silmarillion

Ah, Silmarillion.

I feel like the The Silmarillion is an old friend. One I can talk about The Hobbit with; someone who knows what the cry Elbereth Gilthoniel means, and why this prayer is especially meaningful when one is alone, in the dark, and afraid. And why it is that Galadriel seems so sad, so powerful, and yet so worried and so driven. And why she feels that, in the end, she may have passed a test. And... if she is so powerful, who would it be who could presume to try her.

In The Silmarillion, we find out why it is that elves do what they do, and feel so strongly about men, Middle Earth, and Sauron. Why the story of Beren and Lúthien is still on their minds. Why the stars are so important to them, and what the sea really means when it calls to them.

The Silmarillion is a guidebook--a user's manual--for The Lords of the Rings and The Hobbit. Its where Tolkien started, and where he ended up. He began the stories that survive in The Silmarillion, back in the 30s, and worked on them all through his career. They were eventually edited for publishing by his son, Christopher Tolkien, with aid from Guy Gavriel Kay, who has written a number of fantasy books of his own, which I have enjoyed and recommended.*

I don't think a lot of folks make it through the first 30 pages of this book because of where it begins. When you're Tolkien, and you're creating a new universe (or sub-universe within our own universe, as he would probably put it) where do you begin, but at the beginning? The Silmarillion is both a history, and a character driven tale, told from before the very beginning of time, from the point of view of the elves. And these characters--and there are a lot of them--get their start here, so it makes sense to tell their stories. Skipping this part only makes it harder to understand what comes after, but if that's what it takes, skip it. Skip both the Ainulindalë and the Valaquenta. Yeah, man! Go right ahead to the Quenta Silmarillion; there's even a little summary of whats been happening right there, at the beginning.

Then...

Then... if you like it... you can go back and read the first part. It will be like the back story to the back story, dude! its like 30 pages, don't be a puss

One last thing, if you have read either The Children of Hùrin or Unfinished Tales, or plan to, there is some repetition of materials. The Silmarillion contains a few abbreviated versions of stories contained in these other volumes.

If you've scrabbled around in the appendixes of The Lord of the Rings (and you know who you are) you owe it to yourself to read this book.


* You'll find the The Fionavar Tapestry Trilogy by Kay listed in the 'good' box in the right hand column.

travel marker series i

This is the first marker in the Travel Marker Series, showcasing bookmarks from places other than around my home, where I pick up most of the goods. In many cases, these markers are either found by me, or someone who has then given them to me, or that I have picked up in my own travels. The found ones have come from used books, mostly. Altho I occasionally will pick one up on my travels, left by someone else, in a hotel for example.

The first is a freebie from the S. Miguel Park Hotel, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal. Ponta Delgada is on Sao Miguel (Azores) about 1500 km west of Lisbon, in the Atlantic. Sao Miguel is the largest of the islands in the Azores Archipelago and Ponta Delgada is both the largest city, and the administrative capital.

The hotel sits in the heart of downtown, and appears to be about three quarters of a kilometer from the ocean. The address for the hotel is given on the reverse of the book mark as Rua Manuel Augusto Amaral, Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel 9500-222, Portugal.

According to their website, the hotel has panoramic views, and is close to the Botanical Gardens, I assume from the map that they are taking about Jardim José do Canto, but there are others in town as well. The S. Miguel Park Hotel is Bensaude Turismo Hotel.

Sounds like fun, right? And who doesn't like a free bookmark?

clash of kings

George R. R Martin is a wordy guy. I'm not complaining, mind you at least, I don't think I am. yet. That's just a fact I think we can all agree on, whether we like The Song of Fire and Ice saga or not, and so far I do. Its just--there's a lot of it, brother.

So I just pounded thru A Clash of Kings. Its been about 42 years since I started reading it, but it did keep my attention all the way through. Its just, so... soap opera-y. There's, like, a hundred and seven major characters, and another hundred and seven (thousand) minor characters, and they all have four names,  are related to just about everyone else, at least by marriage. At least half of them are missing fingers, and the other half has either lost an eye, or something else. Multiple POV writing does make for some interesting character development however, but I guess just about any character is bound to develop a little bit after a few thousand pages. how many more of these books are there?

