this entry ran away from me a bit

[silverflight8]

I reread Over Sea, Under Stone and actually really enjoyed it. I liked Will a lot better when I was a kid (Will has magic powers, Jane Barney and Simon don't) but the story is satisfying in a way I don't know how to describe. I really like the Drews, I think. And anyway, how could anyone not love a nice grail quest? I then read the Greenwitch really quickly--kind of a friction between the Drews and Will, understandable perhaps from Simon's point of view--and then the Grey King. Do you know what part I remembered, out of the whole book? The part where Bran (after explaining Welsh pronunciation) says that Will can't complain, English is full of things like dough and through and thorough. Caradog Prichard was scary; I don't remember him being so scary. It's his unpredictability and eagerness to resort to violence. I don't think he would have that much compunction about shooting humans either.

I know The Silver on the Tree's ending so this shouldn't be a surprise, but there really is a lot of fairly causal mind-wiping. There's the part in the Dark is Rising (when the rector and Paul are frightened out of their minds by the Dark howling outside), then the thing in the Greenwitch. The ending of SotT isn't comparable to the levels of AWFUL ENDING as say The Last Battle--a book I have never re-read because every time I think about it, I get angry--but the mindwipe thing. I hate that trope. It's so casual too. Will and the Old Ones are on the side of the light but Rowlands is right too--they may be "good" but it takes a long view and believes the ends justify most means.

--

I spent altogether too long yesterday and this morning trying to fix the problem of calibre hanging forever trying to get a list of books from my phone. Basically, it was trying to scan every item on my phone--and I have a lot of photos. As well as god knows what files that the various apps produce. It would take 15 minutes to scan through before I could do anything like transfer files. What fixed it in the end was I configured the settings so that calibre only scanned one single folder: the SD card Books folder. Not even the internal storage Books folder (that still made the job hang, for some reason). I'm so relieved. It now takes less than a second to scan through. VICTORY!

I also started finally assigning genres. I decided to use a hierarchical because I want to be able to pull up all the speculative fiction works or specifically high fantasy, which I nested into fantasy and then spec fic. And I gave in and created a Classic top-level category, which is only one layer deep (by language/country)--actually now that I think about it, it's mostly by language except for the English things, which are split British Isles-Canada-USA. Look, I split them up more because I read mostly English-language stuff, all right? (Also, I just can't sort too finely. It would be endless.)

I've gotten to the point where I have to set aside time to deal with my email. I aggressively use the archive function on gmail to clear my inbox when I don't need to see the email anymore (so what's in my inbox is basically "you have to deal with this!"). I don't know how I managed to do things before that. And I honestly don't know people can function when their email is like INBOX (2938 unread). My mother's inbox is like that, some of my friends' are. I know those unread messages are probably just junk notifications they don't need to look at, but it drives me insane.

It does make me a bit sad to see my fannish email pretty much die off, in terms of replying to people from it. Well, it used to be my actual and only email, and there are some interesting legacy things attached to it which probably should go to my professional one - the notice of internet bill being one.... But it mostly gets promotional stuff from the symphony, author newsletters which I subscribed to years ago, and fannish mail from LJ/DW/AO3. I almost never actually email people from it, and it's kind of sad because the reason I opened the hotmail account was because my best friend bugged me to open an account, and we used to have three or four email threads going simultaneously, replying multiple times a day, even though we shared lockers and saw each other every day. Now it's almost dead.

In other news, the insanity around the Hugos, which I am not even following but is going past my fannish view anyway, is making me cranky. Then there's the ongoing ??? with DA and EC. Aggh, things I don't want to know about the publishing/writing end! But as to the Hugos, no longer going to pick a book up because it has a Hugo.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I dislike non-consenting mindwiping too but I'm more tolerant of the rationale for it in English literature written by authors who personally remembered large numbers of young men coming home traumatised from war, and children amongst other people being traumatised by bombing on the home front, because being able to forget was perceived as a blessing.

If you can ignore the Hugos fiasco then I admire your will power. /can't look away

[silverflight8]

Hmm, I always forget that Cooper wrote them back in, what, 60's to 70's? And I think in some cases, like the part where Paul and the rector are terrified, it's definitely an occasion where it's done for mercy, not just expedience. I think for me, though I've jokingly wished for brain bleach more than once, the part that bothers me is that it's done to characters without them even knowing it will happen, you know? One thing to wish you didn't remember an event, another to have someone erase it for you.

As for the Hugos, I just don't want to know the gory details of which authors are horrible and hypocritical and all that, I just want to read books. And the Hugos are predictable in the extreme--you see John C Wright, you know what he'll say, you see one thing by Vox Day and the rest of his beliefs are obvious. Nothing interesting comes out of them. I could be spending that time reading their detached-from-reality blogging instead playing video games, and feel much happier :P

[spiralsheep]

Yeah, Cooper was born in 1935 and wrote autobiographically about her wartime childhood in Dawn of Fear, which was published between Over Sea, Under Stone (1965) and The Dark is Rising (1973). Her father had also been injured in the First World War and come home a somewhat changed man.

One thing to wish you didn't remember an event, another to have someone erase it for you.

I couldn't agree more, and F&SF does it too often.

I just don't want to know the gory details of which authors are horrible and hypocritical and all that, I just want to read books

You already know that I deliberately avoid reading author interviews and biographies. I'm interested in the Hugo process though because I'm interested in community dynamics and democracy in action (and especially attempts to "fail better" next time, because there's always a next time).

playing video games, and feel much happier

I generally approve of personal pro-happiness actions, obv.

[silverflight8]

Good to know!

Me too, I try to avoid interviews too, but sometimes curiousity takes over (especially anything historical).

I assume the Hugos are 1 vote per membership but that most people don't vote (or that the # of voters are low) and so even a small mobilized effort can sweep slates. But I don't actually want to know >.>

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with my emails! It's like a hangnail, sticking there and bugging me constantly, when I have a large number of UNREAD showing up in the tab.

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

Right? It bothers me so much that sometimes when I need to remind myself to reply to something, I mark it unread on purpose to get that irritating feeling. I honestly do not know how people do it. Maybe it wears off after awhile.

[morbane.livejournal.com]

I am geekishly fascinated to see your method of dealing with email!

And I honestly don't know people can function when their email is like INBOX (2938 unread). My mother's inbox is like that, some of my friends' are. I know those unread messages are probably just junk notifications they don't need to look at, but it drives me insane.

I don't either. I read everything or delete it. I don't like having unread email anywhere. On the other hand, I don't archive things. Sometimes I star them, but everything's otherwise in a big lump in my inbox. I should do something about that.


but the mindwipe thing. I hate that trope.

YES GRRRRR.

I don't remember Silver on the Tree well at all - there's some irony there - but I remember finding The Grey King the most frightening of the books. For me, it was the element of "you know what's happening, and you can say what's happening, but no one will believe you, it'll look different to them."

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I am happy to expand on my email dealing habits if you want! :D I do star things but rarely click "starred" to view them so it's not as effective as just leaving them in my inbox. I don't delete emails, except spam. I don't get enough to fill up my limit for size, and sometimes I go through my inbox randomly looking for things--it's always a bit surprising to see just stuff like how many people I interacted with (and who) on bookish, for example.

omg it kind of reminds me of a modern-day Princess and the pea thing. It hurts meeee.

Yeah, there's definitely that in the Gray King, though I don't think it bothered me nearly as much...not sure why. It's not a long book though, so it didn't drag out much the fear/frustration of not being believed, which helped. But the part where Pen the sheepdog is pinned down to the ground unable to move because of the warestone is really scary actually.