Tall Ships, Tall Kings, Tall Costs: December reading

[ase]

This month's theme: the reread. I don't think I read a single new novel the entire month.

There was, however, a lot of fanfic. Fanfic's easier to deal with during exam stress.

I started the month with fast skims of The Tomorrow Mountains and The Doors of the Universe, the other two books in Children of the Star, the Sylvia Engdahl omnibus I picked up in November. I think my ultimate problem with the series is that I might have clicked with it when I was twelve. It’s decent YA science fiction, but doesn’t bring any new or startling interpretations to the basic "marginal colony planet" scenario. The protagonist’s struggle with religion and his evaluation of the ceremonies associated with the planetary religion would probably have caught my attention when I was younger, but now I can’t get past the relatively predictable plot and angsty romance. The third book, written (according to the bibliography - bottom of the page- on the author’s website) about ten years after the first book, is a somewhat stronger novel, probably because of Engdahl's greater experience and practice writing.

Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian: Reread. It’s amazing how much you forget when you let five years lapse between rereads. The basic plot points were still in my memory, but a lot of details dropped out the back of my head.

Post Captain, Patrick O’Brian: Another reread. I may already have mentioned burning through all twenty Aubrey/Maturin books in (I think) my junior year of high school. I’d forgotten a shocking amount of PC, I discovered; bees and exactly how feckless Jack’s behavior toward Diana was and how extensively Stephen played matchmaker for Sophie and Jack. (Really. I love Jack, but sometimes I think he did marry Sophie for her name.) It wasn't like reading an entirely new novel, but "rediscovery" got a few new shades of meaning.

Patriotism, Yukio Mishima: More a novella than a novel, but included for completeness and future comparison. Loan from miriel. A young officer in the Japanese army and his wife commit ritual suicide during a military revolt gone wrong. I think. M. assures me this is a classic, and great reading, but then, her senior project was a paper on suicide in Japanese culture. It’s a very sensual story; the same exacting attention is given to the couple's last evening and night together as to their suicides the next morning. I think I totally missed the point of the story because I had no context for the rebellion and whose honor was supposed to be saved or restored by their deaths, and so couldn't shift mental gears fast enough to get anything out of the story but a sense that a class in Japanese history and culture would do me a world of good.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien: Gee, I wonder what inspired this reread. As usual, a slightly bumpy ride: Tolkien keeps trying to write in the style of The Hobbit, and haplessly sliding away from the breezy tone of that story, into something more grim and sprawling and troubled: no there-and-back again, where the worst damage is the loss of some silver spoons and the death of a dragon no one likes, but, to modify something in Appendix A, all chances of Frodo’s adventure are frought with sorrow. And Tolkien gives up the ghost by Rivendell, and "The Council of Elrond", a full chapter of exposition on the history of the Ring to date.

If you haven’t managed to get through the trilogy yet, and would like to, a word of advice: watch the movies, get your favorite second- or third-most-diehard Tolkien fan to summarize how the Council in the books is different than in the movies, and skim the entire chapter. Once you make it past the Council, you can handle anything Tolkien throws at you. Except maybe the Marshes, but that’s not until The Two Towers.

Have I mentioned how much I love Moria? I totally agree with Gimli: "I have looked on Moria, and it is very great, but it has become dark and dreadful..." ("A Journey in the Dark"). One of the unfilmable bits that still was really well conveyed in the movie: days and days of grand, crumbling stonework, in the dark, in silence. I usually natter on about how Lorien and Galadriel’s speech at the Mirror is my favorite part of the book, but the images of Moria linger in my mind just as much as Lorien does.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien: More of the same. I'm an odd duck; I like the "Frodo and Sam slog toward Mordor" sections. I’m under the impression I'm in a minority in that.

I like the rest of the book as well, of course. Once I finally settle into Tolkien’s prose, I can bury myself in his story and world for days, and pull out hungry for more, or even craving (gasp!) nonfiction. Both sections have killer cliffhangers. The last bit with Gandalf and Pippin on Shadowfax is another image that's embedded itself into my mind.

The one problem is that people run around a lot, but the plot can be summarized in a sentence or two. Makes nattering about TT in a book log, without reference to the other two books, a bit tricky. So I'm going to resort to my usual trick: fragments.

Note to self: never upset an Ent. It'll just end badly.