I just re-read my review of the first book, and it looks like I thought it was great. Its been a little while, so I don't remember, but its pretty clear from the review. I enjoyed this book, no question, and I found myself reading more during the day and on the weekends, but all in all, I can't say that I loved it, only that it was good. And there is a bunch more to read. I often find that the first book in a series is good, and the follow up volumes not quite as exciting, and then the final volume really does the job. Leaving me feeling like the middle books are bridge between the two good parts of the story.* I hope this isn't the case here (there are a lot of middle books, I certainly hope not.) Martin has set himself up more like the Harry Potter books however, in that each of these first two at least have a story arc of there own, albeit not as distinct a separate storyline as the Harry Potter book.

The long drawn out story arc is where the soap opera feel comes from. We move from character to character, learning a bit more of the story as a whole as we move forward, but the overall storyline arc is so vast I can't see a way clear to the end yet.

Well, I guess I'll be there. But just like the first one, I'll let it sit for a while before jumping back into this fray. Onward, to another tome!


* I think this more often the case with trilogies.

master of rain

REPOST - This post, originally posted on April 2, 2013 was taken down by blogger after a complaint that it violated Blogger's Content Policy. I have gone through this blog entry carefully, and the only thing I found was that many of the links I provided were no longer working, and one link led me to a site that Google warned me had malicious content. I have removed that link, and updated the others. If any of my readers finds an issue with any of my posts or the links therein, you should of course notify Blogger AND please notify me by commenting in another post or on the "books" or "backmatter" tabs so I know what the problem is.

Now, new and improved...

The Master of Rain is the first novel by Tom Bradby. Unfortunately, it read like it. To be fair, it got better as it went on; I could almost see the writing improve as he went along. The story was good tho; I can imagine it as a movie plot. Screwing it down to screenplay size may even improve the story. It may be that its too similar to other stories/movies in this genre to actually get any traction, however.

Bradby is a news man from England, stationed in Asia, so he's using his experience there to add to the realism in his story, supplemented by research into the mid-1920s in Shanghai, when the story is set. It takes place at about the mid-point of the hundred years or so that the European lasted in Shanghai, just after the construction of the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and Custom House, but before Chiang Kaishek came to town in 1927.

The story takes place in the British settlement, and a little in the French settlement, where big European business was flourishing in the post Treaty of Nanking era. The Master of Rain is a crime drama, with sub-plots of love, organized crime, and sex. As I said, the story was good, so it kept me reading. What I didn't like were the funny things that cropped up in the writing that drew my attention away from the story.

The first one I saw was on page 43: Our man is being asked where some files are by his supervisor, who blames this picky attention to detail on their boss (Biers), by saying: "Biers is so bloody anal about all that stuff." Anal? Really? In 1926? I took a look on the Google corpus for British English* in the 1920s, just to be sure I wasn't crazy. I got just over 3000 hits--medical text books, insect text books, anatomy treatises. Not a whole lot of general use of Freud's lingo had penetrated sorry, couldn't help it into the day-to-day language of coppers in 1926.

Since then, Bradby has written a few more books, so he must be doing something right. One of them, Shadow Dancer, was made into a movie, so I guess the impression I had of movie-like storyline was close.

* The Google Corpus doesn't seem as easy to use in 2023, but I was able to use Google's Books Ngram Viewer to confirm that the  word was occasionally used, but I'm not sure it was used meaning "too worried about being organized and tidy". My guess is that small number of hits were medical journals, etc. as identified in my earlier corpus search noted above.**

** For what its worth, the term "Anal Retentive" first entered the lexicon in 1936, according to Merriam-Webster, or about 10 years after this story takes place. Sounds like that makes me right, but we aren't splitting hairs here.

 

treasure island

Treasure Island is one of those books that I was probably supposed to read at some point in my life, somewhere around junior high school, I would guess, but just couldn't get into. Now that I've read it, it may have the been the Buccaneerese a lot of the dialogue is written in, that may have turned me off. I ended up having to sound out what Stevenson was writing to figure out what the pirates were saying. There's a point where adherence to authenticity begins to get in way of communication; Me t'inks mon Stevenson mayep crossed that there line. Here's a taste;

"There ain't a thing left here," said Merry, still feeling round among the bones; "not a copper doit nor a baccy box. It don't look nat'ral to me."

I don't know a lot about Robert Louis Stevenson, so lets have a look-see on the internets. I'll be right back...

Ah, here we are. Miss me? I am reminded, tho perhaps I should make pretend that I'd not forgotten, that Stevenson is also well known for both Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Kidnapped both published in 1886. Stevenson was also quite the essayist, and wrote a fair bit of poetry. Born in Scotland in 1850, and died too young in 1894.You can find more clicky clicking on the link there.

