Jean-Paul
The man is still breathing, drawing a paycheck, and allowed to interact with other human beings?
These are of course unfortunate. It's the hypocrisy and the sense of matyrdom in the interview that I find so repellant. As much as the internet was unkind to Austen, it's now equally full of people calling Bendis all the names under the sun and 'hilariously' fantasising about stabbing him. But it's hard to imagine Bendis sitting up late into the night with a bottle of scotch, his eyes streaming with tears over all the hurtful words.
His odd attempts to dodge the charge of misogynistic writing are interesting too...a threefold strategy of subtley redefining the word so as to make it inapplicable to anything, doing the prose equivalent of a disgraced politician posing with his family, and then arguing that the only people who talk about misogyny are guys looking to pick up feminist chicks. Which in itself tells you about the limited number of ways that men and women can interact in Austen's imagnation.
Jean-Paul
Quote:
...we get Mieville references!
(Everyone here should read Mieville. I predict Cel loving him, Maiadorn having the same wobbly feelings he had about Swainston and Jean-Paul probably having read him already)
I haven't, actually, but the Wiki entry on him looks interesting. It's been a good day for book recommendations, giving and receiving and I got a huge hug from a Great Pyrenees pup while receiving. Also got some nice comments on my first short-story of the semester...but still. Puppies!
xd
Wondering why you'd think I would have read the guy, tho'.
I've just got the impression that you're very up on Fantasy with a capital F. And from my perspective then Mieville feels like the most important thing to happen to the Fantasy novel since Pratchett.
Hmm...just seen the very poor Wiki article on the Mieville/Swainston/Harrison/etc 'New Weird' school of writing. Odd that they include Gaiman, but leave out Aylett and very odd that there's no talk of it as being a successor to the old Moorcock/Ballard 'New Worlds' school. And WTF
The Dark Tower and
X-Files have to do with anything I don't know. I really must start contributing to wiki someday.
Apropos to nothing: Look! Steph Swainston's list of favourite authors (Carter, Burroughs, etc) is almost exactly the same as mine!
Also apropos to nothing, the minute he writes a comic (well, I suppose there is that sorta-comic in
Looking for Jake) then China Mieville's pic is going in the Pretty Boys thread.
heart
Spider_Jerusalem
You know that whole sob story about being raised by a single mother was effectively cancelled out by those "Worldwatch" scans.
That was a
hilarious juxtaposition, wasn't it?
It would have been even better if they'd had those pics embedded in the text at the point he was pouring his heart out on that one.
twisted
Maiadorn
Chris Bachalo's going to be Mike's X-Men artist? eek
3nodding And Bachalo's been doing lovely work on Claremont's
Uncanny...which has been a shame as the fact it's been on Claremont's
Uncanny has meant it's gone to waste.
I can't belive I'm panting for a book about Cable and Sabretooth. Though in a way the fact that I don't give a damn about anyone in his line-up (except Sam, once, in a far distant past when summers were longer and it always snowed at Christmas) makes me more eager to see if Carey is up to the challenge.
It's not hard to make me interested in the Devil. It's going to take genius to get me interested in a Liefeld character.
Maiadorn
Regarding China Mievelle: Following Pindy recommendations, I bought, on the same day, The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter, No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston, and Perdido Street Station by China Mievelle. And I was going to read them as soon as I'd finished Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb, but some books by a chap named Jasper Fforde slithered through my letter box and everything on my To Read list was bumped back four notches.
heart Yay! Both for your Fforde-prioritising and the shrewd purchases they've temporarily displaced.
Don't be too disappointed if
Perdido Street Station just seems like a huge collection of Really Good Ideas rather than much of a story...the best thing about it is that it sets you up to get the most out of
The Scar of which I promise you'll worship every pirate/vampire/sea-monster-infested page.
Perdido is an incredible feat of world-building though, with really rich characters, unbeatable set-pieces (The ambassador for Hell scene might be my favourite) and so many "I've never seen
that before" moments.
No Present Like Time is a much more 'relaxing' book than its its predessecor. It's not a traditional fantasy Quest novel by any means, but it's a lot closer to one than you'd think Swainston would step after reading
The Year of Our War. The high demands on the reader that the first book makes aren't there so much either since the pressures off once you understand the Circle and its politcs. Almost a breezy read, and a chance to spend another three hundred or so pages with Jant, which can't be a bad thing.
The Magic Toyshop is an odd one...it's Carter's first novel and so is back in her slightly depressing phase of "OMG! Nothing about our identities is real!
crying "
Took her until her last two novels to reach her final, joyful and celebratory position of "OMG! Nothing about our identities is real! Wait a minute!
Wait a minute! This means....It's HUXLEY PIG time bay-bee!
biggrin biggrin biggrin "
Maiadorn
Now if you'll excuse me:
*flings self down onto couch with Lost In A Good Book, to do precisely that*
Think I might join you. I took a break from
The Well of Lost Plots to read
Cloud Atlas...but I think Jurisfiction are calling me up over the footnoterphone
(1) again.
One of these days we'll have to get a raiding party together and invade the books forum.
(1) - Damn right we are, Panda. Report to Chapter 18 immediately.