Can someone explainify this to me? I know the basics, you know that you’re supposed to hit the balls and that a six is a good thing. But the rest of it, wooooosh, straight over my head.
Random fact; before the arrival of the GAA and the Land League campaign cricket was hugely popular in Ireland.
Carl is running another challenge, and this time I’m going to join in. And I think I’m going to do Quest 3:
Read at least one book from each of the four genres of story, and finish up the challenge with a June reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
And the categories are: Mythology, Folktale, Fairy Tale, and
Fantasy.
For the Fairy Tale category I’m going to go with Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. First of all because Carl recommended it. Second of all because I’m a big Gaiman fan, yet haven’t managed to read this one yet. Thirdly it is being made into a film and I know I’ll want to see it, so may as well read the book too.
My mythology read will be Morgan Llewllyn’s On Raven’s Wing. This is a reread, but it has been a while, and it is an old favourite of mine. It’s a retelling of The Táin, or The Cattle raid of Cooley saga in Irish mythology. If you’ve ever been by the GPO in Dublin you may have seen a bronze statue in the window, that is Cúchulainn, the hero of On Raven’s Wing.
For folklore I’m a bit unsure, but as Carl mentioned that de Lint fits in here, and as I’ve just picked up The Blue Girl by him I’ll probably go with this one. Can’t hurt now can it? I love that cover, although now thinking about it having a cover with a young girl in vaguely revealing clothes and with a title like Blue Girl might suggest something else entirely
And finally, the Fantasy category I’ve taken a look through some of my unread books and think I’ll go with Celtika by Robert Holdstock. It also fits in with the general mythology theme that is almost going on with the other books.
And then there’ll be A Midsummer Night’s Dream which I’ve never read before, although I have seen a film version. Plus I may add a few more titles to the list when I think about it again. All depends how many I get through between now and June 21st, doesn’t it.
* Long long ago, the Irish version of Once Upon a Time
Grass!
Millions of square miles of it; numberless wind-whipped tsunamis of grass, a thousand sun-lulled caribbeans of grass, a hundred rippling oceans, every ripple a gleam of scarlet of amber, emerald or turquoise, multicolored as rainbows, the colors shivering over the prairies in stripes and blotches, the grass - some high, some low, some feathered, some straight - making their own geography as they grow.
This was an impulse purchase, I’ve read one or two others by Tepper and although I enjoyed them I do think that she has a tendency to be a little preachy in her books. However if the story is good enough I’m willing to overlook that, and I’d have to say that I really enjoyed this novel. Set at some point far in the future when humankind has colonised many different worlds, the majority of this book takes place on the planet Grass, among the insular bon as the aristocrats are called.
Thirteen Things Fictional Characters I Love in no particular order, and I know I’ve left out loads. So think of this as a random selection out of all the ones I love.
Obviously The Man They Call Jayne. C’mon, you all knew that was coming, right?
After all, who doesn’t love a mercenary-type who’d turn you in as soon as look at you? Plus everyone loves that bad guy with the good heart, and as we all know men who wear knitted hats their mammy sends them, and that send money home, are good guys. It’s just well hidden inside that slighty dumb exterior. And then there is the dialogue. If Joss was a fictional character he’d certainly make the list
Burrich from Robin Hobb’s Six Duchies books. Okay so he is a moody, grumpy bastard. But he’s great too. Especially once you learn Show Spoilers ▼
that he really didn’t kill the puppy dog
And yes he has huge gaping flaws, but still, great character.
Ferdia, or Ferdiad from Irish mythology, especially On Raven’s Wing’s version of him. Not the hero of the legend, that’d be Cúchulainn, but I always preferred Ferdia. Plus he gets killed by his best friend, but it is okay, they stay friends[1] And while I’m here can I just say that this sounds horrendous. I mean, The Táin would make a great film, in the style of 300 but that description makes me shudder, and not in an anticipatory manner. Although this user comment is mildly amusing:
This film is the quintessential, short-length, ancient-Celtic-Warriors-struggling-with-feelings- of-brotherhood, but-still-having-to-kill-each-other picture. Way better than “The Harp of Cooney-BoozeBain.” Kelby Akin’s performance has been called “unnervingly adequate,” by the Dublin Post Office Film Review. Dolph Paulsen has been hailed as “a pretty good Cuchullain, even though Dolph is actually a Norwegian poo-head.” Timothy O’Neill patented his now famous “more fog, damnit” approach to directing with this film project. Viewers across the globe have marveled at the special effects with comments such as “that was the greatest scene of a man in tartan pants jumping off the tips of flying spears in film history.”
Mary Gentle’s Ash, from Ash: A secret history. Good book. Great character. And yet another mercenary type.
Commissaire Adamsberg, from Fred Vargas’ novels. I first met him in Seeking Whom He May Devour and thought he was just fabtastic. A detective so very far away from the usual logical deducting Holmes types, but no less effective.
‘Dunno’ was among the frequent of Adamsberg utterances. He fell back on it neither from laziness nor from lack of wits, but because he really did not know the answer and was ready to admit it. The commissaire’s passive ignorance bemused and maddened his deputy, who could not conceive of the possibility of taking any appropriate steps in full ignorance of the facts. Wavering was Adamsberg’s most natural element, however, and his most productive by far.