Another reason Treasure Island isn't a great story for young people: it isn't a great story. As a story, I'd call it fair to midlin. Now, that may be because a hundred and thirty years has gone by and tastes have changed. I can imagine a time when a story like this was quite exciting to a young male reader who could see himself in Jim Hawkins's place, but today its reads a little slow. I will say that the characters are nicely developed, and their interactions seem pretty genuine. spoiler alert Maybe what I missed, was the treasure in Treasure Island. Treasure Island is not about an island full of treasure, its about the characters in the story. The treasure is just what drives them together, and provides the fuel for the conflict and drama in the story.

I would read this if you feel obligated, or if its assigned to you in junior high school, or maybe its talk like a pirate day and you need some pointers.

glass rainbow

I just finished The Glass Rainbow, by James Lee Burke, or I think I did. I'm pretty sure I read another by Burke a few years ago, but it must have been before I began writing these things down. its why I have this crazy thing Burke is a well spoken, southern gentleman, and his prose at first seems a little purple when he describes the falling leaves from the live oaks, and the bayou water lapping the knees of the gum trees, and... well, you get the idea; But I little further on I began to see how Burke is juxtaposing these lovely scene changes with the horror and fervor of the narrative.

Burke's characters are high-strung, hard working, hard playing, serious, obsessive, or even crazed. ALL of them seem to be damaged in some way, and when they come together... Well, it seems as though Burke just has to sit back and describe what happens when they do.

I've never been to Louisiana (or Mississippi) where this story takes place, so I can't tell you if my impressions are correct, but I think Burke does a great job of setting his story. Whether its a small roadside sno'ball shop, a river- or bayou-side, or a suburban backyard speak-easy, I had a real sense for what its like, right down to the weather, the lighting, and the feel of the air. He makes that purple prose work for him.

This grew from a crime drama into a mystery, and ended up back at crime drama, because all the answers did fall out by the end. Part way through, the main protagonist (Dave Robicheaux a deputy sheriff in New Iberia, Louisiana) agrees with me, or at least does a little foreshadowing thinking he may never unravel this mystery.

Dave Robicheaux is recurring character for Burke, and a quick look-see on the internet bears this out. There is a pile of them, and another one out just recently. Two of these stories have been made into movies, the most recent stars Tommy Lee Jones. I guess this character has some traction.

I would enjoy another of these. I'll have to keep my eye out.

farewell, flesh

I found Farewell to the Flesh in my local library's on-going book sale. I hadn't heard of Edward Sklepowich before; he's written a bunch of books, but this is only the second. Sklepowich started writing about Urbino Macintyre in 1990, with Death in a Serene City, and has now written a total of nine, the latest is from 2009.

Urbino Macintyre is an expatriate American, living in Venice as a writer/biographer in a little palazzo palazzino, no? left to him by his mother. Nice gig. It appears that Macintyre has joined the ranks of that strange group of fictional characters that death and murder follows around so closely that one can't help wondering why they have any friends at all. From Miss Marple, to Nero Wolfe, to Jessica Fletcher--why would anyone ever go near these people? Death clings to them like shadows on tombstones. yeesh, am I the only one?

Macintyre is an easy to like character--if one ignores the aforementioned Death wrapped around him like a boa constrictor--who goes about his crime solving business in a pretty professional manner, and then just puts his mind to it. Sklepowich writes a pretty subtle mystery if this one is any indication. I mentioned to my wife at about the half-way point that a little while ago it seemed as though it could really only be one person who had done this deed, but a little while later, I had reason to believe that just about everyone in the book had done it.

What I didn't like so much is that Macintyre had access to information that the reader doesn't, either it was because he had guessed it, and hadn't revealed it in conversation, or because he had learned it at some point and that wasn't included in the prose. I think the former is probably the case, but critical information nonetheless, and I couldn't help thinking; How'd he figure that out?

Sklepowich lectures at the University of Sousse in Tunisia, and also spends time in Venice and New York. Sklepowich's mother is Italian, like Macintyre, so he's writing what he knows. I wonder if Macintyre inherited a palazzo from his mother as well.

If I saw another, I'd pick it up, but I'm not rushing out to buy them all. If you like the mystery thing, it was pretty good. This also takes place during Carnevale in Venice, a serendipitous time to read this book.

persian letters

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, better known as simply, Montesquieu, penned the Persian Letters while in his late twenties and early thirties, and had them published in 1721. Montesquieu published them anonymously, but it was common knowledge in his native France, and elsewhere, that he was the author.

