(no subject)

[chelseagirl]

I am the proud new owner of an Oscar Wilde action figure. I've resisted the Freud and so many others, but Oscar now stands upon the bookshelf, with his purple coat and his walking stick.

M. evinced an atypical interest in renting House of Flying Daggers Friday night and I, not wanting to discourage any embers of interest of his in Chinese films, agreed. His assessment was the same as mine had been in the theater, though. Beautiful to watch, many wonderful sequences, but ultimately when they stuck with the love story and didn't follow the Flying Daggers at the end . . . it added up to a giant "eh?" Now to get him to watch Hero, and Hard Boiled.

Due to space and budget constraints, I've decided to limit bookbuying to my two book clubs plus one extra per month. (I've got so much sitting on the shelves to be read, and so much I want to reread, that I'm not going to run dry anytime soon.) So this month (really for next month):

Book club: Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
Genre book club: China Mieville, King Rat (own already, have read already)
Other book: Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

I'm about 150 pages into Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Since I just taught the scientific revolution and we're working on the Enlightenment, it's wonderfully in synch with where I am mentally, right now. A bit too cutesy with the historical figures all showing up -- okay, Newton's an important character, but did the random young lad Ben just have to be young Mr. Franklin? Otherwise, though, immensely entertaining. I rather wish I'd gotten to it when it first came out, though. I've got all three in the series on my shelf and the prospect is rather daunting.

We googled ourselves the other night. I was rather pleased to see that several people had singled out my article in Fighting the Forces, had the typical reaction to one assessment which nitpicked it (though there was much the writer liked), and disturbed to see that by using my real name on some fic which appeared in a fanzine, I'm vulnerable to googling on the fanfic front. Duh. I thought I was safe in a paper zine -- silly me. (This was from awhile back.)

My husband, on the other hand, learns he is in fact an atomic-secrets expert in MI6. We found this on the "Atlanta persians" website; on closer examination we discovered this was a reprint of an Onion article. We'd known that M.'s buddy there had used the name "Wes Martin" a couple of times, which is a reversal/variation, but this was his actual name. Guess we missed that issue. Cool, though.

Comments

[llhinkle.livejournal.com]

Where. Did. You. Get. An. Oscar. Wilde. Action. Figure????

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's awesome!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I got it at a little shop in the Village called Tah Poozie. (Awful name, no?) But you might try the company's website -- www.accoutrements.com -- and see if they sell directly.

[llhinkle.livejournal.com]

Cool thanks :)

[cissa.livejournal.com]

So where does one find an Oscar Wilde action figure? Because this is pretty much the perfect gift for my daughter...

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

See response above. ;-) I'd offer to pick them up for people, but there was the one I bought and one in the window display.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[silme.livejournal.com]

You'll have to tell me what you think of the new Ishiguro. (Yes, I've read it. :) I love his writing. I used to teach A Pale View of Hills and The Remains of the Day back in Boulder.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I was going to say you were awfully quick off the mark on that one weren't you, but I realize it was presumably released in the UK first. (The NY Times book review of it was only a couple of weeks ago; I think it's only been out over here for a month, maybe?) I'm really pleased the book club chose it because I was trying to make myself wait for the paperback and wasn't too happy about that idea. ;-)

I've read Remains of the Day and An Artist of the Floating World, both of which I loved. I wasn't as crazy about When We Were Orphans. After this, I need to catch up on his other books.

[silme.livejournal.com]

It was released here at the very beginning of March and in the US in early April. I bought the hardcover at discount. I'd actually forgotten it was out when I saw it at Waterstones -- and on sale. :)

My first stab at his books was A Pale View of Hills. A friend and colleague at Boulder High came across it accidentally. (A woman lying on a beach in Mexico left it there -- asked my friend if she wanted it. This woman couldn't get into it.) Anyway, she loved it and told me I had to read it. I loved it. We added it to the curriculum later. And then we read the rest of the catalog. We both agreed that Orphans was weaker. He's received good and so-so reviews over here for the new one; the so-so ones have come from critics reviewing it as science fiction. When we were flying out of Denver, I read the Denver Post review. That critic liked it. Who knows?

[mortalwombat731.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I need an Oscar Wilde action figure to go with my Beethoven and Bela Lugosi Dracula ones. They could have wars. It would be cool, and then Boba Fett and the Tuscan Raider could come out of the box they are in (until I build a display case) and kick some ass.

I'd never finish my diss.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

*g* Oscar was supposed to *help* me with my diss, but I think he's a bit annoyed he's not in it. He was meant to be, but one of my advisors declared that it would be another generation before anyone would have anything new to say about the Wilde trials. *pout* Then it took a different shape anyway.

[adjrun.livejournal.com]

The problem with Quicksilver -- and I too have the whole series -- is that though each moment is fascinating, and the writing is so clever (and FUNNY), for the longest time it feels anecdotal. Stuff happens, but there doesn't really seem to be any narrative drive or structure. I read about the first two hundred pages, and kept looking for an inciting incident, for an idea that it was going in a particular direction. And then something else distracted me and I haven't finished it.

I'm definitely going to come back to it, but I think it's one of those books that needs to be swallowed in large chunks. Where the world needs to subsume you and carry you through.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

And I set it aside at page 280 for something quicker-paced as well.

Also doesn't help that this is not a book I can thrown in my bag and take on the subway. This isn't just a hardcover; it's a megahardcover. ;-)

Having just taught the Scientific Revolution, and read Gleick's Newton bio as part of the background research, I'm enjoying that aspect of it quite a bit. But you're right -- I'm still waiting for it to become compelling.