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

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!