The book is essentially a novel in the form of a series of letters to, from and between two Persians, Usbek and Rica, during their travels to Turkey and Europe, between the years of 1711 and 1720. In it, Montesquieu basically uses his imagined characters as mouthpieces for his thoughts on governance, economics, religion, the church, the monarchy, the French Parliament, women's rights, etc. Essentially, armchair political philosophy of a pretty high caliber. I'm not a philosophy reader typically, so you'll have to bear with me if you did your under-grad in Philosophy.

What surprised me is how fun, and funny Montesquieu is. I imagine this guy was great at parties. He  actually talks about other men in Paris who strive to be witty at all costs. There is a story he tells via the (supposed) correspondence between two such men, who agree to meet to practice their wittiness ahead of time, so that when called upon by circumstances, they each have a complete repertoire with which to delight their acquaintances, carefully orchestrated to shine the light equally upon each of them, in turn.

The series of letters between Usbek and his home--which he has left for more than a decade--runs as a kind of thread through the entire story. Usbek is cast as a wealthy man, with many wives, all kept under the watchful eye of his eunuchs and slaves, in his seraglio.* Letters dart back and forth between Usbek, a number of his wives, the head eunuch and other eunuchs and slaves. The story from home is garbled by the different voices, each claiming to represent the truth. Montesquieu uses this as a comment on the various voices that rise in support and opposition to any of a variety of realities from law, to taxes, to religious doctrine; leaving his Usbek to listen to what he may, weigh the truth for himself and make a decision based on what he knows and intuits about the situation from afar.

With either a little patience, or the inclination, this was an interesting read.

Translated by George R. Healy, Dean of Faculty, Bates College, copyrighted in 1964, First Printing, soft bound, as part of the Library of Liberal Arts collection Oskar Piest, founder, published by the Bobbs-Merrill Co. Healy also provides an interesting introduction to his translation.

* seraglio - The women's apartments in a Muslim palace. Healy points out that this term is similar to, but not the same as, harem.

lions and lambs

March.

Three times makes it a tradition, right?

So here's my hypothesis: If March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, the other days must also have animality. We need a scale, right? We don't accept that it is either freezing or boiling at any given time, we like to know where on the scale the temperature actually is. We use this information to decide how to dress, whether to bring our umbrella, or wear shorts. what you actually wear on goat day is still up to you

Well say no more, now you'll always know.

March 1 - Lion: This one's a given. March 1st will tear you up.
March 2 - Tiger: Up to 11-feet, and nearly 700 pounds!
March 3 - Bear: Oh my! Black, Brown, Polar, you never know.
March 4 - Shark: Just remember Jaws 4.
March 5 - Wolf: Big. Bad.
March 6 - Bull: One word: Pamplona.
March 7 - Moose: Brake for moose, it could save your life.
March 8 - Eagle: Don't leave your pets outside... or your children.
March 9 - Scorpion: Step on it before it steps on you.
March 10 - Dingo: No, its not a stray dog.
March 11 - Hawk: Swooping, screaming, death on wings. If you're a vole.
March 12 - Lynx: They're adorable... when observed from Florida.
March 13 - Bat: If you just get near one its a full rabies series. In your belly.
March 14 - Monkey: It could cackle and scratch, or cackle... and then scratch! HBD Coleen!
March 15 - Snake: The Ides of March. Snakes are known for wisdom, and treachery.
March 16 - Ox: Hard working in a plodding kind of way.
March 17 - Elephant: Wise, big, powerful and gray.
March 18 - Raven: Nevermore.
March 19 - Stag: Power and compassion. Might make a good patronus.
March 20 - Crab: This one can sneak up on you. First day of spring!
March 21 - Goat: Stubborn and tough going.
March 22 - Horse: Strong and reliable.
March 23 - Pig: Smart but messy; wear your boots today.
March 24 - Dog: Friendly and good-natured; take a walk.
March 25 - Dolphin: Fun and wet; bring an umbrella.
March 26 - Rooster: Proud strutter. Crow at the sun!
March 27 - Turtle: Muddy, but adorable; boots again.
March 28 - Toad: Are they greenish-brown, or brownish-green?
March 29 - Robin: These guys are out when the worms show.
March 30 - Rabbit: How can you be scared of rabbits? HBD Kelton!
March 31 - Lamb: Mmm... arrosticini. Smells like spring!

According to one source I read "This phrase has its origins with the constellations Leo, the Lion, and Aries, the ram or lamb. It has to do with the relative positions of these constellations in the sky at the beginning and end of the month." Yeah, rams and lambs... Sounds good to me!

Today ended up being not so lion-like. Maybe we're in for a break!