Portmanteau post

[bunn]

- I really should have taken a day off and slept in preparation for Wightfrag. As it was, I think I was a bit dazed most of the time. But probably still less dazed than I would have been if I'd not been able to go and sleep in my tent. Nice to see lots of people not seen for a long time though.

- Trackmania is yet another game I can't play because it makes me seasick. Gamesick. Whatever.

- I proved yet again that my Quechua 2-second tent is remarkably waterproof and can withstand a lot of wind. But that the lack of a porch is a weakness, as when you open the door when it's raining, the wet door tends to flop into the tent. I think for the Oldies Club camping weekend approaching I will buy a slightly larger one with a porch.

- Az seemed to have had a good time with his dogsitter, Mollydog slightly less so. Both of them were worn out from much walking, and slept a lot the next day. I get the feeling dogsitter likes Az best. Poor Mollydog, nobody ever likes her best!

- Ash bunny still not right, but not obviously badly wrong either, exactly. Normally I would not want to keep a solo bunny nowadays, they do better in pairs, but am reluctant to add a friend when she may not hop on much longer.

- have decided to replace the 2 passionflowers by the greenhouse, which really need potting out, with 2 Multi Blue clematis. The passionflowers can be grown over the awkward heap of rooftiles that I want to cover.

- Giant thunderstorm today left roads strewn with pointy rocks. But I didn't get a puncture! Woohoo!

- brain has been erratic and disobedient this week. I have done a lot of random things in order to avoid doing more difficult/urgent things. Like this post, probably. Slap. Bad brain.

- Asthma has entirely left the building, having apparently handed over to large patch of eczema on one foot. Why only that foot? *mystery*

- read David Gemmell's first Troy book, Lord of the Silver Bow. Enjoyed it, it's well written with interesting likeable characters. Must buy the next 2 in the series.

I wish I knew the Troy legend in more detail, I think this moves away from the traditional telling quite a bit, but I don't know the first bit well enough to be sure. May have to read a Ladybird Book to get the main features of the 'official' version.

Comments

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Read the Iliad, it's fab. But you might want the ladybird book first, because it's a whole lot fabber if you know who everyone is and what's going on. Not to mention the Iliad doesn't actually have any of that wooden horse malarky in it, or any actual information about much except battle wounds.

I dallied over trying the Gemmell book the other day - might give it a go when I've finished obsessively devouring George RR Martin.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Gemmell and Martin are a league apart from other modern fantasy authors.

I've read the first of Gemmell's Troy books, but I've put off reading the others because I want to give them the attention that they deserve, and because once I've read them I'll never read anything new from him again. I don't think I've ever been as upset at the death of somebody I don't really know before, though I did get to meet him briefly and hear him talk at a Nova Con in the late 90s. He was the sole reason we went to that con.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I didn't realised he'd died. I mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire to someone else on my flist recently, and they said they didn't want to start reading until Martin had finished the series in case he died first. I thought that was insanely morbid at the time, but you've just put it into context for me!

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was I think July 2006; at any rate about the time Troy book two was published. He just collapsed at his desk in the early hours while he was writing. What a way to go for an author! Tragically he was only in his fifties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gemmell

I fully understand somebody not wanting to start reading something at complex and powerful as ASoIaF until it has been finished. At least with The Wheel of Time the last book is half written and the rest is sketched out with the final plot resolution decided. Also, it is far less complex than ASoIaF, it's just more long winded.

That said I'm very glad that I have started ASoIaF. It is such a powerful book.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Illiad has gone on the book list:I find at the moment though I sadly need a ratio of about 5 relatively easy reads to one original source translation or whatever.

Bad brain! no biscuit!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

... Iliad even. which probably proves something...

Troy

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Well, there isn't really an 'official' version as such, that really is one of the features of Greek myth, that a whole lot of different versions are accepted into the 'canon' (prob true of other people's myths, I just don't know them well enough to be authoritative.) Having said that, I bet something like wikipedia has a good-enough guide to the most-commonly repeated elements of the storyline!

If you are tempted by the Iliad, which obviously I also think is fab, Penguin Classics do a decent prose translation by Martin Hammond, though they also have a verse one by Robert Fagles which I haven't read but should be good based on his Oresteia (Penguin have published other translations in their time, which can be a bit confusing, and of course there are loads of other translations out there, from Alexander Pope onwards!)

Re: Troy

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Official was a bad word. 'accepted' might be better, like if you were giving someone a first intro to arthurian legend, there are probably some bits you'd always include.

I hadn't thought of Wikipedia, I'll have a look. Ladybird books sprang to mind because I once had a tutor who used to encourage us to use them as a sort of first intro 'things everyone thinks they know about this topic' which kind of helps you fit it all together roughly in your brain before you start reading academic articles and original sources.

Re: Troy

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yes, that makes sense. And certainly several of the Greek playwrights etc. are playing on the idea that there are more 'commonly familiar' versions or somesuch, so that when they then play against those expectations, while their less-familiar versions are accepted as valid, nonetheless they have that surprise factor (which sounds a bit like what might be going on with your Gemmell book.)

I approve of that tutor. Certainly I used to use my Ladybird 'lives of' type books as a nice intro-ish thing right through secondary school at least. I guess the only problem with them is that since they are written for children, they do have a tendency to be bowdlerized a bit - so really they're 'things everyone thinks they know, minus the naughty bits'. Which is fine for lots of topics, but likely to put a bit of a damper on retellings of Greek myths!