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Set Fire to the Wednesday
Nov. 14th, 2018 01:37 pmWhat I've Finished Reading
Gormenghast has everything I want out of a book, including: hopelessly grotesque and self-absorbed setting, catastrophic weather apocalypse, and a prose style that could be described as "like The Eye of Argon, only good." I am not at all happy about what happened to Fuchsia. I was so upset that I acquired two Adele albums and have been listening to them non-stop.
Given the fates of my favorite character and the local evil genius, I have no clue what can possibly happen in the third book, Titus Alone. Titus, Seventy-Seventh Earl of Groan, now a young man with a wholly reasonable chip on his shoulder, is determined to escape the slimy tentacles of ritual and tradition and make his way in the world outside Gormenghast. He goes to see his mother before riding off, and she finally says what we've all been thinking: there's nothing outside Gormenghast. Titus thinks this is a metaphor and gallops off anyway. It might be a metaphor, but I doubt it'll matter for his purposes. How exactly this is going to play out is still a mystery - whether he's going to ride in circles in a barren wilderness, or knock his head against the slimy glass of the mason jar, or get trapped in the spine of the book you hold in your hands, reader. All I know is that it's going to be good.
What I'm Reading Now
Last week I got a surprise in my mailbox: what I thought was an early December issue of Poetry turned out to be a flimsy paperback of exactly the same size, called Ten Commandments Twice Removed courtesy of Remnant Publications in Clearwater, MI. It turns out to be a Biblical defense of a Saturday sabbath for Christians! Later, I went to the semi-local bookstore to read the latest issue of Make magazine and a guy across from me in the cafe was reading the same book! I guess Remnant Publications hit the whole area at once.
The Old Men At the Zoo is another of my favorite things: surprise sci-fi! "The events described here as taking place in 1970-1973 are utterly improbable" says the author note. "Our future is possibly brighter, probably much more gloomy. All references to the administration of the London Zoo and to its staff are entirely imaginary." So far, it's a greyish comedy about the politics of zoo administration in a time of transition (and ambiguously impending nuclear war, but that almost goes without saying). It's a little slow and artificial, but that might turn out to be a virtue - we'll see where it goes!
What I Plan to Read Next
Titus Alone as soon as possible, but I'm not quite sure how soon that will be as I'll have to get to the library first. I also have Patrick White's Riders in the Chariot waiting for me (in 99 Novels) and I probably won't manage to listen to all of L is for Lawless and will have to get it in book form eventually. Even under ideal listening conditions like cleaning the kitchen, my mind just drifts away and suddenly I have no idea who's talking to whom.
Gormenghast has everything I want out of a book, including: hopelessly grotesque and self-absorbed setting, catastrophic weather apocalypse, and a prose style that could be described as "like The Eye of Argon, only good." I am not at all happy about what happened to Fuchsia. I was so upset that I acquired two Adele albums and have been listening to them non-stop.
Given the fates of my favorite character and the local evil genius, I have no clue what can possibly happen in the third book, Titus Alone. Titus, Seventy-Seventh Earl of Groan, now a young man with a wholly reasonable chip on his shoulder, is determined to escape the slimy tentacles of ritual and tradition and make his way in the world outside Gormenghast. He goes to see his mother before riding off, and she finally says what we've all been thinking: there's nothing outside Gormenghast. Titus thinks this is a metaphor and gallops off anyway. It might be a metaphor, but I doubt it'll matter for his purposes. How exactly this is going to play out is still a mystery - whether he's going to ride in circles in a barren wilderness, or knock his head against the slimy glass of the mason jar, or get trapped in the spine of the book you hold in your hands, reader. All I know is that it's going to be good.
What I'm Reading Now
Last week I got a surprise in my mailbox: what I thought was an early December issue of Poetry turned out to be a flimsy paperback of exactly the same size, called Ten Commandments Twice Removed courtesy of Remnant Publications in Clearwater, MI. It turns out to be a Biblical defense of a Saturday sabbath for Christians! Later, I went to the semi-local bookstore to read the latest issue of Make magazine and a guy across from me in the cafe was reading the same book! I guess Remnant Publications hit the whole area at once.
The Old Men At the Zoo is another of my favorite things: surprise sci-fi! "The events described here as taking place in 1970-1973 are utterly improbable" says the author note. "Our future is possibly brighter, probably much more gloomy. All references to the administration of the London Zoo and to its staff are entirely imaginary." So far, it's a greyish comedy about the politics of zoo administration in a time of transition (and ambiguously impending nuclear war, but that almost goes without saying). It's a little slow and artificial, but that might turn out to be a virtue - we'll see where it goes!
What I Plan to Read Next
Titus Alone as soon as possible, but I'm not quite sure how soon that will be as I'll have to get to the library first. I also have Patrick White's Riders in the Chariot waiting for me (in 99 Novels) and I probably won't manage to listen to all of L is for Lawless and will have to get it in book form eventually. Even under ideal listening conditions like cleaning the kitchen, my mind just drifts away and suddenly I have no idea who's talking to whom.
