumble out of the Mines of Moria, dismayed, and then "all wept" is pretty much the extent of the mourning given to Gandalf before they all manfully carry on.
::shrug:: Damn good book, anyway. I look forward to reading the next two next summer.
And there's no such problem with Diana Gabaldon's work. One of the things I really liked in this one was how well she captured the essence of babyhood. There's a very small boy (Jemmy) in the story, and although he's not a main character, every scene with him in it sounds like a transcript of a real session with a 6 month-1 year-old. Eg:
"Wat's tes-tees?" inquired a small voice (testes, BTW)
"That's Latin for your balls, lad," Roger replied gravely, supressing a grin.
Jemmy looked quite interested at that.
"I gots balls? W'ere I gots balls?" (he's shown where)
Jemmy kneaded his crotch briefly, then looked at Roger, small strawberry brows knitted into a puzzled frown.
"Nots' a ball. 'Sa willy!"
Both good books, although I was reminded several times of some comments made by people who'd read the Tolkien books after seeing the movie trilogy, to the effect that the books... um... lack a certain something? Like, emotion?
Not that they're emotionless, but they are very much written by a man in a time and place where real men did not write about feelings unless said feelings were manly. Excitement. Dismay. Surprise. You know, Tally-ho, yonder lies in ambush a passel of goblins - let's make short work of them, men!!
The scene where Gandalf dies, for example. They all stumble out of the Mines of Moria, dismayed, and then "all wept" is pretty much the extent of the mourning given to Gandalf before they all manfully carry on.
::shrug:: Damn good book, anyway. I look forward to reading the next two next summer.
And there's no such problem with Diana Gabaldon's work. One of the things I really liked in this one was how well she captured the essence of babyhood. There's a very small boy (Jemmy) in the story, and although he's not a main character, every scene with him in it sounds like a transcript of a real session with a 6 month-1 year-old. Eg:
"Wat's tes-tees?" inquired a small voice (testes, BTW)
"That's Latin for your balls, lad," Roger replied gravely, supressing a grin.
Jemmy looked quite interested at that.
"I gots balls? W'ere I gots balls?" (he's shown where)
Jemmy kneaded his crotch briefly, then looked at Roger, small strawberry brows knitted into a puzzled frown.
"Nots' a ball. 'Sa willy!"