Life On Mars’s DCI Gene Hunt. Now he is a complete bastard and tosser. The most un-pc person on telly at the moment. But somehow, despite his homophobic, racist, misogynistic, generally unpleasant attitude people love him.
Sam: If it was to do with football he’d have serious injuries!
Gene: He’s dead. That’s quite serious.
Vimes from the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett. And I’m totally starting to notice a pattern here, cause Vimes is another anti-everything sort of person. In his own lovable, justice-driven way of course. He is a total cynic, and yet strangely idealistic about how people[2] should behave. Plus, he is the law.
Logan, from X-Men. I don’t really need to say any more do I?
Chicken. If you’ve a memory you’ll remember that that is Titus Pullo from the BBC’s Rome. I could have picked Lamb either. They’re both great, but I think Pullo is slightly ahead, if only because he is more himself than Vorenus. Plus, Vorenus can be a bit of an arse sometimes, Pullo can be a violent bastard, but not really an arse
Boromir from LOTR, the film version, in the books I prefer Faramir. But Sean Bean is just great. And yes, I am aware that that picture is not Boromir, but it is still nice, don’t you think.
Darla from Buffy and Angel. Okay so she wasn’t in it all the time, but I loved her when she was. Plus she had some great story lines.
Kaylee from Firefly and Serenity. Awww, she’s so cute and bubbly, and okay, so sometimes you wanna duct-tape her mouth, but most of the time you just adore her and her cheerful ways.
Elena from Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld series. These are lite-horror books, but I’ve really enjoyed the ones narrated by Elena, especially the first one, Bitten.
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Dir: Julian Jarrold
Writ: Kevin Hood & Sarah Williams
Anne Hathaway - Jane Austen
James McAvoy - Tom Lefroy
Julie Walters - Mrs. Austen
James Cromwell - Rev Austen
Maggie Smith - Lady Gresham
Joe Anderson - Henry Austen
Laurence Fox - Mr. Wisley
Ian Richardson - Judge Langlois
There really isn’t all that much to this film, which is loosely based on the life of Jane Austen, it is watchable but not memorable. The film amps up the real-life flirtation between Austen and Tom Lefroy to turn it into a full blown romance, with elopement and other such excitements thrown in. There may be some who are annoyed by the historical inaccuracies, I didn’t really care. However, knowing it was based on Jane Austen’s life means that there really was no point in the whole “will they won’t they” drama. You can’t keep an audience guessing when they know the ending.
Apart from that I found the first half of this film quite slow. Hathaway didn’t have the personality or screen presence to engage, and McAvoy was far too believable as the rogue to ever repent. And then there is the fact that Lefroy is Irish, and so obviously one of the “evil English invaders” oppressing Ireland, so he was never going to be in my good books Watching a romance between two characters that you don’t really like, and when you know the ending, isn’t really all that great. I did enjoy Fox’s Mr Wisley though, Jane should’ve chosen him from the beginning. Would have made far more sense.
I also had a bit of a problem with the whole love story. Once Lefroy tells Jane that Show Spoilers ▼
he is entirely dependent on his uncle for cash then there is no way he can marry her. After all we already knew he had a large family back home, and that they would be dependent on him. Money, as Mrs. Austen tell us, is “absolutely indispensable!”
The second half was an improvement, but it didn’t blend properly with the beginning. The whole film felt unbalanced, as though they weren’t sure whether this was to be a light-hearted romance or a sad tale of unrequited love. But on the plus side the costumes were pretty, and every thing looked nice.
I sometimes think that the art of taking notes is long dead. I remember going to college, reading books and or journals and taking notes about what I’d read. I rarely, if ever see students doing that any more. Now what they do is print off reams of articles they’ll never read. And photocopy an entire journal. Madness I tells you.
Should lecturers start teaching classes on how not to fill your room with pages and pages and pages of crap?
For the Fairy Tale category I’m going to go with Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. First of all because Carl recommended it. Second of all because I’m a big Gaiman fan, yet haven’t managed to read this one yet. Thirdly it is being made into a film and I know I’ll want to see it, so may as well read the book too.
My mythology read will be Morgan Llewllyn’s On Raven’s Wing. This is a reread, but it has been a while, and it is an old favourite of mine. It’s a retelling of The Táin, or The Cattle raid of Cooley saga in Irish mythology. If you’ve ever been by the GPO in Dublin you may have seen a bronze statue in the window, that is Cúchulainn, the hero of On Raven’s Wing.
For folklore I’m a bit unsure, but as Carl mentioned that de Lint fits in here, and as I’ve just picked up The Blue Girl by him I’ll probably go with this one. Can’t hurt now can it? I love that cover, although now thinking about it having a cover with a young girl in vaguely revealing clothes and with a title like Blue Girl might suggest something else entirely 
And finally, the Fantasy category I’ve taken a look through some of my unread books and think I’ll go with Celtika by Robert Holdstock. It also fits in with the general mythology theme that is almost going on with the other books.
