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eredienI've finally finished writing the post I promised on the 17th of last month!
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
(Unabridged English paperback edition)
[This contains spoilers.]
I originally started Les Miserables in the late spring of 2003 and read halfway through before the Philadelphia summers (100-plus-year-old third-floor dorms, no air conditioning, and humidity and heat enough to make you wake dehydrated, cold from the sweat dripped onto the sheets while sleeping) defeated me and I slunk away to easier erudition (catching up on my SF history reading Neuromancer in the summer grass, or perusing thesis-related books). One can't concentrate on Paris in that kind of heat; smells rise out of the type.
A month ago I finished, after restarting sometime in late July (I read very quicky and have two spare hours a day on commute during which I can do nothing else).
I have never so much wished to read French, even though it is hard for me to pick up languages (vocabulary learned through kinesthesis).
It is a beautiful book, and there is much to speak of. I have not encountered another writer, save probably Crowley, who encapsulates an emotion in a sentence. They're not even emotions, in many cases, you've consciously thought about, they're just ones you've had and forgotten because you had no concept to describe it (what we cannot think about dies). But Hugo gives you these concepts in sentences, and what sentences. "Red waistcoats and scarlet opinions," to describe one revolutionary Young Turk.
I think I need to concentrate on the one thing I was truly struck by: how well the theme of the book fit its plot--at both a large and small scale.
What is redemption--of a society, of a person, within a family and without? This is the question I feel Hugo was struggling with.
And how does he show us? Through individuals' moving through (in) and outside of society (literally, in the case of Jean Valjean's flight through the sewers, he moves through history's outside), and through society moving in and out of the lives of individuals--through revolutions and through love, both great forces that move everything in their paths.
The characters are constantly struggling with God--with the notable exception, I think, of Javert, whose god might be duty--and this only highlights the theme. You see redeption move through history, through people, and cause amazing things to happen. You see it stop, or slow, or stagnate, and see what that does to individuals, and what those people, deprived, can do to a society though the will of a people.
A good book. Highly recommended.
--
Update on Tesla sonnet: Second stanza complete. Working on third. A few ideas, just false starts at this point.
I am advised that Mr. David Bowie plays Mr. Nikola Tesla in the new movie "The Prestige," which is getting mixed reviews around the country. I am going to see this marvel, even though its basic plot reminds me overmuch of Susanna Clarke.
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
(Unabridged English paperback edition)
[This contains spoilers.]
I originally started Les Miserables in the late spring of 2003 and read halfway through before the Philadelphia summers (100-plus-year-old third-floor dorms, no air conditioning, and humidity and heat enough to make you wake dehydrated, cold from the sweat dripped onto the sheets while sleeping) defeated me and I slunk away to easier erudition (catching up on my SF history reading Neuromancer in the summer grass, or perusing thesis-related books). One can't concentrate on Paris in that kind of heat; smells rise out of the type.
A month ago I finished, after restarting sometime in late July (I read very quicky and have two spare hours a day on commute during which I can do nothing else).
I have never so much wished to read French, even though it is hard for me to pick up languages (vocabulary learned through kinesthesis).
It is a beautiful book, and there is much to speak of. I have not encountered another writer, save probably Crowley, who encapsulates an emotion in a sentence. They're not even emotions, in many cases, you've consciously thought about, they're just ones you've had and forgotten because you had no concept to describe it (what we cannot think about dies). But Hugo gives you these concepts in sentences, and what sentences. "Red waistcoats and scarlet opinions," to describe one revolutionary Young Turk.
I think I need to concentrate on the one thing I was truly struck by: how well the theme of the book fit its plot--at both a large and small scale.
What is redemption--of a society, of a person, within a family and without? This is the question I feel Hugo was struggling with.
And how does he show us? Through individuals' moving through (in) and outside of society (literally, in the case of Jean Valjean's flight through the sewers, he moves through history's outside), and through society moving in and out of the lives of individuals--through revolutions and through love, both great forces that move everything in their paths.
The characters are constantly struggling with God--with the notable exception, I think, of Javert, whose god might be duty--and this only highlights the theme. You see redeption move through history, through people, and cause amazing things to happen. You see it stop, or slow, or stagnate, and see what that does to individuals, and what those people, deprived, can do to a society though the will of a people.
A good book. Highly recommended.
--
Update on Tesla sonnet: Second stanza complete. Working on third. A few ideas, just false starts at this point.
I am advised that Mr. David Bowie plays Mr. Nikola Tesla in the new movie "The Prestige," which is getting mixed reviews around the country. I am going to see this marvel, even though its basic plot reminds me overmuch of Susanna Clarke.
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(no subject)
22/9/06 18:46 (UTC)I was reading nexus archives today, and as big a loser as this makes me.. I totally want to writ emor eon Elatha and Jonak.
You interested?
Volcano Maidens
7/10/06 14:39 (UTC)Do you have it all in archive? Email!!!!
Re: Volcano Maidens
7/10/06 15:19 (UTC)Re: Volcano Maidens
22/10/06 17:32 (UTC)