I don't think there's any Entwives left. If there are, I don't think there are more than a handful, and they're scattered to the four corners of the world. If the Ents had spent more time in the Entwives company, maybe it wouldn't have turned out so. Or maybe it would have; perhaps the Entwives gardens would have taken both Entwives and Ents with them. So maybe the choice the Ents made without knowing it was to linger longer, rather than die quickly with the Entwives. Might be time to hit google and pester my in-house Tolkien resources.

In case anyone's curious, my dislike of spiders predates Shelob by years.

One wonders how Wormtounge came to be as corrupt and - in the end - pathetic as he is.

The movie overdid "old and decrepit" Theoden, and overdid his recovery. Peter Jackson does like to exaggerate stuff, to make sure the movie audience understands what's going on.

And that's 2003. By my count, I read 56 books between May and December, and I know I read more before May that didn't make it onto an organized list. So on average I finished a book every. . . 4 and 3/8 days in the last 245 days of the year, and every three days in September, when I finished ten novels in thirty days. (Some of them were very short novels.)

This year's reading goal, I think, is nonfiction. It'll kill my rate, but I need to get out of my predominantly SF rut, and learn a bit more about the world.

(So what am I currently reading? J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, by Thomas Shippey.

I'll be good. I'll read The Origin of Species that's been kicking around my room next. Promise.

If I'm not seduced by Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien first, of course.)

Comments

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

Y'know, when I first read the books, I simply could not figure out how Theoden had changed sides so fast. From what I could understand, Grima had been giving Theoden a lot of bad advice and causing the king to become dependent upon him. I saw all of the "throwing off a heavy cloak" stuff as very psychological, rather than realistic, and I could not figure out how Gandalf had thrown off the cloak so freaking quickly.

At least in the movie, there was a reason for the speed.

But then, it has already been established that I missed a *lot* of stuff when I read the books before PJ came out with the movies.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I saw all of the "throwing off a heavy cloak" stuff as very psychological, rather than realistic, and I could not figure out how Gandalf had thrown off the cloak so freaking quickly.

Movie-Theoden undergoes a much more drastic change than book-Theoden. Skimming though "The King of the Golden Hall", the chapter in TT where Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas meet Theoden, finds some suggestive quotes for the "psychological" argument. If anything, it could be argued that the thought of riding off to battle revitalizes Theoden. He's described as "...a man so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf; but his white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids..." when he's introduced (on page 138 in my copy; it's an older edition, so won't match with yours, but the spacing of the quotes gives you an idea of how fast things were moving). Gandalf tells him, 'Nor does age lie so heavily as some would have you think.' (142) He also warns of impending battle with Sauron, and offers hope that he can be defeated.

"But ever as [Gandalf] spoke the light shone brighter in Theoden's eye, and at the last he rose from his seat to his full height..." (143)

Theoden's a man of action. Nothing seems to get him moving as fast as the possibility of a glorious fight.

"He turned towards Eomer, and the men looked in wonder at him, standing now proud and erect. Where was the old man whom they had left crouching in his chair or leaning on his stick?" (144)

"Suddenly Theoden stretched forth his hand. As his fingers took the hilt, it seemed to the watchers that firmness and strength returned to his thin arm. Suddenly he lifted the blade and swung it shimmering and whistling in the air." (144)

So I'm working on the theory that Wormtounge psyched Theoden into thinking he was old and weak, but when offered an opportunity to kick Uruk-Hai butt defend his people in valiant battle he perks up nicely.

[leebenningfield.livejournal.com]

have you ever read cosmos by carl sagan? i found that book absolutely fascinating.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Not yet; I read Contact either shortly before or after the movie came out, but haven't gotten to Cosmos. What did you like about it?

[umrguy42.livejournal.com]

I'd never keep a list of all the books I've read in a given time frame (well, okay, I read Small Gods between last night and this afternoon, but it didn't take me that long, I slept for a good chunk of last night). I 1.) read too many, but also 2.) re-read the same books, because I'm bored, and have trouble finding new things. (Basically, I might read the same book, or parts thereof, several times a year at least.)

[ase.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting experiment. You forget what you've read, or when you read it, and finding your notes about it years later (as I have with some paper book logs)can be very interesting - your perspective and reactions can change a lot, even though the novel is exactly the same.

[ashcomp.livejournal.com]

And when you've had enough non-fiction, try Cloud of Sparrows. Interesting perspectives on Samurai culture. And some pretty chilling views of Japan.

[ase.livejournal.com]

And when you've had enough non-fiction

Not helping, Barry. So not helping.

Maybe I should just take a Japanese history course. Any excuse when there's a history class to be had.

I like your icon, though. Very pretty.